DO YOU KNOW WHO MAKES YOUR PMA PARTS?

THE FAITHFUL CESSNA 150:

Celebrate a Classic Trainer
WHEN TO SCRUB THE FLIGHT:
Know Your Limits
AMELIA’S BIRTHPLACE:
Spend a Day at the Museums

TOP LIGHT SPORT PISTONS

TO FIT YOUR MISSION:
EVEKTOR HARMONY, JABIRU J-230D, AND MORE

PLANEANDPILOTMAG.COM
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September 2023 VOL. 59 NO. 8

22 TOP PICKS IN TODAY’S LIGHT

SPORT AIRCRAFT MARKET
Here are some LSA favorites for
various budgets and missions.
By Dan Johnson

30 HOW MCFARLANE AVIATION

KEEPS ’EM FLYING
A Kansas aftermarket supplier does
its part to ensure GA’s survival.
By LeRoy Cook

36 OLD AVIATOR TALES

Fifty years of memories come flooding
back on one last run at the controls
of a Piper Super Cub.
By Ken Wittekiend

42 AMELIA EARHART’S
ENDURING LEGACY
The famous aviator’s birthplace museum
and the hangar museum are keeping
her incredible history alive.
By Amy Wilder

48 SCRUBBING THE FLIGHT

Knowing your personal limits amid a myriad
of potential factors is incredibly important.
By Sam Winer

kk VISIT THE PLANE & PILOT® WEBSITE

AT PLANEANDPILOTMAG.COM
inside
kk S
 PACES

8 SHARE YOUR THOUGHTS

Letters to the Editor
Submitted by readers

10 AVIATION NEWS OF NOTE

Extra Aircraft Reveals
330SX Aerobatic Mount;
ATP Signs Deal for 40
Cessna Skyhawks
By Plane & Pilot

11 CROSSWORD
Annual Inspection
12 RECREATION 10 62
Places to Camp with
Your Airplane
By Plane & Pilot

14 LESSONS LEARNED
Hangin’ Out in Austin
By David Dale

54 AFTER THE ACCIDENT

Deadly Ditching
By Dave English

56
54

56 WORDS ALOFT
Test Pilot, Airline Style
By Jeremy King

58 PRO TIPS FOR PRIVATE PILOTS

Time for a New Golden Age
By Frank Ayers

62 THIS INCREDIBLE PLANE

Cessna 150
By Frank Ayers
ON THE COVER:
The Evektor Harmony 64 THIS INCREDIBLE PILOT
Wiley Post 64
By Shalyn Marchetti

2 SEPTEMBER 2023 Ç Plane&Pilot

 planeandpilotmag.com

Editor-in-Chief, FMG SALES & MARKETING

Julie Boatman
Publisher and Chief Commercial Officer
Managing Editor
Lisa deFrees
Amy Wilder
lisa@flying.media
Creative Director
Amy Jo Sledge Director of Special Projects
Andy Welch
Technical Editor andy@flying.media
Meg Godlewski
Copy Editor Senior Business Development Manager
Travis Tingle Roxanne Sweazey
roxanne@flying.media
Photo/Production Editor
Theresa Petruso Digital Coordinator
Aaron Will
Senior Editors aaron@flying.media
Jeremy King, LeRoy Cook, Frank Ayers
Contributing Editors Business Development Manager
Jason Blair, Shalyn Marchetti, Sam Winer Jaci Steib
jaci@flying.media

Chief Operating Officer Chief Technology Officer Operations Manager

Preston Holland Fergus Caldicott Reis Costa

Managing Editor, Digital Director of Marketplace Director of Audience Development

Kimberly Johnson Ian Hoyt Kevin Cortes

Chief Executive Officer Chief Commercial Officer Chief Strategy Officer

Craig Fuller Lisa deFrees Keith Beckman

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Plane & Pilot is published monthly by FLYING Media Group, 605 Chestnut Avenue, Suite 800, Chattanooga, TN, 37450. Periodicals postage paid at
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planeandpilotmag.com 3
FLYOVER COUNTRY BY AMY WILDER
Third Issue’s the Charm
Dreaming of cooler weather and smoother skies
A
s I write from the sticky depths
of summer in the Midwest, I
find myself dreaming of the
cooler days of fall and winter,
and especially of flying in denser air. I
fear I was a bit spoiled by the low den-
sity altitudes and mousse-like stability
of the air this past winter.
So my thoughts have turned toward
the cooler days of autumn and the
promise of activities like camping
(without drowning in a pool of sweat)
with an airplane, as well as ways to beat
the summer heat—like visiting aviation
museums and appreciating the accom-
plishments of pioneers who have paved
the way for peasants like me. It’s in the
spirit of keeping cool and celebrating
history that I bring you with me in this
issue to the Amelia Earhart museums
in Atchison, Kansas.
LeRoy Cook also guides us indoors
in small-town Kansas, but to some-
thing more alive and pragmatic than a
museum: an insider tour of McFarlane
Aviation, a company specializing in
PMA-FAA parts for general aviation.
If you fly an airplane built in the last
century, chances are you’re sporting
some McFarlane parts.
4 SEPTEMBER 2023 Ç Plane&Pilot
Dan Johnson serves us valuable
information about some of the best
options available in the light sport air-
craft market from around the world—a
good option for those of us who may
not be able to consider an aircraft that
costs more than our homes. Johnson
has something to suggest for almost
every mission and budget, as well as
an optimistic report on the state of the
market at large.
Ken Wittekiend returns to our pages
to share campfire stories of the com-
munity and opportunities for golden
adventure we treasure so much in avia-
tion. Sam Winer reminds us that the
“IMSAFE” checklist is something to
seriously consider, especially when we
are impatient to take to the air.
I recently spent a few weeks in
Cody, Wyoming, and had the oppor-
tunity to get some instructional
time with the Choice Aviation flight
school at Yellowstone Regional Airport
(KCOD). The experience of climb-
ing from an airfield at 5,100 feet on a
summer day—or trying to land on a
particular spot and failing miserably—
have added special significance for me
to thoughts like Winer’s. Those times
when we start to feel most secure in
our skills in the air might be precisely
when it is most important to check
ourselves, evaluate our personal capac-
ity and environment, and pay special
attention to our flight-planning skills.
In this vein, Dave English’s “After
the Accident” story this month pres-
ents a sobering reminder of the impor-
tance of proper fuel planning. Jeremy
King gives us an inside glimpse into the
careful work poured into returning an
airline bird to service after a long stay
on terra firma. And Shalyn Marchetti
recalls the meteoric career of historic
pilot Wiley Post.
Back in the Midwest, I’m struggling
to cope with the cauldron of thermals
upsetting and churning my poor stom-
ach while I wear Foggles and work to
master the basics of instrument skills.
I’m reviewing the ACS and preparing
for my first check ride. I’m dreaming
of cooler weather and smoother skies,
and I hope this issue brings the promise
of those to you.
Please enjoy this edition of the mag-
azine and feel free to reach out to share
your thoughts at awilder@flying.media.
—Amy
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LETTER FROM THE PUBLISHER BY LISA DEFREES
Elephant in the Room
Growth and diversification are key to preserving our legacy.
W
hether you’re a long-
time reader of Plane &
Pilot or a newer mem-
ber of our audience, you
may be aware that the magazine has
become part of the FLYING Media
Group. FLYING was acquired in 2021 by
media entrepreneur Craig Fuller, whose
passion for aviation and experience in
digital media and technology led him
to pursue the legacy brand and begin
building on his early success.
The opportunity to acquire addi-
tional valued aviation media brands has
never been greater. Naturally, you may
think building a media family is about
creating efficiency. But it’s less about
that and more about the compounding
value of being able to reach as many new
and active pilots as possible to ensure
health and long-term success for all
of our media brands. We are stronger
together, indeed.
As our media family has grown,
some of you have expressed concern
about how this will impact FLYING,
Plane & Pilot, or ByDanJohnson. The
Plane & Pilot you’re reading now focuses
squarely on the GA piston market and
ByDanJohnson on light sport and ultra-
light aircraft. In contrast, FLYING is
more aspirational and diverse. Other
than investments to improve your
experience as a reader in print and
6 SEPTEMBER 2023 Ç Plane&Pilot
online, and to create efficiencies for you
as a subscriber, it is our goal to ensure
each brand stays true to its roots. Rest
assured, Plane & Pilot will continue its
great work focusing on the recreational
end of flying—the fun stuff—but also
what brings you personal satisfaction
as a pilot.
By the time this magazine is in your
hands, you may hear of another excit-
ing acquisition. With our growth, our
mission remains the same. We want to
empower you to do what you love—fly.
Lastly, some have reached out to
express concerns regarding advertising
for The Fields. We have been transpar-
ent about the fly-in community devel-
opment in that we share a common
owner. As for FLYING, Plane & Pilot,
and all of our properties, The Fields
is a paying advertiser just like the rest.
We hope that by improving your
readership experience, delivering bet-
ter content in every issue of Plane &
Pilot, and keeping advertising to 25
percent or less, you will continue to see
the positive side of how this helps sup-
port our ability to do what we do best.
Have an idea on ways we can
improve Plane & Pilot? I’d love
to hear from you. Email me at
Lisa@flying.media
Cheers!
—Lisa
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W W W. D AV I D C L A R K . C O M
 SHARE YOUR THOUGHTS
Wonderful Windsock
Attached are pictures of a BD5 wind-
sock. It is at WV59 (Fayetteville, West
Virginia) and is probably the only one
in existence!
An interesting story about it:
Buddy Cottle, a locally renowned
aviator and proficient builder, built
this airplane in the 1970s and flew it
in many local air shows as well as to
[EAA AirVenture at Oshkosh].
Buddy passed away several years
ago, and his son, Kevin (777 captain),
was cleaning out his dad’s hangar
and was about to cut this airframe up
for scrap. He was afraid that some-
one would try to fly it and get hurt.
I promised him that if I could have
it, it would never fly again, and so I
removed the engine, PSRU, and other
mechanics, built a truck axle mount,
and welded it all on a light pole.
With the help of our airport folks, we
mounted it near the end of Runway
21. It moves freely and points into the
slightest breeze, and the prop spins!
I am planning a fly-in and cookout
for this July to honor Buddy’s many
contributions to local aviation.
Doc Newell
Via email
COURTESY DOC NEWELL
Depends on the Seats
In the July 2023 issue of Plane & Pilot,
Mr. [Frank] Ayers’ fine article on the
8 SEPTEMBER 2023 Ç Plane&Pilot
BD-1 states that all the aircraft de-
scended from that aircraft, including
the Traveler, Cheetah, and Tiger, also
have the fuel stored in the main spar.
This is only done in the two-seat
aircraft. The four-seat aircraft have
conventional fuel tanks in the wings.
Greg Fowler
Via email
Editor’s note: The author owns a
Grumman Tiger.
No Front-Porch Regret
I enjoyed the article in Plane & Pilot
on Jim Bede and his designs [July
2023].
I received my private pilot’s
license in a Grumman Trainer,
which I later bought. After using it
for a few years, I bought one of the
last Tigers produced in Savannah
[Georgia] for $32,000. This airplane
had just one radio and a basic panel.
As a VFR pilot, I did not need or
choose to invest in an IFR panel.
Later, due to my business expan-
sion, I had to sell the Tiger and
sold it for $27,000. Fast-forward
from the 1980s to the early 2000s. I
drove down to Hobby Airport in the
Houston area to fly a “new” Tiger.
This airplane was fully equipped for
IFR flight, and it was on the market
for $310,000. My income obviously
had not kept up with inflation. So I
coined an expression: “Two words
that cannot go together are aviation
and affordability.”
The issues today are the same.
Aviation is expensive, so to any
young person or any person that
wants to fly, you just have to suck it
up and pay the price. My wife and
I agreed when I bought the first
airplane that we did not want to be
sitting on our front porch in our
60s and regret not owning a plane.
I flew until my 72nd year. Now, as
I approach 80, I do not fly, but, as
I sit on that front porch, I am still
satisfied with my decision to own an
airplane. Thinking of the good times
takes away any feeling of regret.
Best wishes to FLYING and Plane
& Pilot.
J.L. Hibbert
Via email
Puzzled About This
I have started learning to fly and am
enjoying your magazine.
In your June edition [word
search], on page 48, your first line at
the top is missing. If you compare it
to the answers on page 52, you will
see it is missing the line with the
word for “cockpit” and the letter “L”
for “Lakeland.”
I was just working on it and no-
ticed this.
John Neves
Via email
Editor’s note: The line was indeed
omitted from the word search in
the June issue. Plane & Pilot re-
grets the error.
 TH E WOR L D’S L EA D I NG
PISTON AIRCRAFT MAGAZINE
AVIATION NEWS OF NOTE
Extra’s New Acro Plane
ATP Flight School buying Skyhawks; Tecnam receives big order
BY PLANE & PILOT
EXTRA AIRCRAFT REVEALS
330SX AEROBATIC MOUNT
Extra Aircraft, the German company
that has designed and manufactured
competitive aerobatic airplanes for
decades, has revealed its latest model,
the Extra 330SX.
The new single-seat monoplane’s
wings and empennage are made of
carbon fiber and attached to a steel
fuselage. The company said its design
is an evolution of the Extra 330SC, a
renowned aircraft that has won eight
world championships.
The latest Extra incorporates sev-
eral improvements ranging from a
cowling with better cooling to ailerons
designed to deliver faster roll rates
and halt the rolls more crisply than
before. A shorter fuselage increases
the aircraft’s agility while improved
ergonomics make the cockpit a more
comfortable place to work.
Pilots, especially those who fly their
aircraft long distances to competitions,
EXTRA AIRCRAFT
10 SEPTEMBER 2023 Ç Plane&Pilot
are likely to notice upgrades including
a wider cockpit, increased headroom,
and more clearance for the control
stick. The 330SX also comes with the
Garmin G3X Touch system with a
7-inch display as standard equipment.
The 330SX first flew on June
6 and continues flight testing with
final European Union Aviation Safety
Agency (EASA) approval expected
soon. Extra is taking orders now with
deliveries expected to begin around
the middle of next year. The first, with
serial number SX-001, was on display
at German Nationals in Dinslaken,
Germany, on July 8.
ATP SIGNS DEAL FOR 40
CESSNA SKYHAWKS
The fleet at ATP Flight School is about
to get even larger. The multi-location
airline training program announced
it is purchasing 40 Cessna Skyhawks
from Textron Aviation.
According to the Wichita, Kansas-
based manufacturer, the aircraft, also
known as the 172, will join ATP’s
current complement of some 200
Skyhawks positioned across 82 train-
ing centers in the U.S.
The latest purchase, announced on
June 30, is the second in the past 12
months for ATP. In October the flight
training organization and Textron
agreed to the purchase of 55 Cessna
Skyhawks, with deliveries beginning
in the third quarter of the year.
The aircraft will see a lot of flight
time at ATP, as the school’s airline
career program has a goal of training
20,000 commercial pilots by 2030.
KANSAS FLIGHT SCHOOL
PLACES TECNAM ORDER
Pilots training at Kilo Charlie Aviation
in Kansas will soon be flying state-of-
the-art Tecnam trainers, as the flight
school has placed an order for 30 of
the Italian designs.
According to Tecnam, Kilo Charlie
Aviation (KCA), located at New
Century Air Center (KIXD), formerly
known as Naval Air Station Olathe, will
take delivery of the training-focused
IFR P-Mentors and twin-engine
P2006T MKIIs over the next two years.
KCA was founded in 2020 by Robert
Renfro and Drew Konicek, both expe-
rienced corporate pilots. Their stated
mission was to build the best flight
school in the world, and that began
with finding the best equipment for
their learners to use.
“When we met with Tecnam for the
first time, we were unfamiliar with their
organization or aircraft. Immediately,
we knew that we had found a true
partner,” said Konicek, KCA’s chief
business officer. “The award-winning
aircraft combined with the expertise
of an international leader in aviation
made it an easy choice to move Kilo
Charlie Aviation’s fleet to Tecnam.”
In addition to Tecnam, the fleet
at KCA includes Piper Arrows,
Piper Archers, a Cirrus SR20, and a
Beechcraft Baron. PP
CROSSWORD ANNUAL INSPECTION

