After giving a presentation to a bunch of homebuilders on ways to choose an avionics suite, more than one kit builder told me he was holding out on buying any avionics for a few years because by the time his project is ready for the electronics, iPads will dominate the panel-mount avionics market. Eh, I’m […]
I knew the Collings Foundation’s Nine-O-Nine B17G crash back in 2019, which happened a few miles away from my home base in Connecticut at Bradley International Airport, would stir up a hornet’s nest of regulatory scrutiny. The day after the crash (that killed seven passengers and crew, and injured five), an FAA inspector told me […]
GARMIN AUTOLAND FOR THE REST OF US Almost a year and half after Garmin’s Autoland announcement, the industry is still buzzing over this magic automation that lands the aircraft when the pilot can’t. Initially type certified in Piper’s M600 turboprop, Cirrus earned approval for the system (called Safe Return) in its Vision Jet, as did […]
A lot of new avionics buyers stress over the steep learning curve, but not all do their part with structured training. There is good knowledge to be had if you’re willing to pay for it. A few years ago I went out to Garmin’s Olathe, Kansas, training center and completed one of its multiday retrofit […]
CORSAIR’S ALPHA1 AUTOMOTIVE V8 Who knows if a Biden admin will finally push high-octane unleaded avgas to reality, but why not play around with different powerplants while it shakes out? That’s exactly what Colorado-based Corsair Aircraft Engines is doing with an experimental Skyhawk. Engine of choice: a tweaked General Motors V8 used on some later-model […]
Or worse. One of the many time-consuming nags that tag along with major and even minor maintenance is preparing the supporting regulatory paperwork. It’s one issue that sends some of us flocking to the experimental world and it’s easy to see why. For the maintenance troops, filling out paperwork is a huge time and money […]
I’ve been around enough maintenance hangars over the years to see plenty of disasters waiting to happen—and ones that already have—but might have been avoided if pilots knew what was going on under the cowling. That’s why I took an interest in Airplane Engines: A Pilot-Friendly Manual from Pilot Workshops. If you’re familiar with the […]
Perhaps to no one’s particular surprise, in early September, Mooney announced that it’s under new management, the Chinese owners having abandoned the premises in Kerrville, Texas. The ownership status remains murky but at this juncture, having reported on a half-dozen resurrections, maybe the question to ask isn’t if Mooney can survive, but can anything succeed […]
And headsets, eyeglasses and ear-based pulse oximeters. In the photo below, Scott Ashton from Aerox and I are wearing all six. We forgot our hats, otherwise they would be in the mess. And wearing that mess is not easy to pull off with precision. I’ve done a handful of flight demos and product evaluations while […]
A motorcycling buddy and I amuse ourselves with weekend rides to backwoods airfields to see how many abandoned aircraft we can find. Boneyard rides. We found a lot of basket cases this past riding season. A shame that what might be good airplanes—Cessna 150s, V-tail Bonanzas, J-model Mooneys (and yes, a North American Navion serving […]
Maybe it’s a combination of getting older and reading lots of NTSB reports, but lately I find myself advocating more flight instruction. In so many words that’s what I said after making a couple of landings in the new Flight Design F2 LSA for the video that chases the flight trial article in this issue. […]
Other than having to write big checks, one of the toughest things about aircraft upgrades, including avionics retrofits and paint work, is dealing with the downtime. Shops tend to be optimistic in estimating completion times when trying to close the sale. And when it’s finally time to fly, expect some debugging, tweaking and maybe a […]
