Innholdsfortegnelse for July 2017 i Plane & Pilot

“The last situation where you want to bounce a landing is at night or in low visibility, because it ratchets up the difficulty factor of the recovery. Why? Depth perception.” Don’t feel bad when it happens to you, even spaceships bounce off the earth’s atmosphere if their reentry isn’t perfectly choreographed. What matters is that you have a game plan ready, to instantly execute, in the event a botched landing leaves you airborne, and a bit surprised at the top of a bounce. In fact, let’s freeze-frame that picture in our mind—the image of you, in your airplane, at the top of an unexpected bounce, and a rather high bounce at that. You’ve come in for what seemed a typical landing and somehow things went askew. Maybe it was that…

“If you’re going to take out the windshield of your car and replace it with a screen, what would it take for you to drive as fast?” Alex Sauriol, Chief Technology Officer at Searidge Technologies, is explaining the challenge of building remote, electronic air traffic control towers. If we are to change the system of airport traffic control that has worked for a hundred years, the replacement has to give us the same confidence and safety—or do an even better job. As a pilot, I’m a little freaked out by the idea and way more than a little intrigued. On the one hand, tower operations haven’t changed much since the days of NDB approaches. A pilot calls in location and intentions, and a controller typically reaches for a pair of…

This article is the first in a series about bringing a good used airplane up to more modern standards. Our test subject is a 1964 Cessna 182G with a beautiful airframe, passable but old interior, avionics in dire need of updating and the original engine that has good compression and relatively low time since an overhaul 20 years ago. The prop looks like new, but is 12 years old. In this series, we’ll be examining not only the safety case for an upgrade, but the financial case for it as well. While few owners would choose to do all of the mods we’re doing with this lucky Skylane, each one of them makes sense as part of a larger if not so ambitious refurbishment project. Keep reading and see what…

Breakfast, it would seem, is the preferred way to celebrate the Fourth of July in these parts. The firemen put on an annual pancake feast in town, as do the folks who run the local airfield. We call them airfields because, in the beginning, that’s exactly what they were. Not runways, but weedy fields about one mile square, allowing aircraft with little or no braking ability to land against the wind from any direction and skid to a halt. Nowadays, such open spaces are in short supply. But for people like Greg Heckman, a professor of aircraft mechanics in Rockford who operates his own hangar on the Ogle County property, the few green runways still around are irreplaceable. Heckman also builds impeccable aircraft. The floor of his shop shines, just…

First reported missing aircraft: HOT AIR BALLOON VILLE DE PARIS Pilot: Matias Perez, lost and presumed dead General location: Straits of Florida First missing airplane: DECEMBER 22, 1910, SHORT S.27 Location: Somewhere over the English Channel Mission: Return to England Pilot: Cecil Grace; body recovered three months later Next three planes that disappeared: ALL BLERIOT MODEL 11S First military aircraft to go missing: Two Short Type C, 1915, WWI, in Belgium First aircraft lost in polar region: Airship Italia , May 25, 1928 First airplane lost in polar region: Latham 47.02, June 18, 1928 Reason for flight: Searching for survivors of airship crash Occupants lost: 6, including Roald Amundsen, led first expedition to South Pole Number of aircraft missing all time in record-setting attempts: At least 25…

I was one of the first users of ForeFlight 9 as a lucky accident of having a flight planned on the very day it was launched. As I flew along in the 182 with its still-ancient panel, I used ForeFlight to guide me along my way, picking the best altitude for the best groundspeeds, which actually seemed to work, checking on the weather as I flew over a low undercast that was making most of the airports in Alabama and Louisiana ILS-only arrivals. As I noticed first one, then another new feature, I was amazed three or four times in succession. ForeFlight once again has gotten this stuff right. We should stop being amazed by what ForeFlight adds to each successive introduction of its award-winning mobile app, but so far…

“IT’S A PLANE FOR A PILOT WHO WANTS MORE SEATS, CLASSIC CONSTRUCTION, SOLID SPEED AND RANGE AND THE KIND OF HERITAGE THAT STANDS ALONE IN THE SEGMENT.” Six seats. Big doors. Club seating. Retractable gear. Substantial feel. Metal construction. Those are the bullet points for the Beech G36 Bonanza, but if you stopped there, you’d be missing the point entirely. People who fly one of Beechcraft’s planes, from Bonanza to King Air, know this already. This is the 70th anniversary of the Bonanza, and it’s a worthy milestone to mark. This is not lost on the folks at Textron Aviation—both Beech and Cessna are under the Textron Aviation umbrella, but the company has wisely left both names to their own storied brands. They mention the Bonanza as the longest continually…

“AC-91-57A CHANGE 1 AND THE KNOW BEFORE YOU FLY PROGRAM PROVIDE GUIDANCE FOR HOBBY AND RECREATIONAL FLYING.” Since the FAA’s new rules for commercial use of small UASs went into effect in August, many pilots may be considering obtaining a drone operator’s license pursuant to the new FAR Part 107. (See “Drone Revolution: How (And Why) The Game Has Changed,” Plane & Pilot, October 2016, by Robert Goyer). After all, FAR Part 107 allows licensed pilots to obtain the Remote Pilot Certificate by taking the FAA’s Online Course, a simpler procedure than the requirement for non-pilots, filling out the application, and, of course, paying the fee for a new license, then passing the online test or equivalent every two years. A pilot interested in obtaining their certificate through the online…

I was only a few hours into my flight training before I began fantasizing about owning my own airplane. While the ink was still wet on my temporary private pilot certificate, I developed a five-year plan for aircraft ownership. I should have known that nothing would go according to plan. I had intended to purchase a 1960s Cherokee 180, but ended up with a 1947 Luscombe 8E, a two-seat taildragger. A year into aircraft ownership, it remains one of the best decisions I’ve ever made. The Internet is full of spreadsheets that will help you calculate the operating cost of an airplane. Online forums will extol the horrors and virtues of ownership. Countless articles have outlined sensible strategies for selecting and purchasing your first aircraft. You’ll find no such sober…

Two words that will strike fear into any general aviation aircraft owner are “annual inspection.” Face it, most of us fly airplanes from the golden age of general aviation, so your airplane is probably at least 30 years old. My airplane is getting ready to celebrate 47 candles. Since it comes around every year, and can be the biggest contributor to our yearly cost of operation, it would be in our best interest to do all that we can to lower the cost of our preventive maintenance. Owner-assisted annuals are a great way to save some money and learn about your own airplane at the same time. The first and most important thing that you must do is establish a relationship with a shop near your home (or, be prepared…