Though FAA certification is still pending, the P-Mentor has made it into flight training fleets across Europe, with plans to follow in the U.S. soon. FLYING editor-in-chief Julie Boatman visits the OEM and flies the P-Mentor over the Italian countryside north of Naples (Napoli) in this pilot report.

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The flight, made on April 8, spanned a distance of more than 2,000 feet at 12 miles per hour, making it the longest and fastest extraplanetary flight to date. Video of the flight was captured using Ingenuity’s on-board navigation camera, which shows the helicopter’s shadow traveling across the Martian sand dunes.

“For our record-breaking flight, Ingenuity’s downward-looking navigation camera provided us with a breathtaking sense of what it would feel like gliding 33 feet above the surface of Mars at 12 miles per hour,” said Ingenuity Team Lead Teddy Tzanetos in a statement.

Ingenuity broke its first record by completing the first powered flight on another planet. The rotorcraft was sent to Mars aboard the Perseverance rover in February 2021.

The autonomous flight reached an altitude of 33 feet and accelerated to maximum speed within three seconds. The helicopter’s shadow can be seen casted over rocks and sand throughout the black-and-white video.

Each flight is preplanned by “pilots” at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), where the commands are then sent to the Perseverance rover, which then relays the inputs to the helicopter. Ingenuity’s on-board sensors allow it to react to Martian terrain in real-time, as to avoid unplanned collisions with potential obstacles.

Following a loss in communication with mission controllers, the rotorcraft entered a low-power state, where it began recharging its six lithium-ion batteries via a solar array. Now fully charged, Ingenuity is preparing for its 29th flight across Mars.

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Come along as FLYING staff writer and technical editor Meg Godlewski takes one heck of a ride in Doc.

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With an invitation to join master ferry pilot Margrit Waltz as she helped to deliver a brand new TBM 940 from the Daher factory in Tarbes, France, to a dealer in Connecticut, we had our mission.

Fly along with us on the five legs of the journey as we highlight some of the decision making Waltz goes through, along with the specific performance criteria that allow her to make the mission a success.

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FLYING contributor Sam Weigel has been an avid fan of the Reno Air Races for a long time—and he takes us behind the scenes from the 2021 races into the cockpit of Sport Class pilot Joe Coraggio and gives us a view from the grandstands of all of the Unlimited, Jet, T-6, F-1, Biplane, and STOL Drag action.

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Kris Dahlke, a former U.S. Air Force F-16 avionics technician, was 34 when he started flying the line at PSA this past November, a professional move he began working on just two years before at ATP Flight School’s St. Petersburg-Clearwater International Airport (PIE) location, just west of Tampa. But Dahlke’s aviation career actually began many years before when he was a kid, the “military brat” of another U.S. Air Force maintenance technician. “I was always interested in going to the airport when my dad was deployed.” But a career as a professional pilot—that just didn’t come together right away for this Tampa, Florida, native.

“I left the Air Force in 2009 and started doing some contract avionics work for the Department of Defense. Then, in 2015, I got married, and my wife, Shaye, and I had our first baby. I also earned my Airframe & Powerplant certificate.” He started working on Airbus and Boeing airliners at Cleveland Hopkins Airport, never realizing that getting up close and personal with an Airbus was really fueling his desire to fly those same airplanes.

He knew something was beginning to change, though, when in 2016, he began researching flight-training options, just in case he ever decided to take the plunge and learn to fly. Spurring him on were a number of talks he had with a neighbor of his parents in Florida, who’d been flying for American Airlines the past 20 years. “I leaned on him as a mentor, asking if this all sounded good and whether I should begin flight training because I really didn’t know that much about the industry.” That neighbor told Dahlke it was a great time to start flying. And that’s when it hit him. “I enjoyed the mechanical part of aviation, but [realized] I always wanted to fly. My A&P was gratifying to earn, but I wanted to fly, not just turn wrenches.”

By January 2, 2017, Dahlke, his wife and son had moved to the Tampa area so he could begin flight training at ATP Flight School in St. Petersburg, where he also had the advantage of his family nearby for extra support. “I liked the pace of training at ATP as well as their relationships with the regional airlines.” By December 20, 2017, Dahlke, a guy who never backed away from hard work, had earned his final CFI rating. Exactly one year to the day from when he’d started training, January 2, 2018, he began working as a CFI at that same St. Petersburg ATP Flight School location. With just over 1,000 hours in his logbook another year later, Kris Dahlke interviewed with Dayton, Ohio-based PSA. “I had an hour long interview with PSA at the American Airlines training center in Charlotte, and they made me an offer on the spot and even picked a class starting date.” That offer assumed he would continue teaching to earn the remainder of the needed flight time, of course.

Dahlke made the entire interview process sound pretty matter-of-fact, but his past work experience gave him a few ideas on how he wanted to prepare for the all-important interview long before he arrived in Charlotte. “My strategy was to interview with other companies. I wanted to see what they were looking for, so those interviews served as some of my job research.”

Back at ATP, Dahlke shared his multiple-airline-interview idea with other instructors. “Most of them thought it was a pretty good idea.” Each airline offered to follow up after the interview, which they did. In each case, he gathered up the airline information packets post interview and took them home to share with Shaye. “While ultimately it was my decision, she had a big part in the process of comparing and contrasting the differences in benefits and pay.” With a young son at home, Dahlke said his wife has been a tremendous help to him and his career. “Shaye’s a very strong, independent woman. She’s been great at taking care of all the details at home that needed taking care of so I could feel comfortable being away, which I know is hard.”

