The Show Must Go On April 2013 AOPA Pilot
Read the latest article for AOPA that Friends Co-Founder, Jolie Lucas wrote about the cancellation or downsizing of air shows this year.
http://www.aopa.org/flightplanning/articles/2013/130425the-show-must-go-on.html
http://www.aopa.org/flightplanning/articles/2013/130425the-show-must-go-on.html
AOPA Online: Become an Ambassador for GA
Click here to read Jolie Lucas' article for AOPA about adding a charitable aspect to an aviation event, or starting a charitable event at your airport. Oceano is used as an example!
Click here to read Jolie Lucas' article for AOPA about adding a charitable aspect to an aviation event, or starting a charitable event at your airport. Oceano is used as an example!
HLN Interview with Friends of Oceano Airport 2012
G.A. News
Press Release April 2012
Thanks for the shout out from G.A. News about Celebration! Click the title to go to the article.
G.A. News Article
Meg Godlewski interviewed Mitch Latting and Jolie Lucas while they were at Oshkosh/AirVenture this summer. Mitch and Jolie, also the co-founders of the Mooney Ambassadors presented PGA Squared: Promote General Aviation; Protect G.A. Airports.
HLN Interview on Toys for Tots...
AOPA Pilot Magazine, October 2011 Edition
Jolie Lucas wrote the article "Come one, come all" Community events that make your airport a good neighbor for AOPA Pilot magazine. The three page article describes many ways to prove that your airport is a good neighbor. As well, Oceano Airport is featured in the three page spread.
Fly and Ride at Oceano Airport
Empirical Systems Aerospace gave us a generous donation which allowed us to purchase a storage shed for our bicycles.
Speaking of which, we are in need of a few more donated bicycles.
Fly and Ride will allow our visitors to use a bicycle to ride into Oceano or Pismo on a donation basis.
If you have a bicycle sitting in your garage or hangar and it is in good shape, please let us know.
Speaking of which, we are in need of a few more donated bicycles.
Fly and Ride will allow our visitors to use a bicycle to ride into Oceano or Pismo on a donation basis.
If you have a bicycle sitting in your garage or hangar and it is in good shape, please let us know.
Enjoy the Video from Girl Scouts with Wings, April 16th, 2011
AOPA names Jolie Lucas as the 2010 Recipient of the Crotti Award
A self-described “Mooney Girl” is this year’s recipient of AOPA’s Joseph Crotti Award for service to general aviation in California. Jolie Lucas, co-founder of the Mooney Ambassadors, was honored for her work to protect Oceano Airport in San Luis Obispo County. A local developer decided he had a better idea of how to use the land Oceano sits on and, over the objections of county officials, pressed ahead with highly controlled “public” meetings to try to win community support to close the airport and let him build on it.
Lucas organized local pilots to attend those public meetings. With her encouragement and constant communication with pilots and AOPA, the developer’s meetings were overwhelmingly stacked against closure of the airport. She recruited pilots and began a campaign to win community support, organizing a beautification project for the airport, which had become somewhat rundown. Buildings were painted and drought tolerant plants planted, all with volunteers and donated materials. She and her fellow pilots also hosted a “movie night” at the airport, inviting pilots and the public to watch movies in a campground adjacent to the airport.
“2010 is AOPA’s Year of Engagement, and Jolie has certainly gotten engaged—with her fellow pilots and her community’s leaders,” said AOPA President Craig Fuller. “Her efforts in support of Oceano Airport in particular, and more broadly, of all of general aviation through the Mooney Ambassadors, are shining examples of what we can do when we work together.”
The Mooney Ambassadors’ threefold mission is to support the Mooney Airplane Company, promote general aviation, and ensure pilots have someplace wonderful to fly. Lucas has flown her Mooney throughout California, giving presentations on how to promote GA. She blogs for Forbes magazine on her passion for general aviation and was interviewed this summer on AOPA Live at EAA’s AirVenture at Oshkosh.
