Table of contents for Buyers 2022 in Flying

THE USED AIRCRAFT MARKET IS STILL AS HOT as August 16, when I photographed two legacy Cessnas—and we needed a third to demonstrate properly their enduring value. We ended up in a shoot on August 19 using a Cessna 185 as a photo ship. There is another story: Kayla Hasano. On that same day, August 16, she achieved 1,000 hours of flying with her dad, Joe, a United Airlines pilot. Kayla is 19. She grew up at Poplar Grove (C77), in Illinois, and she’s a CFI with two years of junior college completed, plus her first year at a university, where she is getting her A&P. I interviewed her last year and took some lovely photos with her mom. In this shot, Kayla and Joe are flying the 152, pictured…

WHO KNEW THAT the dark clouds gathered by a global pandemic would have such a silver lining? Not that we would wish the past three years on anyone to live back through, but the resiliency of the turbine-powered business and owner-flown aviation markets has defied the pains of workforce fluctuations and supply chain disruptions. Case in point: Bombardier. Though the Montreal-based company has contracted over the past five years through divestment of its Q400 and de Havilland product lines and shifted its focus away from commercial aviation, it appears to be coming through all right, having made sound decisions. The first delivery of the Challenger 3500 took place in September 2022, going to launch customer Les Goldberg, chairman and CEO of Entertainment Technology Partners. “As a previous owner of a…

Every airplane in our 2022 FLYING Buyers Guide has been designed to serve a specific mission, and the light sport airplanes (LSAs) available today are no exception. They are built to provide a pilot and one passenger with a fuel-efficient platform that delivers nimble handling and—in many cases—advanced glass avionics when you feel the need to go chase that $100 hamburger while spending less than $50 on fuel. One advantage to flying an LSA is that they can be flown with a sport pilot certificate, with only a valid driver’s license needed as proof of medical suitability. While flight training prices vary throughout the country, it is generally accepted that a sport pilot ticket can be earned for about half the cost of a private pilot certificate. Let’s take a…

The wide range of turboprops on the market reflect the penetration these aircraft have had in delivering utility to business applications as well as personal use. If you'd like to upgrade a solid airplane and improve its safety, performance, and ease of operation, take a look at these three options for a meaningful update. Innovative Solutions & Support ThrustSense Autothrottles for PC-12s and King Airs Geoff Hedrick, the late founder of Innovative Solutions & Support (IS&S), used to fly a Pilatus PC-12 for business and personal travel. So it was natural that Hedrick would end up working closely with Pilatus Aircraft on integrating into the PC-12 the expertise developed by his company for commercial platforms like the Boeing 757 and 767. IS&S introduced the ThrustSense autothrottle to the series as…

WHEN DAWN AND I bought land on a Puget Sound-area airpark in 2019, we were still living aboard Windbird and cruising the Caribbean. Part of our “sell everything and sail across the horizon” scheme had always been to use that time to dream up our perfect post-boat life—one built around GA—and put that plan in motion. When we found the ideal plot on the grass strip of our dreams, we quickly modified our sailing plans to place us in a good position to build our bucket-list house and hangar in 2022. Our plans, it turns out, failed to account for a worldwide pandemic. In the early stages of COVID-19, it was almost certain that I would lose my Boeing 737 captain seat and be downgraded to first officer with an…

EVEN WHEN YOU’VE had your private pilot certificate for some time, buying your first airplane can be tricky. Typically, potential buyers who’d like to go for faster single-engine equipment—even when they remain in the piston category—find that they have obstacles to overcome, to include qualifying for insurance. That was the case a few years ago when a long-time pilot friend told me she wanted to upgrade to a Beechcraft Bonanza that had come up for sale. It was in the middle of the pandemic, which meant she probably wasn’t alone in her pursuit, as more people were finally deciding to tap into the general aviation market. The problem, my friend explained, was that while she earned her private ticket years ago, she hadn’t pursued her instrument rating because flying was…

DIVING THROUGH THE SKIES on the February 1935 cover of Popular Aviation, the new Beech Model 17-L enticed pilots seeking a speedy personal transport with its sleek lines and original 225 hp Jacobs engine up front. “In spite of the fact that this plane is fast, it has a slow landing speed,” said the magazine’s initial review of what would be called the Staggerwing. “This is due to the drag produced by the decelerators built into the underside of each lower wing and the additional drag produced when the retractable landing gear is lowered into position.” The 1943 Model 17-L (with an R-985) shown here is currently owned by Steve Thomas, of Poplar Grove (C77), Illinois. Thomas became the shepherd of N663 in 2013. It was initially produced for the…

IT WAS A SNOWY late-November morning at Chamberlain, South Dakota (9V9). A Pilatus PC-12 had sat out on the ramp during a night of intermittent snowfall and freezing drizzle. Its passengers, who had flown in from Idaho Falls the previous day to hunt pheasants, planned to return home that day. While the rest of the party was out shooting, the private pilot, 48, and one companion got some isopropyl alcohol de-icing fluid from a hardware store, borrowed a ladder from the hunting lodge at which they had stayed, and spent three hours chipping snow and ice from the wings. The ladder was not tall enough to allow them to reach the upper surface of the T-tail, but the pilot was satisfied that the rest of the airplane was sufficiently clean.…

WHILE THEY REPRESENT only 20 percent of total airplanes delivered, the turboprop market segment offers an enticing blend of speed, utility, and approachability for the pilot wanting to fly their own aircraft—and those who can invest between $2.5 and $6 million (for a new aircraft) to accomplish their goals. The selections within the pool for buyers offer well-targeted capability and niche design—and the segment continues to attract new entrants from the original equipment manufacturers specializing in these mounts. Daher has led the way in 2022, with the introduction of two new models to its portfolio, the autoland-capable TBM 960 (successor to the 940) and the Kodiak 900, a serious reimagining of the backcountry hauler into a much faster baby. The 900 provides a different flavor of competition for the Cessna…

