Table of contents for July 2022 in Plane & Pilot

Unfortunately, there’s no guarantee that even the best museums will be permanent vaults for the artifacts they protect. Air Classics is reporting that the incredible warbird collection of the late Paul G. Allen, co-founder of Microsoft, has been sold by his estate and that the assets are being prepared for a “cross-country” relocation to a new owner. Many non-aviation assets of Allen’s estate have recently been reported sold, so there’s no reason to doubt the report. Almost a year ago, Courtesy Aircraft Sales and Platinum Fighter Sales listed a large handful of Allen’s restoration projects for sale. Allen’s museum and restoration center, the Flying Heritage & Combat Armor Museum (FHCAM), closed suddenly and indefinitely in May 2020 with a brief statement blaming the then-still-young COVID-19 crisis. Since then, the museum…

At first look, aircraft range seems to be simple: It’s merely the total distance an aircraft can fly between takeoff and landing. In fact, many of us probably don’t think too much about it beyond preflight planning to ensure that we have enough fuel to make it to the next fuel—or hamburger—stop with the appropriate reserves. Range matters to pilots of different planes in different ways. The range of a B-52 is clearly a different animal than that of a 152, and over the course of aviation history, designers and tinkerers alike have come up with ways to increase an aircraft’s range while still being mindful of the weight penalties added fuel imposes but staying fully aware of the safety and utility advantages of flying that much farther down the…

IF YOU WERE IN LAKELAND, FLORIDA, for the 2021 Sun ’n Fun Fly-in, you know that it was a special event. They needed it. We all needed it. Without dwelling on it, the past few years have been bad. By pure accident of the calendar, the 2020 edition of Sun ‘n Fun, which ultimately didn’t happen, was the first scheduled big aviation event after the pandemic hit. Amid rapidly rising case numbers, the event was eventually canceled, but not before the very issue of whether it should go forward or not became a battleground between folks with very different views on how it should have been handled. Last year, the 2021 running of the show happened, and that was good, but attendance was spotty, especially early in the week, and…

Most of the forced-landing training conducted in the early hours of our flying careers focused on “ya just lost your engine, pick a field.” We went through the exercise—trimming for best-glide, turning toward an open spot, grabbing the fuel selector, boosting pump and carb heat—knowing full well that the CFI was going to give us the idling engine back before we got too low. Such engine-out drills are okay, as far as they go, but they don’t build the same level of confidence as bringing the airplane to a successful stop on the ground, intact and unscathed. I’ve long been a great believer in practicing some engine-failure scenarios at an airport, where we can continue the approach to touchdown. In his Mastery Flight Training blog, my friend and CFI of…

It was just another lazy weekend for most of the people who live in central Alabama, but not for the young people and their families who made their way to historic Moton Field in Tuskegee, Alabama, on a spring Saturday morning, some of them driving hours to get to the site for a very special event where the world-famous Tuskegee Airmen trained for their heroic service in World War II. They were there to participate in Legacy Flight Academy’s Eyes Above the Horizon event, the first since 2019 due to the pandemic. That last meeting was extra special, as it featured Tuskegee Airmen Brigadier General Charles McGee, who passed away earlier this year. His presence was surely in the air. Legacy Flight Academy (LFA) puts on programs across the United…

With a snap of the fingers—and about $236 million in cold, hard cash—Textron, Inc., has closed the acquisition of Slovenian aircraft maker Pipistrel, which Textron describes as “an award-winning pioneer and global leader in electrically powered aircraft.” It remains to be seen just what the acquisition will mean to Textron Aviation in terms of programs and new models, though it is widely believed that the company plans to introduce an electric trainer model based on the all-electric Pipistrel Velis Electro, which is certified in Europe. Pipistrel’s founder, Ivo Boscarol, 65, has proven himself a bold, innovative and resourceful designer and marketer, moving forward since he began selling ultralights to Italian customers in the 1980s. Pipistrel’s roots include a brand name derived from the word “bat” in local dialect because Boscarol…

