Pilot Introductions

Steven Winslow
Posts: 459
Joined: Tue Oct 12, 2010 8:51 pm
Location: KBZN - Bozeman, MT
Contact:

Re: Introductions, say hello!

Post by Steven Winslow »

I'm actually looking forward to diving into the world of online ATC. My name is Steven Winslow and I am an X-Plane addict. I've been flying X-Plane for about 3 years and nearly 2000 hours. I actually started flight simming in 1986 when Microsoft built Flight Simulator for Mac. I flew my little Mac Plus, which I still have along with the original Microsoft Flight Simulator software and manual. It's interesting to see how far we've come in all these years. Kind of like comparing Pong to video games of today. I have flown for Air Northwest Virtual Airlines for two years and have been CEO/Owner of ANW for nearly a year. My real world flight experience is a bit less. I have .7 hrs as PIC in a Diamond DA40. I started my PPL training a little over a year ago, but was sidelined for a spell because of kidney stones. I hope to get back to flight training this year. In the meantime, I get my flight ya-yas out by flying X-Plane.

Thank you, Keith, for your patience and tenacity in writing the plug for Mac OS10.5.x. I look forward to flying and learning with PilotEdge.
Steven Winslow
CEO/Owner - Air Northwest Virtual Airlines • http://www.airnorthwest.org
People should get what they want when they want it once in a while. Keeps them optimisitic.
Brent Bain
Posts: 1
Joined: Mon Jan 10, 2011 9:46 pm
Location: Brisbane. Qld, Australia

Re: Introductions, say hello!

Post by Brent Bain »

G'Day from Down Under, Hi to all, my name is Brent, I live in Brisbane, Qld, Australia but New Zealand is my Native Country and now have been a X-Plane Junkie for 2 Years or So. I'm a Vatsim Newbie, so I have a lot to learn. I am 48 years old, married for 8 Years with 4 Kids, ( really 2 Dogs / 2 Cats ) We fly overseas somewhere every year, am addicted to Jet Fuel, so thank you all & Keith for allowing me to join this Establisment and look forward to chatting to you all. 8-)
Justin Bumgardner
Posts: 9
Joined: Tue Jan 11, 2011 10:10 pm
Location: KCLT

Re: Introductions, say hello!

Post by Justin Bumgardner »

Hello all,

My name is Justin Bumgardner and I am extremely excited about pilot edge. I do have my ppl and am currently working on my instrument rating with about 7 hours to go before the big test. Hundreds of hours on Vatsim and probably looking for hundreds on pilotedge. I'm also currently enrolled in an aviation studies program so this has really sparked the interest of my professors.

Thanks to all for putting this project together. Looking forward to doing a little flyin with ya.


Justin
Image
Justin Bumgardner
Chief Operations Officer www.x-usairways.com
Christian Mears
Posts: 14
Joined: Sat Jan 15, 2011 8:40 pm

Re: Introductions, say hello!

Post by Christian Mears »

Howdy everyone! My name is Chris and I'm currently a Student Pilot, boning-up for my FAA written at the moment. My home airport and where my flight school is located is KCLL College Station. I highly recommend flying into here for anyone, whether in the sim or in RL. I'm training in an old C172M (three different ones actually) and intend to pursue my instrument and floatplane, at the very least.

I'm really looking forward to checking this out. The lack of realistic and interactive ATC (or just radio comm for that matter) in flight sims has been my chief complaint since I began taking my lessons a year ago. No, I'm not slow-to-learn, just married, kids, and life in general like so many others. ;) Tried VATsim a bit and figured that was about as good as it was going to get, until finding this site (thank you Daddy O) and seeing there was hope.

I'm a jack-of-all-trades and been around a bit (including 6 years Army), so I'm likely to have some sort of familiarity with whatever and wherever you mention. Any questions, just ask and I'll talk your ears off until you tell me to put a sock in it.

Chris
KDouglasCraig
Posts: 2
Joined: Mon Nov 15, 2010 7:51 pm
Location: San Diego, California

Re: Pilot Introductions

Post by KDouglasCraig »

Hello Everyone!

