Innholdsfortegnelse for April 2018 i Plane & Pilot

I spent some time in central Florida recently at the Sebring Sport Aviation Expo and had the opportunity during a panel discussion I moderated to spend some time with some people who know sport aviation better than just about anyone. The topic, the way light aircraft certification is changing aircraft design and availability, was, at first blush anyway, a dry one. But as we discussed it, it proved to be anything but. The people who joined me for the conversation were old friends and sport aviation veterans Sebastien Heintz, president of Zenith Aircraft; Tom Peghiny, president of Fight Design USA; and Dan Johnson, president of the Light Aircraft Manufacturers Association. Between them, they represent around 150 years of experience in the sport aviation world. They don’t just know it. Each…

FAA minimum pilot height requirement: None Air Force pilot minimum height: 64 inches standing (5’4”) Shortest fixed-wing takeoff/landing: Bobby Breeden, 44 ft total Smallest multi-engine plane: Colomban Cri- Cri, 13 ft long, 16-ft wingspan Smallest single: Stits DS-1 Baby Bird, 6-ft wingspan, length 11 ft Smallest successful single (biplane): Stits SA-2A Baby Bird, 10 ft long, 11-ft wingspan Smallest single that flew: Starr Bumble Bee II, 5’6” wingspan Number built: One Number of flights: A few on one day Crashes: One Fatalities: Zero World’s shortest airline runway: 1,200 feet, Yrausquin Airport on Saba, a small island in the Caribbean Lowest airport in the world: Bar Yehuda Airfield, near the Dead Sea, Israel, 1,240 feet below sea level Lowest airport in the United States: 210 ft below sea level, Furnace Creek,…

“I’ll just climb over the weather,” a friend of mine tells me when planning a departure in his Piper Navajo. “But what if the weather is higher than you can climb?” I answer. It seems to be a valid question to me. He is headed into an area of rainy weather in an aircraft capable of climbing to altitudes higher than the average small general aviation aircraft but certainly not high enough that it can climb over more developed weather, especially thunderstorms. “The inability to out-climb weather and, instead, have to fly through it has resulted in catastrophe for too many middle-altitude-capable aircraft, their pilots and their passengers.” Every type of flying has its own unique risks and challenges, but some flying has risks that are not as commonly discussed.…

Within aviation, the drive to create is infectious, and I caught the bug after my first visit to EAA’s Oshkosh Fly-In back in 1992. I spent the week with eyes wide open, amazed at the number of entrepreneurs and inventors touting new aircraft and technologies in the making. I knew at that moment that my life trajectory had changed forever. I spent the next 25 years working my way into and around the general aviation industry. I had both successes and failures, but, most importantly, I had some truly inspiring mentors. I became a pilot, an aircraft owner, an A&P/IA mechanic and an STC/ PMA holder, all due to the encouragement and support of some truly remarkable human beings bound together by a love for aviation. Experiencing the magic that…

WE STILL LIVE IN THE modern age of personal aviation, and we’ve been here since around 1945, when the Beech Bonanza arrived on the scene, heralding a new way to build airplanes and fly them. It was a new paradigm altogether. The Cessna 195 wasn’t, even though it was introduced, crazily, the same year as the Bonanza. The 195 is not a p-change but a link between the antique airplanes of the ’20s and ’30s and the modern airplanes like the Bonanza, which arrived after World War II. Unlike the Model 35 Bonanza, the 195 was an anachronism from day one, based largely on two factors, both of which drive the design of the plane in numerous other directions. Those features are, of course, the round engine—the Jacobs R-755, 300-hp…

THE QUESTION Is “The Step” just a myth? Or is there really something to it? THE BACKSTORY The subject of aerodynamics is a slippery one, with any one effect having many plausible-sounding explanations. One of the most vexing aerodynamic theories is the one that claims that certain airplanes can achieve faster cruise speeds when they get into a certain pitch attitude. It might be useful to compare this with a floatplane, which plows along in the water until it achieves a more nose-down angle of attack and then transitions to a more efficient contact with the water’s surface in which it planes instead of plows. A theory associated with The Step is that it is achieved by climbing slightly above your cruise altitude and then descending back down to the…

Like most pilots, my first few lessons in pursuit of a Private Pilot Certificate were memorable. I wish I could report that this was because of the exhilaration of sailing into the wild blue yonder or cavorting among the clouds. With apologies to John Gillespie Magee Jr., these flights were not etched into my brain because I had “slipped the surly bonds of earth and danced the skies on laughter-silvered-wings.” “I upgraded to captain in 2001 and, like most regional pilots at that time, anticipated a fairly quick hop up to the majors. World events changed that trajectory.” What made my first piloting experience indelible was nausea, and the sadly predictable reappearance of my breakfast, or lunch, or dinner. Compounding my humiliation was the disapproving scowl of my regal and…

