Innholdsfortegnelse for August 2018 i Flying

Why are new light airplanes so expensive? People have been asking this question for, oh, about the past 40 years. Meanwhile, prices for new airplanes keep rising while delivery numbers mostly stagnate. Experts blame ever-increasing airplane prices on lots of things, from high production costs to the expense of litigating accident lawsuits to the improved avionics and more powerful engines found in new airplanes today. These factors all matter, of course, but they tell only part of the story. In 1968, median household income was $12,000, a new car cost an average of $3,200 and a Cessna Skyhawk sold for about $16,000. Today, median income is $58,000, the average new car sells for $26,000 and a Cessna Skyhawk can be had for about $370,000. This is easy math. The price…

THE PILOT TOOK PARTICULAR PLEASURE IN LOW-ALTITUDE FLYING. EVEN AS A STUDENT PILOT HE HAD TRIGGERED CALLS TO THE POLICE FOR BUZZING HIS HOUSE. In the late afternoon of October 13, 2017, a 300-hour pilot, 47, with his wife in the seat beside him, was flying westward, below treetop level, over the Mississippi River alongside the town of Ramsey, Minnesota. He banked gently left to follow a bend in the river. Perhaps he was blinded by the low sun; perhaps there was no time to react. His Cessna 172, modified with a 180 hp engine and tailwheel gear, struck power lines 40 feet above the surface and plunged into the water. The pilot took particular pleasure in low-altitude flying. Even as a student pilot he had triggered calls to the…

Sometimes the urge to fly strikes when I least expect it. It’s always there, mind you, but sometimes it lies dormant while my attention is elsewhere, only to suddenly resurface. Take yesterday morning, for example. I was lounging in Windbird’s cockpit, sipping coffee and enjoying the warm Caribbean breeze while planning an upcoming sail to Vieques, when an unmistakable sound reverberated across Christiansted Harbor and set my heart aflutter. A de Havilland Twin Otter on floats raced across the old schooner channel, skipping across the waves, then lifted into the trade winds and banked to the north. Just like that, I had to fly! Alas, I didn’t know anybody on St. Croix whom I might talk into lending me a light plane, but I nevertheless worked up a plan to…

I think nearly every woman — however young or not so much — who learns to fly falls in love with her flight instructor. Of course, I realize this is a rather delicate subject these days. I think I’m already hearing outraged dissent, denial, protests and objections from the #MeToo group. Aviation, like so many other industries and institutions, is under fire with accusations that women have been passed over, ignored and underpaid. There’s even a new government program devoted to giving women an extra “leg up” — a leap over male peers — into the air carrier world. So my “falling in love with your flight instructor” premise obviously doesn’t make my sisters feel warm and cozy. Am I concerned? Uh, reread the name of this column and remember…

Late in 1932, the newborn Beech Aircraft Co. flew its first product, a five-seat biplane with a 420 hp radial engine and fixed landing gear enclosed in huge fairings. Walter Beech gave it model number 17, since the last model built by the Travel Air company, which he had founded in 1925 with an all-star cast of Clyde Cessna and Lloyd Stearman and sold in 1929 to Curtiss-Wright, had been its 16th. The country was in the midst of the Great Depression. At first, buyers for the big biplane were hard to find. In a reckless moment, Beech advertised that it was also available with a 690 hp Wright Cyclone engine. In fact, none had been built and flown with that engine, and the factory was actually heading in the…

PILOTS AREN’T METEOROLOGISTS As I opened my June issue of Flying, the first thing that caught my eye was Stephen Pope’s editorial “Pilots Aren’t Meteorologists.” I agree 100 percent, but would like to add that pilots can become astute students of weather and advance their understanding of weather as it relates to aviation and their safety. When I was a U.S. Air Force pilot, we received our weather briefs from the weather division located at base ops. The briefing format was organized as it related to our mission. It really improved the safety of the mission and its completion. When I left the Air Force and entered GA flying, I realized my weather knowledge was inadequate. I hold commercial, instrument and multiengine ratings and own an aircraft that allows me…

FOR THE INTERACTIVE VERSION OF CHART WISE, VISIT FLYINGMAG.COM/CHARTWISE Like the late stand-up comic Rodney Dangerfield, who never seemed to get enough respect, the people at the Gary airport (GYY) feel as if they’ve been missing the love for many years. Sitting 20 miles south of Chicago, along the shore of Lake Michigan, the Gary airport has certainly seen its share of failed airline startups, including Southeast Airlines, SkyValue Airlines, Skybus Airlines, Hooters Air (yes, that Hooters) and one reincarnation of the famous Pan Am brand. The airport began a bit of a revival after the city of Chicago adopted Gary as the city’s third airport, not to mention the changes since former Chicago Mayor Richard M. Daley abruptly closed Meigs Field in 2003. Recently, the airport’s longest runway was…

Not just anybody can join this group. We’ve been meeting for close to 30 years, and we guard admission with diligence. To become a member, you must be a man who looks good on paper, but be a bit of a mess in real life. Turns out, there are a lot of us. In the early 1990s, this group usually met at my house because I had three kids, no wife and possessed pots and pans. I served the same meal each time. Though some in our group had impressive Ivy League pedigrees, their state of affairs in those days could be characterized as “unsettled.” My youngest daughter, Kelly, then a teenager, would wait until some alcohol had had its effect and then descend from her room to flirt and…

Chances are you’ve never seen a handheld navcom radio quite like this. The Yaesu FTA-550 Pro-X radio can transmit and receive on the full aviation-frequency band between 108.000 MHz and 136.975 MHz, with dedicated scanning for comm and nav frequencies from an easy-to-read menu page on its LCD screen. The FTA-550 also includes VOR and ILS navigation features plus NOAA weather band monitoring, making it an excellent emergency backup in the event of lost communications radios or other instrument failures. When the FTA-550 receives a VOR signal, the display will automatically switch to the nav-band screen, which shows a CDI based on the received signal. The radio can be programmed with up to 200 preset channels and quickly called up by selecting the station name. With the capability of using…

STUDENTS KNOW THEIR INSTRUCTOR IS WATCHING THEIR EVERY MOVE AND THE MARGIN FOR ERROR IS TIGHT IF THEY WANT TO EARN A RECOMMENDATION TO PROCEED ON TO THE FAA FLIGHT TEST. Last summer, I traveled to Scotland on vacation for a week to attend a wedding on the Isle of Skye. I’d hardly consider the first few hours of the trip relaxing. I picked up my rental car in the center of downtown Edinburgh and was instantly tasked with operating a manual transmission from the right seat on the wrong side of the road, and then navigating what seemed like an endless number of four-lane roundabouts to get out of town and on my way toward the city of Inverness. I set my expectations low for the drive, which was…

Aloud, muffled boom is heard from within the cockpit. The airplane begins to buffet. The two pilots exchange wide-eyed glances. From years of routine and training, they simultaneously turn toward the center instrument panel and begin to focus their attention on the electronic engine displays. The needle of the left engine N1 gauge is gyrating rapidly, accompanied by an EGT temperature needle that has reached the red zone. The amber master caution light on both sides of the cockpit in the eyebrow of the glareshield is flashing. The captain stabs the light with an index finger, extinguishing the distraction. Before the pilots have time to completely evaluate the situation, a chime sounds in the cockpit. A flight attendant is calling. Instinctively, the copilot reaches for the handset. The captain shakes…