I am currently a Gunners Mate in the US Navy and am stationed at NAS North Island here in San Diego, California. I earned my PPL back in 1990. Then in 1993 I joined the Navy. When I joined the Navy I was forced to stop flying due to the simple fact that military pay is lousy, especially at the lower pay grades. ANyway, as I moved up in paygrade I started thinking about getting back into flying. I also happened to be stationed at Pearl Harbor Hawaii and there were planes flying everywhere.

So, while stationed in Hawaii,from 2001 to2008, I got back into the pilot seat and earned my insrument rating, my Commercial license and my multi-engine rating. Presently I have a little over 500 hours 100 Multi. In 2008 I transferred to San Diego for shore duty and I am now trying to biuld more flight time before I retire in 2013. As Far as SIM flying I am somewhat of a newby. I mean I have used FSX (and now X-Plane) to practice instrument approaches, but not for seriuos practice or flying. PilotEdge will definetly help me hone my skills as well as help keep me in the loop when I am unable to fly otherwise. Either duty days or during deployments. Great system and Happy Flying.

Doug
Tim Krajcar
Posts: 503
Joined: Mon Jan 24, 2011 11:41 am
Location: KPDX
Contact:

Re: Pilot Introductions

Post by Tim Krajcar »

I suppose it's worthwhile posting something up here, although I know quite a few of you well, and know even more by name if not personally, there's always room for new sim pals...

I'm just this guy, you know? ;)

My virtual aviation career started somewhere around FS2 or FS3. Many a fun time tootling out of Meigs... I also got very into military sims, and spent long hours with F-14 Fleet Defender, Falcon 3 & 4 and its descendants, etc. In 2002 I was introduced to the concept of VATSIM by a co-worker who was a PPL and dated from the SATCO days. I conducted my first flight online from his kitchen table using my PC which I had carted over there for some hands-on training :D I became totally engrossed in the network and its potential and capabilities. Over Thanksgiving of 2002 I decided to become an ATC student, and for some reason was matched up with the sly old dog himself, Ian Elchitz. Ian taught me everything one needed to know about how to run SFO_TWR and I was off and running. I eventually transferred to my 'home' region of ZSE once that ARTCC stabilized itself a bit, and served two terms as assistant chief of the ARTCC and also became an ATC instructor myself.

VA-wise, I've flown for a couple, and served staff for MetroAir, where I built their ACARS and a couple other toys.

In 2007, I spent about two weeks and made a cool little site called http://vataware.com to keep stats for my own amusement... 4 million tracked flights and 20,000 hits a day later, it's become my claim to fame in the sim world, as it were. I also served for about a year or so on the VATSIM Board of Governors as VP of Web Services and built the current VATSIM stats center (http://stats.vatsim.net/) before having to step down due to time constraints and a lack of passion to fight the political battles.

I work as a director of technology for a digital marketing agency (basically, I manage web development teams). I live in wonderful Portland, Oregon, the best city in the world, am married, and am expecting a daughter in April. I'm interested in getting my PPL and may start on it this summer... or maybe next summer.

I've booted around commercial network concepts with various sets of friends for years, but we never came up with anything feasible. Keith's crossed all of the bridges that we were stuck on and put in a hell of a lot of hard work and I have a feeling it will start snowballing very, very, soon.

I'm in the process of 100% converting to X-Plane (just did my first successful XC flight last night...) so keep an eye for the plane out there with training wheels on as I try to adjust from, oh, 15-20 years or so of Microsoftness...
Tim Krajcar
Live streams at http://twitch.tv/Tim_PE
View past flights on YouTube
Flybob37
Posts: 9
Joined: Thu Dec 16, 2010 12:17 pm
Location: Escondido (San Diego), California
Contact:

Re: Pilot Introductions

Post by Flybob37 »

Hey there,
My name is Bob Carpenter and I'm 50 years old. I got my private pilot's license almost 5 years ago and added my Instrument Rating 4 months ago. I used MSFS X a couple years ago to work on my navigation skills and basically liked it. But, I got rid of the PC and only have Macs now. After passing my Instrument Check Ride (long story, you can go to http://flying37blog.blogspot.com if you want to read about it) I realized that I needed to improve my skills. But, i pretty much blew my money wad getting to the finish line of the IR. I know I can only fly maybe once a month now and that's no way to stay proficient. So I went out and bought X-Plane. Didn't take me too long to feel comfortable with it. Then I heard about PilotEdge on the AOPA forums (http://forums.aopa.org) and it seemed to make a lot of sense. Instead of just flying around I could put together realistic flights that replicated real life. Having flown several times "in the system" now I can only heap praise on PilotEdge. It is DEFINITELY going to make me a better IFR pilot.

