Table of contents for September 2024 in Flying

THERE HAS ALWAYS been plenty of chatter concerning OEM service documents, specifically whether compliance is optional or mandatory. Are service documents mandatory? No. Are they a good idea to implement? It depends, but for the most part, yes, and you’ll soon discover why. Corrosion comes in all shapes and sizes. It is a natural process in which metals deteriorate due to chemical reactions with environmental elements, such as oxygen, moisture, and pollutants. In aviation, corrosion can manifest in various forms, including surface, pitting, intergranular, and stress corrosion cracking. Each type poses significant risks, potentially weakening the structural integrity of the aircraft and leading to safety hazards. We’ve recently seen how corrosion affects wing spars like with the Piper PA-28 and Cessna 177 and 210, for example. These started as Service…

“HOW DO WE GET DOWN?” “Bring the power to idle, and gravity will do the rest.” I have used this line before. I assure the learners that in my 30-plus years of flying and 20-plus of instructing I have never had an airplane stay stuck up there. Jokes aside, one of the first things I demonstrate to learners is that bringing the power to idle will not make the aircraft fall out of the sky like a brick. If you pitch for best glide and trim the aircraft to hold it, you will get the most time from the altitude you have and eventually reach land. To demonstrate this, we take the aircraft up to a specific altitude (I like to have at least 2,500 feet to play with before…

FEW NAMES RESONATE with the same level of respect and admiration in the aviation community as Patty Wagstaff. With a career spanning over four decades, Wagstaff has not only made her mark as one of the premier aerobatic pilots in the world but also dedicated herself to the critical mission of aviation safety and the education of budding aviators. Wagstaff’s journey into aviation began in the late 1970s. She earned her private certificate in 1980, and it wasn’t long before her skill and passion for precise flying led her to aerobatics. Known for her flair and daring spirit, she has captured the hearts of aviation enthusiasts and peers alike. Her breathtaking performances at airshows and her role as a key figure in the aerobatic community have earned her numerous accolades,…

Palm Springs, California, is one of those cities that, despite its fame and history within popular culture, is not quite as high on travelers’ must-visit lists as it should be. Perhaps it is because so many associate the place with old Hollywood of the 1930s, a period when Palm Springs became a popular getaway for celebrities seeking privacy. Or is it the connection with Frank Sinatra, Sammy Davis Jr., and the rest of the hard-partying “Rat Pack” of the early 1960s, and that group’s now-quaint-and-cringy exploits? Either way, those who consider it simply an archaeological site for mid-century modern aficionados are missing out. The city has in fact moved with the times and is full of unique, engaging activities and attractions, from the visual and performing arts to biking, hiking,…

I HAD LUNCH WITH some pilot friends, including a retired airline guy, a kid working two jobs and going to college—crazy about learning to fly—and two or three others who can fly or fix anything from sophisticated corporate jets to homebuilts and small, antique taildraggers. It’s great to call them friends, but the conversation topic was grim: “What in the hell is going on at Lunken Airport?” Sure enough, the front-page headline in the Sunday Cincinnati newspaper shouted, “What’s Next for Lunken Airport…Cincinnati’s tiny, aging airfield… and what’s ahead for the struggling airport’s second century?” “Aging”? OK. “Struggling”? I don’t think so. Mismanaged? You bet! After the inevitable COVID-19 pandemic slowdown, Lunken general aviation and corporate traffic recovered dramatically. Recently there have been 10-to-15-plus jet operations each hour and an increase…

POPLAR GROVE SUNRISE THERES’S NO BETTER place to be when the sun wakes up than Poplar Grove Airpark (C77) in Illinois. Tina Thomas, co-owner of the airpark, is usually the one providing the wake-up call in one of her vintage aircraft. In this photo, she patiently waits for fellow airpark resident and friend Scott Taylor to fly by in his J3 Cub with smoke trailing. The 1955 Chevrolet 210 belongs to Leonardo Correa Luna, the photographer who captured the early morning magic.…

Te cna m may be a relative newcomer to the U.S. market, but the company has a rich aviation history dating back to 1948. The Pascale family launched into aviation by designing a variety of aircraft for themselves and their customers. One aircraft in particular, the P55 Tornado, caught the attention of enthusiasts by winning the prestigious Giro di Sicilia air race. From that success, the family gained enough notoriety and confidence to start the first company—Partenavia. From humble, pre-World War II beginnings to multiple state-of-the-art facilities today, Tecnam strives to be a dominant player in the piston market. The plan to find niches that can be exploited and dominated by aircraft designed to be class leaders has served the company well and is gaining traction. Tecnam produces a range…

WHEN DAWN AND I decided to take our Stinson 108 to Alaska this summer, it was with the knowledge that we’d had only 20 months of fairly trouble-free ownership, during which time we’ve made a number of updates to modernize the airplane and make it more suitable for cross-country travel. My one reservation was that our 78-year-old Franklin 150 engine had been freshly overhauled before purchase, and, between Pacific Northwest weather and building our hangar/living quarters, we’d only put 100 hours on it. By comparison, we owned our previous Piper Pacer for over 18 months and flew it some 220 hours. The difference was that we made a number of ambitious cross-countries with the Pacer, while the Stinson has remained largely local. Infant mortality is a thing with newly overhauled…

