Inhaltsverzeichnis für December 2021 in Flying

In two years, so much has changed—and tried its best to change us. I celebrated two years at the helm of this magazine in October, and those 24-plus months have proved the axiom: There is no constant but change. In November 2019, the National Business Aviation Association gathered its constituents together—members, exhibitors, sponsors and industry guests—for an upbeat, jet fueled congregation on the Las Vegas oasis. Blending turbine-powered airplanes, helicopters, avionics and a few piston platforms, there was only the merest inkling of what was to take center stage when the show returned in 2021. Advanced air mobility. Sustainability. Alternatively powered aircraft. An S-curve leap for the business aviation sector. This fall, the hall at the Las Vegas Convention Center—filled with companies from across the spectrum—vibrated with the joy of…

Perhaps it was a foregone conclusion that Gulfstream would fill in the blanks numerically in its lineup, from the large-cabin, midsize G280 to the nearly certificated ultralong-range G700. Flying was invited to a sneak preview of the new models in September at Gulfstream’s headquarters in Savannah, Georgia. The G400 The first of the two jets added to the roll-up, the G400, takes position between the G280 and the G500 and G600. “It’s a sweet spot in the customer base,” Gulfstream’s president Mark Burns said, with strong demand for an aircraft with a large, stand-up cabin that can cover 4,000 nm and cost about $35 million. In fact, the G400 is projected to range up to 4,200 nm at Mach 0.85 and 3,950 nm at Mach 0.88. Gulfstream will start building…

On a January afternoon in 2017, a sport pilot, 61, flew his amateur-built Buccaneer amphibian from the Orlando, Florida, area to Blue Springs State Park in Orange City to meet a friend and camp there beside the Suwanee River. The two-seat airplane, powered by a pylon-mounted 80 hp Rotax, had been built in 1992; the pilot had purchased it from the builder nine months prior. The pilot, who had not visited the area before, flew up and down the river for some time looking for his friend. When he located his friend—just arriving—he landed northward on a straight segment of the 100-yardwide river and tied up at a boat dock. Learning that his friend was about to go downstream on a paddleboard to hunt for a dog’s life jacket that…

Taking Wing FLYING Opinion One of my grand theories of life, aviation and everything, of which I have quite a few—most in some stage of refinement or rejection, few of which I believe enough to commit to paper—is that there are speed people and there are altitude people. Aviation is the rare fellowship that features both, but for different reasons. Speed people enjoy action, competition, noise, crowds, and the pulse-pounding adrenaline rush of takeoff. Altitude people prefer peaceful quietude, thinking and reading, small gatherings of close friends, and the magical change of perspective that takeoff brings. In childhood, speed people were inching off first base, looking for the first twitch of the pitcher’s windup so they could take off and steal second. Altitude people were in right field wondering what…

If there was a legitimate explanation for flying my family of five at night from Hartford (KBDL), Connecticut, to Teterboro (KTEB), New Jersey, in a Cessna 210, I can’t for the life of me tell you what it was. Though vaguely aware that the twinkling lights of Connecticut cities and towns had somehow disappeared, this pilot carried on, unconcerned. What I do remember clearly is watching the airspeed indicator drop to zero, seemingly in slow motion. A handy flashlight silhouetted a nice ice ball on the underwing pitot tube. We were in cloud and in icing. Oh, yes, I forgot—and I turned on the pitot heat. This was a case of more than forgetfulness; this was stupid. This was not my first error of omission, and I would forget the…

December 2021 Charlie I just finished Dan Pimentel’s story about Geraldine “Jerrie” Mock and 38 Charlie [“In Depth: Charlie,” November], and am thrilled that this story is finally seeing the light of day. Dan and I crossed paths roughly 10 years ago when I was the director of operations for an aircraft-management company in Statesville, North Carolina. At the time we met, I’d just returned from a trip to Washington, D.C., where I had spent several days strolling the vast complex of the Udvar-Hazy Center of the National Air and Space Museum. While there, I had stumbled across 38 Charlie and the untold story of its historic flight. I had not yet located a copy of the original printing of the book, and somehow during Dan’s and my conversation, [he]…

I.L.A.F.F.T. I learned about flying from that NO.965 Oh, those early flying years—making no money but flying for a living. I had my first job after graduating college as a flight instructor in Indianapolis. I was married to a registered nurse who could support us, and I could go flying every day. It was a beautiful Indiana winter morning in 1973. One of my instrument students owned his own aircraft, a Cessna 210, and was letting me borrow it for fuel to take a quick two-day vacation to Disney World in Florida. We’d been married for not quite two years, with no children yet—three to come later—and we invited our chief of maintenance, Jerry, his wife and their two small children to go with us. All six of us packed…

