Tuesday, January 25, 2011

Back to Normal!

(or as normal as it gets around here)

Pilots!

I have news.

First, and very importantly, the following note from Airport Management:

The airport should be back open to normal hours tomorrow, Wednesday the 26th. Double check NOTAMS to be sure. Lights are to be fixed for night operations however double check with the office or check the ATIS & NOTAMS


Game on!



I also have news in maintenanceland:

Cessna 526 is ready to fly.

Cessna 630 has had a radio adjustment.

Cessna 68U has completed her 100hr inspection.

Cessna 739 has completed her 100hr inspection.

Cessna 17J will be down tomorrow for AD compliance and a phase check.

Skylane 073 is shiny and wants to fly more.

Bonanza 11N isn't bothering anyone.



The astute pilots in the crowd may have noticed a Cessna in the list which doesn't belong. Here is the story:

Due to overwhelming and unexpected demand on our schedule, particularly with Cessna 630, we have secured access to a C150 on a limited basis for time-building and extended full-time usage.

The rules for Cessna 526 are: long-term time-building only. Dry rate only. Minimum 5 hours per day.

We are hoping that having access to 526 will avoid the 2 and 3-month-long chunks of time which time-builders are eating out of the schedule, and this will free up the normal fleet for training service. If our experiment goes well, we will make a C172 or two available under the same procedure, and we will have a nice and tidy schedule.

Comments are welcomed, as always. Inquire with the office if you have a desire to fly Cessna 526, and we will provide additional details.

==

We are currently performing a Pre-buy on a new 172 of "739" caliber as we speak.

We are #2 in line to perform a Pre-buy on a 172R of "1ES" caliber. Fingers crossed!



It's Osh time again!

(already? geez!)

As you may or may not be aware, every year we lead a pilgrimage to Osh Kosh, Wisconsin, also known as Mecca for Pilots, and drink in aviation, hideously bland salsa, and perfect margaritas for 24 hours a day, over the course of an amazing week. We rent a house at the North 40, have a selection of rental cars, and really do the week up right.

If you don't know what Osh Kosh is, stop. Read here. Then return, more excited.

As usual, we are looking for a preliminary headcount so that we can arrange aircraft and house(s). Here is the drill:

We make our aircraft available for the cost of fuel only to everyone. This year, I am anticipating possibly the S35, maaaybe the G36, and if needed, the E33 or a B33. Yes, we travel in Beech Bonanzas to Osh.

We share "leg" time in both directions, and if we have multiple planes, will fly in loose formation.

We will leave on Saturday, July 23rd, early AM, and will return by the following Friday, July 28, or Saturday July 29 at the latest -- only one week off of work, and a day or two to recoup.

I expect that this year, the fuel kitty will be ~$600 per person. A private room in the air-conditioned party house runs $500 for the 5 nights, and camping "under-wing" is possible for $125 per plane, pooled amongst those who are camping. Typically a pilot will fly 6 or 7 legs, earn 8-10 hours of HP/Complex time, and see the USA from somewhere between 3,500 - 15,500 feet!

If you would like to reserve an "interest" in the flight, please drop me a line at mike@flycorona.com.

It will be helpful if you can let me know:

1. Your interest in flying with us to Osh Kosh, and number in your party if more than one.
2. Your interest in the house or underwing camping.
3. Whether you will need a High Performance or Complex endorsement prior to flight.
4. Any specific training items you would like to tackle during your flight leg (IFR enroute, approach practice, mountain flying, night flying, making crop circles, etc.)

I will start a list, and we will circle back around April or May with some planning and will request confirmation and funds at that time!

I hope you can join us on a truly epic adventure!

==

That's about everything I know for the moment. Let's kick off a great year of flying!

Blue Skies,

- Mike

Wednesday, January 12, 2011

Sneaky wings...

Pilots!

We missed someone who earned their wings last week, and I did not learn about it until just now!

Please join me in a belated "congrats" for Private Pilot Rick S, who earned his wings on the 8th in Cessna 739!



