Índex per September 2017 a Flying

I used to be a lineboy at an FBO at Teterboro Airport in New Jersey called First Aviation. That was back when the operation was based at the northeast corner of the airport and, parenthetically, leased office space to a then-new company called NetJets. Let me start by admitting I was a lousy lineboy. Why would anyone let me, at 18, tow multimillion-dollar jets around a crowded airport ramp? Sure, somebody also let me solo a Piper Cub at 16, but c’mon, that’s different. The first time I towed a Learjet I forgot to remove the nosewheel chock. For the life of me I couldn’t understand why the airplane wouldn’t budge, so I gunned the tug’s engine and watched with surprise as the Lear’s nose rose up and clear over…

Accident Analysis In July 2016, a Cessna 150F taking off from a grass strip in Indiana failed to climb, struck trees and crashed, killing both occupants. A single witness, himself a pilot, who was operating a mower, observed parts of the takeoff. He reported that the Cessna had become airborne at midfield, which was normal, and that when it crossed the departure end it was flying at a high angle of attack. He did not expect the airplane to have any trouble clearing the tall trees 1,100 feet from the end of the runway, however, and turned away. When he later saw smoke rising from the woods, he assumed the property owner was burning something, and it did not occur to him there had been an accident until he heard…

When the clock chimed 12 in the early morning hours of August 1, 2013, job-search strategies for pilots in the United States took a hard right turn. That’s the infamous date when the FAA’s National Order 8900.225 took effect, requiring all Part 121 pilots to possess an ATP certificate, including first officers. That meant every pilot needed a minimum of 1,500 hours in their logbook. Obtaining an ATP also became harder, with new and costly training requirements. Prior to the summer of 2013, new pilots with as little as 300 to 400 hours were receiving class dates at regional airlines and the minimum time required was just 250 hours. With exceptions to the 1,500-hour limit only being handed out to accredited university graduates and former military members — who can…

FLYING Opinion I graduated from college in 1965. The Vietnam War was in full swing, and any able-bodied male who was not being educated was being drafted. I could have gone to graduate school, but instead decided to take my chances. I moved in with a couple of old friends in Palo Alto, California. Having a fancy B.A. in English, I went to an unprepossessing flight school at the Oakland Airport and got work as a lineboy in exchange for commerciallicense instruction and a pittance suitable only for a breatharian. The school was run by a fellow named Bob Short. I recall him as a tall, lanky guy with a mustache. But that isn’t how he really looked. The reason I know that’s not how he looked is there’s a…

AVIATION TECHNOLOGY MADE SIMPLE Precision flying demands a pilot honing the ability to finely tune their inputs to the ailerons, elevators and rudder, tasks autopilots have proven they can handle better than humans. Of course, precision flying wouldn’t exist if not also for a gentle hand on the throttles. Auto-throttles, the next logical step in cockpit automation, make short work of this chore. Think of auto-throttles like a cruise control for airplanes, automation that frees the pilot to focus on more pressing tasks, especially if he or she is the only person aboard. Auto-throttles, long standard on jets, have now made their way to a variety of turboprops. This automated speed control is typically engaged as the flying pilot completes the lineup checks on the runway prior to brake release.…

FLYING Opinion I don’t know about you, but I sure love being proved right. Lord knows it happens rarely enough at home, so I have to look for small victories elsewhere. As it so happens, writing a monthly column for a widely read aviation magazine makes for a potentially rich vein of retrospective sagacity. Thus I was recently perusing a few of my early Taking Wing columns when I came across this gem from March 2014: “What Shortage? It’s Kinda, Sorta, Maybe Here.” Despite the blithely noncommittal title, I drew a few strong conclusions about the nascent pilot shortage in that piece that have, quite happily, since been borne out by industry developments. OK, perhaps my humble little article wasn’t quite a Nostradamus-level piece of bold prognostication. Given the easily…