Across Down
1 The control and command section of an 1 Hinged cover for an aircraft engine
aircraft 2 Preserve, as vegetables
5 Flaps, panels. pedals, etc. 3 Given approval after an inspection
8 Horizontal airfoils 4 Securely fixed in place
9 Engine seals 5 Engine parts
11 Allow 6 Fishing equipment
12 Vital action prior to take-off 7 Procedures
15 Compass heading, abbr. 10 High rating, often
16 Assist 13 Protect
18 Knack 14 Indy service area
19 Nacelles 17 Wings on a pilot, for example
21 Electronic tech _____ : provide instant 20 "____ and out"
visibility of faults on an aircraft
21 Cargo quantities
22 It may add time to a flight
23 Remove fuel from the tanks, for example
27 Fixes, in a way
24 Humor
28 Vital sensor technology, abbr.
25 Government security agency, abbr.
29 Navigation system, 2 words
26 Determined with reference to the earth's
32 Blue axis rather than magnetic poles
33 Tail 30 Blue Angels' formation shape
Check your answers on page 56. 31 Raise
planeandpilotmag.com 11
FUN AND RECREATION
Camping with Your Airplane
It’s important to do your homework before embarking on an unforgettable journey.
A
s the days grow shorter and
temperatures begin to cool
in the Northern Hemisphere,
the thought of camping with
your airplane may begin to look appeal-
ing—certainly more so than roasting in
your tent and fending off the critters
in the warmer months. This guide will
help get you started with the basics
of planning your outing and list a few
airport locations that may allow on-
site camping.
Some things to consider: Plan your
trip carefully. Consider density altitude
and whether you can safely take off
from a short field if the day unexpect-
edly warms up. You may want to think
about adding a couple of extra days
on either end of your trip to account
for possible weather delays. Plan your
fuel needs carefully too, and don’t skip
12 SEPTEMBER 2023 Ç Plane&Pilot
those weight and balance calculations.
On a related note, you can’t camp
without gear. Be sure to weigh your
equipment and plan for your loca-
tion. Will you be pitching a tent in
the grass at a well-used field with an
FBO and access to civilization? In that
case, you might opt to find ground
transportation, eat at a restaurant,
and refill your water bottle in the
FBO. On the other hand, if you decide
to camp in the backcountry or at an
abandoned airfield, you will need to
add the weight of water and food to
your calculations.
In addition to the weight and bal-
ance, fuel, and density altitude consid-
erations mentioned above, be sure to
find out whether the field or location
you plan to visit is open for business.
This list is a starting point, providing
possibilities only. Check the Chart
Supplement (formerly known as the
Airport Facilities Directory) or call
the local FBO before departing to find
out if camping is allowed and what the
rules might be.
For some great ideas on where to
camp with your plane, check out the
Recreational Aviation Foundation’s
website (theraf.org)—the organiza-
tion celebrated 20 years this summer
of supporting and expanding access
to airfields and backcountry strips
just like these.
Pack your gear, prepare your air-
plane, and embark on an unforgettable
journey to these remarkable destina-
tions that combine the joys of flying
and camping. And remember—if it
ADOBE STOCK
doesn’t feel right, car camping is a
great option too!
West Coast/Pacific Northwest/Alaska New Braunfels Regional Provincetown Municipal
Airport (KBAZ) Airport (KPVC)
Mammoth Yosemite Airport (KMMH) Location: New Braunfels, Texas Location: Provincetown, Massachusetts
Location: Mammoth Lakes, California Relevant Details: Camping Relevant Details: Camping
options available nearby. available nearby.
Relevant Details: Many camping
sites located near the airport. Phone: 830-221-4290 Phone: 508-487-0241
Phone: 760-965-3620
Rocky Mountain Wiscasset
Airport (KIWI)
Oceano County Airport (L52)
Telluride Regional Airport (KTEX) Location: Wiscasset, Maine
Location: San Luis Obispo, California
Location: Telluride, Colorado Relevant Details: Camping
Relevant Details: Offers fly-in camping. available nearby.
Firepit and restrooms are available Relevant Details: Camping
but no showers or laundry facilities. options available nearby. Phone: 207-882-5475
Online: https://www.sloairport Phone:970-728-8601
.com/l52-oceano/ Chatham Municipal
Glenwood Springs Municipal Airport (KCQX)
Lopez Airport (S31) Airport (KGWS) Location: Chatham, Massachusetts
Location: Lopez Island, Washington Location: Glenwood Springs, Colorado Relevant Details: Camping
Relevant Details: Camping available nearby.
Relevant Details: Offers camping facilities
on site: four grass tie-down spots. options available nearby. Online: www.chathamairport.com
Nearby water, Wi-Fi, power, and toilets. Online: www.glenwoodspringsairport.com
Online: lopezisland.com Lake Placid
Jack A. Buell Airport (S72) Airport (KLKP)
Quartz Creek Airport (JLA) Location: St. Maries, Idaho Lake Placid, New York
Location: Cooper Landing, Alaska Relevant Details: Camping Relevant Details: Camping
options available nearby. available nearby.
Relevant Details: Camping
available nearby. Phone: 208-582-094 Phone: 518-523-2473
Phone: 907-262-1187
Alpine Airpark (46U) Southeast
Sisters Eagle Airport (6K5) Location: Alpine, Wyoming
Location: Sisters, Oregon Relevant Details: Offers camping Aiken Municipal
facilities adjacent to the airport. Airport (KAIK)
Relevant Details: Provides camping
facilities on site, $10 per night. Online: https://alpineairpark. Location: Aiken, South Carolina
First come, first served. com/activities/ Relevant Details: Camping
Online: sistersairport.com available nearby.
Great Lakes/Midwest Phone: 803-643-2123
Southwest
Range Regional Airport (KHIB) Key West International
Sedona Airport (KSEZ) Airport (KEYW)
Location: Hibbing, Minnesota Location: Key West, Florida
Location: Sedona, Arizona
Relevant Details: Camping Relevant Details: Camping
Relevant Details: No overnight options available nearby.
camping at the airport but available nearby.
many local options nearby. Phone: 218-262-3451 Online: eyw.com
Phone: 928-282-4487
Kankakee Airport (3KK) Bentonville Municipal
Grand Canyon National Location: Kankakee, Illinois Airport/Louise M. Thaden
Park Airport (KGCN) Relevant Details: Camping Field (KVBT)
Location: Grand Canyon, Arizona options available nearby. Location: Bentonville, Arkansas
Relevant Details: Camping Phone: 815-932-4222 Relevant Details: Camping
options available nearby. available nearby.
Phone: 928-638-2446 Northeast Phone: 479-254-2028

Santa Fe Municipal Airport (KSAF) Hartness State Airport (KVSF) W. H. “Bud” Barron
Airport (KDBN)
Location: Santa Fe, New Mexico Location: Springfield, Vermont Location: Dublin, Georgia
Relevant Details: Camping Relevant Details: Camping
options available nearby. available nearby. Relevant Details: Camping
available nearby.
Phone: 505-955-2900 Phone: 802-886-2647 Phone: 478-272-4755

planeandpilotmag.com 13
 LESSONS LEARNED ABOUT FLYING (AND ABOUT LIFE)

HANGIN’ OUT IN
Aeronautical decision-making skills need to be
used and practiced—because they work.
BY DAVID DALE ARRY ROSS

my junior year of ROTC,

gang was reunited again.
Larry Leonard and I roomed together our
college freshman year at the Castilian
dorm, where I met my future wife, Karin.
Before starting our senior year, Larry and
I moved into the same Austin apartment
complex, each in a one-room efficiency,
and Michael Rafferty was in his sopho-
more year at the University of Texas.
Driving through the west Austin
hill country one late summer day,
Michael and I spied a hang glider for
sale in a front yard. We were both avia-
tion enthusiasts and inspired to take
up hang gliding after watching James
Bond in the opening scene of Live and
Let Die. Although we didn’t buy that
particular glider, the owner put us in
touch with the Austin hang glider club.
The club was run by two Steves—Steve
Burns and Steve Stackable, a 1975 U.S.
motocross national champion. “Stack”
was the ultimate cool dude. This wavy-
haired motorcycle star had raced in the
Houston Astrodome in the 1970s.

