Aces High Bulletin Board
General Forums => The O' Club => Topic started by: Golfer on January 30, 2004, 02:24:43 PM
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Well after 3 years I've given up my position at the flight school as a run of the mill Line Service 'guy'. My position at the insurance company is going to be resigned as well soon. I am packing my bags, heading to ATP to finish up my ratings (need to tack on commercial and instructor ratings to my certificates) and after that...will be starting out life. I don't have any obligations to keep me tied down here in Columbus, OH. I want to go somewhere warm. Somewhere where you can fly and golf year round. Right now I'm thinking about Arizona and Florida. Now, Florida has its ups and downs and so does Arizona. I was hoping to get opinions on folks who currently live, have lived in or have turned away living arrangements in these states and why they like it, why they didnt like it or why they didnt want to live there. Being only 20 I've got a lot of life left and I've lived in the same town, done the same things and not enough has changed in the last 15 years to keep me interested.
So...where would a young flight instructor with 300 hours move to is the question I pose to the masses. Now I will not be moving soley based on info gathered from the Aces High Forum, but it will be helpful for me to start my search for cities and locations in these states. Thanks so much...
George
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I'd say Arizona if not just for the flying weather, not to mention some of the best golf courses around.
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Ft. Lauderdale has good strip clubs, I hear. The last time I was there I was in college and couldn't afford to get in, so I just hung outside and watched the drunk college girls put on a show for free.
The Daytona airport is close to the beach and right next to the race track.
Tampa/St.Pete/Clearwater have airports almost sitting right on top of each other.
Avon Park/Sebring area is chock-a-block with golf courses and the airport is part of the race track complex.
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Florida is way too hot and humid for me.
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I've lived down here in Miami for close to 21 years, but all I've got to say is that its becoming a bit over crowded down here... If you want to come to florida I'd suggest either the west cost... Naples, on up to tampa and a bit beyond.... or the east cost from West Palm Beach to maybe Daytona.... I'll tell you what I'm in real estate now, and if you find yourself a nice property in Naples you'll be good to sell her within 8 years for almost twice what you paid....
Map of Florida (http://travel.yahoo.com/p-travelguide-577612-map_of_florida-i)
good luck bud...
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arizona is nice because it is warm year round and great flying weather. PLUS if you ever wanted to go see snow just drive north to flagstaff once a year in the winter. Not bad sking up there
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If you can pick anywhere..
1. Central Coast of CA. - Beautiful weather and still semi-uncrowded
2. New Mexico
3. Arizona
4. Northwest
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SE Pennsylvania. Lots of rich yuppies just coming into retirement looking to take up an expensive hobby.
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Las Vegas
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Okay Pennsylvania is out of the question...im sitting in Ohio today and there is this thing outside called Winter and don't like it anymore. -5ºF tonight ambient temperature.
I don't care about strip clubs. I've been to two in my life and don't much care for the idea of paying someone to twirl around a pole on a stage...clothed or not.
I'm looking for information on Arizona and Florida. Where folks live and why they like it and what they'd do differently if they had the chance. I'm honestly leaning toward AZ because of the year round good weather and the deman for flying and good golf to be had. I've liked the idea of living in a western desert environment and having an adobe type house of some kind. I can't afford that, but thats a dream.
Phoenix, Scottsdale and Prescott are cities I'd be interested in. Florida isn't out of the question but I havent had a great experience there as a visitor though it hasn't been entirely bad. No Thunderstorms in Arizona every afternoon.
Thanks BlckMgk that is great info. I'm going to be contacting some folks I know throughout Florida and asking questions, this is just an information gathering tool. I don't know anyone in Arizona really, and was hoping for a little help from the folks out there with the road runners.
Golfer
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If you're gonna do it, do it right! Move to Hawaii!
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Phoenix, Scottsdale, Mesa, Tempe, Chandler, Paradise Valley and a few more are all suburbs, in the valley ( Phoenix)
Prescott, Flaggstaff, Payson etc.. are in the pines a little north and you will have snow and weather there.
IMHO, you almost cant go wrong if you move to Az.
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Does it "have" to be the US? Alot of newly qualified pilots get hooked up with small airlines in the Carribean to get hours in and have fun while doing it.
