Tabla de contenidos para October 2023 en Flying

YOUR MISSION IS the first thing you need to identify when buying an airplane. Everyone knows that, but it’s really the truth. Three years ago, 23-year-old Conner McCartney knew what he wanted as his first airplane. It had to be simple, affordable and—most importantly—fun to fly. The airplane also would allow him to be an “hours builder,” as well as provide a working vehicle for his mobile aircraft detailing business. Now, 700 hours later—time acquired in just three years—there’s no doubt his 1976 Cessna 150M was the proper selection.…

When Nature Calls Re: “When Nature Calls” in Issue 940 by Martha Lunken: Finally, someone writes about an unspoken reality of general aviation flight. Who else but Martha to tell it like it is! FLYING Magazine to me was always about dreaming of that beautiful airplane on the cover. I will show my age by saying I fell in love with a Cessna 414 that graced the front of FLYING many years ago with the usual stunning photography inside. I would, and still do, read the magazine cover to cover, ads and all, but I can never remember reading about anything other than aerodynamic and instructive flying topics or perhaps just this kind of “high flying attitude” in FLYING. Martha has, I would think, finally rounded it all out for…

THE EAGLE INITIATIVE moves forward at a measured pace, according to a panel of constituents that presented an update at the Theater in the Woods on July 24 during EAA AirVenture in Oshkosh. EAGLE—which stands for Eliminate Aviation Gas Lead Emissions—includes partners from aviation industry associations, the FAA, fuel producers and distributors, airport operators, and local community and environmental experts. With the aim to transition away from leaded avgas—100LL—by 2030, EAGLE has the twin missions of supporting development of replacement fuels and advocating for the continued supply of current fuels until the OEMs, operators, and pilots feel secure in the safety and security of the new fuel source(s). It’s a tall order. Though four entities reported significant progress with their specific candidate fuel, there are varying degrees of confidence in…

By and large, the most common advice to aircraft shoppers is to define the mission first. Determining the typical distances you expect to fly, the number of passengers you want to carry (if any), the cruise speed you would like to achieve, and other such factors are the natural first steps to the shopping process. Being diligent about them invariably saves time and frustration down the road. But beyond determining basic utility and performance specifications, one should also proactively determine what ownership experience they’d most enjoy. Among various aircraft models, some are the equivalent of basic condominiums. Nothing fancy, reasonably common, and generally straightforward to own and live in with few headaches or surprises. A Cessna 172 and Piper Cherokee would fall into this category nicely, serving as fantastic first…

DO YOU USE AN IPAD IN THE COCKPIT? Is the device secured? I ask because a friend had an unfortunate life-changing experience during her spin training when her CFI’s kneeboard with the iPad strapped inside came loose and became a projectile, striking her in the face and fracturing her eye socket. This cautionary tale made me take a closer look at the kneeboard options available to iPad users. In fact, iPads have caused a kneeboard evolution. The mission of the kneeboard hasn’t changed much since its introduction in the 1930s: Provide the pilot with a flat space to write on. The Apple iPad was introduced in 2010 and quickly found its way into the cockpit as aviation apps such as ForeFlight flourished. Pilots who sought to go paperless quickly learned…

MAKING MY WAY across the country in May, I enjoyed an involuntary extended stay in Santa Fe, New Mexico, after the failure of a servo on my autopilot. The Beech Bonanza was airworthy, sure, but I’m not interested in hand flying over a thermal-laden, desert landscape for hours on end. Been there, done that. And with the Writers Guild of America being on strike, I was in no rush to get home anyway. Waiting for the parts to arrive, I called someone I met a few years earlier when I was stuck in Albuquerque during COVID-19. Back then, Brandon Maestas was the in-house avionics guru at Santa Fe Aero Services, and he got my Garmin software updates squared away while we all waited for the world to come back. It…

WITH EXACTLY THREE years since the “new” Microsoft Flight Simulator 2020 was released, myself, along with many thousands of die-hard flight simmers have been taken by storm, fallen in love, gotten angry, or experienced a multitude of emotions. Competition is good, and before 2020, we all began to think Microsoft was out of the game, and X-Plane creator Austin Meyer would be the savior, keeping this hobby alive forever. Certainly not swayed by Microsoft’s offerings, Meyer and his team forged ahead, putting the finishing touches on X-Plane 11. X-Plane 12 was released earlier this year after a long beta period. Not forgotten here, or elsewhere, the X-Plane series is continuously updated and developed. In fact, Meyer’s team at Laminar Research is the largest it’s ever been—tiresomely working on X-Plane 12.…

