Innholdsfortegnelse for May 2023 i Plane & Pilot

Today, flight training is fairly predictable, at least on the surface. This is thanks to an FAA and instructors and educators who worked with the agency over the past couple of decades to drag best practices into the modern world. This resulted in numerous updates to the standards pilots are held to on check rides, what used to be called the Practical Test Standards (PTS) but now are known as the ACS, for aviator “Certification Standards.” The intent was to take what was often, in practice, a completely subjective, and therefore unpredictable, set of standards and make them crystal clear. The change was immense, though it is often given short shrift. Following the adoption by the FAA of the PTS and, later, the ACS, instructors had a virtual airway chart…

Reliefband Sport Reliefband was designed to treat nausea and the attendant risk of vomiting that can be brought on by motion sickness and anxiety. It’s worn about two finger-widths from the crease in the wrist where the median nerve is located. The wearer uses a small amount of conductivity gel on the underside of the wrist for contact. It has six varying intensity levels controlled by the power button, and it’s waterproof with a rechargeable battery. It’s cleared by the FDA and is non-drowsy, currently also used to relieve postoperative nausea and to counteract chemotherapy side effects. Other versions of the Reliefband include the Reliefband Classic, the Premier and the Sport with Apple Watch Band. Price: Starts at $129. Available at: www.sportys.com. Deluxe XL Cessna Tow Bar This locking tow…

The internet is a funny thing. While it seems designed to help conspiracy theorists spread their false and often hateful ideas, it also has the opposite effect. It just doesn’t take long to find the truth about certain things. And in the case of the Kennedy family’s eldest child, Joseph Patrick Kennedy Jr., information about his death in the airborne explosion of a heavily modified, bomb-laden World War II Consolidated B-24 Liberator as part of a secret mission isn’t hard to find. BACKSTORY It seems as though everyone should know the story of the Kennedy family, the Massachusetts political dynasty whose members again and again were involved in violent deaths. But many incorrectly think that the start of the tragedy was the assassination of the second-eldest child, President John F.…

Boeing delivered its final 747 jumbo jet amidst much pomp and circumstance, and rightly so. The 747 was an aircraft that changed aviation for the better, ushering in an era of previously unattainable travel opportunities for air voyagers worldwide. It was just what the 747 was, though that was a lot. It’s for what it wrought, as well. A few things about the plane, nicknamed by some brilliant PR person “The Queen of the Skies.” The 747 made its first flight in February of 1969, a fitting coda to the Summer of Love two years earlier, and was first delivered the following January to Pan Am, which eventually bought 65 of the jumbo jets out of the 1,574 produced over the years. The first 747, the -100 model, was around…

While the ink is still drying on their Private Pilot certificates, most pilots are already dreaming about flying larger, faster and more complex single-engine machines. Maybe a Beechcraft Bonanza, a Cessna 210 or even a Piper Malibu, complete with a pressurized cabin and airborne radar. However mighty they might be, these hefty singles pale in comparison to the largest single-engine, piston-powered, retractable-gear airplane that, remarkably, graced the skies over 80 years ago, the Tupolev ANT-25. The year is 1931, and the soon-to-be-infamous Joseph Stalin is attempting to show the world the achievements of the decade-old Soviet Union. In the wake of Charles Lindbergh’s flight across the Atlantic and the flurry of record flights that followed, the Revolutionary Council decided to construct an airplane designed to set range and endurance records…

If the number of little-people stickers on the back of the much-maligned minivan is getting out of hand, it might be time to get more airplane, and when it comes to packing more capacity into the same tee-hangar, the magic number in aviation is six. Historically, the design of airplanes, at least in terms of seating capacity and layout, has mirrored that of ground-bound motor vehicles, that is, cars or trucks or vans or SUVs. Two in front, two in row two and maybe a couple more in row three. It’s a formula that works, for the most part, and I’ll use my experience as a pilot and parent as an example. As our family grew, while a four-seater was usually plenty, we’d occasionally have the need for an extra…

There was one radio call after takeoff—“Six two whiskey Romeo emergency landing, Runway 2.” There is no Runway 2 at the Conway Regional Airport in Conway, Arkansas (KCXW), but observers had just seen the Cirrus depart Runway 22 and understood that he was coming right back to land on 22. One observer thought it looked like the pilot was doing a 180-degree turn to land downwind on Runway 4, but the plane did indeed enter a low downwind for Runway 22. Turning base at 400 feet above the ground, the plane stalled, spun and fell out of the sky. The pilot was a 38-year-old father of three young children. He managed his family’s crate and pallet business and loved flying. He’d soloed at 16, earned his Private Pilot certificate, got…

Piper PA-25-235 Pawnee Jacksonville, Florida / Injuries: 1 Fatal The flight was climbing out after picking up a banner. A security camera video showed the airplane climbing with the banner trailing behind before it disappeared from the camera’s view. Shortly after, witnesses observed the banner free falling to the ground and the airplane in a right spin before it impacted a parking lot in a nose-down attitude. Postaccident examination revealed no malfunctions or abnormalities that would have precluded normal operation of the airplane. The levels of Tetrahydrocannabinol (THC, also known as marijuana) and the Tetrahydrocannabinol Carboxylic Acid (THC metabolite) detected in the pilot’s blood during toxicological testing indicated that he had recently used THC. Although the investigation could not determine precisely when the pilot had last used THC, the levels…

WITHOUT A DOUBT, ONE OF THE riskiest flying scenarios is single-pilot instrument flight in actual conditions. Every phase of an actual instrument flight has its unique challenges, but we’ll start with the last part, the landing, which can make good pilots make bad mistakes. Sadly, more than a few pilots fly IFR approaches as though they must make a landing on the first approach. Sometimes it’s just impatience. Other times, there are complicating factors, and the trap is laid when, for example, the fuel tank is almost empty, the day is long or, simply, ground lights begin to appear like a siren’s song right below the pilot’s feet. In the big jets, system redundancy, crew coordination and strict adherence to IFR procedures combine to reduce this risk dramatically, but in…

Orville and Wilbur Wright’s contributions to aviation dominate the early history of American aviation, and rightly so, but one could argue that the famous brothers from Dayton held aviation progress back for years. In fact, there’s a reason that the notable aircraft of World War I were British and German, and it wasn’t a lack of aviation genius in the United States. Aviation was progressing, but it was slowed by the Wrights, their litigation and their feuds. And perhaps their most notable feud was with none other than another aviation pioneer, Glenn Curtiss. Like the Wrights, Curtiss would begin his career in bicycles. He, too, owned a bike store, but he took a step further when, in 1902, he began manufacturing motorcycles. Curtiss soon turned his attention skyward. In 1904,…