Interestingly, the number of U.S.-registered aircraft is increasing, while the number of pilots is decreasing. (Wikipedia says there were 609,306 licensed pilots and GAMA counted 211,000 registered aircraft.) But even allowing for flying clubs, partnerships and the graying and thinning of the pilot population, this still means that there are a lot of pilots who […]
If your airplane doesn’t get an oil change between annuals—and many don’t—it’s likely that the engine cowl stays put for an entire year. Your only view of the engine room might be through the oil access door or the inlets. Although our review of the accident record doesn’t reveal engine failure as a high risk, […]
Engine failures are the stuff of nightmares. Maybe not quite so agita-inducing as your mechanic calling with a compression report, but worrisome nonetheless, even if aircraft engines are designed with reliability in mind. So are they reliable? Well, yes, if you let them be by slaking them with gas and oil, following the procedures written […]
During a good pinch hitter course, we recommend that the instructor and the student work together to develop an emergency checklist that is designed for the specific airplane the “suddenly a pilot” will be operating. In our opinion the checklist should function as a memory aid for an intelligent person who has completed a pinch […]
It’s one of the things we macho pilots don’t like to talk about—incapacitation. We grouse about taking FAA medical exams or complying with BasicMed. Hey, we’re way to cool to worry about keeling over while motoring through the skies with our loved ones aboard. The good news is that pilot incapacitation shows up as the […]
I’ll admit it. If Cirrus’ Cliff Allen wasn’t sitting shotgun and backstopping my every move on a trip in a new SR22T with Garmin’s Perspective+ G1000 avionics, I’d still be on the ground fumbling with entering the flight plan in the system’s FMS. “Mastering the Garmin Perspective avionics in later SR20/22 models won’t happen in […]
While I’ve flown G1000-equipped aircraft, I’m fairly sure the amount of time I’ve spent in G1000-equipped simulators far outstrips the time I’ve spent in the air with the system at this point. My first introduction to the G1000 was in a Cessna 172-configured sim. Being the somewhat obsessive student I was, I studied the then-new […]
In the July 2019 Aviation Consumer I rounded up the top electronic study courses for earning the private pilot certificate. But since some of the initial or advanced training might be accomplished in a Garmin G1000-equipped airplane, for this article I went on the hunt for the top electronic supplemental study aids to ease the […]
The only downside to not getting the FR endorsement on the first time you fly with a CFI is that if your 24 months has expired since your last FR, you can’t fly as PIC (that includes solo) until you get a new endorsement. Um, that’s also a very good reason for not putting your FR off until the last moment as the realities of aviation karma include delivering lousy weather for the one day you have available for the FR flight before it expires.
Specifically, on the form there’s Item 10 Equipment and Item 18 Other Information. Item 10 has two parts: avionics and surveillance capability. What makes the codes confusing is that unlike the older domestic flight plan form that used installed equipment, the ICAO flight plan goes a step further. The codes not only could refer to installed equipment (e.g., “D” for DME), but also capability (“B” for LPV) and approvals (“W” for RVSM Approved-reduced vertical separation minima, above FL290) and at times, combinations such as “Y” for VHF with 8.33 kHz channel spacing capability. Got that?
It’s aviation’s Everest: the highest rating, the toughest to obtain and necessary to have to fly in the Part 121 airline world, and even in some portions of the Part 135 air taxi world. In reality, if you want to fly for a living, the chances are almost unity that you’ll need to hold an Airline Transport Pilot (ATP) rating to do so. Even in the corporate world, operating under Part 91, insurers want the pilots who haul mega-buck executives around to hold aviation’s Ph.D.
A quarter century later, it’s fair to ask: Well, was it? The easy answer is yes, it was and is. But with a host of safety features such as crashworthy seats, energy absorbing structure, cabin flail space and the first-ever certificated airplane ballistic recovery parachute, Cirrus also implied that its new airplane would be safer, without actually saying the safest ever. So, how about that? Has it delivered on those claims? Answering that is not as simple as crunching the GAMA numbers to enumerate Cirrus’ inarguable dominant market share. But with a quarter century of accident data to review, it’s reasonable to take a stab at it.