I learned to fly at El Monte Airport (KEMT) but I moved south to Escondido (San Diego), California in April of 2010. So my home airport is either Carlsbad (KCRQ) or Montgomery Field (KMYF)...I really don't know yet.
Bob Carpenter
Instrument Rated Private Pilot
c.b.powell
Posts: 54
Joined: Sun Feb 06, 2011 11:26 pm
Location: Seattle, WA
Contact:

Re: Pilot Introductions

Post by c.b.powell »

Hey folks. My name is Chris Powell, from Seattle, Washington where I am a senior software engineer. My home field is Paine Field (KPAE).

I've been flying sims since I was a youth, beginning with the checkerboard SubLOGIC Flight Simulator and working up from there through the various MSFS versions on PC. I used to use my dad's Jepp manuals to check frequencies and airport layouts but it was all quite mysterious.

I'm now a certificated instrument pilot, although a junior one. I'm very conscious of my limitations and, I think, make an excellent real-life pilot for my abundance of caution and attention. I have my rough edges, which is why I'm so excited about PilotEdge. There's no substitute for the authentic workload imparted by live ATC.

As I mentioned in another thread, simulator mistakes are cheap; real world mistakes can be expensive. I want to practice with PE to heighten my proficiency, uncover weak spots, and strengthen these areas. Heck, just yesterday I surprised myself by semi-botching a parallel entry and thinking "gosh, it's been a while since I did one of these." An extra hour of practicing holds and I felt solid again, and the next one I get in real life will be a no-brainer.

I have also started logging all my PE-sim time. (No, not in my 'real' log, in a separate one. I use LogTen Pro.) I keep detailed comments about each flight in order to document my experiences, mistakes, and lessons learned. I think that it's going to prove helpful.

I'm an active aviation blogger ( http://cbpowell.wordpress.com/category/aviation/ ) and I'm also a guest author for GolfHotelWhiskey.
ruddy122
Posts: 3
Joined: Tue Feb 22, 2011 5:17 pm

Re: Pilot Introductions

Post by ruddy122 »

Hello Everyone,

My name is Rudy and I'm currently serving in the USAF. I'm from Miami, Fl and currently stationed in Germany. I'm a former KC-10 pilot with over 2500 hrs and close to 500 hrs of flight training in the C-152/PA-28/T-37/T-1(Beechjet 400). Due to medical reasons I'm medically disqualified from flying USAF aircraft but I'm hoping that I can fly again under the FAA medical standards when I retire from the Air Force. I have a commercial intstrument rating with a Beechjet400 and DC-10 type rating.

In terms of flight simulator, I truly am a flight sim geek. I used to be a die hard Microsoft Flight Simulator fan since 1985 and have recently been addicted to X-Plane 9 just after researching the simulator for a Master's project. I only recently started online flying and have thoroughly enjoyed the experience so far.

Looking forward to flying with you in the virtual skies.

Sincerely,

Rudy
Callsigns AWE1034 (Cactus 1034) or CAX550 (Cal Air 550)
Steve Caffey
Posts: 20
Joined: Thu Jan 27, 2011 2:18 pm

Re: Pilot Introductions

Post by Steve Caffey »

Hello,

My name is Steve, and I too am from that other network. Currently I'm an Approach student and Tower/Ground Mentor at ZLA, and semi regular pilot (is there such a thing as a regular pilot? Aren't we all a little odd? :lol: ) I'm also a PPL ASEL student with 15 hours in Piper Warriors/Cherokees. I had to temporarily stop flying way too long ago (last August, ugh) due to the usual financial reasons. I work as a line tech at a GA airport in Philadelphia, PA and spend entirely too much time on FS. I first discovered flight sim with FS98, flying the 182RG around Meigs and flying through the buildings in downtown Chicago. I'm looking forward to the FS9 client coming out so I can join in :)
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