Not another DCA thread... this one is different!

[WestHouston]

I know there are too many DCA threads out there and I've read them all. Go/Don't go, it sucks/it's awesome, etc. Thats not what this thread is about. I am planning on going to San Jacinto College in the fall and as I'm sure a few of you know, their new contract for flight time is with DCA. Now I'm not asking anyone's opinion on whether or not I should go; I've already made up my mind. And with Uncle Sam picking up the tab, I'm not too worried about "is it worth it?". That being said, I've had an extremely hard time finding info on this fledgeling program. I was wondering if anyone has any info on it, or is currently a student or instructor, if they would like to share it here. I can't talk about it on JetCareers.com for obvious reasons. So if anyone knows what planes/facilities/training are like, please divulge it here. I would appreciate it immensely. Thank you!

 

[WestHouston]

Um, maybe you're having a hard time because it's NEW? Here's your sign... :erm:

And DCA's master campus in Sanford, FL completely blows... Hope your luck is better than the vast majority of burned alumni...

I know it's new. You can still put pictures and information about new things on the internet. But, yeah, I visited San Jac and talked to the director. I was pretty skeptical after reading all these DCA sanford threads. Looks like this might be ok. Like other colleges all the ground stuff is done through San Jac. I like that. They are still in charge when it comes down to it. We'll see...

 

[WestHouston]

I know it's new. You can still put pictures and information about new things on the internet. But, yeah, I visited San Jac and talked to the director. I was pretty skeptical after reading all these DCA sanford threads. Looks like this might be ok. Like other colleges all the ground stuff is done through San Jac. I like that. They are still in charge when it comes down to it. We'll see...

Well, it's a few months later and I'm now registered at San Jac in the Pilot Development Program. I start with Instrument Flight and should start flying after Aug. 28th. I'll try to update this as I go along as I know first hand how hard it is to get any solid info on the program. First impressions are:

1. The college is decent, and the Chairman of the flight dept. is very nice and seems to have a geuine concern in making sure students are taken care of. I've had muliple hangups with the registration process so far but that has been the fault of the VA department, not the flight dept.

2. I visited DCA's building (trailer) at Ellington today. The the training director was helpful and polite as were the rest of the guys. I grabbed an instrument study guide to get a jump on things. The planes (I think they were the DCA planes) looked nice and new.


All in all I got a good impression and a positive feeling about the fall semester. Only time will tell. Like I said, I'll try to update this but since I don't start for another month, it'll be a little while.

 

[CX880]

Have you even looked at other academies or was the DCA the first to suck you into their trap with the nice and colorful presentations.

 

[DCAinstructor06]

Have you even looked at other academies or was the DCA the first to suck you into their trap with the nice and colorful presentations.

Too funny.... Hey westhouston, Is it true the C-172 fleet out there ALL have garmin 430's in them? I heard it was a requirement of the college that they would be GPS equipped? The C-172 fleet at Sanford DO NOT have GPS, what an embarrassment, and these are the planes we do instrument instructing in.
I wonder if the FAA will ever place "gps approaches not approved" on someone's freshly minted Instrument rating?

 

[WestHouston]

Too funny.... Hey westhouston, Is it true the C-172 fleet out there ALL have garmin 430's in them? I heard it was a requirement of the college that they would be GPS equipped? The C-172 fleet at Sanford DO NOT have GPS, what an embarrassment, and these are the planes we do instrument instructing in.
I wonder if the FAA will ever place "gps approaches not approved" on someone's freshly minted Instrument rating?

I haven't seen the inside of any of the planes (just outside), but yeah, I've been told by several people they all do.

 

[WestHouston]

Have you even looked at other academies or was the DCA the first to suck you into their trap with the nice and colorful presentations.

Actually, I looked at all the colleges in Texas with flight programs. All four. And I chose DCA because of San Jac, not the other way around. And to date I haven't ever seen a DCA presentation.