14 SEPTEMBER 2023 Ç Plane&Pilot

 Michael and I entered Austin Air
Sports’ small wooden shop and asked
about hang-gliding lessons. Through
Burns’ connections, we found a great
deal. Michael and I split the $800 cost
of a 1980 Spirit Electra Flyer, featur-
ing an innovative crossbar, making the
large, 200-square-foot hang glider pretty
nimble and maneuverable. It had multi-
colored, earth-tone panels with brown
in the center, then orange, tan, yellow,
and red ones extending out to the purple
wingtips. The entire disassembled glider
was relatively easy to transport, fitting
into an 18-foot blue canvas bag, about
2 feet in diameter.
Launching a hang glider required a hill
to run down, and that meant we needed
a four-wheel-drive vehicle. I bought my
brother’s green 1978 Subaru BRAT, a tiny
two-seat pickup truck with a four-speed
manual transmission and a 4-foot bed
covered by a white camper shell. Once
loaded, our “glider in a bag” extended
2 feet in front and behind the 14-foot
truck, but we were in business.
Learning to fly a hang glider required
a mastery of taking off and landing first
and foremost, much like learning to fly
any airplane. We only needed a small hill,
and for that, Austin Air Sports used the
football field sunken in a shallow bowl
at Murchison Middle School. Our begin-
ner’s lessons reminded me of Charlie
Brown skiing down his pitcher’s mound.
The flights lasted only seconds, but they
suited our needs.
Our Spirit glider came complete with
training wheels mounted on the con-
trol bar. I stepped into the blue har-
ness that ran from shoulders to crotch
like an old-fashioned men’s swimming
suit. Our knee-hanger harness had two
thick 6-foot ropes shrouded in material
stitched into it at my shoulder blades and
attached by wide Velcro straps just below
my knees. This simple style of harness
kept our legs and feet free to run down
the launch ramp. The two thick ropes,
held together with a carabiner, then
hooked to the glider frame above and
behind my shoulders.
Once safely buckled in and with my
white half-shell motorcycle helmet in
place, I hoisted the triangular control
frame assembly onto my shoulders. My
arms were draped around the downtubes
of the triangle and my wingtips extended
out 17 feet in each direction. I ran a few
steps down the small hill, and the large
wing became airborne within seconds.
For the initial training, my only goal was
to fly straight ahead into the football
field and belly land. This allowed the
wheels to touch—and me to coast to a
stop. After a flight shorter than Orville
Wright’s famous one back in 1903, I
stood up and unhooked the carabiner.
Holding onto the pointed nose of the
kite, I pushed it up the hill for another go.
Larry joined Michael and me, and
we each practiced numerous takeoffs
before learning the art of flaring the
large kite for a normal landing. As the
glider approached the landing zone, I
pushed gently forward on the control
bar, raising the nose but not enough to
climb back into the air. This allowed for
a feet-first landing, like a duck settling
on water. If I pushed too aggressively
on the control bar, I risked climbing
10 feet up in the air, stalling the wing,
and crashing to the ground. Hang glider
pilots have broken their legs from this
sort of botched landing.
After a few weeks of Charlie Brown
pitcher’s mound practice, we were
ready for a real hang glider flight. The
nearest suitable launch location in flat
Texas was a 400-foot hill on Packsaddle
Mountain, an hour and a half west of
Austin between Marble Falls and Llano.
Michael and I strapped our bagged glider
to the top of the BRAT and set off for the
Texas Hill Country behind our instruc-
tors, Stack and Steve.
The little 4-cylinder truck bounced
its way along a 2-mile dirt county road
off Highway 71, finally turning off at
the base of an outcropping where two
hills merged into one, raised at both
ends with the right side higher than
the left, giving it the appearance of a
horse’s packsaddle. Our launch point
was the southern, higher hill, and the
truck tackled the rutty dirt trail up to
the 400-foot summit.
With the kite fully assembled and
my harness and motorcycle helmet
donned, I carried it on my shoulders
to the wooden launch platform, which
was painted like a gigantic Texas flag
in red, white, and blue. Stack said the
first few attempts would just be sled
rides, a simple flight with only mild
S-turns from the launch platform to
the cow pasture directly below. Given
the increased speed of this flight versus
the small football stadium hill, I was
instructed to just make a belly landing
on the training wheels until I gained
more experience.
Balancing the kite on my shoulders, I
jogged down the 10-foot ramp and was
airborne after just three steps. The wind
whistled in my ears as the craggy hillside
fell away below. Ahead lay a vast pasture
used for grazing cattle, which made for
an easy landing zone. My inaugural flight
lasted perhaps a minute, and I glided
toward the dry, brown, summer grass
for a soft landing.
Now came the tedious part. During
my short flight, Michael drove the BRAT
down the bumpy road and into the pas-
ture, and together we partially disassem-
bled the kite, folding the wings together
along the central spar and taking apart
the aluminum triangle. Hoisting our kite
back onto our trusty little pack mule, we
drove back up the hill for another flight.
Lather, rinse, repeat. Early on, Michael
and I would each take three short flights
then turn over the kite to the other per-
son for their turn to practice. It became
quite a long day for just a bit of flying, but
the experience was exhilarating.
After a few more sled rides, I began to
get a feel for the handling of our Spirit
glider from takeoff to landing. I started
to add gentle turns to the flights, cruis-
ing back and forth along the hillside
in what is called “ridge lift,” created
from the southerly wind flowing toward
Packsaddle Mountain. As long as the
breeze blew and I stayed in a thermal
or ridge lift, the glider stayed airborne
indefinitely. There were just two things
limiting our flight time: Michael was
waiting for his turn, and while gliding
I was in a front-leaning-rest, push-up
position, which became tiresome.
Typically, our flights lasted about 20
minutes, and this was plenty of time
to take in the rustic sights of the Hill
Country. Like a hawk scanning the land
below, I could see the Colorado River to
the north and east, divided by dams to
form lakes Buchanan, LBJ, and Travis.
To the south, I saw Highway 71 snaking
its way west toward Llano, and miles and
miles of cedar and scrub oak-covered
hills. Gliding was very peaceful, with
only the soft hiss of the wind in my ears
planeandpilotmag.com 15
and the creaking and clinking of the
aluminum glider frame.
On occasion, our desire to fly like
a bird was enhanced when we were
shadowed by a pair of turkey vultures
that launched from the surrounding
trees to follow our kite. As the pilot, I
was rarely aware that I was leading a
formation of birds. With the large black
birds following just aft of my wingtips,
I couldn’t see them, but they made for
some excellent photographs.
Communing with nature occurred
not only during flight but also during the
evening landings. Our landing zone was
the preferred dining spot of the roaming
herd of cattle. Around 5 p.m., as the sun
began to set and we were getting in our
last flights, about 30 black cows began
grazing right in our landing zone. Just
as aircraft used to buzz sheep or cattle,
I too took part in that ritual.
After cruising in the hillside ridge lift
for a half hour, I flew away from the hill
and out of the lifting wind currents to
begin a shallow descent to the brown,
grassy field below. I gained enough speed
16 SEPTEMBER 2023 Ç Plane&Pilot
to allow for a “go-around” if things didn’t
look right before landing. I whistled
over the uninterested bovines just 5
feet above their backs. Once clear of the
munching moos, I pushed forward on
the control bar, raising the nose slightly.
I then circled back to a clear grassy spot
for a flare, touched my feet to the ground,
and shouldered the kite. I loved the calm,
thrilling experience of hang gliding.
Unfortunately, my flights didn’t
always go as planned. One evening, the
winds started to pick up as our day came
to an end. Wanting to get in just one
more flight, I suited up for a last run. I
ran down the launch ramp and became
airborne just as a gust of wind hit my left
wing and blew me immediately toward
the radio tower guy wires about 50 yards
to the right of our ramp. I immediately
shifted my position to the left corner of
the control bar and threw it up and to
my right, trying to counter the wind with
a hard left turn. Fortunately, my right
wingtip missed the guy wires by a few
feet, and I cruised away from the tower
and into the hillside updraft.
My second incident involved a revo-
lutionary way to launch hang gliders by
towing them behind a powered ultra-
light. Just as airplanes tow sailplanes in
soaring, a French company pioneered a
tether system for its powered gliders that
we used to launch us from the pasture.
Part of the three-ring release assembly
included a weak link designed to snap
if too many G-forces were pulled by the
trailing glider. This way the powered
leader would not drag a flailing kite, pull-
ing them both back to the ground. Larry
and Michael each took a turn, running
with the kite for a few feet as the power
glider gained speed and towed them
safely to altitude for a smooth flight.
I suited up in the harness and hel-
met and gave the towing tricycle glider
a thumbs-up that I was ready. As he
increased the thrust of his small propel-
ler, I walked then jogged as he gained
speed. Just like launching from our hill-
side ramp, I was airborne quickly, but the
cool sensation this time was that I was
only a few feet above the grass. I enjoyed
the low-altitude cruise at grass-top level
as the power glider gained speed and
altitude. We flew up to 200 feet, and he
began a gentle turn to the left. I must
have been looking down or off to my
right at the scenery because I didn’t
notice his turn, started mine too late, and
didn’t aggressively get back into position
behind him. Within a few seconds, my
kite was straining the tow rope and the
weak link snapped as designed.
I now needed to make a quick land-
ing back at the cleared field behind me.
It’s a situation I had been trained for in
flying small planes, just like an engine
failure after takeoff. Needing to imme-
diately turn back to the landing zone, I
continued my wide left-hand turn and
saw trees and a power line between me
and the pasture. Without the ability to
add power, I could only hope my descent
rate would clear the obstacles as the trees
and power line loomed closer. Luckily,
my feet cleared the power line, and I suc-
cessfully landed in the field. So much for
that adventure. I was pretty shaken up
by that episode, knowing I had caused it
by getting out of position. While Michael
would go on to enjoy years of hang glid-
ing and soaring in a sailplane, I decided
I would stick to powered flight. Give me
an engine any day. PP
 THE ULTIM ATE

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Concept Designs
H.K. ARCHITECHTS | Chattanooga, TN
Fro m a des ig n stan d po int ,
Cu m b e r l a n d Con te m p o ra r y
has emerged as the
architectural style of
Th e F ie ld s. Cu m be rla n d
Co n te m p o ra r y i s d ef i n e d
as a mountain-modern
approach that is uniquely
inspired by the Cumberland
regi on of Te nn essee, wh ich
incl udes t he Seq u atchie
Valley where The Fields is
located. Materials used to
achieve the style are natural
and sustainable, including
regionally sourced timber
and ston e th at appl y a
luxu ry ru st ic aest h et i c with
hints of modern design
elements.

FLYTHEFIELDS.COM
 EX P E RI ENC E T HE FI EL DS
To l e a r n m o re a b o u t l ot reser vat i o n s a n d to
stay up -to - date on the late st, visit
flythefields.com
For those aircraft owners who live the aviation lifestyle, many find themselves
d re a mi n g of liv ing w ith t he ir a i rc raft a nd being able to pref lig ht , tax i, and take off to
a d est i natio n w ithi n m inutes of le av in g th e h o use. Whet her it ’s a sing le - day bu si ne ss
trip allowing for dinner plans at home to stay intact, or the entire family loading up to
visit friends in a neighboring state —living with your airplane unlocks opportunities.
For most, living in a fly-in community requires a trade - off between the amenities
expected from a master-planned development and those required by an operating
airport—to satisfy everyone’s needs in the household—and thus it remains a dream.

At its core, The Fields has been developed to solve this dilemma. Designed by pilots
and keeping family, friends, and non-aviation residents in mind as a priority, The
Fields marries the best of fly-in community living with world- class amenities everyone
can enjoy. “We wanted to design a development that has community at its core ,
allowing for pilots to enjoy the advanta ges aviation unlocks while focusing on the key
aspects that make a new urbanist community attractive,” says Jon Ricketts, partner in
The Fields. “This concept is unique to aviation, as other developments don’t cater to
the non-aviation spouse or family. We wanted a community that our spouses would be
proud to call home and invite their friends to visit.”

In addition to the onsite amenities surrounding a 4 , 300 -fo ot runway, The Fields
is st rategically located in southeastern Tennessee. The area features a long list of
beautiful flying adventures nearby, close proximity to ma jor metropolitan areas, and
a tax-friendly state for residents. By pilots, for pilots—The Fields is the new standard
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FLYTHEFIELDS.COM
 TOP PICKS
in Today’s Light Sport
Aircraft Market
Some LSA favorites for various budgets and missions

BY DAN JOHNSON

The M-8 Eagle’s handling is sprightly without touchiness.

