Sommaire pour October 2021 de Flying

As a lover of airplanes, I’m rather broad in my tastes. I’ve always been quick to find the better points in whatever I’m flying at the time because, hey, I’m flying—and that’s the main point. Some aircraft flash past, full of speed, vigor and style. Others seem content to work hard in the quotidian, building their place in a pilot’s affections load by load, mile by comfortable mile. That could be the story of the Piper Cherokee Six, which we first covered in July 1965, shortly after its debut—but it wasn’t a cover story that month. We reserved that honor for the Beech 18. Through the years, we’d give top billing to its derivatives, though—the retractable Lance, the high-performance Saratoga, the re-imagined 6X on a budget—but never the progenitor of…

A Aviator is additive to the current FlightAware app and can be used with multiple aircraft. B The app unlocks premium weather data, map layers, surface visualization, FBO scheduling and ETAs that can be sent to anyone during various phases of flight. c A flight intenth details t e route you plan to fly and when, mimicking a flight plan. d The app beginss tracking a soonas the engine starts, using ADS-B data. E Creating a flighte alert b fore takeoff triggers a notificationh t at will be sent to anyone chosen by the user. FlightAware operates the world’s largest flight-tracking and -data platform through a network of more than 32,000 of its own ADS-B receivers combined with ATC radar data. Aviator is a new add-on option for traditional users who operate…

It was 2001, and an IFR-approved panel-mounted GPS had just been installed in my airplane, a Cessna 180. I was anxious to see it in action with its moving map, multitude of functions, and the information it provided. A short 20-minute flight to a nearby airport for breakfast with a friend and some hands-on use of the new equipment was in order. The weather at the breakfast airport that morning was not VFR because there was a low marine stratus layer. The AWOS reported instrument conditions, with a 300-foot overcast but reasonable visibility of 4 miles below the cloud deck. Because I pride myself by staying instrument-current, this would help me stay that way. The airport is served by an ILS (with 200-foot and half-mile minimums), and the local approach…

I’ve been an avid Flying reader for nearly 30 years, starting when I was 10 years old and initially interested in the new aviation photography each month (there was no YouTube then). When I started flight training several years later, and could better relate to the articles, I was immediately drawn to the stories submitted by pilots in the I Learned about Flying from That series. These real-life accounts provided the opportunity to armchair-fly with other pilots who experienced actual emergencies, and to learn about the series of events that led to the problem and how they recovered. One of the big takeaways when reading or listening to these scenarios is that no one gets up in the morning and plans to get into a dicey situation just so they can…

It’s 5 a.m. and my eyes are open. I tap the screen of my phone, strategically poised on my nightstand and ready to wake me in 15 minutes. I don’t need its alarm. I know today is the day I have planned to actually go somewhere in my airplane. I fueled, preflighted and loaded the RV-10 last night before sunset, making sure I tucked a couple of extra quarts of oil, the toolkit and a spare part or two (ever try to get an alternator in rural Idaho?) in with the two gallons of water, sleeping bags, back-packing tent, and first-aid/emergency kit. Everything has its place, ensuring proper weight and balance, all cargo secured, so no jostling in turbulence. Our soft-sided duffels seem diminutive compared to the “insurance” equipment we…

In July, I acquired Flying magazine from Bonnier Corp. Having the chance to own the iconic aviation media brand is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. I started flying airplanes when I was 13 years old. I stopped during college. I don’t have a great excuse for why, except I was busy being a college student and then chasing a career. Earlier this year, at age 42 and after a 20-plus-year hiatus from flying, I decided to get back into the cockpit. I had always wanted to take flying back up, but I never made it a priority. Like working out, getting back into flying requires a lot of initial effort and stress before your body and mind have regained the muscle memory. I live in the mountains of east Tennessee with a view…

