CJP Bob Hoover Presidential Scholars
Brandon Baber
Hello CJP!
I hope everyone has been doing well. My last few months have been a lot of fun mixed in with a ton of work.
I recently reached the cross-country portion of my training. For my first flight, we flew south to Melbourne. It was very exciting flying down the coast and getting to see Cape Canaveral for the first time. This week, I go up for my first solo cross-country flight! Once again, another first flight experience that I know I’ll remember forever.
Academically, I’m doing well. I am learning a variety of different things in classes and studying hard to achieve my goal of a 4.0 after two semesters at Riddle.
In my spare time, I’ve made it to the beach a couple times. In March, I drove down to West Palm Beach and watched a Houston Astros spring training game. I also watched my first Daytona Tortugas minor league baseball game a few weeks ago. And I had a great visit with my family when they visited over Spring Break.
But by far, the best time I’ve had the past few months was the trip with CJP to Bentonville, Arkansas! What an amazing trip to get to experience. Between the city of Bentonville, the air show, seeing the Game Bird in action, the guest speakers and the Crystal Bridges Museum, I’m not sure which was my favorite part. I have to say thank you to every CJP member I spoke with for the knowledge, advice and encouragement I received. Thank you for allowing me to attend and I look forward to the next event where I see you all again.
Dillon Smith
Dear CJP family,
It has been a little over two months since my last update and a lot has happened in that short span of time. In the last two months, I have visited Mexico, Palm Springs, Phoenix and participated in two Music Club concerts. Now school is almost over and I will soon be heading off to Alaska for my internship. It truly has been an amazing semester and in some ways, it is hard to see it end. But I am excited for new adventures just around the corner.
Over Spring Break, I was fortunate enough to have the opportunity to return to San Luis, Mexico and work as a missionary for three days. I had an incredible time helping the people of San Luis. The trip was with the club I am a member of on campus called Chi Alpha and this mission trip is one of the many adventures we go on throughout the year. Going to Mexico is as much about helping the people of San Luis as it is about helping myself. It rejuvenates my perspective and reminds me of the importance of joyful giving.
Aside from Mexico, I have been pursuing my other passion, flying airplanes. Right now, I am about half way through my commercial single-engine rating. It has been a struggle recently because my instructor is a coach of the Embry-Riddle Flight Team and has been busy with competitions. Getting a new instructor scheduled has been a slow process.
But a highlight in my training recently was my cross-country flight to Palm Springs, California in late March. It was the longest time I have flown an airplane – five hours. It was a really great experience because I have never flown to California before. It is such a rewarding experience when you hit all your waypoints on time and navigate to an airport you have never visited. I am hoping to go on a solo cross-country to Carlsbad California before I depart for Alaska for the summer.
As I have mentioned previously, I have been given the opportunity to work operations at K2 Aviation in Talkeetna Alaska as an intern. Talkeetna is a small tourist town about two hours north of Anchorage at the edge of the Denali National Forest and Mt. McKinley. K2 Aviation is a tourism company with a small fleet of single engine piston aircraft. In this position, I will be working directly with customers at the front desk, scheduling tours, tracking aircraft, fueling aircraft and driving the resort pickup shuttle. There will also be plenty of opportunities for me to go up in the airplanes.
I also finished up my semester in music club strong with two concerts, one for the wind ensemble and one for the jazz band. I play trombone in both groups and I am the leader of the jazz band. Both concerts were a huge success with record attendance!
That is the end of my Junior year in a nutshell. It has been a whirlwind of excitement and opportunity the entire way through. And in a few months, I will have stories from my Alaska adventures. Once again, thank you so much for support and vested interest in not just my aviation career, but me as an individual. This organization as had and continues to have an immeasurable positive impact on my life. Until next time.
Andrius Logvinenka
Hello everyone! I am very excited to write to you again. Since the last newsletter, time has flown by. I have been very busy with school and flying. I have enjoyed every bit of it and I have learned so much in the process.
Since my last update, I have now progressed into Stage 2 of my instrument course. I had a slight hiccup during my Stage 1 check where I did a hold in the wrong direction, but I have since fixed my mistake and passed. My instructor has been moving me through the course very fast, which I enjoy overall. It does come with it challenges because I have to learn everything quickly and still keep myself within standards. So far, I have completed partial panel and non-precision approaches.
Partial-panel flying in the simulator has proven to be a challenge for me because you do not get the feel of the aircraft and rely only on the instruments. I think the non-precision approaches have been the most exciting part of the course because I am finally putting everything together that I have learned during my instrument training. I am now starting precision approaches, and I will soon be on cross country’s! My goal is to finish the instrument course by July, so I can move on to Commercial Single Engine Land.
Academically, I am doing very well. As I write this, I am going into finals week. It has shown to be quite stressful with four major projects and three finals tests. Time management is crucial during this time in the semester, but feel I am managing well.
Over the summer, I plan to stay in Prescott to complete more flight training, and possibly a summer class as well. I am also planning to rent an aircraft over the summer for the first time and explore more of Southwest United States. My friends and I are planning to visit several state parks. The weather is starting to warm up here in Arizona, and I am very excited for the summer months to come!
Once again thank you for taking an interest in my personal life, and taking a part of your day to read this. I constantly think about how blessed I am to be a part of this wonderful organization, and I look for more interactions with all of you in the future.
Mariano Quintero
Quite a lot has happened since my last update earlier this year. I am proud to have met my goal of completing my Instrument Rating prior to spring break! And I am currently making great progress through the Commercial course.
During the break, I actually had the opportunity to visit the Delta Operations Headquarters in Atlanta for an in-depth tour of the daily operations, company culture and opportunities within the major airline. Getting a chance to fly the Boeing 747 simulator was the icing on the cake. It was truly phenomenal to experience the end of an era as Delta just recently retired their last 747. I also took a trip to Orlando to see United’s maintenance facility for the 737. I was able to see an aircraft completely pulled apart for a thorough inspection. These visits really put into perspective just how many tasks and people are involved in making just one airplane fly!
Most recently however, I was delighted to have met many of you at the CJP regional event in Bentonville. Flying to Arkansas in Mr. Forrest’s CJ3+ and attending the private viewing and dinner at Crystal Bridges are memories I am sure to cherish forever. The event was a great way for me to witness firsthand how passionate and effective the CJP Organization and its members are toward aviation and aircraft ownership. I look forward to connecting with many of you again at the annual convention in October.
As this semester wraps up, I am excited to stay busy over the summer and continue flying (alongside working at the Flight Simulation Center). I also hope to make time for an air show or fly-in. This year’s Sun n’ Fun was the first time I had ever seen a live airshow. Connecting with fellow pilots who attended from all across the world was a welcoming experience that I definitely wish to do again!