Innholdsfortegnelse for September 2021 i Plane & Pilot

SPECIAL OLYMPICS AIRLIFT HAS A NEW HONORARY CHAIR Former NFL quarterback Peyton Manning will be the Honorary Chair of the 2022 Citation Special Olympics Airlift (SOA). The airlift, which Cessna, now owned by Textron Aviation, started in 1987, and over the years has transported more than 10,000 athletes from their home states to the site of the event and back again upon its conclusion. For the eighth running of the SOA, event coordinator Textron Aviation is targeting participation from 228 Textron Citations, King Airs, Premiers, Beechcrafts and Hawkers to transport more than 4,000 athletes and coaches to the 2022 Special Olympics USA Games in Orlando, Florida. The arrival date is June 4, 2022. A week later, on June 12, the cycle will reverse, and the volunteer operators will bring the…

P-40 Warhawk PlaneTag Made from actual retired aircraft skin, PlaneTags are an authentic way to memorialize historical planes. Each piece is unique as it shows off the actual color and patina of the portion of the fuselage from which it was cut. The Curtiss P-40 from which this PlaneTag was made has a storied past, with a wheels-up landing and the Pearl Harbor attack in 1941. Pima Air & Space Museum provided additional material during the restoration of the P-40’s wings. Price: $84.95. Available at sportys.com Custom U.S. Aeronautical Chart Coffee Mug Customize this nifty ceramic coffee mug with your favorite aeronautical chart or flying route for a design as unique as you. It’s microwave- and dishwasher-safe with a 15-ounce capacity. Makes a great gift to fellow pilots who share…

Tim Bendickson clambered into his rustic Cessna 182A. His worn jeans and chambray shirt meshed into N6122B’s spartan interior. The 1957 Skylane had spent the past decade trundling through northern Idaho’s splendor. Its teal paint mirrored the lush fields that unfurled amidst the surrounding valleys. The Cessna needed a new alternator and had been flown to the Boundary County Airport three weeks earlier for repair. The Cabinet Mountains jutted skyward in the east; the Selkirks rose to the west. Canada was 30 miles north. The temperature hovered just above freezing that November afternoon in 2019. The gray clouds aloft foreshadowed winter’s loom as the occluded sun edged toward the horizon. Bendickson had spent the past 45 years logging the aged hemlock and red-fir evergreens that fleeced the mountains. His boots…

There is a certain fascination with landing an airplane in a non-airport location. Most of us have seen an appealing pasture or clearing while flying along at low altitude and thought to ourselves, “That looks plenty long enough to land.” Suitable length aside, it might not be as good an idea as you first think. The notion of landing “off airport” goes back to the early barnstorming days, eventually evolving as “bush flying” in undeveloped parts of the world. Those who indulged in such activities were well aware of the risks, often banging up airplanes and needing to make emergency patch-up repairs to get the aircraft out again. As they learned, you just never know what hazards lurk under the grass or gravel. The average modern airplane is very poorly…

Aircraft carriers have been carrying out critical military operations across the world since the 1800s—that’s not a typo. Even before the advent of the airplane, it was clear that transporting aircraft of some kind might provide a wartime advantage, so in the early days, lighter-than-air-craft fit the bill. Today’s modern aircraft carriers are large, nuclear-powered warships, considered the centerpiece of any global power’s navy. The United States’ carriers are designed to store and launch dozens of fixed- and rotary-wing aircraft in support of national security. Military jets are propelled from the ships using an impressive catapult system, which can zip the aircraft from zero to hundreds of miles per hour in a matter of seconds. Designed to last a good five decades and only requiring a handful of refuelings in…

ACROSS 1 Piper light twin 5 Competent 9 Unlike localizer, it has vertical guidance 10 Concorde once followed in the penumbra of one for hours 11 “Flying Milkstool” prefix 13 Cheetahs and Otters have one on their tail 14 Geometrical term familiar to readers of this magazine 16 Area of expertise 18 Most unpaved runways, 2 words 22 Letters that come before R 24 LAX city 25 What you’re supposed to do with NOTAMS 26 “Keep ‘em flying” is their motto and mission, EEA _____ of America 31 Current PA-28 model 32 The penalty of most aircraft updates 33 Former U.S. Air Force arm, abbr. 34 Lab device for studying aerodynamics 35 Cam and crank DOWN 1 Side or forward 2 Switch that controls electrical power to all circuits in…

THE LIGHT SPORT AIRCRAFT (LSA) segment, created by the FAA in partnership with industry leaders way back in 2004, was an exciting change. Along with the new Sport Pilot certificate, the LSA rule looked to reinvigorate light aviation. It didn’t work out that way, in large part because LSA were so limited and most had challenging flying manners. So the light GA segment of 2021 is largely in the same shape as it was in 2004. None of the challenges we faced back then have gone away. Indeed, most have gotten worse. But a coming new segment, known as Light Personal Aircraft (LPA), stands the chance of fundamentally changing the light GA marketplace, reinvigorating it with new planes and new ideas. The existing LSA segment would continue as a sub-section…

THE AIRCRAFT In the early 1950s, aircraft designers began modernizing the F9F-6/7 Cougar—beefing it up with greatly reduced drag and supersonic speeds. When the redesign was completed in 1953, the result was a completely different aircraft than the Cougar. This new model was equipped with full-span leading-edge slats, trailing edge flaps with spoilers instead of ailerons for roll control, and wings that could fold down for easier storage on aircraft carriers. On its maiden flight in April of 1955, the now-complete Grumman F11F Tiger showed off its supersonic capabilities by nearing the speed of sound (Mach 1). Impressed, the Navy ordered the development of more than 400 for service, and it became the aircraft of its Blue Angels flight team. Despite its initial popularity, the Tiger quickly proved flawed: Its…

Airplanes are sexy; no one would argue that point, at least not in these pages! But being in the airplane manufacturing business? Extremely unromantic. It’s expensive, there’s limited profit potential, there’s liability out the ying-yang, and when you think about it, the market is a tiny one. Hence, airplanes come and go. But in our little neck of the aviation woods, where light planes rule, the stars are well known, and even many of those bright lights are no longer being made. And there are other, long-gone planes we love, one of which we think is so cool we thought it worthy of consideration even in this short list of planes they need to bring back (and soon!), even if that is very unlikely to ever happen. AA-5B TIGER There’s…

Some airline pilots are all but predestined for the career. Scott Alexander, an Airbus A320 captain, vividly remembers his uncle setting the hook at an early age: “Seeing my uncle fly around the world in a 777 and listening to my cousins tell me stories of free travel with their dad made the job seem like winning the lottery. My uncle seemed like he was on vacation for a living, with 16-20 days off a month.” At the ripe old age of 4, Scott decided that he was going to be an airline pilot. Chris Thomas, by contrast, made it into his 20s before taking the plunge. Employed as a professional firefighter in Virginia Beach, he earned a VFR Commercial certificate, a stepping stone to the ATP certificate, and flew…