November 2004
Cessna P210
Subscribers Only [IMGCAP(1)] If you want to go fast in an airplane and still grasp a thin straw of efficiency, you’ll also need to fly high. And to do that, you’ll have to make a choice: stick an oxygen hose in your nose or pay for the convenience of pressurization. Of course, if pressurization were easy and cheap, every airplane would have it. Few do and in the single-engine realm, there are only two choices: Cessna’s P210 and the Piper Malibu. Pressurizing anything, let alone a single, is fraught with difficulty. Part of it comes in the form of mechanical woes—the engines are short-lived, often don’t make it to TBO and they cost a lot to overhaul. Pressurization adds another complex system to maintain a...
Death of a Hangar
Subscribers Only [IMGCAP(1)] by Paul Bertorelli When Bonanza owner Larry Hofmeister told us he had intended to ride out the vicious winds of Hurricane Charley in his hangar at Punta Gorda, Florida last August, we thought he’d lost touch with reality. We’re as fond of our airplane as the next guy but babysitting it through a Category 4 hurricane doesn’t rise to the top of our to-do list. Yet when Hofmeister arrived at the airport the day after, both his Bonanza and the hangar that housed it sat serene and intact amidst a scene of utter destruction elsewhere at Punta Gorda, with some 150 aircraft smashed to scrap metal by Charley’s fierce 130-MPH-plus winds. The first question is glaringly obvious...
TAWs for Terrain
Subscribers Only If you fly a six-seat turbine, the FAA says terrain gear is a must-have. The good news: the mandate means non-certified systems are capable and affordable.
Airwolf’s Wet Pump
Subscribers Only Wet vacuum pumps were once standard until cheaper—not necessarily better—dry pumps displaced them. Airwolf aims to make the wet design the Alpha dog of vacuum.
Weather by Cellphone
Subscribers Only It seems like a clever idea but its limitations will be a dealbreaker for many. To get the most out of cellular weather, you’ll need a high-end phone.
Little White Lies
Subscribers Only It’s not morally wrong to lie about how fast your airplane flies as long as you know the truth. Here’s how to calculate speed accurately.
Airvan Revisited
Subscribers Only Gippsland Aero has big plans for the GA8 Airvan. Here’s how it’s holding up after two years in the field.
New Piper’s 6X
Subscribers Only With an Avidyne glass panel, the 6X brings the Cherokee Six to state of the art. Load carrying and comfort are excellent but we pine for electrical back-up.
Letters: 11/04
Mag Feedback A customer brought a copy of the July, 2004 article regarding Bendix or Slick mags. I’d like to make a few points that weren’t brought out and would also like to mention that as both an A&P and a pilot, I really have no preference other than Bendix mags are a bit easier to install and adjust. Bendix is the only manufacturer of the 2200/3200 series mags that are the single drive/dual mags as used on a number of Lycoming engines. When doing an in-between overhaul mag brand change, you have to figure in a new ignition harness for the respective mag since Slick and Bendix use different harnesses. That can add another several hundred dollars and additional labor.
A Season in Hurricane Hell
[IMGCAP(1)] In times like these, I wish I hadn’t snoozed through Mrs. Webster’s ninth-grade American lit class, at least the part where those more attentive than I—basically everybody—learned about the man-against-nature plot device. Given the events of the past six weeks—four major hurricanes pounding Florida and who knows what brewing—I could at least manufacture some entertaining fiction out of the entirely implausible tropical season unfolding. Not that irony is in short supply. There’s something amusingly twisted about a knot of office workers clustered around a computer terminal browsing satellite images and arguing about outflow patterns and cloud top temps. Up north, you put a cou...