California is home to 255 public-use landing facilities and fully 10 percent of the U.S. pilot population, or 61,709 pilots. The Crotti Award, named for Joseph Crotti, longtime California State Aviation Director and AOPA Regional Representative for that state, is given to a California resident who has demonstrated the same unbridled passion for promoting GA and protecting community airports as Crotti always did. —AOPA Communications staff
Lucas organized local pilots to attend those public meetings. With her encouragement and constant communication with pilots and AOPA, the developer’s meetings were overwhelmingly stacked against closure of the airport. She recruited pilots and began a campaign to win community support, organizing a beautification project for the airport, which had become somewhat rundown. Buildings were painted and drought tolerant plants planted, all with volunteers and donated materials. She and her fellow pilots also hosted a “movie night” at the airport, inviting pilots and the public to watch movies in a campground adjacent to the airport.
“2010 is AOPA’s Year of Engagement, and Jolie has certainly gotten engaged—with her fellow pilots and her community’s leaders,” said AOPA President Craig Fuller. “Her efforts in support of Oceano Airport in particular, and more broadly, of all of general aviation through the Mooney Ambassadors, are shining examples of what we can do when we work together.”
The Mooney Ambassadors’ threefold mission is to support the Mooney Airplane Company, promote general aviation, and ensure pilots have someplace wonderful to fly. Lucas has flown her Mooney throughout California, giving presentations on how to promote GA. She blogs for Forbes magazine on her passion for general aviation and was interviewed this summer on AOPA Live at EAA’s AirVenture at Oshkosh.
California is home to 255 public-use landing facilities and fully 10 percent of the U.S. pilot population, or 61,709 pilots. The Crotti Award, named for Joseph Crotti, longtime California State Aviation Director and AOPA Regional Representative for that state, is given to a California resident who has demonstrated the same unbridled passion for promoting GA and protecting community airports as Crotti always did. —AOPA Communications staff
Oceano Airport, In the News
Oceano Airport has been under attack by a local developer with an apparently questionable business history who would like to bulldoze the airport and develop it for commercial uses. The developer has held two of six planned meetings. At the first meeting entry for pilots was limited to six of the 60 in attendance. Press on the first meeting can be found in the following links:
AOPA
http://www.aopa.org/advocacy/articles/2010/100407ca.html?WT.mc_id=ebrief
The Examiner
http://www.examiner.com/examiner/x-23255-SF-General-Aviation-Examiner~y2010m4d18-Oceano-Airport-under-threat-of-closure
The second meeting was held on April 21st. There were fifty in attendance. Of that, we only met one person who was in support of the developer. We had a wonderful tailgate party and protest, even though the blustery day prevented some from flying in. One of our volunteers hand-painted the colorful signs we carried. Dennis Shallenberger from Earth Systems Pacific gave a presentation on geological considerations in regard to the airport property. He began his talk by stating that he did not support the proposal to destroy the airport, and rather wished it remained open and available to the community. Press on the second meeting can be found by clicking the link below:
http://www.sanluisobispo.com/2010/04/21/1112796/up-in-the-air-redevelopment-proposed.html
The third meeting has been postponed by the developer from May, then June, and was scheduled for August. That meeting never took place. None of the other scheduled meetings have taken place either!
AOPA
http://www.aopa.org/advocacy/articles/2010/100407ca.html?WT.mc_id=ebrief
The Examiner
http://www.examiner.com/examiner/x-23255-SF-General-Aviation-Examiner~y2010m4d18-Oceano-Airport-under-threat-of-closure
The second meeting was held on April 21st. There were fifty in attendance. Of that, we only met one person who was in support of the developer. We had a wonderful tailgate party and protest, even though the blustery day prevented some from flying in. One of our volunteers hand-painted the colorful signs we carried. Dennis Shallenberger from Earth Systems Pacific gave a presentation on geological considerations in regard to the airport property. He began his talk by stating that he did not support the proposal to destroy the airport, and rather wished it remained open and available to the community. Press on the second meeting can be found by clicking the link below:
http://www.sanluisobispo.com/2010/04/21/1112796/up-in-the-air-redevelopment-proposed.html
The third meeting has been postponed by the developer from May, then June, and was scheduled for August. That meeting never took place. None of the other scheduled meetings have taken place either!