It feels a lot like summer!!!

I do not know who ordered all this nice warm weather, but it feels a lot like summer! The winds on Monday made a checkride challenging and great practice for those crosswind landings... YIKES!

It has been a really busy week with some 2 new private pilots.

1. Ken Lindberg got through his private check ride in some really windy conditions (20 degree crab required on final). He did this in 94M with DPE Mark.

2. Paul Cass sailed through his checkride in 61Q with DPE Andrea

Hats off to some new solo pilots Sohail Simjee, Adam Henningsen and Drew Cessna.



Things going on in the office:

Keep an eye out for our very first edition of Hanger Talk where you will find exciting articles from the flight training world, Q&A from our very own CFI's and stories and pictures from our clients. If you have some exciting stories and pictures to share, please email them to Kate at fly@flycorona.com

We now can offer financing for all flight training! Monthly payments are as low as $85 per month for our Private Pilot Package in the C150 or $135 per month in our beautiful C172SP G1000, affectionately known as "Julie".

Mark you calendars for the BBQ lunch on Saturday Dec 17 from 11:30 to 1:30, bring your family and friends

Planning on attending our Pinch Hitter course on Jan 7 and 8th? If so, call today to reserve your spot. There are 5 spots remaining and filling up fast!

Maintenanceland:
61Q is flying and getting ready for more checkrides!
68U is a workhorse
94M is strong as ever
63B is picking up the slack
739 just finished a fresh 100 inspection and is ready to fly
61J is enjoying all the love from the pilots

It has been a real exciting around here the past week as you can see and there is never a dull moment!

So grab some clear sky while it is here and then go for that IFR demo!

Kevin.

who ordered all the rain????

I can't believe that Thanksgiving and Christmas is almost here and we are now in the rainy season here in Corona, so,why not take advantage of the clouds and grab your IFR ticket, or take an IFR demo ride with one of our excellent CFI's!

A few things going on in maintenance land........

61Q is up in the air and running better than ever
98U is up in the air
94M is going strong
93B is cruising
739 is logging a lot of flights
17J is a workhorse and will be heading for a 100 hour on Tuesday.
182 is coming soon...... say again? That's right, coming to our fleet is a beautiful B33 Debonair and will have a fresh annual and 265 hp engine! We are anticipating having her on the line and ready to go the first week of December.






Congratulations to our newest commercial pilot, Pat S. who successfully passed his Commercial check ride Yesterday with DPE Tom Hamm! Great job!!!

A few housekeeping items,

The office will be closed on Thursday Nov 24 and Friday Nov 25 so we can enjoy the turkey dinners,spend time with our families and of course spend all our hard cash on Black Friday Sales!

If you have flights booked, call ahead to arrange pick up of the keys. If you want to grab some clear skies at the last minute, please email me at kevin@flycorona.com and I will be more than happy to come and give you the keys.

Other things that are happening on the ranch.....

We have now opened our facebook store where you can purchase gift certificates and our ever popular Catalina and Lake Matthews demo. That's right, we now have gift certificates available just in time for the holiday season.

We are offering a Pinch hitter course to all spouses which will include having one of our qualified CFI's teaching emergency procedures and landings. Spouses are more than welcome to sit in on any ground sessions and back seat on any cross country lessons that are given (at the student level). For more information, inquire at the office.

We are in the process of securing in house financing for all courses, more details to come next week!

We will be having a Christmas lunch for all our customers and staff on Saturday December 17th at 11:30 to 2:30. Please come by for some food, refreshments, raffle drawing and some good ole pilot talk.

We have 5 student check rides scheduled in the month of November. Good luck to all of them, I know that you are well prepared and we will be celebrating with you all shortly!

On a final note, if you have a good story to share for our new monthly newsletter, please send them to us along with any photos that you may have.

Fly safe!
Kevin.

BBQ's and Facebook

Sorry that it has been awhile since the last blog from Mike, this is my first blog, so please be gentle....

First I want to thank all of you who came out to the bbq last Saturday. I hope you enjoyed the hamburgers, hotdogs, chips and refreshments. If you missed this one, join us in December for our customer appreciation day, more details to come in the next few weeks.

It has been a crazy few weeks at the ranch and this is what I know in maintenanceland.

61Q - Is in maintenance being repaired. Should be returning by Tuesday
68U----Is in the air
739---- Is in the air
94M---Is in the air - going in for an oil change Monday morning for a few hours.
63B----Is in the air
17J----Is in the air

We are working on some great new ideas for your flying enjoyment, like a pinch hitter course that will encourage your spouse to come flying with you. Your spouse will be trained by one of our CFI's in the areas of emergency procedures and landings. They will also be permitted to join your dual cross country flights to get the full training experience.

Look out for our new facebook store that will be up and running early this week where you can purchase the gift of flight (fancy name for gift certificates...) and purchase our every popular Catalina Demo.



Good luck to all those who are taking checkrides this week!

Fly Safe!!

Kevin.

Wind and Rain and... Hamburgers?

Pilots!

Who ordered up this weather?! The Santa Ana winds blew us all around, now a tropical-grade cold rain.. and then... blue skies like it never happened. We're confused.

What I do know is... tomorrow is supposed to be nice! Just in time for the weekend!



I know some more things too!

Cessna 61Q completed a 100hr.

Cessna 68U has a new nav/com1

Cessna 739 has a new set of nav lights

Cessna 94M has a new alternator.

Cessna 63B is going in for 100hr this week after a lap around the U.S.

Cessna 17J is ready to fly!



Wait a minute... One Seven who?

That's right... our little girl is back from the massage therapists at Tom's Aircraft in Long Beach, where she was treated to, among other things, a new engine, a new propeller, and significant new interior and sheet metal pieces. She's as good as new, and flies great!

Our friend Gerd took her up and down the coast on the laborious and noisy task of breaking in the new engine... and after her initial oil change, she is now ready for a new season of flying! Available immediately for bookings!

Welcome back, Julie! We missed you!




I mentioned Hamburgers too!

To welcome our girl back to the ranch, and celebrate (belatedly) her 5th birthday, we are throwing a BBQ tomorrow, assuming the sunshine holds out. (current forecast: yes!) -- If you are in our neck of the woods, feel free to join us for some snacks, some drinks, some music, and a whole lot of pilots talking a whole lot of hangar trash...

The least you need to know:

Noon tomorrow (Saturday)!

Snacks

Hangar trash talk

Pilots

:) Hope to see you there!!

==

I swiped the photos above rather unceremoniously from Gerd with no permission whatsoever, jackal that I am.. and as such, Gerd will be getting at least two hamburgers of his choosing tomorrow -- including yours if he claims it! Thanks for the flight, Gerd!

==

Blue Skies, cool weather... sounds like an excuse to grab some air therapy!

See ya soon,

- Mike

P.S. -- you guys are too good at this name-that-plane business -- nice job to the 8 of you who called out the Electra Jr.. often mistaken for the Beech 18. ...So here's a fresh one. If you all jump on this one with the same veracity, I will be forced to find some Romanian WW1 prototype planes to stump you with ;)