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Although the design is more than four decades old, the Cessna 177 Cardinal—with its racy sloped windshield, wide doors and strutless wings—looks more modern than the newest Skyhawks coming out of Cessna’s Independence, Kansas, plant. Yet, sadly, the Cardinal is a poster child for why innovation and audacity in general aviation development has often met dismal results in the market. Despite high expectations for a design that would usher in new thinking in light aircraft, the Cardinal had a rocky start and was gone from Cessna’s inventory a decade after it emerged.

Let’s assume you had a cash budget of up to $160,000 to buy an airplane. Your short list of required equipment includes a glass cockpit with autopilot, a modern interior, plus a proven engine that’s easy to service and economical to operate. You’ll use the plane for local flying, short trips and perhaps some basic instrument training.

Ask a Grumman Tiger owner what they like about the airplane and you’ll likely get an earful of energetic praise. Most owners gush over the Tiger’s snappy handling, healthy climb performance and slide-back canopy that allows for open-air flight. There’s arguably lots of appeal to these little cruisers. Non-Grumman enthusiasts (and even some mechanics) just won’t understand. Some call them silly little airplanes.

Regarding the life insurance for pilots article (January 2014 Aviation Consumer), I think you should know that The Pilot Insurance Center (PIC) is not all rosy. I was coming up on retirement and wanted to use life insurance as a financial tool. My bankrupt airline no longer allowed me to take a lump sum, and the annuity that I was given was taken at 100 percent, leaving my wife with nothing if I died. The insurance would fill in the gap.

It can be said that a skilled and reliable aircraft maintenance shop is an aircraft owner’s biggest asset. For a shop, a loyal and fast-paying customer keeps the doors open. That’s why it’s important for the owner and the shop to keep this valued partnership healthy.

The bad news is that, no matter how cleverly you design it, putting a boat hull on an airplane does not make for efficient aerodynamics. You also wind up with a complex airplane that has all the costs of maintaining a retractable landing gear and constant speed prop, plus the expenses of keeping a boat alive and well. There are those who assert that you should combine those costs and then square the sum to get an accurate number for owning an amphibian. Oh yes, and you get to own an airplane that can sink.

It wasn’t the first “plastic” airplane, but the composite Cirrus was far enough along the cutting edge to stir up the pilot community. Of course, some loudly asserted that no “real” pilot would want one of those things—it’s got a parachute, for crying out loud. Yet the SR20 and its offspring the SR22 quietly and effectively changed ideas of what a personal airplane should look like, how it should be used and how it should be equipped.

The smart money says that buying a used piston twin is crazy when avgas costs seven bucks, an engine overhaul runs north of $30,000 and often a twin isn’t that much faster than a comparable single. After looking at the stunning collapse of piston twin prices in this century, we’re tempted to simply say the smart money is right and let things go. The problem is, it’s just not that simple.

Everyone knows the Ercoupe was designed to be super safe by making it stall and spin-proof, yet few know it racked up a number of firsts including first successful production GA airplane that had a nosewheel or that had a fully cowled engine—making it faster than most of its contemporaries. Even fewer are aware that its design means it can handle a crosswind of double the velocity that can be dealt with by almost any other airplane.

There has long been a subset of pilots with a certain sense of adventure and the burning desire to own an aerobatic airplane. While most lust after an aerial hotrod such as one of the Extra 300 series or a Sukhoi Su-29, economic reality means putting something a little less impressive into the hangar.

Since 1968, the 36-series Bonanzas has steadily built a solid record for workmanship, performance, handling and comfort. Prices on the used market reflect the high regard for the airplanes. Easy entry to the rear seats and club seating made them popular with passengers as we’ll as pilots, even though the aft CG limit can make loading a challenge and some turbocharged models are a little light on useful load. Aftermarket mods such as turbonormalizing and tip tanks can turn a 36-series Bonanza into an airplane that can carry four people 1000 NM at 200 knots.

Many years ago, a wise aviator heard me comment that the airplane we were standing next to wasn’t cool. He quietly told me that any airplane that gets a person into the air and back down again safely is very cool because what’s truly matters is being able to rise off the ground and fly.