Innholdsfortegnelse for November 2024 i Flying

In 1960, the presidential race between Massachusetts Democratic U.S. Senator John F. Kennedy and Republican Vice President Richard Nixon was a tight one. And like all campaigns, both sides were looking for an edge. For Kennedy the advantage had wings—specifically a Convair CV-240 christened Caroline and named for Kennedy’s young daughter. Caroline was converted from a 40-seat airliner to an executive transport for one purpose—to help the senator win the election. Theodore Roosevelt had flown but not while in office. T.R.’s distant cousin, Franklin D. Roosevelt, was the first to fly while in office, said Robert van der Linden, transportation curator at the Smithsonian’s National Air and Space Museum. Dwight D. Eisenhower famously used GA, a twin-engine Aero Commander, dubbed Ike’s Bird (which also holds the distinction of being…

TURNING FINAL ONTO Runway 34 at Seeley Lake, Montana (23S), I was high and fast. Normally, this would not be a good thing at a mountain strip with a grass runway almost a mile above sea level on a warm August morning. But then most grass strips aren’t 4,575 feet long and smoother than the majority of the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway. The landing was a nonevent, and my Bonanza seemed to be happy to finally touch grass. The Bo is approved for grass and dirt strips, but her pilot has not exercised this capability largely due to trepidation. Having totaled a Bonanza departing Telluride, Colorado, in 2018, I am still overly cautious when it comes to mountain flying. Unpredictable winds, density altitude, and unforgiving terrain feel like plenty enough to handle.…

ON AUGUST 15, 2023, Southwest Airlines Flight 307, a B-737-700, experienced a right engine fire shortly after its departure from Houston’s Hobby Airport (KHOU) en route to Mexico’s Cancun International Airport (MMUN). According to tracking data, the aircraft leveled off at 3,000 feet and then eventually returned to KHOU without incident or injuries. The captain of the flight was David Legeros. As of April 29, Legeros began a court battle against Southwest Airlines, seeking injunctive relief for the carrier’s demand to conduct a fitness for duty (FFD) evaluation. The FFD is one of the steps leading up to Legeros’ potential termination. Racial discrimination is also alleged in the litigation, with an implication that Southwest has been looking for a viable excuse to end his employment based on Legeros’ mentor activities…

NOT OFTEN, BUT OCCASIONALLY as I get older, I climb out of bed to see a clear blue sky and think, “Damn, I’ve had enough of this flying stuff. I need a day of low ceilings and rainstorms.” That happened yesterday, but I was planning to fly the 180 to Miami University Airport (KOXD) in Oxford, Ohio, for a look at my friend Troy MacVey’s newest operation at Mac’s Seaplane Service and maybe take advantage of the lowest price in avgas in the area. But what a splendid day it turned out to be. Depending on when and where you learned to fly, maybe you stopped in at the local airport and chatted with an instructor or just somebody hanging around the office–maybe sitting outside on a bench or lawn…

Striking a Great Balance I have been a subscriber to FLY-ING for more than 50 years straight. Over that time I have enjoyed both technical and technique articles and particularly articles that address the simple joys flying brings to us. The “why” of why we fly. Len Morgan, Gordon Baxter, Lane Wallace, Les Abend, Martha Lunkin, Dick Karl, Sam Weigel, [and] Ben Younger all provide their own style of food for the soul. Richard Collins (flown West) and Peter Garrison are in a league of their own in their areas of expertise. Do I read every article in FLYING? No. I have no interest in business jets (great photos, though!) or indepth articles on the demands and complexities of flying instruments in highly demanding conditions. I flip past them without…

