Oh, those Cessna 150s...

Quick Jot --

72F's Voltage Regulator is back-ordered and due to arrive FedEx on Monday.

08V has developed an issue with her ignition switch. She is due to go to Procraft on Monday as well, and will hopefully be up at that time.

Sorry for the extensive delays, but we'll get them back ASAP.

- Mike

Friday....

Quite cold around the airport of late. Morning flyers, dress warm :)

Please join me in congratulating United States Private Pilot Tom F., who got his wings yesterday in Cessna 20U. Tom flew with our favorite DPE Ken Earl (www.wingspanaviation.com), on a cold and foggy Thursday morning. Look for Tom to be flying overhead and chuckling at the 91fwy traffic below :)

Congratulations, Tom!

--

In maintenance land, Cessna 08V is undergoing break-in of her new engine and prop. After a litany of small and annoying problems, she is finally gearing up to return to the line.

Cessna 72F is grounded pending arrival of a new Voltage Regulator, which nobody seems to have in stock. It was due Monday, and is now "any day". Apparently our 150s are conspiring against us, but we're working on them.

Cherokee 08F had her entire radio panel rewired this week, as well as replacing her inctercom, which had been proven faulty. With the addition of a Copilot PTT, look for 08F to be a reliable and solid communicator.

Should be a beautiful weekend for flying -- go grab some sky!

- Mike

Where's Ryan?

It just occurred to me that some of you might be wondering where CFI Ryan has scurried off to.




Ryan has been invited to participate in the Cirrus Aircraft factory Instructor training program. For a week, Ryan will be chilling his tookus in Duluth, MN, flying the Cirrus SR-20 and SR-22 Aircraft, and generally having a frozen but wonderful time.

Ryan will return in the next week or so, and the schedule reflects that.

You may notice the lack of conventional flight yokes -- the Cirrus uses "side sticks" instead. My own comment was on long XC flights, you would be unable to switch from right arm to left to pilot the aircraft. Each cirrus is equipped with an impressive autopilot, so the choice is to switch from right-arm to "no-arm".

Seems they thought of everything.



Of course, the truly unique thing that Cirrus has going for it (Cirrus surpassed Cessna as the #1 GA Aircraft manufacturer in 2003) is the Ballistic Parachute System.

Seen here, the Parachute is deployed in emergency situations, and the entire aircraft will float down to the ground on its own, and ideally, out of harm's way.

Some pundits have suggested that Cirrus' higher accident rate is due to lazy or panicked pilots deploying the chute instead of reverting to standard emergency procedures. Ouch.

Word on the street is that they're beautiful aircraft to fly (they're definitely beautiful on the ground), and we'll look forward to Ryan's review when he returns as a Cirrus Certified Flight Instructor.

Just add wash-in!

Folks,

Ross Eastman has blessed us with a bit of sheet-metal wizardry! Cessna 04H has had her right wing completely rebuilt from the ground-up, spars reconstructed, and the entire wing has been reattached and repainted -- all in 6 days!

We test-flew the plane yesterday, and word is that she flies straight, true, and "hands off" when trimmed correctly. She has been re-added to the schedule, and we look forward to much better flying out of her. Hop onto the schedule while you can! :)

Cherokee 08F has had a copilot PTT installed, as well as some radio troubleshooting done.

Cessna 72F has a new voltage regulator installed, and her transponder/encoder recalibrated (there was an issue of "intermittent transponder return" which should now be solved).

Cessna 20U has passed her 100hr inspection with flying colors.

Cessna 68U has passed her 100hr inspection with flying colors.

Cessna 08V will be back "any day now", pending final inspections and an engine run-in.

We're experiencing a heavy maintenance January, but I believe we're almost done getting on top of all of the issues. Let us know if you experience any problems.

Blue Skies!

Quick Jot

Hi Gang,

I had to share this quote. Those of you who know my dislike for rotor-wing will smirk appreciatively:

People still argue about how wings generate lift, and some will look at the upped surface of the wing and cite Bernoulli, and say the pressure differential is primary and some will look at the lower surface and cite Newton. In many ways these are observationally equivalent descriptions of what's happening.

