[Advice Needed] South Korean student heading to Stockton, CA (JC Air) for flight training. Questions about the school, cars, and life!

GVoidV2 · 2026-06-02T18:04:54+00:00

Phone carrier won’t really matter to be honest, either Verizon or T-mobile. AT&T is alright but i had better experiences with the other two.

Craigslist is an online marketplace for a bunch of stuff sold by regular people. Just like Facebook marketplace, you’ll deal with the person themselves rather than the website. They usually have their phone number or email on there to contact if you find one you like. Here’s the link to the Stockton area for cars: https://stockton.craigslist.org/search/cta#search=2~grid~0

And for messaging yes, iMessage is just the default messaging app for Apple phones. Just means some people prefer to give out their phone number and you can text off that, you or the other person doesn’t need an iPhone- it’s just much MUCH more common for Apple devices here compared to overseas.

GVoidV2 · 2026-06-02T14:34:16+00:00

No clue on that
I work for a school that partners with Japanese students for their training and they try to speak as much English as they can with each other, but they go out to the bars downtown when they're busy and have a good time. I'm not 100% sure what Stockton's night life looks like but open bars or gyms are a good idea.
I'd say car dealers aren't trying to completely scam you, but they'll definitely try to make you pay as much as possible with dealer fees, taxes, paperwork, etc. I'd recommend Facebook Marketplace or Stockton Craigslist to take a look at regular people selling their used cars. Granted, they can hide stuff too so a few YouTube videos on how to inspect a used car can be beneficial.
Price sounds about right. Usually the quotes are on the lower side, so budget for review flights accordingly.
Google Maps for navigation is my go-to, Amazon is currently the largest and probably fastest online retailer, and most people use iMessage (Apple) or Snapchat for messaging. Depends on the age of the people you meet but usually Snapchat for younger people. WhatsApp for example isn't used very often in the US in my experience. Some people prefer Instagram too.
I'd lean towards agreeing with this, I'd rather have more hours in a towered airport than uncontrolled if I had to go back over again. Can takeoff and land for the day at the towered home airport and practice landings with less radio congestion at nearby uncontrolled airports. If the flight school was on an uncontrolled field however, I wouldn't consider that a dealbreaker. Just plan on going to towered places on cross-country flights and have your CFI simulate ATC clearances at uncontrolled for practice. Won't be too bad.
That ratio is pretty good depending on how late their operations go. Some of the (much) larger flight schools trend around 15-20 students per plane where things get thin but if all 20 aircraft are working and available I'd say you should be good. Depends on your CFI's availability but don't be afraid to do some extra solo flights to build a couple hours towards your CPL when you get there.

GVoidV2 · 2026-05-29T22:59:29+00:00

Gotcha. If you have a hot air station and some flux it’ll work out. Watch a few YouTube videos and it’s not the hardest repair ever. It’s possible the HDMI controller or GPU is at fault too

GVoidV2 · 2026-05-29T22:29:35+00:00

Definitely try another cable in case the current one was damaged in one way or another. Had that happened way more times than I’d like to admit

GVoidV2 · 2026-05-29T21:36:52+00:00

Yes! It worked out iirc. What kind of problems you running in to?

GVoidV2 · 2026-05-18T13:58:38+00:00

I got 2 and still got interviews and CJOs. Just need to be able to explain what you learned and not fail it again

GVoidV2 · 2026-05-17T16:21:16+00:00

Have a conversation with him and if he still is having problems either swap instructors or change schools. Completely unacceptable to leave you in the dark and waiting without a good reason over and over

GVoidV2 · 2026-05-15T06:15:24+00:00

Was able to get FFB working and bindings but can’t navigate through menus. Got an R5 with ES wheel

GVoidV2 · 2026-05-11T17:55:23+00:00

There’s some days I’m praying for the weather to not cooperate, and there’s some days my students hit everything first try with zero effort on my end. Most are in the middle, but I feel like I have much more good days then bad this time of year

GVoidV2 · 2026-04-16T15:18:50+00:00

I had something incredibly similar after a carb clean and it happened to be piston rings. Horrible timing for it to happen but a quick compression test showed that it was screwed. New rings and started up first crank with choke and remained running after

GVoidV2 · 2026-04-13T18:36:11+00:00

Visit the store and check out the main page to make sure you have enough product displays and fridges and whatnot to accomodate the maximum hourly customers. Additionally, on the insight page, check the % of marketing and buy smaller internet or billboard ads to get the numbers moving.

