So I go to ground school today - and find out the place was broken into on Sunday night.
I had originally set up a time to meet on Monday morning, but when I got to the main plaza building (our school has an office upstairs in this building) the front door was locked. I thought, that was strange, that door's usually open from 8-5. When I called my instructor I found out he couldn't make it. At that point on Monday no one at
Glass Cockpit (my school) knew they were broken into - but if I had been able to get in I would have seen it.
Anyway - today when we walked through the doorway of the office I noticed that there was a new frame on the door, and there were wood shavings on the floor. I said "Wow, change locks or something?" He said, "No, we were broken into. Someone kicked the door open and ruined the frame." I looked around and finally took things in.
They have had a really nice computer in the corner with two giant touch screen monitors and one giant regular monitor for some ground school training. It also had some really nice computer flight controls. These guys left the controls but took the pc and monitors.
They also took two laptops out of the office - one was a really nice brand new tablet PC that the chief instructor had been saving for and just got. She of course left it in the office on Sunday night when she usually takes it home. Some headsets, and other gear. They broke into the Flight Simulator room - my school has an professional flight simulator - but they didn't steal anything. There was a small amount of damage caused to the projectors because they tried to pull them off. All told - the items stolen from Glass Cockpit totals about $12,000.
Downstairs in
Jetstream Aviation (another school), they stole all the laptops and all the headsets. Jetstream is a bigger, part 141 school, with an actual classroom like setting. They stole other items, and then apparently got spooked because when a Jetstream instructor walked in on Monday morning, their server, a laptop, and an aviation headset were sitting by the door ready to go, but for some reason left there.
They know what time it happened, because the last log on the Jetstream server was at 9:08pm (before it was unplugged). This person had to have key access to Jetstream, as there was no forced entry.
Apparently the schools were cased. And it sounds like a possible inside job, or someone with access. Man, that sucks. At least they had insurance.
I've asked for a list of items that were stolen, so I can start watching ebay and craigslist. Maybe I can find some information on some forums somewhere, too.
I feel bad for my chief instructor, this is almost the second year Glass Cockpit has been around, and they were finally starting to get off the ground. (so to speak)
In other news, I went through Chapter 7 with Ryan, and we heard from the owner of N43839. He was there this morning to pick it up and take it to Mountain Home to get started on replacing the motor. Sounds like it's getting a brand spanking new motor, starter, and a block heater. This is great! The downside is that when it comes back it needs about 25 hours of break in time. This is good for cross countries, not so good for touch and goes - ie: soloing. So it once again means I have to push back my soloing. I did find out why I can't solo in the other Archer, though. The owner of that Archer doesn't carry insurance that will cover my solo in it.
I'm going to meet again with Ryan for an hour on Friday to cover the FARs, and then that should be all the ground I will need before the solo, minus one more written test.
