busy, busy, busy.......

Wow, what a great few weeks here at Fly C. First off, I wanted to send shout out to our newest Pilots.... Dave C who aced his checkride with DPE Andrea, Jason Cooper who earned his wings with DPE Mark, Andy A who sailed through the checkride with DPE Andrea and Jake Westhall who braved the windy conditions and walked away with his wings with DPE Andrea. Congrats to all of you, it is a great accomplishment!

Other exciting news this week, the Debonair is now here and is now ready to take on all pilots! She sports a 260 HP engine, nice paint, very nice interior, stormscope and other nice upgrades. Come and check her out, she is absolutely gorgeous and flies like a dream.

We will be bringing back Wingfleet flying club with lower monthly dues, lower deposit and new checkout requirements. Details to come next week, check back at the blog, facebook ( http://www.facebook.com/#!/FlyCorona ), or the website: www.flycorona.com for updates.

What's happening in maintenanceland......
68U is in for a 100 hr inspection, should be available on Jan 2
739 is flying
94M will have the GPS updated and ready to navigate you on those GPS approaches for IFR flying.
61Q is running strong
63B had its transponder checked and all is good
17J is still waiting for a part from Cessna for the pilot door that was broken.... which brings me to a request, if you notice anything broken or needs attention on the aircraft, please let us know in the office and we will take care of it quickly so we do not interrupt the schedule.
182 is out of its annual inspection and is available.

Other happenings....
Our weekend pinch hitter course is coming up. Thank you to the 4 people that have registered and confirmed. They will be learning basic aerodynamics, introduction to navigation and basic radio communications, introduction to emergency procedures and practicing lots of landings.
If you are interested in joining the class, call the office at 951-272-3942 to reserve your space.

On a final note, Happy New Year. We are so thankful for all of our customers, staff and friends for a great 2011. We look forward to another great year of great flying, fun and celebrations with you.

-- Kevin.

All is calm...

Wow, has it ever been a wierd month, first it was blistering hot, then this cold front came in from Canada and made me feel right at home, then it was super windy, thought I was in Chicago and now it is calm and somewhat warmer, and who says Southern California does not get weather....

So, it has been really quiet at the ranch this past week with some weekend warriors getting some great sky time. There is some excitement brewing though, I hear quite a few rumors out there, here is what I have heard....

The restaurant is opening in the New Year.... Well, they are interviewing this week, so hopefully they will work hard and open up, at least give us our restrooms...... Hope the food is good and priced right, should be a great place to fly into... well, not literally, but fly to Corona and park you plane at the transient parking and walk over to the cafe

N32182 will be picked up this week and heading straight into the maintenance shop for an inspection. She should be ready to take on all pilots in a few weeks, she will be offered in the flying club and rates will be posted on www.wingfleet.com website and www.flycorona.com websites shortly, you can always inquire at the office or shoot us an email: fly@flycorona.com

N7700N may come on the flight line in the flying club, details will follow shortly. This is a great looking Baron and very comfortable to fly in. I had the privilege to do a run up and taxi to the hanger with CFI Matt last week... Great preview on what's to come, I got really excited and looking forward to building some twin time.

Heard that January to June is quite gloomy here in Corona, so this may be the perfect opportunity to get your IFR rating. IFR flying is great, nothing like flying on top of a cloud, then descending on an ILS or GPS approach and seeing the runway when you pop out of the clouds. It is something you need to experience and our instructors are patiently waiting to do a demo flight or some real IFR training.

Lastly on the rumor mill is that the office now has an IPad 2 with WingX Pro 7 with moving map and weather info, fully installed ready to be rented out. This still needs to be tested with the GPS and signal strength, so let us know if you want to test it out for us!

Well, this next few weeks are check ride weeks for quite a few of you, I know of Carlos, doing the toughest checkride of them all, the initial CFI. Jason Cooper and his Private Pilot License. If I missed anyone, I apologize and I will include you on the next blog, and the newsletter, which reminds me, the next edition of Hangar Talk will be available before December 31, so check your emails and check the local newstands.... that being Fly Corona and Aircraft Spruce.

Hope to see you all at the BBQ on Saturday, the forecast looks good and I heard the food will be great as well! Oh yeah, the raffle will also be on this day!

Nothing new in Maintenanceland, all the aircraft are flying well, but this I do know.

94M will be heading for an annual inspection on the 20th
61Q will be going in for a 100hr on the 19th

Thanks to everyone who dropped off Christmas cookies and other goodies, we are quite enjoying them, but we may need to do some recalculations of weight and balances before our next flights :)

Fly Safe and grab some sky when you get a chance!

-- Kevin

Who turned off the heater and cranked up the wind tunnel?

Wow, it has been really windy here in Corona the past few days making this a perfect opportunity to perfect those crosswind landings! Here is a great tip that I read from the AOPA flight magazine...
"A good way to practice crosswind landings is by making a series of low approaches to a long runway. For the first few, overfly the runway at approach speed, with perhaps the first notch of flaps. Using the ailerons, practice moving the aircraft from one side of the runway, to the centerline, to the other side of the runway (not too far!), and back to centerline. After a few passes, you should get the aileron control part down. On the next series of low passes, use the rudder to keep the nose parallel to the centerline as you maneuver the aircraft. Once you've got these basics down, you're ready to practice a full crosswind landing. "
Here is a video from a C-180's attempt at a crosswind landing, tell me how well he did... http://youtu.be/2vglejdWwsk

Hot off the press.... our monthly newsletter "Hangar Talk" was published this week, you can get your own copy in .pdf version from our website: http://www.flycorona.com/news.asp If you would like a printed copy (in color and on glossy paper...) come by the office before they are all gone!
If you have a great flying story and / or pictures to share, please send them to us, we would love to include them in the January edition.
We are updating our website as well, so if you have some really cool video, send them to me (for screening) and we may add them to our video section for all to enjoy!

Here's what I know from my visit to Maintenanceland today.....
61Q - is back on the line and ready to take on all pilots
68U - is still going strong
739 - is rockin steady
94M - is a trooper
63B - is a great IFR trainer
17J - is still the best aircraft and the ultimate IFR trainer

Other happenings......
December 17 is the BBQ for all our beloved friends of Fly C. The BBQ will start at 11:30 and go till about 1:30 or so. Come for some great food and pilot talk.

January 7 & 8 is our very first Pinch Hitter course. This is a 2 day course that will prepare co-pilots in what to do in slightest chance of an emergency.

The office will be closed on December 25th so we can enjoy the Christmas day with our families. If you would like to fly on this day, please make arrangements with the office on the 24th.



 Fly Safe!!!
Kevin