Nice work, Rick!Sorry we missed ya the first time! :)

==

Additionally, some guy named Elian earned his ATP SE and ME last week as well. The boy is busy!

Nice work, Elian!



==

Windy today! Hang onto your hair!

Blue Skies,

- Mike

Friday, January 07, 2011

Double upgrade!

Pilots!

I come bearing gifts!

First, please join me in congratulating the newest IFR Pilot in the world, one Blindfolded Pat R., who scored his IR chops yesterday in Cessna 17J with DPE Mark D -- yep, at Chino. Way to go, Pat!

Pat has been practicing things like the SOGGE-1 arrival and the SPLASH-A approach lately. I am especially happy that we were able to get it done for Pat, despite the mess.



An extra Kudo to Elian for pulling out the stops to get this done.

==

I have other news as well...

I received this tidbit in the mail this morning:

Today is Thursday, January 6th at 6:00 p.m. The present water level at the Prado dam is 514 ft. The airport will be open daily from 7:30 am to 4:00 pm for tenants and clean-up volunteers only. The runway will be open Friday, January 7th for departures and landings from 7:30 a.m. - 4:00 p.m. Inspections of buildings, hangars and structures located on the airport are under way. At this time, Access Only - Yellow Tags have been approved for the following buildings: 1909, 1911, 1913, 1917, 1921, 1925, 1931, 1935, 1939, 1943, 1947, 1951, 1955, 1961 1963, 1967, 1965, 1969, and 1971.


This means... if the news holds, we will be retrieving our flythings today, and the weekend is game on, back to normal -- grab those bookings and let's fly! finally!

If for some reason the runway does NOT re-open, we will remain at Chino, but we will re-instate the schedule and open the planes for solo flights regardless. We will likely just staff an office person there fulltime.



==

Rain or shine, we'll see ya this weekend!

Blue Skies,

- Mike

Wednesday, January 05, 2011

Castaways

Pilots!

Finally a little sanity (a smidge!) has been restored to the airport. Here is what I know, and how it affects our goal of normalcy.

First, the Airport is open to tenants and customers only, daily, from about 8am until the Corona Police decide they've had enough of your face. Really. Our entire office staff is being evicted every afternoon at random points in the day, for no real reason at all.

Our friend Scott was threatened with arrest while he did maintenance at the witching hour of 6pm in our hangar.

It's a weird way to run a business. I do apologize to those left out in the cold who call -- for the moment, the only reliable way to get through is:

1. Call, leave a message, and we will get to it as soon as we can. We are fielding about 50-60 calls daily, and we have a reduced timeframe to return them -- we're doing our best, honest!

2. Email fly@flycorona.com and we'll reply as soon as we can.

I wish I had better information for you, but it seems to change with the wind and the city's mood.



It's not all sour grapes at the ranch, though. I have some good news:

We have successfully extracted Bonanza 11N from AJO and she now sits in Chino at Threshold Aviation. Feel free to book her up and fly her if you'd like. The plane logbook is inside.

Threshhold closes at 8pm nightly, and they have requested that we fly while they are open only -- no night flights.

For those of you who are time-building under a tight schedule (flying appx 60+ hours per month), we have a new Cessna 150 available. We will not train from this aircraft, but our hope is that having access to this one will alleviate schedule strain on poor 630, who is becoming a popular runabout.

This other C150 is only available on a dry lease basis with higher than normal daily minimums. Feel free to inquire if you wish to avail yourself of this aircraft.



Carlos, Fernando, and Kevin have great videos of the water-departure shortfield takeoffs on facebook. Yikes!

The current thinking is that the airport may re-open this weekend. I give this a 25% chance only. The following weekend, however, we plan to return to normal operation at Corona. We hope. 90% chance of that. We are prepared to operate from CNO as long as necessary.

We're almost through this crisis. Thanks to all for weathering it (ha ha) with us!

Blue Skies,

- Mike