The Dragon Empire

My Good Friend Heather McCorkle is taking us into a fantasy of Dragons. And I'm celebrating Heather and her newest book, The Dragon Empire. 

Dragons really do FLY!

Today we're celebrating the release of Heather McCorkle's fantasy novel, The Dragon Empire! For today's stop Heather is answering the following question:

Are the dragons in your book shapeshifter?

Heather: No. While they can take other forms it is only with the use of magic, only temporary, and not all of them can do it. I figured there are enough great shapeshifter stories out there and not enough stories about just dragons, so my dragons are 'all' dragon. :)

B&N / Amazon / Goodreads

Here is a bit about it:

On Yacrana dragons are the advanced species. But advanced doesn't always mean civilized...

There's trouble in the Dragon Empire, the kind that could start a war between dragons and the races of people. Hidden factions of dragons believe they should rule the lesser races, not simply stand aside and allow them to develop as they will. Having lived so long in peace, the Emperors turn a blind eye, many oblivious that such attitudes even exist.

Despite being only an architect class, emerald dragon, Grendar is willing to risk banishment and death to stop that which his rulers refuse to see. The hope of peace lies not within the scaled breast of a dragon however, but within the hands of a group of people. But if the hidden factions have their way, these people won’t live to fulfill such a destiny. With a reluctant seer at his side, Grendar must leave his precious Empire for the outside world to save those that will one day save his kind.

While The Dragon Empire is for ages young adult and up, it does contain mild violence and some difficult subject matter.

How did you get there?

I receive many questions about my aviation career, and how I got to where I am. This particular email was interesting due to the author's fear of needing 10 years before he had enough experience to go to a major airline. Take a look and tell me what you think:  

 

 

"I am planning to get an undergrad either Business or Aviation (with the pilot license). Obviously the aviation degree sounds a ton more attractive then Business degree (interest wise). I looked through your blog, studied our previous conversations and the advice you gave me, and over the past couple of months, I realized how great it would be to fly and do something I love instead of wasting time doing something boring/not interesting for money. Of course there are people over the internet, friends and even my mom who tried to pull me away. And as you said in one of your blog "run from those people", and I'm trying my best to follow my dream.

So my question is, how did you get where you are now? From flying while doing college to B727, B737, B747 B757 B767 and now the A330... One of my biggest concern is the money to get to where you are now. Obviously opportunities and regulations have changed, but how many years was it before you became a professional major airline pilot for northwest? Flying is already expensive but studying college while flying? How many part time jobs did you have to get? :P. 

Forget about the barriers to get to your commercial license, I am frightened by the fact that even after you get hired by the regional airlines, you need at least 10 years or so before you have enough experiences to be hired by a major airline, I would love to fly for those regional airlines, but many knows that regional pilots barely able to pay their bills."

 

How did I get to where I am now?   

We'll get the full story one day. But today is about my principles of life.

By never saying no to a job, despite the complications. By taking every opportunity to learn. By living each day with a dream of the future, but not living in that future. Enjoying each job, and each moment. I had the attitude that when one job shut down, another was waiting in its place. 

My life was a little different because I made career choices with childcare in mind. I took a non-seniority teaching job while my kids were young. I commuted because I did not want to uproot them. But that teaching job that I sacrificed the seniority number for, turned out to open more doors, and gave me the ability to teach on the side...and for NWA.

The real question here is how many years before I got hired by NWA? I thought if I didn't have a job with a major airline by the time I was 23, I was out of luck. That was the reality when I started flying. As life would have it, I got that first job with Evergreen at 25. And exactly 10 years later, I was hired by NWA. There were many jobs in that ten year span. But it was the philosophy of not giving up that enabled me to reach my dreams. 

The point is... times today are different. We will have a pilot shortage in the very near future. I cannot believe that any pilot starting today would work longer than two to five years in a commuter job, unless they wanted to. 

How many side jobs? 

How much money do you need to live on? 
 

Getting to the majors is not an easy task. But if anyone goes into it with fear, and the 'what if I don't make it' attitude, chances are you won't. You need to go forward knowing what you want, while not fearing the unknown, or fearing the what ifs. If you love each day and what you're doing... loosening your tie to the end result will help you get there. 

