Flying clubs in Oakland or Concord?

I just moved up to Berkeley, CA to attend grad school. Before that, I
lived in Silicon Valley and flew out of Palo Alto. I've been flying
with a club there, Sundance, since '99 or so and I've been pretty
happy.

But the drive to KPAO from Berkeley is a bit long. I'm looking to see
if anybody has recommendations for clubs at KOAK or KCCR.

About me: I'm an instrument-rated private pilot, with about 300 hours.
I was working on my commercial rating when I moved. I've got about 15
hours complex time, all of that in a 172RG. For fooling around, I'll
take a 172 or an Archer, and for "trying to get somehwere" I usually
opt for a C182.

I'm looking for a club with a variety of aircraft, low rates, good
maintenance, decent enough avionics to make IFR practical, and
connections w/ good instructors so I might finish my commercial. (which
is admittedly on the back-burner with school on).

Any advice?

-- dave
jacobowitz73 --at-- yahoo --dot-- com

In article .com,
wrote:

I just moved up to Berkeley, CA to attend grad school. Before that, I
lived in Silicon Valley and flew out of Palo Alto. I've been flying
with a club there, Sundance, since '99 or so and I've been pretty
happy.

But the drive to KPAO from Berkeley is a bit long. I'm looking to see
if anybody has recommendations for clubs at KOAK or KCCR.

About me: I'm an instrument-rated private pilot, with about 300 hours.
I was working on my commercial rating when I moved. I've got about 15
hours complex time, all of that in a 172RG. For fooling around, I'll
take a 172 or an Archer, and for "trying to get somehwere" I usually
opt for a C182.

I'm looking for a club with a variety of aircraft, low rates, good
maintenance, decent enough avionics to make IFR practical, and
connections w/ good instructors so I might finish my commercial. (which
is admittedly on the back-burner with school on).

Any advice?

It's not a club per se, and it's at Hayward (KHWD) rather than Oakland,
but I now use California Airways, http://www.california-airways.com/.
It's been a pleasant experience -- the prices are reasonable (for the
Bay Area), the planes well-maintained, there's a reasonable variety of
planes available, and the people seem pretty good. I'm in a similar
sort of situation as you -- instrument rated and starting
to do the commercial (or starting to think about doing it :-) ) -- and
it's worked out well so far.

Hamish -- California Flying --
http://www.ylayali.com/yafb/blog.html

Thanks, for the response, I'll check it out. Otherwise, the response to
this post has been sadly minimal. The rates at CA Airways seem okay,
though. One reason I prefer a club is insurance. Club policies usually
name the members, and so you can't be subrogated against. At an FBO
I'll need a policy of my own.

-- dave j

Hamish Reid wrote:
In article .com,
wrote:

I just moved up to Berkeley, CA to attend grad school. Before that, I
lived in Silicon Valley and flew out of Palo Alto. I've been flying
with a club there, Sundance, since '99 or so and I've been pretty
happy.

But the drive to KPAO from Berkeley is a bit long. I'm looking to see
if anybody has recommendations for clubs at KOAK or KCCR.

About me: I'm an instrument-rated private pilot, with about 300 hours.
I was working on my commercial rating when I moved. I've got about 15
hours complex time, all of that in a 172RG. For fooling around, I'll
take a 172 or an Archer, and for "trying to get somehwere" I usually
opt for a C182.

I'm looking for a club with a variety of aircraft, low rates, good
maintenance, decent enough avionics to make IFR practical, and
connections w/ good instructors so I might finish my commercial. (which
is admittedly on the back-burner with school on).

Any advice?

It's not a club per se, and it's at Hayward (KHWD) rather than Oakland,
but I now use California Airways, http://www.california-airways.com/.
It's been a pleasant experience -- the prices are reasonable (for the
Bay Area), the planes well-maintained, there's a reasonable variety of
planes available, and the people seem pretty good. I'm in a similar
sort of situation as you -- instrument rated and starting
to do the commercial (or starting to think about doing it :-) ) -- and
it's worked out well so far.

Hamish -- California Flying --
http://www.ylayali.com/yafb/blog.html

Not a club, but to finish your commercial, I can highly recommend
Pacific States Aviation, based at CCR.
I was living in Claremont and it was 30 minutes door to door.

Did my private there with their chief pilot, Doug Draper, who I highly
recommend. Bob Bretz is good as well.

925-685-4400

Jonathan

In .com jacobowitz73@
yahoo.com wrote:

Thanks, for the response, I'll check it out. Otherwise, the response
to this post has been sadly minimal. The rates at CA Airways seem okay,
though. One reason I prefer a club is insurance. Club policies usually
name the members, and so you can't be subrogated against. At an FBO
I'll need a policy of my own.

-- dave j

Hamish Reid wrote:
In article .com,
wrote:

I just moved up to Berkeley, CA to attend grad school. Before that,
I lived in Silicon Valley and flew out of Palo Alto. I've been
flying with a club there, Sundance, since '99 or so and I've been
pretty happy.

But the drive to KPAO from Berkeley is a bit long. I'm looking to
see if anybody has recommendations for clubs at KOAK or KCCR.

About me: I'm an instrument-rated private pilot, with about 300
hours. I was working on my commercial rating when I moved. I've got
about 15 hours complex time, all of that in a 172RG. For fooling
around, I'll take a 172 or an Archer, and for "trying to get
somehwere" I usually opt for a C182.

I'm looking for a club with a variety of aircraft, low rates, good
maintenance, decent enough avionics to make IFR practical, and
connections w/ good instructors so I might finish my commercial. (
which is admittedly on the back-burner with school on).

Any advice?

It's not a club per se, and it's at Hayward (KHWD) rather than
Oakland, but I now use California Airways, http://www.california-
airways.com/. It's been a pleasant experience -- the prices are
reasonable (for the Bay Area), the planes well-maintained, there's a
reasonable variety of planes available, and the people seem pretty
good. I'm in a similar sort of situation as you -- instrument rated
and starting to do the commercial (or starting to think about doing
it :-) ) -- and it's worked out well so far.

Hamish -- California Flying --
http://www.ylayali.com/yafb/blog.html