Telling tales from the sky
NEW BREMEN — A club member shared his aviation expertise and experiences Tuesday morning during the New Bremen New Knoxville Rotary Club meeting.
Brent Richter earned his private pilot certificate in 2009 and has been flying ever since.
Richter owns and operates NBO Enterprises, a flight school, out of the Auglaize County Neil Armstrong Airport.
He purchased the business from Marty Bevill, a Fresno, California native, who began NBO in 2009, but moved back to California in 2014.
Richter provided an explanation of general aviation and what it encompasses.–––––––––––––––
“General aviation is everything except military and com
mercial airlines, which is quite a bit,” he said.
He listed some industries that use general aviation which includes: law enforcement, firefighting, sightseeing, delivering packages, ambulance, news, agriculture, recreation, disaster relief and banking, with the latter less frequently used now as banks don’t fly checks overnight any longer with the passage of the Check Clearing for the 21st Century Act, commonly known as Check 21, which was passed in 2003 and went into effect in 2004.
Richter said there’s nearly 700,000 certified pilots in the U.S. with there being 17,000 certified pilots in Ohio alone.
On Tuesday, Richter walked Rotarians through the steps of training and certification with being a student the first step in becoming a pilot.
Students cannot fly solo without proper endorsement and passenger carrying is prohibited.
Next up, one can become a private pilot.
To earn a private pilot license, you must be at least 17 years old and have a minimum of 35 to 45 hours of flight time. Private pilots are allowed to carry passengers and fly at night.
The next level is instrument rating which allows pilots to fly in weather with reduced visibility or other various weather conditions.
“It makes you a lot better pilot actually, it’s a good thing to go through,” said Richter.
A commercial pilot’s license is next up and those pilots need to have a minimum of 250 hours of total flight time. Richter earned his commercial pilot’s license in 2016.
Richter mentioned that becoming a certified flight instructor would be the next level up, one away from an airline transport pilot.
“A lot of people do that to gain hours,” said Richter, explaining
that Congress passed a law in the early 2000s where you needed to have 1,500 hours logged to become ATP licensed.
“To get those extra hours, a lot of guys become flight instructors to gain those hours,” he said.
Richter explained that as a general aviation pilot, you can fly almost anything.
Richter owns a Piper Tomahawk, which is a two-seater plane that’s used for training and he keeps at the airport. He added that his dream plane is a Pilatus PC-12, which run about $5 million.
Because he rents the Tomahawk plane for lessons, Richter said the FAA does an inspection on the aircraft every 100 hours or so.
Richter was asked about
what kind of freedoms he’s granted with being able to fly places instead of having to drive, if he wanted to.
He said that he and his wife Teresa have flown to places like Urbana, Port Clinton and Muncie, Indiana just for the day. Richter added that he’s glad Ohio has airports in all 88 counties, which makes traveling easier.
Richter mentioned that his longest trip was down south to Long Island, Bahamas.
“That was probably the furthest we went,” he said. “It’s quite a ways down the chain so we flew over the water for two hours to get there. It was a fun trip.”
Recently, Richter flew to Greeley, Colorado for his father’s 80th birthday.
“It was my dad’s 80th birthday, so I decided that day, I’m going to go out and see him on his 80th. I got the plane the next day and I left,” he said. “In five and a half hours I was there which was a 21-hour drive.”
Richter was asked how much preparation it takes to plan a flight and he said that technology has made it easier than ever.
“Now with apps, I can file a flight plan in 30 seconds and have ATC (air traffic control) accept it and we’re ready to go,” he said. “Not too long ago, it was a long process, but now with the app, they’ve really made it nice.”
To learn more about Richter or to get more information about NBO Enterprises, visit NBONow.com.