The point is, there are no guarantees in life. What if you don't make it? Will you feel you wasted your life?  What if you get hit by a car tomorrow? What if you were on your death bed at 99 and never did what you wanted to do in your life?

Wasting your life means living in fear of the what if, 

and never following your dreams

  

Best of luck to all the dreamers. I say... Go for it! For everyone else... what advice do you have for our pilot to be?

Enjoy the Journey!

XO Karlene 

What Would You Do?

 "Let Us Be Willing To Share With All Others, 

That Which We Now Know."

~ Eleesha author of Soul Whisperer

If you know do you get involved? How far do you go?

Monday I received a robo call in error from the Renton School District about a child whose meal card was overdrawn. The teacher mumbled the child's name on the recording. As often as I listened, I couldn't get it. But I returned the call (from the number on my phone) and left my name and number, and told them they had the wrong number. 

I heard back on Wednesday with another robo call with the same message. Shortly thereafter, around 5 p.m. I received a call that the child did not show up to school. I called back, and this time left the message "there's an emergency, you called and my child did not show up to school, and she's not home, please call me." I thought that would get them to call. But nothing.

When I awoke Thursday I called the number and connected with the Renton Central District office, not the school. A nice woman took the information, and wanted to know what school because they have 15,000 kids in the system.  I said, "I don't know." She asked the child's name. "I couldn't understand." She asked, "What number do you have?" I gave her the number. She said, "But that's our number." 

If there is a centralized data base calling, of course that would be the number on my phone. She said she would attempt to find the child and I had a lot of great ideas and she said the Community Relations Manager would love to hear them.  My only idea was on the robo call, name the school and leave a number so the parent (or the wrong number recipient) could call and talk to a real person.

I was transferred to the "Community Relations Manager" and told him what happened, and my concerns. 

Concerns: 

There is a child out there, and he or she may not be eating, they did not show up to school and we don't know if the parents know because I'm getting the calls. Is this a grade school child? A high school student? (Meal card, I'm thinking younger.) Are we losing our children in the computer world? As long as teachers plug in names into the system they've done their job. My concern is about the child. Who is this child? Where is she? If I had the school name, and number on the message, I could have called the school directly, four days earlier, and solved the issue.

He assured me that this child was eating, that he was safe, and they did take the time to go to the homes and knock on the doors to make sure they are fine. 

I asked, "How can you say that? You don't know who this child is. What grade. What school. If they came to school today, or not. Or if the parent is getting messages... maybe their phone is out." At this point, I lit his fuse. 

Had he been across the street, I could have heard him. I actually had to take my headset out of my ear.

When I asked him to please lower his voice and there was no need to yell, he more or less said that he had spent too much time on the phone with me, and he couldn't get it into my head that there wasn't a problem. That was a paraphrase, because for the life of me I cannot remember his exact words.... far worse than this... but I hit that point were reality and disbelief connected and my brain shorted a circuited for a moment.

The problem I have with this situation is this man is the "Community Relations" manager, and I am just someone who had been called by accident, and took the time to follow through because I care about a children. Something is wrong here.

I told him he should get a different job, or go to school and learn how to speak to people.

The great news is, Elizabeth, the woman I first spoke to, called me and said she found the children, siblings, and she contacted their mother. This situation made me wonder... if we know something, do we take the time to get involved? 

What would you have done if you received this call in error? 

Do you get involved, or turn the other way?

When attacked for making an effort.. how do you respond?

Would you get involved next time if treated this way? 

Is this the sad truth of our public school system? It makes me believe that we need more schools like the school in the movie Won't Back Down. A great and must see movie.

Enjoy the journey... and take the time to make a difference.
XO Karlene

WINNERS ANNOUNCED

Scholarship Winner Announced AND Someone Special wins the iPad Mini!!!


by Ruth Morlas

What a whirlwind the last few months have been! Working, training for a fitness competition, writing, and moving to a new city is enough to wear anyone out. So, it is with immense pleasure that I finally get to announce the winner of the Gift Of Flight Scholarship by PilotTricks.com. I also get the opportunity to thank all those who have supported me and continue to support me in this effort. But, before the big announcements I want to give some background to this scholarship that no one has heard about!

