Innehållsförteckning för Fall 2022 från Flying

IT BEGAN WITH a text message from Jeff Linebaugh: “We’re planning to get a cover shot for the newly revised FAST formation manual. It will be an interesting eight-ship formation: A36, CJ-6, T-34, T-6, TB30, T-28, P-51, and F4U. You’d shoot from the back of a Bonanza A36 with the baggage doors removed. Sure hope that will work for you.” FAST is a worldwide, nonprofit educational organization dedicated to teaching safe formation flying in civilian-owned military and GA aircraft. Mike Filucci, the first president of the RedStar Pilots Association (RPA), served as mission commander, planning the shoot and briefing the team that consisted of: Matt Guthmiller, lead pilot, Formation Flying Inc.—Beech Bonanza A36 Gil Lipaz, president, RPA—Nanchang CJ-6A Billy Smith, president, T-34 Association—Beech T-34 Todd Winemiller, formation committee member, North…

SEVENTY-FIVE YEARS ago—and as the nation rebounded from the travails of World War II—the U.S. Air Force was created. According to many military and aviation observers, the service arose out of necessity for a new era of national defense. “The very heart and key to our national defense is a top-notch, professional air force, sitting constantly on the alert in the ready room,” publisher William Ziff wrote in the September 1947 issue of FLYING. “It must be backed by an industry geared to an instant emergency. At its stride must be the biggest possible air transport system, capable at once of moving men and materials with the greatest efficiency and speed.” This efficiency and the success of American air power during World War II led to the formation of the Department…

Gather a few thousand Cessna 150 pilots and ask them how they’d improve the airplane, and the resulting feedback would be both consistent and predictable. More cabin space would likely top the list. Better visibility from the cockpit would also be mentioned. Additional fuel capacity would likely come up, and some might mention a desire for a more modern design. Back in the early- to mid-1970s, Cessna dominated the primary training market and accordingly, the company had a target on its back. Cessna’s competitors wanted a piece of the pie, and the process started with thorough, competitive analysis. After compiling a list of the most desired improvements, both Piper and Beechcraft went to work developing their own modernized entries into the primary trainer market and came out with new models.…

“CAN YOU BE THERE on the 16th at Tim Knutson’s farm? You don’t want to miss this story—we are finally teaching Carl [Costas] to fly in Tim’s 150, and then Tim is going to race it at the Mayday STOL competition in Wayne, Nebraska!” That was Kyle Bushman on the phone. He is the most passionate general aviation advocate I know. At the young age of 28, he has achieved more aviation milestones than most people do in a lifetime. He’s a pilot, A&P, IA (technician with inspection authority), technical advisor for the STOL Drag series—and owner of a Navion (in which he learned to fly and solo at the age of 16), an N3N biplane, and a highly modified Aeronca Champ. His creativity in running his shop, Ragwood Refactory,…

THE LAST FLIGHT I made in my 1953 Piper Pacer, N3323A, was on April 20, 2016. The airplane was in Vancouver, Washington, for its annual inspection before a planned trip to Alaska, and I took advantage of a Portland work layover to take a good friend and his two young boys on a scenic flight. It turned out that sometime during our two-hour tour, perhaps while we were circling Mount St. Helens, the engine began quietly tearing itself apart, eventually dropping a sizable piece of main bearing into the oil pan—all the while running smoothly, indications in the green. I didn’t learn of our close brush with fate until a few days later when the Pacer went into the shop. Within a few weeks, I sold it as-is, where-is, and…

EXPERIMENTAL AIRCRAFT didn’t get much play in FLYING’s pages during the 1980s and 1990s. But that all changed when an established kit manufacturer, Van’s Aircraft, evolved its products into more approachable models to build—with an enhanced level of efficiency and good handling to match. In the August 2004 issue of FLYING, we featured the tandem, tailwheel RV-8 on the cover for our feature on the experimental market. Richard “Van” VanGrunsven, founder of Van’s, said then, “Flying an RV is more an extension of the pilot’s thought process, instead of a manhandling [of] a machine through the air.” According to author Lane Wallace, “What that translates to are aircraft that fly more like sports cars than the family station wagon or sedan,” as she said in the same article. Above, Van…

IN LATE JUNE 2021, I had a business meeting scheduled in Salt Lake City, Utah, so I was happy to have a good excuse for a cross-country flight from Ithaca, New York, in my 1979 Cessna 210N. I had an uneventful flight to the Northern Colorado Regional Airport (KFNL) near Loveland and Fort Collins, where I had planned to overnight and head to Salt Lake City International Airport (KSLC) the next day. I filed IFR for KSLC via the northern route, which has somewhat lower minimum en route altitudes (MEAs). Shortly after passing the Medicine Bow (MBW) VOR, I noticed red flags on both Aspens (PFD and MFD), as well as major electrical discharge indications of the ammeter on the JPI 930 engine monitor. I shut off all electronics except…

As I sat in the classroom at the Johannesburg Flying Academy at the quaint Panorama Airfield, my young South African instructor started our lesson by writing three large letters on the whiteboard: TIA. The initials stood for “This Is Africa,” a well-known euphemism that the local pilots refer to fondly when summarizing flying on the continent. It’s a phrase that perfectly symbolizes the culture, beauty, and occasional bureaucracy of flying in a tamed—yet still wild—environment. GETTING LICENSED The starting point of my epic flying safari was to first become a “certificated” South African pilot through the foreign-license validation process. While this is normally just a paperwork exercise for many countries, South Africa requires both ground school and a flight test. South Africa is different from most western countries that employ…

