….now that I’m bald and need them!
I enjoy living in new places every so often when a new opportunity takes me someplace different every few years. At the moment my hats hang in Reno, Nevada – a town right over the Sierra Nevada Mountains next to the California border and about a 4-hour drive to San Francisco. Over the years my wife and I have tackled the adventure of finding many great places to live around the country and discovering what each area has to offer.
Prior to committing to aviation full-time, I served as an airborne infantryman in the U.S. Army 82nd Airborne Division and then graduated with Honors from the Electronic Warfare school after returning from the Persian Gulf War. Afterwards, I transitioned to civilian life applying those new skills and quickly worked my way to the position of Director of Engineering or Chief Engineer for numerous television stations around the country managing teams of people, facilities as well as capital and operating budgets for over 25 years. That work helped develop my leadership, organizational and interpersonal skills which has benefited me as a pilot and now as an FAA Gold Seal Certified Flight Instructor.
After obtaining my private pilot certificate in January of 2020 flying out of Minden, Nevada, I went ‘all in’, as it were, making serious my passion for aviation and focusing on my studies. I completed the ATP Flight School program in under eight months on September 19th, 2020 where I earned my instrument and commercial ratings and then moved swiftly through their CFI academy for my ASEL CFI, CFI-I and AMEL/AMEL MEI ratings without failing a single checkride.
I’m president of my own company, V Speed Aviation LLC, which I formed in October of 2020 that enables me to provide flight training services for student pilots at local flight clubs and local owner-pilots looking for additional ratings. I regularly train pilots at Reno-Tahoe International Airport (KRNO), Carson City (KCXP), Minden-Tahoe (KMEV) and occasionally Reno-Stead (KRTS).
As an independent flight instructor partnering with a local flying club I have become fairly popular and (weather permitting) fly between 70 and 90 hours per month with my private, instrument and commercial students. In December of 2022 I earned my CFI Gold Seal and passed my ATP (ATM) written exam in January 2023. As of September, 2023 I have accrued over 2,000 hours of total flight time in 20 single-engine and twin-engine piston airplane types with over 1,500 hours of instruction given. I was also able to find time to earn a single-engine seaplane rating at my nearby Lake Tahoe.
Fly safe and I’ll see you in the sky!
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Aviation Posts are on my company website.
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