The one constant is that helicopters don't actually fly at all. They're so ugly the earth repels them.

--

Both Cessna 68U and Cessna 20U are in for their 100-hour inspections this week. It was nice of them to synchronize and inconvenience everyone -- look for sporadic downtimes for each plane.

Word on the street is that Cessna 04H may be back at the end of this week or early next week.

Not much else to report for now. Fly Safe!

New Faces, New Toys, New Challenges.

Hello All,

Please join me in welcoming two new faces to the good ship Fly Corona!.

First, working the office, you'll meet Dana. Dana comes to us from nearby Makarion Institude of Aeronautics at Chino Airport (CNO). In addition to being friendly and experienced, she's an expert at the Schedule Shuffle, which we do from time to time. We look forward to Dana's help with our increasing workload at the school. Look for an imminent "guess who answered the phone, Beth or Dana?" type of contest, as we've already heard reports that they are equally cheerful on the telephone.

Additionally, pilots caught snookering a free lesson from Dana "because Mike said it was okay" will be subjected to 15 hours' aircraft belly degreasing! :) Welcome to the family, Dana!

Second, please welcome Chris, who will be working with our Line crew. Chris will be subjecting himself to the endless barrage of Cessna and Piper knowledge which is our Line staff. Look for Chris to be stocking, fuelling, taxiing, and washing aircraft, and so far, he's been doing so with a smile. :) Please help Walsh cook up new tortures for Chris, so that he can understand what flying is really about. (just kidding, Chris... mostly -- welcome aboard!)

---

Cherokee 08F is going into the avionics shop for a copilot PTT switch installation, so that instructors can join the radio party line with you in the air. We've noticed an increased interest in the Cherokee of late, so if you're interested in trying something new out, talk to a CFI about a spin in the low-wing plane. I tell people that the Cherokee flies like an upside-down 172, but looks much cooler -- you might even agree! The Cherokee costs the same as the 172s, and if you're not yet solo, or if you're well past it, a flight or two in the Piper PA-28 should not disrupt your training. Mix it up a bit, give 08F a try!

Cessna 20U was removed from the schedule today for a new transponder installation. The old Narco AT50 (circa 1980-something) decided not to play with us anymore. There is now a new Garmin GTX-327 in its place. Additionally, her VORs were recalibrated to IFR spec so you can play in the clouds with confidence, and also, a PTT switch was installed on the copilot side as well.

Cessna 08V's propeller arrived from Van Nuys (VNY) after a 4-week "unauthorized vacation". We expect 08V back on the line by Mon or Tue. (but don't hold me to it :).

Cessna 72F has had a repair made to her Battery Bus, which had worked itself loose. Any electrical weirdness should be fixed -- please let us know if you have any more problems. Also, if you were the one who loosened it -- please know that you cannot hotwire an aircraft with the Battery Bus

---

Beth has been appointed as the Corona Airfaire Chairman (Chairwoman?) for 2006! If you see her studying a binder loaded with numbers, and lost in her own little world -- be sure to loudly demand 3 bounce castles at the airfaire this year -- she loves that idea.

Seriously, though, we aim to have some fun with the faire this year, and I've got some projects cooked up already. If you're interested in volunteering time and energy to building some aerodynamic demonstrations (read: interactive toys), let Mike or Walsh know -- we'll be cooking these things up in our secret laboratory (aka, our new hangar) and you're welcome to join in.

--

Exciting times ahead, and as always, please let us know how we're doing!

Maintenance, Scheduling overnights

Hi Gang!

I'll go ahead and state what we all know: Cessna 08V is still down pending arrival of her new prop. Normally I would say something optimistic like "I expect her back on the line in number of days", but I've learned my lesson now -- sorry for any false hopes. We hope to have her on the line appx 2 days after the prop arrives.

Cessna 04H is with Ross Eastman at Eastman Aircraft (aka sheet-metal magician) for a complete rebuild of her left wing, to correct a problem with incorrect wash-out. This is an exceedingly tedious process, and we expect 04H to return to us in 2-3 weeks. The new wing should fix any remaining issues pertaining to "heavy ailerons" we've been experiencing.



