The Pilot Career...

"The only thing that stands between a man and what he wants from life is often merely the will to try it and the faith to believe that it is possible." Richard M. Devos.

Hi there, thanks for coming. Any good news so far, I hope to give good news on my career soon.
When I decided to study aviation, and an uncle (Juan Carlos, with whom I am in the pic of the left) knew my intention we got together and chatted for a while. He told me aviation career was so strange in many ways, one of those was that there could be years on which the airlines wouldn't hire any pilot, and there also could be a time when airlines wouldn't find where to find pilots to hire. What a contradiction isn't it? The thing is that it happens.
My uncle told me that the pilot career is like a bet. It's like throwing a coin to the air, not knowing which would be the coin's face when it hits the floor. You start the career and because we cannot know our future you could success or you could completely fail. That is the pilot career, it all starts with the decision of wanting to become a commercial pilot. To take the risk or not, to take it or leave it, to accept the challenge or refuse to it. If you decide to take the risk, it is not a cheap decision because the career obviously costs (not talking about a military aviation career), but if you don't take the risk you would never in your life succeed as the pilot maybe you would like to be. I accepted to take the risk, let's see what happens. We must be brave and accept the idea that impossible is nothing and with a positive attitude and working hard we could fly as high as we want, so let's keep trying to achieve a dream!

"Whether you think you can or think you can't, you're right."
Henry Ford.

Getting inside a Boeing 747-400ERF

Heello there! Any relevant news on my career, we are still on the standby mode. Some weeks ago I had with a friend the opportunity to get inside a Boeing 747-400 ERF... the latest 747 model that can exist in the World. We got outside the flying monument, and a ground staff member asked the captain if we could visit them for a little while; the answer was yes! and we started climbing the stairs until we passed the main door and got inside one of the biggest airliners in the world, a "jumbo", a state of the art 7-4-7. Once inside the aircraft we climbed other stairs that take you to the second floor, there we were in a room with four business class seats and in the front it was the flight deck, I was atonished. I said hello to the copilots, the captain was almost leaving to do the walk around to the aircraft. The copilots were pretty young, they were less than thirty years old; for me it's amazing how a man of that age can have in his hands such a big airplane... there is no doubt that "Impossible is nothing". I seated in the first officer's seat, what an office! I don't have words to describe the panel. I was like in shock. The captain came later to his office, he started signing some papers and I asked him what does it feel to fly such a big airplane, he didn't say a word and put a big smile in his face. Afer some seconds he said that after flying so many types of aircraft, flying the 747 for him is like the latest step, and I think it is the latest step and probably his best step.
One of the first officers had to take his seat so I moved. They started working on the preparation for the flight. My friend and I assumed it was time to go so we thanked a lot the crew and told them good bye. Being outside the big monument you start thinking how that big airplane can overcome the gravity force and start flying through the air. Everything was big: the wings, the slats, the engines, the wheels...
We saw the airplane taking off, and once it was climbing enroute we said by the radio that we had: "au revoir, bon voyage" and the captain (he was the pilot with the most noticable french accent) responded "merci, au revoir".
It was a very nice sunday. It wasn't an "obsession" but since I was a child I was curious about going inside a 747, thanks to my friends it became real. We must remember: Never say Never.

Take care and regards from Uruapan, Mexico

Luis Enrique Borrego Lopez

The student pilot view

"Never talk defeat. Use word like hope, belief, faith, victory"
Norman Vincent Peale.

Here we are again. Thanks for coming back! The career is in the standby mode for a little while. I need a flight permit to start the multi-engine training, and the documents are supposed to be delivered to the aeronautical authority in the next days. I got some checklists for the Piper Aztec (PA-23) that is the airplane in which I'm supposed to get the training, looks just great! It is a twin engine piston airplane, it has turbo-engines, I'll be anxiously waiting the moment to start flying that beauty.

Aviation career it's very nice, it is kind of unique, it is uncommon and for many it is something strange. But however you find it it is still being for many of us our passion. Yesterday at my french class when the teacher knew what I was studying she got surprised and told me that I might be intelligent in order to study aviation, she said that not everybody can do that. I'm still trying to understand why she said that. Chatting with a friend the other day we were talking that a good pilot must have at least a combination of two things: one is to know the theory that we need to know in order to assure safety on the flights that we are, and the other one is the flying skill. And we know a good pilot may have two of those "qualities", but if you ask me what makes a good pilot is something I won't be able to answer because I'm still looking for that answer. What we student pilots (and not only student pilots) can do now is to do our best, studying what we have to study and doing our best on each flight.

Whoever you talk to will tell you as pilot to hurry up with the training because there are opportunities everywhere, and in fact they are around but how to get into them? I don't know when am I going to be able to get the commercial license, but when I get it it is uncertain how much time I'll have to wait in order to get a job. Even though I'll do my best trying to get one. "How much I'll have to wait?". At the time I would be asking myself that I'm sure I won't be the only one asking that. TO WAIT, something that goes together with the pilot's life. Many pilots have told me about the relation between the pilot and the waiting situation. First you wait the time to start flying, then you wait to get you license, after you start looking for and waiting for a job, when you get one you start waiting to be finally hired, then you wait to start initial training, then you wait for passengers to arrive, you wait for your days off, and after many years you start waiting for your retirement day. Waiting, we new pilots must be getting used to this action, and be patient enough to deal with this, and maybe after waiting a little or a lot a good opportunity is going to come. We must be patient, persist and work hard in order to one day get a seat in the office that many of us want: a flight deck.

"Winners never quit and quitters never win."
Vince Lombardi

ERJ-145

We are now on board!

Hello there. Thank you for visiting my new blog. I finally decided to make one. I hope to update it frecuently and moreover I hope that you like it. Any comment or question about the blog feel free to e-mail me.
In this Journal of a Passion you may read stories from my career or from my realted-life to aviation.
For those who don't know which my passion is, it is flying. And this is a journal of that passion. You will be able to read and see how th life of a student pilot is.
Appart. Last week was a great week, I flew 6 hours from monday through friday and by doing that I completed the single-engine flight hours needed for the comercial pilot rating in Mexico. Thursday I flew around Guadalajara City and previously I had advised family members and some friends that I was going to be flying around so some of them saw me up in the air. It was a nice flight.
Friday I visited the flight deck of a Boeing 767-300 owned by a mexican freight airline, after the 767 I visited an Airbus A-300 of another mexican cargo airline. It had a female first officer on board who was very kind: Sofía. That was on friday, tuesday I visited a Boeing 737-200 of a charter airline, was great too.
So it was a good week. The flight lessons that I took were mostly of instrument training which I really like.
Thanks again for visiting the blog and I'll be glad to see you here in the near future.

Take care,

Luis

Oh... pictures? Here we go!

Boeing 737-200

Airbus A-300

Boeing 767-300F

Thanks to Carlos de Anda for the first two pictures =)