California flying
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First Solo Flight – Dale Friday
Nov 07 2016Solo Date: November 2, 2016
Aircraft: Cessna 172
Instructor: Chris Laird
Location: Monterey, CA (KMRY)
Woooohoooo! After working so diligently to fulfill his life-long dream of being a pilot, Dale flew an aircraft all by himself out of Monterey’s class Charlie airspace with Instructor Chris and some of the Monterey AeroDynamic family watching in support. In the long-held solo tradition, Dale’s instructor cut his shirttail off and autographed it in remembrance of this first solo flight. Congrats to both of them on this accomplishment. You’re almost there, Dale!!
First Solo Flight – Chuang Wang
Nov 07 2016Solo Date: October 29, 2016
Aircraft: Cessna 172
Instructor: David Waksberg
Location: San Jose, CA (KRHV)
It’s not every day one solos an aircraft, and even fewer get to enjoy the moment on a fair California Saturday afternoon the way Chuang did. After beginning his training in July, Chuang has a progressed quickly to solo at our San Jose location, tackling his first flight alone on a busy Saturday at Reid-Hillview airport. He comes from China originally and plans to travel and fly just for the pure fun of it. Instructor David is moving him toward Private Pilot certification so he can achieve this goal. Keep up the good work!
New Commercial Multi-Engine Pilot – Ghyrn Loveness
Nov 07 2016Date: October 20, 2016
Instructor: David Waksberg
Location: San Jose, CA (KRHV)
Certification: Multi-Engine Rating, Commercial Pilot
Ghyrn comes from a family of flyers and chose AeroDynamic Aviation to pursue a multi-engine rating add-on to his Commercial Pilot Certificate. His Instructor David did an amazing job, finishing the training in just 8 flights! It helps that Ghyrn flies regularly and has accrued over 1,000 hours 🙂 Still, they both worked hard and Ghyrn passed his checkride first attempt with Examiner Yuzo Wakita. Ghyrn has already been spotted taking friends out flying in the Twin Comanche, affectionately called “Twinkie.” Well done!
New Private Pilot – Dustin Liu
Nov 03 2016Date: October 24, 2016
Instructor: Eric Curtis
Location: San Jose, CA (KRHV)
Certification: Private Pilot License
Dustin begin his training with Instructor Lynzie Hudson. When she went on leave, he transitioned to Eric Curtis. The whole AeroDynamic team pitched in to help Dustin complete his goal of becoming a pilot. Special thanks to Jim Grant, Jen Delp-Mallet, David Waksberg, Jason Brown, and the other instructors who made this possible for him. Congrats, Dustin!!
“I started my training since Feb. 1, 2014 and had my first solo flight Sep. 13, 2015. I always wanted to fly but did not have the chance until I made several visits to ADA. I like the people here and I finally convinced myself and my family that this is something I need to do. My wife has been always supportive and she was my first passenger after I got my PPL. I got a lot help from ADA staff and instructors. I really appreciate it. I look forward to my life as a private pilot.” ~ Dustin
AeroDynamic Aviation makes AOPA’s Honor Roll!
Oct 27 2016AERODYNAMIC AVIATION
RECOGNIZED FOR FLIGHT TRAINING EXCELLENCE BY AOPA
The Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association (AOPA), the world’s largest aviation association, has recognized AeroDynamic Aviation for its high standard of accomplishment in flight training. The flight school has been awarded a spot on the 2016 Flight Training Excellence Awards Honor Roll, a title given to high scoring flight schools from AOPA’s annual flight training poll.
AOPA’s Flight Training Excellence Awards were created to highlight the best flight training the industry has to offer. “This year’s winners are great examples of high quality and effective flight training. The recognition is well deserved,” said Chris Moser, AOPA’s senior manager of flight training initiatives. “The Flight Training Excellence Awards were created to recognize best practices in flight training—excellent customer service, quality education, community development, and sharing knowledge. We are excited to spotlight their excellent work.”
The 2016 awards were drawn from flight students and pilots who voluntarily reviewed their flight training experience last summer through an AOPA online poll. The process yielded an evaluation of 789 different flight schools and 1,515 individual flight instructors.
AeroDynamic would like to thank all its students, renters and flight instructors who worked hard for this honor and nominated us. Thanks to them, we also recently earned Cloud9 Living’s Legendary Experience Provider Award and Best of Groupon. You are all appreciated!
