Santa Cruz Flying Club Weather Page Update

A very minor update to the SCFC website this evening. In the past on our weather page we had a textual listing of local area METAR weather reports. When the site was upgraded to our new content management system I turned off the feature until I could develop a better way to do it.

This evening I found a solution and added some additional area airports to the list. I have kept them as plain coded METARs to keep the display compact and allow you to quickly at a glance get the information you need from it. If you have any comments, suggestions, or difficulty viewing it, leave a comment and let us know.

Link to the SCFC Weather page.

Light Sport Workshop at Watsonville Airport

The Sport Pilot License and transitioning to Light Sport Aircraft
Saturday, April 3, 2010, starting at 11:00 am
Speaker: Steve Blackwell

Explore what it takes to get your Sport Pilot license - what is it and how does it differ from the Private Pilot License? Can a Private Pilot (or higher) fly a Light Sport Aircraft? What do they need to do? What can a Light Sport Aircraft do? Transitioning to a light sport aircraft? Find out what you need to know about light sport aircraft at night, in crosswinds, and for IFR. What do you need to know about the Rotax engine? See some Light Sport Airplanes and ask questions about Sport Pilot possibilities.

Registration Information:

Click here to register online now!

Location of Event:
Ocean Air Flight Services
170 Aviation Way
Watsonville, CA 95076

Sponsored by Ocean Air Flight Services, West Coast Sport Aircraft, and AeroDynamic Aviation.

Jet West Grand Opening at the Salinas Airport

On Friday, March 5th, Gryphon McArthur from Ocean Air Flight Services gave me a call and invited me to fly over to the Salinas Airport with him, I jumped on the opportunity right away!

The first thing that made me want to join him on this short trip would be that I would get to fly one of their new Light Sport aircraft, the Tecnam Sierra, also known as the Tecnam P2002 Sierra. You can read more about my experience with the aircraft in my post at http://light-sport.org.

The other reason I was glad to join him was he told me about the grand opening of Jet West over at the Salinas Airport. We arrived in time for their ribbon cutting ceremony and got to meet a lot of great people and enjoy some of their food and beverages.

The facility itself is incredible, they put a lot of work and thought in to the layout and design of it to make it comfortable for those they would be serving. They had a variety of crew cars and vans out front, a well set up waiting room, pool table, pilots lounge, flight planning area, and even sleeping quarters and showers. Below are some pictures of their amazing facility.

Possible Closure of Oceano Airport (L52)

The following message was posted on the SiliconValleyGA Yahoo Group on March 1, 2010:

I'm posting this message on behalf of Jolie Lucas and Mitch Latting. They are a couple of central coast airplane owners involved with Oceano Airport. They've been made aware of a developer's desire to buy the airport property for redevelopment.

From Jolie:

Oceano, in addition to perhaps being the closest airport to the Pacific Ocean, is a vital link in emergency services in San Luis Obispo County. Life-flight, California Highway Patrol, Civil Air Patrol, Diablo Canyon evacuation, Beach rescues, Angel Flights all make use of Oceano airport. It is a great field for training and is used by regional CFIs.

The opportunities for recreation are bountiful, with on field camping and walking distance to the dunes/restaurants. Several businesses are located on the field including Banner Airways owned by JR Smith. He gives rides in his 1943 Stearman. JR's father, and my father were both trainers in the Army Air Corps at Rankin Field in Tulare, CA.

Mitch and I organized a Vintage Mooney Group event in December of 2008. The event was a service event, as it benefitted Toys for Tots. We had 23 Mooneys on the ramp that day, loaded with toys. I was told by Toys for Tots, that because of our event, the children in our area got one extra toy under the tree. Oceano is a good neighbor!

We are fighting the closure of Oceano Airport! A developer is trying to close L52! We need pilots from all over CA to attend this meeting in a show of force. AOPA has been made aware and is on-board. Anyone flying into Oceano who needs a ride, please email us.

We are working closely with AOPA's Bill Dunn, the airport administration, EAA, the FAA, NATA, and the San Luis Obispo County Supervisors.

Article in the Tribune:
http://www.sanluisobispo.com/2010/02/25/1045185/oceano-county-airport-future-in.html

Both AOPA and AVWeb have run the story.
AVWeb: http://www.avweb.com/avwebflash/news/oceano_airport_developer_edwards_202087-1.html

A group of local pilots and business owners will be attending a San Luis Obispo County Supervisors meeting next Tuesday, March 2nd, at morning at 9:00. The Board of Supervisors meetings start at 9:00 a.m. in the County Government Center Board Chambers located at 1055 Monterey Street, Room D-170, San Luis Obispo.

A March 17th meeting is being planned by the developer at 5:00 p.m. at the Grover Beach Rabobank. We hope to have good attendance at this meeting.

Jolie Lucas
jolielucas@charter.net

Mitch Latting
sanluisjazzband@charter.net