 

[WestHouston]

So I'm FINALLY registered! With a week to go until payment is due, I'm set to go. Working with the VA dept. was an absoloute nightmare. But, all is well now. New student orientation is tomorrow and then tuesday I go by DCA to set my schedule. They want you to at least fly 4 times a week. Since I don't have a job per-se, I'll be flying 5. I'm hoping to get there early and get a good schedule. As soon as that gets all squared away, I'm going to start my acclimation lesson. I learned to fly in a beater, I mean BEATER C150 so I need to get up to speed with the newer planes. It's about six lessons and I think I can start them as soon as I show them (DCA) that the money's in the bank. So I'll let you know how the first few days go at the end of the month.

 

[IFollowRoads]

Good luck, West.

 

[WestHouston]

Good luck, West.

Thanks. Orientation was lame. It was aimed towards kids right out of high school, but that is what they all were anyway. I'm studying to take my PPL written test AGAIN, as I'll get credit for the PPL and start instrument. It's amazing what you forget in a short amount of time.

 

[Kream926]

Too funny.... Hey westhouston, Is it true the C-172 fleet out there ALL have garmin 430's in them? I heard it was a requirement of the college that they would be GPS equipped? The C-172 fleet at Sanford DO NOT have GPS, what an embarrassment, and these are the planes we do instrument instructing in.
I wonder if the FAA will ever place "gps approaches not approved" on someone's freshly minted Instrument rating?

since when does a GPS have to be installed to be IFR?

 

[DCAinstructor06]

Kream, my point was it's a shame for someone to earn an instrument rating, have the ability to go out and rent a gps equipped aircraft having never flown a single GPS approach or ever been trained to operate one and shoot an approach to mins. The college out in houston wanted to make sure their students got to actually perform GPS approaches. That was a good thing. I know a gps isn't req'd equipment for IFR. I fly around IFR all the time and I am lucky to have DME!

 

[WestHouston]

Today I signed up for my flight blocks. They were first-come, first-served so I got there early. I was the first, so I pretty much got my pick. I originally wanted to fly 5 days a week, M-F, but because of instructor days-off I had to pick either tuesday or thursday to fly and if I still wanted 5 days, Saturday too. Well the weekends are wife time so I signed up for M,Tu,W and Fri.
I start the instument course on August 28th, but since I got my private in a 1966 C150, I am going to take their VFP course. It is 6 lessons designed to get you up to speed on their planes and how they do things. I'll start those this Friday.
I also got all my books today. I bought them all used on Amazon except for one that is the same price at the college bookstore, so I'll just get it there. It'll be about $150 all together for the books. Not bad compared to the last time I went to college!
Thats is for now. Now that I decided to do this log I wish I'd have started a new thread...

 

[DCAinstructor06]

VFP is really just a way to bleed more money out of you. Let's face it, IF you got your private in the last 6 months and haven't gone BRAIN DEAD, you should be able to sail thru VFP. If your instructor starts milking the crap out of the flights, FIRE HIM FAST! Chances are you'll have him also for instrument. DCA here in sanford has a 8hr minimum vfp course. GO figure, I put a student of mine up for the stage check with 6 hrs and the check pilot flew him in circles for 2 extra hours! VFP isn't even part of the TCO. Just watch you wallet and don't get raped! Good luck.

 

[WestHouston]

VFP is really just a way to bleed more money out of you. Let's face it, IF you got your private in the last 6 months and haven't gone BRAIN DEAD, you should be able to sail thru VFP. If your instructor starts milking the crap out of the flights, FIRE HIM FAST! Chances are you'll have him also for instrument. DCA here in sanford has a 8hr minimum vfp course. GO figure, I put a student of mine up for the stage check with 6 hrs and the check pilot flew him in circles for 2 extra hours! VFP isn't even part of the TCO. Just watch you wallet and don't get raped! Good luck.

Thanks for the advice. I didn't get pressured in to taking it, it was my idea. Mainly because I wasn't familiar with the area, or a 172 and I hadn't flown in three months. I didn't want to jump into instrument and already be behind the ball.
It is 6 lessons and this is how the first one went:
I arrived early and once my instructor arrived we did all the pre-flight filling out of forms and papers. It was confusing and I'll need to be shown again. After that we went up. The planes were not as new as I thought. the 172's are all 1984 year model. They are, however, in great shape. They do have the Garmin 430's. The plane ran smooth and I felt confident in it.
We went out over Galveston Bay and did some slow flight and steep turns. Then we went and I did three touch and go's and a go around at La Porte and headed back to Ellington. My instructor said I did good, and I got mostly 3's and a few 2's (0-4) on my "grade card". The only critisizm was on takeoff I had a tendency to have my airspeed to slow. We both think that I am doing this because I got my PPL in Seattle, where the air is much cooler and denser. I'm used to 500-700 fpm climbs in a C150. He said I need to anticipate longer ground rolls and slower climbs in the 97 F heat. Tomorrow is lesson 2, hopefully I remember some of the staggering number of additional steps in the checklists.

