Congratulations and Kudos to our PAC Members: President s Message In my president s letter for this month, it occurred to me how much achievement we have had in the past month. As a result, I wanted to highlight two events that all PAC members share excitement and joy. First, Jon Wells, Ashley Smith, and Brandon Potter.the Shiloh fundraiser on April 18 was an awesome event, and it was very well-attended. While yours truly perhaps had the worst poker hand in history, I enjoyed the cheeseburgers and the aviation day at all of the airports. Great job Jon, Ashley, and Brandon!!! Second, the PAC congratulates our friends at HondaJet for the certification and the demonstrations around the world. Congratulations to all of our PAC HondaJet members and friends for such a significant event in history!!!! 2015 Board of Directors President: Eric Perdew Vice President: Brandon Potter Treasurer: Chris Werling Secretary: Gorkem Baydar Chief CFI: Jason Thomas (interim) Operations/Events: Ashley Smith Marketing Coordinator: Mike Smith Webmaster: Ramone Hemphill (interim) www.piedmontaeroclub.com piedmontaeroclub@gmail.com
Pac monthly meeting at Gtcc av3 room 418 Thursday May 21 st @6:30pm. Special Guest Rebecca Colangelo from landmark gso (See page 6) Club Venture 2015 may 30 th (see page 5)
Join us at Sugar Valley Airport for a great day of fun with fellow aviators from the oldest aviation club Carolina Aero Club!! We are having a great opportunity for two Aero Clubs to meet in one location and join forces for fun thus, Club-Venture 2015. Carolina Aero Club was established in 1928 and is the oldest continuously operating Club. Help us welcome our fellow aviator brothers and sisters for a great time at Sugar Valley. Food, canoes, fishing and music! All day long with an option to spend the night! It will be a great way to kick off summer with friends!
UNCG Graduate May Guest Speakers: Rebecca Colangelo from Landmark Aviation GSO Ran XC for UNCG, and has been an avid runner for 15 years. Favorite is the 3200. Born and raised in Morris Plains, NJ. Spent the first 18 years of her life there until she could run away as far away as she could. Becca says she fell backwards into aviation. She started at UNCG as an interior architecture major and decided about 3 years in that it just wasn t for her. She decided to switch to the Hospitality management program and concentrated in travel and tourism. She was bartending up at Tripp s on new garden road when the CSM from Landmark Aviation at the time came up to eat with a pilot. They got to talking and found out about the job. She says I applied and the rest is history. As for hobbies, Becca enjoys the outdoors with her dogs, reading, hanging out with friends and family. She has just bought a new house, and working on that has taken up quite a bit of her time. When May 21 st Where GTCC Aviation Center 3 Room Number 418 What Time 6:30pm
Exciting news for 2015! Effective January 1, PAC members who have a flying category membership ($25/mo per individual) will receive 15% off aircraft rental at TAA Flight Training. This expands the membership value to flying members in a number of ways TAA offers a larger fleet of aircraft, a Cessna 150, two Liberty XL2 aircraft, two Cessna 172 s, and a Piper Arrow. With the club discount, you can now get in the air for as little as$92.23/hr (all taxes, fees, surcharges included) in a C150, go get a complex endorsement in the Arrow, or fly a C172 at $121.98/hr all in. Depending on the aircraft, you save the equivalent of your membership dollars as soon as you fly between 1 1.5 hours each month. It is our hope that this arrangement will give PAC flying members access to an increased variety and number of aircraft, increase the club s flying member count, and reduce costs to get club members in the air more often! What do I have to do to take advantage of the discount? Just be a flying PAC member on January 1, 2015, active PAC flying members will have discounts already applied to their names in TAA s system, and will automatically be applied when you return the aircraft and pay for your rental. Any members that join as a flying member or switch to flying memberships after the 1st of every month will receive the discounted rate starting on the 1st of the next month. Why is the Fuel Surcharge and/or Sales Tax not discounted on my TAA invoice? PAC members receive a 15% discount on the entire aircraft rental (taxes and fuel surcharge Included), but the way it's calculated may not be completely obvious. Due to the way that TAA's billing system works, fuel surcharges and sales tax are automatically added; therefore, the rate on the aircraft is adjusted even lower than 15% to make it calculate correctly. This is why you may see more than a 15% discount on the aircraft rental rate, but no discount where the additional fees/taxes are concerned. If I become a flying member on January 2, when can I take advantage of the discount? This benefit kicks in on the 1st of the next month cycle so, February 1. Does this apply to instruction as well? No, only aircraft rental. TAA s standard instructor rates apply. For Private Pilot instruction, this works out to be ~$5/hour more on average than what club students currently pay. Based on members feedback on membership value, the Board of Directors voted in favor of providing a larger benefit to the majority of the flying membership base (aircraft renters) with a cost for students that remains close to the same they are paying today. Can I keep my PAC instructor and use TAA aircraft? A grandfathering agreement is in place for current PAC club students who may need additional time beyond 2/28/2015, when the club C172 becomes unavailable. CFI s will need to complete a checkout flight with TAA (for those that haven t already), and PAC will help make that as painless as possible. Can my PAC instructor still provide instruction in my own airplane? Yes, absolutely, these changes only affect those who wish to rent aircraft, and instruction for owners still remains an unchanged club benefit as it has been in the past. Will I still need to use the club s flight scheduler to rent TAA planes? No the club flight scheduler will remain active until February 28, 2015 for those renting the club aircraft while it remains available. You can get an online login set up with TAA s system the first time you reserve an aircraft.