Aviation Consumer

Cessna 210 Centurion

Subscribers Only It’ll haul heroic payloads at respectable cruise speeds. But don’t scrimp on preventive maintenance.

Mooney Missile

Subscribers Only Stuffing 300 HP into the J-model Mooney definitely makes it go. You’ll need bigger fuel tanks to feed it, however.

Buy a Navcomm?

Subscribers Only We’re kidding, right? Not at all. In some airplanes, a new conventional navcomm may be a better choice than a color GPS.

SMA’s Diesel

Subscribers Only Our tour of the factory in France suggests these guys are serious. The key to success may be marketing “power by the hour.”

Which Spark Plug?

Subscribers Only Fine wires cost three times more than massives. But they’re more efficient and appear to last longer.

Liberty XL-2

Subscribers Only This composite design is angling for what the company hopes is a two-place touring market. But we’re not sure if that exists.

Letters: 03/03

Ercoupe Lover Loved your coverage of the Ercoupe in the January issue of Aviation Consumer.  I’ve admired the little beggar ever since my ride in one over 50 years ago.  Superb engineering produced a machine that personifies, for me, recreational flying.  The hangar BS artists who put the knock on it were (are) the same sort of clowns who pooh-pooh the Porsche 924. You brought me up short, though, with this business of Boeing using Ercoupes to train 707 pilots to land in a crab.  Are you certain that you haven’t been taken in by an old wives’ tale?  Any fool can land an airplane in a crab.  It hardly takes “training.” For more years than I’ll admit, I flew large (142-foot...