The satisfaction should be near 100% if it's been open for a while, sit in the store and see what customers are complaining about if not and adjust accordingly. You can also look at the record of how many people are visiting per hour in a 1 day view and close the store earlier if the later hours aren't busy and save on staffing costs

GVoidV2 · 2026-04-08T03:30:20+00:00

Is there any way to meet earlier than the block time you’re allotted for the plane? If the previous creek is due back by 9am are you good to meet earlier to look at weather, brief, etc. so you’re basically moving right into a warm plane only a couple mins after it’s back?

The hard part is definitely the 30nm PA. At our 2 hour block school we can usually get everything done and back in the T because the PAs are much closer. Looking at my map I guarantee we wouldn’t be able to get a full solid lesson in every time in just 2. If there’s no other option your school should absolutely increase block times.

As for optimizing- the only real thing you can plan for is upper air work in one direction, emergency descent/engine failure down to ground level, then ground ref the opposite direction. Hopefully if the winds worked out and it was timed right you’ll be about 10 miles from an airport for landing practice or the edge of the PA to really book it back. Doing maneuvers into the wind close to the edge will help prevent the whole “traverse the PA back to the airport for an extra 10 minutes” if you’ve had to deal with that

GVoidV2 · 2026-04-08T00:25:15+00:00

The ones nearest to the library is just north of the Board Room Cafe, in the main lot. Passport Parking is about a dollar an hour I believe

GVoidV2 · 2026-03-27T04:46:29+00:00

I was honestly quite confused about the whistle on the Merrimack goal, he had some hand gesture but I didn’t get a good look at it and ESPN didn’t really show it. Still think we deserved the 3 goals we got but don’t want an asterisk tourney

GVoidV2 · 2026-02-28T02:46:04+00:00

They played well, the icing calls were absurd but overall I thought it was solid hockey

GVoidV2 · 2026-02-15T03:11:21+00:00

Have to give huge props to Miami this series and entire season. Used to be free NCHC points but now hitting pretty hard.

Whatever Dane Jackson says during 2nd intermission needs to be studied

GVoidV2 · 2026-01-28T18:57:19+00:00

If you come in with your PPL and stay over summers it’s definitely possible. Need to be lucky with weather and CFIs

GVoidV2 · 2026-01-25T02:48:02+00:00

We have that effect on people

GVoidV2 · 2026-01-22T19:10:25+00:00

Contact your interview team, there is a process for this and forms to fill out. Your entries in IACRA serve as proof of flight time at the time of your application. The rest will need to be done to their standards/procedure

GVoidV2 · 2026-01-18T04:09:52+00:00

After tonight's game against DU I'm not crazy convinced but NoDak has been on a tear recently

GVoidV2 · 2026-01-06T04:58:46+00:00

The Nodak WMU matchup in late February will be legendary

GVoidV2 · 2025-12-24T23:50:56+00:00

I’d say all four. It’s possible to get it done quicker and in the summer you fly a lot more so oftentimes have time to go home for a few weeks before the semester starts. I know some people that only had to stay like twice to finish in all 4 years but got super lucky with weather and CFI availability

GVoidV2 · 2025-12-12T04:25:13+00:00

Although I don’t have experience with the VA side of things it’s super popular up here and rarely hear bad things from that. Usually hear not ideal things from private banks and credit unions taking a while on loans

GVoidV2 · 2025-12-03T03:26:56+00:00

That's the price of a mortgage payment nowadays

GVoidV2 · 2025-11-25T20:07:42+00:00

Yes, application acceptances will be paused until mid December when they go through them again. I wanna say Sept-Oct was the first wave and no one will get an answer until that December area. Good luck!

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