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Well, no Curval it doesn't. But there is another weather phenomenon you have down there...
How'd your bouts with the hurricanes go this season?
They'll ruin your week...:(
But, I will hear what you have to say about the islands :) SELL ME ON IT!! pleeeeease! :)
my email (nemypoo@aol.com)
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hehe...I actually don't live in the Carribean (check a map), but I travel there alot.
I'm trying to remember the name of the airline that I fly there alot...it will come to me, my brain isn't functioning well these days due to a new baby in the house.
I'll e-mail you, and I'll get our managing director to ask around about possible openings down there...he knows everyone in the Turks and Caicos Islands (which is where we have an office). Cayman is another possibilty.
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Texas the economy is almost always good.
weather not too bad gets real hot in the summer.
Humidity is an issue though.
And most of the inbreeds have died off :(
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Alaska!:D
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If you're a young guy, why limit yourself to one place to settle down. Try the locations that look good to you. Give em 6 months to a year each. By the time you're 25 you will have picked the place that's right for you. Also, start watching reruns of the MAN Show, and don't be so dull, or you will find yourself flying to some airport with an awlful restaurant for breakfast...and liking it. :p
Where ever you go, there you are,
Thorns
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If I ever decided to live anyplace other than Florida it would be Arizona. My uncle has a vacation home in Sedona...kinda artsy place but it was great.
If you want to make a living as a CFI, I would steer clear of Daytona. With Embry-Riddle located in Daytona, there is a glut of CFIs. If you are looking to finish up your ratings though, you might apply to get into Embry-Riddle.
If you need work, then the places to look are Tampa metro, Orlando and Jacksonville. If you are not bi-lingual in Spanish, finding a job in Miami can be tough...in fact living in Miami without rudimentry understanding of Spanish can be tough (and you better like Latin music, cuz that is about all there is on the radio).
If you need a part-time job in the insurance industry, then look at Jacksonville and Tampa. Moreso Jax, as there are 5 major insurance company operations centers here (Prudential, Aetna, Blue Cross are the biggest). Also, there are several huge financial ops centers in Jax...Washington Mutual, Wachovia, CitiBank, Bank of America, Bombardier Capital to name a few.
If you are looking to get the CFI rating cheap, then Jax might also have a program through the local junior college (FCCJ (http://www.fccj.org/prospective/programs/aviation/index.html)).
OH! One great benefit of Florida is NO STATE INCOME TAX, nor is there a tangible property tax! There is only a sales tax and local real property tax here.
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Arizona.
:)
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ERU has Prescott pretty much sewn up.
In the Phoenix area you'd have the blessing of many airports to fly out of, hardly any days of the year where you can't fly, and the curse of some of the biggest schools in the country to compete against.
The two busiest GA airports in the area are Deer Valley (DVT) and Scottsdale (SDL). DVT has WestWind (http://www.iflywestwind.com) and PanAm (http://www.panamacademy.com/) sitting across the driveway from each other.
WW only hires flight instructors that came through the right seat program or are able to do CFI initials. PanAm promises to hire people that come through their program, but some times takes their sweet time to do it once the student is finished.
SDL has several smaller flight schools, one of which stays under almost constant investigation due to their accident rates. Their biggest number operations comes from bizjets, and they show preference. If you're sitting on the ramp in a single piston with a biz waiting to take off, you will defintely be second in line.
Williams Gateway (IWA) out in the east valley has ATP (http://www.allatps.com/), and the ASU west school. They also have Fighter Combat (http://www.fightercombat.com/), but unless you're an ex military instructor, you go there as a customer. Darn worth it though for the emergency training.
There's probably a dozen other class delta airports in the valley with mom and pop FBOs you could check into.
If you're just looking to build time, you can go a bit to the south to places like Eloy and fly sky divers. If you have money to burn, you can join a "pay to fly" type program from one of the cargo carriers where you buy your right seat time at a pretty cheap rate from them, then usually go to work left seat once you have the part 135 requirements.
Weather wise it's pretty nice here. Summers hit 120s at times, which really sucks in the cockpit with the greenhouse effect. Solution, do ground when it's that hot. Temps can vary by as much as 40-50 degrees between day time and night time.
I grew up in Tx, and lived in Ca for a while before moving here. So far out of the three I'd come closest to settling here.