Aviation Consumer

Used Aircraft Guide: Cessna 150/152

Subscribers Only On the cover of Aviation Consumer’s July 2010 issue is one of the most forlorn photos we’ve ever published: The nosegear of an LSA sitting in the middle of a lonely runway, having dropped out of the airplane after takeoff rotation. Although we didn’t intend it that way, the photo ended up as a testament to another airplane entirely, the Cessna 150. The reason? Venerable old 150s are still flying side-by-side on the rental line with new-age light sport designs and the older airplanes, despite decades of abuse, still hold up better than some of the newer designs and often require less maintenance. The harsh lesson here is that despite advances in materials and computer-aided design, the 1950s engineers who designed the 150 knew their way around structure and half a century later, what they built still remains serviceable for the foreseeable future. The airplane that trained thousands of pilots endures.

Electroair Ignition: Affordable Electronics

Subscribers Only Electronic ignition systems for conventional aircraft engines haven’t exactly had a fun ride. Although solid-state ignitions have made inroads in the experimental market, makers of OEM aircraft have shunned them and even though the airplane ownership community has its share of gearheads, there haven’t been enough of them to make ideas like Unison’s LASAR magnetos or Continental’s PowerLink FADEC take flight. Even in airplanes wired with cutting—edge glass, stone-age magnetos are still the ignition of choice, straight from the factory. If conversion to electronic ignition is somehow inevitable, a Michigan-based company called Electroair aims to be its latest leading edge. Electroair is taking another run at the electronic ignition idea, this time with an aftermarket replacement system evolved from an experimental product that’s been on the market for more than a decade.

Battery Chargers: VDC in a Walk

Subscribers Only For many years battery chargers were simple beasts; a heavy transformer to drop the line voltage and a rectifier to change AC to DC made up the bulk of components. Some added a relay to turn on the charger when the voltage fell. Also, some chargers served as battery boosters with a temporary hit of 50 amps or so to nudge a discharged battery into a start. These chargers did a lousy job in terms of battery life and fully charging the battery to its potential (pun intended). Both the RV and boating industries were probably the big drivers in the development of sophisticated, computer-chip-controlled, multi-stage chargers, especially for deep cycle batteries.

New iPad Hardware: Lots of Potential

Subscribers Only The iPad has taken such a hold of GA that we could easily turn into Apple Pilot Monthly if we weren’t careful. The iPad’s entré was really as a document reader (charts, approach plates, etc.) and preflight briefing tool. But it’s expanded into more of a cockpit resource equal to or surpassing portable avionics. That trend pushes the limits of what we think about an iPad doing, but also relies on expanded hardware beyond the iPad itself. Here’s a look at what’s new on the hardware side. We’ll take a look at what’s new on the app side in a separate article.

Digital ANR Headsets: Sennheiser Scores High

Subscribers Only Leave it to German engineers to create solutions that add a layer of complexity. Case in point are new digital-process ANR headsets from audiophile manufacturers Sennheiser and Beyerdynamic, the S1 and the HS-800, respectively. Whether the bottom-line experience for the wearer is better or just different than top-notch analog headsets like the Bose A20 or Lightspeed Zulu is arguable. But in both cases the digital experience is impressive. They also comes bundled with a wealth of features that earn it elbowroom in the top tier.

AeroTrek: 220/240: Bargain LSA

Subscribers Only At AirVenture last July, a poster in the Aerotrek booth caught our eye: $69,850 base price. Huh? That can’t really be right, can it? What’s the gimmick? None, really. Although most of Aerotrek’s airplanes sell for about eight grand more than that, they’re still on the low end of the price spectrum. By our lights, a $70,000 airplane is by no means cheap, but if it costs barely half of its highest price competition, could there be some exceptional value there? We aimed to find out with a trial flight and a look at the company. Peeking ahead to our conclusion, we think these LSAs represent exceptional value, even if we wouldn’t necessarily call them plush.

Garmin aera 796: Portable Syn Vision

Subscribers Only Now that the iPad has become the consumer electronics version of The Borg, powered along by hundreds of aviation apps, have we seen the last of the dedicated GPS portables? As we went to press this month, Garmin answered that with a new product called the aera 796. It was due to be rolled out at AOPA’s Summit event in Hartford, Connecticut. The aera 796 builds on some of the 696’s capabilities, sells in the same premium price range and, in our view, is clearly meant to blunt the onslaught of iPad apps that now do things you didn’t even realize you wanted, much less needed.

Letters: October 2011

Subscribers Only I read with interest and enjoyed the article on aircraft batteries in the August, 2011 issue. There was brief mention of the Odyssey battery, as applied to homebuilders. I have Odyssey sealed batteries installed in two different aircraft, a Cessna 180 and a Cessna 185. These are both firewall-mounted, eliminating 10 feet of heavy-gauge wire. The balance impact is minimal, as this battery, in the box, weighs 14 pounds compared to the Gill that was removed, at 37 pounds. These batteries are installed in accordance with a field approval, which is increasingly more difficult to obtain. This has been a win-win deal for me, however.

First Word: October 2011

Subscribers Only I’m sure you’ve heard the crudity about likening opinions to a certain anatomical feature that every human body is equipped with. But not many of us are actually paid to have opinions and because the staff of Aviation Consumer is among that chosen few, it’s worth a few words to explain how we do what we do. (Some of our opinions get us likened to the aforementioned body part, but indulge me here. There’s a point hovering just ahead.)