My name is Ruth Morlas, the face behind www.PilotTricks.com. After years of pursuing my passion for flying, I decided I wanted to share tips and tricks that I have picked up along the way that I would have LOVED to know when I was going through my flight training and pursuing a career as a pilot. Many pilots I know were introduced to flying by parents, uncles, friends, neighbors, etc. Some took advantage of scholarships, the Civil Air Patrol, and other pilots they knew to help them achieve their dream.

But, I know that out there, are people who’s passion is born within themselves and they may not have access to the guidance that can be offered by their community. PilotTricks.com is a community for people to get the information that they would otherwise get from a more experienced pilot, a parent familiar with aviation, a neighbor who works for the airlines, an uncle who’s a flight instructor, etc.

The scholarship idea came about because as a flight instructor, I saw many students struggle in their flight training, not because they weren’t trying, but because they would run out of funds. By the time they solo’ed, they had already spent most of their savings. So the Gift Of Flight scholarship was born in order to help someone solo right away and they can use that momentum to finish and obtain their certificate.

Although there were several exceptional applicants, the winner of the scholarship this year was chosen because there was a clear demonstration of the 3 traits that it takes to succeed in aviation:

1. A passion for flying

2. Dedication to becoming a future aviator

3. Willingness to give 200% effort to achieving their dream

Although the winner will be able to use the scholarship right away, the $3,000 scholarship is not fully funded yet. To help fully fund the scholarship, there will be several items for sale on the PilotTricks website under Products. 100% of net proceeds will go to the scholarship fund. Some of the products available are:

• Gift Of Flight Holiday Greeting Card and e-Card
• ASA Pilot Logbook
• Adjustable Dumbbells (used) - Coming soon
• Workout bench (used) - Coming soon
• Private Pilot in Three Months e-Book (How To Get Your Wings Without Loosing Your A$) - Coming Soon!!!
• Cost of Private Pilot Workout Sheet - FREE for Karlene’s blog readers, just use the discount code: KARLENEBLOG

If you have an item you would like to donate to help fund this scholarship and help the winner solo, just email me at ruth@pilottricks.com

I want to send special thanks to the following special people who have supported me and this idea from the very beginning, either financially or with words of encouragement or both:

• Karlene Petitt
• Timothy Lehman
• William Brower
• Heather McCorkle
• Cecilie Larsen
• Jeremy Carlisle
• Linda Gray

Thank you all for your kindness, generosity, and for sending good vibes out into the universe that I know will help make this a success!!!

Okay, now...to see who the Scholarship winner is AND to see who won the iPad Mini - 
Click Here!

Phil Derner: NYC Aviation

Friday's Fabulous AvGeek

Phil Derner, Jr. 

President and Founder 

NYCAviation

I met Phil Derner on line last November and was fascinated with his connection to Aviation, as I soon learned that he was a plane spotter. Yes… there are people out there capturing the most incredible shots of our planes. I needed to know more.

Karlene: Phil, will you tell me a little about yourself and how you grew into this passion?

Phil: I grew up across Flushing Bay from La Guardia Airport, and my childhood was filled with views of smoky jetliners of the 80s from my third floor window as they landed and took off. When I was 18 I learned of the hobby of planespotting, and it gave me a way to practice that interest and passion for aviation. I sought a decent digital camera and started taking photos and learning all I could about those half-million pound pieces of metal that took to the skies. That also led to a career, where I’ve traveled the world to 33 different countries as a loadmaster for a charter airline and today am now a dispatcher for a major airline here in New York.

One thing that traveling the world as a loadmaster had taught Phil was that he wanted a career that brought him home to his own bed at the end of the day. But his love of aviation never waned. He started a company called NYCAviation

Karlene: Phil, exactly what is NYCAviation? 

Phil: NYCAviation is a worldwide aviation enthusiast and news organization based in New York City. We started out in 2003 as an email newsletter for just a handful of local planespotters, and when that grew too big, the site was born and today we are not only a site that receives close to a million views per month, but we use our aviation knowledge to regularly consult on the aviation world for news agencies in such as CNN, AP, The New York Times and more. Not forgetting our enthusiast roots, we still look to build new features for our site and serve planespotters everywhere.

