 |
| Early in the flight training process |
I started my flight training in April 2009 at FlyCorona! based at Corona, CA (KAJO). My instructor was a young lad of about 20 years named Spenser Phillips. I don't think it was related but right after I qualified in December 2009 and got my ticket, Spenser took off for Kenya for his two year stint as a Mormon missionary - maybe he didn't want to be in the same sky as me!
 |
| At the controls of 361ES |
At any rate, I made it through my training in a variety of Cessna 172's; some almost as old as me (like the 1968 version above), but my primary bird was a sweet little Skyhawk N361ES from 1989 with steam gauges and a Garmin GPS display so it had features of both old and new technology. I also trained in and later flew as a rental N6017J, a 2006 172SP with the full G-1000 glass panel. That Garmin panel is pretty cool and the integration of flight instruments, navaids, and comm is nice but can be very distracting to your average (or in this case very average) VFR pilot.
 |
| Proud possessor of my PPL ticket |
About 6 months after getting my ticket, I took a new job which caused me to move from Orange County to the San Fernando Valley (northern portion of the LA megalopolis) and I couldn't make it down to Corona conveniently. I tracked down a flying club based at Whiteman Airport (KWHP) http://www.skycombers.com/ with an old, but servicable, Cessna C-177B Cardinal (N13HK). The rate per hour was excellent and the Cardinal with its strutless wing and sweptback windscreen is essentially a sexier version of the 172 so I joined up with Skycombers and have been buzzing around in a 40 year old Cardinal. So far, I've taken her just around the Valley for sightseeing or practice and over to Santa Paula (KSZP) and Santa Ynez (KIZA).
More later.
Blue Skies
Matt