 

[coltsfn8888]

Do you get "no showed" if you dont arrive 45 mins early to do the takeoff data card?

 

[Metro752]

What if the airplane doesnt have an ADF, do you get NDB Approach NOT APPROVED on your instrument rating?

 

[WestHouston]

Do you get "no showed" if you dont arrive 45 mins early to do the takeoff data card?

Haven't yet. I've only not arrived 45 minutes early once or twice and no one cared.

 

[WestHouston]

What if the airplane doesnt have an ADF, do you get NDB Approach NOT APPROVED on your instrument rating?

I don't know. The planes all have ADF. There aren't many NDB's around though. I'll let you know.

 

[WestHouston]

Well, it's been a while since I've posted because I never have time. I'm on lesson 13 of my Instrument training. It's been pretty good so far. No major issues as of yet. My instructor is cool and he does a good job even though he is brand-spankin new. I've been flying my ass off and so far I'm doing pretty well; no hang-ups to speak of. The college side is cool too. It IS college though. It's funny to see all the young'ins sleeping and missing class, then bombing the quizzes and tests. As long as you pay attention and study, you won't go wrong. And don't miss class. The professors act like they don't care, but they are taking note of everyone who screws off. I'm blasting through my money like it's going out of style. For those of you who get thier PPL somewhere else, be prepared for $200 a lesson. Luckily Uncle Sam is still picking up my tab so I can't complain. I'm doing my group leader flight on Monday and my first stage check on Tuesday. I guess some guys have been waiting for a week or so before getting thier stage checks. My instructor says I won't have to wait and it was the other instructors fault. I'll be mad as a hornet if that happens to me... We'll see. Ellington is a good airport to train out of. Even though you have F-16's, T-38's, Coast Guard HH-65's and even a fat Super Guppy constantly around, it's surprisingly quiet and easy to get around. It will totally ruin your opinion on NASA though... evidently thier pilots are God's gift to aviation and they'll sit at the threshhold for 5 minutes or more after being cleared on to the runway, screwing around and not giving a dang about anyone else... even if you are on a 1/4 mile final. So, that's it for now. I'll try to get back quicker next time.

 

[WestHouston]

Well, I passed my lesson 14 stage check. The oral was really easy, I was done in 45 minutes. The flying was a little harder. I totally had a brain-fart on my first DME arc. I got all confused right before entering the arc, and just guessed the heading to turn on. Evidently I wasn't too far off, because my instructor never noticed. The rest of the lesson went fine and I ended up getting four "4's" on my grading which is good as I never even got one "4" before. I had my first hold's and approaches lesson yesterday in the sim. They don't seem THAT hard but we'll see. I was supposed to fly today but we had a huge storm roll through so we didn't go. I learned a valuable lesson today, though...

When I got to DCA I knew the weather was getting bad, so I immediately checked the radar. Sure enough, a giant line of TS's were coming. Out side the wind was whipping and it was getting dark. I wasn't feeling too good about it, but the flight supervisor said we should go quick and get some good experience. So we ran out there, flying through the checklist, and after we finish the run-up we call for taxi clearance. The tower says that DCA called and told them not to let us leave. About that time, I see the flight supervisor running out to the ramp. He said the storm had shifted and was coming straight for us. Even though we could have gone to Beaumont to the East if we had gone anyway, I really didn't like the idea of us taking off with that kind of storm coming. I decided then and there never to be talked in to going by anyone ever again. Especially after the storm hit, as it was a nasty one. We would definately have not made it back in time.

Other than that, all is well...

 

[FlyingFisherman]

You did your runup and THEN called for taxi?

