(888-925-3947)

Proud Members of:

Iowa Bed & Breakfast Guild

Iowa City Chamber of Commerce

Iowa City Convention & Visitor's Bureau

On Friday, September 29th, 2006, Antoinette Pinault passed her Private Pilot checkride in Cedar Rapids, IA!   Congratulations, Antoinette!

We met Antoinette way back in 2002, when she stayed in the hotel for several months while she worked as a traveling nurse at the University of Iowa Hospital.  During her stay with us, a friendship developed, and we eventually took her flying for lunch. 

This sparked an interest in aviation that had lain dormant for years.  Antoinette's father had been an active pilot, and she had fond memories of those days -- and flying with us apparently re-ignited a burning desire to be a pilot.

We took her flying a few more times before she finally enrolled in flight lessons, only to watch as she ended up changing jobs, moved out of state -- *and* discovered that obtaining her 3rd class medical waiver to fly was going to take some extra hoop-jumping. 

Undeterred, she soldiered on through it all, finally soloing a Cessna 150 earlier this year.   Her cross-country flights soon followed, and it was with "parental pride" that we watched as "our" budding pilot progressed through the various training stages.

For her checkride, the winds were gusting to 26 knots!   Her Designated Examiner allowed the ride to proceed under the caution that if *either* of them felt like the conditions were getting too bad, they would land.   Once she was at 3000 feet, however, conditions smoothed out enough to proceed, and her experience and training handling crosswind landings helped her pass the landing portion of the test with flying colors!

Congratulations, Antoinette!  Here are a few pix, taken when she stopped in at the hotel to celebrate!

Antoinette & Mary...	Now THAT is a smile of pride!