FLYING Opinion On a cold night in early spring, I took off from Lunken Airport in 72B, my beloved (I think) Cessna 180. I came back to climb power at 500 feet agl and the engine began running rough, missing and losing power — which sort of caught my attention. So, I pulled on the carburetor heat and, since the engine was making power, turned back toward the airport. But then it smoothed out, which was odd because I’d checked the heat just before takeoff ; the air was very dry, and this airplane rarely gets carb ice, even in “juicy” conditions. But from then on, it happened on every flight, regardless of temperature and weather, always “fixable” by applying carb heat. The EGT in the number 2 cylinder was…

Professional aviation photographer Mariano Rosales, who is also a full-time air traffic controller and passionate aviator, captured this image of his Cessna 170 at Havana Regional Airport in Illinois during EAA Chapter 1420’s stargazing campout in July. “For my 7-year-old daughter and me this was a night of firsts,” Mariano told us. “This was the first time we were able to camp under the wing of my 170B, and it was the first time she was able to explore the night sky and look at distant planets and nebulae through high-power telescopes.” To see more of Rosales’ exceptional aviation imagery, visit his photography website at 12oclocklevel.com.…

THE BEST OF WHAT’S NEW COOL I PAD CASE How cool is this? X-Naut has introduced an iPad cooling case powered by eight AA batteries that drive fans directed at the device’s main hot spots. The product solves a potentially big problem and one of the primary drawbacks of the iPad, which is that it will shut down without warning if it overheats. That can spell trouble for a pilot flying in hard IMC while shooting an instrument approach. X-Naut designed two easy-access doors for the battery compartments that let you quickly swap in fresh AAs when needed. Two versions are offered, one for the iPad Air and one for the iPad mini. The company lists all compatible iPad models on its website, x-naut.com. The iPad mini version sells for…

The RNAV GPS Z approach to Runway 3 at Santa Monica is so new (April 2017), many pilots might not yet even be aware of its existence. (Two additional approaches to SMO were commissioned at the same time.) This new approach comes with a handful of restrictions, many of which are significant enough to demand a pilot closely scrutinize the approach plate before the first attempt. Expect speed, climb, approach minimums and time-of-day restrictions, just for starters. It’s also an LP, not an LPV, approach, which translates into a more traditional non-precision-approach procedure. It’s worth noting the prevailing winds are coming from the west, putting the airplane in a tailwind at the completion of the approach. FOR THE INTERACTIVE VERSION OF CHART WISE, VISIT FLYINGMAG.COM/CHARTWISE…

FLYING Opinion “Making power … airspeed alive … 80 knots … V1 … rotate … positive rate.” Martha, as pilot monitoring, was making the call-outs for my first takeoff in our old Falcon 10 in more than a year. And the take off wasn’t pretty. When it’s lightly loaded, the Falcon 10 takes off like a scalded cat. Early Lear and Falcon 10 pilots used to tape a $100 bill to the cockpit floor between the two pilots and tell passengers in back they could have the cash if they could get to it before the airplane reached 10,000 feet. The money was safe. “Speed check. You need to pitch up more. We’re getting too fast to raise the gear.” The initial target pitch-up on rotation for takeoff for this…

Ask most young pilots their ideal employer and nine times out of 10 they’ll answer flying for one of the major airlines, primarily because the airlines spend enormous amounts of money on branding and they usually get to fly the largest aircraft. They also pay pretty well. Business aviation, on the other hand, prefers a low profile for corporate privacy. So low is their visibility, in fact, many new aviators may have never heard of such a thing as corporate flying. But a segment where you can fly $50 million jets all across the globe deserves a close look. Business aviation, sometimes referred to as private or corporate aviation, is the airborne transportation system used by hundreds of Fortune 500 companies to speed senior executives, midlevel employees and customers to…

FLYING Opinion Walking into the FBO in Charlottesville, Virginia, I hear, “I don’t like your stuff. I used to like you, but I don’t anymore. You are drinking way too much Kool-Aid.” I am a little taken aback by this tirade. I look up to see a NetJets captain. “You make this sound way better than it is,” he tells me. In retrospect, he may have had a point. At the time, I was a giddy new first officer in the Part 135 charter world. I had been hired by a company with the right vibe and the right ingredients; it had good airplanes, good maintenance, a cool callsign and, most important, a schedule. I’d been breathlessly recounting my initial experiences in these pages with pride and a sense of…