I reviewed Vaavuds first-gen Mjolnir smartphone anemometer a few years ago and discovered its shortcomings, yet appreciated its utility on the water and land. I used it for seaplane flying on remote lakes where local wind reports werent available, and to compare aging ATIS recordings on the home field. The disappointment was a lack of wind direction display.
The Grumman Cheetah and bigger-engined Tiger may be overlooked by some buyers searching the crowded under-$50K used airplane market. In fact, among entry-level Cessna and Piper models, the AA-5A Cheetah could very we’ll be a used market leader. With a sporty slide-back canopy, snappy handling and reasonable cruise speed for its fuel-sipping 150-HP powerplant, a Cheetah works for training, traveling and for tooling around the local area. On the other hand, the 180-HP AA-5B Tiger might be the better of the two cats when more climb performance and load-hauling is needed.
On the verge of extinction nearly 10 years ago, the standalone navcomm radio barely soldiers on today. While there are few choices for new ones (there’s a much larger market for standalone comm radios), a navcomm installation could make sense for basic panels and for advanced ones to back up a GPS. Hang on to your wallet. If the panel hasnt seen a radio upgrade in a while, you could shell out more money than you anticipated to upgrade the antenna system and gut out old wiring.
As for whole-airplane parachutes, Ive given quite a bit of instruction in a Flight Design CT LSA and once found the sky ahead filled with seagulls and wondered if I would shortly need to pull the red handle, but Im ambivalent about it when Im flying the Diamond. For me, the cost of servicing the CAPS in the Cirrus was one of the negatives in buying a used one.
If youre shopping the light jet market and the near $5 million HA-420 HondaJet doesnt fit the budget, there are other choices that might be more palatable. To find out what they are, we talked with several business aircraft sales brokers and the model that came up in every conversation is the Cessna 525A CJ2+. While it may not be an exact apples to apples comparison with the HondaJet, its arguably the closest competing used jet in the class.
Altitude encoders are the doorstops of the avionics world. You have to have one, but don’t expect a sweep through the list of available hardware to yield impressive lists of features and capabilities. After all, all the gadgets do is electronically deliver altitude data to a transponder that then reports your altitude to ATC-Mode C.
Although piston aircraft sales are mostly in the tank, Diamond Aircraft came to the Aero show in Germany this past spring announcing not one, but three new single-engine piston models to be designated the DA50. It has its competitive sights directly on Cirrus.
Given its European roots, Diamond came at the DA40s design as sort of a hybridbetween the sleek glass gliders the company started out producing when it was Hoffmann Flugzeugbau and more traditional aircraft U.S. customers are accustomed to. This yielded what we think can arguably be called a world airplane.
Cold starts, hot starts and over enthusiastic priming are just some of the scenarios that can lead to an airplane sitting on the ground because the engine refuses to fire. The best way to ensure a quick engine start is to boost the energy to the spark plugs because with enough spark, the fuel and air mixture will certainly burn. Champion Aerospaces SlickStart magneto booster promises to do just that. Heres how it works, plus an overview of aircraft piston engine ignition theory.
The Gold Wing in the main photo was shot at Honda Aircraft Companys massive headquarters in Greensboro, North Carolina. Its the first thing you see when entering the main lobby, and presumably its there as an important reminder of Hondas heritage. In 1946, Soichiro Honda established the Honda Technical Research Institute to develop machine tools and engines. In 2017, the brand name is delivering an ultramodern jet. For motorheads and curious consumers alike, the Honda timeline of milestones is an interesting read.
I read the portable oxygen concentrator article in the June 2017 Aviation Consumer with interest because my wife has a lung deficiency and has needed O2 when we fly above 6000 feet. We have been using the Aerox system, but she says it dries her nose.
There are very good reasons for not permitting the use of portable ADS-B Out devices and to retain the TSOs as they currently exist. Starting in 2020, ADS-B will be the primary mode of ATC surveillance, and will largely replace the current ATCRBS (ATC radar beacon system, with portions of the ATCRBS retained as a backup). Portable ADS-B Out devices suffer from some major limitations, including reliability of powering, RF radiation pattern nulling and attenuation resulting from the antenna being inside the aircraft. There’s also the lack of connection to the aircraft static system.