The pallets stack high inside the inventory hangar. Crates ready to be filled with kits line the ramp outside. It feels callous to say the pandemic resulted in any good consequences, but one was undoubtedly felt by Van’s Aircraft: Pilots stayed home—and built airplanes. The experimental/amateur-built (E/AB) category of aircraft saw intense growth as homegrown projects—and the ability to isolate in a hangar while doing them—took on a new shine. Instead of making jam and nurturing sourdough starter, hundreds of new builders “fermented” aircraft across the U.S. During the year marking its 50th anniversary, Van’s worked hard to catch up. Facing workforce and supply chain ups and downs that have plagued the entire industry, the Aurora, Oregon-based OEM added shifts and placed orders on backlog from 12 to 18 months.…

I’VE HAD A GREAT eight months of flying in SoCal since I came to Los Angeles last January. The marine layer that creeps onshore most nights makes for interesting departures. This is a place to keep yourself instrument current. I’ve gotten used to inputting the approach procedure to the opposite runway I am departing from in case things go south during the initial climb. Part 91 flying places few limitations on takeoff minimums, but regardless, I still won’t go when it’s LIFR. Give me a 500-foot-or-better ceiling, and I’ll take my chances. One interesting flight back in May involved a quick trip down to Palomar to pick up my friend Martijn, who was visiting from Costa Rica. It was not a great beginning as I hit the starter button on…

UNDERSTANDABLY, THE FLYING public has become frustrated with the frequent delays and cancellations now associated with the anxiousness of airline travel. The post-pandemic pent-up travel demand is the primary catalyst. Although many factors are involved, the so-called “pilot shortage” has been showcased as a significant culprit. Responding to their constituents’ angst, Republicans Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina and Rep. Chip Roy of Texas introduced the “Let Experienced Pilots Fly Act” on July 25, which would extend the mandatory airline pilot age from 65 to 67. Although well-intended, the legislation would create more problems than it would solve. It shouldn’t even be considered a Band-Aid. Mandatory retirement age for airline pilots didn’t exist until March 1960, when it became a federal aviation regulation. It was an arbitrary number that…

AN HOUR BEFORE midnight. The stillness of a northern Minnesota lake. Ripples on pebbles exposed in the water, reboantic loons. Darkness. Starlight. Then suddenly, close by, the incongruous snarl of an airplane engine. Red and green lights race into view, swooping and plunging. The airplane disappears behind trees, reappears, turns, seems to aim straight for the startled stargazers on the shore. It veers away, zooms upward. Its lights become momentarily hazy and diffuse. The airplane again turns, dives, disappears behind trees. Then a dreadful sound, part boom, part thud, for which there is no name. And then silence. Moments later, shouts and footfalls, the unlimbering of boats, clatter of oars and outboard motors, lights and voices out on the water, searching. Clouds have moved in; the stars are extinguished. The…

SOMETIMES YOU PUT MUD ON THE TIRES… SOMETIMES YOU PUT STRAW IN THE WIRES. BOTH ARE IN A DAY’S WORK FOR THE SERIES OF BACKCOUNTRY RIDES THAT SPRANG FROM THE PIPER CUB’S LEGACY. My earliest concerts with the progenitor Cub taught me well. In a Piper J-3 flown with instructor Rich Davidson out of Lee Bottom Flying Field (64I) near Jefferson, Indiana, 20 years ago, I learned the first of many Cub lessons. The sunny little taildragger loves to fly with the doors off, low and slow—it knows no other way. While the merry creature handles just fine on the pavement, it loves the grass, and the more out of the way the green piste, the better. Meeting the CubCrafters’ Carbon Cub series for the first time, I feel no…

WINTER IS COMING… and as the large-scale weather patterns transition from the hurricane season—which in 2022 included visits from Fiona and Ian—pilots' thoughts turn to colder events. SOUTHEAST START As convective SIGMETs morph into G-AIRMETs for airframe ice, pilots flying in the Southeastern U.S., including the southern Appalachians, should expect a marked change from summertime weather as the upper-air pattern amplifies, the fall colors wane, and the cold season approaches. October and November are what meteorologists call transition months as the jet stream migrates south out of Canada. With each passing month during the winter, the increasing upper-level flow reaches well into the Deep South. The freezing level transitions from the lower flight levels in September to near the surface by the early part of December over a large portion…

I’VE BEEN HANGING around this Art Deco, WPA-era building for nearly 60 years and would recognize it with my eyes closed. The same smell permeates the place as it did the first day I walked in—an industrial strength disinfectant, which I think emanates from the bathrooms. In the “ladies,” there used to be one of those World War II-era memes of a little guy with a big nose peering over a wall with the inscription, “Kilroy was Here.” After I learned to fly and put in a stint with TWA as a hostess, in 1963, I met, fell in love with, and went to work for Ebby Lunken in multiple roles for his new Midwest Airways. Our office and counter were in this building, right where the old American Airlines…

ONE DAY, BACK in ancient times, I went to Van Nuys Airport (KVNY) to report on a gadget that was supposed to improve the directional stability of V-tail Beechcraft Bonanzas. It consisted of a bent-up aluminum channel about 8 feet long, similar to a length of roof gutter, that screwed to the underside of the aft fuselage. Its creator explained that it trapped a stream of air and thereby kept the tail from swinging from side to side. I did not see how this could be, but I flew the Bonanza, first without the channel, and then with it. I kicked the rudder pedals a number of times and duly noted my subjective impression of the damping—that is, the number and size of oscillations required to return to steady flight.…