Dear Rod:
I’m in high school and trying to find a way to help earn money for flight training. I recall that you wrote about this in one of your previous columns. Could you remind me how someone in my position can make some money to fly? — Thank you, Jason
Greetings Jason:
OK, here are a few ideas that you might find useful.
An easy and quick way to make some money is to purchase smoke alarms and batteries in bulk, then sell them door to door. If each unit and its battery cost $7, you can mark this up 100 percent, which includes installation. It wouldn’t be unusual for someone to ask you to install five or even 10 of these units in their home, and it wouldn’t take more than 30 minutes to do this. Then you can service the batteries on these units every six months for a reasonable fee. What a deal. I know of one young man who made several hundred dollars the first weekend he did this, and he didn’t even have to leave his neighborhood.
But wait, there’s more. A few pilots on my Facebook site had their own recommendations:
Cathy Mighell suggested that you make inexpensive chocks from 4-by-4s, dip them in paint, and stencil individual aircraft numbers on them. These cost pennies to make and a set could sell for $20.
Tim Busch had a number of great ideas. He reminds us that many kids have learned a variety of things they can be paid to teach: school tutoring, music, martial arts, et cetera. Tim suggested that you can also collect old computers for free, upgrade them, then sell them for a nice profit. Additional ideas from Tim include buying and rebuilding garage-sale bikes for a reasonable profit or signing up as a credit card agent. This allows you to make a small cut on each transaction (many nickels and pennies can make a small fortune).
Mitch Cohen offered the idea of painting house addresses on sidewalks for a small fee. Stencils and spray paint are a cheap investment for the money made and the time invested. Mitch suggests that this would be an easy sell, since it enhances the homeowners’ safety by helping the police or fire department find them in an emergency.
If you’d really like to tap into the collective mind on these issues, then join Facebook or MySpace and ask your friends for more suggestions. You’ll be amazed at how many creative ideas people will offer.
Dear Rod:
I’m having a difficult time identifying landmarks shown on sectional charts from the air. A yellow town or city doesn’t look anything like what I see from the cockpit. How can I get better and improve on this skill? — Thanks, Francis
Greetings Francis:
Learning how to correlate sectional chart symbols with landmarks is indeed a perceptual skill and it’s one that takes practice to develop. If you had your own satellite with an onboard camera, you could compare ground shots with sectional chart symbols. Since I suspect you don’t even own a rocket, you might want to borrow someone else’s aerial pictures. That’s why I want you to type “Google Earth” into the Google search engine, download Google Earth, and let the fun begin.
By selecting a height similar to the scale of your sectional chart, you can compare landmarks with the symbols shown on your sectional chart. It won’t take long before you’re able to easily identify these landmarks from the air. Using Google Earth, you can even create an aerial tour from one airport to the next and study the landmarks for your upcoming cross-country flight. You’ll become a pilotage master in no time. Just make sure you select Earth for your viewing, and not Mars or the moon, otherwise you won’t find many airports (if you do find one on Mars, let me know immediately).
Dear Rod:
I’m looking for a good book on understanding airplane engines. I don’t see many choices available. Might you be able to offer a recommendation on a good one? — Thanks, Rob
Greetings Rob:
The very best book on airplane engines that I’ve ever read is the Aircraft Engine Operating Guide by Kas Thomas, a former editor of Light Plane Maintenance. Do a Google search for this and you’ll find many available for sale. It’s an excellent book. Of course, there may be other similarly excellent books on the same topic, but I am not familiar with them.
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