RAISE YOUR HAND if you’ve had the following conversation: “So, do you have your own airplane?” You nod and maybe display a photo from your phone. “Is it like a Cessna?” You offer more specifics. “Where do you keep it?” You respond with XYZ airport. “You mean…like right at the airport?” You clarify that it’s kept in a hangar. “So, do you need permission to fly…like give somebody a flight plan or something, right?” You attempt to clarify further, but an expression of consternation usually remains. Apparently as a veteran airline pilot, I am a magnet for such exchanges because folks consider the profession an authority on all things aviation. In reality, no pilot is a complete authority, especially me. Maybe some of us just appear to have more credibility…

THE MIGHTIEST OF the legacy models, the Beechcraft King Air 350 came out from under wraps in the late autumn months of 1989—and FLYING’s Fred George reported on his first crack at it in the November issue. The largest of the “Super King Airs,” the 350 “Super Duper” saw a 3.4-foot increase in wingspan (including its 25-inch-high winglets), which delivered enough of a performance boost to enable a 2.9-foot stretch to the fuselage—and double club seating in the cabin. The winglets were the product of Beech’s investment in the Starship’s composite construction. “Building the new wingtip assemblies out of Nomex [Honeycomb] cores covered with graphite-epoxy skins is pretty routine for Beech’s well-seasoned composite specialists,” wrote George. Some 35 years later, the King Air 350 above still cuts a fine form…

ON A CLOUDLESS April afternoon a Grumman AA-1B Trainer lined up on Runway 16 at Dodge Center, Minnesota (KTOB), for takeoff. The wind, 27 knots gusting to 34, was coming from the right, 50 degrees off the little airplane’s nose. Three people had seen the pilot board the airplane and taxi out. One of them watched as it took off. When the airplane was, he thought, 500 feet above the ground and three-quarters of the way down the 4,500-foot runway, he returned to his work. A few minutes later, one of the others, who had not watched the takeoff but perhaps heard an impact, alerted him to what turned out to be the wreckage of the Trainer in a farm field not far from the end of the runway. The…

During any flight, a pilot will encounter several different flavors of visibility. This includes flight visibility, ground visibility, prevailing visibility, tower visibility, runway visual range, and vertical visibility. But wait, is vertical visibility even a legitimate visibility? Actually, it’s a bit of a misnomer and not a true measure of visibility in the traditional sense. Vertical visibility is a close cousin to ceiling. That is, it represents the distance in feet a person can see vertically from the surface of the Earth into an obscuring phenomenon, or what is called an indefinite ceiling. What isn’t obvious is how vertical visibility is determined, and how this is different from a definite ceiling. It’s arguable that an indefinite ceiling is perhaps the most misunderstood phenomenon reported in a routine (METAR) or special…

THE FIRST TIME my wife and I set foot on the 2.3-acre property that would become our home, we immediately knew it was exactly what we were looking for, but it required a little imagination. There was a small, flattish clearing fronting a grassy taxiway, but the rest was overgrown in a dark, brooding bramble. It took some bushwhacking to get the lay of the land. Once we did, I saw the clearing could easily be expanded to accommodate a decent-sized hangar. Up the hill and through the trees was a nice building spot that, with clearing and earthmoving, would accommodate a modest house with a nice overview of the adjacent 2,400-foot private grass strip. I noticed a fine strand of cedars on the southern edge of the wood, and…

“DO YOU HAVE ANY PUMPKINS AT YOUR FLIGHT SCHOOL?” The term was coined by a co-worker during the first week of August to describe the private pilot candidates who were running out of time to complete their private pilot certificates before they headed back to high school or college in pursuit of nonaviation degrees. The message was that once the school year began they would not have the time or opportunity to complete their training. They had to be done, lest they turn into a pumpkin à la Cinderella’s coach. If this describes your situation, know you are not alone. Although aviation may take a back seat for a while, with a little bit of planning and creativity, you can protect that hard-earned knowledge and, to some extent, those flying…

IT WAS A HOT and sticky April afternoon when I finally took the instrument rating (airplane) practical test with FAA inspector Dale Ropp. All my dual had been at night with Roger Burdorf, who was a good pilot but had some unique ideas about getting maximum performance out of his students. This usually involved yelling and/or smacking me on the back of the head when I screwed up. Early in training, I made a night instrument takeoff from Lunken Airport (now KLUK) in Ohio, using a runway adjacent to a hillside with traffic on a busy highway at the base and well-lit neighborhoods climbing the slope. I unearthed a hood that was extra wide and allowed me to cheat a little with a glimpse of terrain on the sides. What…