Off Topic, but...
It so happens that I'm an electrical engineer and a pilot
Just a Cessna 172, but I get enough time in "the system" to have a ton of respect for the job you had. I totally understand you not wanting to transition to the civilian system though. I know a couple of ATC folks and they really look forward to retiring.
If you are pumped about electronics and figuring out how stuff works (and it sounds like you are), don't sweat the math. You'll get it. It will suck greatly, and you'll have to dig in, but once you're done with it, it's all downhill from there.
A long time ago when I went to school (graduated in '88) we had three Calc classes (1, 2, and 3) and then Differential Equations. The last one was the hardest only because it got more abstract and more difficult to visualize what was going on. I'm not a math whiz by any means so I really had to buckle down on it but did well. I'm passionate about electronics though and that's what got me through
Cary
Cary,
Not off-topic at all! I was looking for some insight like yours.
I do thank you for your kind words about ATC. I am very proud to have been an air traffic controller and I, myself, have a lot of respect for the career field. It just was not what I wanted to do. Some of my colleagues enjoyed the fact that they were able to tell pilots (officers) what to do, which I found was amusing.
I think you may have misunderstood my posting, but I do want to transition back into the civilian world. I still have about three years left in the service. I am glad I got to train into avionics because everyone tells me there are great prospects when I get out. I still want an electrical engineering degree because I just want to learn that much more about electronics and theory and all that good stuff.
Its great to hear that you're an electrical engineer. You're exactly what I want to be at this point in my life. All the math courses sounds rough. That is certainly a lot higher than calc two as someone has mentioned to me. Well, the guy that told me that was supposedly an electrical engineer himself, but he's in the same basic principle class as I am. I am not sure if I believe him just yet.
What are your experiences as an engineer and what were some of your most rewarding jobs in the career field? Do you enjoy being an engineer?