 Light sport aircraft

(LSA) have been

part of the aviation

firmament for almost

20 years, and over

that time some models

established themselves

even as newcomers

regularly arrived. The

way the FAA accepts—

not “certifies”—these

airplanes allows for

rapid improvement,

stimulating fast

progress. Here are

selections from each

segment within this

exciting category.
COURTESY ORLICAN

planeandpilotmag.com 23
 TOP PICKS
The Evektor Harmony is a next-gen-
eration model following its SportStar,
which will forever hold the title of the
first special LSA accepted by the FAA
in April 2005. Flight Design’s CT was
accepted on the same day.
Being first often conveys some ad-
vantages, but in an industry where
new ideas often emerge, a success-
ful producer cannot long rest on its
past achievements. Based in an avia-
tion-rich area of the Czech Republic,
Evektor steadily upgraded SportStar
through a series of alterations. Later,
the company introduced Harmony
with added sophistication.
The Harmony uses a more ad-
vanced compound wing—the leading
edge does not form a straight line—to
bring performance to the top of the
category (restricted by present regu-
lation, which may change with a new
rule known as MOSAIC, or Modern-
ization of Special Airworthiness Cer-
tificates). Pilots who fly a Harmony
say it feels like a legacy GA airplane.
Evektor Harmony:
• 120 knot cruise
• 615 pound useful load
• 46 inch wide cabin
• 700 nm range
The Harmony uses a more advanced compound wing to bring performance to the top of the category.
COURTESY EVEKTOR
The Jabiru J-230D, hailing from
Australia, is the result of years of
development, beginning long before
LSA came along. When FAA’s rule hit
in 2004, the Down Under designer
and manufacturer was quick to adapt
its kit products to the new market.
The J-230D resembles the compa-
ny’s J-400, a four-seater. That many
seats aren’t permitted on an LSA, so
out they came, leaving an aft interior
bigger than that of a Cessna 150. A
third door, sized for people, makes
for the easiest luggage area loading
among LSAs, so taking along your
pet is easily accomplished.
Jabiru is a rare airframe builder
that also manufactures its own en-
gine. When you hear the word “Jab-
iru” (a large bird), you need to think
airplane and powerplant, though the
engines are also used on other air-
frames. A J-230D with the 6-cylinder
Jabiru 3300 can readily hit the top
speed among LSA—cementing its
place as a top model in the category.
Jabiru J-230D:
• 120 knot cruise
• 507 pound useful load
• 45 inch wide cabin
• 675 nm range
The Texas Aircraft Colt relies on
the great success of a predecessor
Brazilian design, but the Colt is all-
American. One of the newer aircraft
to the LSA fleet in the U.S., develop-
ers had the advantage of seeing what
pilots were buying…and what they
were requesting.
With its conventional yoke con-
trol, the Colt breaks a familiar mold
in LSAs, an overwhelming major-
ity of which use joysticks in various
forms. A refined aircraft, the Colt is
beautifully appointed inside and out,
attracting pilots seeking a legacy GA
airplane look in a ground-up-new de-
sign that can be operated by a sport
pilot or higher-certificated pilot ex-
ercising the no-medical privilege of
the LSA category.
Built entirely in Hondo, Texas,
with solid local support, the Colt
joins the best of an experienced Bra-
zilian aircraft designer with Ameri-
can know-how and airplane building
capability right here in the U.S.
Texas Aircraft Colt:
• 118 knot max cruise
• 469 pound useful load
• 44 inch wide cabin
• 800 nm range
 Seaplanes quickly earn a special place in some aviators’ hearts because of the versatility of amphibious gear.
SEAPLANE LSA
Seaplanes quickly earn a special
place in some aviators’ hearts be-
cause of the unique ability to land
on water and for the versatility that
amphibious gear affords. FAA recog-
nized this interest and allowed 110
pounds more gross weight for quali-
fying seaplanes, and it also permitted
amphibious gear. With a water bird,
you have vastly more places to make
a landing, whether for a pleasant vis-
it or an emergency.
Vickers Aircraft closely observed
American brand ICON after the Cali-
fornia designer made a splash with its
A5 LSA seaplane. New Zealand-based
Vickers saw an opportunity to achieve
even more with its Wave.
Engineers took a different ap-
proach to creating the Wave. Using
modern CAD methods and software
similar to what Boeing or Lockheed
COURTESY VICKERS AIRCRAFT
practice, Vickers worked for years
before unveiling a product, but when
it did, it flew “right out of the box.”
The company remains in testing as
it works toward FAA acceptance but
believes it can swiftly move to man-
ufacturing because of the detailed
preparation work. Indeed, elements
are already being produced.
The Wave first tempted buyers with
prices substantially below the ICON
A5’s eye-watering $375,000, although
continued improvements and the lat-
est engine from Rotax have pushed
up its costs. Wave is an intriguing
new amphibian loaded with special
features and boasting a large interior
complete with sliding doors.
Vickers Wave:
• 120 knot max cruise
• 650 pound useful load
• 53 inch wide cabin
• 1,850 pound max gross weight
(via granted FAA exemption)
Scoda Aeronautica’s Super Petrel
started its life in France. It was much
different before the team at Edra,
now Scoda Aeronautica, took over in
Brazil. Here’s another seaplane entry
from the South American nation that
is big in aviation. The Super Petrel
sets itself apart from all others with
its biwing construction. You may not
think that’s logical in the modern
world, but the Super Petrel is a high-
ly efficient aircraft. Plenty of wing
area helps it leave the water faster.
The shorter the water run, the less
strain on an airframe. LSA seaplanes
are masterful at this task, jumping off
the water in a few seconds. Higher
power to weight helps, but Scoda
wanted to go even further.
Scoda’s XP designation for the Su-
per Petrel means extra performance,
but you also get more airplane. The
airframe was extended by 10 inches,
bringing with it a bounty of benefits,
including more luggage area. With
Rotax’s potent 141 hp (max) 915iS
engine atop the center of gravity, the
Super Petrel will leap out of the wa-
ter with great energy.
Scoda Petrel XP:
• 110 knot cruise
• 570 pound useful load
• 46 inch wide cabin
• 330 foot water takeoff
planeandpilotmag.com 25
 Aerotrek’s A-240 has been so consistently popular that deliveries stretch out several months.
SPECIAL APPEAL
We like different cars, houses, and
movies. We like specialized aircraft as
well. These three serve different pur-
poses. One is a highly refined “Cub-
like” design from Europe. Another is
one of the new batch of high-wing LSA
aimed at the coming MOSAIC regula-
tions. The third is another brand-new
design that takes performance to the
edge of what the FAA may allow un-
der the new rule.
Zlin’s Norden is what some call a
Cub-like, in that it somewhat resem-
bles the iconic Piper Cub. It could
hardly be more different despite its
familiar fuselage shape and planform.
The Norden fairly bristles with fea-
tures and refinements.
The Norden is a true STOL per-
former, with its aluminum-structured
wings equipped with electrically con-
trolled leading-edge slats. It has been
designed and tested for short-field
and off-runway capabilities. While this
new model gained FAA acceptance in
early 2022, the Norden follows several
COURTESY AEROTREK; OPPOSITE PAGE: ORLICAN
other models, each building on the
previous.
The Norden flew excellently with
100 hp, because of its relatively low
weight. Now fitted with the 141 hp Ro-
tax 915iS, the airplane wants to jump
into the air at the slightest encourage-
ment from its pilot.
26 SEPTEMBER 2023 Ç Plane&Pilot
A wide door allows easier access
to both tandem seats. The Norden is
well equipped with modern avionics,
so while you might fly it in unprepared
areas, you’ll be fully prepared with in-
formation on big bright screens.
Zlin Norden:
• 118 knot max cruise
• 518 pound useful load
• 45 degree Fowler flaps
• 800 nm range
The Airplane Factory’s Sling HW,
or High Wing, is an all-new design
clearly aimed at FAA’s coming MO-
SAIC regulation. A quick glance at the
specifications illustrates that Sling
HW is well outside the current regu-
lation for LSA. That’s OK for now. It
can start with a kit or as an import
already built in the experimental ex-
hibition category.
Numbers are bigger than for a
present-day LSA, and that’s great if
you seek extra capability. Be prepared
to pay for it. Most MOSAIC LSA un-
veiled to date are often priced well
into the $200,000s, and several ex-
ceed $300,000. Still, that’s much less
than a comparable legacy GA aircraft,
and the Sling HW is big, comfortable,
and well-equipped. A sleek composite
exterior helps it outperform similar
models.
These MOSAIC LSA or MLSA
are going to greatly expand the LSA
range, and Sling producer TAF has
long been an innovator. It is also su-
premely confident in its designs and
loves to demonstrate that by literally
flying a new design all the way around
the world. The Sling has done so sev-
eral times.
The Aircraft Factory
Sling HW:
• 142 knot max cruise
• 1,000 pound useful load
• Four seats
• 830 nm range
TL Ultralight’s Sparker is the new-
est from the well-established Czech
producer. The company’s name refers
to a European term for an aircraft
type smaller and lighter than light
sport aircraft. Yet the Sparker is ready
for the newest FAA regulation basis
even before it’s released.
The Sparker follows a tandem de-
sign called “Stream” that introduces
ideas carried into it. One big leap for-
ward—especially when the airframe
is propelled by Rotax 141 hp 915iS en-
gine—is cruise speed. At 170 knots,
the Sparker becomes competitive
with legacy aircraft like Cirrus’ SR20
at a fraction of the price.
Fast for cross-country flying, the
Sparker boasts a generous cabin
and spacious luggage area, easily
accessed through a door on the pi-
lot’s side. The panel also supports
the pilot with three Garmin G3X
touch screens. Deluxe throughout
and handsomely built, the Sparker is
ready for MOSAIC. The first models
in the U.S. will be certificated as ex-
perimental exhibition.
TL Ultralight Sparker:
• 170 knot max cruise
• 548 pound useful load
• 49 inch wide cabin
• 750 nm range
AFFORDABLE
Affordability is critical for most pi-
lots. Those with larger budgets can
choose from many grand choices,
but that leaves out a lot of pilots—
or, more important, perhaps, would-
be pilots. The fantastic news is that
despite high inflation and other chal-
lenges, low-cost aircraft are available
with diverse choices.
Aerotrek’s A-240 has been so
consistently popular that deliveries
stretch out several months. Although
worth the wait, impatient buyers
enjoy a growing supply of used Aer-
The Orlican M-8 Eagle is an airplane that looks familiar yet isn’t quite what you expect.
otrek models, represented since the
beginning of LSA by Rob Rollison.
The Kitfox is a well-known design
that evolved from the earlier Avid
Flyer, as did the Aerotrek. A resem-
blance is easily seen, but the designs
have differentiated over many years
of manufacturing (the pioneering
Avid Flyer predates the LSA category
by many years).
In the Czech Republic, Aeropro
has been steadily producing aircraft
since 1990 and can now boast more
than 650 aircraft flying around the
world with the U.S. as a significant
market. Aeropro chose not to grow
sharply at early demand, instead
keeping a calm hand on the throttle.
As a result, the company built an ex-
perienced workforce with low turn-
over fabricating aircraft in a simple
yet highly professional manner.
Loaded with qualities, such as fold-
ing wings, and with sprightly perfor-
mance, Aerotrek boasts a reasonably
modest price tag.
Aeropro A-240:
• 112 knot max cruise
• 570 pound useful load
• 44 inch wide cabin
• 525 nm range
The Orlican M-8 Eagle is an air-
plane that looks familiar yet isn’t
quite what you expect. As soon as I
explain that it’s an 80 percent-scale
Cessna Skylane, some will recognize
it immediately. Overall, it’s about half
the plane: half the seats, half the use-
ful load, and half the weight. Howev-
er, it’s also one-third the price, com-
paring a M-8 Eagle to a new 182.
Orlican is unknown to most Ameri-
cans, but the company has been in busi-
ness for 60 years and does high-caliber
work for major aircraft manufacturers.
The principal designer created a simi-
lar aircraft for another company but
left to join the much larger Orlican to
see his Eagle to market.
Flying the machine shows further
differences. A Skylane flies as a large
luxury car drives, a bit ponderously
compared to the far more responsive
Eagle. Handling is sprightly without
touchiness, a welcome combination.
A composite exterior helps the Eagle
nearly reach the LSA speed limit.
Orlican M-8 Eagle:
• 118 knot max cruise
• 592 pound useful load
• 46 inch wide cabin
• 650 nm range
 The Merlin Lite is a single-seater,
one of only two in this article. The
Merlin Lite can qualify as a Part 103
ultralight vehicle and take advan-
tage of the least regulated sector in
all of aviation. The entire rule can
be printed on both sides of a single
standard piece of paper. No pilot cer-
tificate is required, nor is a medical,
or even N-numbers. Some say this is
freedom in aviation.
However, pilots who believe they
know Part 103 ultralights conjure an
image of a super simple “tube-and-
rag” aircraft, where the pilot sits out
in the open flying 35 mph…not that
we should find anything the least bit
wrong with that. Whatever your Part
103 impression, the Merlin Lite will
make you think differently.
Here’s an all-metal, fully enclosed,
well-equipped aircraft that you can
acquire for less than the average price
of a new car in 2023. While a single-
The Merlin Lite is a single-seater and can qualify as a Part 103 ultralight vehicle.
seater may not fit everyone’s needs,
airplanes are commonly flown solo,
so why pay for what you rarely use?
Merlin Lite:
• 55-knot cruise
• on floats or motorglider
• all-metal
• least regulation/lowest cost
KITBUILT
Building your own aircraft is much
more than saving a buck. For most, it
is a learning experience, use of crafts-
manship, or simply an absorbing
hobby. When you’re done assembling
your own airplane, you will know it in
a way few pilots know their aircraft.
You can also have precisely what you
want, and you can change it anytime
you wish.
Lockwood Aircraft’s AirCam is no
LSA, but it might qualify as a MOSAIC
LSA. Meanwhile, the AirCam has been
such a hit that 200 have been built as
kits. An AirCam looks somewhat un-
orthodox with its twin aft-mounted
Rotax engines on a half-open-cockpit
design, but you need to know why it
looks this way.
The AirCam was custom-designed
and built for one job: taking National
Geographic-grade cover story photos
of Namibian jungles and African wild-
life. The country’s terrain is utterly
unforgiving. Clearings are few and
small. The photographer, seated up
front for photo missions, needs huge
visibility and no obstructions. Plus,
they wish to fly at the speed of nature
—that is, slowly. An AirCam accom-
plishes all this like it was designed for
it…because it was.
Yet pilots have discovered the Air-
Cam offers flight qualities and ver-
satility unmatched in any other air-
craft, and that has created a growing
group of AirCam enthusiasts. Some
 Lockwood Aircraft's AirCam is no LSA, but it might qualify as a MOSAIC LSA.
fly on floats, in some cases with three
tandem seats.
Lockwood AirCam:
• Climbs on one engine
• 800 pound useful load (Gen 3)
• Loiters at 30 knots
• 6 hours of endurance
Composite FX’s XET is perhaps
the most unusual aircraft in this
selection, but for some it may be
completely mesmerizing. XET is the
high end of a line of single-place he-
licopters, the smallest of which (XEL
model) can qualify as a Part 103 ul-
tralight needing no pilot certificate.
Hundreds are flying successfully, a
tribute to the original Canadian de-
sign by a non-helicopter pilot.
Today, the XET is expertly built by
Composite FX in northern Florida.
The company has vast experience in
composites, and the owner is a heli-
copter fan. The linkup worked well,
and today the company has a steady
enterprise with a loyal following.
COURTESY AEROMARINE; LOCKWOOD
The “T” in XET stands for turbine.
Composite FX’s engine shop modi-
fies T62-T2A Solar Turbine engines,
often used as an auxiliary power unit,
and they produce a steady 95 hp. In
the hands of skilled helicopter pilots,
performance on the XET is impres-
sive. Kitbuilt, the XET can get air-
borne for less than $100,000. That’s
amazing.
Composite FX XET:
• 70 knot cruise
• 400 pound useful load
• 10.5 gph fuel burn
• 1.9 hours of endurance
CGS Aviation’s Hawk is for fun.
Trying to identify a work purpose
would completely shoot down its
charm. If the purpose of flying lies in
elevating yourself and perhaps find-
ing joy in the air, of all the aircraft
in this piece, the Hawk may be most
likely to put a smile on your face.
All aircraft here are top choices.
Depending on your interest, these
machines are capable of displaying
impressive performance. The Hawk is
a far simpler proposition. Designed in
the early 1980s with more than 2,500
flying, it exhibits easy handling, stable
flying, economic purchase and opera-
tion, low maintenance, and modest
cost. What’s not to like?
The Hawk is versatile, available
as a Part 103 ultralight (through a
related company), a kit aircraft, or a
fully built special LSA, so you don’t
have to construct it. The best proof
you can find—ask any owner what
he likes about his Hawk and allow
plenty of time for that conversation.
Hawk Arrow II:
• 70 knot max cruise
• 550 pound useful load
• Tricycle or tailwheel gear
• 300 hour build time
(fully built available)
You have many more choices than
those portrayed here. This was a
broad and varied sampling, but it was
only a narrow view of the affordable
aviation field. To offer a sampling of
the 158 aircraft the FAA has accepted
as special (fully built) light sport air-
craft, plus more than 100 kit-built
models, I’ve divided the 15 subject
aircraft into five categories.
These 15 aircraft are good rep-
resentatives but between them ac-
count for just 6 percent of the mod-
els available. Buyers enjoy many
diverse choices, one of which might
be perfect. I encourage you to ex-
plore them more fully at ByDanJohn-
son.com (to become AffordableAvia-
tion.com over the next few months),
now a member of the FLYING Media
Group family.
planeandpilotmag.com 29
How McFarlane Aviation
KEEPS ’EM FLYING
A Kansas aftermarket supplier does its part to ensure GA’s survival.

