My IFR Training – Cessna 182T Garmin 500 / GNS750 / GNS 430 / 

Hi Tony: 

Thank you AFIT for your congratulations. Moreover, thank you for obviously insisting on retaining excellent instructors for your company. My experience with your instructor, Bill Eldredge, was great. That man has every right to be very proud of his flight career of over 15,000 hours and his instruction of many hundreds of successful students over the years.  Also Bill could easily be proud of his service as a drill instructor in the military and a decorated soldier honorably serving his country dodging bullets during the Vietnam war.  Yet you would still have to look long and hard to find a more patient, even-tempered and competent CFII instructor with as many FAA certifications as Bill. I know I have gained a friend for life. Indeed, Bill made it very clear during my instruction that if ever I had questions anytime in the future, I should feel free to call him as he would be there for me. Simply put, Bill’s goal as an instructor was not just to help me get my instrument rating and check ride accomplished.

More important to Bill was to be a friend who would prepare and develop in me safe pilot skills involving a “memorized flow” checklists for a safe flight from takeoff to landing. And Bill not only trained me for SIAP’s.  He also prepared me for any IMC conditions including being accidentally caught in an embedded thunderstorm or other emergency. Bill’s “Five P’s” repeated often last week was “Proper Practice Prevents Poor Performance”.

After training in my plane for many days and constant drilling over the important things necessary to have good stick and rudder skills and knowledge, I now feel prepared for almost anything. Actually, Bill’s Five P’s fits the FAA’s regulation to be “IFR Current”. One may think that he or she can’t afford this training. Well, for my money, the old saying that “an ounce of prevention is worth more than a pound of cure” perfectly fits here. At least it fits if you wish to be a safe and competent pilot after your instrument rating is obtained.

So again, thank you for Bill and his superior training.  It was worth every penny spent.”