Here's an update folks,
I had to go back to France as most you know. I could came back as a tourist and I can stay till June17th.
I finally could find a job in Chino, CA. It has yet to be approved by INS, and me to find the $5,000 for the papers.
Here is how it happened : I answered an add from climbto350.com, for skytyper pilots. They wanted to make a class of 20 people and select 5 of them. I put all my money in it, $1,500 between the plane ticket, 1 week at the hotel and the flight training (5h).
I cruised thru the training, flying formation was a no brainer, I knew all those hours of AH would be usefull for my career
Skytyping works as such :
We fly modified Cessna 150, only the body is a C150. We have modified wings, bigger prop, striped interior and a kickass 180HP engine. A true hotrod of the sky, our initial climb rate is more than 1,5000 fpm.
We take off in a 5 ship formation, nb 1/2 and 4 at the same time, followed by nb 3 and 5, 2 secs after the lead trio starts to move. By the end of the runway, we are in a nice VIC formation 30ft appart from each other.
We climb to 10,000ft or more. We move to an inline formation over the target and start skytyping. Each plane his linked to the lead plane (a cessna 175) who carries the leader and the mission commander. The MC (computer geeck), types the message on his computer and presses Enter. When he does so, all 5 planes start to puff smoke and those puffs make words like shown on the web site : Skytypers.com.
You need to maintain a perfect inline formation. Too ahead or backward; too separated or too close and you distord the letters and screew up the show. If you are too higher or lower than the lead plane, your wings will block the signal and you will not emit smoke, thus screewing up again.
When the job is done, we move back in a VIC formation and RTB. Above our base we move to an echelon formation and peel off at a 2 secs interval, perform a tight descending 360 and land stagered on the runway.
It's a ball! Kind of dangerous because we have no chute, so if we collide that's it but man, what a fun job. We are about 20 in the world to perform skytyping, it's a unique opportunity, I'm proud to be one of them. Maybe you guys from LA saw us perform already.
The beauty of it is that we may fly to Japan/Korea for the Soccer world cup for 2 months. We will fly the C150s there, 6,000 miles in formation via Canada/Alaska/Bering straight/Kurile ilands/Japan/Korea. I don't think anyone tried such a journey yet
You guys know it all now. Next step is to find a way to move from FL to California. They want $1,500 for a small moving truck and a tow for my car, it's a ripp off, I will never have such money. I will end up putting all my stuff in my car and pray for my Lincoln Town Car 1986 V8 not to blow up in the middle of the desert.
Advices, previous experience and help are welcomed. Any kind souls whilling to offer me a bed for the night along my journey will have my eternal gratitude
