Innholdsfortegnelse for January/February 2021 i Plane & Pilot

I won’t go over in detail how awful 2020 was for aviation, and for pilots specifically, but I will list the lowlights. We entered 2020 with the 737 Max grounded globally for eight months and the unfolding crisis only looking worse for Boeing and the FAA as each new revelation hit. Then there was the Kobe Bryant crash, in which the international basketball superstar, his 13-year-old daughter Gianna and seven others were killed in what looks for all the world like an accident that should never have happened. And then the novel coronavirus pandemic reared its ugly head. Around the world, tens of thousands of airline pilots, and many thousands more support crew, lost their jobs as airline flying plummeted. Schools were shuttered, businesses around the world—including aviation businesses—went belly…

In 2018, Bose debuted a fairly radical departure from its prior designs. Seeking to edge into the headset market for professional pilots, the company debuted a ProFlight headset that did away with bulky, somewhat heavy earcups and went for a lighter in-ear setup. While the in-ear setup has a loyal following with users of Clarity Aloft, Lightspeed Mach 1 and Plantronics headsets, Bose’s design incorporates its award-winning active noise reduction technology. The idea was great; the execution, not so much. That first-gen version, while promising, had a number of issues. Pilots complained about the design’s headband and earpieces being uncomfortable for long flights. The first ProFlight headsets were lighter than a pair of A20s but still heavier than the industry-standard Telex headset. Also sporting a thick, cumbersome cord, the design…

We had departed Schiphol Airport in Amsterdam, Netherlands, in the early afternoon and flown to Scotland on the first leg of our trip from Europe to Tucson, Arizona. Belgian Formula One driver Thierry Boutsen had decided to trade in his Piper Cheyenne IIXL for a Learjet, and I had gotten the nod to ferry Boutsen’s big Piper turboprop across the Atlantic to Lear’s sales and training facility in Tucson. I had Boutsen’s corporate pilot in back, along with his girlfriend and another pilot who had never flown the ocean and thought it might be fun. It was mid-March, well into icing season, so I cautioned everyone not to be overly concerned about airframe icing. The airplane was in great condition, well-equipped for icing, with Goodrich pneumatic deice boots on the…

For many general aviation pilots, night flying is a beautiful escape from the hustle and bustle of flying during busy days. There is less traffic, the air is smoother, the radios seem quieter. However, night flying in single-engine aircraft has its downsides as well. Even maintaining night currency can be a challenge, especially during the long summer days. In any event, the allure of taking off into a beautiful sunset goes hand in hand with respecting the hazards associated with flying at night. To our airline and military friends, night flying is just part of the job. Flying day and night through multiple time zones is a routine part of the schedule. In fact, the North Atlantic Organised Track System (NAT-OTC) is designed so that most eastbound flights to Europe…

Beech A36 Bonanza Elida, Ohio/2 Fatal The noninstrument-rated private pilot and passenger departed on the cross-county flight under visual flight rules (VFR) in visual meteorological conditions and proceeded on course at an altitude of about 9,000 ft mean sea level (msl). As the flight progressed, the weather conditions deteriorated, and about halfway through the flight, the pilot appeared to deviate before resuming flight toward the destination and descended to about 2,000 ft msl over about 30 minutes. Within 20 miles of the accident site, the pilot executed multiple course changes, including two 360° turns. The airplane then entered a right turn from a southeasterly course to a southwesterly course, and about 1 minute before the accident, the airplane re-entered the right turn, which progressed into a right graveyard spiral that…

There were several long moments as I stared alternately at the giant dune adorned with a giant monument and the mangled metal of my Mooney’s baggage door support, a folding bit of metal that holds the door open for loading and unloading. Its simple, over-center locking mechanism had been wrecked at my direction, as I asked Amy to close the door while I tied the plane down. Amy had never fully opened or closed the door, and I had nobody to blame but myself as I contemplated how to get the door closed. There were two factors lending a sense of urgency to the mission: First, there were people watching. We’d just landed at a national monument, so there were plenty of people at the fence looking at the swiftest…

Leather MA-1 Jacket This new jacket from Flight Outfitters sports a style that took off in the late 1940s and ’50s and never slowed down. Originally developed for military pilots, the MA-1 bomber jacket has been an iconic look in popular culture ever since. Made of genuine leather, the Flight Outfitters rendition features a number of touches that make it both comfortable to wear and preserve its authentic aesthetic. In keeping with the original MA-1, the Flight Outfitters jacket features a bright orange lining. In the middle of the 20th century, the lining served as a protection for downed pilots, who could reverse their jackets for easier visibility. A storm flap behind the zipper protects against the winter elements, as do a knit collar and cuffs. The jacket features one…

The history of vertical flight is fascinating, largely because finding ways to go straight up in the air was historically nearly impossible and remains complicated, difficult to achieve and riskier than fixed-wing flight. So, why do people want to do it? Two reasons. For one, it’s practical. There are missions that only an aircraft capable of vertical flight can accomplish. Just try plucking a stranded hiker with a broken ankle off of a mountain top with a Cessna 172. The second thing is, it’s amazing. The idea of having freedom of movement in every direction while being able to stop the action right where you are is intoxicating. You just can’t get that with a conventional airplane. Back to the “nearly impossible” part. If you think about the jet pack,…

Note: This analysis is of an NTSB Preliminary Accident Report. Any conclusions on the probable cause or causes of the accident will be addressed when the Safety Board’s final report is released. When it happened in June of 2019, TV news aired sensational claims about a fatal accident of a skydiving plane in Hawaii that killed 11 people. Based on the NTSB report, with its roughly 500-page docket, I learned that the news reports had more than a little basis in fact. June 21, 2019, on the North Shore of Oahu, was beautiful—about 74° Fahrenheit, VFR, light winds. Dillingham Airfield sits right on the Pacific Ocean, well known for amazing glider flying conditions and less-well-known as a filming location for the TV show “Lost.” The sun was getting ready to…

Nearly two decades before Cirrus, Columbia and Diamond arrived on the scene, a Midland, Texas, dentist, Dr. Leo Windecker, and his dentist wife, Dr. Fairfax Windecker, designed, constructed and obtained the first FAA type certificate for a composite general aviation aircraft. That aircraft, the Windecker Eagle 1, was faster than the competition, possessed a wider and more comfortable cabin, and was, and is today, an elegant design. The story begins in 1962, when the Windeckers moved from Dallas to Midland, Texas, and formed Windecker Industries. The couple both gave up dentistry for Leo’s first love, aviation (including composite material research and development). In 1965, in a little-known part of history, their fledgling company constructed a pair of composite wings for the Cessna 182 for Cessna Aircraft to conduct structural and…