Just as he was wrapping up the interview process, Dahlke said PSA made the final decision to choose that American Airlines wholly owned airline easy when it raised the FO pay, which is now up to $72,000 for the first year. Also important was the guaranteed flow-through to American down the road. His last day at ATP Flight School in Florida was July 26, 2019, when Dahlke had about 1,490 hours in his logbook. Coupled with simulator time at PSA, he reached the 1,500-hour mark just when he needed it. He began flying the line with PSA on October 28, 2019, and now commutes from Tampa to his base at Washington’s Reagan National Airport.

Thinking about his career to date, Dahlke says: “It was worth all the work, the extra jobs, moving from Cleveland, all the financial sacrifices. I know everyone’s plan for school is a little different, but I wouldn’t have done this any other way. ATP Flight School was well-structured, operates great equipment, and was fast-paced, which worked for an older guy like me. I went from no time in 2017 to professionally flying a regional jet in 2019.”

While he’d only been flying the line a short while when we spoke in November, Dahlke mentioned how excited some of the PSA captains he’d flown with were when they learned he was an A&P mechanic. “They always seem to have plenty of questions that I seem to be able to answer.”

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Dalton Caldwell, a native of Brownsboro, Texas, was not one of those kids who lived and breathed airplanes from the time he was born; it took a couple of years for that passion to take hold. When his mom first introduced him to his soon-to-be stepfather, she mentioned he was a pilot, a Boeing 747 captain for Atlas Air no less. Caldwell remembers not thinking much about the job then, but he was only 13 at the time.

Things began to gel for Caldwell after his new blended family moved to a small flying community near Athens, Texas, that came with a private 2,500-foot strip, where his stepdad happened to keep a Cessna 310 and Piper Aztec. “He took me for a ride in the Aztec, and we flew over my high school. I was hooked. That’s when I decided to be an airline pilot.” Caldwell’s life around airplanes became a blur from then on.

“I started my private certificate halfway through senior year and soloed in April 2016. I got my private on August 19, 2016, just after I graduated. I didn’t have much time to celebrate, though.” With a burning desire to fly, on the advice of his stepfather, Caldwell enrolled at ATP Flight School in Austin, Texas, at Georgetown Municipal Airport and began training there three days after his high-school graduation. To say he dived into his training at ATP would be an understatement. Caldwell took no vacation days during his training and earned his certified flight instructor certificate on March 20, 2017, with about 250 hours in his logbook. “I didn’t see my friends much because I really wanted to finish training and start teaching so I could build hours.” Caldwell began teaching at the Georgetown ATP location in April 2017. “The first year of instructing, I kind of went with the flow, since I was only 19. In September 2018, I became an Envoy Cadet through ATP Flight School because people had nothing but good things to say about Envoy Air. In the Cadet Program, you [instruct] for ATP, but Envoy gives you a 401(k), travel benefits, and health and dental insurance.”

Less than two years later, Caldwell was on his way to ground school at Envoy Air, where by June 14, 2019, he’d completed training and earned both a type rating in the Embraer 175 and a restricted ATP certificate. The traditional age to earn an ATP pilot certificate is 23; however, FAR Part 61.160 outlines the requirements for the certificate as someone who is at least 21 years of age. Caldwell made it just under the wire. “I turned 21 on May 4, just in time for my check ride.” Envoy actually sent Caldwell back to ATP to complete the ATP CTP course that prepared him for the check ride. “Because I was an Envoy Cadet, I also got to pick my base [at DFW] and aircraft assignment early on in our class of 25.” Caldwell says his Cadet status also helped earn him one of the best seniority numbers in his class, currently 2312.

Continuing the fast pace that he now enjoys, Caldwell remembers his first initial operating experience (IOE) trip as an Envoy first officer in the actual EMB 175, which happened just five days after his check ride. “It was a pretty full flight, and we flew from DFW to LIT. It was kind of surreal, but I knew this is what I did all the training for. That first takeoff, I felt like I was dreaming. You know it’s not a sim or an Archer when you feel yourself pushed back in the seat as you bring up the throttles.”

His first takeoff turned out to be the last of the day when he and the captain overnighted in Little Rock. “[The next day,] we flew LIT to DFW, then DFW to Shreveport, back to DFW, and over to Baton Rouge for the night. The following day, it was back to DFW before heading down to Mexico.”

On his final IOE flight, he encountered a four-hour maintenance delay before the flight finally got airborne. “As we approached Dallas, we learned the field was closed due to thunderstorms, so I had to enter a hold and calculate the holding speed. [While circling,] we were getting closer and closer to bingo fuel [when a diversion to the alternate would be necessary], but it finally opened up. The entire trip made me feel really confident knowing I could do all that. Everything in the cockpit happens pretty quick on those short legs. My first landing wasn’t butter, but it was, well, firm.”

Caldwell thinks it would be an awesome job to fly an American Airlines widebody, a dream he will realize sooner as a result of his drive, dedication, and decision to enroll in a faster-paced program at ATP Flight School. Thanks to his participation in the Envoy Cadet Program while instructing at ATP, he successfully completed the one and only interview he’ll need to someday move on to American. Of course, that won’t happen until he gains the requisite experience, at least 1,000 hours of command time from the left seat of the EMB 175.

When queried about the past three years, Caldwell says: “It hasn’t all settled in yet. I didn’t even realize how fast it all came. But it goes to show that if you want something and you want it quickly, you just need to put in the work and stay motivated. Going from a 172 to an EMB 175—it’s really living the dream.”

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