Innholdsfortegnelse for June 2018 i Plane & Pilot

The FAA’s recently announced phasing out of DUATS, the original computerized weather briefing and flight-planning tool, is a sad thing, but in this case, it’s the right thing to do. The FAA established the Direct User Access Terminal System (DUATS) back in 1989, and it was way ahead of its time. In an era when few people had PCs and our phones largely were still attached to our walls back home, DUATS was a revelation. By dialing in with a computer modem using the phone line as a data carrier, users could check the weather, plan a flight and file a flight plan, all things that pilots previously had to go through Flight Service to do, either by calling them up—800-WX-BRIEF—or stopping by a local FSS to drop it off…

CIRRUS VISION JET WINS COLLIER TROPHY Cirrus Aircraft received one of aviation’s highest honors in April when the company’s SF50 Vision Jet was awarded the prestigious Collier Trophy. The makers of the groundbreaking jet, the first of its kind to feature a whole airframe parachute system, join a highly selective group of previous Collier winners, such as Orville Wright, the Mercury Seven astronauts and the developers of the F-22 Raptor. DYNON COCKPIT APPROVED FOR CESSNA SKYHAWKS Dynon Avionics has officially expanded into the realm of certified aircraft with the STC of its flagship SkyView HDX flat-panel system for several Cessna 172 models. The SkyView, which has been approved for the 172 F through the S model, made its name in the experimental and light-sport market and features a number of…

“Rules are made for people who aren’t willing to make up their own.”—Chuck Yeager You’re a good stick. But your decision-making sucks. That’s what the instructor is likely thinking during your flight review. He’s probably not as worried about your steep turns or your stalls as you are. He may be slightly concerned about your flat landings. But what’s he really thinking? He’s mostly wondering what in the world you are thinking. Why did you continue on to land after the most ridiculous approach ever? Why are you surprised by the low cloud layer when you didn’t get a weather briefing or listen to the AWOS? Why are you totally unconcerned with the other aircraft in the pattern with you? It's not that pilots everywhere are blatantly ignoring the rules.…

FOR A WHILE, THE NAME “Piper Cub” was nearly synonymous with “airplane.” The type was first built in the early 1930s as the Taylor Cub but soon became the Piper J-3 under the auspices of William Piper and company. Those first Cubs were great airplanes, light, fun to fly and airy, and they needed precious little runway either coming or going. Even many pilots think that the J-3 was the be-all and end-all of Piper rag-and-tube taildraggers, and the truth be told, Piper sold right around 20,000 J-3s during the type’s production run between 1938 and 1947. That’s a lot of Cubbies. But long before the Super Cub came to be, customers were already demanding more from their Pipers than the mild-mannered J-3 could offer. They wanted more power, more…

It happened 20 years ago on one of those chamber of commerce New Year’s mornings in Southern California, the kind that everyone watching the Rose Parade back East likes to hate us for. Visibility was probably 60 miles, surface temperature was a comfortable 60 degrees and the nearest cloud was somewhere north of the Oregon border. It seemed everyone was flying on this pristine holiday. The practice area was full of Skyhawks and Cherokees practicing stalls and steep turns, and, a few miles offshore, a Pitts was cavorting exuberantly in three dimensions. I was taking my Mooney for a walk after a two-week delivery trip to South Africa. I’d just announced the inbound 45-degree turn over the harbor for Long Beach Airport and was leveling the wings when Scotty beamed…

Oldest flyable aircraft: Two Blériot XIs. Year built: 1909 Located at: The Shuttleworth Collection (UK) and the Old Rhinebeck Aerodrome (U.S.). Oldest person to get a pilot’s license: Lt. Col. (ret.) James Collins Warren. Age at which he received his pilot’s license: 87 History: Former navigator with the Tuskegee Airmen. Oldest active pilot in the United States: Ernest Eli Smith, Red Oak, Iowa. 100 years young. Year Ernie soloed: 1943 Year that he got his ticket: 1946 (after the war) Oldest continuously operating airport in the United States (and the world): College Park, Maryland. Opened: 1909 College Park’s first flight instructor: Wilbur Wright. Longest continuously produced civilian aircraft: Beechcraft Bonanza. First flight: 1945 Canada’s longest continuously operated airport: Edmonton/Cooking Lake Airport. First opened: 1926 Canada’s oldest seaplane base: Also Edmonton/Cooking…

Most of us are familiar with that bromide about life in the cockpit: “Hours of sheer boredom, punctuated by moments of sheer horror.” Like many declamations about flying, that’s quite an exaggeration. Most pilots I know, myself included, find even a routine flight to be not at all boring but a very pleasurable experience. The few moments of horror are usually brought on by the sudden appearance in one’s windshield of a close airplane rapidly becoming closer. I’d like to tell you about some moments of that type that took place shortly after I got my pilot certificate. This was back in the 1950s (yes, I am that ancient). I was living in New Jersey with my wife and baby daughter. While still a student pilot, I had purchased a…