ABOUT 200 MOVERS and shakers in the advanced air mobility (AAM) industry gathered at Honeywell’s Capitol Hill office in Washington, D.C., with a message to Congress: You are standing between the country and progress. The September event marked the aerospace and defense giant’s third annual AAM Summit, and according to David Shilliday, vice president and general manager of AAM at Honeywell, the event can have a tangible impact on U.S. policy. “Our first two events, but especially last year’s in 2023, had a heightened focus on the then-pending FAA Reauthorization bill, and we believe the Summit helped educate and drive the priorities,” Shilliday said. The industry is backed by billions of dollars of venture capital. But stakeholders fear that AAM technology has surpassed the pace of regulation. The 2024 FAA…

ON A SATURDAY EARLY in 2023, a Cherokee 140 carrying two friends to a nearby airport for lunch crashed in an open field, killing both men. A witness saw it in a turning dive, trailing smoke. There had been no distress call from the airplane, no indication that anything was wrong. That the engine, retrieved from 3 feet of mud, had been turning at impact was indicated by the chordwise scratches on the propeller blades. Inspection of the engine revealed only one anomaly: The magneto hold-down nuts, which are normally torqued to a specified value in order to clamp the magneto flanges tightly against the crankcase, were no more than finger tight. National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) investigators dug into events preceding the accident, and a curious story developed. Six…

The Russian Yakovlev Yak-9 was one of the smallest and lightest combat fighters fielded by any combatant during World War II. Its high power-to-weight ratio gave it excellent performance, and it proved to be a formidable dogfighter, able to turn 360 degrees in 18.5 seconds. While a large number of American and British warbirds from that era have found their way into the civilian market, precious few two-seat Yak-9s and single-place Yak-3s arrived on U.S. soil. In the immortal words of the Grateful Dead, “What a long, strange trip it’s been.” MEET THE YAK-9 In broad strokes, the aircraft is a single-engine, multirole fighter used by the Soviet Union and its allies during WWII and into the early Cold War. The Yak-9 started arriving in Soviet fighter squadron in late…

WITH THE HOLIDAYS fast approaching, we suggest a few unique holiday gift ideas for aircraft owners and pilots. Some are practical, others are aspirational, all are wonderful. HANGARBOT REMOTE ENGINE PREHEATER Price: $275 Remotely preheat your aircraft’s engine from a mobile device and explore other devices to turn your entire hangar into a smart hangar. SPECIAL TRIBUTE SPIRITS AND DECANTERS Price: $325-$475 Pay homage to aviation’s special moments, people, and aircraft over a glass of aged spirits with these one-ofa-kind collectibles, or create your own custom tribute. AEROHART FLIGHT BAGS AND SATCHELS Price: $333-$762 Sophisticated products designed by aviators who know how to enhance the in-flight experience from takeoff to landing. ABINGTON WOMEN’S AVIATOR WATCHES Price: $499-$689 Form and function converge in these stylish timepieces that track multiple time zones and…

IF YOU HANG AROUND FBOs long enough, you’ll see some famous people. This is especially true at airports near big cities with those fancy FBOs featuring high ceilings, mood lighting, attractive customer service representatives, and exorbitant gas prices. I see nearly 10 bucks a gallon for fuel at Logan International Airport (KBOS)—jet-A or 100LL. One time I saw former Secretary of State John Kerry boarding his government 757 at Boston. He didn’t wave. That’s not to say famous people aren’t friendly. In my experience they are almost always polite and approachable. My first sighting was at Chicago Midway International Airport (KMDW). This was during a slow period for Midway, after O’Hare International Airport (KORD) was built and before Southwest Airlines revived the field. During this early 1980’s hiatus, I based my…

RELUCTANCE TO THROW useless things away has at least one benefit: After a sufficient passage of time, they become historical artifacts. I still have 14 single-spaced typewritten pages chronicling the first five months of flying my first homebuilt, Melmoth, in 1973-74. The document, now slightly frayed but bidding fair to defy the silverfish for another century or two, ends with the admission that “it is getting tedious and pointless to record all these trivia.” Rereading it today, I came to the same conclusion well before the final page. But it does contain a few bits of information I find interesting. One is that after having flown Melmoth less than an hour and finding that it shook its booty provocatively with flaps down, I got a Cessna dorsal fin from a…

