East Coast Aero Club - Nashua, NH

06-09-2008	Fuel Prices Force Rate Increase It is with a deep sense of regret that ECAC is forced to anounce a rate increase for our aircraft rental. We have held off as long as we possibly could, however the dramatic increases in fuel prices have forced us to raise our rental rates. The new rates are posted on our Aircraft page, and our Rental page. With the increase in fuel prices and rental rates we have also increased our fuel reimbursement to $ 5.20/gal. Instructor rates have not changed.
04-22-2008	We Have A New Plane ! If you've following the developments here at ECAC, you know that our Bedford location acquired four Piper Warrior III airplanes equipped with dual Garmin 430 GPS-Nav/Com's. While these have been in Bedford since the acquisition, one has finally been sent to Nashua. N239ND will be available to Instrument Rated pilots, and to Private Pilots after an introduction and check-out with an instructor. Contact Cyndi for the check out requirements. The airplane will be added to the fleet page soon, and is already displayed on the scheduling page for Nashua. There has already been considerable interest in this plane, and it has already been scheduled and in the air. If we can get it on the ground long enough, we will get some photos up soon.
03-25-2008	The Airline Transition seminar has been postponed until the fall. We will post the new date and time once it has been set. We appologize for any inconvenience.
03-19-2008	GPS Seminar a great success. The GPS Seminar held on March 18, 2008, and instructed by Ed Marks, was a very informative presentation focusing on the Garmin 430, and touching on various other console and handheld GPS units. We have added a link to the Garmin 430, where you can download the manual, syllabus, and desktop simulator. Learn to use this very powerful tool from the comfort of your computer, then apply what you've learned in our Garmin equipped planes. A special thanks goes out to Ed Marks for his excellent presentation, and his dedication to aviation safety. The response to this seminar was our best so far, and the presentaiton exceeded all expectations.
03-10-2008	WINTER SEMINAR SERIES CONTINUES April 5 & 6, 2008 Airline Transition Primer Going to the airlines soon? Pilots take note! ECAC Nashua is hosting a two day seminar designed for the pilot interviewing with and transitioning to the commuter airlines on April 5th and 6th from 8:00 AM to 4:00 PM each day. Greg Masterman, a 20+ year Captain for Business Express and American Eagle Airlines, will be discussing topics such as 121 regulations, jet systems and avionics, life as a line pilot, the airline contract, and interpreting weather. This is an interactive class where the participant will be encouraged to ask and answer questions. The cost for the class is $189.00, and it will be held in the Education Building of Rivier College in Nashua, NH. Masterman’s experience includes training captain, simulator training, course development and EMB fleet manager. He is currently acting as a line captain out of Dallas. There are only 30 seats available for this event. Please call Cyndi McLaughlin directly at 603-595-1395 to reserve your spot with payment.
03-08-2008	WINTER SEMINAR SERIES CONTINUES March 18, 2008 7 - 9 PM GPS for VFR & IFR East Coast Aero Club Nashua will host a safety seminar on using the GPS in the ECAC aircraft. Ed Marks, a Nashua instructor and GPS guru, will explain how to use the GPS to navigate and fly approaches. This seminar is geared towards the new pilot and the beginner instrument pilot. This seminar has been approved for FAA Wings credit. Seating is limited, so reserve your place today. E-mail info@ecacnashua.com for a seat, or sign up on the FAA Website.
11-10-2007	We've had a change to the parking arrangements for the airplanes. For the winter, at least, only 3 planes can be parked in front of the Brown Hanger (where we usually put them). We will no longer be parking any planes at the end of the brown hanger facing the inner ramp (where we used to park the Seminole). We have three new tie-downs on the electric ramp - between taxiway A and the inner ramp northwest of taxiway E. Although there may be the inconvenience of a longer walk to the plane, it is actually a beneficial move as the sun will hit the planes first thing in the morning and it should cut down on the time we used to spend cleaning off the snow. The electric ramp, as the name implies, has electricity for the planes; so remember to plug them in at the end of your flight. The Seminole will be in a borrowed spot in Row H-2 We're working on puting a map of the parking spaces on the website. Until then, if you have questions, or need directions to find your plane, ask your instructor or one of the dispatchers. They're friendly and always willing to help out. Thank you.
11-04-2007	ECAC Announces that winter hours will be in effect as of Monday November 5, 2007. ECAC will be open from 8:00 AM until 5:00 PM daily during the winter months. As always, special arrangements can be made for aircraft rental after hours. Please call the office during regular business hours to make such arrangements. Thank you.
11-04-2007	ECAC announces a rate change for it's Intro/Adventure Flights. Due to increases in fuel costs ECAC regrets to announce that the rate for intro/adventure flights has been increased to $ 148.00 for a 1 hour flight with an instructor. We have also had a policy change with regard to intro flights, you may now bring a friend with you. Potentially this works out well if you're both interested in flying, as the cost of the flight can be split. This decision was made after carefully considering all available options. Unfortunately, the cost of fuel has forced us to this position. We appologize for any inconvenience.
10-16-2007	As part of the largest fleet improvement in the history of the club, a 2000 Cessna 172S Millennium Edition Skyhawk has been purchased to enhance the aircraft line up in Nashua. This well equipped ship has a KLN 94 color GPS, an HSI, and an autopilot. Another 172R 180 HP will be added to the line in the spring. The rental rate will be $119 wet. In addition, ECAC has recently purchased 4 Garmin 430 equipped Warrior III’s to upgrade the fleet. They will be coming soon from UND to Bedford. If you would like to be involved in the cross country flight to get these aircraft to Bedford please contact Mark Holzwarth at mark@ecas.com
10-15-2007	Congratulations to Frank Ridolfi, winner of the Multi-Engine Raffle. Frank is a client of ECAC Bedford, and will receive an hour dual instruction in one of our IFR Certified Piper Seminoles, with one of our multi-engine instructors. Congratulations Frank, and thank you for visiting our open house in Nashua!
