Lance Reddick was excited when his bride of one year, Stephanie, arranged for a second helicopter flight lesson at Hummingbird Aviation. A year ago, on the day before their wedding, Lance first put his hands on the flight controls of a helicopter with instructor Stephanie Burdorf. Although the flight was uneventful, Lance was not sure he would want to fly again.
“This was just SO COOL! The first time I flew the helicopter I was terrified. Just too much happening. This time [it] was just awesome! I really enjoyed it! (But, I still don’t like to fly close to the ground.),” says Lance of his flight with instructor Jonathan Karlen.

Lance and Stephanie were introduced to Hummingbird Aviation by mutual friend and fellow pilot Karl Kankel.

Lance Reddick is star of stage, film and TV. He is also an accomplished musician, recording artist and composer. Numerous stage credits include Julius Caesar, Guthrie Theater, Minneapolis, MN, 1999. Recent television credits include: Swift Justice, 1996; The West Wing, 1999; Law & Order: Special Victims Unit, 2000-01; Falcone, 2000; Oz, 2000-2001; The Wire, 2002; 100 Centre Street, 2002; The Wire, 2002-08; Law & Order, 2004; CSI: Miami, 2005-06; Numb3rs, 2007; Lost, 2008-09; Fringe, 2008-present.

First SOLO flight, Rotorcraft/Helicopter, for John Pflager. And, first time to solo a student for flight instructor Jon Karlen. John is changing careers while Jon is just starting his career. Congratulations to both!

At Sun-n-Fun this week ForeFlight and Appareo announced a new product collaboration that will bring in-flight weather, including NEXRAD radar imagery into your cockpit…for free!  The new Appareo Stratus is a ADS-B receiver capable of receiving weather broadcasts and then retransmitting them via WiFi to a ForeFlight Mobile-equipped iPad…for up to eight hours. Cost is $799 for the unit, and requires no subscriptions as the weather broadcasts are part of the free information provide via the ADS-B system.

A key benefit is its built-in battery and antennas allowing for a clutter-free installation without the need for wires running everywhere in your cockpit.

This is an exciting breakthrough in cockpit weather technology and we expect to see more products taking advantage of this technology. Learn more about it at the ForeFlight website.

Aviation welcomes Loren Jones to our training staff. Loren brings more than three decades of airplane piloting and flight instructing experience. He will be focused on both primary and instrument training in our fixed wing aircraft, including recurrent instrument training.

Loren is a big fan of the latest digital cockpit wizardry, so if you need advice or training on iPad-based flight planning products, give Loren a call!

On March 20th, 2012, Mike Alexander successfully completed his Private Pilot Rotorcraft / Helicopter initial rating with Examiner Dave Latt.  Mike’s instructor was Jimmy Young. Congratulations, Mike!

Jonathan Karlen earned his Rotorcraft/Helicopter CFI rating with us on March 17, 2012. Jonathan’s instructor was Jimmy Young and he flew with Examiner John McLaughlin for his check ride. Congratulations, Jonathan! Go out there and train lots of safe helicopter pilots!

We recently added a beautiful Cherokee 140 (PA28-140) to our rental fleet. N9612W is a very well-equipped, IFR-capable 140 with dual digital King radios plus a Garmin 496 mounted in the panel. The 140 is considered a “2+2″ configuration, meaning it can carry two people plus bags, or four people with no bags. Come out and get checked out in this great flying machine.