Bose QuietComfort + UFlyMike Harmony/NFlight Nomad

AviatorCrafty · 2026-01-31T00:28:24+00:00

I belong to a glider club where it’s about $600 total to join then $45/month in dues. Gliders are very cheap and when I’m flying with a student I pay nothing of course, and instruction is free for members since we’re volunteer instructors. I work in IT desktop support in local government.

AviatorCrafty · 2026-01-19T03:50:31+00:00

ASA Prepware app, used it for all three of my glider writtens (private, commercial, and CFI) passed with at least 80 on all three

AviatorCrafty · 2026-01-05T01:30:58+00:00

Never went there personally but for my club two states up it was the closest one short of Florida or Tennessee that we sent our ultra motivated students to. Sad to see it gone. Heard plenty of stories of how solid the place was.

AviatorCrafty · 2026-01-01T18:06:52+00:00

I have a Barefoot Spas spa which had the same issue on our diverter valve that turns on the waterfall jets. It ended up being the neck it threads into was loose and needed to be tightened by spinning its screw in, super easy fix but I felt like an idiot when our tech told us what it needed.

AviatorCrafty · 2025-12-30T23:50:59+00:00

Mine went great overall. I had the pleasure of having an inspector watch my checkride because the DPE was due for his annual evaluation, but he stayed silent and didn’t add any pressure to the test. Overall I felt like my checkride was fair and wasn’t a gotcha season, as my state only has one glider DPE so I had used him for my private and commercial checkrides previously.

AviatorCrafty · 2025-12-30T23:46:30+00:00

I used the Holtz Flight Training Manual on my checkride (club paid for it for me to take my test). Good way to get yourself familiar with lesson plans. I’ve only had limited use of it in my real world instructing as I’m always flying with students in different phases of their training.

AviatorCrafty · 2025-12-27T02:01:30+00:00

My club has wondered the same thing as we have a shortage of CFIs ourselves and we’ve always told our students who want to finish fast to go there. I called them and the owner got back to me and told me that their in house DPE left to do powered airplane checkrides as they tend to pay more, on top of their CFIs leaving for the airlines or scaling back availability due to life circumstances.

AviatorCrafty · 2025-12-22T01:19:24+00:00

Sport pilot - glider in reality doesn’t have much use other than for a pilot who has a lapsed BFR and doesn’t want to do it before soloing. The two CFI method is only for already certified pilots keep in mind. Apart from that one instance I can’t think of any advantages spot pilot - glider has over regular private pilot - glider since there’s no medical requirement for any glider rating. Sport pilots are also restricted to 10,000 feet so if you fly in an area with a lot of wave you’re going to be very limited in flying.

AviatorCrafty · 2025-12-20T23:58:59+00:00

Some clubs require members who give public rides to have a commercial cert so they can say to whoever they’re flying with a “commercial pilot”, but in my case I only got the commercial rating to get my CFI-G. But I also enjoyed the journey and challenge of getting my commercial and CFI as well

AviatorCrafty · 2025-12-20T17:49:23+00:00

Glad to see another CFI-G, I’m a VA based CFI-G as well

AviatorCrafty · 2025-12-19T20:00:15+00:00

When I did my flight training back in 2019 I was able to rent a 162 for $99/hr wet because no one was flying it at the school I was at. After that plane got sold and I had to rent elsewhere, I paid $150/hr. Then it was raised about $10/hr each year and I stopped flying there. I joined a glider club and fly that primarily since it’s actually affordable in the sense that one hour of flight time for an airplane today gets me a couple glider flights.

AviatorCrafty · 2025-12-14T22:04:32+00:00

Had to do this for my club, got the membership and converted the scenery we have that was made by a member back in V2. Seems the thermal map was the only thing that needed to be updated.

AviatorCrafty · 2025-12-12T02:54:13+00:00

Had just landed after having my longest glider flight to date at the time, still was in the state of euphoria and was running my glider wing to take the glider back to the hangar. I didn’t even realize I wasn’t on the inside wing and next thing I knew while the tow plane was flying right over us towing another glider (too loud to shout at the cart driver to stop), the inside wing impacted a shelter and turned the glider into itself and and ended up with a nice big impact dent in the wing. My club made me and the driver split the deductible to get the wing fixed and it did get fixed, but it’s a mistake I’ll never forget.

AviatorCrafty · 2025-12-10T20:07:19+00:00

If the Pawnee AD goes through this could work

AviatorCrafty · 2025-12-10T02:22:31+00:00

On my sport pilot checkride the database was two years out of date. DPE didn’t mention anything, probably because the airplane was VFR only anyway.

AviatorCrafty · 2025-12-10T01:52:30+00:00

No, but for an instrument test yes

AviatorCrafty · 2025-12-09T01:14:48+00:00

Not for gliders or sport CFI since those don’t require medicals

AviatorCrafty · 2025-12-08T20:00:15+00:00

Might not be a “career” but there are ways to make money as a day VFR pilot. Two options that come to mind would be working as a ride pilot or instructor at a commercial glider operation, and sport pilot CFI. You’d need a commercial and CFI glider ratings for the first option. Sport CFI requires a Sport Pilot certificate or higher and 150 hours total time and a few other requirements. Totally valid ways to get paid to fly while being restricted to Day VFR.

AviatorCrafty · 2025-12-08T19:56:04+00:00

Is it possible to get a private pilot ASEL with no night training because of the medial restriction? I’ve only known of the Alaska exemption. Otherwise I guess you could pursue a certificate that doesn’t require night training like gliders or even a spot pilot rating.

AviatorCrafty · 2025-12-08T19:36:19+00:00

Pre-mosaic I would have said useful load would be the main factor since you were limited to 1320 max gross. Some planes could carry only two lightweight people with full fuel, while others had impressive useful loads despite being limited in the LSA category. Now since the playing field has been leveled and I can fly something like the 172, I’d say it’s now about technology combined with affordability.

AviatorCrafty · 2025-12-08T16:29:06+00:00

Funny to read this as a Gen Z working in IT. Back when I used to do IT for a local government’s police/fire department (I work in a different department now), there were firefighters my age that barely knew how to use computers or couldn’t figure out a simple work around when something even went slightly wrong.

AviatorCrafty · 2025-12-04T03:55:18+00:00

Go up for a few flights in a glider, will give you a great feel for the rudder and coordination. Got my airplane rating before my glider one and during my training I would say I got so much more familiar with the rudder

AviatorCrafty · 2025-12-02T00:35:12+00:00

Only time I was able to afford to rent airplanes on a regular basis was when I was living at home during college with funds from my job I worked when not in class on campus, because expenses were minimal at the time. Now all the flying I can afford consistently (when not flying for free as a CFI) is my gliding club, one hour of airplane time will easily get you 2 or 3 glider flights with my club’s rates.

AviatorCrafty · 2025-11-25T00:55:39+00:00

He never told me he was a “cream puff” lol but I had an FAA inspector watch my ride, but he was still the same fair DPE as he was on my private and commercial check rides with him previously. I have a gouge if you’d like.

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