Table of contents for January 2017 in Flying

The first person to pilot an airplane was Otto Lilienthal, who made 2,000 gliding flights in Germany during the closing decade of the 19th century. His airplanes were what we would call hang gliders today. They did not have control surfaces. Instead, to raise the leading edge of the wing to slow down, the pilot would shift his body backward; to bank to the right, he would shift his body to the right; and so on. Aircraft that are flown this way are called weight-shift-control (WSC) types, and they are common in the sport-flying world. Besides hang gliders, there are powered models, many of them with two seats in intimate tandem. The “carriage,” typically a tubular frame with a composite fairing, dangles from a wing consisting of a light fabric…

The criteria we use to select our annual Editors’ Choice award winners are fairly simple: We look for the best products, technologies, ideas and innovations that emerged in the preceding year. Once we’ve separated the merely good from the great, we cull our list even further, debating why some contenders should make the final cut and others should not. The judging is wideopen as far as what can make the list. One year it might be a cool new LSA and a game-changing noise-canceling headset, the next an amazing aviation app and a charitable organization doing exceptional work. What matters most is that the winners represent the year’s most innovative and noteworthy achievements in general aviation.We’ve selected six winners — three airplanes and three avionics products — each of them…

We need to find you a husband.” These words resounded in my consciousness for several days last summer. They were uttered, or maybe muttered, by my good friend Phil to my wife, Cathy. He meant this sentiment to be supportive of Cathy’s indulgence of my flying habit. You see, my CJ3 trips at JetSuite meant I was away for four or five nights at a crack — sometimes nine nights in a row. For three consecutive Thanksgiving dinners, Cathy had dined at Phil and Joyce’s home without me. This flying addiction had a powerful grip on me. And Cathy did her best to be supportive. So did JetSuite, which arranged for me to go “part time,” meaning I could fly a minimum of 10 days a month. Everybody had pitched…

Aerobatic helicopter pilot Chuck Aaron (right) flew Sal Valentinetti, the 21-yearold America’s Got Talent finalist — who some say has a smoother and silkier voice than Michael Bublé’s — to our 007-themed party at the Flying Aviation Expo in Palm Springs, California, in October. The helicopter, Aaron’s modified MBB Bo 105, is the one that wowed audiences in the 2015 James Bond flick, Spectre. Visit flyingmag.com/aviationexpo2016 for our full photo and video gallery.…

ELECTRONIC TURN AND SLIP INDICATOR Although it’s currently available only for Experimental aircraft, Belite Aircraft’s intriguing new electronic turn and slip indicator could be destined for broader acceptance in Part 23 airplanes thanks to the FAA’s relaxation of certification requirements for certain equipment. TheWichita, Kansas, maker of ultralight aircraft has introduced a line of digital instruments designed as longer-life alternatives to traditional flight instruments. Belite’s turn coordinator, driven by a solid-state gyro, is as thick as a quarter and weighs less than 2 ounces. It fits into a standard 2.25-inch panel cutout and offers a high-contrast LCD screen. The price? About $300. DIGITAL ALTIMETER Belite’s electronic altimeter probably isn’t coming to the Part 23 market anytime soon, but it’s still worth a closer look. The digital unit provides altitude, VSI,…

January 15, 2009, was a blustery, steel-cold day in the Northeast; I remember it well. I was on a long Newark layover and had taken my crew to Manhattan. We were standing in line for the Staten Island ferry when I noticed a half-dozen news helicopters hovering in place over New York Harbor. Then several Port Authority boats came roaring out of the East River, made a hard right at Battery Park, and disappeared up the Hudson. As we boarded the ferry, I overheard a woman say that an airliner had crashed into the river. But soon came the glorious, improbable news that the jet was still fully intact and floating serenely down toward us, the passengers standing on the wings. February 13, 2009: not even a month later, and…

As an airline pilot, I was anxious to watch Sully. Finally, I could attend an aviation movie without my wife having to bear witness to eyerolling and corrective commentary. Most likely, as a Flying reader, you have already seen the film; if you haven’t, consider this a spoiler alert. Regardless, I thought it would be more interesting to provide insight into the realities of US Airways Flight 1549 than to offer a critique. I was afforded the opportunity for this insight via a conversation with Flight 1549 copilot Jeffrey Skiles. In addition, I felt it important to consider the movie’s potential effect on my profession and the flying public. Overall, I was pleased that Sully was a mostly accurate portrayal of our business. It’s difficult to create a cinematic dud…

After a fitful production start for the A5 light-sport aircraft, Icon Aircraft has regrouped. The company has built a composite factory in Mexico to “improve and control the manufacturing process while simultaneously reducing cost,” says Icon’s founder and CEO, Kirk Hawkins. While the new Tijuana-based composite shop is getting up and running, Icon has opened two training facilities for its A5 amphibian — one at its headquarters in Vacaville, California, and one in downtown Tampa, Florida. A third facility is expected to open soon at an undisclosed location in Texas. Icon has taken a lot of flack in the past 10 months for a restrictive sales contract that angered some buyers, and for reserving all of the early production airplanes for its flight- training program. But there is a solid…

A letter arrived today from Cincinnati’s Xavier University with the preposterous claim that I graduated from that institution 50 years ago. Maybe some reunion event is in the works, because the letter requests that I complete the enclosed questionnaire to be included in a “memory book.” This was no fill-in-the-blank thing about your marital and professional status, but a bunch of essay questions encouraging reunionites (I made that word up — and I was an English major) to wax eloquent about “What in the hell have you accomplished, if anything, in the past half-century?” What should I do? I can’t tell about the really fun stuff, and there’s not enough room, plus I’m too embarrassed to catalog the screw-ups and failures. Anyway, I didn’t even attend Xavier University; the name…

In addition to being an active pilot all his life, 1964 presidential candidate Barry Goldwater was garrulous, prolix and also very talkative. In 1989 I interviewed Barry Goldwater, the former Arizona senator famously trounced by Lyndon Johnson in the 1964 presidential election. Goldwater held many opinions that would scandalize Republicans today: He supported gays in the military, socialized medicine, reduced military spending and a guaranteed minimum income for all Americans. Goldwater was a lifelong pilot and a lover of aviation. He also liked to talk. He was the man for whom they coined the expression “Ready, fire, aim!” “I went out in 1928 or ’29 and I started taking flying lessons for $10 an hour, and when I had 10 hours, I soloed, and so it cost me a hundred…