For at least two decades, the airframe manufacturers have relegated new trainers to the “why bother?” category. The market is so moribund that the last truly consequential trainer, other than LSAs, was Diamond’s DA20 Katana, a 1995 intro that was a lukewarm seller at best. Sooner or later, this was going to be fixed and in Redbird’s new Redhawk Skyhawk diesel conversion, maybe later has actually arrived, at least as an incremental step forward.
When it first appeared in the mid-1980s, the Malibu rocked the GA world. Here was a pressurized, high-flying luxury ride capable of 200 knots and with impressive range to boot.
Managing editor Larry Anglisano took the accompanying photo as we were on final for runway 27 at Oshkosh. It was at 3:15 PM on Sunday, the day before the official opening of AirVenture, a time when the airport has historically been bursting at the seams with airplanes, regardless of the weather. I was astonished by the relative absence of airplanes on the right (north) side of 27.
Thank you for the in-depth article on the Piper Warrior (August 2013 Aviation Consumer). I’ve owned mine for nearly 20 years and have long felt like it was the Rodney Dangerfield of airplanes. Your article did a great job of publicly destroying that image by bringing out the capabilities and flexibility of the Warrior. I’ve flown mine all over the country, on and off of all types of airports and runway surfaces—paved, grass and dirt, and while I’m cautious about density altitude and recognize that the bird isn’t going to set any speed records, it’s reliable and I know I’ll get where I’m going.
At Aviation Consumer, our job is to sift through marketing hype and conduct impartial evaluations of products and services. Sometimes this includes products that aren’t yet to market, creating uncertainty regarding the product’s future. That was the case nearly a year ago when we covered Avidyne’s IFD540 and IFD440 GPS navigators (September 2012). We recommended the IFD series as an easy way to modernize a stack of aged Garmin GNS navigators. The major attraction is the IFDs plug-and-play design, which slides into a Garmin GNS530W and GNS430W installation.
Mooney aficionados tend to be clustered in the end of the gene pool that has “I want a fast airplane” in the DNA. For years, they flocked to the marque that promised and delivered speed while sipping fuel. Starting with the single-seat Mite, they were willing to shoehorn themselves into tiny cabins in return for not having to stay in them long when going someplace, while assuming a certain look of superiority over others due to miserly demands at the gas pump. Over the years, Mooney obliged its faithful with progressive aerodynamic clean ups, making quick airplanes steadily faster. However, Mooney eventually shocked the aviation world by tacitly admitting that they’d gone as far as was economically viable with aerodynamics, and it was time to accept that there’s no replacement for displacement when it comes to sheer speed.
Still the only production four-seat or side-by-side, conventional gear airplanes being built in the U.S., Maules have been attracting owners who march to a slightly different beat for over 50 years. In general, the airplanes are easy and forgiving to fly when in the air, yet not so much on the ground—the runway loss of control accident rate is distressingly high. They’re simple to fix, good at going slow but capable of decent cruise speeds, although the published speeds for many in the line are considered humorously optimistic.
Even with the aviation economy only crawling along, I’m constantly amazed by the technological changes. Cessna has hung a diesel engine on a production airplane, Rotax engines are mainstream, lean of peak operations—largely forgotten since the 1940s—have been rediscovered and are saving owners thousands on fuel and maintenance costs. And those aren’t even new.
Your article on pulse oximeters in the March issue correctly pointed out that they increase safety, however, there is one situation where they do not and can give a pilot a false sense that all is well. The symptoms of carbon monoxide (CO) poisoning are the same as the symptoms of low blood oxygen—hypoxia—a feeling of well-being.
If you are flying a high-performance single, piston twin or turboprop, particularly if you use it for business trips, there is an increasing probability that you will get a notice from your insurer or employer requiring that you take annual recurrent training.
One of the joys of ownership might be an afternoon spent at the hangar, sipping cold ones and shining up the airplane. But the effort might not be enough to protect the paint and other surfaces from long-term damage. Neglected surfaces may be too much to handle.
Despite all the developments in the world of electronic charts, many pilots still like paper. Reasons include avoiding what can be pricey electronic device updates, a perceived ease in keeping track of the geographic “big picture” beyond the magenta line and not being quite convinced that electronics are infallible, are infallible, are infallible.
