Inhaltsverzeichnis für May 2021 in Plane & Pilot

I’ll get this out of the way: The whole idea of a flying car is really dumb. I don’t say that because I’m some kind of Luddite. The opposite is true. I’m a longtime champion of new ideas and innovative aviation technologies. Here’s why I believe the very concept of a flying car is, at its very core, fatally flawed—and why there hasn’t been one for 70 years, and that one was a flop, largely because nobody wanted to buy it. It’s not a quirk of the marketplace. It’s because the very concept is unworkable, and the end product would be, if not a nightmare, then at least a near-useless conveyance, and pilots know it. I get it. The appeal to the mass market is obvious. “Jetsons” and space-themed visions…

Impress (And Confuse) Your Non-Pilot Friends Now you can turn your phone into the multifunction control display unit (MCDU) of an airliner—or at least what looks like one. At airportag.com, you can choose a smartphone case with the display printed in high resolution on its back. You can even customize the “message” displayed on the screen (we request you keep it clean, please). The knobs look like the 3D real thing and represent the control input keyboard of either an Airbus or a Boeing, your choice. On the practical side, the made-in-America product protects your phone from the usual risk of accidental everyday “turbulence.” Pilot friends will be amused. Non-pilot friends will wonder what the heck kind of a phone you have. Priced at $34.95. Available at airportag.com. Life Insurance…

On a clear, sunny afternoon over scenic hills outside San Diego, the paying passenger on an extreme aviation experience was having fun. After laughing and yelling through rolls, tumbles, tailslides, his expression suddenly changed. There was a problem. The pilot was going to open the canopy on the Extra 300 plane. Jumping out and using the parachute would be next. He saw the canopy locking pins move. The big plexiglass bubble blew away, taking with it the GoPro camera. Six seconds later, still strapped in, they impacted rugged terrain in a high-energy, unsurvivable crash. Twenty seconds after that, the GoPro landed, where it lay undiscovered for two years. Once recovered, the video helped the National Transportation Safety Board understand more of what happened on Oct. 21, 2017, over the El…

Since the return of postwar air racing in 1947, the unlimited division has been dominated by World War II fighters. However, many of these precious airframes have been lost to extreme modifications or accidents over the years. Enter Bob Pond, former Navy pilot and warbird collector, with a better idea. To save these increasingly scarce airframes, he commissioned an incredibly unique unlimited competitor, the Pond Racer. Bob’s two conditions were no conventional aircraft engines were to be used, along with warbird airframes. So, who do you turn to when you need to challenge conventional thinking? The Rutan brothers, of course! Dick Rutan, fresh off his history-making round-the-world flight, managed the project for Scaled Composites and served as chief test pilot, and brother Burt led the design team. The design itself…

Near-Midair Collisions Reported Each Year: Approximately 200 Actual Collisions: Between 15 and 25 Fatal: 70% Distance From Airport Most Occur: Within 5 miles Average Altitude: Less than 1,000 feet Typical Meteorological Conditions: VFC Most Common Time: 10 a.m.-5 p.m., weekends Percent Occurring Within Traffic Pattern: Around half During Takeoff/Climb: 10% At Non-Towered Airports: 78% Cases Involving No Radio Communication: About half Cases Involving A CFI: 37% Average Experience Of Pilots Involved: 5,000 flight hours Common Scenario: Low-wing converging on high-wing Less-Common: Formation flying, air-to-air photography Collision Avoidance Technique Pushed By FAA: “See and avoid” Critical Aspect: Traffic scanning Also Known As: Keeping head on a swivel Recommended Method: Block system scanning # of Blocks To Divide The Sky: 9-12 Size For Each Block: 10-15° horizontally, 10° vertically Minimum Area To…

Piper PA28 Wilmington, Delaware/Injuries: 1 Serious A witness reported seeing the pilot walking around his airplane while his son sat inside it. The witness then saw the pilot laying unresponsive on the ground in front of the engine. According to the police report, the pilot sustained a serious head wound, and blood spatter was observed on the propeller. The report also stated that, after the pilot was taken to the hospital, the power and fuel had to be turned off and that the airplane had to be tied down. PROBABLE CAUSE(S): The pilot being struck in the head by the propeller before flight, which resulted in a serious injury. Piper PA22-150 Tri-Pacer Girdwood, Alaska/Injuries: 4 Fatal The airline transport pilot was conducting a local flight with three passengers over an area…

If you’re like me—and I know I am—and you’ve been making a semblance of a living flying airplanes smaller than airliners for a while, you’re probably already familiar with the Cessna Caravan. Cessna’s model 208 has been around in one form or another for about 35 years, and it’s operated all over the world as one of the most trusted and talented, purpose-built utility airplanes ever produced. By general aviation standards, it’s a huge, boxy machine, and in this case, that’s a compliment, not an insult. Doors on both sides of the airplane make it possible to load whatever cargo needs to go on board, even with a forklift, if necessary. In its largest, most spacious configuration, the Caravan offers seating for up to 14, though the model is rarely…

Commercial and military pilots practice for inflight emergencies on a regular and frequent basis. The value of this training is threefold. First, it reinforces the procedures to be followed to ensure the pilot’s focus is in the right place. Second, it expands the pilot’s systems knowledge, which helps provide confidence during emergencies that do not neatly fit into the situations published in the emergency procedures. And finally, sitting in a Flight Training Device or cockpit, touching the actual switches, and seeing the indications provides real comfort as the pilot retraces previously learned emergency procedure steps with the aid of muscle memory. Most pilots have heard of the “blindfold cockpit check,” and this kind of emergency procedure training is a logical next step. So, let’s consider ways to increase our knowledge,…

For years, flying was bliss. I flew from a friend’s grass strip near Atlanta, and I was on the insurance for everything in the hangar. I could go somewhere in the Mooney that is now my Mooney. I could go nowhere in a Cub that remains a project. When the spirit moved me, which was often, I could dance across the sky in my choice of two Zlin 526 Akrobats. It really was a champagne life on a tap water budget, which is handy because tap water was about all I could swing back then. When I wrung out the Zlins, I had the solitude of an aerobatic box over a giant pine tree farm, and with no houses directly below, it was easy enough to imagine that it was…