Tabla de contenidos para December 2020 en Plane & Pilot

If you’re an airplane owner, you know the feeling. Every year at annual inspection time, you experience repetitive stress syndrome in your index and middle fingers while you wait, fingers crossed hard, for the call from the shop on “the damages.” For those of you who own, or have owned, an airplane, the reason for this level of anxiety is obvious. The cost of an annual is, well, whatever it winds up being. When my 182 went into the shop for its one and only annual inspection while I owned it, I hoped for something $2,500-ish. Multiply it by three, and you get what the six-week exercise actually cost. Add in a dozen or more phone calls, the same number of emails (most unanswered), a couple of, “We’re gonna take…

RANS S-12 Airaile Hillrose, Colorado/Injuries: 2 Serious The noncertificated pilot reported that, during a local flight, he noticed an area of smoke and fire near his property. The pilot descended the airplane to about 20 ft above ground level to see what was burning, which diverted his attention from flying. The pilot “immediately” pulled up to avoid power lines, but the airplane struck the lines. The airplane then impacted the ground and came to rest inverted, which resulted in substantial damage to the wings and empennage. The pilot reported that there were no preaccident mechanical malfunctions or failures of the airplane that would have precluded normal operation. PROBABLE CAUSE(S): The noncertificated pilot’s diverted attention while looking at a fire during low-altitude flying, which resulted in a collision with power lines. Let…

You’d think that a 65-year-old airline transport pilot with an estimated 5,671 hours of flying time would have learned that airplane engines won’t run without fuel. Based on what NTSB investigators reported about that particular ATP-rated pilot, he most certainly did know that basic fact of life and also appreciated the importance of making sure there was enough fuel onboard and tracking its usage. Nevertheless, the Beech 58 Baron he was flying ran out of fuel and crashed in Kerrville, Texas, on April 22, 2019, killing all six on board. The airplane was manufactured in 1999. It had six seats and retractable landing gear. It was powered by two Continental IO-550-C engines, each rated at 300 horsepower. The airplane’s maximum gross weight was 5,500 pounds, and it had undergone an…

Twenty years before the first Cessna Citation entered service in 1972, the Cessna Aircraft Company explored the market for a business aircraft designed to carry eight to 10 executives high above the weather in air-conditioned and pressurized comfort. Responding to a survey from the then-fledgling National Business Aircraft Association, the company decided that the time was right for a four-engine mini airliner, one part light twin, and one part DC-6 clone. Given the green light by company management in 1953, the first and only prototype entered flight testing in 1956 and was by all counts an excellent aircraft. The moniker “620” was not by accident, as can be seen in the engine nacelles that mimic the early Cessna 310. However, the 620 boasted a large, comfortable and pressurized cabin, an…

“When I am flying in Florida, I pretty much try to stay above 10,000 feet MSL until I absolutely need to land somewhere,” a friend once told me. He went on to say why. “There are so many people training down here who are so focused on their training that they don’t have a chance of seeing me flying through. It’s how I increase my odds of staying alive,” he finished. I get it. In some places, there are quite literally hundreds of aircraft in the air on good-weather days within a 20-30 mile radius of some of the busiest homes of flight training providers—and not all of these hubs are in Florida, I should add. Regardless of location, this many aircraft in a small area pose risks for them…

The No. 1 cause of general aviation aircraft landing on highways and farm fields, rather than the intended airport, is fuel mismanagement and exhaustion. When done well, this off-airport landing is often followed by the obligatory interview on the local news at 10, explaining why you landed on that highway just a wee bit short of the local airport! On the other hand, military and professional pilots, who often have significantly lower fuel-endurance margins to work with, have a much better record. We rarely, if ever, hear of a jet aircraft running out of fuel inflight. How do they do this? One answer is the military concept of “bingo fuel,” or personal fuel minimums. Simply put, military jet pilots calculate a fuel at which they will return to base for…

In seeming contradiction of the assertion that midairs are more likely during periods of low visibility, my closest brush with a midair occurred during a bright, shiny day in Long, Beach, California. I had just completed an air-to-air photo session in an Aerostar 700 and was headed back to the airport after two hours snuggled up to a 36 Bonanza photo ship with the right rear side door removed. I turned inbound on the 45-degree entry leg with the airport in sight and no known traffic. Directly below me was downtown Long Beach, and the once-productive oil wells of Signal Hill were just ahead. I extended the gear to help slow the slick Aerostar and eased the nose over just a little to bleed away some altitude. At the same…

SPOT Gen4 Whether you’re flying in the backwoods or driving through a remote area with no cell coverage, the SPOT Gen4 is a tool you’ll be glad you have on hand in case of an emergency. The GPS messenger uses the Globalstar satellite network to track your movements, notify friends and family of your location and coordinate an emergency response if something goes awry. Thanks to the unit’s motion-activated tracking technology, users can set up a vibration sensor to prompt the SPOT to start location monitoring as soon as they start moving. Users can send their GPS coordinates from a waypoint to up to 10 people via email or text, and they can also refer back to those waypoints at a later time. In the case of a serious emergency,…

When all is said and done, the year 2020 will go down in history as the worst, for reasons you all know too well, some of which might not have happened yet as of this writing. At the same time, 2020 has been a remarkable year for aviation, both in good ways and bad. We’ll look at the good things that got done in our aviation world, of which there is no shortage. Enjoy. PILOT FIRST RESPONDERS The United States, facing two huge challenges—the coronavirus pandemic and a spate of devastating natural disasters, fires, floods and hurricanes—needed pilots to step up, and we did. From pilots risking their lives flying medical relief flights to firebomber pilots, well, risking their lives in an even more dramatic way, to the flight and…

At half-past midnight, we swept the power to idle and let the landing gear settle onto the 11,700-foot runway in Aguadilla, Puerto Rico. The landing was so-so. When on the backside of the clock, sometimes our finesse wears a little thin. Pulling the thrust levers well into the reverse range and braking moderately, we hoped to avoid a long taxi back to the gate. Aguadilla’s runway, while long, lacks turnoffs—if you don’t clear the runway at midfield, you’re going all the way to the end to turn off. It had been a long night coming down the L-route from New York, and we were all too happy to call it a day. Above the din of the spooled engines and rattling noises of slowing under heavy reverse, an odd sound…