THE LINES BLUR in between the worlds of certified and experimental/amateur-built (E/AB) aircraft—and to most, that’s a good thing. The demystification of the building process and the advent of quick-build kits and builder support mean there’s a wider variety of models to choose from for pilots wanting to take advantage of the technology access and added value offered by kitbuilt aircraft. But the blurred line has resulted in a cascade of unintended consequences. There’s now a significant market for already-built aircraft changing hands to what the kitbuilt industry has termed NBOs—non-builder owners. When a person buys the fruits of another builder’s efforts, they take on that project without the same knowledge as the original builder. With many NBOs coming from backgrounds of only flying, operating, and perhaps owning Part 23-certificated…

THEY SAY A LAZY PILOT is a good pilot. This adage has always rubbed me the wrong way. I understand the underlying meaning: You should always be ahead of the airplane. So much so that you’ve imagined every possible outcome and simply cannot be surprised, thereby rendering you an inert lump in the left seat. The problem for me is I can never move past the word itself. Lazy: not liking or willing to act or work. I can readily think of times where I have been a lazy pilot in a more traditional sense of the word, and it was not a great look. Or a great outcome. One recent example comes to mind. I flew up to Heli-Comm Avionics at Paso Robles airport (KPRB) in July to have…

SHORTLY AFTER UPGRADING to the right seat on the Boeing 767/757 in the 1980s, I had the good fortune to fly with the No. 1 captain on American Airlines’ seniority list. He was a gracious man, the type of captain that never allowed a copilot to take a wallet out on a layover. His flying skills and judgment set a standard to which I aspired. He had been hired with less than 500 hours of total flight time. Say whaaat? Yup, in the early 1960s, the combination of World War II vets retiring at the mandatory age of 60, the beginning of the jet age, and the expansion of routes left airlines with pilot applicants that were less experienced. For a period, United Airlines hired college graduates with no flight…

Price: $78MILLION Engines: GENERAL ELECTRIC PASSPORT (2) Projected Max MMO : 0.94 Range: 8,000 NM First Delivery: 2025 BOMBARDIER GLOBAL 8000 In May, at the National Business Aviation Association’s European Business Aviation Convention and Exhibition (NBAA-EBACE), Bombardier unveiled its new flagship model, the Global 8000—and it wasn’t just a concept, it had already flown. With a pair of GE Passport turbofans first used in 2010 by its stable-mate, the 7500, Bombardier projects the 8000 to be the fastest jet on the market, with a top speed of 0.94 Mach. But plans don’t stop there: The OEM is gunning for the longest range as well, at 8,000 nm for a standard passenger load and NBAA IFR parameters. Bombardier expects a maximum takeoff weight of 114,850 pounds, with a full-fuel payload of 2,275…

THE BEECHCRAFT BONANZA remains a perennial favorite among pilots—to put it in the words of Lou Seno, chairman emeritus of JSSI and a longtime F33 owner, “good ones seem to sell fast even in a bad market.” And this has not been a bad market by any stretch of the imagination. That sentiment is echoed around the industry—piston-powered, high-performance airplanes with good utility hold their value over decades. What does this mean for pilots wanting to invest in a new Bonanza—or the like? You may pay what feels like a premium price, but your investment will remain secure, even as you fly the pants off that bird. Jim Blessing, president of AirFleet Capital, concurs. “Our experience has been that aircraft that provide good utility have held their values well over…

IF YOU'RE ENTERTAINING the idea of purchasing your first airplane, you likely have dozens of aircraft reviews and buyers guides bookmarked in your browser. You’ve learned how important it is to match an airplane’s capabilities to the sort of flying you expect to do most often. And if your daydreaming has evolved into analysis, you might have already begun to narrow your choices down to a handful of potential candidates. But how do you determine which type is truly best for you? In a market where competitively-priced examples sell within minutes of being posted online, what factors should you anticipate ahead of time to make your entry into ownership as painless as possible? Anymore, it’s about getting creative and thinking outside the box. Attend Fly-Ins Imagine if there was a…

A BOWLING BALL CAN weigh up to 16 pounds. A Bocce ball weighs 2 pounds. Bocce balls come in eight packs, so 16 pounds. Why would you want to know this? When I signed up at a Citation Jet Pilots (CJP) meeting to provide support for the Special Olympics Airlift in the Cessna CJ1 that my wife, Cathy, and I own, I had no idea that I’d be looking up bowling ball weights. The Special Olympics USA Games are held every four years. Athletes with intellectual disabilities train and compete year round for a chance to represent their state at the games. I signed up partly because retired NFL quarterback Peyton Manning was the honorary chairman. I never saw Peyton, though. What I did see was awesome, amazing, and uplifting. Textron…

WE’RE IN A PERIOD of innovation that resembles the one from 1908 to 1915, when countless ideas—many harebrained—were tried, a few of which evolved into the airplanes of today. Now, it’s all about electricity. Electricity is an unlikely way of propelling airplanes—you can store enough of it to go either far or fast, but not both—yet hundreds of projects are currently in development. A lot of them are in the electric vertical takeoff and landing or eVTOL category, for which electric power is, if anything, even less appropriate. A list of eVTOL proposals takes up several pages online at evtol.news/aircraft. Several surprising names pop up. Cadillac? Aston Martin? Really? Good luck trying to tell the sheep from the goats. Electric aircraft fall into several broad categories: 1. Conventional Transports These are…