Industry News

[IMGCAP(1)]When pressed, any hard-bitten magazine editor might concede that publications like this one are more than ink on paper. In concert with the whims and desires of their readers, they become living entities with distinct lives of their own. But in the end, its the editor who breathes life into the thing. A good one makes all the difference, elevating the everyday to the exceptional, the exceptional to the extraordinary. One of the best died the other day here in Florida, not a mile from where Im sitting in Sarasota. Richard B. Weeghman-all of us knew him as Dick-was 75 years old and succumbed to a sudden illness. He was editor-in-chief of Aviation Consumer from 1976 to 1994.

I…

WSI Fan
We just put a WSI Inflight displayed on a MX-20 in our Malibu. It is a fantastic piece of gear. It completely eliminates the need for a Stormscope-we spent seven grand on a WX-500, too-and it is really better than onboard radar due to the panning feature, which lets you look ahead (or around) as far as you want.

The articles that talk about the need forboth are just wrong and I suspect are driven by the same thought process that sold us on putting in the WX-500 and were originated by those who want to sell more avionics gear. The signal is almost never more than two minutes old and I have never seen it older than four minutes. The 1 nm resolution is sufficient bu…

A well-known maker of ultralight engines means to take on Lycoming and Continental.

As Lycomings massive crankshaft recalls draws to an end, heres one owners report card on the results.

After a decade of impressive appreciation, used aircraft prices are in decline. Its a bargain-hunters paradise.

In one of the worst GA sales climates in years, Mooney says it has a backlog of orders as it recovers from bankruptcy.

Need an upgrade? Borrowing against equity has never been cheaper. And it’s a buyers market for used airplanes.

But the larger question is can anyone build engines that will make the personal jet concept work?

Its terrorism risk insurance and you’ll soon have to decide whether you want it or not. Our advice: Pass.

Crank Comments
The crankshaft problems experienced, first by Continental and more recently and severely by Lycoming, are a symptom of an aging and stagnant industry.

These folks, set in their ways as they are, would not consider changing. The sad fact is that the solution is we’ll known and already in use by those building highly stressed, high reliability piston engines. The real solution to obtaining consistently high quality crankshafts in small quantities is to use billet cranks.

This is a process whereby a solid piece of rolled or forged bar stock is machined into the finished shape of the crank by a CNC machine designed specifically for that purpose. This process h…

Tablet Computers
Its a shame that you did not review the Northstar CT-1000. It is a unit that is specially designedfor use in an aircraft and the CT-1000G has been certified and an STC obtained for dual installation in Gulfstreams.

My experience with EFBs go backto the Navision 1000 produced by ARNAV in about 1989. After using it for about 10 years and with the advances in PCs (the NV1000 was not based on a PC), I was looking for a new EFB that would add the Jeppesen charts to the checklists and maps that the NV1000 provided.

I believe that the CT-1000 started life as prototype built by Regan Designs called the Junior. Northstar acquired a license to manufacture…

With owners hopping mad over aircraft grounded with bad crankshafts, Lycoming struggles to contain the damage.