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.
While I was recently shopping at BestBuy for a wireless music speaker, a salesperson who arbitrarily remarked that Bose was the best got me thinking about pilots shopping for premium aviation headsets, a market dominated by Bose and also Lightspeed for as long as I can remember. While Bose may be the most recognizable name in both the consumer audio and aviation headset markets, don’t forget that Lightspeed Aviation was a major force in shifting the market from passive to active noise cancelling headsets in the early 1990s.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Diamond Aircraft CEO Christian Dries is nothing if not a pragmatist, albeit an adventurous one. At Aprils Aero in Friedrichshafen, Germany, he showed both sides of the same coin when he announced three new single-engine piston models, one powered by an untried new gasoline engine from Lycoming. The latter even he concedes is an admission of sorts. The diesel engines Diamond has championed for 15 years havent fared we’ll in the high-performance single-engine market simply because the power options havent been there.
For the 2017 model year, Cirrus released the G6 SR20, which gets both an avionics upgrade and a new IO-390 Lycoming engine. Cirrus said its decision to re-engine the entry-level SR20 is significant for a couple of reasons. For one, it plans to aggressively market the aircraft to fleet operators whove expressed a strong preference for a four-cylinder Lycoming over a six-cylinder Continental. Moreover, the IO-390 substantially reduces weight, while also stretching the TBO for high-use operations.
