Innehållsförteckning för November 2023 från Flying

WE’D BEEN SHOOTING around Mackinac Island in Michigan all afternoon, but as the day progressed the forecast VFR conditions rapidly changed into IMC. Some serious storm clouds developed while we cruised back to Grand Rapids, which eventually required us to divert en route twice after changing altitude several times to try and duck under the worst of the turbulence. Eventually, we landed at West Michigan Regional Airport (KBIV) in Holland, joining a ramp rapidly filling with other IFR aircraft sheltering from the storms. As they say, if you don’t like the weather in Michigan, hang around a sec, it’ll change—unfortunately this time only to become worse. But we had a good Plan B, and C as it turned out, and the changeable weather made the photos for the Destinations feature…

Ah, the Irony! Did you intend the irony of putting together “Trust but Verify” [by Richard Scarbrough] in the same issue [Issue 941] as Dick Karl’s “Getting to Know You”? In the first article, Scarbrough pointed out the importance of thoroughly documenting your aircraft purchase with definitive contract terms and inspections. In the second article, Karl bought his aircraft with “no lawyers, no brokers, just two guys agreeing to transfer ownership.” Trust, but don’t verify! Richard Friedman via email Editor’s note: Why, yes, the two approaches to aircraft ownership did not escape our notice as we compiled the issue. There’s room for a little of both, depending on the situation. Black Holes Meg Godlewski’s article in the October 2023, Issue 942 edition brought back a similar memory 50 years ago.…

‘I just bought the assets of Columbia…’ The email came across while I was in a meeting at my former job, just weeks before I’d join Cessna Aircraft Company as the Cessna Pilot Center manager in December 2007. In a boardroom cross-country—literally—from where I sat, former Cessna president and CEO Jack Pelton had closed the deal, yes, buying “certain assets of the Columbia Aircraft Company.” His excitement about the purchase rang through the few lines of text—for the airplanes Textron had just bought as well as the potential for growing Cessna’s foothold in an evolving piston marketplace. And from that moment, my own relationship unfolded with the airplane. What started as the Columbia 400 could have taken the high-performance, piston-single segment by storm, born of the Lancair heritage. It would…

As pilots, almost all of us regularly trust our lives to an aircraft someone else has built. We do not pull each rivet, run the wiring, or bolt in the engine before hopping into the cockpit. It is part of what makes getting into an airplane an act of trust. In many cases, that trust is bought with the standardization, quality control, and testing that goes into type and production certification. However, that has its limits, not the least of which are the oft-disparaged cost of certified models and a certain inability for significant customization. As Henry Ford said of the Model T: “You can have it in any color you want, as long as it is black.” When looking for a less expensive, more flexible option, would you buy…

MY INTRODUCTON TO the world of aviation occurred on an afternoon in fall 1990, when I was 7 years old. I remember it clearly. My childhood best friend and I were taken to the local movie theater in Concord, New Hampshire, to see Memphis Belle. Although it was rated PG-13, my best friend’s father was our chaper-one, and I believe he hoped the film would open our eyes to the seriousness of air combat. He was a U.S. Navy pilot during Vietnam, flying the Douglas A-4 Skyhawk, and served as a captain at Delta Air Lines, flying the McDonnell Douglas MD-80. At the beginning of the film, a B-17 returning from a World War II mission makes a low pass over the Memphis Belle’s aircrew playing touch football at their…

HE MAY BE FROM rural Kentucky, but he lives a big-city life. In the eight years I’ve known him, he’s owned four airplanes—a turboprop, two jets, and now a piston twin. He uses general aviation to commute from his home in Tampa, Florida, to his summer cottage in New Hampshire. He handles all this with a weary sense of ennui seasoned with aplomb. He does, however, have his idiosyncrasies. For instance, he hates dogs. His name is Rocco and, well, he is a dog. I first learned of Rocco from a video posted on a website called “Lucky Lab Rescue.” He looked like the lab mix he was reported to be. Tellingly, he had no “bio.” Usually dogs up for adoption have been fostered and their traits have been cataloged.…

