November 2003
Beechcraft 55 Baron
Subscribers Only A high-class twin with good speed and decent payload. They’re a good value in the current soft market.
Buy New Before It Quits
Subscribers Only That’s the best way to avoid unexpected vacuum pump failures. Wear inspection ports now make that practical.
Is WAAS Worth It?
Subscribers Only This oft-delayed GPS upgrade is finally here. We see good reasons to buy WAAS but it’s not yet must-have technology.
Insuring for Biz Travel
Subscribers Only Want to fly your airplane on company business? Excess liability coverage may be the best (not cheapest) solution.
Aircraft Waxes
Subscribers Only Are they really any better than car products? Of the dozen we tried, Top Gun produced the best gloss.
Lowrance AirMap 500
Subscribers Only We thought the portable GPS market was over. But the Airmap 500 packs lots of features into a small, inexpensive package.
Letters: 11/03
Tiger Payload In the article “Loading with Abandon” in your August issue, the author suggested that it was “...almost impossible to put two full-sized people in [a Tiger] with full fuel...” This statement is at best inaccurate and at worst false. A survey of several hundred owners has elicited no information which indicates Tigers cannot be loaded with two full-sized adults with nothing in the back seat or baggage area and still remain within the forward CG. It was only with two 250-pounders that the forward CG limit was achieved on any Tiger and given that the FAA considers a standard adult to be 180 pounds [actually 170 or, lately, 190 pounds—Ed.] one can hardly call s...