Innholdsfortegnelse for December 2016 i Plane & Pilot

It’s easy to listen to the naysayers in aviation, but by any measure it’s been a remarkable year for general aviation. From great new airplanes and technological advancements, to innovative companies and regulatory gains, aviation had a banner year in 2106. Here are our picks for the Plane & Pilot Platinum Awards. Piper M600 Piper knocked it out of the park with its next-gen turboprop single, the M600, which takes its place at the top of the company’s lineup. The ’600 is faster (275 knots), longer-legged (around 1,450 nm), just as comfy and better equipped than Piper’s popular Meridian, while coming in at just under $3 million, a bargain by fast-turboprop standards. And, to top it all off, the M600 is outfitted with the Garmin G3000 touch-controlled avionics suite, making…

CESSNA 182C SKYLANE 1 Fatal The private pilot was conducting a short flight to his home airport after picking up his airplane following an annual inspection. There were no recorded communications between the pilot and air traffic control services. Radar data first showed the accident airplane about 20 miles east of the departure airport. The radar targets indicated that the airplane traveled toward the southeast with the final radar target about 11 miles west of the accident location. Several witnesses near the accident site reported hearing or observing the airplane flying in a low altitude and maneuvering to the north, east, and south. Witnesses described the airplane as flying about treetop level. Examination of the accident site indicated a high-airspeed, near-vertical impact with trees and terrain consistent with a loss…

This story has its roots in many conversations between my father, Leighton Collins, and his great friend Wolfgang Langewiesche. Both had been there and done that with the quite basic airplanes spawned by The Great Depression. Both flew 36 or 40 hp E-2 Cubs and/or Aeronca C-3s over much of the country. And both sought answers to the questions about how to best teach basic pilots flying these basic airplanes how to survive. Wolfgang wrote a book about it. Stick and Rudder was first published over 70 years ago, in 1944, and it was, is, and will probably always be the best-selling aviation book on the shelf. I know firsthand about the best-seller part because my father wrote a chapter in the book and I still get eight percent of…

“Here’s where it looked as though the pilot was becoming confused. He radioed, ‘Established if I could have vectors to final, please.’ Of course, if you’re established on the localizer, you don’t need vectors to final; you’re on it.” When the NTSB finished its investigation of the September 7, 2015, Beech A36 Bonanza crash near Kernersville, North Carolina, in which the pilot and both passengers were killed, it was just six days after the agency had released an alarming Safety Recommendation Report. The subject of the report was “Emergency Training for Air Traffic Controllers.” It demonstrated that you can’t always count on FAA air traffic controllers to have the training and skill to help bail you out of trouble if you ever need to ask. The NTSB highlighted five general…

There are a number of things about the plane that I take for granted that should probably be said out loud, both for those of us who aren’t as familiar with it and for those of us who are, but are apt to forget how big a deal things we take for granted can be—okay, I’m talking mostly about myself here. • It’s a fixed-gear airplane. That means a lot of additional drag, but a great deal less mechanical and user complexity, as well as much lower insurance premiums. None of that has changed in the more than two decades since the concept was launched. • Construction: The TTx is constructed mainly out of fiberglass with carbon fiber used in places it makes the most sense. Its aerodynamics are really…

Elsewhere in this issue, we have a summary of concerns and benefits associated with normal winter flying. “Normal,” in this case, relates to the kind of winter aviating you might expect in much of the Lower 48, so it doesn’t deal with the challenges of extreme low temperatures. This does. Not surprisingly, Alaska is one of those places where cold weather is a way of life. General aviation is often the only way to get around in much of the 49th state, and sometimes, the tribulations of operating in temperatures well below zero can be a challenge for any pilot, whether he’s a seasoned backwoods professional or a weekend aviator. Alaska isn’t the only place that suffers through frigid winters, but it’s often the most severe. Northern Minnesota and Michigan,…

Kenya occupies a special place in the heart of many of us who love aviation. It features some of the world’s most legendary landscapes and wildlife—much of which even today is best appreciated and accessed by airplane. No surprise, then, that it’s also been home to several of history’s most legendary early aviators. Perhaps the most famous is Beryl Markham. Markham was born in Britain in 1902 and arrived in what was then British East Africa when she was four. She became a bush pilot, helping to locate game for safaris, and in 1936 she became the first person to fly nonstop, from east to west, from England to North America. She was honored with a tickertape parade in New York City. Markham’s personal life was colorful. One of her…

Defining winter by the severity of cold weather on the North American continent can be a difficult task. In most years, anything south of a line through Atlanta, Little Rock, Oklahoma City, Santa Fe and Los Angeles has a good chance of a modest winter. Any location above 35 degrees north latitude can reasonably expect colder conditions. In this case, we’re not talking about the extremes of frigid temperatures, say, colder than -30 degrees F. It’s possible to operate in far more severe conditions—Alaskan bush pilots do it all the time—but we’re not considering those instances for the moment. Perhaps contrary to popular belief, winter weather is often friendlier to an airplane than the atmospherics of summer. For one thing, the flying can actually be better. In winter, the lifting…

“Airshows have made enormous contributions to aviation, from the development and technology of airplane design and construction to the amazing public relations and awareness they have provided by inspiring the next generation of aviators and scientists.” Airshow pilots have always been a motley and colorful crew of interesting characters. As a rule, they’re resourceful, multitalented and inventive. The people I’ve performed with are from all walks of life. Extroverts and introverts, they range from being airline pilots (lots of them), to dentists, actors and singers, to wealthy land owners and a few who fly for the paycheck from show to show. Aviation brings us together, and a devotion to aerobatics brings us even closer into a rare community I think of as a big dysfunctional family, but a family nonetheless.…

Imagine a wonderful day for flying. Clear sky and just enough wind to keep things stable and fun. Harvest time on the Northern Plains. Combines collect corn. The sugar beet harvest is starting. Long plumes of dust rise from tractor-trailers on gravel roads. This is one of the best reasons to go flying, one of the ways to fall in love with altitude and wings. Two thousand feet AGL in a Cessna 172 and the autumn world is calendar-art pretty. Forget the math and charts. This is a day for the eyes. The Maple and Sheyenne Rivers west of Fargo, North Dakota, glimmer in their meanderings. Yellow school buses deliver children to farmsteads while crop dusters finish off the season. I’m flying with Justin Gustofson. In the backseat, our friend…