When I created NYCAviation, the initial goal was to provide a few dozen local enthusiasts with a local home for resources and communication. Very quickly, attention grew and people beyond NYC became interested and involved. I began adding articles and people all around the world were reading them. I realized that we were providing a much larger service...true attention to our intimate hobby for avgeeks everywhere.

As it grew and grew, I realized that I couldn't handle it alone. In 2009 I brought on a few people to assist, one of them being my good friend Matt Molnar. Not only did he become a big help, but he was THE ingredient we needed to launch NYCAviation to the next level, and I gladly made him half owner of NYCA.

Matt and Phill

Sadly, Matt Molnar passed away suddenly just two weeks ago on January 24th. A terrible loss not only to me and NYCAviation, but to the aviation community as a whole. You can read more about Matt's passing HERE.

Karlene: Phil, I am so sorry about the loss of your friend. Words cannot explain. He was too young, and I know his absence has left a hole in your heart and many others. Please give my condolences to his family, and fiancée. I know that Matt would want nothing more than for all his hard work to continue on in his memory. How can others participate?

Phil: People can participate on NYCAviation however they'd like. They can register on our forums by clicking HERE, or they can just show up to read our articles or follow our content on Facebook or Twitter. The hobby of aviation enthusiasm is not just planespotting, so everyone will practice their passion differently.

Karlene: Phill, Thank you so much for sharing your passion with us. I’m thinking I might have to join, as I have a great passion for spotting planes, and taking photos as well as flying them. And please be thinking about the perfect shot for my third book, Flight For Survival. Maybe we can put a task out for all your plane spotters to find the best shot. How about the photo I use, the photographer will get a set of all three novels, autographed.

If anyone would like to become a plane spotter, and have any questions for Phil, please ask away. Also, if you have a photo of a cool plane you would like to share, please share the link. And from all AvGeeks everywhere, we are so sorry for the far too early passing of Matt. Just know that he now has the best view in the house. 

Enjoy the Journey!

XO Karlene

HOW GOOD DO YOU WANT IT?

Welcome to T.H.ursdays with Tom Hill

"How good do you want it?" I asked this question about 30 years ago when I started my first aviation training course, navigator training with the US Air Force (USAF). 

I was a recent graduate from university, having performed relatively well the last couple of years. Navigator training was the start of my professional career and I thought to myself, "I wonder how good I could have it?" Since I hadn't done any flying before, and certainly hadn’t done any USAF training like this before, I had no idea what to expect. I didn't know if I could do well. I didn't know if it took incredible efforts simply to be mediocre. I had no idea; it was all new to me. Still, I considered this question for a while before my training started.

Eventually, I answered the question. I wanted to see how well I could possibly do, which meant putting in my best possible effort no matter what. I had no idea how good I could be, so I thought: "...let’s see how good I could be if I tried has hard as I could."

This wasn't really a specific goal like "graduating number one", or "not failing any tests", or getting "out-standings" on flight evals. But it was still a commitment, a daily commitment, to be solely focused on training, to do my best no matter what.

With that commitment, answers to living arrangements came into focus. Instead of renting near my classmates with their added distractions, I picked an apartment off the beaten path where it was nice and quiet. Instead of spending a lot of time and money trying to make this little place a mini palace, I considered it my monastery. It was cheaply furnished to keep costs down. I didn't buy a TV or get cable. Why have it since my TV time would be spent studying? I also got the most basic kitchen utensils and bathroom supplies. Except for my little bed and a desk to study at, I didn't buy anything. No frills was the best way to describe my new home.

When training started, that was all I did: I trained. I lived, ate, slept, and dreamed navigator training. I read, and read, and read some more. I answered all of the practice questions they gave me. I made my own practice questions to practice even more. I made my own little tests and practiced taking them under time limits, trying to simulate testing conditions. I made my own training exercises, trying to emulate the exercises I would undertake during real flight evals. 