BY LEROY COOK
 hen David McFarlane
bought a country air-
port in middle America
for his agricultural ap-
plication and aircraft re-
pair business back in 1979,
he didn’t realize what the
surrounding fields would
hold 44 years later. Today,
McFarlane Aviation Products
is a powerhouse supplier of after-
market and OEM aircraft parts that
fill a 35,000-item catalog. Without
its support, keeping legacy general
aviation airplanes in the air, as well
as building many of the new ones,
would be much more difficult.
We recently dropped in at the Mc-
Farlane Aviation complex near Bald-
win City, Kansas, to see what goes
on there, expecting little more than
a ramshackle set of old buildings
beside Vinland Valley Aerodrome
(K64), located out in the country
4 miles north of the town of about
5,000 residents. Our first surprise
was the sheer beauty of the place. As
the name implies, the tree-shroud-
ed valley is a far cry from flat, arid
Kansas wheat country. This is the
eastern part of the state, with roll-
ing hills where well-watered streams
and oil-field pumps are found all
over the farmland.
A public-use, privately owned fa-
cility, Vinland Valley offers 3,000
feet of manicured grass, with the
usual assortment of hangars along-
side. But the adjacent industrial
buildings of McFarlane Aviation are
as modern as you’ll find anywhere,
PAUL ANDREWS PHOTOGRAPHY

with 150 employees working in more

than 100,000 square feet of space,
busily cranking out the replacement
widgets airplanes need to maintain
airworthiness.

planeandpilotmag.com 31
 TAKING THE TOUR
We were shown around the sprawl-
ing set of interconnected buildings
by business development manager
John Cowan, who gave us a progres-
sive tour outlining the firm’s growth
over the years. Founder Dave McFar-
lane and his partner, Fred McClena-
han, planned well, just like their ap-
proach to making aftermarket parts:
Do it better; don’t just duplicate.
Buildings A and B have now been
linked to Buildings C, D, and E, and
the company has plenty of space and
vision for more to follow. Although
now retired, McFarlane remains ac-
tive—his home is just 80 feet away
from Building B’s front door, and
he stops by nearly every day. Full
disclosure: We originally came to
McFarlane Aviation to buy some
D.A.M. (David A. McFarlane) win-
dow cleaner, which we were told was
a great formulation he created to de-
bug windshields, as well as his trade-
marked brand of aircraft pulley oil
Business development manager John Cowan led the way through the complex of McFarlane Aviation buildings.
PAUL ANDREWS PHOTOGRAPHY
32 SEPTEMBER 2023 Ç Plane&Pilot
and exhaust slip-joint lube.
Turnover of the labor force is rela-
tively low, Cowan said, with many of
the workers having decades at Mc-
Farlane on their resume. They were
eager to show us what they produce
and how they use modern machinery
and materials to make parts that are
better than those initially installed.
Sometimes the original components
were just products of their time,
made before today’s manufacturing
techniques existed, and it may have
been that their engineering didn’t
anticipate that the product would
still be in use 40 to 50 years later.
By 1990, the partners had given up
trying to spray crops, run an airport,
and operate an FBO. In 1993 McFar-
lane began to focus on product de-
velopment, working with the FAA
to gain parts manufacturer approval
(PMA) for replacement components
that were cheaper and better than
OEM stock items—frequently of
limited availability, and expensive as
well. At first, approvals were slow to
obtain owing to lethargic FAA review,
but as the agency found McFarlane’s
engineering and manufacturing pro-
cesses to be well-founded, the PMAs
became easier to secure. Today, Mc-
Farlane holds 2,800 FAA-PMA ap-
provals for replacement parts, with
more to follow.
At this point, McFarlane parts are
not just aftermarket swap-outs but
will often be found in factory-new
airplanes. The pushrods and engine
controls on piston-engine Cessnas
are a McFarlane product, as are the
Beechcraft King Air airstair door
support cables and all Piper flight
control cables. McFarlane also offers
custom fabrication service to dupli-
cate some vintage airplane cables
and controls that are impossible or
difficult to find.
As we were being greeted, Cowan
had some examples of McFarlane’s
artwork spread out on the confer-
ence table, some of which we rec-
PAUL ANDREWS PHOTOGRAPHY
ognized, while there were others we
had no idea were in the product line.
There was an improved fuel selector
valve for a Cessna 172, a support ca-
ble for airstair entrances, a seat rail,
replacement door hinges for Cessna
singles, and an assortment of vernier
engine controls. McFarlane’s current
catalog, now being updated, runs to
500 pages in tiny type. Its purpose is
for selection and guidance, not pric-
ing, providing a valuable resource for
maintenance facilities and restorers.
Scott Still, president of McFarlane
Aviation, paused a planning meet-
ing long enough to welcome us and
share thoughts about the company.
It was obvious that the expansion of
the physical plant is far from over.
The new Building E, just completed
at the time of our visit in early sum-
mer, would be filled by year’s end,
and more space will be required in
the future.
MORE THAN JUST MAKING
There are three legs supporting the
McFarlane formula for success: de-
sign, manufacturing, and distribu-
tion. On the distribution side, the
company also stocks commonly
needed items, such as engine oil and
light bulbs, plus it can supply replace-
ment plastic fairings and trim parts.
Many specialty suppliers come to
McFarlane to get their products into
wider distribution. The company
claims to be the world’s largest dis-
tributor of MT-Propellers props, and
it carries items from Whelen Aero-
space, AeroLEDs, Tempest Aero, and
dozens of other well-known firms.
McFarlane has also purchased
some respected aftermarket parts
suppliers, such as Airforms, a Wasil-
la, Alaska, builder of replacement
engine baffles. Air-cooled engines re-
quire tight baffling for longevity and
efficiency, and these oft-neglected
parts take a beating over the years.
We saw stocks of baffling compo-
nents during our tour, ready for ship-
ping. Airforms recently announced
the availability of PMA baffles for all
Cessna 152 configurations, including
the 1983 through ‘86 models.
As we began our walking visit
from Building B, which was initially
filled with administrative offices,
we entered the flight controls cable
department. Supervisor Dan Wilcox
showed us how McFarlane builds
flight control cables up to 90 feet
long, each one pull-tested to assure
integrity. The swagged balls and fit-
tings on the cable ends are attached
by special swagging machines, and
we were assured the cable would
fail before the attached ball would
come loose. In the airstair support
cable department, we were shown
how cushioning silicone is injected
underneath the sheath covering. The
leather covers of King Air door ca-
bles are carefully hand-finished with
a baseball-style stitch.
In Building C, erected in 2016,
production supervisor Lindsay
Hamm proudly showed us how her
department builds shimmy damp-
ers, steering bungees and rods, and
the all-important steering boots that
keep exhaust gases and fumes from
an engine fire out of the cockpit. Mc-
Farlane’s shimmy damper design is
temperature compensating, allow-
ing for fluid inside the cylinder to
expand into an internal chamber to
avoid stress on seals during tempera-
ture changes.
The shipping department is also in
Building C, where we were amazed
to watch a big automated box cut-
ter whack a custom-size shipping
carton out of a sheet of corrugated
cardboard, avoiding the wasted cubic
inches sometimes incurred by using
only standard premade containers.
This right-size approach reduces
shipping costs, not a small sum for
an operation as large as McFarlane.
Small details, like part number
tags, are produced with a laser-en-
graving machine, so that they can
remain legible over years of service,
which can be important if a replace-
ment is ever needed. Push-pull con-
trols, incorporating metal vernier
knobs rather than plastic ones, are
stored in relaxed suspension, not
tight coils. Over in the custom-ca-
bling division, a pile of ancient push-
pull actuators was awaiting duplica-
tion. We were told a replacement
control could be built in as little as
one week if needed for an aircraft on
ground (AOG) situation.
Beaded aluminum Cessna-type
control surface skins are available
from McFarlane, as we could see
from a stack of the corrugated piec-
es. The company does all of its own
beading to maintain strict quality
control and uniformity. Replacement
seat rails, and the accompanying
components, are another big item at
McFarlane, not just for the Cessna
fleet but for others as well. Brown-
line-style tracks are also in stock.
McFarlane, according to Cowan,
has four designated airworthiness
representatives (DARs) in house,
allowing it to furnish required doc-
umentation to accompany parts
headed for domestic and export cus-
tomers. In the stockroom, he pointed
out another new product line McFar-
lane now distributes, Barry engine
mounts and vibration isolators.
Moving on to the fireproof door-
way leading into Building D, we
entered a wonderland of CNC and
machining where many McFarlane
products are brought to life out of
bare metal. Tooling is created there
for the firm’s other departments, as
its in-house manufacturing machin-
ery wears down from constant use.
A large alcohol-wash parts cleaner
makes sure bare pieces headed for
anodizing and powder coating are
free of contaminants, a necessary
step to assure a flawless coating.
Keeping all this manufacturing
going in the age of computerized in-
formation requires an instantaneous
exchange of data. Cowan pointed out
the overhead web of IT network ca-
bling, noting that nothing is on pa-
per, and by every department having
access to the latest revision of prod-
uct “drawings,” everyone is continu-
ally working on the same page.
Without the support of PMA sup-
pliers like McFarlane building im-
proved replacements for our fleet of
aging airplanes, U.S. and worldwide
general aviation could not continue
to exist. Nothing lasts forever, de-
spite the best engineering available
at the time of an airplane’s construc-
tion. It would be sad to see a perfect-
ly flyable aircraft remain grounded
for want of a hinge, clevis, or support
bracket. Avoiding such situations is
what McFarlane does every working
day.
planeandpilotmag.com 35
Fifty years of memories come
fllooding back on one last run at the
controls of a Piper Super Cub.

BY KEN WITTEKIEND
 I have decided there is much to
be gained traveling this way, alone
with no reservations, reminding
Just before dawn, the Piper Super Cub lifts me of the old sailors who set out in
whaling ships leaving Gloucester and
Boston for the back side of the world,
off the small central Texas runway and climbs not knowing if or when they might
return. The country below has wit-
nessed other adventurers, including
a few hundred feet before leveling off. Spanish explorers who walked in the
tracks of the ancients seeking their
gods through vision quests into the
arroyos and washes that would later
shelter the Apache and Comanche as
The underside of the wing catches the It responds sluggishly to the control the colonists and soldiers fought for a
slanting morning light as I watch the stick. But, like an old draft horse, foothold here. All of them felt the pull
world waking below. The limestone it dutifully plows along the isobars of unseen shores. That same feeling
ridges light up first, leaving the valleys carrying both of us toward an uncer- still resonates with some of us who
in deep shadow. Riding the butter-soft tain future. seem to lack impulse control.
air before the thermals stir, I follow
the old air routes that lead me across
the high plains of the Llano Estacado.
The morning smells of sage and cedar,
cool enough to make me close the air
vents. Soon the heat will force me
higher in search of smoother air aloft,
but for now, as the miles slip easily
toward the next fuel stop, there is
plenty of time to reflect on this lat-
est adventure.
After a lifetime of flying for a living,
it is finally time for one last logbook
entry. Faded blue eyes that match my
chambray long-sleeve shirt see an old
man’s face reflected in the windscreen
reminding me that time is a slippery
SOB stealing opportunity and capa-
bility without warning, and that I had
probably waited longer than I should
have to launch this journey.
The airplane is much the same, hav-
ing spent a lot of years working as a
duster and bushplane from Texas to
Alaska. It smells of hot oil and avgas
and the leather seat is cracked and
worn. The varnish is fractured and
faded on the birch floorboards, and
the scuff plates are polished silver
from souls and soles dancing on the
rudder pedals. Oil stains the patched
yellow fabric, and the airplane feels
ADOBE STOCK

heavy with all the gear I thought

might be needed in the backcountry.

