Riddle

[jdru25]

chperplt, did you know Larry Thomas? He was my first instructor at Riddle.

 

[chperplt]

Yea, I think I knew Larry. Retired Army helo pilot if I remember correctly. He was the head flight supervisor for quite a while before he started instructing. Grumpy man if he didn't have his morning coffie and smoke. Maybe I'm thinking of someone else..

 

[jdru25]

Larry always had to have a morning smoke and coffee. He was a great guy to fly with and he taught me a lot.

 

[Lrjtcaptain]

now that we are talking about all our retired old ERAU instructors...anyone remember Dave Opwanya....don't think i spelled that right....anyways....talk about a prick...

 

[jdru25]

I heard Riddle canned him last year. He was a washout at many airlines like Eagle. He was a miserable person. The flight standards team is better off without him.

 

[jdru25]

Lrjtcaptain, Have you given anyone the "Thumb of Disrespect" lately?

Just Curious?

J.D.

 

[Lrjtcaptain]

The D. Thumb of disrespect. Hell yea, what up man, you still CFI'n ? Funny who i run into on this site....LOL. You know whats funny, I was telling my buddy about this girl i did about a month ago and she wanted me to do some "disrespect" and i said i gave her the D. thumb of disrespect, he didn't get it, then i remembered, i wasnt at riddle...and it wasnt your or D.M., cause I can't get too sick with the hicks up here in OMEEEEEHA

PM me and give me your cell number

 

[BRA]

I knew Larry Thomas. He did my pre solo prog in 1998. He was pretty cool. Over the last year I had been using him for Multi-engine/commercial DE rides for my students. I always got along with him real well. He would call me and ask me if I had any checkrides coming up for him all the time. I think he may have had the worlds first "coffee belly"

 

[chperplt]

I think he may have had the worlds first "coffee belly"

There was a lot more in that belly of his other than coffee!! That man could drink!!!!!!!!!!

 

[jdru25]

Yes he definately could. I met him at a bar one night and he was already 3 sheets to the wind. It was great.

 

[superrav]

riddle...

hey..while you guys are talking about riddle..do any of you know Todd Henderson...he was my instrument instructor. The last i remember..he's flying for COEX. What year did u guys graduate??

 

[Longhorn]

Transferred from U of Texas in 96. Graduated in 1997. Instructed there from 97-99. Now CRJ Captain at Pinnacle Airlines (former express I). Good friends with Todd Landry (passed away in 2000 mid-air acident at Deland), John Houdyschell and Josh Wilson, and a few more from the same crowd. And yes, we all remember David Opwana..........

 

[Lrjtcaptain]

Dave O was a prick. I heard he got hired on with Mesa but I dont see Lori Clark even letting his resume get in the filing cabinet. Anyways...I remember Todd Landry, he and Eliza Lewis had a mid-air in DED with that Phoenix East PA44. That was too bad but just another reason that you need to keep your eyes out the windows....especially if there is an IP on board. I graduated from ERAU in Dec/01. Currently flying light twins for a company here in Omaha, I wish I was flying turbines but the Multi PIC really is good in my logs. I heard Riddle got the liscence plate deal approaved with Florida. As much as i complained when i was there, i would do it all over again. Met some good pilots, some not so good pilots, had a great time and am proud to be an alumnist.

 

[Stephen]

I met him at a bar one night and he was already 3 sheets to the wind.

If somebody is three sheets to the wind, and they keep drinking, what does that make them?

 

[EMB_driver2002]

FYI David Opwanya was at Mesa but went over to Freedom Air

 

[Longhorn]

Are you sure he went to Freedom? It sounds like something he would do. He was so full of BS most of the time. I remember when we were sitting around talking about leaving and he came in from his so called training at Eagle. He said that he was in crj training and would be done in a few weeks. Problem was, it was 1998 and they did not have crj's. It does not suprise me that he would do something like the freedom air thing. So, for every freedom air guy in the future I turn the jumpseat down to I can blame it on D.O. not to memtion many other reasons.

 

[Lrjtcaptain]

Here's a semi funny Dave O story. Did an csel prog with him, went up and blah blah blah, doing xctry **CENSORED****CENSORED****CENSORED****CENSORED**, he told me that my instructor taught me it all wrong and he told me i was gonna fail even though i was exactly where i was supposed to be and he just got done praising me on my soft field takeoffs, anyways, out of no where i radio DAB approach, called in that i was returning to DAB. Dave was like, what are you doing? I said screw this, im not gonna continiue this flight with you if ive already failed. I can't stand you anways. So we aland...go into instructor bay and start yelling at eachother, then my instructor Corey Adams walks in and calms me down, has a meeting with Dave. blah blah blah.. ..he's like dave was'nt gonna fail you blah blah blah. I was like i refuse to fly with that prick. So he incompleted me, prog card back in, 1 week later on the prog board.....Im up with DAve O again. I walk to reschedule the flight cause i refused to fly with him and guess whos in the scheduling office...Dave, he was getting me on with someone else too...he refused to fly with me anyways, we walked out to the vending area to have a talk and he was like, mark i wasn't gonna fail you blah blah blah, just putting pressure on you to see how you react...then he had the balls to tell me that i was a great pilot but my attitude sucked....I think it was partially him as well.

 

[jdru25]

Dave O........what a tool! For a while I thought he was going to be a lifer at Riddle.

 

[Lrjtcaptain]

Jdru....you need to give him the "thumb of disrespect" do you miss michelle my bell ???

 

[chperplt]

I heard a story once that Dave O was giving a commercial stage 1 check.. During the soft field T.O. in the 172, the stall horn went off during initial power up.. Dave started screaming at the guy, telling him he was a commercial pilot applicant and that it was totally unacceptable.

What a jerk off he was/is..