While practicing these exercises, I pretended I had bad weather making me re-plan and compensate in-flight. I imagined scenarios in which pilots wouldn't follow direction, flying incorrect headings, forcing me to find their errors, then take steps to correct the mistakes. My goal was to be as prepared as I could be by imagining and then practicing every possible scenario I could think of. I even developed a very disciplined process for taking tests, answering the questions, transferring the questions to the answer sheets, and all the while checking and triple checking I didn't inadvertently answer "A" instead of meaning "C."

This type of self-study was substantially more thorough than what I was tasked to do with assigned homework. Since I didn't have anything else to do--i.e. no distractions, no TV--I was consistent with this self-study throughout my navigator course. It paid off.

After seven months of training, I missed four total questions on academic tests, tying me for best academically in my class. Even after marking thousands of different multiple choice answers, none of the four were missed due to mis-marking an answer.

I did very well during my flight evals. All that self-study prepared me for those times when my flights didn't go as planned. As all experienced aviators know, no flight goes precisely as planned. Inevitably some re-planning is required. Being prepared becomes so important. What I didn't know then is a measure of an aviator's abilities can be shown by how elegantly they deal with these bumps. All that self-study allowed me to smoothly adjust to changes with minimal panic, which is exactly how I want things to roll nowadays, 30 years and thousands of flight hours later. As a result of all this, I was the best flier in my class.

Because of these scores, I graduated at the top of my class - probably my most important professional achievement. With a #1 graduate on my resume, doors opened that allowed me to get to my pilot wings, attend USAF Test Pilot School, and eventually the job I currently have, conducting experimental flight tests.

Looking backwards along the 30 year road that brings me to today, it's easy to see what’s at the beginning of that road, asking that question, "How good do you want it?" Everything flowed from my answer, my direction, my choices, my commitment. Without that question, I'm not sure what would've happened. All bets would’ve been off, as they say."

Cheers Tom

ATLA Push For Small Airlline Safety

Latin America and Caribbean Air Transport Association (ALTA)

What are They Doing for Safety?

 

Last month we got to meet Luis Adelsohn. Captain Adelsohn is all about safety and has been sending me interesting articles. 

Please enjoy and remember...

"Safety is the Answer to the Question."

"Leaders of ALTA called on the International Air Transport Association (IATA) to create a set of safety standards for airlines not eligible for the organization's existing IATA Operational Safety Audit (IOSA) program. 

Roberto Kriete, president of ALTA, says that, while accident rates in Latin America are declining, the fact that there is a subgroup of non-IOSA airlines, including those not eligible for the program, with a rate four-times higher than IOSA member carriers is disturbing, during the opening session of the ALTA Airline Leaders Forum 2012 in Panama City.

He calls on Tony Tyler, director general of IATA, and others to create such a program for carriers that are ineligible due to their size or the type of aircraft that they fly.

Tyler tells Airline Business that this is an issue around the world and that IATA is working to address the situation.

IATA is looking to collaborate with other organizations who have a focus on smaller aircraft regarding developing a comparable IOSA program, says the organization. IATA would then be able to validate and endorse this standard.

Speaking to Latin America's civil aviation authorities, Kriete says that countries should replicate the model set by Brazil, where IOSA participation is a requirement and not an option for airline certification.

ALTA has a goal of reducing the accident rate of member airlines to that of those in the USA by 2014.

Airport infrastructure and air traffic control are also concerns for ALTA. Kriete says that 30% of the airports in Latin America are "congested" and that the local aviation authorities have been slow to address capacity issues. He says that there are only 16 airport construction projects in the region while China, which also expects significant airline growth, has 94.

"The surroundings that airlines operate [in] is not always optimal for airline operations," he says. Kriete says that air traffic control is still subject to gaps around the region and that many of the systems have not been upgraded with the latest technology.

 

Fuel costs, regulatory harmonization, airport concessions and the environment are also concerns for the region's airlines looking forward, he says.

Latin American airlines have made significant strides during the past decade, despite these concerns. The number of city pairs connected to the rest of the world have increased to 953 from 687, low-cost carriers have boomed to about 50% of the market from a negligible market share, the average age of the fleet has decreased by more than four years and the region's carriers have grown considerably, says Kriete." 

Source : Airline Business Magazine.

Safety Information is a free Service of:
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The best Safety device in any Aircraft is
a well-trained Safety Pilot!