HAVE YOU EVER cut a corner, perhaps not using a checklist, or skipping a preflight, and then caught yourself doing it again? Nothing bad happened the first time, but that was the beginning of the normalization of deviance. The normalization of deviance is a phenomenon in which individuals deviate from what is known to be an acceptable performance standard—basically, accepting less than the acceptable in terms of performance or cutting corners—until the deviant behavior becomes the adopted practice. It’s often defended with phrases like “it wasn’t too bad” or “almost” or “close enough” or “we’ve never had a problem before,” and at the flight school level, “my CFI said I didn’t need to know that.” The normalization of deviance was discussed often at the Spring to Proficiency 2024 IFR Clinic…

THE LOWEST AIRSPEED at which an ordinary fixed-wing airplane can fly is almost entirely determined by two numbers. One of them is the wing loading, that is, the airplane’s weight divided by its wing area. The other is the maximum lift coefficient of the wing, which coincides with its stalling angle of attack. Extreme aircraft—ones with extremely high thrust-toweight ratios, for instance, or powered lift—are exempt from this rule, but they form a small minority. “Lift coefficient” may be a discouraging term for the mathematically challenged, but it’s simply the ratio between the amount of lift a wing produces and the dynamic pressure of the air striking it. The dynamic pressure of moving air is what you feel when the wind blows or when (if you are a dog) you…

SWISS MANUFACTURER SIRIUS AVIATION believes it will be the first in the aviation industry to introduce a family of hydrogen-powered, zero-emission, vertical takeoff and landing (VTOL) capable jets before the end of the decade. The company is looking to shake up the business aviation and cargo segments with two flagship models—the CEO Jet and Adventure Jet, each of which are intended to cruise at 280 knots and whisk passengers away in lavish digs. Sirius unveiled the aircraft in June at the MOVE Expo in London. Alexey Popov, Sirius’ founder and CEO, comes from a family of aviation research and development specialists. Popov believes that heritage gives the firm a leg up over competitors, such as the hydrogen-powered design unveiled in July by electric vertical takeoff and landing (eVTOL) aircraft manufacturer Joby…

ON A FRIDAY evening early in January 2023, an Arkansas pilot died in the crash of his M35 Bonanza. The airplane, manufactured in 1960, had been updated with, among other things, a couple of flight data recorders. Their memory cards survived the crash and allowed National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) investigators to trace in minute detail the events that led to it. The 1,765-hour, instrument-rated commercial pilot, 43, an insurance agent and entrepreneur, had earlier flown a longtime friend from Fayetteville to Stuttgart, Arkansas. The trip took an hour. The friend, who had previously co-owned a Cirrus with the accident pilot and knew him well, reported that the flight was uneventful and that the pilot took off to return to Drake Field in Fayetteville (KFYV) 15 minutes after landing. He…

Forest Fires have become an ever-increasing part of the news cycle. Whether ignited by man or nature, they often rage out of control, sometimes overwhelming or outpacing the resources necessary to get them under control. Forest fires are part of the natural cycle of forest management, but when fires threaten life and property on a grand scale, human intervention is needed. I first became aware of the existence of the aviation division of the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection (CAL FIRE) several years ago while attending a warbird flying clinic in Porterville, California. CAL FIRE had three aircraft on display, an OV-10A (a former forward air control and observation aircraft) and a pair of S-2T tankers (converted from Navy anti-submarine missions). While there, these CAL FIRE aircraft were…

SEVEN-THOUSAND-POUND DIESEL PICKUPS. Ninety-eight-inch televisions in 8,000-square-foot homes. Convenience store soft drinks that require two hands to hold and three minutes to fill. There’s a subset of the population that simply craves excess and revels in abundance. While that may be true for some jet-setting globetrotters, in the world of GA aircraft ownership, such thinking is relatively rare. Big airplanes have correspondingly big fuel tanks that cost big money to top off. But what if your mission calls for heavy iron? What if your top priority was to own and fly the biggest airplane possible? Here in the U.S., such dreams are complicated somewhat by an FAA regulation that requires in-depth training and certification—known as a type rating—to fly jet aircraft or any aircraft with a maximum takeoff weight in…

SITTING IN A FOLDING chair under a weathered canopy on a warm California day in Lake Elsinore’s Skylark Airport (CA89), I listened as a group of glider pilots talked about the improving weather. We were gathered just off of the grass Runway 29L, and everyone stared intently at the ridgeline to our west. When a solitary, tiny cloud formed a few thousand feet above the ridge, the pilots became suddenly animated. They were coming off of a long stretch of bad weather—little to no wind and sunny skies. The kind of weather that any nonpilot would likely refer to as perfect. That little cloud signaled rising air. Clouds generally form when rising air cools and can no longer hold the moisture it carries. It’s the rising part that gets glider…

SEPTEMBER is always a time for me to reflect. About two weeks had passed since that fateful day in 2001 that none of us will ever forget. In uniform, with my wife’s hand in mine, we approached a NYPD officer standing on the corner, a couple blocks away from Ground Zero. Pedestrian barricades surrounded the area. “Can we go through?” I asked, motioning at a small gap. The police officer nodded, a solemn look on his face. “Did you fly the kind of airplane that hit the towers?” the officer asked. “Actually, I flew the airplane that hit the North Tower,” I said. “It’s in my logbook.” I had said those words in my head but repeating them out loud unexpectedly punctuated their significance with a lump in my throat.…