38 SEPTEMBER 2023 Ç Plane&Pilot

 The old yellow lab sleeping in the
back wakes up when we stop in Pecos
for gas. White around the muzzle, he
needs a little help getting out so he can
let everyone know he has been here by
raising his leg on several appropriate
spots. An attractive lady working the
counter in the FBO runs my credit
card while inspecting the dog who
gives her his best “I-really-need-an-
ear-scratch” look. Works every time.
“What’s his name?” she asks as he
nuzzles her hand for another round.
“That’s Banjo,” I reply.
I nod to the old guys around the
table in the lobby. “How are you
today?” one asks as we pass by. “Older,
fatter, and slower,” I answer, which
stumps him for a moment before he
chuckles at the unexpected reply.
“Where you headed?”
I answer, “Mostly west,” although
my requirements for tonight’s desti-
nation include a warm bed, cold beer,
and cheap fuel. I have learned not to
plan too far ahead.
As I finish paying my bill, a couple of
brash, young corporate pilots sporting
the requisite epaulets, white shirts,
and Ray-Bans are making small talk
with the woman behind the counter.
I catch their dismissive glances at my
grimy ball cap, Wranglers, and faded
shirt before they return to their con-
versation about duty hours, layoffs,
and crap wages. Briefly, the woman
and I lock eyes. I can tell she shares
my silent opinion of this pair, so I
wink, and she gives me a little eye
roll. Silently, I wish them well, but
mostly I am thankful I never had to
go down that path.
As I return to the aircraft, an old
fellow is standing nearby, studying
the machine with a knowing eye. He
has registered the big tires and Alaska
mods, sized me up, and determined
I was fit for conversation. Gray hair
and stubble, eyes alert as a mink, he
reminded me of a marooned pirate.
“I had one like it many years ago. It
ended up wrecked on a gravel bar
on the Susitna [River in Alaska].
Still there, I suppose. Mind if I look
inside?” I nodded and he stuck his
head into the cabin, running his
hands over the controls, breathing
 deeply, eyes far away. After a moment,
he turns back and says, “Enjoy the
ride son. It will be over before you
know it.”
Banjo settles in as I crank the
Lycoming, which catches on the third
blade and rumbles into a smooth idle.
Leaning the engine for taxi in the heat-
thinned air of this West Texas airport,
we make our way along the cracked
asphalt taxiway to the active. The wind
is kicking up across the runway, so I sit
up straight and focus on the takeoff.
The old taildragger, like a fractious
stud horse, has a way of punishing any
ADOBE STOCK
40 SEPTEMBER 2023 Ç Plane&Pilot
woolgathering on my part.
Just northwest of the Caprock, I
see the first buildups forming ahead.
“These will bear watching,” I think,
wondering if this leg to Las Cruces,
New Mexico, will be possible as the
afternoon thermals carry the moisture
upward to form the typical air mass
thunderstorms. Scrunching down in
the seat, I try to get comfortable for
the three hours to come.
Vast expanses of farmland flow
beneath as I watch a lonely tractor
pull a gang plow across a dryland farm,
trailing dust plumes that swirl like
wingtip vortices. The farmer is turning
ground once marked by the hoofprints
of Longhorn cattle on the Santa Fe
Trail. Some of the water crossings still
bear the scars of wagon wheels and
hold the bones of settlers who perished
under the Comanche moon.
In the wavering distance, the
indigo outline of the Sangre de Cristo
Mountains appear ghost-like on the
horizon. These ancient peaks, still
snowcapped, emerge slowly from
the salt pans and sagebrush, climbing
above the horizon like clipper ships
rising from the sea.
 Flying these long legs provides
ample time for reflection, and my
mind drifts back to other journeys,
most of them solo, others shared with
companions, many of whom are gone
“
Flying these long legs provides ample time
for reflection, and my mind drifts back...
now but whose memories often fly
with me. But today, at the end of the
run, there is a buyer who will soon sit
in this seat—for the time has come to
close out this chapter. Fifty years of
memories reduced to lines in an old
logbook. One last entry still to come.
So many adventures, from Mulegé
to Medford, Skagway to Terlingua. A
few bumps and scrapes along the way,
but through it all, the feel of freedom,
life lived close to the margins where
the stories are richer.
Ahead, there is a smoke plume rising,
and over the radio I hear the aeronau-
tical cowboys, down in the canyons
driving their Neptunes and Martins,
red scars marking the retardant runs.
What I would give to sit with them at
their firebase and listen for a while,
but there is no time, for I am due in
Tucson, Arizona, this evening.
Off to the north, cauliflower build-
ups trail a curtain of rain, drifting
slowly with the wind. On the surface,
the downburst washes the mesa like
a sailor up early cleaning the decks.
Brilliant white cumulus clouds drop
wisps of virga adding blue-gray colors
to the afternoon palate of red rocks
and dusty tans of the desert below.
An adobe ranch house with a weath-
ered barn and a set of catch pens sits
alongside a gravel county road. In
the yard, a rusted pickup and Farmall
tractor suggest a common tragedy of
abandoned dreams. Beyond, the coun-
try climbs into canyons and mesas
marked by jeep trails that seem to
lead nowhere. A land gone lonesome.
Ahead, the interstate marks the
route to my destination. Long-haul
truckers, pickups pulling cattle trail-
ers, and tourists in fancy RVs crawl
along the concrete ribbons while I
drift westward above. Traffic above
and below is picking up, and I get back
to the formal dance of vectors and
clearances until finally I taxi into the
modern FBO, pull the mixture, and
watch as the blades coast to a stop. I
sit for a moment before unbuckling
the harness, unplugging my headset,
and climbing down where I am met
by a line attendant who welcomes me
with a cold bottle of water and a smile.
Just beyond, the buyer is waiting,
eager it seems. “Good trip?” he asks.
I pause a moment to consider: “Just
right.” Grabbing my backpack, Banjo
and I head for the exit. PP
planeandpilotmag.com 41
AMELIA EARHART’S
ENDURING LEGACY
The famous aviator’s birthplace museum and the hangar
museum are keeping her incredible history alive.

STORY & IMAGES BY AMY WILDER

ioneering aviator and cultural icon
Amelia Earhart captured the imagina-
tion of multiple generations. While she
is perhaps most famous for her mysteri-
ous disappearance now, she was a well-
known and accomplished personality in
her own time, friends with the likes of
Bing Crosby and Eleanor Roosevelt. She
set or broke several aviation records,
cheered on the accomplishments of
other pilots, and did her part to stir
the public’s awareness and interest in
the art of flight.
The Amelia Earhart Birthplace
Museum and the Amelia Earhart
Hangar Museum, located in her birth-
place of Atchison, Kansas, both work
diligently to preserve her legacy. The
birthplace museum, owned and oper-
ated by the Ninety-Nines—an organi-
zation Earhart served as its first presi-
dent—steeps visitors in the early years
of her development and emergence
of her adventurous spirit years before
she stepped into a cockpit. The hangar
museum at Amelia Earhart Airport
(K59) guides visitors on an immer-
sive experience highlighting her per-
sonal history and the science behind
her accomplishments.

planeandpilotmag.com 43
CHILDHOOD ROOTS
“Throughout the grade school period,
which was mostly spent in Atchison, I
remember having a very good time. There
were regular games and school and mud-
ball fights, picnics, and exploring raids up
and down the bluffs of the Missouri River.
The few sandstone caves in that part of the
country added so much to our fervor that
exploring became a rage.”
— Earhart from her book, The Fun of It
To see how young Earhart’s imagi-
nation took wing, one needs only visit
her childhood bedroom and take a
look out of the window. The house at
223 North Terrace is a Gothic Revival
44 SEPTEMBER 2023 Ç Plane&Pilot
perched atop the Missouri River’s
stately bluffs. Young Amelia’s room
is an aerie with an unimpeded view
overlooking the “Big Muddy’s” valley
and the blue line of bluffs miles away
in neighboring Missouri.
The house was built by Earhart’s
grandparents, Alfred and Amelia
(Harres) Otis, in 1861, and she was
born there 36 years later in the room
that had been her mother, Amelia
“Amy” (Otis) Earhart’s childhood
bedroom. The youngest Amelia was
a teen when her grandparents died,
and the house passed through pri-
vate owners before the Ninety-Nines
bought the property with the help of
a private donor.
“We were fortunate enough that
Amelia’s younger sister, Muriel,
was alive when the house became a
museum in the 1980s,” said assis-
tant director Mika Schrader. Muriel
was able to give advice from memory
about the arrangement and decor
of the house as it was during the
girls’ childhood.
The various rooms contain artifacts
of Earhart’s life. Some are dedicated
to particular aspects of her story—
such as Muriel’s upstairs bedroom,
which is filled with references to the
various theories surrounding the avia-
tor’s disappearance. These range from
plausible theories, like running out
of fuel and crashing in the Pacific
Ocean, to more ludicrous ones, such
as Amelia reappearing as someone
with another name.
In one of the downstairs parlors,
there’s a framed handprint of the
aviator. Her fingers were long and
slender, logical for a woman who
stood 5 feet, 8 inches. Upstairs sits
a pair of Amelia’s shoes—size 9 and
also narrow.
Grandfather Otis’ downstairs study
is filled with artifacts of Amelia’s
marriage to George Putnam. The for-
mal dining room contains memora-
bilia and artifacts of the Ninety-Nines,
including a photograph of Earhart
with Ruth Nichols and Louise Thaden.
The museum is curated to appeal to
all ages with guided and self-guided
tour options available and group out-
ings available by prior arrangement.
GROWN-UP WINGS
“‘I think I’d like to learn to fly,’ I told the
family casually that evening, knowing
full well I’d die if I didn’t.”
— Earhart from The Fun of It
The Amelia Earhart Hangar
Museum, which celebrated its
grand opening this spring, houses
a Lockheed Electra 10E, the same
model Earhart piloted in attempting
her round-the-world flight. Only two
of this model are known to exist cur-
rently: one at the Museum of Flight
in Seattle, and the hangar museum’s
model, named Muriel, that serves
as the centerpiece of the surround-
ing exhibits.
An AI-enhanced projection of
Earhart, built from footage of an
actor portraying her, greets visitors
in the lobby. The projection speaks
in first person about the aviator’s
planeandpilotmag.com 45

AMELIA EARHART BIRTHPLACE MUSEUM
Address: 223 North Terrace St., Atchison, Kansas
Driving Directions: From Highway 73, take exit 14
onto U.S. Highway 59 North. Turn left onto South
6th Street, and then right onto Kansas Avenue. At
the “T” intersection, turn left on North 2nd Street
and then right on Santa Fe Street. The museum
will be on your right.
PHONE NUMBER: 913-367-4217
HOURS OF OPERATION: 10 a.m.-4 p.m. Tuesday-
Saturday; Noon-5 p.m. Sunday; closed Monday; last
ticket sales at 3:30 p.m.
ADA ACCESSIBLE: Partly, call with questions
AMELIA EARHART HANGAR MUSEUM
Address: 16701 286th Road, Atchison, Kansas
At the Amelia Earhart Memorial Airport (K59)
Driving Directions: From downtown Atchison,
head west on Main Street. Turn left on 286th Road/
Challiss Lane. In 1.1 miles, turn right onto Amelia
Earhart Road.
PHONE NUMBER: 913-372-0021
FBO PHONE: 913-426-5757
HOURS OF OPERATION: 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Wednes-
day-Saturday; Noon-5 p.m. Sunday; closed Monday
and Tuesday
Closed on Easter, Thanksgiving, Christmas, and
special events
ADA ACCESSIBLE: Yes

Ticket Prices for Self-Guided Tours (before tax):
Adults: $10
Adults 50 plus and Military with ID: $8
Students K-12 and College with ID: $6
Children 4 and under: Free
Ticket Prices for Guided Tours (before tax):
Adults: $15
Seniors (50 plus) and Military with ID: $12
Students K-12 and College with ID: $9
Children under 5: Not listed
Notable for kids: The museum offers a junior
pilot program, with fun learning activities and the
chance to earn junior pilot wing pins.
Ticket Prices (before tax):
Adults: $15
Seniors (60 plus) and Military: $12
Children (4-12): $8
Children 3 and under: Free
Group rates are available. Call for details.
Notable for kids: The museum offers a virtual
reality flight experience to test skills in a simulated
Lockheed Vega 5B cockpit. The current cost is $5
per person.
Note: Ticket prices and museum hours may
change. Call ahead to confirm details.

