Vacation?!? Summertime is WORK Time for CJP Scholars

It’s been a very busy summer for the latest recipients of the CJP Flight Training Scholarship, as each opted to continue focusing on their studies, internships, instruction and flying… rather than taking off on what would have surely been some well-deserved vacations!

 

Justin Chirco

It has been a very busy year and it is far from over. My journey at Embry Riddle Aeronautical University toward becoming a professional pilot continues, having achieved nearly 600 flight hours and counting. Over the summer I took four courses and was named to the dean’s list. I have updated my schedule to allow me to graduate in three years instead of four, making my new anticipated graduation date May 2023. This summer I completed my training in Indianapolis as an Ambassador for Republic Airways.

This semester will be one of my most challenging, I will be enrolled in an ambitious course schedule. In order to graduate early, my schedule will be made up of five required aviation classes and one business class. In addition, I will continue as a Certified Flight Instructor with the five aviation students that I currently have scheduled. I am also currently in training to complete my CFII. As an Ambassador, I will be planning and hosting a Republic Airways recruiting event at Embry Riddle this coming September.

While this schedule may sound challenging, I will be doing what I love most, flying, logging flight hours, and teaching flight. This heavy schedule will also allow me to graduate from Embry Riddle with my Bachelor’s degree in Aviation and a minor in Business. Graduating in 2023 will reduce the cost of additional tuition and living expenses, and quicken my advancement into my chosen career.

All this has been made possible by the generosity and financial assistance from people like the members of the Citation Jet Pilots Association.

Lexi Ebersole

I am going into my junior year at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University. After staying at school this summer, I am currently 63 out of 120 credits done with my Aeronautical Science Degree, more than halfway through.

Beginning this summer, I had a choice to either stay home, or continue school and flight. Flight is my main priority and I take it very seriously as I only have four years to get all my flight ratings. It is challenging, but I know that the faster I get these ratings, the faster I will get to the airlines. With that being said, I looked at summer break to advance myself in not only flight training, but also in my academics.

Going into summer, I was about halfway through my instrument rating. While this rating is known to be one of the hardest, I did not let that stop me from adding more onto just flight. My roommates were in class, so I thought that I should add a class too.

I ended up adding the hardest class that I had in fall onto my summer courseload, International and Domestic Navigation. With all the free time that summer has to offer, I decided that would help me do better in it than I would in the fall when I have six classes. My prediction was correct. I ended with an 88% for a class that I anticipated would be hard to pass.

The best part about this summer and advancing in my academics is that I received my instrument rating. I had my final for my navigation class in the morning and passed my check ride at night on the same day. This has been one of my most successful summers to advance in my academics and gaining another flight rating topped it off.

I am now on track to start my commercial license beginning my junior year and I cannot thank CJP enough for the assistance provided to me to be able to do what I love most without the financial stress. Thank you.

Matthew Kennedy

I am excited to offer another update and I hope everyone is well. It is the end of the summer semester and the first day of the fall semester is in just a few days. The summer has been a productive one and the fall is set to be another busy semester. This upcoming semester will be the first of my senior year and although the summer has been full of great accomplishments its time to look forward and prepare for my final year in my bachelors.

As mentioned earlier the summer semester was full of action and I got a lot done in terms of flight training. Since mid-May I have been in the Fast-Track program at Embry-Riddle, this is an accelerated program for students to earn their CFI and CFII certificates. I’m happy to say that I just finished the program. In mid-July I earned my CFI and in mid-August I completed my CFII certificate.

The summer was a difficult one with long days and flight activities 5-6 days a week virtually every week. Although challenging, I’m very happy to have completed my instructor certificates and hope to start working for Embry-Riddle soon. One of the benefits of the program is that I am guaranteed an interview for an instructor position at Embry-Riddle, as of now I am waiting to have an interview scheduled but I am preparing for it to hopefully happen soon.

The summer has been a good one with great progress in flight training but its now time to look forward to the fall. As previously stated, the fall is set to be a busy one. I will be taking 16 credit hours this coming semester, all of which are either for my bachelors, meteorology minor, or dispatcher certificate. I am hoping to be done with my meteorology minor once the fall semester is completed.

