Industry News

Engine Monitors
Great article on engine monitors in the May issue. I decided to get a JPI EDM-700 with fuel flow based on my own limited research. I have a few quibbles with the product and your article, but basically think its the best available for the price on todays market. I have it mounted in the hole occupied by my old EGT location-which is now a nice paperweight-in my 1977 Skylane with an O-470U.

The reset button is inaccessible from the front and requires removal of the instrument or part of the panel for setting certain one-time-only parameters-alarm limits, carbureted or fuel injected, total fuel capacity, etc.

I don’t like the automatic mode, especially th…

As much as we loathe using clichs, we can think of one that describes the current aircraft insurance market: There’s good news and bad news.

The good news is that more companies are vying for business in a relatively flat market and financial markets are flush with cash. That puts downward pressure on rates, which owners will find agreeable.

The bad news is that virtually all of those companies have abandoned the option of writing high-limit coverage. These days, $1 million smooth is the max liability youre likely to see. That may be a non-issue for private owners but for anyone operating an aircraft for business use, the coverage squeeze is on.

Market Reshaped
For o…

At last years EAA fly fest in Oshkosh, as the Cessna tent was wall-to-wall with cellphone-toting salesmen, we had to ask: With Cirrus and Lancair around the corner with high-performance singles, what did Cessna have up its sleeve?

The coy non-replies led us to believe an announcement was in the wind. But like everyone else in the waking-from-the-dead GA industry, we suffered from an overactive imagination.

No slick new four-placer was on the verge of being unveiled to the gasps of frenzied buyers. But the 206 would soon be available again. (Yawn.)

Then, late last month, an interesting press release came spooling out of the office fax machine: Cessna announced it was offering a…

Pilots lounge rumor has it that the FAA has approved single-engine IFR for Part 135 passenger-carrying on demand operations. On demand means passengers wave money at pilots and demand to be taken somewhere.

Pilots, an easy lot when it comes to money, might be tempted to grab the money and fly. Weve heard from several readers who are thinking about sinking big bucks into a Saratoga or a nice used A36 Bonanaza, figuring to offset the expenses by putting the airplane on a charter flightline.

We wish em luck. Potential single engine charter operators are finding out there’s more to putting that Cherokee Six into charter service than simply buying an ad in the Yellow Pages. FAA…

Its New Years eve 2000, the dawn of the great millennium and youve been tooling around the city sky line watching all the swell fireworks.

After you land back at homebase the taxiway lights suddenly flicker and go black, you get momentarily lost and chop up several light stanchions, hurling blue glass into the crisp night air. Damn, you mutter; Im in for an engine teardown.

So you call your insurance agent at home on New Years morning and report the bad news. No problem, he says, hell call you on Monday with claim information. Unfortunately, when Monday rolls around, the news gets worse. Youre not covered.

Turns out the taxiway lights were controlled by an airport computer th…

Cheap Shade
While it may give some a feeling of satisfaction to pay $150 to $300 per set for sun shields, my solution has been more economical and very effective.

For the windshield on my Cessna 182, I use two reflective-surfaced cloth shields (automotive windshield screens), the type with the wire ring around the periphery. These can be easily folded into a circle about a foot across and stuffed into the seat-back pocket.

I install them with the bottom edge against the glareshield, the top edge against the aircraft sun visors, behind the windshield. The sides fit against the sideposts. I have noticed no adverse effects on the windshield in 12 years of use.

I alway…

FADEC Fantasies
I am an engineer who designs things with microprocessors and I have some strong thoughts about what, if anything, we should do to improve the performance of aircraft engines.

First of all, trying a new electronic contraption to make an engine work better is fine, but the back-up should be magnetos. In other words, replace the left mag with whatever kind of fancy thing you think might be better and hooray if it can save us some fuel. But leave the engine with something we know works; a right mag.

Think about this a little. In the Piper Tomahawk debacle, we had an unknown phenomena killing magnetos. If we make engines with a new ignition system, we don’t wan…

Air Sickess Retorts
I am an AME, family physician and IFR-rated pilot. My wife suffers with severe motion sickness. It was rendering my airplane useless ; she would get sick even in light chop.

Then I read about the Relief Band in Aviation Consumers first report on the subject some years ago. After reviewing the companys research, I ordered a Relief Band. To put it bluntly, it was amazing. On the first flight that my wife used it, we ran into moderate turbulence such that my usually resilient children began to feel sick. My wife was fine.

In the three to four years since she started using it, she has not once gotten sick. She has used it on the ground also, inclu…

Since weve never shied away from loosing an arrow or two at shoddy airplanes, products and services, it should come as no surprise that were a magnet for occasional rumors of GA doom and gloom.

Shortly after Cessna rolled out the first couple of dozen new Skyhawks not quite two years ago, a reader phoned to ask if it was true that the paint had blistered off every one of them and the lot were recalled to be stripped and repainted.

Check it out, he said.

A year later, a friend of friend of the brother-in-law of an avionics field rep we know-who actually lives in Independence, mind you-reported that more than 300 Cessna 172s were sitting unsold on the ramp and the company would…

Three-Blade Props
Your article about three-blade props caught my eye right off. I have owned three Cessna 180s and have about 2500 hours in them. On the 1974 model I currently own (picture enclosed), I have recently done certain modifications including a three-blade prop that increased the speed in a significant way.

First, it has been my experience that most Cessna 180s are good for about 150 MPH at cruise and it doesnt make much difference up to about 7000 feet. Above that altitude, they lose speed and show reduced indicated air speed.

Indicated air speed on a standard 180 will be in the low 140 MPH. Above 6000 feet, this will fall to about 135 MPH at 9000 feet. You c…

Simpler GPS
I enjoyed your article on simpler GPS in the January, 1998 issue. Standardization of the design and operation of these devices is desired if for no other reason than for safety.

Many pilots fly more than one aircraft with navigation equipment manufactured by various companies and across various model ranges. If the pilot inadvertently uses the wrong sequences or pushes the wrong button or becomes transfixed by what the unit is displaying, his attention is diverted for too long a period and you have a 100 MPH-plus guided missile.

ARINC would be the ideal organization to create a specification or standard agreed to by the manufacturers and the FAA. ARINC is sub…

I read Bill Kellys Duct Dreams in the May 1997 issue of Aviation Consumer with interest and sympathy. His disappointment in the performance of the Auriga Phoenix is similar to many tales of dashed ducted-fan expectations I have heard over time.

I think that much of that disappointment is based on an imperfect understanding of ducted-fan design. So, the question is whether a ducted-fan aircraft could be competitive with a conventional design?

While I am not familiar with the Auriga design, I have had the good fortune to be associated with Rhein-Flugzeugbau, GMBH (RFB) in Germany during the development of the Fanstar ducted-fan program during the 1980s.

I was chairman and…