Like in other lighting applications, LED flashlights came to market somewhat unannounced and in some ways, without appreciation. Frankly, we didnt give the LED-equipped flashlight a second thought until we used the bunch for this review, where we quickly recognized a handful of benefits compared to their nearly extinct incandescent predecessors.
For most owners, the exhaust system is an out-of-sight, out-of-mind portion of the airplane. Its certainly not a sexy part of any aircraft-even the FAAs description of the exhaust system in its Airframe and Powerplant Mechanics Powerplant Handbook is a little off-putting: …a scavenging system that collects and disposes of the high-temperature, noxious gases as they are discharged by the engine. Nevertheless, all exhaust systems deserve a great deal of respect and your attention and consideration because they live in a horrible environment of intense heat, flame, corrosive gases and vibration. Plus, if any component fails, the risks are nothing short of serious: carbon monoxide poisoning of the aircraft occupants, partial or total engine power loss and fire.
After years of developing and manufacturing speed mods for Piper aircraft, Robin Thomas started Power Flow Systems (www.powerflowsystems.com) with the intent of using automotive technology to design tuned exhaust systems for aircraft. To accomplish this, Power Flow says it customizes the exhaust tube for each cylinder so its length-from cylinder to the collector where the tubes join-causes the low pressure traveling down the tube behind an exhaust puff to reach the collector in time to suck out the exhaust from the next cylinder.
In 1995, following 10 years of running a company that performed aircraft exhaust system repairs, Dane Wagner opened Leading Edge Exhaust Systems (LEES) (www.wemakeyoufly.com), in Anchorage, Alaska. He was determined to build aircraft exhaust systems that were not only of higher quality and more robust than OEM equipment but that would allow the engine to develop more power. Having experience with the needs of the Alaska bush operators, he targeted their airplanes of choice, the…
Back in 1977, the longest warranty most manufacturers could afford to offer on a new aircraft was six months with no hourly limit. There were a few market exceptions, including the newly introduced Meyers 200, which came with a one-year warranty. Its easy to understand the gripe an owner of a $300,000 aircraft had when left stranded because his new cabin-class twin broke down far from home base. Meanwhile, car makers like American Motors were picking up the hotel and bar tabs for owners waiting for repairs on a $5000 Pacer.
We asked Jon Doolittle, principal of Sutton James aviation insurance brokers and a CFI, about the insurance market for a new tailwheel pilot buying his dream airplane. He told us that it depends a little on what kind of airplane. For Cubs, Champs, Citabrias and similar, fairly benign handling machines, 10 hours of dual, including a tailwheel sign off, will work. Some companies do not require a specific number of hours, just an endorsement will suffice.
Youve been thinking about getting a tailwheel checkout and endorsement and, to be truly honest with yourself, about buying a tailwheel airplane. You cant help it, the advertisements with the tailwheel airplane sitting on some lovely backcountry airstrip have gotten to you-or you want to switch over to a legacy light sport bird. Plus, youre a little tired of hearing real pilots fly tailwheels when you don’t-yet.
If you fly one of the vast majority of general aviation aircraft, you can legally operate over any of the waters in and around the U.S. without any sort of flotation device aboard. The requirement to carry survival equipment for operations over water more than 50 miles from land set out in FAR 91.509 only applies to airplanes weighing over 12,500 pounds and turbojets. We bugsmasher operators don’t have to carry so much as a set of water wings.
After reading the fire extinguisher article in the June 2015 issue of Aviation Consumer, I have some confusion about extinguisher size, partially because one photo example was apparently omitted from the article. I assume that a fire extinguisher with a 2BC nomenclature in its model identification is two pounds of fire suppressant, and the 5 prefix indicates five pounds.
As the number of Light Sport airplanes increases and more pilots are opting to forego the third class medical and simply fly Light Sport, we were curious to see how the insurance market is for liability coverage for those airplanes.
For more than 30 years, the most popular liability policy in aviation has provided coverage of $1 million with sublimits of $100,000. Owners sleep soundly at night, confident that they have an insurance pool of a million bucks should they roll Ol Bessy into a ball. These same owners have the personal net worth necessary to own an airplane and often have auto and homeowners insurance that has at least $1 million in liability coverage.
There are only some 200,000 aircraft in the U.S.-there are more cars than that in a large town-so why any profit-oriented insurer would enter such a restricted market seems to defy logic. Yet, in the last decade, the number of aviation insurance underwriters has gone from the old, hard core of nine to 14, an increase of more than 50 percent. The result is predictable-with a relatively large number of companies competing in a limited market, insurance premiums are low and owners have little trouble getting coverage.
