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The history of aircraft marketing is littered with the corroded carcasses of the has been, the never was and the shouldve been. One of the more intriguing examples of the latter is Mooneys entry into the Enhanced Flight Screener sweepstakes in 1991.

Mooneys plan was simple. Win the EFS contract, use the governments cash to develop and certify the thing, then spin off a civilian variant.

Now you can order a civilian EFS enthused Mooneys optimistic promo of 1991, which will be in production in early 1992. The brochure promised full aerobatic certification under FAR 23 and the best power-to-weight-ratio of any Mooney ever built, delivering a 180-knot cruise and…

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A long-standing axiom is that speed sells. Thats true, but only half way: The other side of the coin is load carrying, a trait that for some is more important than getting there fast.

Periodically, the public decides that big, heavy load-haulers are desirable (usually when fuel is relatively cheap). That accounts for the current popularity of enormous truck-like vehicles on the roads, and the skyrocketing prices of airplanes like the Cessna 206.

This aerial sport/ute is not fast, but its stable, rugged, reliable, has six real seats and is remarkable for being able to carry a half-ton or so after the tanks are topped off.

So popular is the combination of simplicity…

Following the Roselawn commuter crash of 1994, aircraft icing became the FAAs Public Enemy Number One. In the months since, the government has thrown big money at the icing bogey man. Forecasts and reports have improved, ADs have been issued, research marches boldly forward. But light airplane drivers still slog around with either boots or juice. Or nothing at all.

Boots are the old standby but more aircraft are being fitted out with weeping wing TKS systems. Since our last report on this subject six years ago, Mooney has certified its Bravo and Ovation for flight into known icing and a third single, the Encore, will soon have that option. New Commander singles are also being certifie…

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In the world of high-stakes defense contracts, its not unusual to see the military say one thing and do another. But when the Air Force selected the British-made Slingsby Firefly to replace its aging fleet of Cessna T-41s six years ago, even some industry insiders were baffled.

Slingsbys initial entry was so wide of the contract specifications-it was 50 knots slower than specified and had fabric control surfaces, a throwback to the Air Forces biplane days-that it wasnt even flight tested against other aircraft from Mooney, Stoddard-Hamilton, Saab and SIAI Marchetti.

Yet in one of the greatest come-from-behind stories in light aircraft history, Slingsby feverishly r…

Do Ask, Do Tell
Coy Jacobs article in the July issue titled Good Jugs, Bad Jugs was very informative. But I was concerned about your comment made in the box titled The 10-minute Cylinder Inspection. You said that disassembling a cylinder may be the best argument weve heard for don’t ask, don’t tell, with regard to not logging the disassembly to avoid warranty problems with the supplier.

This statement is totally against FAA regulations, (FAR 43.9) which I am sure you are we’ll aware of. I realize you are trying to help pilots and aircraft owners to be better and safer, but to ask them to blatantly ignore the regulations doesnt help, especially when FAA violates them…

When last we surveyed computer flight planners three years ago-an eon in the software business- Destination Direct was the clear winner. But none of the major programs could be relied upon to provide hands off, reliable full route planning for IFR.

Things have since changed radically. Today, there is no overall winner in our view, which means selecting a planner boils down to slogging through the details, which weve tried to do for you in this report, space limitations notwithstanding.

For PC users, The Big Three-Destination Direct, FliteStar and Flitesoft-have basic features in common and the wide disparity in features which existed three years ago has closed significantly. As…

Not so long ago-in the days when the comm blared over a cabin speaker cranked up somewhere above the threshold of pain-no one cared about audio quality. Heck, if you could understand the words, what more did you need?

Headsets have changed that. Everyone wears them and like everyone else, were bothered when an airplane checks onto a busy ATC sector with scratchy or fuzzy audio. How can you tell if an airplane has a poor audio system? Listen to one with good audio.

And believe us, there’s plenty of good audio out there in the form of state-of-the-art navcomms and, recently, intense competition in the audio panels that tie all this stuff together. In days of yore, an audio panel was…

Homebuilt airplanes have found fans among pilots seeking the speed, utility and rakish good looks that, until recently, the average spam can couldnt provide. (Okay, so the Lancair Columbia still isn’t a spam can and certainly isn’t average.)

With most new aircraft production limited to mere refinements of old designs, sporty new styles have an undeniable appeal. Many buyers-notably those with more money than time-are turning to completed homebuilts instead of new or used certified aircraft when putting their offers on the table.

But homebuilt airplanes are licensed as experimental by the FAA for a reason. The only scrutiny the designs face is from the marketplace. A design that bu…

Why No 210?
Im writing to ask why the first two model years of the Cessna 210 were not included in the June 1999 Retract Step Ups article. Many of the 1960 and 1961 210s out there can be had for under $50,000 in very good condition.

The airplanes have the IO-470E producing 260 HP (1500-hour TBO) and will routinely cruise at 160 knots while burning between 12 and 14 GPH. Or you can go economically and do 140 knots on 9 to 11 GPH. The 1960 model had only 55 gallons usable, but in 1961 they upped it to 74 gallons.

The only ugly part of the 1960-1 models is the need to replace the gear saddles every 1000 hours, but the gear works flawlessly if looked after well. The powe…

[IMGCAP(1)]Although we doubt they would admit as much, the marketers of the new Columbia 300 must love other general aviation ads. What better foil for a company pitching a slick, new-age, all-composite airframe touted to be everything a Beech, Piper, Cessna or Mooney is not.

After years of complaints about nothing new in general aviation, the Columbia 300 from Lancair/Pacific Aviation Composites (PAC) truly is refreshing, even though its not nearly as radical as the market hype might suggest.

Our view is that if this model is successful-and we think it has genuine promise- because conceptually, its only a little bit new, goes a little bit faster and costs less than the standard is…

Competition is a marvelous thing.

In theory, it pushes prices down and drives unworthy products from the market, allowing the best to rise to the top like rich cream in a pitcher of fresh milk.

The theory generally works, but for the unfortunate intrusion of marketing and advertising, which tend to smear the truth in ways rarely beneficial to customers. Thats where Aviation Consumer comes in.

As professional shoppers not beholden to any advertisers, we examine the claims and counter claims in the harsh light of reality and make buying recommendations with only reader interests in mind. If we step on a few toes along the way, so be it.

Our forays into the world of aviation…

Lucky indeed are airline captains when it comes to storm avoidance. Theyve got a multi-thousand dollar radar system with a dish the size of a manhole cover and an earnest young first officer to twiddle the tilt knob and suggest deviations.

And there will be no arguments about which is better-Stormscope or radar-because airliners don’t have Stormscopes. They rely exclusively (well, almost) on radar to skirt nasty weather. So if the airlines use radar to the exclusion of sferics gear, it must be far better, right?

Well, maybe yes, if you happen to be sporting around in a Boeing or a Micky-D with a big antenna spewing out enough microwave energy to bake a potato five miles downrange….