It was the dream of Biomed Ryan Zamudio to get behind the wheel of a fixed wing aircraft. Based on his prior occupation, he might have ended up sailing through the sky at 1,500 mph, but he settled for the more leisurely pace of a Piper.
“Prior to becoming a biomed, I was on active duty in the Air Force as a Crew Chief on F-16 fighters for 11 years (1998-2009). A couple of years into my career, I won a few awards in my unit and had the privilege of getting a ride in the backseat of an F-16 during a training mission,” Zamudio remembers. “Ever since that ride, I have been kicking myself for not pursuing a career as an aviator from the start. Now that I am established in the biomed career field, on both the military and civilian sides, I figured it was time to chase the dream of being able to fly, even if it was only for recreation.”
To pursue the dream of recreational flying, Zamudio enrolled in a private pilot course offered through the Travis AFB Aero Club. He flew about four times a week while completing the book work and successfully passed his FAA knowledge exams and check-ride just two and a half months from the day he started.
“I had this breakneck pace going at the same time as my full-time job and attending college for my bachelor’s degree in business management,” he says.
After years of driving cars and motorcycles around a racetrack as a hobby, Zamudio found that his first experience behind the wheel of an aircraft came naturally. The rocky ride, that can be a part of flying a small plane, was another story.
“The part I had to get over was the susceptibility a small plane has to even light turbulence. I have never been a fan of heights, nor am I excited about riding in planes that I do not personally maintain. I have taken steps to mitigate this fear by skydiving once and taking a ride in a hot-air balloon,” Zamudio explains.
“Despite this, I only came to trust the airplane and the winds around the second or third flight. The instructor showed me what it feels like when the aircraft stalls — wings no longer produce lift — and had me induce and recover from a couple stalls on my own,” he adds. “We also simulated an engine failure. Although it was initially scary, it was a good way to gain confidence in the air.”
The Challenge is in the Books
Zamudio says that he found the rules of flying the most challenging aspect of learning to fly a plane. The sheer abundance of rules was the problem.
“I spent about 50 to 60 hours on the book-work portion, in addition to the 50 flying hours I accrued,” he says. “The certification consists of a written exam and a verbal on the day of the check-ride, and anything printed in the Federal Aviation Regulations is a fair question.”
Not only are the rules a challenge to memorize, but those things peripheral and integral to flying are often invisible to the outside observer. Zamudio is well aware of each now.
“Now that I have my license, the real challenge is remembering everything else involved. Flight planning, plan filing, radio communications, watching your gauge indications, visual and instrument navigation, being aware of other aircraft in your vicinity, staying on top of weather conditions for the entire route, etcetera,” he says.
He says that the ability to multitask helps a lot.
“A momentary loss of situational awareness can result in a revocation of my license on the first offense or even more dire consequences,” Zamudio explains.
With his newfound ability to travel above the ground, it seemed like the natural choice to travel from his home airport in California to the recent MD Expo in Las Vegas. Zamudio says that the trip went according to plan.
“This being my first cross-country flight since getting my license in September, I started planning two weeks in advance. I became obsessed with it to the point of mental exhaustion! I picked up my coworker, Dwayne Jackson, at his home airport in Modesto,” Zamudio says.
“Like any real buddy on a bro-trip, Dwayne brought the Gatorade, chips and music for our flight. We stopped to fuel up at Shafter-Minter airfield, in the middle of nowhere, because they had nice pilot rest facilities and cheap gas,” he continues. “I had to consider that we were flying over mountains, which presents a whole different challenge, so we opted to take a longer route toward the south to ensure a safer crossing. The most we experienced was some moderate turbulence as we passed over Tehachapi.”
One glitch did occur on the trip. On the final leg going into Las Vegas, they lost radio communication with air traffic control, but once they cleared the hills, they regained contact.
“I had never had to fly near class-B airspace before — think: B means ‘busy’ — but the air traffic controllers made sure we stayed clear of the big planes on the way to Henderson Executive Airport. Once we landed, Dwayne and I took some pictures with the plane before we got our rental vehicle and drove to the hotel. We then headed to the Las Vegas Strip for a celebration dinner,” Zamudio says.
Luckily, the trip back to California was smooth sailing. Since they were traveling on a Saturday, it was possible to cross through some of the military training airspaces that they had to navigate around on the trip to Las Vegas. This shaved an hour off of the return trip, according to Zamudio.
On the Job
When not taking to the sky, Zamudio is a BMET with UCSF Benioff Children’s Hospital Oakland.
“We do not have equipment ‘specialists’ on our crew, so in addition to performing general biomedical work, we are all required to have substantial working knowledge about imaging, anesthesia, ventilators and other specialized equipment from all departments of our facility,” Zamudio says. “As a level-1 pediatric trauma center, and one of the busiest children’s hospitals in Northern California, there is never a dull day.”