Shad England completed his first solo flight on 1/20 at the Des Moines Airport. Shad's all grins after 3 very nice solo landings!

Don David is Shad's instructor.

You may not recognize one of our Mooney's! N58062 has a new look.

Jay Krusenstjerna passed his private pilot check ride on November 30th. He's pictured here next to N2974N, one of the club's Archers! Jay is extremely pleased and is excited to get started on his instrument rating.

Sean Davis is Jay's instuctor.

Sandy Marckmann soloed on November 15th, 2011 in the club's Cherokee 140. Sandy flew her solo flight at Ankeny Regional Airport!

Ryan Campbell is Sandy's Instuctor

Eric Reese soloed in the club's Cherokee, 38190 at OXV (that's Knoxville for the non-pilots in the crowd) on Friday November 4th.

Rick Gleason is Eric's instructor.

Ted Phillips, he soloed on October 1st at Des Moines. The smile on his face says it all!

Sean Davis is Ted's instructor.

David Luers is a full time fire chief and now is an airplane pilot. His first solo went very well and in keeping with his fireman career, the back of his shirt could have been used to put out a fire when he landed!

David is looking froward to earning his private vertificate and has a lot of travel plans when he gets it done!"

Steve Davis is David's instructor.

Scott Gordon right after his first solo flight! He is a very happy student pilot and looking forward to getting his private certificate. He said the airplane flew like a hot rod without his instructor in the right seat.

Scott's instructor is Steve Davis

Congratulations to Matt Dolan. Matt passed his private check ride in June.

AJ Langfeldt is shown here after accomplishing his first solo in N3574K. AJ is very dedicated to earning his pilot's license and is planning a military aviation career.

You can see he is smiling from ear to ear.

Pat Flinn after a lot of determination, good flying, frustrating bad weather and hard work, has joined the ranks of Instrument Pilot.

"I passed the check ride just fine and made two of the sweetest landings you will ever see!" Pat was very happy about passing his checkride and ready to start using his instrument rating by taking a trip with his wife in the club Mooney.

Pat is actually a relatively low time flyer who earned his private certificate just last year. He is also a very talented and natural pilot who worked very hard to earn this!

Congratulations to Pat!!

Matt Dolan and his brothers have dreamed and sometimes been consumed by thoughts of flying. While Matt doesn't readily admit it, his 2000+ hours of Microsoft Flight Sim helped him achieve his first solo with only 10 hours of real airplane flight training in N3574K!

You can see by the smile on his face he had a great time and is looking forward to the day he earns his private certificate and will be able fly his friends and family with him as well. His smile is real, ear to ear. He just couldn't help himself.

Matt's instructor is Steve Davis

Congratulations to Jordan Gegner who completed his first solo in the Cherokee 140 on Thursday March 3rd, 2011 at the Ankeny Airport. Jordan is a 2010 graduate of Central College in Pella, with a Major in Biology.

Jordan currently works as a Environmental Scientist at HR Green, an engineering company in Johnston. Jordan also spends his free time as an Assistant Mens High School Track Coach for Martensdale St. Marys.

Jordan aspires to fly aircraft for the military in the future.

Michael Touney is his flight instructor.

Friday was a big day for Will Barrett! Will flew his first solo on Friday, January 14th.

Will is a senior at Roosevelt High School in Des Moines and will be attending the University of Dubuque next year to pursue a flying career.

Will's instructor is Sean Davis.

Jim Mars right after his first solo in N3574K at the Des Moines International Airport. He couldn't be happier after all went well on his flight. Jim can confidently handle the airplane just fine.

He said he is happy with his decision to train in Des Moines because he learning radio communication on every flight.

The weather was calm and smooth, although a bit on the cold side; 6' F. It did not matter though as was nice and warm inside the airplane.

When asked what he was going to do next after accomplishing so much, Jim replied: " I am going to Disney World!".

Jim's instructor is Steve Davis.

We have a new pilot in Tyler Young. Tyler got his certificate in September.

Tyler says his parents and friends are having a great time flying with him. He's learning that a pilot's certificate is a license to learn and it's "one of the most enjoyable parts of my life.

Tyler's instructor was Steve Davis.

This is Scott Hughes right after his first solo. Scott is an audiologist and has a lot of natural flying ability. He really loves to fly!!

Charlie Webster, age 16, had his first solo in the Cherokee 140, July 3^rd, 2010 at the Ankeny airport. This date was the 25^th anniversary of his great-grandfather's funeral who was a B-17 flight instructor during WWII.

His grandfather, Claude Webster, is his flight instructor

Charlie lives in Panora and drives to Des Moines or Knoxville to fly airplanes.

His first eight hours were in a PA-11 (J-3 Cub). He still plans to solo in that aircraft this year.

He enjoys flying the club's Cherokee and will begin working on his cross country flight requirements in the near future. His long term plans are to enroll in the Air Force Academy and to make flying a career. We wish him all the best.