life and invites guests to explore the
nearby exhibits.
There’s a loosely suggested clock-
wise circuit around Muriel, which
guides viewers through a chronologi-
cal exploration of Earhart’s history,
beginning with some of the poignant
and funny events of her childhood—
like building a makeshift roller coaster
from the roof of her family’s home
after visiting the World’s Fair in St.
Louis in 1904 and being impressed by
the real thing.
In addition to Earhart’s career, inter-
active exhibits provide a detailed look
at aerodynamics and the inner work-
ings of the Pratt & Whitney Wasp S3H1
9-cylinder radial engines of her air-
craft. Other displays highlight personal
connections and how they influenced
her career. An upstairs space is devoted
to navigational methods and features
an overhead star map and sextant that
visitors can learn to operate. While the
exhibits are designed to be accessible
to youngsters, they are also appealing
to adults.
The museum at 16701 286th Road
and less than a 10-minute drive from
the birthplace museum is housed in the
same building as the airport FBO, with
large windows allowing pilots to get a
first peek inside from the lobby after
arriving by air. The FBO is spacious and
inviting, with several tie-down spots
just outside. There is a courtesy car
available at the airport, and operations
manager Angela Cairo suggests calling
ahead to inquire about its availability
at 913-426-5757.
ENDURING MYSTERY
AND ACHIEVEMENTS
Whether the mystery surrounding
Earhart’s disappearance in 1937 and
ongoing research efforts piques your
interest, you are curious about the role
of women in aviation, or you would just
like to learn more about pioneering
aviators of the early 20th century, a trip
to Atchison might just be the ticket.
The Amelia Earhart Birthplace
Museum and Amelia Earhart Hangar
Museum represent two extraordinary
attractions that offer immersive expe-
riences to delve into the legendary
aviator’s life and contributions. PP

planeandpilotmag.com 47
 ad decisions are part of
life. In every field, many
have made some excru-
ciatingly poor decisions.
Our regrets to the pub-
lishers who turned down
the Harry Potter franchise. And how
about the actors that had a chance
to be in one of the most popular and
profitable movie franchises, Star Wars?
Definitely, a dog day afternoon turning
that down. Live and learn.
Unfortunately, in the world of avia-
tion, bad decisions can be more than a
mere inconvenience or life lesson. In
fact, they can be the last poor decision
you ever make.
How do we protect ourselves from
bad aeronautical decision-making
(ADM)? One way is to learn from
others’ mistakes. Have you ever read
an NTSB aviation accident report and
thought, “I would never do that! I
would never get in that kind of a situ-
ation.” Well, it’s likely that the subject
of that accident report also said those
very words.
ADM begins well before the wheels
leave the ground. In fact, the decision-
making to scrub a flight should start the
moment you roll out of bed, rubbing
the sleep out of your eyes. Yep, the go/
no-go decision process begins before
the flush of the toilet.
Ask yourself how you’re feeling. Did
you get enough sleep? Remember that
fatigue results in symptoms similar to
being inebriated. Few aviators walking
the face of this planet would think
about drinking and flying. Statistics
prove that, yet they also prove that
there have been more than a few acci-
dents with fatigue contributing to the
accident sequence.
And speaking of inebriation, let’s not
forget the eight-hour rule “from bottle
to throttle.” That well-known saying
uses a standard timeline for pilots to
refrain from alcohol if they have a flight
ADOBE STOCK

in the coming hours. However, many

experts agree that for some individuals,

planeandpilotmag.com 49
eight hours is not enough to rid your
system of the ill effects of alcohol.
Your weight and what you’ve eaten
will generally dictate your tolerance
to its harsh effects. While an eight-
hour period might be enough to pilot
an aircraft safely, many of you might
need considerably more time between
bottle and throttle, even if you are
considered “legal” in the eyes of FAR
91.17 and the law.
In addition, excessive consumption
of alcohol the night before a flight
may cause a severe hangover for your
50 SEPTEMBER 2023 Ç Plane&Pilot
planned next-day sortie. You might
have fun on the dance floor with the
lampshade on your head, but remem-
ber, they make movies about hang-
overs. Throwing caution to the wind
and scrubbing your flight because of
an excruciating hangover might be as
good of a decision as you will make.
Good advice? Scrub the flight, take
two acetaminophen, and call me in
the morning.
How about your stress level? Did a
significant event recently happen that
is weighing heavily on your mind? Job
issues? Family health issues? Spouse/
partner trouble? These can negatively
impact your judgment and might be
a good reason to make that “no-go”
decision and fly another day instead.
In addition to the negative stress-
ors, major positive life events can also
affect judgment. These can include
starting a new job, welcoming a new-
born into your family, getting married,
and even buying a home.
The fact is that any significant life
event, whether positive or negative,
can make it difficult to concentrate and
 can ultimately compromise the safety
of your flight. If you feel overwhelmed,
it’s probably a good indicator for you
to make that “no-go” decision.
Also, take a quick inventory of the
medication you are taking. Did you take
anything that could affect your thought
process and decision-making? Let’s
not forget about herbal supplements
as well. And something as innocuous
as over-the-counter cold medication
could put your head in a tailspin. Be
ADOBE STOCK
prudent and cautious with your medi-
cines. Err on the side of caution.
Once you have passed the IMSAFE
checklist (see the accompanying side-
bar), it simply means that you are
physically and emotionally fit to fly. It
does not mean that you are immune
from bad decisions. Several influences
can tempt you to ignore your personal
minimums leading up to a flight.
Peer pressure is undoubtedly near
the top of the list. Whether the percep-
tion of other pilots negatively influ-
ences you or you want your passengers
to be in awe of your piloting skills,
sometimes you have to say no.
Peer pressure also contributes to
another “malady” that can lead to
your day in the sky ending badly. “Get-
home-itis” is a well-known condition
in aviation circles that contributes to
preventable accidents. It is the over-
whelming desire to depart when other
conditions—such as bad weather,
maintenance issues, or failing any of
the IMSAFE checklist items—dictate
that it’s best to wait until later to fly.
Get-home-itis usually is preceded
by self-induced or passenger-related
pressures to get home. You have
likely read NTSB accident reports
where the probable cause may not
directly state “get-home-itis.” Still,
the report makes evident to the casual
observer that poor pilot judgment,
combined with the crushing desire
to get home, resulted in the often
serious or fatal accident. While you
may survive a singular bout of this
condition, there’s no guarantee, and
the statistics work against you if it
becomes a recurring theme in your
decision-making process.
So, how can you avoid falling into
this potentially fatal trap? After all, you
wouldn’t intentionally make a decision
planeandpilotmag.com 51