Nice! Maybe I'm the only person who taught the value of saving time using a rolling runup and value of life by not doing a runup and then fouling your plugs on the way out to the runway for a takeoff 5 minutes later.

 

[WestHouston]

You did your runup and THEN called for taxi?

Nice! Maybe I'm the only person who taught the value of saving time using a rolling runup and value of life by not doing a runup and then fouling your plugs on the way out to the runway for a takeoff 5 minutes later.

The ramp in front of the school is about 300 feet wide and so we just taxi out to the other side, flip a 180, and do the runup. After that we call for taxi... Ellington's a wierd place, they do everthing a little different there. It's the only tower I've seen that doesn't want to know your direction of departure when you call.

 

[FlyingFisherman]

the point is that if your plugs are going to foul they're going to foul in rich mixture settings and low power settings...like the way most taxi.

The point of doing the runup just prior to takeoff in my book was to ensure that I have both magnetos operating and 8/12 good spark plugs free of fouling. Doing the runup and then subjecting to conditions when its most likely to foul seems not the way to do things.

 

[WestHouston]

the point is that if your plugs are going to foul they're going to foul in rich mixture settings and low power settings...like the way most taxi.

The point of doing the runup just prior to takeoff in my book was to ensure that I have both magnetos operating and 8/12 good spark plugs free of fouling. Doing the runup and then subjecting to conditions when its most likely to foul seems not the way to do things.

After the runup and while taxiing we lean the mixture.

 

[DCAinstructor06]

It's best to lean the ever living crap out of the mixture during taxi to prevent plug fouling. Power settings and egt temps are too low during taxi to possibly cause ANY engine damage due to the really leaned condition. There are those that say never lean on the ground because dumb people forget to enrichen it for takeoff, but with it really leaned out on the ground it will become apparent the moment you start your takeoff roll if you forgot to enrichen it. See Fisherman, a little too info can be dangerous. I agree do runups on the roll, to save time, not to prevent plug fouling. DCA's policy is to lean on the ground. Some engines like big 520's dont need any leaning on the ground and never suffer from plug fouling. Lyc 320's will foul unless leaned. In the newbie world, I would rather my students be parked when doing the runup and devote their full attention to JUST taxing when taxing.

 

[WestHouston]

Well, I'm on lesson 20 of the 32 in the instrument rating. Things are going well, and I'm making all A's in the college classes. I'm not going to get to fly for like a week as my instructors day-off falls right next to the Wings over Houston airshow this weekend. Anyway, I wrote a giant post originally, detailing what kind of training I've been doing, but I accidentally clicked the back button and lost it all. I'm too lazy to re-type it so if anyone has any questions on the San Jac/DCA program, feel free to email me.

 

[WestHouston]

Got my instrument ticket today!!! It's been a while since I've posted, but it's been crazy lately. I did better than I thought I would. I made a few small mistakes, the biggest being on the last approach to land. I almost went full-scale deflection on the ILS! I was being vectored to the localizer and didn't realize i was recieving the signal. The instructor was like "where are you going?" Even though it was a big mistake, he still passed me. Man it feels good. Like a giant weight off my chest....

 

[DCAinstructor06]

Now use your new ticket and your brain and set personal minimums NOW before blasting off into the muck. You'll live longer this way.

Congrats btw. The insurance companies will now consider you a real pilot.

Here's a trick I used on my DCA students. When shooting an ILS, I would take them partial panel. Then after they were on the loc, I would then cover up the compass. This left them only with the following instruments, (get this)

Air speed indicator
TURN COORDINATOR
Altimeter
VSI
..and of course NAV 1 with the glideslope

THATS ALL! Fly the needles and you'll never go full scale. Small timely corrections that increase in speed the closer you get to DA. It took me until CFII to finally be able to shoot an ILS that didn't look like the needles were sword fighting. Today, (usually) you'd swear that my nav 1 is broken. Screw reference heading crap, Winds change from altitude down to DA by flying the needles, you can leave the 5degree crab to the right, uh I mean 5 to the left crap for cruise. In nasty weather getting your ass handed to you from the turbulence, the last thing you want to screw with is a reference heading.

 

[Metro752]

this thread is two DCA goons talking to each other with one dumb remark from me and kream