Posted February 2nd, 2012

Winter is still in full swing, but many pilots are already planning for their warmer weather flight destinations. If you’re one of the pilots dreaming of an ideal springtime locale, you couldn’t do better than Lake Tahoe. It truly is a perfect place to visit year round, although many people only visit Tahoe during the winter months because it seems like a more obvious time to enjoy its bountiful snow sports.

However, one of the great things about springtime in Tahoe is that the ski season lasts until the end of April or even into May at many of the resorts. So even as weather is warming up and the sunshine is reflecting off the clear blue of the lake, skiers and snowboarders still have access to world-class powder on a wide range of slopes.

If you’re still not sold on Lake Tahoe as a spring flight destination, consider a few features that make it a favorite for pilots around the country.

Why Lake Tahoe Is Among the Best Springtime Flight Destinations

• Lake Tahoe is one of the most popular destinations in the nation for all kinds of recreation and relaxation. Local amenities include hotels, casinos, golf courses and 18 resorts offering internationally renowned skiing and snowboarding.
• Pilots enjoy arriving at the local Truckee Airport because of its cross-wind landing, the opportunity to land in a high-altitude setting, reasonable avgas prices, a tasty café onsite and hourly shuttles to popular skiing and snowboarding destinations.
• Springtime in Tahoe provides a unique opportunity to enjoy fewer crowds, lower prices, softer snow and warmer weather.
• The lake itself is a major attraction, offering a variety of activities, including boating and parasailing, year round. With a depth of 989 feet, clear visibility as far down as 70 feet and a 99.7% purity level, this snow-fed lake is a natural wonder worth seeing at any time of year.
• The local weather conditions comprise 396 inches of snowfall and 300 days of sunshine annually — a rare combination.
• Visitors to Lake Tahoe can be in on the slopes in California one minute and in the casinos in Nevada the next, as the city is split almost exactly down the center by the border of these two states.
• With a stunning blue lake and breathtaking views of the Sierra Nevada mountain range, Tahoe is filled with idyllic scenery, making it an ideal destination for pilots and all other visitors.

Posted January 24th, 2012

Mammoth Mountain is a wildly popular ski resort destination during the winter, and a few pilots are lucky enough to fly in and out of this snowy wonderland in their own private aircraft. Flight safety takes on an even more crucial role during the wintertime in Mammoth,  since the weather can be as extreme as the ski slopes during the peak of the season. From turbulence and icing conditions to airspace restrictions in this region, winter in Mammoth in the winter is an invigorating time and place to fly. There are many factors that pilots must take into consideration to fly safely in Mammoth.

Flight Safety Considerations for Mammoth Winters

These are a few of the most important factors to take into consideration if you plan on flying into or out of Mammoth Mountain during the wintertime:

• Glider traffic in Owens Valley is dense, as this is a prime spot for gliding.
• Icing conditions can cause clear ice to form on the surface of the aircraft during overnight parking.
• There are restrictions on the airspace in this region due to nearby military facilities.
• Turbulence is heightened in the Mammoth region due to the mountain wave of Owens Valley.  Avoid flight in high winds.
• Watch out for engine damage from shock cooling.  This occurs during rapid temperature drops.
• Engine management is more important than ever.  The temperature can dip as low as -30 degrees.
• Take extra precautions when flying after sunset.  Avoiding the terrain is more difficult and pilots have almost no depth perception in these conditions.
• The runway may be covered in ice or snow, so be cautious during takeoff and landing. You should also get a view of the runway after the snow has been plowed to see where everything is. Finally, be extra careful during taxiing, as the snow piles are often higher than the wings of the plane.

Treat these as precautions.  Fly in the day and VFR if able.  If winds are forecasted to be greater than 30KTs at the airport, consider waiting a day.  This flight is amazing and will put a huge smile on your face upon a smooth landing at KMMH.

Posted January 17th, 2012

Did You Know?
As a pilot you could be to Big Bear in only 40 minutes? Winter is hear, so why not take that quick 40 minute flight up to Big Bear and enjoy the relaxing mountain atmosphere and go skiing.

Student Pilots:
Make Big Bear a destination during your training! Can you think of a better way to gain the necessary cross-country time you need? Our instructors have a great deal of high altitude flying experience and can give you real scenario based training so that you can safely fly yourself and friends to Big Bear any time you want once you get your pilot’s certificate.

