I know what you were thinking as you read month after month that we were seeking an R model to replace Cessna 1ES. You were thinking "horse feathers! Show me the airplane! How hard can it be?"
Surprisingly, it has been quite hard. As we have navigated a labyrinth of shady sellers, misrepresented damage, logged oddities, unlogged oddities, and a mangy collection of winged contraptions -- we have finally found a winner.
Meet Cessna 63B
She is a Cessna 172 R model, complete with color IFR GPS, Autopilot, and all of the trimmings. 63B fills a key piece of our lineup -- the "best steam gauge trainer aircraft you can get" -- and will be available on the line this week! We are shaking out a few bugs and getting everything right. She sits on the ramp at Corona currently, ready for your eyes and soon your wings.
Whew!
We have 2 more additions to the fleet planned shortly, but it is nice to at least say that there was a decent fish in the sea out there.
63B's rate has not been set yet, but expect her to slot in right where 1ES was. I honestly don't recall what that was anymore, it's been so long.
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In some other news...
Cessna 526 has a new radio.
Cessna 630 has had some radio work done and completed her 100hr.
Cessna 68U will be taking a spring vacation for her new engine in 2 weeks. We anticipate her downtime to be 7-10 days at the most. Yes, this is a pit-stop style engine swap.
Cessna 739 has a new landing light and 100hr.
Cessna 63B just got here. :)
Cessna 17J seems to be enjoying her new transponder.
Skylane 073 has a rebuilt nose strut and shimmy damper.
Bonanza 11N is cruising.
As a few of you recall, we did a recent promotion on GroupOn, and one of the folks that we took flying had such a good time, he made a video about it.
Despite its appearance as marketing fluff, I promise that we had nothing to do with the making of this. Complete and spontaneous -- he emailed it to us as a "hey, thanks" sort of note. We were all awestruck.
Chris and Antonio -- thanks for the ride and the video!
See the video here
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Gas prices are shooting skyward. Our air force is insufficient to stop it, and I'm not even sure who we could drop water balloons on to make it stop. Sorry, flyers. As always, we will do our best to keep the pricing down... but it's not looking good.
The weather, however, is perfection lately.
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More as I know it!
Blue Skies,
- Mike
