View From the Ramp

So many people ask me about owning an FBO that I started writing it down. I tell the story in the adjacent pages, which I will post every week or so. They are stories of Out of the Blue - humor, suspense, adventure, the good, bad, and the ugly are all right there - starting with "HOW TO MAKE A MILLION IN AVIATION" about a crazy girl, who didn't know anything about airplanes, going and starting a flight school.

So many adventures, so little time

I had good intentions to post regularly here, but then Jenny went and had a baby (sheesh!) and I've been training new gals, and sometimes it feels like swimming upstream. But I'll admit, I do fit in some fun now and then . . . got to fly an Alpha Jet, and a Messerschmidt aerobatic helicopter, and a bit of aerobatics in different aircraft, so I can't complain. I've also been doing a lot of writing, the history of Out of the Blue so to speak. Lots of stories to tell. I plan on posting some of it here, so more coming soon . . . .

Part 141 approval

We finally received our part 141 approval, which I thought enabled us to train people with GI/VA money. But no, two steps forward and then a wall. There is a whole other VA approval process and I can't get their blessing unless I have an aircraft for Commercial training (retractable gear). So now, I'm working on getting a twin on line to meet all of our needs (Commercial, CFI, Multi,etc). Sometimes I wish I was an employee, "my day's done, see you tomorrow" rather than always being the one to have to figure out how to jump walls.

Awesome CFIs

Had a CFI meeting today. I figured these top aviators needed their own call signs, decided upon with laughter and general consensus: John-"Top Gun";Ron-"Ace";Mike-"Viper";Marla-"TomCat";Lucas-"Iceman";Casey-"Hollywood";Klaus-"Wolfman";Mike T-"Sundown";Jenny-"Jester" and me? "Whirlwind" Go figure . . . .
Love my job, and my awesome instructors!

Long Day

Another advantage of owning your own business - you only have to work 1/2 days (and YOU get to choose which 12 hours to work)Actually today was only an 8 hour day it just SEEMED like a 12 hour day, trying to finish taxes, and finish Part 141, and then the refrigerator dying didn't help. But lots of new customers and things are getting busy so Hurrah for Spring weather!

Part 141

Last Friday, I had finished up all the paperwork for the Part 141 Inspection this Tuesday and I went to delete an old folder that I'd just emptied. Yep, I inadvertently deleted every single part 141 folder on my laptop AND the network drive. No worries, its in my recycle bin. Nope. Don't ask me, I don't work for Microsoft. Anyway, gone, gone, gone. In desperate, idle hope, I went to the external hard drive that we've had for a year and never used. One of my New Year "resolutions" this January had been to have Jenny do regular backups, but I had no idea if she had followed through on that mandate. Bless her, she had scheduled a monthly backup for the 5th of the month at 1pm. Guess when I deleted the files? Feb 5th at 2 pm. Thank you Jenny! And thank you guardian angels!

Our site inspection went well, hope to be approved by end of month!

Raining on my parade

Rain, Rain go away, and tell the weather man, because inaccurate predictions of rain are as bad as the real thing! Too many cancelled flights aren't helping the bottom line. Well, when things feel crummy, I guess I better go flying -that always makes me feel better!