Monday, December 31, 2007

Happy New Year!

From all of us at the Fly Corona family, we wish you and yours a happy 2008! Thanks for flying with us in 2007.

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Belatedly, Congrats are in order for newly-minted IFR Pilot Curtis H, who earned his blindfolded wings in Cessna 1ES with DPE Ken Earl. Nice work, Curtis!

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Fly Corona will be closed tomorrow for New Years. After-hours procedures apply for flights.

Be safe up there, see you in 2008!

- Mike

Friday, December 21, 2007

New Charts!

Pilots,

The latest major cycle of charts, starting Dec 20, have arrived! Update TAC Sectional and Approach charts in the office to have the latest information at your fingertips.



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Cessna 20U is back from her alternator upgrade.

Cessna 04H has a new PTT switch

Piper 85Y has a new generator bracket on her left engine

A selection of brakes tires and landing lights have been distributed amongst all the fliers.

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Super clear, Super breezy. Grab some airborne holiday cheer!

Blue Skies,

- Mike

Monday, December 17, 2007

Temporary Tower at Corona!

Pilots,

Much like when we have the Corona Air Faire, there will be a Temporary Tower in effect for the next 3 months at Corona Airport.

My interpretation of this is that the tower is to provide advisories only, and is not a control tower, meaning we remain a class G airport, and NORDO ops are permitted. That being said, please treat the folks with the same respect as you would a class D tower, because they are still FAA Employees.



Our temporary tower is here to facilitate an additional 75-100 operations per day for re-seeding of the fire-damaged mountains nearby. You'll see 6 of these impressive Air Tractor 802's, which are powered by large turboprops. WAKE TURBULENCE SEPARATION APPLIES, please allow at least 1 minute after one of these aircraft takes off before beginning your own ground roll!




The folks are friendly and the planes are awesome, definitely feel free to swing over and strike up a conversation about their re-seeding efforts. It's interesting stuff.

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In other news,

Cessna 20U is down today (and this past weekend) for an Alternator replacement.

Cessna 68U has a new altimeter.

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If you're looking for the perfect gift to get for yourself this holiday season, we have an AVMap IV EKP GPS for sale-- this is "the big screen" one with a 7" LCD (vs Garmin x96's 3.6"), which shows terrain, victor air routes, all airspace, and is highly customizable. More information is available here and here. We paid $1500 for it 8 months ago, and we also purchased the RAM mounting plate, articulating arm, and large suction cup mount (~$100). It's an awesome tool for situational awareness, we just aren't using it anymore. Our loss is your gain.



We're asking $1250 or best offer. Inquire with the office for more details or for a demonstration.

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The haze is back, but the weather remains clear and nice up high. Grab some sky!

- Mike

Thursday, December 13, 2007

Your next autopilot will be squishy?

Found at panther house this morning, it gives me the heebie-jeebies:



Three years ago, Florida scientists have grown a brain in a petri dish and taught it to pilot an F-22 jet simulator.

The brain-in-a-dish is the idea of Thomas DeMarse, 37, an assistant professor of biomedical engineering at the University of Florida. His work has been praised as a significant insight into the brain by leading US academics and scientific journals.

The 25,000 neurons were suspended in a specialised liquid to keep them alive and then laid across a grid of 60 electrodes in a small glass dish.

Under the microscope they looked at first like grains of sand, but soon the cells begin to connect to form what scientists are calling a “live computation device” (a brain). The electrodes measure and stimulate neural activity in the network, allowing researchers to study how the brain processes, transforms and stores information.

In the most striking experiment, the brain was linked to the jet simulator. Manipulated by the electrodes and a desktop computer, it was taught to control the flight path, even in mock hurricane-strength winds.



To control the simulated aircraft, the neurons first receive information from the computer about flight conditions: whether the plane is flying straight and level or is tilted to the left or to the right. The neurons then analyze the data and respond by sending signals to the plane’s controls. Those signals alter the flight path and new information is sent to the neurons, creating a feedback system.

“Initially when we hook up this brain to a flight simulator, it doesn’t know how to control the aircraft,” DeMarse said. “So you hook it up and the aircraft simply drifts randomly. And as the data comes in, it slowly modifies the (neural) network so over time, the network gradually learns to fly the aircraft.”

Although the brain currently is able to control the pitch and roll of the simulated aircraft in weather conditions ranging from blue skies to stormy, hurricane-force winds, the underlying goal is a more fundamental understanding of how neurons interact as a network, DeMarse said.

“There’s a lot of data out there that will tell you that the computation that’s going on here isn’t based on just one neuron. The computational property is actually an emergent property of hundreds or thousands of neurons cooperating to produce the amazing processing power of the brain.”

Sunday, December 09, 2007

A clean bill of health

Pilots,

We have completed our teardown and test flight of Cessna 20U's engine, and we have discovered that there was no damage to her engine internals as a result of her oil filter failure. Another round of thanks & kudos to the pilot who caught this in time, saving himself some undue excitement :)

We have discovered that the oil filter did not burst, but actually cracked due to vibration stress -- even though the filter was only appx 30 hours old. We have switched to the "short" style filter, and upgraded to a stronger walled filter, which we believe will prevent this problem from recurring. Additionally, we have bypassed the oil cooler to reduce pressure strain on the filter, "just in case"

20U Pilots: please use extra vigilance in monitoring oil pressure, both on taxi, run-up, and in flight. Good thing you were already doing that, right?



For pilots of our other aircraft, wondering if this could happen to you -- the answer is "of course - keep an eye out", but 20U is the only plane which uses a "remote oil filter" -- meaning the filter is attached to the firewall, under the battery box, and connected via oil hoses. The other planes in the fleet use a "spin-on" filter attached directly to the engine.



Remote oil filters save mechanic knuckles -- compare with the spin-on below.



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In other news,

Cessna 20U has a repaired pilot's seat cushion. We were unable to determine if this was related to the oil pressure situation. :)

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Chilly and breezy about -- bundle up, but the skies are awesome lately with the rains!

Blue Skies,

- Mike

Wednesday, December 05, 2007

Clear skies!

Pilots,

It has been heavenly lately with total visibility all around the southland... it's like we're in Montana. Nice flying.

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Kudos to the pilot of 20U who noticed a low oil pressure indication at run-up yesterday!

Apparently 20U had a bad oil filter which cracked at a seam and leaked oil everywhere. We are bypassing the oil filter system entirely for now, checking the engine to make sure there was no damage, and will return her to service soon. We will strike up a lively conversation with the oil filter manufacturer in the meantime to figure out what happened there.



This is a problem which could have been VERY SERIOUS if the flight was attempted -- pilots, include engine vitals into your scan. With no oil pressure, you will, eventually, have no engine, and oil pressure below the green arc is a concern! Oil temp, EGT, all are "hints", but oil pressure is a very direct indication of engine health.

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Cessna 04H completed her 100hr recently, however, a test flight seems to have sucked a bug into the pitot tube. Expect her back on the line tomorrow.

Quiet otherwise, good flying abounds!

Blue Skies!

- Mike