Welcome from the Owner

Hi,

I'm John Felleman, the owner of N96934. Skylane 934 is a 1979 Cessna 182Q Skylane. The plane is part of the member-owned fleet at West Valley Flying Club in Palo Alto, CA. If you are a West Valley member you probably know that or at least understand what it means.

I intend to use this blog as a public forum for members interested in flying the plane. I will post updates on the maintenance status of the plane and information that will help members to have the best flying experience for themselves and the plane. My belief is that we all want to manage the aircraft in a way that maximizes safety, economy and the overall health of the machine.

In this first post, I want to share a little information about the plane and my plans for inviting and managing comments. I look forward to your feedback.

About the plane:
96934 is equipped with great avionics which make it a very attractive choice as an instrument training or medium-distance cross-country machine. I won't try and list every instrument, but here are some highlights:
Garmin GNS 530
HSI
Glide slope on second CDI
DME
Ryan TCAD traffic alert
STEC 30 with altitude hold

I have owned the plane since July, 2005. Among the improvements I have made:
Added terrain alert to GNS 530
Added wiring for aux audio on intercom
Added harness for a Garmin 396 (contact me if you plan to use your 396 with the plane--I can provide information on the necessary cable)

Regular renters know that the plane has had limited availability during 2006 and has been MIA since May. After various preventitive and minor maintenance during the first part of the year, I got the big surprise during annual in May. It's a long story that ends with a decision to replace the wings on the plane. The work is being done by an outstanding shop in Santa Maria and is nearing completion. One of the last bits will be a brand new paint job which will give the plane looks to match its pedigree. When that work is done, the plane will return to the Bay Area. There is a final short task to be done by Bay Avionics in OAK and the plane should be back on line in better than new condition.

I'm hoping to find some ways to thank loyal members who return to flying the plane and to encourage others to become regular renters as well. 934 is a great plane that wants to fly.

My policy on comments:
The goal of this blog is to provide the most accurate and open exchange of information possible to allow renters the best possible experience and to learn what is going well and what needs attention with the aircraft.

I am looking forward to comments which help me to learn about your experience with the plane and which help other renters to know the status of the plane so that they are not caught by surprise over issues. To achieve that objective, I will only remove comments which are malicious or have inappropriate content. If I think there are statements which are in error or out of date in a comment, I will point that out but generally leave the original post.

All of this is an experiment. I will make changes as necessary to make this blog as useful as it can be. It will only be as good as you all make it, so please contribute. Thank you very much.

Regards,
John Felleman