New arrivals to general aviation are frequently taken aback by the state of our propulsion systems compared to the car they drove to the airport. We have to coax airplane engines to start with careful incantations and manipulation, monitor and tend to them manually, and nurse them back to health at great expense if they experience illness. Car engines, by comparison, demand little interaction; fully computer controlled, they start at a touch and run for years without attention. Why, asks the new inductee, are these airplane engines so crude and expensive? The answer lies in the aircraft engine’s uniqueness. It cannot be compared with the automotive engine, because it’s expected to do an entirely different type of work. First and foremost, airplane engines must be stone reliable; an engine failure…

As a semi-long-term senior editor of this magazine, I’m often asked about the benefits of buying a new aircraft over purchasing a used machine and versa vici. I’m well aware that a majority of readers might automatically vote for the less-costly option. After all, most intelligent buyers know that even if you can afford a new aircraft, you lose a major percentage of the purchase price the minute you taxi away from the dealership. “I’ve had some folks ask why I’m not flying a late-model Piper Mirage or some other more modern super bird. The primary reason is the obvious one—money.” P&P editor-in-chief Robert Goyer recently purchased a well-maintained and nicely renovated 1964 Cessna Skylane for personal and business use. That’s a wise choice if you want to keep other…

VULCANAIR V1.0 RECEIVES GREEN LIGHT FROM FAA Vulcanair, an Italian manufacturer long known for its production of twins, recently received FAA certification for a single-engine four-seater known as the V1.0. The all-metal V1.0 is powered by a 180 hp Lycoming and goes for less than $260,000, an appealing price tag in a market where sub-$300,000 trainers are hard to come by. GE’S NEW TURBOPROP ENGINE COMPLETES FIRST TEST RUN GE Aviation completed the first run of the Advanced Turboprop engine in late December, paving the way for the clean-sheet design to begin certification testing in 2018. The 1,240 shp engine is slated to power the new Cessna Denali. GARMIN GFC 500 CERTIFIED FOR CESSNA 172, 182 The FAA has granted supplemental type certification for Garmin’s GFC 500 autopilot for many…

My story begins over four decades ago, in the summer of 1972, on a warm and humid August evening. I comfortably reclined as the drone of the New York Mets play-byplay announcers, Ralph Kiner and Lindsey Nelson, ushered me along toward slumber, all the while dreaming of the day I would take to my own field of dreams. The still evening air was shattered by the deep groan of an engine struggling against an unknown foe. What seemed like eternity was over in seconds. The ensuing quiet was eerily ominous. Torn from the beautiful world of baseball, I jumped up and ran to the front door, expecting to see a car or truck impaled in our house. Nothing there. I ran to the back, where my parents and their friends…

I’ve become a big fan in recent years of Milan Bristela, the Czech airplane designer who’s behind the shape of a few LSA on the market right now, including the BRM Bristell, a carbon fiber and aluminum sport plane that pushes the limits of the term “sport” with its list of quality (and quantity) of life features from stem to stern. The Bristell (pronounced “bris-TELL) is nothing shocking to look at. The wings are in the usual place, the engine, too, and the bubble-hinged canopy is something we’ve all seen before. The tail, as well. Totally conventional. That said, the shape of the plane is very pleasing, its dimensions and ratios hitting the sweet spot in design we might have a hard time quantifying but know it when we see…

Certified Flight and Instrument Instructors have to renew their ratings in one of three ways—by taking an online refresher course, attending a weekend ground school or taking a check ride with their favorite Designated Pilot Examiner (DPE). I’ve kept my rating up to date, but when I started making aerobatics my vocation, I only had time to instruct occasionally to help out a friend by giving a BFR, an IPC (Instrument Proficiency Check), or giving dual in a fun aerobatic airplane. The bi-annual recurrency training for CFIs is designed to keep them apprised of new regulations and rule changes. Rules and regs change, and it’s easy to catch up on them, but I’m much more fascinated by the fundamentals of flight instruction that deal with human behavior and the learning…

Since getting hooked on flying in 1948 during my first airplane ride (in an Aeronca Champ), I have heard over and over again that you’re not a “real pilot” until you have flown a tailwheel airplane. Hearing this and similar statements, mostly coming from old-timer taildragger pilots, and understanding the truth that getting your tailwheel endorsement and flying a taildragger can actually make you a better pilot, I added it to my bucket list with plans to do just that before my flying career would someday unavoidably come to an end. I got my private pilot license in 1981 in a Cessna 152, then went on to obtain my instrument rating in my own Piper Warrior in 1989 before upsizing to a Piper Archer in 1991. Over the years, I…