Nice weather, reasonably full stable of planes... I think summer is closing on us fast!
Here are some things I know about:
First, our TRACON tour is on Monday -- contact the office if you'd like to play hookey with us and go play ATC for a day. It's highly recommended. We will try to bring back some sneaky pictures from the tour :)
Next, some maintenance faces I can make:
Cessna 61Q still owes us a headliner. Any day now...
Cessna 526 is due back next week. This should alleviate schedule pressure.
Cessna 68U is cruising great.
Cessna 739 has her #2 NAVCOM out for calibration. We are expecting her back on Monday.
Cessna 94M started flying for us today. She already has a new copilot PTT switch. We are working on getting the GPS database updated for the local area. We'll be removing the wheelpants soon... not that we don't trust you guys or anything ;) Also, the transponder's mode C has been reported intermittent, and we are isolating it.
Cessna 63B has a new attitude indicator and will be receiving a new prop spinner tomorrow.
Cessna 17J is due back next week. Word from the hangar is "!@#$ Monel Rivets!!!" Heh heh.
Bonanza 11N may be getting a new attitude indicator soon.
$8 worth of pure high-strength mil-spec evil. Julie is getting $750 worth of these installed this week.
I also have an experiment to share with you.
We were reviewing our credit processing statements recently and noticed that we're losing appx $4,000 per month on Visa/MC/Amex/Discover fees. The price of doing business, sure, but after a call to our processor, it was revealled that one culprit is the "reward" card that we all use.
We brainstormed around the office and came up with this idea: What would our friends want more? Some air miles, or some good Pilot Swag?
So here is our thinking: Pay any invoice or deposit with cash, check, or debit PIN card, and you save us money -- therefore, we'd like to return the favor. We're going to have a prize giveaway.
Here's the thinking:
We'd like to split our fee savings with folks who pay with "lean" payment methods. As such, for every $500 spent using one of the 3 above-mentioned methods, we will place a ticket with your name on it in our prize drawing fishbowl.
We will seed the prize pool with an assortment of FlyC swag, such as Polo shirts, hats, some videos, etc., and a new Brightline flight bag!
And as we add tickets, we will add to the prize pool as follows:
At 50 tickets, your choice of Ray-Ban Aviator Sunglasses (for the 3 of you who don't already sport them), a selection of 4 Aviation DVDs from Aircraft Spruce, or a $100 giftcard to ACS.
At 100 tickets, we will add a training ride in a Boeing Stearman or a Tailwheel Endorsement in a Piper J-3 Cub
At 250, we will add an Apple iPad 2 with ForeFlight
At 450, we will add a Garmin Aera 500 Portable Terrain/Airspace GPS
At 750, we will add a Bose A20 Bluetooth Headset.
...beats Air Miles, right? Also at each of these tiers, we will continue to add a bunch of smaller swag to make sure everyone gets a shot at good stuff.
Here is the fine print:
We are working out final prize tiers, but the values will at least be what is described above. All prizes can be redeemed for an ACS Gift Card or FlyC Credit, of course.
We plan to have a winter BBQ and Prize Drawing, and do a little Airport Santa-ing.
We plan to add all sorts of fun and unusual Tchotchkes and nonsense to the Prize Pool as we think of them.
Whatcha think? Feel free to share any ideas with us...
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We still have spots for our annual pilgrimage to Osh Kosh. Feel free to drop me a line if you'd like to throw your name in the ring. Additionally, if you didn't hear from me this week about it, I overlooked your interest -- give me a nudge.
More as I know it!
Blue Skies,
- Mike