Already a Pilot?
Enhance your proficiency! Mountain flying can be tricky. Have one of our highly qualified instructors that are well acquainted with this flight, to help you improve upon your skills. Fly up for the day or stay for the weekend to take in all that Big Bear has to offer.

Posted December 20th, 2011

Coast Flight Training has always considered the wants and needs of our customers in the design and implementation of our comprehensive flight training offerings. Coast is further fine-tuning our approach by revamping the flight training program putting an emphasis on the student as a customer. When students are treated as customers whose loyalty and satisfaction must be earned, the experience for these pilots-in-training becomes a much more positive one.
Flight Training Redefined
Here are a few of the ways in which Coast Flight Training is shifting its approach to emphasize the student-as-customer model:
• At Coast, you are a customer. Not just a student.
• No matter what your experience level is, we are all pilots who share the same passion.
• Pilots-in-training will always be treated like the fellow pilots they are, rather than being made to feel inferior.
• Flight training is much more than just classroom teaching – it is an exciting way of putting your passion for aviation to use. Coast integrates business and pleasure as part of the flight training experience.
About Coast Flight Training
This new approach to flight training is yet another example of Coast Flight Training’s innovative mission and methodology. Founder Will Dryden, has had a lengthy and distinguished career as a flight instructor. After his first five years as an instructor, he realized that few of the 100 or so graduates he had passed continued to fly using the certification they had earned. He wanted to change that statistic and share his passion for aviation with the pilots he trained. The formation of Coast Flight Training was the result of this desire and passion. He and his team continue to innovate today, as they treat each and every one of their pilots as customers whose loyalty must be earned.

Posted December 13th, 2011

Cirrus caused a buzz in the aviation world in 2008 when the aircraft manufacturer finally launched the much-awaited Perspective. The Cirrus Perspective by Garmin is a standard cockpit. It employs many of the same underlying technologies as the G1000 system, but is designed solely for Cirrus’ specifications. It offers numerous benefits and new features that Cirrus pilots will surely appreciate.

These are the most exciting features and benefits of the Cirrus Perspective by Garmin:

• Autopilot Control Yaw Damper: The yaw damper reduces rolling and yawing oscillations caused by Dutch roll mode, and the new version has an intuitive autopilot control system.
• Flight Management System: The FMS in the Cirrus Perspective by Garmin is a more user-friendly version of the computer system that automatically performs many in-flight tasks.  It basically gives the pilot a keypad like your computer.
• Flight Path Indicator: This technology provides a clear display of the path the airplane is on at any given time.
• HSI Display: This display shows a predetermined course for the pilot, which replaces the gauges and other hardware that pilots have traditionally relied on to create a mental picture of the situation their airplane is in.
• New Autopilot: The Garmin autopilot offers a blue level button.  The will level the wings, recover unusual attitude and provide flawless instrument approaches.
• Synthetic Vision: This new virtual reality display system for cockpits uses 3D technology to give pilots a clearer and more insightful understanding of the environment in which they’re flying.
• Terrain Avoidance Warning System: The TAWS is highly reliable and efficient, as it automatically warns the flight crew of potential collisions with terrain, giving the crew plenty of time to react before danger strikes.

This is truly the safest cockpit option available in general aviation!

Posted December 3rd, 2011

Winter is a popular time to travel.  Everyone wants to visit to family, friends, go skiing all in different areas of the country in a short holiday season.  Although winter weather conditions can create higher risk challenges, many pilots can’t help but to continue experiencing the wonders of aviation during the winter months.

If you plan on flying on your own this winter, you can have a safe and enjoyable experience, as long as you take a few extra precautions and spend a little more time planning.

Tips for Safe Winter Flying

• Proper preflight planning is crucial – imagine all the possible worst-case scenarios before you head out onto the runway.  Remember that icing levels are lower this time of year.
• Check all pilot reports before flying for icing conditions, airport closures, cold fronts, cloud locations and other issues that could affect your flight.
• Air traffic during the holidays is often much worse than any other time of the year. Take this into consideration and allow for extra time to get to your destination.   Expect runway delays, and runway closures due to snow and ice.

• If you are taking any passengers, make sure to brief them of potential scenarios and the potential for delays due to weather, airport closures and heightened air traffic.
• Remember that temperatures in the atmosphere could dip as low as -30 degrees, and that turbulence is often much worse in the mountain areas that are popular winter destinations.
• Get proper night training before flying with passengers in the wintertime, because the sun sets earlier and you may be forced to fly at night. In order to get night-current with your training, you must complete a minimum of three takeoffs and landings to a full stop at night within the past 90 days.

