Tabla de contenidos para December 2024 en Flying

ANSWER: It’s a bit more complicated than a simple yes or no. It has been nearly two decades since the FAA/National Weather Service (NWS) began a formal effort to move away from what was officially called the Traditional Alphanumeric Code (TAC) AIRMET or more simply, the “legacy” AIRMET. Graphical AIRMETs (G-AIRMETs) were introduced in 2008 as the replacement for the legacy AIRMET. It wasn’t until March 16, 2010, the G-AIRMET became the operational product for pilots and essentially replaced the existing legacy AIRMET. Even so, the legacy AIRMET overstayed its welcome for the next 14 years. Based on the FAA’s working group recommendation and the Safety Risk Management Panel (SRMP) results, the agency has formally requested the NWS retire the legacy AIRMET and produce only the G-AIRMET for the conterminous…

“I DON’T THINK it’s ever been this smooth before,” the learner remarked as we headed east toward the practice area. Most of his training was done in the summer, in the afternoon no less, when thermals at low altitude batted around the Cessna 172 like a cat toy. This early fall afternoon was refreshing—the air mass was stable, the air calm, and the clouds were up high and looked like a watercolor wash in painting. The trees below us were coming into their autumnal colors, and pumpkin patches dotted the landscape. There was the faint smell of wood smoke in the air as it was cool enough for some folks to fire up their stoves. “What’s the reported visibility today?” I asked, knowing full well what the answer would be.…

Are snow-producing clouds an airframe icing risk? The short answer is yes, which will likely surprise most readers who fly under instrument flight rules. While your mileage may vary, depending on the conditions, heavy ice within snow-producing clouds can even overwhelm an aircraft with a certified icing protection system. In fact, a study done by Steven Green of Flight Operations Research suggests that if you look at icing accidents and incidents that occurred during which precipitation was reaching the surface, freezing precipitation (freezing rain or freezing drizzle) is present in 33 percent of the total events and snow is present in 32 percent of the events; these conditions are not mutually exclusive, as 7 percent of the events include both. Note that “events” are not always aircraft accidents resulting in…

OVER THE LAST few weeks, I’ve been lucky enough to take several instructional flights in a 1943 Boeing-Stearman Model 75 (U.S. Navy designation N2S-3 Kaydet). This is my first formal training in anything of the biplane, open-cockpit, radial-engine, or warbird varieties, and it’s been a very interesting experience. As World War II warbirds go, the Stearman is simple in the extreme, and there are no great procedural challenges to mastering the airplane. In the air, it is basically a big J-3 Cub, and as I have about a hundred hours in that venerable type, the control feel and response is comfortably familiar. Maneuvers and stalls are a joy, and takes all of about 10 minutes to learn well for anyone used to older ships with a lot of adverse yaw.…

THE NICE THING about the flying hours logged in aviation is that they don’t expire. Those hours on your logbook don’t magically disappear if you decide to hang up your wings for a bit—even if they are instructor wings and one day you decide to get back into the cockpit on the right side and teach again. It will take time, however. It has been my privilege to help lapsed CFIs regain their skills and add some new ones, thus enabling them to teach again. There is a lot to consider when a person returns to the instructor cadre. Depending on how long you’ve been out of the instructor game, there have likely been some changes. Learners vs. Students The latest version of the Aviation Instructor’s Handbook informs us that…

As we move through winter and the temperature drops, many private pilots experience a corresponding downturn in flying hours. This is especially so in Northern regions where the cold bites suddenly make even basic tasks, from preflighting and engine starts to simply opening that stubborn old hangar door, seem like chores. This is a shame because as the weather gets colder, the flying gets better in certain ways. The scenery generally is gorgeous from autumn through winter, airports are not as busy now as they are in the summer, and many hotels at traditional warm-weather destinations are offering discounts and special packages to keep travelers coming. General aviation aircraft tend to be happiest when flying during the cold season because their engines develop more power when breathing the cool, dry…

Somatogravic illusion (SGI) is a stealthy killer. It reveals itself in seemingly unrelated ways and can sneak up and kill you before you know what happened. Here are some different accident types in which SGI apparently reared its ugly head: • In November 2011, a Cessna 310 took off IFR from Palo Alto, California (KPAO), one morning in nearly zero visibility due to fog. The aircraft climbed to approximately 50 feet, flew level for about a mile, then collided with a power transmission line. The four occupants on board were killed. • In February 2019, the first officer of Atlas Air Flight 3591, a Boeing 767 cargo plane, inadvertently activated the go-around switch while the aircraft was descending to 3,000 feet in IMC. As the aircraft accelerated in a nose-up…

ON A COOL, EARLY October afternoon, I was climbing away from Runway 32 at KMIV (Millville, New Jersey) on the LEEAH 5 departure. Accelerating to 120 kias, I picked up the gear and started the required 180-degree right turn toward the LEEAH intersection. The ASOS promised 900-foot ceilings. Sometimes they lie in the brochure. I was in the soup at 600 agl and quickly found myself a touch disoriented—and a little behind the airplane. Now, I don’t normally hand the controls over to George until I am at least 800 agl, but I had everything set up in my avionics stack: pitch attitude using the flight director, departure procedure loaded, and altitude preselected. All I had to do was push the AP button, and that’s exactly what I did. The…