A pilot I know occasionally tells the story of his brief checkout in a Piper Navajo to illustrate how far aviation training has come. This flight occurred during the prehistoric era of general aviation—the early 1980s—when transitioning to a new airplane often meant nothing more than grabbing the keys and reading the POH during the run-up. The pilot wanted more than that, so he went flying with the Navajo’s owner. After a normal takeoff and a left turn to enter downwind, the owner pulled back the mixture on the right engine, shutting it down completely. His plan was simple: If you can land it, you’re checked out. It’s a great story, but for all the appeal of “the good old days,” this is a terrible way to handle checkouts. New…

The two machines pictured below do not conform to the rules of economy of scale. Both are made by hand to some degree, and are done so to exacting tolerances in small numbers by dedicated craftsmen. Both have horizontally opposed six-cylinder engines. Both require a certain level of mastery to fully extract their potential. Both attract the mechanically zealous. Both fly. We are currently experiencing a profound loss of craft in our world. As a society, we consume and we replace. We do not repair. There is no incentive to do so when goods are cheap. Efficiency has come to eclipse all other manufacturing qualities—most notably, quality. In this booming consumer culture, the individual artisan has been sidelined. There have always been exceptions, but they demand a higher price tag…

A year ago, I wrote an article about the 1937 disappearance of Amelia Earhart. In it, I mentioned—along with some general cautionary observations about range—the suggestion of a California Institute of Technology professor and a graduate student that the range of Earhart’s twinengine Lockheed Electra 10 was less than is generally assumed. This mattered because much of the theorizing about what became of the famous aviator and her navigator, Fred Noonan, depended on their airplane’s ability to fly several hours past Howland Island, the microscopic excrescence of coral on which they intended to refuel before continuing to Honolulu. My article drew a testy reply from Ric Gillespie, who has probably devoted more time to this subject than anyone else on Earth. His basic complaint was that my comments about the…

Dropping off a passenger to visit the new riverboat casino at the Lake of the Ozarks? Hanging out on one of the biggest lake destinations in the middle of the country for a week? Or just needing a good fuel stop as you pass through—you might find yourself landing at Lee C. Fine Memorial Airport at the Lake of the Ozarks, Missouri. It’s a purpose-built airport meant to handle larger aircraft than the two other airports a little closer to town that have maximum runway lengths of 2,800 feet and 3,200 feet, respectively. Lee C. Fine Memorial Airport boasts a runway length of 6,500 feet and is served by a LOC/DME approach to Runway 22. A Localizer, Not Glideslope A localizer DME approach, this particular approach does not offer a…

In the September 1997 issue of Flying, we took a look at the “basic airplane at an affordable price,” and little has changed in the intervening 24-plus years. The 180-hp, tricycle-gear Maule Comet elicited kind words from former editor-in-chief Richard L. Collins, who picked that model out of the lineup in part for its similarities to another favorite of his, the Piper Tri-Pacer, but “with better lines.” “All the tricycle Maules (160, 180, and 235 hp) have the aluminum leaf gear and all have the same size tires on all three wheels. That does give the airplane the appearance of a puppy with big feet, but it also enhances the rugged nature of the airplane.” “The Maule seems to have superior low-speed handling qualities,” said Collins. “I did a stall,…

Everything hurts. I’m not going to open my eyes. Oh, hell. Bladder warning. Reality check. I’m going to have to move. Eyes open, I’m assaulted by the day-glo orange of the hyperlight tent I’m lying inside. There’s a bucolic moment where I hear birdsong—and then something else. The rapid beating of blades on air. A helicopter: big, inbound. Where was that helicopter pad staked out? The dome of the tent starts to move. Crap. Did I even tie down this thing when we crawled inside it last night? I know I tied down the airplane. I look over at my sleeping partner, who is snoring away in his sleeping bag. He’s heavy enough; we’re not going anywhere. Ugh. I heave myself to a sitting position and pull on my shorts.…

We stand as an industry at an inflection point: where the traditional meets the new. Above, a modern airplane—the Pipistrel Virus—flew in to spectate at a competition that taps into demanding skills that are evergreen to pilots in the realm of the short-field takeoff and landing. While backcountry pilots might turn their heads to witness such a futuristic bird landing on a remote perch in the wilderness, at this year’s High Sierra Fly-In, this composite light-sport aircraft flew onto a dry lake bed in Nevada with classic mountain-flying aircraft and held its own. At Flying, we’ll continue to showcase this tradition of pilots testing and improving their skills—while leveraging advancing technology.…