Of all the places to catch a glimpse of a UFO, Arizona is one the most likely, at least according to local lore. Over the years, it has regularly ranked in the top 10 states for UFO sightings per capita, though such statistics should be eyed with some skepticism. Still, the reports are real, and on one exceptionally busy night, March 13, 1997, 25 years ago now, law enforcement agencies across the state fielded hundreds of calls from witnesses who reported seeing strange lights in the Arizona sky. What would, over time, come to be known as the Phoenix Lights were first reported near Henderson, Nevada, starting at around 8:15 p.m. local time. Observers there and in northern Arizona reported a large group of amber-colored lights moving together in a…

Few of us are old enough to remember when the phrase “Piper Cub” was synonymous with “small plane.” No matter what brand or model of plane just “crash landed” on old County Road 117, whether it was an Aeronca, Stinson or Stearman, people would voice their astonishment at the antics of that “Piper Cub,” the name in their minds being synonymous with “airplane.” In more recent decades, the honor of such familiarity has gone to Cessna. “Did you hear about that Cessna that buzzed city hall!” And, of course, when the conversation turned to jets, for many years, every one of them was a “Learjet.” The reason for this brand-blind shorthand is easy. The planes that take on the weight of identity for an entire segment are icons—famous and widely…

Last time, I wrote about why it’s important to ask questions, the ways in which your flying skills erode, and the sad fact that as soon as you leave on a trip, everything is going to break back home. Here are a few more flying (and life) lessons that definitely weren’t in the commercial pilot ACS. ALL ATC DELAYS ARE RESERVED FOR THE LEG HOME Day one of a four-day trip never fails to go flawlessly. The ATIS reports weather that’s clear and a million, ground on point-niner taxis you to the nearest runway, and you get an unrestricted climb, “direct destination.” The next few days go about the same. It’s all good times and discretionary speeds. Then it’s time to wrap it all up and go home. You call…

You probably know the name Trevor Jacob for one reason: a YouTube video he uploaded on Dec. 24, 2021. The video, which shows Jacob flying a small vintage Taylorcraft light plane over rough terrain, continues as the engine appears to quit. It concludes with the solo pilot bailing out, the remote mount camera on the plane continuing to record as the plane crashes into the terrain below. The video has amassed (and continues to add) more than 1.7 million views while sparking a firestorm of protest from the aviation community, the majority of whom seem to believe that the event was staged and that the pilot intentionally shut down the plane’s engine in flight and bailed out as part of a publicity stunt. The aircraft was destroyed, but Jacob wasn’t…

Across 1 Plane with a giant balloon-like forward fuselage 9 Airport screening gp 10 American Navy ship intro 12 Airport lighting facility to enable a correct glide path, abbr. 13 Some say this will replace pilot judgment, abbr. 14 Pilots might call their A320 this 15 Hot or cold drink 17 Equipment the FAA is ordering the Piper PA-12 and PA-14 to replace 21 Acronym for the speed at which the rotation of the aircraft should be initiated to takeoff attitude 22 Add up 23 Military rank, abbr. 25 Lockheed’s amped-up model 28 Sister company to Beechcraft 29 Starter plane for military pilots, abbr. 31 Hawaiian wreath 32 Udvar-Hazy Air and Space Museum locale 34 One of the capabilities of the Lockheed Martin F-22 36 License is one 38 “___…

IT WAS A ROUTINE FLIGHT FOR THE 1990S: hop in the Alaska Department of Public Safety’s unmarked Cessna 185 on straight floats, take off from Hangar Lake in Bethel, and head north for the Yukon River under overcast August skies. Since the only cargo was an outboard boat motor for the Saint Mary’s Post’s Boston Whaler, I’d topped off both tanks with av gas that morning. No special technique was required to break the surface from the relatively short waterway with 300 horses under the red and white cowl. It was my morning off, so I’d skipped donning the uniform—jeans and a chamois shirt were much more suited for manhandling a heavy, greasy engine in and out of the seaplane. My old friend Trooper Dave Aspelund met me on a…