Innholdsfortegnelse for November 2019 i Plane & Pilot

Last month, Plane & Pilot eNews published a story about the successful forced water landing of a Beechcraft Bonanza off the Pacific Coast in central California. The emergency landing came after the plane’s engine failed outside of gliding distance off shore. The pilot of the Beechcraft, David Lesh, executed a perfect ditching, which was captured on video by an occupant of the camera plane above. After the Bonanza came to rest, Lesh and his female passenger successfully escaped the sinking plane, leaving the pair treading water while awaiting rescue as the camera plane orbited above. Forty-five minutes later, a Coast Guard helicopter, which had been doing practice runs over the bay, picked up the pair and flew them back to dry land. It was, however, a long, cold 45 minutes…

In some ways, the year 2019 was a remarkable one in aviation, but when it came to new plane introductions, it was, well, a continuation of a familiar trend. In the Part 23 world, there were no newly certificated planes, though at least one looks like an outside shot at getting approved by the end of the calendar year. Other emerging designs look as though they won’t make it. Some are being pushed out to 2020 and beyond, which is the way things are in the brave new world of airplane manufacturing. The days are gone when each year brought a handful of clean-sheet airplane designs, high-flying models launched at Paris or Oshkosh (or Wichita or Vero Beach). Almost every new plane these days is a derivative of a former…

Whether you’ve seen it on Facebook or YouTube (or 20 other online places), you’re doubtless aware of the Valdez STOL competition. It’s nothing short of an online sensation. For over a decade, pilots from across the globe have been able to witness some amazing examples of bush plane piloting skills while sitting in front of their home computers. Looking exclusively at the Valdez STOL competition videos, you might think that this is a large event with thousands of spectators and hundreds of competitors. Such is not the case. This isn’t AirVenture or Sun ’n Fun-Alaska Version. This is a small event. For 2019, about 60 planes (of which 27 were competitors) made the journey to Valdez, Alaska. Organizers estimated the crowd size at close to 2,000. While numbers of airplanes…

I had just dropped the keys and logbooks for the new Caravan on the South African Cessna dealer’s desk when his phone rang. He answered it and motioned me to sit. He spoke for a few seconds, then said, “Well, he just walked into my office,” and commented, “It’s for you.” “Bill, this is Wilfred Otto at Henschel Flugzeug Piper in Kassel, Germany. Hope you had a good trip in from Florida. What are your plans now?” I told him I’d be catching the first flight I could find headed back to California. “How’d you like to fly back to Florida, pick up the first Piper Mirage in Vero Beach instead and ferry it to Germany?” Silly question. Four hours later, I was sitting on a British Airways 747, lifting…

The Ball-Bartoe Jetwing at the Wings Over the Rockies Air and Space Museum in Denver, Colorado, is a one-of-a kind, head-scratching marvel. This single-engine, “blown-wing” taildragger jet was donated to the museum in 2007 from its previous home at the University of Tennessee, but the aircraft is a Colorado native through and through. Powered by a Pratt & Whitney JT15D-1 rated at a maximum continuous thrust of 2,050 pounds, the engine lacks a conventional tailpipe. All thrust was diverted over the wing to improve aircraft short-takeoff and landing capability (STOL), and it is the only aircraft in the world designed in this manner. A spoiler-thrust reverser nozzle in each wing-redirected jet exhaust provided a primitive but effective reverse thrust system. A removable upper airfoil was attached to recoup lost thrust…

It was a rare sunny February day in Seattle. Between the long months of gray and rain starting sometime in October and ending somewhere in May, there was one day on the weather app showing a sun symbol, and that was my instrument check ride day. As the date got closer, I figured I was just lucky to have a perfect VMC day and not to have to reschedule the check ride like many others in the Pacific Northwest this time of year. So, what could go wrong? I had started my instrument rating training a few months earlier, immediately after earning my private pilot license, in fact. I had always considered the instrument rating an important tool for any pilot, and I wanted to earn the rating as soon…

TEMCO GC 1B Swift Pineville, Louisiana/Injuries: 1 Fatal The airline transport pilot departed on a cross-country flight to relocate his newly-purchased airplane to his home state. A fixed-based operator employee at the airport reported that the pilot overflew the airport and requested verification that his landing gear were extended. The employee confirmed that they were down. After overflying the runway the airplane descended and impacted trees and terrain. Another witness reported that after the low pass, the airplane started to climb and then turned right at an altitude of 250 to 300 ft above ground level. He added that as the airplane turned, its tail “wobbled,” which he attributed to a loss of engine power. Then the nose pitched down before it descended below the tree line. The airplane separated…

For as long as there have been airline flights or railroad passages or ships sailing the ocean blue, there have been deadheads. As crews move machines about the face of the planet, they frequently find themselves “out of place.” To the airline pilot, deadheading is a fact of life. It’s frequently met with a groan when it pops up on the schedule, but there are certainly times (bad weather, extended days) when a deadhead elicits a sigh of relief. For many years, our deadheads were paid at 50%, which added to the groan factor. With better labor agreements, we now get paid as if the deadhead were a regular flight, so usually it’s a tolerable experience. Flying like a passenger, and specifically with the passengers, can be a challenge. I’m…

The NTSB recently released its report on an accident in which a 20-year veteran of the organization was among the victims. It was the Dec. 16, 2017, nighttime crash of a Cessna T210M near Oldenburg, Indiana, in which all three people and a dog on board the airplane were killed. A second dog survived the crash. Dr. Paul Schuda, director of the NTSB Training Center in Ashburn, Virginia, was one of the passengers who died in the fated flight. The pilot-in-command was Schuda’s friend Dr. Louis Cantilena Jr., a professor and director of clinical pharmacology and medical technology at the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences in Bethesda, Maryland. Cantilena was a member of CAP’s national Congressional Squadron, and Schuda was an official of the CAP’s National Capital Wing.…

The screech of tires skidding on pavement snapped my fight-or-flight reflexes into action as eyes flashed wide open, knuckles went white as they gripped whatever was handy and adrenaline coursed from wherever that particular hormone lies in wait. Twelve years of professional aviation led me to that fateful night where I worried suddenly that someone else would have to get my remains back home and spread the ashes across the red Georgia clay, a flurry of gray bound to earth that would melt away with the next passing thunderstorm. Dying on an island in the Caribbean, I mused, might not be all that bad. At least someone could enjoy a day at the beach when they came down to sign the papers. The risk of mortality in our profession is…