Lauren just graduated from Tantasqua High School and is off to University of North Dakota in the Fall to pursue a professional aviation career! She’s been training with us part-time during the school year and now she’s going full-bore to earn her Private Pilot certificate before she heads West. Her first solo on a calm evening as the sun sets is a great way to reach that goal. She’s already started on the cross-country flights!
Author Archives: kjnorby
Congrats to James on his First Solo
James is part of an extended flying family that owns multiple airplanes, so it was high time he joined their ranks. He’s well on his way towards private pilot after a flawless first solo in their gorgeous Skyhawk. James is a smooth, proficient pilot thanks to the great instuction and encouragement from his CFI Joanne Swanson.
First Solo for Ethan
Congrats to Ethan whose hard work and practice paid off in a great solo flight on Feb. 9th in our Cessna 150. CFI Joanne Swanson did an excellent job preparing him for the big day. Now it’s onto more adventures and cross-country flights as he moves quickly towards his Private Pilot certificate.
Congrats to Noah on achieving his Flight Instructor Certificate!
Noah earned his commercial single and multi-engine ratings at Embry-Riddle and then trained with us to get ready for the difficult CFI checkride. He aced the 6 hour oral and then demonstrated all the Private and Commercial manuevers from the right seat with the examiner. Way to go Noah!
Dan’s First Solo!
Congrats to Dan who had the unique thrill of soloing his own plane on a clear winter evening. Dan has flown our C172 and C150 but it wasn’t until he bought a beautiful Cessna 150 H model that everything fell into place. Great job on three near-perfect landings and to his instructor Joanne for helping him reach this milestone!
Luis Solos in Piper Cherokee
Luis did a picture perfect set of landings just before sunset in our PA28-140 Cherokee. After enduring several lessons with gusty winds we got a couple of really nice evenings that got him over the hump and he did three of the nicest solo landings I’ve ever seen that proved he was more than ready.
Mark Aces Private Pilot Checkride
Congrats to Mark on acing his Private Pilot Checkride in his beautiful Cessna A152 Aerobat. It was a gusty, windy day and the examiner commented that he handled the aircraft really well, thanks to the excellent training from our instructors. Now he needs to buy a couple of parachutes so we can do loops and rolls in his plane!
Norby Aviation welcomes new CFI Joanne Swanson
We are fortunate to have Joanne Swanson join our Instructor team. Her passion and enthusiasm for aviation and teaching will be a great help to our student’s success. Joanne started her career in IT Project management but quickly decided Aviation was much more fun. She completed her Commercial Pilot training both single and multi-engine down in Florida, and then earned her Flight Instructor certification in CT over the summer, Joanne is a smooth, thoughtful pilot and a caring and dedicated instructor so we are thrilled to have her on our staff.
Dave solos in Cherokee 140!
Congrats to David who completed three silky smooth solo landings in our Cherokee on a sunny Saturday morning. After not flying for a month due to weather and the airplane getting the new ADS-B transponder installed, he immediately got into the groove and was making nice, safe approaches and landings even with some thermals and crosswinds. So I said “what the hell am I sitting here for?” and got out so he could do some even nicer ones on his own!
Greg solos in Cessna 150
Congrats to Greg who soloed our C150 just before it went in for annual inspection in August. He did it again when the plane came out proving it wasn’t a fluke. Now onto the cross-country flights!