ROADTRIP/JOBHUNT FLORIDA
Written: 10 APRIL 2004

A little update from the road. We've been on the road for about a week now, and we have gotten a job offer from a school in Naples. We're now staying at a hotel right by the airport while we're looking for an apartment.

Sunday 04.04.04:
This became the day when we left Conway and South Carolina hunting for job and fortune in the USA. At 11:04 we rolled out of the parkinglot in direction Florida. First stop was Savannah, Georgia, where we had planned to eat lunch. Instead we stopped by the Gulfstream factory hoping to get a little tour, but that didn't happen, so we drove into the city center and had a look around. A very nice city which at the moment is in full bloom. From here we went to Jacksonville, Florida, which was the first stop on the list of flight schools. After driving around the city in the sunset and finally found where the airport was located, we checked into Masters Inn right outside the city. This was after about 10 hours on the road. The room was fairly big with two huge queen beds, and it only cost us $ 50. We had a late dinner at Applebies. A bit paranoid, we were afraid the car would get stolen with all our stuff in it, so we figured out that disconnecting the fuel injection was a good idea along with covering up all our stuff with a huge blanket.
Effective driving: 9:15 hrs

Monday 05.04.04:
The first day of our jobhunt. We started early in Jacksonville where we visited three schools, North Florida Flight Center, Sterling Flight Training and ATP. The reception was better than we had expected. They helped us out with some helpful hints and tips and told us to call back in a couple of days. After eating breakfast we drove down to St. Augustine and visited Florida Aviation Career Training which is owned by a Norwegian. Unfortunately they had all the instructors they needed at the moment, so we continued our trip down to Ormond Beach (Sunrise Aviation and Ormond Beach Aviation). Nobody wanted us there, but that was ok, because really didn't want to work there anyways. Between our visits we changed clothes in the car. Probably looks really smart standing outside the car trying to get the tie right by using the carwindow as a mirror. Just south of Ormond Beach is Daytona Beach. There's a big airport here with alot of schools. We dropped off our resumee to three of them ( Phoenix East, CDA and Embry Riddle). Phoenix East was the most promising so far, which said that they could probably use us and would give us an answer in a couple of days over e-mail. It was getting close to the end of the workday, so we decided to drive down to Fort Pierce to spend the night there and work our way up towards Daytona Beach and Orlando tomorrow. On our way down we stopped by Cape Canaveral (Kennedy Space Center) and had a little look around there. After eating dinner at McDonalds and driving around for an hour trying to find a place to stay, we ended up in Days Inn where we got two big beds and an incredibly good shower, all for $ 50.
Effective driving: 7:30 hrs

Tueday 06.04.04
We started in Fort Pierce around 10am. We had two schools on the list, but couldn't find any of them. We did however find Pan Am Academy which we originally believed was to aim a bit high. Just for the fun of it we stopped by, and was suprised to hear that they actually wanted us, but couldn't use us because of our visas. We continued our drive north to Vero Beach where we stopped by Paris Air and Flight Safety. None of them needed instructors, so we continued to Melbourne and dropped off our resumee at F.I.T. Aviation. They said that they might need some instructors and asked us to call back in a couple of days. Last stop on the East Coast was New Smyrna Beach where we stopped by Epic Avitaion. They also asked us to call back in a couple of days. We changed our course and headed inland to Deland and talked to Regional Airline Academy. Again the wanted us to call back. Last stop of the day was Sanford just north of Orlando. After stopping by Avion Aviation where we got what I interpret as a negative answer, we met Rune who I know from Gardermoen. He is currently attending a JAA course at Delta Connection Academy. We stayed the night at his place instead of checking in to a hotel.
Effective driving: 6:00 hrs

