Industry News

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.

A critical (but simple) ground check you did not mention is when examining the through-bolts holding the nosewheel scissors to the airplane, put a wrench on the bolt head and turn it. If the bolt is straight then the scissors will not move, but if its bent you will see the scissors move up and down as the bolt rotates. According to my IA, if you catch this early its pretty easy for a tech to remove and replace the bolt, but if its too far bent, as he saw on a Cessna 182 hed recently worked on, he has to remove the nosegear assembly and get the bolt out using a press.

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.

Early on, it was simple and few if any questions were asked. But, some offices would not issue permits, while others would. It becomes a big deal not being able to ferry if the aircraft is stuck out in the boondocks away from practical maintenance. The most recent and biggest headache came a few years ago when the Miami, Florida, FSDO changed the jurisdiction for the Bahamas to an international office. For a while, it stopped issuing permits to move the aircraft out of the Bahamas.

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.

Just when some owners thought equipping for the ADS-B mandate was behind them, it has become more complicated. Thats because in October 2016, the FAA issued an unapproved parts notification that affects certain ADS600-B systems (pictured below) manufactured by Rollett, Texas-based NavWorx. These are remote-mounted universal access transceivers (UATs) that were previously sold as mandate-compliant solutions for the upcoming 2020 ADS-B mandate.

Your article on ADS-B transponders suggests you can save $500 by wiring in your existing Stratus portable ADS-B receiver to the new Stratus ESG transponder, instead of buying the new 2i receiver. This is true only if you don’t wire it in, but continue to use it standalone. I just had NexAir Avionics in Massachusetts install the Stratus ESGi transponder system in my Ercoupe and I chose the package with the 2i because the savings without it is only $350. That is because the interface cable set costs $150, but its included with the ESGi bundle.

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.

It seems that one of the branches of Murphys Law, Aviation Division, takes great glee in occasionally causing an aircraft and its owner to be geographically separated under circumstances where the owner needs outside help to achieve reunification. Thats where aircraft delivery companies can make aeronautical life much easier for owners. Whether your machine needs to be moved a few hundred miles or halfway around the world, there are companies that exist to provide that service.

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.

Years ago, I was flying a friends P-51 Mustang and was flying low-level at roughly 400 knots (at the time there was no speed restriction below 10,000 feet) when the rudder flutter began. I flew vertical and reduced to idle power to slow the airplane down, where the flutter stopped at about 170 knots. The violence of the flutter was unbelievable and destroyed nearly every instrument in the cockpit, leaving gauge needles lying at the bottom of their instruments. We tiptoed back to the airport in Van Nuys, California, for an immediate and uneventful landing because the airframe had a vibration that made me nervous.

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.