Thursday, September 28, 2006

How about a 700-foot tower on final approach for ya?

I wish I was joking, check out the controversy at Fullerton:

Aero-News

From the article:

As Aero-News reported, two persons onboard a Cessna 182 died when their plane struck the tower as they turned base leg to Runway 6 on December 19, 2004.

"The tower is an obstruction to aerial navigation," Propst told the Whittier Daily News. "In the past two years it has killed two people, and in the 1970s it killed one person. It is just in a terrible place to put something that will be 680 feet high."

KFI maintains the matter is all about improving radio reception -- an important consideration for a radio station now heard only by residents in Los Angeles and Orange County with a 204-ft transmitter, but that once reached as many as 18 million listeners with the higher antenna. The station says it has compromised, by proposing to replace the former 760-foot tower with one some 80 feet shorter.



... well at least they're willing to compromise. I'll do the same by setting 1 fewer preset on my AM dial for KFI. :)

Can you imagine if the cheese factory on rwy25-base decided to put up a 700-foot high tower? Sure, we'd all see and avoid it... but once in awhile, someone is going to need that air on their turn to base, and won't look in time.

Pay attention, even in the traffic pattern. Your life, and an AM radio station's coverage area -- may depend on it.

Goings-on around the ranch..

Hello All,

Sorry for the sleepy pace of updates - not much going on around FlyC land lately. Here are the things that have been happening:

Cessna 08V completed her 100hr last week.

Cessna 20U is currently in 100hr. We have found some strange oil seepage near the cylinders that we are having looked at by the Engine pros at Corona Cylinder. If something ugly is found, 20U may be taking an extended maintenance tour. More as I know it.

FlyC Office Manager Beth is out for her annual inspection. We expect her downtime to be appx 2 weeks. Now is your chance to misbehave in the office without her knowing about it.

...in all seriousness, The office will be running a bit lean with Beth in recovery. Please be nice to Chris and Crissy, and feel free to email me with concerns at mike@flycorona.com if you believe things are amiss!


In other news, Danny H passed his Private Pilot Checkride on Sunday and will be sharing the skies with us all! Congratulations, Danny!

Watch out fot the Santa Anas -- be sure you know what the active runway is on approach - it has been changing multiple times per day recently! (AWSS 132.175!)

Best,

- Mike

Monday, September 18, 2006

A sleepy blustery weekend

Happy Monday, Pilots!

As many of you noticed, our CFIs have conspired to all take Saturday off for various reasons. Unusual, but I suppose they deserve a day off :) We will be back to full strength this week, and hopefully these oddball winds will have blown over by then.

As many of you who DID fly noticed, the Santa Ana winds are blowing. This means random and strange clouds popping up, and wind blowing out to sea. Practice your runway 7 pattern and entry technique, and make sure to check the AWSS (132.175) before setting up your entry. Also keep an eye out, as some of the less skilled pilots at the airport might actually use 25 out of habit! (we've seen it, it's highly dangerous, keep an eye on the runway and 25 runup to be safe)

Cessna 20U is having her right magneto replaced today with a new. Apparently a $700 magneto only lasts for 9 months. (the 6 month warranty on it was just added insult to the injury) -- we'll have her back up tomorrow.

The weather is nice. Grab some Sky!

- Mike

Monday, September 11, 2006

Soaring to Victory!

Pilots!

Please join me in congratulating Manuel G., who earned his U.S. Private Pilot wings today in Cessna 20U, after proving his chops with DPE Tom Hamm.

Congratulations Manny!

Cessna 04H continues her 100hr squawkfixing. We expect her back on the line tomorrow.

Gusty and a wee bit Hazy around the campfire lately, but things are cooling down -- whew! Good flying in the Southland this week!

Best,

- Mike

Saturday, September 09, 2006

Web Rumblings

Hi Gang,

In case you've been accessing the schedule this evening, you might have seen some truly strange things, as I've been tinkering with the database to make way for some new features.

One booking was lost for appx 30 minutes (and has been replaced -- sorry, Ray), and the entire schedule showed every booking being owned by some rascal named Allen -- but this is all fixed and things should be behaving properly. If not, please feel free to email me at mike@flycorona.com and call my programming ability into question :)

==

Other news:

Cessna 20U's 3rd DG seems intermittent. We have a factory-fresh one enroute due sometime this week.

Cessna 04H is in 100hr, sorry for those weekend bookers. The squawk list is short and we aim to have her up shortly.

Cessna 68U will get her nose strut pumped up tomorrow, it's looking a bit low.

Cessna 08V had a "mushy left brake" repaired today. The prospect of doing donuts on landing did not excite any of our 150 pilots. The plane was grounded pending repair by one of our IAs.

==

If you have borrowed the office's loaner GPS, can you please let someone in the office know? We are worried about him. :)

Blue Skies!

- Mike

Tuesday, September 05, 2006

Labor Day!

Hello All,

I hope you are all recovered from your long weekend. Some items of excitement were going on around the fleet, and I figured I would jot them here to interested parties:

Cessna 04H enjoyed a nice weekend trip to Oxnard. Unfortunately, it was not so keen to return (smarter than the average Cessna? who can say?) -- Cessna 20U was dispatched with a new starter for our green machine, and both are back home safely.

Cessna 17J went to San Francisco for the weekend.

Cessna 68U stuck around, and as a result, we have been able to (we believe) nail down her over-temperature indications on the CHT gauge. She is being worked on as we speak.

Cessna 08V also was in town.

Nothing else to report... blue skies!

- Mike