Wednesday 07.04.04
We were on the road about 9:30 and headed towards Kissimee south of Orlando. We stopped by Orlando Flight Training were there's a lot of NAIA students working. After a conversation with the boss he told us that they were not going to hire any instructors for the next 4 weeks, but if we were willing to sit on the ground for a month, we were welcome to do the interview as soon a possible. After visiting Sunstate Aviation on the other side of the airport (they would give us feedback by mail) we continued west to Tampa where we decided to check into a hotel and start calling back some of the schools we had visited. Unforunately we got stuck right in the middle of the afternoon rush through Tampa, so we never made it to the hotel in time. We decided to just relax and call the schools in the morning instead. We checked into Sleep Inn in Clearwater, right next to St Petersburg Intl. Airport. Lovely to relax in the hottub watching the jets pass right overhead.
Effective driving: 5:15 hrs

Thursday 08.04.04
We started the day by calling around to the different schools we've visited earlier this week. It was pretty impossible to get a hold of anyone, so we weren't really any wiser when we rolled out on the road again. First we stopped by St Petersburg/Clearwater Intl. which was right next to the hotel. We stopped by two schools, first Clearwater Aviation and then National Aviation Flight School. The first school possibly needed instructors and would get back to us on mail, while the other school didn't need anyone. We drove on to another airport in the vicinity, but turned around when we saw the school. We continued south and tried to find the third airport in the city, but we gave up after getting lost in some residential neighborhood. Next stop was Sarasota where we stopped by Jones Aviation. We were asked to call back later. The last airport on our list today was Venice. We first got a no from Blue Sky Aviation and turned around on the parkinglot when we saw the other school, Florida Flight Training Center. We originally thought that the boss there was Norwegian, but it turned out that he was Dutch and they didn't really have alot of planes. We drove south to Fort Myers were we found a hotel with internet connection, Wellesley Inn, which was right by the airport. Good standards for $ 60 a night. The evening we spent on the internet and a little trip around the city. After an hour of driving, we found a small city center. The cities over here is basically only roads with fast food restaurants along them.
Effective driving: 7:00 hrs

Friday 09.04.04
We started early this morning as well, calling around to the different schools we'd been to, but like yesterday it was hard to come in contact with the ones responsible. Our hunt started after the intercontinental breakfast consumed by the pool. We stopped by two schools in Fort Myers, first SafeFlight International where they were looking for instructors. They took our resumee and asked us to call back monday when the chief flight instructor was back at work. At school number two, Beaver Aviation, we talked to a chief flight instructor who obviously seemed depressed about the market. He said he didn't have enough work for the instructors he already had and suggested that we drive down to Naples. The trip continued to the last stop on the list, Naples. Naples Air Center is a school which has hired NAIA graduated in the past and has got some working for them at the moment. They had just hired a couple of new instructors, so we didn't really expect to find anything available here, but we were called back to an interview Saturday. The school got us a cheap hotelroom at Wellesley Inn just minutes from the airport. Later in the evening we went downtown to have dinner. Definitely the nicest place we've been to so far in Florida. A whole lot of rich people here, so the prices are based on that.
Effective driving: 3:00 hrs

Saturday 10.04.04
We showed up for the interview at 1000 as scheduled. After a couple of question sheets to test our knowledge we had a little conversation with the Chief Flight Instructor, Jatin. He gave us the job on the condition that we could not expect to fly full time the first month. The other schools we've visited have been slow with feedback and we have come to a point where we're tired of driving around and want to settle down. The school here seems like a good school, and it looks like we will have plenty of time to get our hours built. The salary here is somewhat better then other schools, but on the other hand it's pretty expensive to live here. We tried to find an apartment, but as it is Easter here now it was pretty hard to get a hold of anyone. At the moment we're staying at Wellesly Inn right next to the airport, paying $ 35 a night.

That concludes our roadtrip/jobhunt:
- 2400 kilometers
- Engine running for 38 hours
- Refueled 4 times (= about 320 liters/80 gallons of gas)
- Visited 26 flight schools
- 6 nights on hotels (and there will be more before we find a place to stay)