Five Questions: Aleks Udris

The name combines bold, as in the graphics font, and method, which is a term used by software developers. It brought their two worlds together. Udris developed pilot training software for the MQ-1 Reaper and MQ-9 Predator drones. Next up is a complete instrument rating training course to be followed by a private pilot course. Udris’s spare time is spent instructing in Cirrus aircraft for Independence Aviation, a Cirrus training company at Denver’s Centennial Airport.

How did you get started? I soloed and got my private pilot certificate with the Civil Air Patrol at Denver, Colorado, in 1996. I’ve been teaching since high school. I was a ground instructor my freshman year in college. I was building horizontal situation indicators out of cardboard because they didn’t have computers for that yet.

What is your biggest challenge? I think the biggest challenge is taking something I’ve done for a couple thousand hours and just do naturally, and try to figure out how to explain that to someone who has never been there and doesn’t have the experience, in a way that they can just sit down and understand it. That’s what I spend all day doing.

What advice do you have for students? Fly often and don’t stop. Everybody hits a learning plateau and it’s the most frustrating part of training. What you don’t realize is that everybody including your instructor has been there. Their landings have been just as bad. You just have to fly through it.

What’s your favorite airplane? My favorite airplane to teach in is the Piper Warrior. My favorite airplane to fly is the Cirrus SR22 Turbo. That’s the one I fly all the time. I love it.

What’s something not a lot of people know about you? In college I wanted to be a test pilot. I didn’t have the eyesight for the military, so I wanted to be a civilian test pilot for a manufacturer testing new aircraft. What I do now I wouldn’t trade for anything in the world.