Global competition hasnt so much flattened the world as it has reduced the place to a sort of desert. In some markets, youre doing we’ll to hold your own against the other guy, never mind finding new business. This is intensely true in general aviation where-lets all sigh together here-the universe is in decline. What that means is that if every decision a business makes isn’t the right one, it had better not make too many wrong ones.
FADECs for piston engines-full authority digital controls-are an idea whose time seems to stubbornly refuse to come. Even though theyve been around for a decade and everyone seems to concede they make sense, buyers havent exactly clamored to turn ove engine operation to a black box on the firewall. Diamond and Thielerts impressive success with the TAE Centurion 1.7 diesel represents the high water mark for FADEC, since the 135-HP turbodiesel relies entirely on electronic control, with no mechanical backup of any kind.
Thanks for the interesting article on the TBM 850. I am a happy Mooney TLS Bravo owner but must admit that my mouth starts to water when I think of VLJs and these high-performance single-engine turboprops. Like you, I was mystified by what Socata has decided to leave off this airplane, such as a glass cockpit. There are two other items that surprise me when I evaluate these aircraft. One is a toilet. My wife wont let me look at another airplane unless that has been addressed. Seems the companies are spending a lot of time and ink talking about range. What about passenger range?
Any aircraft owner whos been in the game for awhile soon learns a harsh lesson: Airplanes arent like cars. Parts and pieces that arrive from a vendor may need remedial attention during installation and some will need more than others. But what if a vendor sells a part that wont work no matter what? Two readers recently contacted us to complain about just such a circumstance. Both bought expensive aftermarket mods from companies that assured them the parts would fit their airplanes, only to discover that this wasnt the case.
Hows this for the ultimate incongruity: Bose headset, full glass panel, electric trim and a Garmin GPSmap 496 with NEXRAD and TIS traffic, all slipped into the front end of a Cub with quite a lot of room to spare. Although were sure William T. Piper could never have imagined it, thats exactly where we are in the brave new world of emerging light sport aircraft. If the original LSA concept included as much as a passing nod to simple and unsophisticated, the reality may be anything but. Not that were complaining.
Any thinking person-I like to count myself in that group on four days out of seven-is bound to have eureka moments. You know the feeling; a fuzzy-edged world momentarily resolves into crystal clarity, if only fleetingly. I had one of these in April at Sun n Fun, when I came to the inescapable conclusion that Im a dinosaur, a mud-hugging, pea-brained Jurassic throwback. This revelation emerged as I was trying to wake up my feet to keep from embarrassing myself in a crosswind while flying one of the Cub clone LSA airplanes reviewed on page 20 of this issue.
I ran into Nick Carlucci the other day at Home Depot, a guy whose name you probably don’t know. I didnt know him either, until he flagged me down in the plumbing aisle. Running into Carlucci reminded me of something Ive noticed about small airports. They seem to attract three kinds of people: utility users, gadabouts and connected airport guys, of which Carlucci is definitely one.
In the realm of industries done in by capricious market forces, Lycoming and Continental arent just survivors, theyre evolutionary standouts. The entire GA industry imploded between 1980 and 1985 when sales rode over a cliff and both Lycoming and Continental had to rapidly reinvent themselves to survive in a world where 85 percent of their new engine business simply evaporated into thin air. Not many companies have weathered such a drubbing. (A captive replacement market helped.)
While I appreciate the favorable coverage our products received in the report in your March issue, Id like the opportunity to add some comments. The only “Thumbs Down” we got was, “The Reiff sump pad proved difficult to install, due to adhesive bonding problems.” The problems described were not the fault of the J-B Weld epoxy, but of improper curing. The article states, “After two hours, we turned on the element to accelerate the…
The Baron owner approached us at an evening pilot meeting. He looked stricken. He had just sold his airplane after more than a year of trying and the selling price was nearly a third lower than he had wanted. “I really never thought things would get this bad,” he said.Welcome to the harsh world of aircraft ownership in the 21st century. Not so long ago, the myth that airplanes were actually a good investment was abroad in the land.
A couple of summers ago, I was visiting the Diamond Aircraft factory at a lovely Austrian airport called Wiener-Neustadt, just south of Vienna. We were having lunch at an outdoor caf right near the parallel taxiway when I noticed something odd. A Cherokee on its way to the runup pad raced by at what appeared to be near-Warp speed. I didnt think much of it at first, then I noticed another, then another, all of them taxiing fast enough to look like they were about to rotate.
Its not much of a reach to posit that the entire survival of piston general aviation pivots around the exhaust valve, a $100 part that lives a miserable existence being slammed against a hardened steel seat 10 times a second swirled in a gale of white hot combustion gas. When an engine tanks prematurely or needs a midstream top overhaul, its often something to do with exhaust valves-bad guides, leaky seats, cracks around plug bosses originating near the exhaust valve.The engine makers and airframers have tried to meet these problems head on with mixed success.
