Pilots --
We need your help! We are undergoing spring cleaning / squawk hunting, which we do every winter when things are slower around the airport -- of course, with the excellent winter weather we've had recently, things have been busy, and the planes are starting to look a little worse for wear -- so we're taking action now while we can.
We will be going over the entire fleet with a fine-toothed comb, looking for things working "not so good", things that are flaky, intermittent, look horrible, could be better, smell weird, etc. Basically, anything goes. Our planes need a little time to rest, and we're gonna massage them while they're down. The bad news is, there will be intermittent downtime for all planes for the next 3 weeks.
So what do we need from you? Squawks! I know that many of you are very aware of the plane states, and communicate Squawks to us whenever possible (especial kudos to pilots Tracy T, Ben W, James B, Joe C, Joe Z, Tom F, Rafael O and Richard C for this!) -- and our "listening" ability seems a bit poor lately -- I apologize for this. We'll be spending the next few weeks cleaning up the planes and fixing inop items, hopefully to make past-due amends.
Please email mike@flycorona.com with your squawks, and we'll add them to the list.
Here are the major ones we're addressing:
Instrument checks for all planes
Radio/Nav checks for all planes
Cowling fasteners for all planes
All interior and exterior lighting for all planes
We know there are some recurring issues (such as 20U's "more than 40 degrees of flaps" issue) which our on-field mechanics have been unable to diagnose for us, which we will be tackling. Send us some other "quirks" as well that could work better.
At the end of this week or two of aircraft massage, we intend to also change the following regarding squawks:
All Squawks will be tracked by the office staff, and placed in the "squawk box" for immediate attention. We'd like the planes, once made tip-top, to remain so, and we are increasing our vigilance on that score.
We are considering a "squawk finder's fee" at the moment, to reward pilots with reporting these things, also to help us stay on top of things.
We are considering a "sad face" tracking scheme to organize our "comps for bad behaviour", and are looking for ideas. As some of you know, we already comp CFI or flight time or type upgrades when we screw up bookings or a plane behaves poorly -- and we will continue to do this. It is those "not quite bad, but still feel grumbly about it" situations that we're trying to improve.
We're thinking about things such as "free use of an ANR headset for your next flight" sort of perks -- things we can do to enhance a lesson to make up for prior underwhelming performance on our part. If you have ideas on this score, I'd love to hear those as well! (ie, things we could obtain and offer to make flying even cooler)
Thanks in advance! Happy Hunting!
- Mike