AS IS ABUNDANTLY clear from the photos of FLYING Magazine’s May 2004 cover shot of the Lancair Columbia 350 (left) and the kit-built Lancair ES-P (above), both share parentage and composite composition—and more than a few common qualities in speed and handling. The ES drew its heritage from the slick Lancair IV, with a larger wing to provide lower approach and landing speeds, somewhat taming the beast. The Columbia 300 and 350 took the evolution even further, with a discontinuous leading edge on that wing, to move the stall inboard, according to the report in the 2004 feature. But with no vacuum pump—replaced with a dual electric system—the 350 would set the stage inside as well as out for the later expressions of the design, which would culminate in the…

AROUND 7 IN THE EVENING on September 4, 2020, the Muskogee, Oklahoma (KMKO), pilot-owner of a Cirrus SR22 telephoned his flight instructor to report he was going to fly to Pickens, South Carolina (KLQK), that night. His instructor advised him to wait until morning. Instead, the pilot fueled the airplane, loaded his father, wife, and child aboard, and took off at 8:27 p.m. for the four-hour flight. As you will have guessed, since you are reading about this in Aftermath and not in I Learned About Flying From That, the flight did not end well. About 25 minutes after takeoff and shortly after crossing the Arkansas border, the 31-year-old pilot, whose in-command time amounted to 75 hours, lost control of the airplane and went down in a remote woodland. All…

After months of trying, we finally made our way to Michigan’s Mackinac Island just as the tourist season was winding down. People say the island is open from May to October. Or did they say “through October?” It depends on where you seek your information, but we have found you can rely only on the period beginning with the Memorial Day weekend and ending with Labor Day for having the most tourist amenities available. The good news is that there is a lot to do on Mackinac during the summer. And while there is far less going on during the offseason months, the place becomes a true escape from the daily grind. A handful of hotels and one or two restaurants stay open year-round, and whenever you choose to visit,…

SINCE THE EARLY days of aviation, the leather jacket has been fashion de rigueur for pilots. Because leather is windproof, these jackets were a favorite of pilots in open cockpits. By the 1930s the military issued A-2, G-1, and B-3 jackets that were often adorned with hand-painted squadron patches and the name of the aircraft or unit the owner flew with. Although leather jackets are no longer worn into combat, they are still a large part of pilot culture—and they are prized by collectors of all genres. Jackets on Display Aviation museums have become repositories for flight jackets, including one of the most storied, the National Air and Space Museum in Washington, D.C. According to Alex Spencer, curator of European, British, and Commonwealth military aviation, military flight clothing, and memorabilia,…

TWO WEEKS AGO I flew with John Pullen, the same amiable first officer I’ve mentioned twice in these pages already (“Bomb Cyclone,” March 2023; “Beyond the Uniform,” July 2023). He greeted me with a grin, a handshake, and a vow: “OK, no drama that gets me into FLYING Magazine again, I promise!” No problems there, I told him. After weeks of unceasing thunderstorms up and down the East Coast with air traffic chaos and endemic delays and cancellations, the forecast promised unusually smooth sailing for the next four days. As we settled into the Boeing 737’s cozy cockpit and started to build our nests, I recounted some of the more maddening episodes of my last four-day tour and told John that after this trip my wife and I were headed…

“HOW ARE YOUR CROSSWIND LANDINGS?” “WE’RE ABOUT TO FIND OUT.” Have you ever had this conversation in the aircraft? It often occurs when you listen to the one-minute weather or ATIS and learn the winds are blowing at an angle to the runway rather than parallel to the direction of landing. As a result, there is the increased potential for drifting off the centerline—unless the pilot is prepared to take prompt and corrective action. As we go into the winter months, winds tend to kick up across the U.S., making it more likely for you to encounter a crosswind. Since most airports are designed with runways aligned into prevailing winds, many pilots don’t get much practice with crosswind takeoffs and landings—and it shows. A search of accident and incident reports…

A GOOD FRIEND—a well-known, longtime aviator and author of books and aviation columns (alas, for another magazine)—told me he had attempted to write something about the glorious obsession many of us have with airplanes and flying…often from childhood. But despite chewing on it for a long time, he finally gave up—saying it just wouldn’t “come together.” Fearless when it comes to busting into places where other—often more competent—flyers and writers are reluctant to go, I decided to give it a try. After all, who has more firsthand knowledge of what happens when this very real, deep-rooted part of us is sabotaged by events such as a denied medical or insurance, a financial problem, or even something as weird as flying under a bridge? (And, no, I didn’t turn my…

