Editorial

A colleague faced with an engine swap on his Baron recently asked me a tough one: Will a factory remanufactured engine-as opposed to a quality field overhaul done by a respected shop-greatly influence the resale value of the aircraft? Moreover, will the Baron be more difficult to sell without factory engines? The quotes he got showed almost a $10,000 delta, per engine, between a field overhaul using new cylinders and a Continental reman. Before hitting the pavement and asking several industry pros to weigh in, we threw the question out on sister publication AVweb.com to see what readers would do. The results were predictable.

I read Larry Anglisanos commentary about BasicMeds altitude restriction in the April 2017 Aviation Consumer. I can only think that restricting BasicMed pilots to altitudes below 18,000 feet is related to limiting them to less complicated aircraft and not the altitude itself. Perhaps the FAA just doesnt want jet pilots flying around with BasicMed certification and while I don’t agree, I think we are lucky to have gotten what we did.

Lets get this out of the way, shall we? Cirrus salespeople arent apologetic that a fully loaded 2017 SR22T GTS comes with an eye-widening invoice north of $900,000 when you tack on an extended warranty. Cirrus offers less expensive models, of course, but the turbocharged SR22T is the most popular seller. Just how many buyers would spend nearly $1 million for an unpressurized piston single, you might ask? More than you might think.

With nose bag in place and arms crossed at FL210 picking off the miles like nobodys business on a Cirrus demo, I got to thinking about the FAAs new BasicMed. Particularly, how pilots might be tempted to bend one of the rules to squeeze the most efficiency from a turbocharged airplane.

The launch of SpaceXs updated Falcon 9 rocket in January was the first of seven missions that are critical for the future of Iridiums aging satellite communications network and its 800,000-plus customers. Recall that a fuel explosion led to the expensive loss of a Falcon 9 vehicle and its Amos-6 satellite payload on the Cape Canaveral, Florida, launch pad in September 2016. But the recent Iridium mission had a much better outcome and the company is banking on at least seven more successful launches as it moves forward with its $3 billion Iridium-NEXT global satellite constellation, which will replace the current 66 satellites.

However skilled (or not) general aviation pilots are, they have proven consistently good at one thing: losing control of airplanes and digging smoking craters in the verdant earth. The reasons arent necessarily understood but the solution is becoming increasingly laser focused on providing autopilots that wont let you crash, but will nudge and prod and do everything short of seizing control of the aircraft. Except now, theyre even doing that.The latest comes from Daher in the companys new TBM 930 cabin-class speed merchant.

Unless you own a seaplane, the buzzkill after earning the seaplane rating comes when you try to rent one, or at least it was for me. With the ink still wet on the certificate and my chest puffed with confidence, I was ready to ditch the shirt and go splashing in the central Florida lakes, but couldnt go solo because Browns Seaplane Base in Winterhaven, Florida, doesnt rent its training fleet. I totally get it; Browns fleet of J3 floatplanes are too valuable to day-to-day cash flow to risk getting crunched and grounded, plus the insurance is off-the-charts expensive. If Michigan is a destination, Northwoods Aviation in Cadillac might let you rent its SuperCub on floats (skis, in the winter) after 10 hours of type experience and a signoff. Bring your own seaplane insurance-it isn’t included.

The big announcement last month from Cirrus is that it achieved FAA certification for its Vision personal jet. With a couple of deliveries expected by the end of 2016-and perhaps as many as 50 or so for 2017-you can bet all eyes at the Cirrus flight ops department will keep a close watch on early adopters. Just how these Williams FJ33-5A turbofan-equipped singles will fare in the hands of jet-world newbies is anyones guess, but I asked Matt Bergwall at Cirrus what the training department is doing before the sales department hands over the keys to proud new Vision jet jockeys.

The management at California-based Plus One Flyers-the oldest and largest flying club in the country-believes it has found the ultimate solution to both problems. It has nothing to do with making a profit, but more about sustaining aircraft ownership. Plus Ones president Tom Reid calls it the magical triangle thatll work for any flying club.

Subscription-based satellite broadcast weather data still beats ADS-B FIS-B data for tactically threading the needle through real weather. SiriusXM delivers more data, it works on the ground and has tighter image resolution. But when ADS-B got rolling, the budget-driven market generally favored subscription-free FIS-B, accepting its limitations rather than forking over $1000-plus per year on an XM subscription. Still, that didnt stop recent letters and phone calls from readers complaining that Garmins GDL69 SiriusXM weather system wont work with the popular ForeFlight tablet app, but it does with Garmins own Pilot app.

This year at AirVenture, Quiet Technologies caught my attention, so I got a demo of its $359 Halo in-ear model and bought one. Initially, the headset offered a good fit and promised to be quiet. When I started the engine, I immediately noticed low-frequency noise that isn’t present in my Lightspeed. I reserved judgement until two hours in cruise flight at 11,000 feet.

Much like low-cost EFIS and other gee-whiz technology thats been available in the non-certified aircraft market, pilots of experimentals have long enjoyed autopilot systems chock-full of advanced features. But with few exceptions, the retrofit autopilot market-and Im talking about systems for modest entry-level Part 23 airplanes-has been stuck with systems carrying technology left over from the early 1990s, but with 2016 price tags. Ill be direct: While the S-Tec autopilot line (now offered by Genesis Aerosystems) has proven reliable, I think buyers expect more modern features than the venerable System 30 and System 55X (to name two popular systems) offer.