Flight Instructors Wanted

Santa Cruz Flying Club is actively looking for CFI's at this time. We're looking for instructors interested in teaching in our single engine aircraft and our students are typically training for Private, Instrument and Commercial certificates, as well as existing pilots needing Biennial Flight Reviews (BFR) and Instrument Proficiency Checks (IPC).

You would be working as an independent contractor at the Santa Cruz Flying Club, typical instructor rates are $60 to $85/hour (instructors determine their hourly rate on a lesson-by-lesson basis). As prospective students call the club office they are passed along to the various flight instructors based on their schedule and availability.

If you would like to inquire for more information or if you have any questions please contact the Santa Cruz Flying Club at 831-722-4580 or via email at info@scfc.org. Additional information about the club can be found at http://scfc.org.

Day in the Sky at Watsonville Airport

Following is a note from Dean McCully about the Watsonville Airport "Day in the Sky" event. Santa Cruz Flying Club will be there, so tell your friends and be sure to stop by!

Greetings Aviators

Heads up, the SEVENTH annual Day in the Sky Watsonville is heading our way like a freight train... only 2.5 weeks away!

Who: Thousands of Central Coast families, especially families with kids with disabilities + low income families.

What: Biggest springtime Watsonville Airport festival ever. Plus about 100 exhibitors of Science/Technology/EngineeringMath/Aviation. Hot air balloons. Static aircraft displays + tours. Tons of hands-on fun for kids of all ages!

When: Saturday April 30, 9am-4pm

Where: Watsonville Municipal Airport, Watsonville. Easy access...
Take Hwy 1 to the "Airport Blvd" exit. Turn east, drive about 2 miles, you're there. Or if you're flying in, follow the coast until your GPS starts flashing WVI. (If it's flashing LAX, you've gone too far 😉

Why: We're continuing the 7 year long tradition of getting hoards of kids interested in general aviation and science, in an incredibly fun hands-on way.

How can you help? Many ways:

Escort kids to the airplanes. Tell fun tales of aviation. Whatever you would like to get them hooked on GA.
OR if you can fly in, come on down and give tours of your aircraft to the captivated families.
OR Help give ground school and teach families how the planes work.
OR just come on down and hang out with us and have some fun in the Watsonville sun...

We hope you can join us Saturday April 30...

See the website for more info:
http://www.dayinthesky.com/pilot.htm (for pilot registration -- go to the homepage for lots more info...)

Blue Skies!
Dean McCully
Shared Adventures Day in the Sky

Bay Tour flight over San Francisco

On New Years Eve 2010 I took my co-worker John Hamilton up for a flight in my Cessna 150. We headed up to San Francisco, did a Bay Tour, then returned via Half Moon Bay Airport where we had lunch at the Half Moon Bay Brewing Company. Then we continued down the coast back to Watsonville.

John brought along his camera and a GoPro that we mounted in the back window. I thought you might enjoy seeing a bit of what a Bay Tour looks like from a Cessna 150. If you've never been on a Bay Tour, I highly recommend giving your instructor a call and ask them to show you what it's all about! Give the Santa Cruz Flying Club a call at 831-722-4580 if you're looking for an instructor or rental aircraft!

Final Flight of 2010 from John Hamilton on Vimeo.

Icon A5 Light Sport: Amazing in flight views

Here is an awesome video of the Icon A5 in flight. They set it up with multiple GoPro cameras so you can see it from multiple angles in flight. How cool would it be to have a plane that can drive in to a lake, take off, touch-and-go on a paved runway, land back on the water, and then taxi up the boat ramp. Amazing!

Can aviation be fun? YOU BET!

A Short Video of a Morning Flight

I'm quite surprised I never blogged this video previously, but thought it would be worth sharing with you now. One day last year I stayed home sick from work because I didn't want to spread my cold. So, I decided to head to the airport and fly since it was a beautiful day and I didn't have to work!

I had recently gotten a Canon 5D Mark II camera that could shoot video, so I decided to make a little video project out of my flight, so what you're going to see is some flight planning, pre-flighting the plane, and some shots from my flight to King City, Hollister and back to Watsonville.

Teach your kids about airplanes with sock puppets!

There is a DVD for kids called Yay! Planes that teaches them about aircraft and air travel. They've posted a few clips on YouTube including the one below, definitely worth a watch and tempting to buy the DVD for some kids I know!

It does look like they mostly cover the smaller General Aviation aircraft like Cessnas for now, maybe they'll expand it to include larger aircraft later. To see the other videos they've posed you can check out their YouTube channel here and there is an introductory video posted on Vimeo here.

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