Innholdsfortegnelse for January/February 2023 i Plane & Pilot

The year 2020 saw the lowest accident rate among small planes since such record-keeping began, but that’s only part of the story. It takes time for the FAA to compile the data, so the year 2020, long in the rearview by now, is the latest year for which complete data exist. And the data give a fascinating look into how we flew in that first year of the coronavirus pandemic, this based on the Joseph T. Nall Report published by the Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association (AOPA) Air Safety Institute. As expected, the level of flying activity was lower than the year before but higher than all but a few other years in history, so for the most part, GA pilots kept flying through the global health crisis. Based on…

Following the crash of a scheduled flight of a de Havilland Otter into Mutiny Bay, Washington, which killed the pilot and nine passengers, the FAA has ordered owners and operators to check the integrity of the elevator trim actuator that investigators believe may have caused the crash. The accident airplane, operated by Northwest Seaplanes, was on a flight from Friday Harbor, Washington, to Renton, Washington, cruising low over the water when, based on flight data, its altitude and airspeed started to vary. The plane climbed a few hundred feet, with its airspeed slowing to around 55 knots, at which point the returns ceased. Witnesses said that the big single then went out of control and spun into the water near vertically from more than 1,000 feet off the surface. All…

The history of Alaskan aviation is also the history of backcountry aircraft, at least for the United States (both before and after Alaska became State 49). And while Alaska is hardly the only backcountry location in the world, it was at the fore of the development of backcountry flying. It was indeed an extraordinary confluence of events that led to the creation of backcountry aviation, and Alaska was the perfect proving ground both in terms of geography and time. With a population scattered over a vast area, much of it far from the coast, and with little infrastructure present, Alaska is the poster child for aviation transport, of both people and goods. And because remote locales mean even more remote services for aircraft, one of the main requirements of these…

Formula One Air Racing pilots are a rare breed. Justin Meaders is one who also happens to be the first and only paraplegic air racing pilot and, now, the first to be a Formula Gold Champion. A true inspiration, indeed. As told in his Challenged Athletes bio, as a kid, he was always active, riding motorcycles at the young age of 5 and progressing to motorcycle racing. He also became a firefighter and EMT after college. He continued his extreme sports activities until a tragic motorcycle racing accident at the young age of 22 left him paralyzed. As he came to the realization of what his tragedy meant, he resolved to continue his active lifestyle by acquiring a hand cycle, which allowed him to continue his physical exercise and related…

While most know the Italian aircraft manufacturer Tecnam for its range of single-engine LSAs and other conventional aircraft, the company just introduced a new version of the P2012 Traveler piston twin, designated the P2012 STOL. And for those who have been around the aviation block for a bit, you know that the STOL designation is the acronym for short takeoff and landing. According to the manufacturer, what that means for this aircraft is it is targeting passenger and cargo operators who need the ability to utilize unimproved airstrips as short as 1,000 feet. With flight tests completed earlier this year and the validation process planned for next year, Tecnam hopes to deliver these aircraft as soon as the regulatory processes have been fully vetted and completed. The STOL version of…

The term “flying blind” typically refers to instrument flying—when the pilot relies on the instruments instead of the view of the outside world to guide the plane safely. One would never associate that phrase with a pilot who is literally blind. But one woman, who lost her sight to an autoimmune disease eight years ago, recently completed a 2,000-mile cross-country journey truly flying blind. Kaiya Armstrong, a 21-year-old who had spent many months of preparation, along with pilot Tyler Sinclair, who provides verbal queues as needed to assist Kaiya, traversed the country from Mesa, Arizona, to Washington, D.C., in a single-engine Cessna 172 Skyhawk, making an impossible-sounding dream a reality. Why would someone who is blind take on such a monumental challenge? As Kaiya told Fox 10 News in Phoenix,…

The development of the jet engine can be properly divided into (at least) four major categories: the turbojet, the turbofan, the turboshaft and the turboprop. Each of these turbines is best suited for particular applications and missions. Turbojets, the dominant type for a short while, are good at going really fast and making lots of noise in the process. The turbofan is used on nearly all larger airliners today—the turboprop retains a foothold on short-haul routes—and it has even become the engine of choice for frontline fighter jets, even supersonic ones. The turboshaft is, of course, the development created for use in helicopters. The lowly turboprop, on the other hand, is, somewhat surprisingly, the most versatile of the bunch, used in everything from small helicopters to intercontinental bombers. • Turboprop…

The 11th High Sierra Fly-In is in the books for 2022, and this latest installment of the dry lake dust-up did not disappoint. With arguably the best weather in the event’s short history—yeah, it was still cold and dusty—a near-record number of planes and people converged on Dead Cow Dry Lake in northern Nevada in a gathering of fast friends with fat-tire planes and tales of derring-do to bang around the desert and spend time with friends both longtime and brand new. It was a tough and interesting year for folks in the backcountry community. There were numerous FAA investigations into pilots either central to or peripherally associated with the loose-knit group of flyers who spend their time playing in the gravel and playa rather than asphalt and concrete. And…

Blackhawk Aerospace, a company that has made a name for itself for its King Air and Caravan STCs, is taking the popular Pilatus PC-12 single-engine turboprop and applying its experience and a pending STC to improve on the performance of this model by upgrading the factory-installed engine to the new Pratt & Whitney PT6A-67P. The upgrade will give operators a PC-12 with a factory-new, higher-horsepower engine that utilizes new metallurgical technology, allowing higher internal turbine operating temperatures, providing maximum continuous power for climb and cruise. In addition, the 1,200-horsepower engine represents 142 more thermodynamic horsepower than the original PT6A-67B powerplant. The improvement will be evident by the fact that the original 67B engine starts losing power at 15,000 feet on a standard ISA day. The upgraded 67P will keep chugging…

For many folks (but not us!), getting onto an airliner is an anxiety-inducing exercise. After all, what could possibly go wrong hurtling through space, packed together with a couple hundred other flyers, the jet screaming along at hundreds of miles per hour 30,000 feet in the air? The answer, at least in the minds of nervous passengers, is, “Everything! That’s what could go wrong!” So, as they sit on the tarmac in the crowded passenger seating section awaiting taxi, many of these nervous Neils and Nellies keep an eye out for potential issues so they can alert a flight attendant to relay this critical information to the captain on the flight deck, so the pilots can do something in order to avoid disaster. Again, passengers like this can be very…

I recently had a “duh” moment while flying around my home base that could have easily ended in catastrophe. Such a simple problem to figure out. One that should have taken seconds, if that, took minutes. Why? And what lessons are to be learned from the situation? I dropped my plane off at the avionics shop three weeks earlier to get some equipment installed, and after what seemed like an eternity, the old bird was finally ready to be picked up. I hitched a ride over to the airport, paid the bill and, after a thorough preflight, hopped in. My first inkling that something was amiss was noticing that the gear light was not illuminated. Both the red and green lights are equipped with a push-to-test feature, which I did,…

We’re used to fair-weather flying. Everything about it seems, for lack of a better term, normal. You look at the weather, plan the flight (often a fairly quick process if you’re a practiced pilot), drive to the airport, pull the plane out of the hangar (or untie it), give it a good going over and, well, go flying. I don’t want to sell short the importance of planning every month of the year, but winter flying vs. summer flying is like day and night—to some degree, literally so. None of the usual routines work the same way when there’s snow and ice and crud and yucky crud. In a lot of ways, winter flying sucks. It’s a lot of hard, cold work, and have I mentioned “hard” and “cold?” And…