If you read wash-out and were uncertain what that means -- it should be a familiar concept after about 10 hours of training. wash-out is the term used to measure "twist" in the wing. It is this twist which provides a slightly lower angle of attack at the wingtip when compared with the wing root. If a wing were not twisted (aka "zero wash-out"), then a stall would affect the entire wing abruptly, the wing would likely drop, and you would lose half of your aileron control -- all at once! The whole scenario makes it easier to end up in a spin (depending on what you're doing when you stalled), and as such, we greatly prefer a little wash-out in our wings.

It's these little engineering details which make the planes flyable not only when flown correctly, but also extremely forgiving when flown incorrectly, which we all do from time to time. :)

Scheduling Overnight flights

It has recently come to my attention that not everybody sees the schedule like I do, when it comes to certain unusual bookings. Today, I'd like to share how to book an overnight flight.

I don't know about you, but flying can make me fatigued -- especially flights over 6 hours, such as in a very long XC. When I sleep that evening, I sleep very well -- and the last thing I would want is to jump out of bed at 6am, do a thorough preflight, and fly back to Corona -- but without booking "next day", that's what we in the office assume you're doing, and we'll happily commit someone to a 7am flight in your plane -- with possible disappointment and stamping of feet the next day.

Let me show you what my idea of a good overnight would look like. Let's say I want to do a night flight in a C150 to Santa Barbara, spend the night, and return in the morning. Our schedule begins at 7am, and if you don't indicate otherwise, we expect the plane back at 7am. 7am is brutal, so I'm going to book a "little extra" for myself. We don't mind this -- in fact, we prefer you to do this, in a "better safe than sorry" mentality.

Day 1: 4pm - 9pm booking. (KAJO - KSBA)



I'm assured of having the plane from 4pm until 7am the next day with this booking. However, I'm not a morning person, and I don't like the idea of trying to force myself back to Corona by 7am (don't forget the LA Basin Marine Layer might ground me too if I were flying VFR!)


So to make sure nobody tries to fly my plane, I also book this:




Day 2: 7am - 10am booking. (KSBA - KAJO)



Now our morning people won't rely on my plane, which is 100nm away.












If you're concerned at all about booking issues like this, please let the office staff know your intentions. Even if you intend to have the plane back promptly by 7am the next day, we like to book out the 7am-9am block just to be safe -- nothing saddens a pilot more than having their expected plane stolen, and we in the office can do nothing but commisserate and wonder when our bird will return.

Blue Skies & Better Bookings!

- Mike

This Week

Happy 2006!

Now that the storms have passed, the skies are blue and the flying is great. Only a few things of note this week:

First and foremost, Cessna 04H is being re-rigged. There were comments that she was "right wing heavy", which led us to simply have her completely re-rigged. We've never done this before, and while the plane is in excellent hands for this, we don't know what to expect regarding downtime. Cessna 04H has been removed from the schedule, and will return when she's ready to fly again. If you'd like an update on her return, feel free to call the office or email us at fly@flycorona.com and we'll alert you.

We will be reinstalling the rear seats in Cherokee 08F, turning her back into a 4-place aircraft. Look for that to happen on Wednesday.

Cessna 08V had engine parts backordered. We expect to have the engine re-installed by Thursday. (I know I keep saying this -- sorry! stay tuned!)

Los Angeles TAC charts were revised by the FAA for incorrect airway depictions. If you have purchased the old TAC charts, and they do not have the "blue dot" on them, then they are NOW OBSOLETE FOR NAVIGATION. Please return it to us for a free replacement before your next flight.

Quick Tip: We had one of our aircraft return from a flight today with bad skid damage to a main tire. The tire had worn through all 6 plies, and the innertube was exposed. The next landing probably would have blown the tire, and possibly could have ruined someone's day. A quick way to check for tire wear is, when pulling the aircraft forward from the line, watch the main tires as they roll. Skid patches are very easy to identify if you're looking for them!

Not-so-interesting fact: The average life of a main tire on our training planes is appx. 25 hours. :) Chances are good someone has been practicing aerial burnouts before you got there!

Fly Safe,

- Mike