Industry News

Officially called the Third Class Medical Reform and General Aviation Pilot Protections, the bill finally oozed through Congress as part of a continuing resolution to fund the FAA. That improved its chances of passage, but it also required dropping some provisions that would have essentially all but eliminated any kind of medical certification for pilots who now require a Third Class medical. President Obama signed the measure into law on July 15, which sets the clock ticking on a 10-year look back on medical eligibility.

Need a cool 25 grand to pull the trigger on a retrofit? The claim: simply fill out an online application, get quick approval and the shop automatically gets paid and started on your dream panel. But is it really that easy? How does an avionics loan differ from traditional aircraft financing? And what ever happened to those government-backed private equity loans that were supposed to help fund a big majority of ADS-B upgrades? To answer those questions, we did some digging. Heres what we learned.

Its hard not to pass judgment on the health of the industry by what companies unveil at AirVenture. Still, as weve witnessed before, major manufacturers may show up with more new product announcements than we can cover in a week, but that doesnt mean the industry is rolling along fat, dumb and happy. This year, vendors did seem happy, and while many werent fat with record sales, everyone seemed to agree that the show simply had a positive vibe, perhaps signaling the stability weve been looking for in previous years.

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.

While researching information on aircraft corrosion and corrosion prevention, I ran across my nomination for understatement of the week in an FAA publication. It said, . . . the amount of maintenance required to repair accumulated corrosion damage and bring the aircraft back up to standard will usually be quite high. No kidding. The reality is staggering-some years ago I was shown the bills paid by an owner for corrosion repair. He had bought a Louisiana-based twin without a prebuy examination. Over the next two years he expended more than hed paid for the airplane to repair damage to the structure and skins from corrosion.

As you probably heard, the FAA is offering a limited first-come, first-served $500 rebate for certain mandate-compliant ADS-B equipment installations. This isn’t a generous gift to aircraft owners, of course. Obviously, its the FAAs first effort (there could be more) to get owners into avionics shops to have ADS-B Out equipment installed before the end of 2019. While the ADS-B market has become sharply competitive, the decline in equipment prices hasnt exactly created a surge of upgrades. The FAA says about 18,000 GA airplanes and 500 or so commercial aircraft have equipped so far. That means as many as 150,000 still need to be equipped in the remaining 42 months. After paying for a basic $4000 ADS-B project, eventually finding a $500 check in the mailbox is better than nothing. But, there’s a dilemma, which is stirring competition.

During our research, we asked static wick manufacturers about ICAW procedures (instructions for continued airworthiness) and all noted that aside from a preflight visual inspection, its important to look for signs of corrosion where the wick attaches to the skin. Additionally, you’ll want to inspect the tips. Testing rarely happens on the shop level.

In our world, the editorial year commences in the summer instead of January, and the anticipated editors choice awards focuses deserved attention on the products and companies that really impressed us in our coverage over the year. As we do every July, we take a half step back and tip the hat to a dozen of them on page 12 of this issue. But there was more that caught our attention the past editorial year, some of it unforgettable. If we had a worst news of the year award, there would be takers.

Steve Jobs once said of Apple that the genius of business success was to invent products would-be buyers didnt know they needed. Apple succeeds brilliantly at this, but the advice applies equally to airplanes. He who stands still and treads water will soon wither. Even small companies must innovate and move forward and our editors choice for the top company doing that this year is CubCrafters, the scrappy taildragger manufacturer based in Yakima, Washington.

In my Mooney 252, I once took off from Atlanta, Georgia, right behind a Piper Aerostar 601P and landed right behind it in Washington, D.C. But, while I was using oxygen on the way there, he was flying in pressurized comfort. I bought an Aerostar. The last one was a factory-new model 700P. Flying above the clouds and being called a jet by ATC was always a kick. In the DA62, it seems to me that the kick has to come from the smell of leather. Im just saying.

One of our readers-an airplane owner and active CFI-recently called to ask why the magazine doesnt bring more attention to rule-bending, which he thinks is a growing trend. Although he had no hard statistics to back up his assertion, he offered the stereotype that older and financially capable pilots with medical issues are getting their hands on technically advanced and highly automated aircraft (yes, he mentions Cirrus). He went on that the combination of an aging pilot population and the anticipation of third class medical reform is making for a lot of scofflaws, while the advocacy of AOPA and other alphabets is fostering an arrogant sense of entitlement among the older and financially flush GA pilot community.

The market for aviation insurance continues to be soft-perhaps very soft. There are simply too many aviation insurance companies offering to sell policies, relative to the number of aircraft owners looking to buy them. And each of these too-many companies is trying to keep the customers it has, and to grow by taking customers away from one of the other companies.