The water below was on fire. Thick billowing clouds of black smoke rose up from the surface, blocking the sun. Our aircraft was in a left bank, directing surface units 1,500 feet below, the aircraft buffeted with turbulence as we dodged fiery tornadoes that were reaching upward from the flames and waterspouts dropping down from the smoke above. We were doing our best to avoid flying into the walls of smoke while staying on mission and watching out for the dozens of other aircraft that were in the vicinity. The radio crackled—Omaha 55, a DHS P3 Orion, was vectoring in a rescue helicopter to a site where a life raft had been spotted… It started out for me on a remote island near the Turks and Caicos Islands in the…

Aviation may have come close to having a disaster on October 26, 2016, when an American Airlines Boeing 767-323 experienced an uncontained engine failure and fire during its takeoff roll at Chicago O’Hare International Airport. There were 170 souls on board: 161 passengers, seven flight attendants and two flight crewmembers. A flight attendant and 19 passengers received minor injuries. While some will say there’s really nothing to see here because the system worked the way it was supposed to and no lives were lost, I’d suggest that were it not for some judicious human improvisation and a generous supply of luck, the outcome would have been very different. “They didn’t know it, but the high-pressure turbine stage 2 disk in the right engine had ruptured into two large pieces, which…

Some bucket list items are ones you check off intentionally. You go to Jack Brown’s to get your seaplane rating. You get with a local tailwheel guru to get that endorsement in your logbook. You head off to a sim center to get your first type rating in a jet. Sure, your success in any of these bucket list attempts is not a certainty, and some are tougher than others, but for the most part, we can pretty much mark those successes on our calendars ahead of time. There are a few bucket list items, however, that resist our feeble attempts to schedule our milestones. In fact, one of the proudest moments for me was just such a bucket list item: flying an approach to minimums in actual IFR conditions.…

ACROSS 1: What Garrett turboprops aren’t. 4: The C in the CAPS parachute system 9: Waggle 10: First step in a flying career 12: Prefix for engineer and issue 14: Off-runway excursion hazard 20: What flying isn’t 21: Google planes or The Birthplace 23: Compass effect when turning from a north heading 24: Long row of approach lights 25: Ramp _____ 26: The state of SLC 27: Whoa there, 2 words 30: An inverted flat one is bad 32: The 1960s and ‘70s for GA 33: Balance’s partner DOWN 1: Born in Wichita, now from Independence 2: Marker beacon’s lesser option 3: Rocket propellant component 5: Particle with a charge 6: Word that follows production and test 7: Abbreviation for what FLCH does 8: Abbreviation at the point of no…

I had been a first officer on the ATR for about a year when I was paired with a young captain who had just upgraded from our smaller turboprop. Tim was a nice guy and a capable pilot. He was friendly and easy in conversation. He seemed to treat the flight attendant with respect (a real test of a captain, as far as I’m concerned.) Our first two days together went well. He was “by the book” generally but also had a fundamentally laid-back personality. So it was with some disappointment that I noticed a bit of defensiveness creep into his manner after he made a bad landing in a strong crosswind. Working elbow to elbow in a cockpit for three or four days at a time can be awkward…

Not too long ago, there wasn’t much hiring going on at the airlines. Many pilots interested in airline jobs took flight instructing positions and kept them for a while, building hours well beyond the 1,500 hours total time required for the airline transport pilot certificate (ATP) and waiting for a chance opening. Competition was high, salaries were low and opportunities rare. Those days are gone. The long-predicted pilot shortage is upon us, and the number of pilots needed is only going to grow from here. Positions continue to open up at both regional carriers and major airlines. And flight instructing is no longer a long-term job. The question of whether or not flight instructing should be treated as an hour-building position and stair-step to other careers options is an argument…

In the same way as most piston-plane-oriented pilots stick to well-loved Skylanes, Bonanzas and Saratogas, flyers who are interested in a jet or turboprop to do some serious transportation flying most often look at the pre-owned marketplace, too. While the benefits of buying a used turbine are similar and parallel in most respects to those of buying a pre-owned piston plane, there are important distinctions you need to make and remember. That said, buying a used turbine instead of a new one is a smart move as long as you understand the economics behind it and buy the right plane to begin with, and at the right price. Before talking about the costs, you need to be honest with yourself about your experience and abilities as a pilot. The planes…

As an airshow pilot, I often get asked, “How do you deal with flying a low-level airshow when you’re having a bad day?” It’s a good question and one that I’ve struggled with myself. Like fighter pilots, airshow pilots have unique challenges and distractions to deal with. Airshow pilots live their life in the public flying aerial displays during all of life’s events—relationship break ups, death of a family member and even death of friends at the same airshow. I have learned that continuing to perform and stay focused during life’s challenges requires being able to set those things aside at least temporarily and focus only on the mission I am required to do. After I started flying, and especially flying competitively, I found that I could train to stay…