AeroDynamic Aviation began flight training in 1960 in San Jose and expanded to Salinas and Monterey within the last decade. This historic school began as Amelia Reid Aviation and continues to operate with vintage, tailwheel, aerobatic, tricycle-gear, complex and multi-engine aircraft. Their Monterey location recently earned the title of Cirrus Training Center as well. For more information about flight training at AeroDynamic Aviation, visit their website at www.aerodynamicaviation.com
First Solo – Hajime Sammoto
Oct 13 2016Solo Date: October 7, 2016
Aircraft: Citabria 7ECA
Instructor: Batelle Rachmian
Location: San Jose, CA (KRHV)
As a historic flight school, we love our traditions, especially when they involve tailwheel aircraft! Flight Instructor Batelle cuts the tails off her tailwheel student’s shirt after his first solo flight in a Citabria. Hajime hails from Japan and has been training with us since late August for his Private Pilot Certificate. Jumping the hurdles of becoming proficient in English and Aviation languages, he progressed quickly and now moves on to the cross-country and checkride prep phase of training. Congrats to Hajime for taming the taildragger and Batelle for all her hard work!
“In American aviation lore, the traditional removal of a new pilot’s shirt tail is a sign of the instructor’s new confidence in his student after successful completion of the first solo flight. In the days of tandem trainers, the student sat in the front seat, with the instructor behind. As there were often no radios in these early days of aviation, the instructor would tug on the student pilot’s shirttail to get his attention, and then yell in his ear. A successful first solo flight is an indication that the student can fly without the instructor (“instructor-less” flight). Hence, there is no longer a need for the shirt tail, and it is cut off by the (often) proud instructor, and sometimes displayed as a trophy.” – Rod Machado (who also trained with us!)
New Private Pilot – Richard Lee
Sep 03 2016Date: August 29, 2016
Instructor: Jason Brown
Location: San Jose, CA (KRHV)
Certification: Private Pilot License
Starting early Monday morning, Richard met with Reid-Hillview examiner Yuzo Wakita for the Private Pilot checkride. Having spent a great deal of time studying and preparing for the practical test, he was in and out of his checkride in record time, passing with flying colors! Well done to both Richard and his instructor Jason. Richard has since been seen sharing his passion for flying – taking the people in his life out for flights around the bay. That’s what it’s all about 🙂
“After 5 months of training with Jason, I’ve finally crossed flying off my bucket list. I’m very excited and looking forward to a lot of fun piloting to come in California as a hobby. Until then, who knows where life will take me.” – Richard
First Solo – Nick Gronendyke
Aug 27 2016Solo Date: August 25, 2016
Aircraft: Cessna 172
Instructor: Jason Brown
Location: San Jose, CA (KRHV)
Another young solo pilot takes to the skies! On Thursday, 17-year-old Nick fulfilled not just his dream of flying, but with Dad and Uncle watching, he also fulfilled their dream. Nick’s father always wanted to learn to fly, but his son is recognizing this dream for both of them. 
After reaching this benchmark of solo, Nick will continue on to earn his Private Pilot’s license. He eventually wants to go to an aviation college and fly professionally. We are so honored to be part of his flying journey! Congrats to Nick and CFI Jason for their hard work!
First Solo – Edan Ben Moshe
Aug 25 2016Solo Date: August 23, 2016
Aircraft: Citabria 7ECA
Instructor: Jen Delp-Mallet
Location: San Jose, CA (KRHV)
Living the dream! At only 16 years old, Edan became one of the elite young solo pilots, and he did it right…in a taildragger! 
Edan’s father, who received his instrument rating with Jen Delp-Mallet in his Diamond Star DA40, and his mother watched and snapped photos from Row P with his proud instructor as Edan took to the evening sky off runway 31R at Reid-Hillview airport. Winds were mostly down the runway at 10 knots, sunset approaching on the horizon, and light traffic in the pattern. Edan’s first comment to his instructor? “I didn’t know the tail would be so light without you back there,” followed by “and I kept looking at the backseat, like there’s really no one there?!”
Edan turns 17 in a few months, so we wish him luck with finishing up his Private Pilot’s license just after his birthday. As long as he does school and flight training homework on time, he should meet this goal and be on to borrowing Dad’s plane in no time. 😉
New Private Pilot – Dan Schmidt
Aug 25 2016Date: August 23, 2016
Instructor: Jen Delp-Mallet
Location: Fresno, CA (KFAT)
Certification: Private Pilot License
Proud Cirrus owner, Dan Schmidt, earned his wings on Tuesday at Fresno airport with DPE Bob Schwoerer. Dan began training in our Cessna 172s out of Monterey to fulfill a long-long dream of flying. Dan purchased the Cirrus SR20 in February and finished training for his Private Pilot license in the new plane. He travels often, and being able to fly allows him flexibility to meet clients and still be home for dinner with his wife and daughter. After a bit of relaxing and pleasure flying, Dan plans to continue on with instrument training.