Episode 30: Hunter Dunlop - Gets His Commercial License

07/20/21 • 42 min

Hunter Dunlap-Getting Commercial during Covid

This guest has been on the show before during the 2018 Oshkosh Air show, were recorded under the wing. The reason Hunter has returned to the show is that he has reached a major aviation milestone and earned his Commercial pilots license. As a non-career aviator, Hunter explains his passion and reason for pursuing an advanced aviation license that is not required for a private aviator. He discusses how speaking with friends and fellow pilots helped him come to his conclusion for investing in a pilot's license.

He started his journey by getting a Gliem ground school program and studied at home, and just after he successfully completed his written exam, the country shut-down for the Pandemic is 2020. He discusses his VFR Day ad Night Cross Country going through the NYC VFR Corridor and what it was like to land in White Plains, NY. He also talks about needing to reschedule his check ride due to springtime weather in Maryland.

Hunter also discussed what happened the day of his check-ride, to include the oral and practical portions of the test in a Technology Advanced Aircraft (TAA)

Looking back on his commercial experience, he appreciates all the new skills he’d learned and how far it has bought him, since first starting to fly in 2010.

Hunter Dunlap-Getting Commercial during Covid

Hunter also discussed what happened the day of his check-ride, to include the oral and practical portions of the test in a Technology Advanced Aircraft (TAA)

Looking back on his commercial experience, he appreciates all the new skills he’d learned and how far it has bought him, since first starting to fly in 2010.

Previous Episode

Episode 29: James Onieal - Owner of Raven Career Development & Pilot for Navaid Certification

In this episode, our guest is James Onieal who has a wide variety of pilot experience from flight instructing at Embry Riddle, flying turbo-props at Colgan Air, Embraers 170s at Republic as well as being the youngest pilot hired and subsequently furloughed from Netjets. He currently does navaid verification flight checks as well as an entrepreneur, as the founder of Raven Career Development (www.ravencareers.com).

James got his start in aviation during his time in high school when he started taking private pilot training in Central New Jersey. From there he attended Embry Riddle Aeronautical University and ultimately became an instructor there. That’s when he had his first airline interview experience and learned that you need some additional skills, to just being yourself, to be successful.

Because of James’ experiences in the part 121 and 91 worlds and the ever changing landscape of hiring within the aviation industry, James started his career development company to help assist other pilot navigating the pitfalls, as well as, educate pilots on how to be focused but adaptable in their approach to their aviation careers.

James also shares some of his advice for pilots who are looking to start their aviation career and provides some great resources for aviators of all ages to check out, such as:

ravencareers.com : Resources Tab that includes Master Classes (free), Weekly updates on hiring trends and other news within the industry that comes out every Tuesday (https://ravencareers.com/industry-news), and the Raven Careers Podcast 215 (https://ravencareers.com/podcasts-webinars/)
Contact James directly at: [email protected]
ProPilotWorld (https://www.propilotworld.com) Pilot networking and knowledge resource

Next Episode

Episode 31: Mike Geyer - From Flight Instructor & C5 Load Master to Regional Airline Captain

Mike Geyer

First was introduced to flying by his father, while he was stationed in Japan for the Navy. His father gave Mike his first discovery flight as a present for his 11th birthday and this was the ‘fish-hook’ moment for him for wanted to become an aviator. After high school he decided to attend an aviation university in Louisiana but after two years, he was notified that program was going to close down to ‘reorganize’ and he was given a decision to change his major and wait for the program to come back or leave the school.

He decided to leave that school and enrolled in a rapid certificate program, where you can get all of your ratings in 10 months. Once he achieved all of his ratings, he was still below 250 flight hours, which was the minimum time required by the regional airlines were looking for. Right as he approached that number is when the Colgan Crash happened in 2008 and Mike found himself need more time as the minimum flight hour requirement kept increasing. He did a multitude of flight instruction jobs from teaching Private Pilot skills to new Marine Corps pilots to moving to California and instructing international students. Mike then pursued his dream of joining the military and became an Air Force Load-Master on a C-5 Galaxy cargo plane. He is now a captain at a regional airline