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Admit it. You’ve made the statement loud and clear on more than one of those flights where you are following the magenta line in good weather and waiting for your destination to appear over the horizon. Sure, every once in a while, you’ll do a steep turn or wander off course a bit to look at something interesting-but, deep inside, you know that’s not enough. You live in the third dimension-there’s got to be more to getting from one place to another in an airplane than droning along waiting . . . and waiting. Flying is supposed to be fun.

For a history lesson on the eventual success of Piper’s Warrior, look back to the alluring post-World War II boom, where major airplane manufacturers, to include Aeronca, Luscombe, ERCO, Piper and Cessna, among others, all eventually came to the conclusion that the future for mass-marketing airplanes was wrapped up in something that had four seats and on the order of 150 HP. Some manufacturers gave up after limited success, while Cessna and Piper went on to fight it out for decades, as Beech and Grumman-American tried to make inroads.

The six Skymasters I have owned include two 1968 models, a 1975 and 1973 model and currently a 1971 337F model. All were great-running normally-aspirated models, with the exception of the 1969 model, which was a hanger queen. I am a 6-foot-6-inch former NBA player and let me tell you, Cessna is to be commended for thinking of the tall pilots when they designed this tough airplane. I think its a dream to fly for the owner-pilot who doesnt fly every day for a living.

The idea behind Dynon’s latest D3 is the same as the earlier D1 and D2 models: packaging backup attitude data into a completely portable, battery-powered, GPS-equipped instrument. Of course with no required connection to the aircraft, and with a couple of mounting options, the D3 can easily be moved between aircraft (provided you’ve charged it) and serve as backup for electrical and vacuum system failures. Since the D3 is a portable device with no certification, it can’t legally be used as a standalone primary instrument in certified aircraft.

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.

Except for its intolerance for mismanagement on and around the runway-giving it a not so respecful ranking in the NTSB reports-we suspect buyers are comfortable with long-term Skylane ownership. For many, its as far up the pecking order as theyll go in their flying careers.

In the product warranty article in the April 2019 Aviation Consumer we described reader Joel Rosenlichts experience with the Rolls-Royce 250-B17F turboprop engine in his Silver Eagle-converted Cessna P210.

You bought something and now it doesn’t work. What recourse do you have? Can you compel the seller to exchange the bad something for a new one? If you return it, are you entitled to a refund of the full purchase price? Will the seller pay the full cost of getting it fixed? What if the something is three months old? A year? Five years? How long is the seller obligated to repair a defective product, exchange it or take it back and refund your money?

Cessna’s first post-World War II twin-engine airplane, the venerable 310 is a logical consideration for anyone looking to step into the world of piston twins. While it doesn’t come without some quirks, it’s roomy, stable and has cruise speeds that top 200 MPH.

All the way down to the basic Musketeer, Beech just took pains to get its airplanes’ flying manners a cut above everything else, and that applies in spades to the Baron series. Fly most any Beechcraft model and you will likely come away impressed with its sturdy feel, solid build and, especially, its satisfying handling. Even so, every aircraft company has to make compromises. In the 55 Baron, for instance, what many find to be pleasant handling characteristics can prove to be a handful in poor weather, or when the air turns green with turbulence. We shouldn’t have to reiterate that nothing comes for free, particularly in a higher-end Beech.

My friend (who has flight training on the bucket list) has lived within a few miles of the airfield for a lot of years, yet never made it onto the field to see just what this little-airplane flying thing is all about. I put on my ambassador’s hat and offered a tour, careful not to understate the risks, but saved the cost of aircraft ownership thing for later, which might have set her up for a big letdown. Still, there was no doubt in my mind this gal could be a good pilot and future aircraft owner.

But there are more BendixKing products, including the AeroCruze autopilot and the AeroVue Touch retrofit flight display, that we’re waiting for. We reached out to BendixKing with an update and per its request submitted a list of questions pertaining to product and certification status. At press time, we were told by a BendixKing spokesperson that its communication team is spread thin and finding the right spokespeople to answer our product questions was posing a challenge. It said it would reach out to Aviation Consumer when it can offer product updates.