Grand Island, Nebraska (KGRI), offers two good-size runways and a variety of approaches that pilots can use to make a fuel stop as they traverse the country. Known for quick turns on fueling and competitive prices, this common stopping point also happens to offer up the potential to fly an approach dreaded by many pilots, a “back-course” approach not often seen these days. In this case, the approach is a “LOC DME BACK CRS” to Runway 17. A What is a back course again? A back-course approach isn’t the most common approach out there, but they may be the best option when winds favor a runway served by such an approach. A pilot references signals from the opposite side of a localizer antenna, and thus, the depicted deviation from a…

It was a beautiful morning at the beginning of June, and as we leveled off at our cruise altitude of FL 340 and settled in for the four-hour flight, it had every appearance of being a nice, easy day flying the line. We had only two legs, from New York’s John F. Kennedy International Airport to Cancun, Mexico, and back. The weather was good on both ends and most points en route. The late-model Boeing B737-900ER had no write-ups or maintenance carryovers. Our crew of veteran flight attendants were pleasant and professional. I’d flown several prior trips with the first officer, Ryan, and we got along and worked well together. I sighed contentedly and slightly reclined my seat, gazing out over the Chesapeake Bay sliding under my side window. Ding!…

Rocco is a rescue dog. Rocco has had “issues.” 323 Charlie Mike was a Beechcraft/Raytheon Premier I. It had “issues.” The more you think about it, the more buying a used airplane has in common with getting a rescue dog. Somebody, somewhere was making this dog or that airplane available for a reason. Maybe the cost was too much; maybe they upgraded to a better model; maybe they decided to get out altogether. No matter how diligent the pre-buy inspection, you’re getting a bird that’s been turned back in for rescue. Even renting an airplane is akin to a rescue exercise—who knows where that dog has been? Here are the tales (tails) of three dogs and three airplanes. All had a budget; you will see how they spent their allowance. Ubu…

Is it worth the extra weight to fill up with cheap avgas if you aren’t going to use it right away? The fuel capacity of most piston-engine airplanes is 10 to 15 percent of their gross weight. Their lift-related, or “ induced,” drag—which is the part of the drag that would be affected by added weight—is also, for unrelated reasons, only 10 to 15 percent of their total drag at cruising speed. The effect of extra weight on speed and fuel consumption is the product of the two fractions, and it is quite small, just a couple of percent. But weight has a big influence on climb rate, so under some circumstances—high density altitude, short runway, rising terrain—the weight of extra fuel can be hazardous. Airplanes with high wing loadings…

In January 2019, an Oregon pilot, 63, failed to return home when his wife expected him. He was, however, in the habit of disappearing in his airplane for a couple of days to “decompress,” and in any case, he had been talking about flying down to Arizona to visit some friends, so his absence did not alarm her. She sent him several text messages, but he did not respond. After a couple of days without word, his wife became concerned. She called the friends in Arizona and learned her husband was not there. She went to the Troutdale Airport in Oregon, where his Rockwell Commander 112 was based, and found her husband’s truck—but not the airplane. His briefcase was in the truck, so she guessed that if he had gone…

My MacBook Pro’s keyboard broke a week before going to Oshkosh, Wisconsin, and I was forced to leave home without it. Not to worry. I pulled out my iPad and never skipped a beat. Every screenplay right there and ready for me to continue work on; every AirVenture event in the calendar. Text, email, photos and social media all work seamlessly on iOS. Everything migrates perfectly, plays well together, and is accessible at all times from all devices. Even a flight I booked online but had not entered into my calendar was sitting there waiting for approval. I still don’t know how it does that. I also don’t care—so long as it works. Apple occupies a space in my life in a way that I never expected a corporation to…

Pilots regularly toppled a nd replaced milestones of altitude, speed and distance during the early years of aviation, particularly during the period between the two world wars. Their flights were widely publicized. Distance especially spoke to the public imagination, perhaps because it was the aspect of air travel that presented the most intuitively accessible contrasts with the pre-aviation world. Cash prizes—big ones—were offered and won for crossing the Atlantic or flying nonstop from New York to Paris or from London to Sydney, and newspapers lavished headlines on every attempt. Besides prize money, there was always the motive of acquiring at least temporary fame, and besides that, there was the lure of faraway places with strange-sounding names. At first, the technical challenge of long-distance flying boiled down to the reliability of…