MANY PEOPLE INVOLVED in aviation will recall 2023 as the last year for the National Championship Air Races in Reno, Nevada. History will also mark it as a sad year for the event because of a midair collision that claimed the lives of two renowned AT-6 pilots. For the estimated 140,000 fans who attended the weeklong celebration of aircraft performance, I suspect the overall experience was still one to treasure, in part because the races are more than the sum of the event. When you walk through the gates and head for the grand-stands, you are stepping into a complex timeline that stretches back to the competition’s conception in 1964 and beyond to aviation’s Golden Age, with the Cleveland air races, and the Thompson, Bendix, and Greve trophies. I know…

OVERVIEW MOSAIC is an acronym for a regulation that affects all aircraft with special airworthiness certificates. Aircraft built by Cessna, Piper, Cirrus, Diamond, and others instead have standard certificates, and their new models remain untouched by this proposed regulation. In contrast, all light sport aircraft (LSA), experimental amateur-built airplanes, and warbirds are issued special certificates. In my view, the rule can be divided into two main parts: airplane descriptions and capabilities, and pilot certificates, technician privileges, and operating limitations. In short, airplanes or people. For airplanes, the NPRM felt like Christmas in July, granting many capabilities industry and pilot member organizations had sought over some years of negotiation. The people part describes who gets to fly and maintain these MOSAIC LSAs and under what rules. This latter section inspired greater…

The day begins like any other. At sunrise, a commute to the office, choose a parking spot, and pull in. Tap the security pad with an ID badge, flick on the lights, dock in the laptop, and start the coffee. The screen blinks to life, emails flood the inbox, and Outlook dings and pops up with the day’s first meeting. This is how the day in the life of a certified repair station begins. While the above may seem routine and mundane—no different from any other profession—it is not. Long before the day starts, scores of others are already hard at work. Teams operate in every corner of the globe, working to fulfill the mission. Some companies are conglomerates with policies and procedures designed to ensure success at any facility…

NEWARK TOWER CAME on the radio, and the voice sounded urgent: “Bonanza Five Zero Whiskey, go around. Go around.” It’s not like I’ve never heard those words before. Things happen at busy airports, and the tower will sometimes throw something at you at the last second. But this was unusual in that I was on short final. No, short final is actually a misnomer in this case. I was over the numbers. Flaps down, gear down, throttle back to 15 inches, trim plus-9 and increasing. I was, quite literally, about to land. Things went a little sideways from there, but let’s back up a minute first. I was flying a friend to Newark Liberty International Airport (KEWR) so she could catch a commercial flight home. I worked it out so…

ALTHOUGH THE CAPTAIN had uttered more than a handful of expletives to express his dissatisfaction, the translation of his communication to me and the flight engineer was, “You gotta be kidding!” His remark was a reaction to the fact we had just been advised over the company frequency that cargo loaded on board our brown-and-white Boeing 727-100 in Louisville, Kentucky (KSDF), had been destined for Jackson, Mississippi (KJAN). Unfortunately, our airplane had been flight planned for Jacksonville, Florida (KJAX). Yours truly had unknowingly crunched the provided weight-and-balance numbers for the wrong cargo using the infamous “whiz wheel.” Having never departed the UPS ramp, we shut down the three engines that had just been started. We waited for the just-out-of-college loading supervisor with the clipboard and stopwatch to climb up the…

UNLESS YOU ARE the civilian owner of an F-14, you cannot change the wingspan of your airplane. If you’re a manufacturer, however, you can, and the same privilege extends to that miniature of a manufacturer, the amateur builder. Extending span requires adding strength to the spar or finding unnoticed extra strength in an existing spar. Or you can just start over and build a new wing from scratch. Recent years have seen a general drift toward longer spans and higher aspect ratios. The Beechcraft Bonanza has a span of 33.5 feet and an aspect ratio of 6.2; the Cirrus SR22, which might be seen as today’s Bonanza, has a span of more than 38 feet and an aspect ratio of 10.1. The trend is generally toward greater aerodynamic efficiency, partly…