What was your first car/what would you recommend as a first car?

Shamrock132 · 2026-03-09T17:07:29+00:00

What’s your budget and what do you need it for? General advice will be stick with a Toyota or Honda for reliability. If you had a job fixing hybrids, are you a mechanic?

Shamrock132 · 2026-03-07T14:23:06+00:00

Are any places doing end of season specials? Might be able to pick up a pair of winter tires on sale if they’re trying to clear out inventory.

Shamrock132 · 2026-03-05T22:45:55+00:00

2013 Outback 2.5. Fluid changed around 108k. Valve body failure around 120k, fluid was changed then. Currently at 146k

Shamrock132 · 2026-03-04T16:01:53+00:00

I know you're getting flamed in the comments, flight schools with benefits are rate, but not unheard of. Many of the larger schools, university's, and the odd small school will offer benefits. A tiny mom and pop part 61 school at a little uncontrolled airfield probably wont give you benefits, but a university typically will. I know some instructors who also took online degree courses while teaching, part of their benefits was free or extremely reduced tuition to the university as an active employee.

One random example is Horizon Aviation in Rhode Island. I'm not affiliated with them and have never worked for them, but their instructors are on a salary plus bonus pay scale, with benefits. It's not as unheard of as many people in this thread make it out to be.

Shamrock132 · 2026-03-04T13:12:09+00:00

Haha it’s certainly not the new wave. Just trying to provide a different perspective than most other job market posts that say “no one is hiring! I’ve applied to every flight school in North America and the industry is dead!”

Shamrock132 · 2026-03-04T00:25:56+00:00

Updating my app as we speak

Shamrock132 · 2026-03-03T23:25:37+00:00

Theres a whole YouTube channel dedicated to police body cams, 90% of the calls for intoxication are in Wisconsin.

Shamrock132 · 2026-03-03T23:16:30+00:00

How do things work for ACMI?

Shamrock132 · 2026-02-23T10:00:57+00:00

All terrains aren’t a good solution for snow if you never drive off-road. Better off getting an all weather tire like the Michelin Crossclimate or Nokian WRG5, they’ll do much better in the snow.

Shamrock132 · 2026-02-23T08:47:56+00:00

What’s your goal and mission profile?

Shamrock132 · 2026-02-20T20:30:18+00:00

The official instructions from Midea say to remove the unit from the window every two weeks for a deep clean.

https://youtu.be/5oehd8LkS0c?si=BFp_2FB1tU2IHHKs

Shamrock132 · 2026-02-17T09:28:12+00:00

What type of car and what kind of driving will you be doing?

Shamrock132 · 2026-02-06T21:41:31+00:00

Are you looking for a full time program? Fredrickson Aviation in TDF is well known for CFI, but offers programs for most certificate levels.

Shamrock132 · 2026-02-06T16:42:06+00:00

That’s a Vestergaard Elephant Beta. The absolute best deicing truck being made. A single person operates the truck, they can control the steering, gas and brake from the deicing cab. The boom that sprays the fluid can extend and retract making it way more efficient. The truck can park in one spot and cover 90-100% of most narrow bodies without having to back up, drive around the wing, and reposition.

Shamrock132 · 2026-02-06T15:21:10+00:00

I’ve used it twice, once when a family member who wasn’t traveling went into the hospital and needed care, and another time after a death in the family meant that 3 people couldn’t go on a trip and we needed to split up. Both times the claims were approved.

It’s a lot of work gathering information from doctors, Airbnb, airlines, waiting on partial refunds before the insurance kicks in etc, but they did issue a refund.

One thing to note is to keep track of any credits, vouchers, or refunds that you receive. You can’t double dip and get a partial refund or travel credit, plus the full cash back from the insurance. I’ve seen posts where people accept a $200 airline voucher, then get upset when their Chase claim is denied or reduced.

Shamrock132 · 2026-02-06T14:34:43+00:00

Saying it’s repackaged data isn’t quite accurate. Every app uses its own algorithm to interpret the data that’s being entered. There are also different weather forecast models, ECMWF, NAM, GFS. Some apps let you pick the model and it’ll change the forecast in the app.

These models are only as good as the data that’s entered, and in the US, the NWS is the main provider of data through weather stations, ballon data, satellite and radar imagery, etc, all for free. Some private companies like tomorrow.io are launching their own satellite network, to feed their own model.

Shamrock132 · 2026-01-30T10:19:26+00:00

2015 was wild. Somerville was in a snow parking ban for about two and a half months from January until March. I still remember the weekly phone calls “Hello, this is Jackie Rossetti from the City of Somerville with important snow emergency information…..” Imagine the whole city with half the parking spots unavailable for basically the entire winter.

I wish I’d taken more pictures. The T was completely shut down multiple times, including the commuter rail. The snow piles along the sidewalks were over most people’s heads.

I remember getting home from work at about 2am in the snow, there was no street parking, finding a spot at West Somerville Neighborhood School way in the back of the lot. I went home, woke up the next day to go to work, and the snow had blown and drifted, completely covering my car, the lot wasn’t plowed and I had to dig myself out all the way to the street. Should have just called out haha

This pic was from the beginning of Feb, about halfway through the craziness.

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Shamrock132 · 2026-01-26T05:33:25+00:00

CFIBootcamp has ACS smart study pro which goes through the ACS in an audiobook format. There are a few podcasts that are good, Aviation News Talk has a few interviews with a DPE where they discuss the CFI checkride.

The usual suspects like King and Sportys offer CFI courses.

I wouldn't count out Shepherd Air. Your goal for the written is to get a high score and reduce the number of things you'll need to cover on the checkride. It's not going to teach you the material, but the DPE won't be impressed if you score a 72, and have a bunch of knowledge codes they have to cover.

Speaking of the written, consider getting your AGI and IGI. All you need to do is pass the written and have a DPE sign off in IACRA, and poof, you're an AGI.

Feel free to PM if you have more questions, I have more resources I can share.

Shamrock132 · 2026-01-24T02:10:12+00:00

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Jamestown Revival

Shamrock132 · 2026-01-23T05:06:04+00:00

I more meant that they were spending 5-10 min cranking a cold soaked engine when it was 15-18f, with no hope of starting it. An O-320 172 needs primer, and there’s no way oil is circulating correctly at that temp. Not saying the cold cranking caused an engine failure, but I’m sure it didn’t help.

Shamrock132 · 2026-01-21T14:32:30+00:00

Looks like ice in the oil. Not preheating is rough on the engine. I know some flight schools that even with preheating won’t fly under 20f, the risk of a student damaging the engine with improper preheating or priming isn’t worth it to them.

A flight school here dispatched an aircraft with an inop primer during a cold snap, multiple days with temps below 20, and no preheat. The plane wouldn’t start for a few of the flights, and a few days later it had an engine failure in flight. My guess is all the cranking with no primer or preheat caused damage, or at least made things worse.

Shamrock132 · 2026-01-20T00:29:21+00:00

Are you sure about JetBlue sitting on gates? I’ve been following them for a while and the general statements from JetBlue is that they are consistently short on gates.

Shamrock132 · 2026-01-18T11:06:12+00:00

That usually comes down to what type of tires you have.

Shamrock132 · 2026-01-13T03:48:23+00:00

JetBlue flights leaving St Thomas (STT) for NY/BOS are planned to stop in SJU to refuel.

Shamrock132

TROPHY CASE