MY WIFE AND I contemplated a quick flying getaway but couldn’t decide on a destination. The dilemma was solved when a friend graciously offered a weekend in a high-rise condo located near our old stomping grounds in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. It was an hour-and-a-half flight that would test my decision-making acumen more than the typical trans-Atlantic trips of my professional career. No professional copilot. No dispatch. Enter Hurricane Helene. I stared at the outdoor furniture that was nestled in portions of our living room. Helene had compelled us to drag everything outside from our lanai to the inside. Furniture moving was our SOP for storms. Date weekend was now in jeopardy. Fortunately, as residents of northern Florida’s east coast, we were spared the severe wrath of the hurricane. Our area…

IN FALL 1935, an Italian pilot named Francesco Agello set a speed record that has remained unsurpassed for 90 years. In fact, it will probably remain that way forever. It is the mark for hyperfast piston-engined seaplanes, and they have gone the way of velociraptors. Agello’s small—31-foot span—and elegantly shaped Macchi M.C.72 (above) had two 12-cylinder engines bolted together end to end driving steeply pitched, contra-rotating propellers through coaxial shafts. By then, streamlining had gone as far as it could and speed was all about raw power. The Cessna 152-sized M.C.72 had 3,100 hp. Despite the drag and deadweight of two 20-foot-long pontoons, the mark (441 mph) was for several years the absolute world speed record not just for seaplanes but for all airplanes. It was a time when aeronautical…

SPACESHIPS, JETPACKS, ELECTRIC, hydrogen, vertical takeoff and landing (VTOL) vehicles, and more fantastical aircraft took center stage at the UP.Summit in October, hosted by Walmart moguls the Walton family. The annual gathering—which alternates between Bentonville, Arkansas, and Dallas—brought together some 300 movers and shakers in the transportation industry, including manufacturers of the outlandish. John Kuolt, founder and CEO of UP.Labs, told FLYING in Arkansas this new generation of designs, commonly referred to by the umbrella term Advanced Air Mobility (AAM), won’t take conventional aircraft out of the picture. Rather, he said, it has the potential to breathe new life into aviation, particularly on the GA side. “From an energy density perspective, there’s nothing even close to fossil fuel. So it’s going to be a long time, if ever, before electric…

ACCORDING TO THE National Transportation Safety Board, the Beech 58P—a pressurized Baron—landed at about 11:15 on a Friday morning. The pilot, together with two adults and two children, got out and went into the FBO office. The pilot emerged with one of the adults to unload some baggage, which they took inside. A fuel truck rolled up and added fuel. Several minutes after fueling was completed, the pilot came out of the office conversing on a cell phone. He walked around the airplane in a clockwise direction, stopping behind the right wing. He then circled back to the left engine, where he continued his cell phone conversation with his back to the airplane before walking back around the right wing and climbing aboard. After a minute he emerged from the…

More than 20 years ago, Garmin introduced the G1000, its first integrated flight deck. Installed in a Cessna Mustang, the G1000 presented virtually everything a pilot needed to know about the airplane—systems, flight conditions, and weather—on a set of screens. The autopilot could even be programmed to follow a three-dimensional route displayed on those screens. Almost immediately the G1000 appeared in piston-powered trainers, and a new generation of pilots started moving up the aircraft complexity ladder, demanding glass flight decks across their various aircraft. Garmin listened, and soon expanded its product line with the G3000 integrated flight deck in 2009. The G3000 offered more capabilities than the G1000 and targeted the sophisticated FAR Part 23 turbine market. It came out as a three-screen touch suite (two PFDs and one MFD,…

As new technology emerges that increases the capability and safety of new aircraft, the same or similar functionality finds its way into the legacy fleet via the supplemental type certificate (STC) process. Upgrading aircraft, especially avionics and automation, enables owners to reinvest in an aircraft that may already be fully depreciated rather than purchasing new or late-model aircraft for significantly more money—if you can afford the downtime. Earlier this year, FLYING provided an in-depth look at the new Beechcraft King Air Garmin Autoland. The industry waited a long time to have the ability for a GA aircraft to land itself, but it’s here now and it was worth the wait because it’s so much more. Autothrottles will help reduce pilot workload, improve fuel economy, and provide a level of safety…

MANY AIRLPLANES HAVE sleek, seductive lines that draw me in and make my mind wander. And lately, as I vacillate between buying a Cessna 340 or a Cirrus on Controller.com, I’m drawn to pictures of each There’s a really eye-catching photo of a 340 with a cool paint job. Taken from behind the elevator on the left side of the airplane, the silhouette of the fuselage is spellbinding in its languorous and sensuous curves. Taken with some sort of telephoto lens, the image is all power and speed. The urge is to buy immediately. The fact that the airplane is overpriced and I know very little about its history seems irrelevant to this mesmerized shopper. Can I have it now? My wife, Cathy, and I owned a 340 almost 30…

MY FIRST HOUR of dual given as a 21-year-old CFI was memorable and a little embarrassing. The student was flying a Cincinnati Aircraft Cessna 172. When he added full throttle, and we started down the runway at Lunken Airport (KLUK), the tach read 2,300 rpm. I told him to close the throttle—abort the takeoff—and explained to the tower we needed to return to the hangar. Something was obviously wrong with this engine. At the shop, a mechanic patiently explained to this ditzy flight instructor (me) that at full throttle 2,300 rpm on takeoff with that 145 Continental engine was quite normal. So, we tried it again, although I was a little surprised that the guy agreed to keep flying with me. I don’t know whether to be proud or chagrined…