ANSWER: It is a combination of multiple things—corrosion, latency, and time. There is always trace amounts of moisture in fuel, and it produces compounds that are corrosive. While most of the aircraft is aluminum (which is lighter and less susceptible to corrosion), steel is used in specific applications (such as older fuel senders) because of its conductive qualities and low cost. However, blending dissimilar metal is another cause of corrosion leading to all manner of failures over time. Another thing that exacerbates the problem in legacy fuel gauge senders is the lack of movement for extended periods. Most people drive a car every day which both changes the fuel level in the tanks and sloshes the fuel around, thereby causing the fuel senders to be in a frequent state of…

LIVING IN A LATTITUDE farther from the equator may mean more seasonal weather, but it doesn’t mean that you’re grounded. Given an adequate ceiling, visibility, and some instructor creativity, it is possible to continue flight training in the winter months, as long as you are adept at reading and understanding a forecast, and able to recognize potentially hazardous situations. Planning Is Key Since not all hangars are heated, many aircraft owners have engine and oil preheaters—some can be turned on remotely hours in advance by a mobile device. Alternatively, external gas or electric engine heaters that circulate warm air around the engine are also popular. There are also many aircraft covers designed to work in conjunction with these devices to keep the aircraft relatively warm between flights and many have…

Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024 (MSFS2024) is a comprehensive next chapter in the storied franchise that builds on the successes of MSFS2020 and adds more, much more, to the flight simulation experience. There’s a great deal to be excited about. In the four years since the launch of Microsoft Flight Simulator (MSFS) in August 2020, the development team responsible for the undertaking has been quietly and rapidly growing its capabilities and intentionally expanding the team as it prepares to launch the most advanced and audacious Microsoft simulator software product in the 40-plus-year-old franchise. The team invited nearly 100 content creators and journalists to a small resort near the southern rim of the Grand Canyon in Arizona in early September to provide an early access viewing of MSFS2024. Jorg Neumann, head of…

It’s often suggested in the pilot community that as you add more hours to your logbook, all that weather knowledge you forgot or were never taught during your primary training will magically take root. While some experience is absolutely necessary, more experience alone isn’t the answer for most general aviation pilots. In fact, the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) released a safety notice in October 2005 that states, “It appears that pilots generally require formal training to obtain weather knowledge and cannot be expected to acquire it on their own as they simply gain more flight experience.” I fully support this conclusion. Any experience that occurs as a result of formal training leads to what I call applied knowledge. This is the kind of experience that truly matters. Once you…

THE CHANGE, WHEN IT CAME, was immediate and profound. One second, my wife, Dawn, and I were enjoying our lofty morning view of the hundred miles of mountainous Canadian wilderness stretching out before us with our Stinson 108’s Franklin engine purring steadily along as we crossed the slender ribbon of water that marked the end of roaded civilization. The next second, the purr abruptly devolved to a ragged staccato, the tachometer dropped several hundred rpm, and the rugged hinterlands of British Columbia took on a Gaussian blur as the vibration of the engine shook the entire airframe and hence my eyeballs. “Dawn, we have an engine problem. Look for potential places to land.” I was already turning back to Lake Babine’s western shoreline, with its scattered sleepy villages and scraggly…

BY THE TIME YOU get to high school, most people have a pretty good idea of how they learn best. Maybe it is watching a video or a hands-on demonstration. For others, it is reading a detailed description of a process. Some learners do best “gronking” (Seattletech speak for figuring something out without instructions) their way through a process without help, while others prefer step-by-step verbal instructions and immediate feedback. It can be very frustrating when the instructor’s teaching style doesn’t mesh with the learner’s learning style. And here’s the kicker. When you are beginning your instructor career, you won’t know your teaching style until you practice teaching under the guidance of a more experienced CFI. Fundamentals of Instruction The Aviation Instructor’s Handbook, the FAA’s text for CFIs (FAA-H-8083-9B), is…