Given the course load I do think the upcoming semester is set to be a challenging one, but I am eager to get back into the classes and continue with my degree. Given the full-time nature of flight training this previous summer I couldn’t take any academic classes over the summer. I’m hoping to cover some of the credit hours I would have taken over the summer in this coming fall.

Career-wise I am continuing to lay out the best path forward that I can. Earlier I mentioned I should have an interview coming up for an instructor position at Embry-Riddle. I am eager for this as I hope to start flight instructing part time during my senior year and start building the hours necessary for a R-ATP. I also have an interview scheduled with Republic Airways for their cadet program, which if accepted, would provide me with a job offer with Republic to fly as a first officer upon hitting R-ATP minimums.

The plan is to continue preparations for these upcoming interviews and do everything I can to set myself up for success. I know there are a lot of qualified applicants out there, so I’ll need to prepare to the best of my ability to earn a spot as an instructor and in other positions later in my career.

In conclusion, the summer was great, and the fall is set to be an exciting challenge. I have learned a lot so far; however, there is still so much out there that I need to learn about aviation. Being my senior year, I can see the light at the end of the tunnel, but I am ready to dig in and work hard in this final year before graduation.

Jasmine Lombardi

A lot has changed since my last time giving an update in June. In the last update, I was just beginning CFII and I was still on the waitlist to receive a multi-engine instructor at Embry-Riddle.

Luckily, I did not have much trouble with CFII and I was able to finish the course in about a month, completing my checkride on July 8. Thankfully, it was easy to get back into the groove of instrument flying and instrument procedures, aspects I was very excited for after months of maneuvers and precision landings.

After I completed my checkride, I became very comfortable with instrument flying, and even flew in IMC for the first time without an instructor. It was very rewarding to see all of my hard work pay off when the weather began to deteriorate on a leisure flight of mine.

After seven months of waiting, I was finally assigned a multi-engine instructor at Embry-Riddle mid-July. With an everyday flight block at 8:20am, I was able to breeze through the course. Weather has hardly been an issue and the everyday flight block has been a blessing in disguise in terms of keeping me proficient.

I am currently at the end of course portion of my multi-engine training and I am eagerly awaiting checkride. The Diamond DA42 has been a dream to fly, and it makes me even more excited to fly more advanced aircraft in the future. After I get my multi-engine add on, I plan to go back to Epic Flight Academy in New Smyrna to become a multi-engine instructor. There, I will train on the Piper Seminole and get the true experience and understanding of a complex aircraft.

I have also completed the Summer B semester at Embry-Riddle. During Summer B, I took Airline Operations and Aircraft Performance. I did great in both classes and gained a deeper insight into what goes on behind the scenes, both on the airline and dispatch side of operation.

I greatly enjoyed my Airline Operations class as it was taught by someone who previously flew for Envoy. My professor was able to integrate his experiences into the class, giving the content real-world applicability and making it relatable to some things that I might encounter in the future.

With the fall semester starting up in the next few weeks, I am excited to begin my new classes. I will be taking Crew Resource Management, Electronic Flight Management Systems, Jet Transport Systems, Pilot Career Planning and Interview Techniques, and a few other elective courses. I hope that I will enjoy these classes and that they will give me further insight into what life will be like for me in the future.

Jonathan Spangler

I want to thank you all for supporting scholarships and helping me achieve my dream of flying for Delta Air Lines. I just wrapped up a very busy summer of classes and am beginning a busy fall in the next week.

This summer in addition to completing five academic classes, I earned my initial Flight Instructor certificate. The training was rewarding, and at times stressful. During the oral portion of my check-ride, I felt very well prepared by my instructors. The flight portion was stressful as always, and in the busy airspace of central Florida, teaching collision avoidance was at the top of my mind.

Continuing this fall, I plan to earn my multi-engine commercial add-on rating this fall along with the flight instructor instrument rating. The CFII is a requirement for instructors to apply at ERAU, so I need to complete that before the school will hire me. Finally, I also have a full schedule of academic courses this fall. I am on track to graduate in December, though it will be a full sprint to the finish line.

This fall I will take capstone courses including Jet Transport Systems, Operational Applications in Aeronautical Science, and Flight Technique Analysis. Finally, I have a course in management I will take as a degree requirement.

I want to reiterate my sincere thanks to everyone who donates to scholarship funds and to the philanthropy committee for making this opportunity available to us. My family and I greatly appreciate the support.