Preflight Checklist for Small Airplane Pilots

Before taking flight in the winter, the last precaution you must take is going through this additional pre-flight checklist for cold weather conditions:

• Confirm that the heat works and that the heater is not leaking.
• Check that all de-icing equipment is working properly.
• Prepare instruments for holding.
• Pre-check the safety kit and update the kit if anything is missing. Make sure you have a good knife, fire starters, a signal mirror and medical supplies in case of an emergency.

Posted November 3rd, 2011

Oxygen use is one of many factors in aviation where it’s a good idea to set your own limits, which should also be much lower than those required by the FAA. Legal requirements for oxygen aren’t applicable until you fly above 12,500 feet, but in some cases you may want to start inhaling supplemental oxygen as low as 5,000 feet.

As you climb higher into the atmosphere, the partial pressure of oxygen decreases. This means that the number of oxygen molecules in each volume of breath decreases and many of the hemoglobin molecules that normally deliver oxygen to the cells travel empty. Gradually, you’ll experience increasing levels of hypoxia — a word of Greek origin that means a lower-than-normal amount of oxygen.

There are no set guidelines when it comes to recognizing the symptoms of hypoxia. Everyone reacts differently. The altitude at which your body begins to experience hypoxia depends much on your past exposure to high altitude. If you live in Denver, your limits will be much higher than your friends in Washington, D.C. If you fly or hike regularly at high altitude, your body will adjust over time. The only way to know when your body starts exhibiting symptoms is by exposing yourself and paying attention to the changes.

The first symptoms of hypoxia are most likely very subtle. You could begin to experience a slight headache or pressure behind the eyes. But it’s important to recognize those first signs because advanced symptoms of hypoxia impair functions critical to safe flight. Examples of those symptoms include loss of judgment, inability to make calculations, euphoria and diminished vision.

The lack of adequate vision and other hypoxic symptoms are particularly prevalent at night when the eyes need more oxygen to produce a special night vision protein in the rods of the eyes called rhodopsin. Your personal altitude limit for oxygen use should therefore be lower at night, perhaps as low as 5,000 feet if you live at sea level.

Fortunately hypoxia is a condition that is easy to cure. You simply need to introduce more oxygen to the body by descending to a lower altitude, inhaling supplemental oxygen or pressurizing the cabin. If your airplane is neither pressurized nor equipped with oxygen, you can purchase a portable system that is easy to bring along.

Learn what your first signs of hypoxia are by getting some high altitude training. Whether you train in a high-altitude chamber or in an airplane with an instructor, you won’t regret learning how to recognize your symptoms. Once you know how your body reacts, set your own individual altitude limits for when you need to use supplemental oxygen.

-Pia Bergqvist

Posted October 5th, 2011

We are excited to share that we have been selected by the San Diego Business Journal as the 7th  Fastest-Growing Private Company in San Diego! Click the image/link to read the full story.

http://iflycoast.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/10/10-03-11-Coast-Flight-Training_Fast-100.pdf

Posted October 4th, 2011

http://iflycoast.com/fast_planes/

Stop by Coast on October 22, 2011 and check out the latest from Cirrus and Porsche.  Sit in both cockpits and experience the power!  Limited flights available with reservations.  Event is free to attend, flights are $175.  All profits will go to Rady Children’s Hospital.

Food and drinks will be served.

Posted September 18th, 2011

* A beautiful & unspoiled island located just twenty-two nautical miles from the Souther California coast, Catalina Island is one of the most popular holiday destinations for passengers & pilots in the area. For pilots, however, a trip to Catalina Island is as much about the journey as the destination; Catalina Island presents a number of challenges even for experienced pilots.

*Catalina Island’s airport has no tower & sits atop an elevated mesa that stands 1602 feet above sea level. Consisting of a single 3000 foot long runway. Pilots can usually enjoy a sunny landing even on cloudy days because of the airport’s high elevation.

*One of the best ways to see the natural scenery of Catalina Island is by air, since many of the most beautiful areas cannot be easily accessed by ground transportation. After landing, visitors can enjoy fresh buffalo burgers at a scenic airport restaurant thanks to the presence of herd of buffalo that still roam the free range areas of the island. A trip to Catalina Island takes just 40 minutes by air for flights departing from KMYF. Compare that to the hour or hour & a half via scheduled ferry trips from Long Beach or Dana Point, & it’s easy to see why flights to Catalina Island are always in demand for aspiring & experienced pilots.