10-13-2007	The East Coast Aero Club Open House was a huge success. There were several intro flights given in our planes (Skyhawk and Warriors), as well as several in the Robinson R-22 Helicopter. The food was plentiful and good, and we had a lot of people stop by for lunch. The static airplane displays were huge hit, and ECAC would like to thank Infinity Aviation for helping out with this year's open house, as well as other aircraft owners at Nashua who graciously displayed their airplanes during our open house. In addition to the good times, and good food, we also had the opportunity to do some good work by raising money for Missionary Air. A special thanks to all those who dontated. If you didn't get a chance to make a donation, but would still like to either see Cyndi in the office, or visit http://missionaryairgroup.org, they're a great group of pilots doing great work. Truly a worthy cause. Don McLaughlin's presentation, "Under the Cowling" was informative and well presented. Thank's, Don, for taking the time to make us all better pilots. ECAC would also like to thank our outstanding staff of instructors and dispatchers, and also our students, for making this event so successful. It couldn't have happened without you all. For those who visited, but aren't part of the ECAC family yet, we hope you liked what you saw, learned something about our school, and will be joining our family of students and clients soon. We look forward to flying with you. We will be announcing the winner of the 1 hour Twin instruction, and posting photos soon. Check back often.
09-19-2007	IMPORTANT NOTICE TO STUDENTS - ECAC was inspected by the TSA recently. Overall, the inspection went well, however upon inspecting the student files it was discovered that some pertinent information was missing. ECAC has been given time to correct the deficiency and we are in the process of doing that. Students requested to provide documentation must provide that information and/or documentation within 5 days of the request. Failure to provide the information will result in suspension from the flight schedule until the doccuments are received. As we all know, General Avaiation has been under close scruteny as a result of events in recent years. East Coast Aero Club is dedicated to providing high quality training, AND ensuring a positive public perception of general aviation. Please do your part and respond quickly if contacted by one of our staff. Thank you.
09-01-2007	NEW RESERVATION PROCEDURE. When planning a Cross Country trip (without an instructor), we would like you to indicate your destination in the "comments" box on the scheduling website. The procedure for doing this is pretty easy: 1. Log into the scheduling page, find your reservation and click on it. 2. The flight information box will open on the left, and there will be a comment box at the bottom. 3. Add your destination to the comment box, and click "Add Comment". You don't need to go into too much detail, like "going to Katama for lunch, plan on having a cheeseburger with lettuce and tomato - no onions, ketchup and mayo, maybe a coke, and some fries. Will probably skip dessert, unless they have something that looks particularly appealing. Will probably leave and fly over the beach, then come back north..." yup, that'd be a bit much. All we need is the airport identifier, and location of the airport. So instead of all that, just enter, "1B2, Katama, Marthas Vineyard" and everyone is happy. We appreciate your voluntary cooperation with this new procedure.
08-02-2007	We have started to use a new fuel provider. As many of you know, Keyson was bought out by Infinity Air Services, and we will be getting fuel from Infinity as our primary fuel provider. The procedure is a little different than what you're probably used to. When you return from a flight there will be forms for fuel requests on the counter at Infinity. If someone is at the desk you can just request a top off, if not you can fill out the form and leave it in the basket and Infinity will fuel the plane. If you need an immediate top off, there is a hand-held radio next to the fuel request basket and you can call someone from infinity. It is a system that is kind of new to ECAC, so if you have any questions please ask.
07-13-2007	We have received many great and complimentary comments about our new web site. Thank you all for your input. Students are encouraged to check out the web site, and offer their suggestions. Instructors and employees are also encouraged to offers suggestons they think will make the site more informative and useful. Have a favorite link that you like to use? Let us know so we can share it. We're also asking our instructors to let us know the dates of your student's solos and chek rides, so that we can include their accomplishents on our site. It took a lot of work to get there, and they should be proud. Let's let the world know!
07-09-2007	As some of you know we have had a helicopter student in Nashua. This has required bringing one of the helicopters from Bedford up to Nashua once a week. We have been told that there is a good possibility that we will be receiving one of the helicopters in Nashua on a more permanent basis. Keep your fingers crossed, and we'll keep you informed as this progresses.
07-09-2007	New Web Site launched ! We've very excited about the new look, and the new content. We expect our site to be an excellent resource for our students and rental clients, as well as a source of information about our school and the flight training process. We hope you will be patient with us while we work out the inevitable bugs that are sure to pop up during this transition.
07-10-2007	As a part of our new Web Makeover, we have had a change in our e-mail system. E-Mail to the club can be sent to: info@ecacnashua.com In addition, direct e-mail should be available for students to correspond directly with their instructors. Instructors should check with Cyndi regarding their new e-mail accounts.
07-10-2007	Are you an ECAC-Nashua student that has recently passed a check ride, gotten a new certificate or rating, or recently made your first solo flight, or your first solo cross-country flight? We are compiling a list of our students so that we can celebrate your accomplishments on the web site. Either let Cyndi know that you have a new certificate / rating / solo, along with the date you received the rating, or made the solo, your instructors name, and the plane you reached your outstanding accomplishment in, and we can get your name up and let the world know! In the alternative, you can e-mail the information directly to webmaster@ecacnashua.com.
06-11-2007	We have a Cessna 172 Skyhawk available for lessons or rental. After a great deal of time hoping, wishing and dreaming of the day, the day finally came, and that day is now. We now have available a fully IFR certified 1973 Cessna 172M Skyhawk. Rental requires a checkout with one of our instructors. Give us a call to schedule, or for further information.