FAA’S
‘IMSAFE’
CHECKLIST
ILLNESS: Are you sick or feeling sick?
MEDICATIONS: Have you taken any
medications that could affect your
thought process and decision-making?
This could be something as simple as
over-the-counter cold medication.
STRESS: Are you under any undue stress,
whether positive or negative? Family,
financial, and spouse/partner issues
are common stress inducers. Stress is
known to affect judgment negatively.
ALCOHOL: Even though the eight-hour
rule “from bottle to throttle” is well
known, many experts agree that for some
individuals eight hours is not enough to
rid your system of the ill effects of alcohol.
United Airlines now requires its pilots to
refrain from drinking alcohol for at least
12 hours before reporting for duty.
FATIGUE: Have you had enough sleep and
nutrition? This is something you’ll need to
reevaluate during your preflight. We are
all individuals, so six hours of sleep and a
Big Mac are sufficient for some of us to get
through the day. For others, 10 hours and
a well-balanced meal fit the bill. Whatever
it is for you, ensure you are well rested,
fully nourished, and ready for flight.
EMOTION: Have you experienced any
emotional, upsetting events preceding
your planned flight? Are you dealing with
the severe illness of a family member?
Did you have to spend a day in court?
Did you get into a shouting match with
the neighbor? Were you on the receiving
end of road rage? All these factors can
harm your emotional health and, in turn,
produce additional stress. As noted
above, this is a vicious circle that certainly
could affect your readiness to fly.
that would jeopardize your safety or
that of your passengers.
Our most significant safeguard to
prevent these irreparable mistakes
is to acknowledge—and remain con-
scious of—the fact that we are sus-
ceptible and vulnerable to the flaws
of human nature. It sounds simple
enough, but we all know that admit-
ting your faults—especially every time
they arise—is easier said than done.
The FAA recognizes five hazardous
attitudes for pilots: anti-authority,
impulsivity, invulnerability, macho,
and resignation. Regardless of your
social status, intelligence, or general
goodness as a human being, you can
exhibit one or more of these attitudes
for a moment in time—and, unfor-
tunately, that is all it takes to make
an irreversible mistake. We all must
recognize our potential to adopt these
attitudes and consciously try to avoid
or mitigate the associated risks.
In the end, a good rule is to recog-
nize that a decision to scrub a flight,
extend your pattern, hold over that fix
for another circuit, or say something
doesn’t feel right and return to the
hangar is the best alternative to mak-
ing that one irreversible bad decision.
There are no do-overs. Learn from
others, avoid becoming the statistic
others read about, and say, “It won’t
happen to me.” For some, statistically
speaking, it will happen to them. Don’t
let it be you.
As pilots, we face several challenges
in our quest to enjoy our world of
aviation. We’ve made a significant
financial investment and put in con-
siderable time and effort to become
FAA certificate holders. You could Whether it’s bad ADM or some other
have all the piloting talent of a Top culprit, what if you find yourself aloft
Gun fighter pilot, but if you are lax in and realize you are now in a dangerous
your decision-making, your destiny is situation? This results from a chain
that of a statistic in the worst possible of events that typically precipitates
sense of that word. While most of us the terror that comes once you find
are born with good judgment and the yourself in the unenviable position of
ability to make sound decisions, we all danger in an airplane. And while the
could use a little reminder and reme- steps leading up to that point in time
dial training on what it takes to make might have taken a while to develop, in
good decisions. a moment you realize the seriousness
It’s also wise to remember that while of your predicament, and your reaction
you may think you fly the airplane with is called the “startle effect.”
your hands, you mostly fly it with your The startle effect occurs as a first
head. Make good use of your mind and response to something unexpected
excellent decision-making ability, and that triggers involuntary physiologi-
live to fly another day. cal reflexes. Sweaty palms, increased
 heart rate, and muscle tension are
some of the few physical character-
istics of someone experiencing it.
Decision-making and the inability to
quickly assess the situation will likely
be affected. Luckily, the startle effect
typically lasts less than a second or
two, at which point the return to cog-
nitive thinking and the subsiding of
the condition allows for assessment
of the situation.
While you may be a victim of this
circumstance, you would most likely
experience the psychology of surprise
during any life-threatening airborne
ADOBE STOCK
emergency, regardless of how it devel-
ops, whether because of a bad decision
to take flight or something beyond your
control, such as an engine failure from
a catastrophic component malfunc-
tion. This occurs when the variance
between your expectation and what
presents itself occurs.
Sometimes the surprise supersedes
the startle effect. And, sometimes,
they go hand in hand. Examples of this
would be an engine failure on takeoff
or a sudden foray of a VFR pilot into
IFR conditions. The effects are similar
to the startle effect.
But how can the startle effect lead
back to good ADM? Several factors con-
tribute to it, including fatigue, stress,
distractions, and other things you will
find on the IMSAFE list. Therefore,
reviewing this checklist before every
flight will help assure any situation
resulting in the startle effect during
your journey will be handled to the
best of your ability and capability,
minimizing the risk inherent in startle
and surprise.
As certificated pilots, you should
conduct your flights to mitigate risk
and allow for the safety and well-being
of you and your passengers, as well as
those on the ground.
Save this article, and put it under
your pillow at night. Do whatever it
takes to make your skies safe, and live
to fly another day. PP
planeandpilotmag.com 53
 AFTER THE ACCIDENT
Deadly Ditching
A Cessna lost off the Canadian coast
in 2021 involved an ambitious flight plan.
“MAYDAY, MAYDAY, MAYDAY...Cessna
9 [unintelligible].”
Another pilot on the frequency
replied: “14A, how far north of the
shoreline are you?”
“Right in the middle. I’m out here
by...there...there’s a boat going by...
there’s a tanker getting drug. I am out
in the middle, and I’m going down now.
I’m going in the water.”
It was 4:40 p.m. on January 26,
2021. The pilot, in the middle of the
10-mile Strait of Juan de Fuca between
Victoria, British Columbia, and Port
Angeles, Washington, alone in his
1949 Cessna 170A, had left Ketchikan,
Alaska, more than six and a half hours
earlier, heading to Port Angeles. He
almost made it.
ADOBE STOCK
The other pilot asked: “Are you east
or west of the [U.S.] Coast Guard
54 SEPTEMBER 2023 Ç Plane&Pilot
BY DAVE ENGLISH
station at Port Angeles, if you can
tell me?”
“I don’t know, [indiscernible]
water...I’m right by this boat...There’s
a boat...There’s a boat getting towed by
a barge. I’m going in the water now.”
The other plane called the U.S.
Coast Guard, telling it the Cessna was
by a boat. The pilot’s last radio trans-
mission was: “Ya, I’m behind the boat,
behind the boat.”
The 38-year-old had a commercial
FAA pilot certificate, with seaplane
and instrument ratings. The National
Transportation Safety Board (NTSB)
report estimates he had about 650
hours of flight experience. At the time
of the crash, the pilot did not have a
FAA medical certificate.
The trip had started in Kodiak,
Alaska, one day earlier. The planned
destination was Lake Havasu City,
Arizona. That’s a long flight, but a jour-
ney he’d made before. He stopped in
Sitka, and then in Ketchikan, where he
spent the night. Both wing tanks were
filled, as was an aux fuel tank in the
fuselage. The aircraft had no record of
the third tank in the maintenance logs.
NTSB analysis of fuel receipts indicates
its capacity was about 15 gallons.
The great circle distance between
the Ketchikan International Airport
(PAKT) and the William R. Fairchild
International Airport (KCLM) in Port
Angeles is 531 nm (611 sm). While
both airports are in the U.S., almost
all of the route is along the Canadian
coastline. In the middle half of the
journey, there are almost no alternate
airports available.
Using the 170A owner’s manual per-
formance data quoted by the NTSB for
a 145 hp engine and two 20-gallon wing
fuel tanks, the flight does not seem pos-
sible. At 6,000 feet pressure altitude,
with a leaned engine rpm of 2,500, the
listed range is 571 sm, as given in the
manual’s charts. Pull back to 2,100
rpm, the range increases to 666 sm. The
manual notes, “Cruising performance
is dependent upon...variables [that]
may account for variations of 10 per-
cent or more in the maximum range.”
The mysterious fuselage tank added
an extra 10 to 15 gallons, which would
increase the published range figures by
about 25 percent to 37 percent. With
favorable weather, the flight seems
technically possible. The pilot departed
Ketchikan at about 10 a.m. local time.
He flew a nearly straight line for sev-
eral hundred miles, cruising between
4,000 feet and 6,000 feet msl. But upon
reaching Vancouver Island, the rout-
ing starts to weave left and right, fol-
lowing Queen Charlotte Strait and
then the Salish Sea. He descended to
between 1,000 feet and 2,000 feet to
avoid clouds. He pressed on, heading
overland toward the Strait of Juan
de Fuca and his planned U.S. desti-
nation. Air traffic control radar and
Garmin InReach GPS device data give
us the plane’s position, altitude, and
speed. But we have more—insight into
his thinking. He was texting with his
mother (with all texts sic, including
grammatical errors):
15:21 (Mother) Are you on
the ground?
15:22 (Mother) You still appear to
be at Port Hardy
15:24 (Pilot) Nasty headwind, I’m
just past Comox, not sure if I have
enough gas
15:24 (Pilot) May land in Canada
...
15:41 (Pilot) Been in the air for 5.7
hours GPS says 1.1 more hour / 57
gallons at 6-10 per hour
15:42 (Pilot) It’s a tough call, it
should make it
...
15:45 (Mother) Average 8.38 g per
hour will get you there on fumes
...
16:04 (Mother) What’s your
eta now?
16:13 (Pilot) 29 minutes
16:13 (Pilot) It keeps changing
16:14 (Pilot) I’ll be doing 90 knots
then cross a peak and suddenly 60...
Thirty minutes later, the pilot made
the Mayday call, sent his mother a
photograph of the barge he was aiming
for, and ditched in the water.
The onboard emergency locator
transmitter (ELT) activated, but its
older design didn’t help authorities.
One eyewitness described sea condi-
tions as a “frothy mess.” We don’t know
what, if any, survival gear was on board.
The U.S. Coast Guard Puget Sound
Command Center contacted every
tug and barge in the strait, and none
reported seeing an airplane. Multiple
ships and aircraft searched for 22
hours. It is presumed the aircraft sunk.
After the accident, the how part is
clear—the airplane ran out of fuel. The
agency’s determined probable cause is
clear: “The total loss of engine power
due to fuel exhaustion, which resulted
from the pilot’s inadequate in-flight
fuel planning.”
The why part is less clear. Why
didn’t he divert earlier? Why didn’t
he land at one of the several airports
short of the destination? The NTSB
report does not speculate on either
subject. The pilot did text “may land
in Canada,” but the reality is he did
not turn from Port Angeles until it
was too late. Plan continuation bias.
Completion bias. Optimism bias. We all
suffer from these powerful blind spots.
I wonder about another factor. Six
months before the accident, the pilot
visited an aviation medical examiner
(AME) to renew his FAA second-class
medical certificate. Because of the
pilot’s reported DUI incident a few
months earlier, the AME couldn’t issue
a medical that day.
The FAA requested more informa-
tion, which the pilot did not supply.
Maybe the DUI made him think twice
about landing in Canada, which has
strict entry requirements for people
with what are considered indictable
offenses. And a DUI most certainly
counts here.
That’s just speculation. Certainly,
something stopped him from landing in
Canada. We know a lot from the pilot’s
airborne texts with his mother—but
maybe he didn’t tell her everything. PP
 WORDS ALOFT BY JEREMY KING
Test Pilot, Airline Style
Parachutes? No. Patience? Yes.
I
t was one of those really challenging
weather days in the Southeast. We
were flying in and out of Atlanta,
and a weather system had the
region covered with embedded cumu-
lonimbus. This Saturday in April saw
me paired with a fairly young check air-
man as captain, and we were enjoying
a pretty great trip in spite of the
weather. It was supposed to end with
a quick round trip to Newport News,
Virginia, and we’d be home to sleep in
our own beds that night—an airline
pilot’s favorite layover.
The radio chatter was in Spanish
except for our instructions, and as
we rolled down the runway beneath a
hazy Mexican sky, almost everything
felt out of place. The captain and I
were in street clothes. A mechanic was
on the jumpseat, videoing the takeoff
roll to capture instrument indications.
In back, nine mechanics were spread
through the cabin, eyes and ears seek-
ing any anomaly. They had spent the
last three months performing a heavy
maintenance check on this bird after it
had been parked for more than three
CROSSWORD ANSWERS
See puzzle on page 11.
56 SEPTEMBER 2023 Ç Plane&Pilot
years, sidelined by the COVID-19
pandemic.
As we lifted off, the stick shaker
buzzed in my hands for a long sec-
ond—an obvious fault. We had flying
speed, and I wasn’t pulling aggressively.
I still eased the back pressure, and the
stall warning went away shortly after.
We climbed in silence, fully expecting
more failures.
Airplanes don’t like to hibernate,
and this one had spent years parked
in the desert before a crew ferried
it to the maintenance base, where a
squad of mechanics—nicknamed the
“Pumas”—performed 1,500 tasks to
get it inspected and airworthy. The
Pumas found corrosion in some of
kk As we lifted off, the stick
shaker buzzed in my hands for a
long second...
the bulkheads and stringers, requiring
extensive sheet metal repairs. Seals
had become dry and brittle. Electrical
issues had cropped up as we arrived for
the functional check flight required
before it could return to service. The
original sheet called for an April 30
return to service. The test flight was
scheduled for May 24. A lot of folks
at headquarters wanted this airplane
back on the line.
Maintenance test flights almost
never happen on schedule, and I knew
that. We’d been deadheaded down with
a connection through Mexico City, and
the captain received a text from one
of the company representatives that
the electrical issue was taking more
time to troubleshoot. By the time we
arrived they had pushed our test flight
to the next morning. The next day, we
powered up the airplane and started
preflight checks. Something was amiss
in the elevators—I could feel binding
on the control check, and the indica-
tion only showed one elevator going
up as it should. We found a significant
fuel leak dripping from the belly and
some hydraulic fluid seeping from the
landing gear actuators. The mechanics,
inspectors, and company reps were less
than pleased with these findings, but
we wanted a fault-free airplane. We
headed to the hotel while the night
shift went to work.
My ties to aircraft maintenance go
back to the day that set me on course
to become an airline pilot. My grand-
father worked at the main mainte-
nance facility for the airline that now
writes my paychecks. As he prepared
to retire, he toured me around the
facility, and I decided that maybe—just
maybe—airplanes were cooler than
trains. I apprenticed with a mechanic
years before the Department of Labor
would have preferred, and wrenching
on airplanes is what kept me fed for
more than a decade. When the fly-
ing business turned sour in 2009, I
exchanged my pilot’s hat for a greasy
mechanic’s uniform in the airline’s
hangar for a spell.
Spending a few days at the MRO
facility was a trip down memory lane.
Brushing up on my Spanish was a
challenge, but the sights, sounds, and
smells were universal.
On the third day, we were down to
minor details before the test flight—but
little things often take longest. We were
in the company’s office, staring out
the window, when the captain asked
if we could stroll through the hangar
and stick our heads into the airplanes
being worked on. The inspector looked
a little surprised pilots had an interest
and said, “Down here, you’re the boss.
Go where you want to go. Just make
sure you’ve got a safety vest on.” We
bolted for the door—and he paused us
 to give a quick safety briefing, so we
didn’t do anything stupid.
For the next hour we roamed the
hangar. This facility had three Boeing
717s in for inspection at various stages
of disassembly and a few Boeing 757s.
An Embraer 190 sat outside. We poked
around uncowled jet engines, an
unusual sight, and the captain had me
point out major components—starters,
generators, igniters, thrust-reverser
actuators. I was giving my granddaddy’s
hangar tour from 1991. This time, when
we climbed into the recently finished
airplane with fresh carpets and seat
belts all perfectly crossed, I wasn’t the
wide-eyed kid dreaming an impossible
dream—I was going to start flipping
switches and do the test flight. I was
ages 11, 42, and every year in between
all at once.
Before the test flight, we sat at a
conference table with company reps,
the mechanic who would be on the
flight deck jumpseat, the leader of the
line of mechanics who had performed
the inspection, and the person who
would be filing our flight plan with the
Mexican authorities, among others.
Check airmen act as captains on
PHOTO CREDIT: ADOBE STOCK
these flights, and they’re trained for
the profile associated with them. A
lot of things we would be doing were
not normal procedures for revenue
flight, and anything outside the normal
is a threat in the airline world. Once
airborne, passing through 10,000 feet
msl, I looked to the captain. I asked
if he had noticed the stall warning at
takeoff, and he had. He turned to the
mechanic to explain that issue, and my
focus returned to flying the airplane.
We climbed to altitude and tested vari-
ous systems.
Our first test of the speed brakes
grabbed our attention—only one side
deployed, but on the second try, they
worked. The mechanics reported their
checks complete with no faults noted.
We had been expecting major issues—
an engine failure, pressurization issue,
or electrical failure were prime threats,
but the few squawks were minor. A
handful of logbook entries, and a han-
dler took us to customs for our exit
pass. Unlike the normal crush, it was
just two pilots and a customs inspec-
tor, a relaxed conversation, and a fist
bump with wishes for a safe trip as we
walked away for our flight home.
planeandpilotmag.com 57
 Time for a New
GOLDEN AGE
‘A mile of runway will take you anywhere.’

By my reckoning, there
have been two golden
ages of general aviation in
my lifetime.
The first peaked around 1976,
coincidentally a year when so many
of the airplanes we mere mortals
can afford to own and fly today
were constructed. Thousands of
single-engine piston airplanes were
produced each year. FBOs were
numerous, diverse, and competed
on price and service. All this made
long-distance travel by light singles
relatively affordable and fun. How-
It wasn’t until the General Avia-
tion Revitalization Act (GARA) of
1994 that things began to turn
around. The second golden age
peaked around 2008. For a while
there, several venerable brands were
revived, piston aircraft production
nearly doubled, and it looked like GA
travel was back in style. Then came
the recession of 2009, and it has
been a rocky road ever since.
RESTORING THE GLORY
Then again, maybe we can bring
back some of that faded glory and
start our own golden age. The legacy
fleet of owner- and renter-flown
aircraft is still in good shape, sales of
retrofit avionics upgrades are strong
and, thankfully, the airspace we fly in
cheap. That is until you take a look
across the Atlantic or Pacific and
realize just how good we have it. And
let’s face it, highway travel remains
frustrating at best. Remember the
old adage: “A mile of road will take
you a mile. A mile of runway will
take you anywhere.”
So maybe it’s time to pull the bird
out of the hangar and go exploring.
The COVID-19 pandemic kept us all
cooped up for several challenging
years, so it’s time to enjoy the free-
dom we have and fly at will across
this beautiful country. The first step
may be to go back a few years and
remember why we all started flying.
WHERE DID THE JOY OF FLYING BEGIN
FOR YOU?
ADOBE STOCK

ever, the specter of product liability remains some of the least regulated It all started for me on August 21,
nearly killed the fatted aviation calf. in the world. OK, so avgas is not 1973—that day, the direction of my

58 SEPTEMBER 2023 Ç Plane&Pilot

life changed forever. On a misty
morning, my flight instructor, Fred
Broce, the legendary chief pilot at
Virginia Tech Airport (now KBCB),
climbed out of the right seat of the
little 1959 Cessna 150, turned, and
said, “Give me three takeoffs and
landings, and I will see you back
at the ramp.” I was alone in the
airplane for the first time.
The first traffic pattern was all
business: checklist, airspeed, altitude,
aimpoint—now flare just right. The
second pattern was still hard work,
although I began to notice the little
Cessna seemed much quieter and
flew a bit better solo. But the “aha”
moment occurred on the final pat-
tern. On the downwind leg, I finally
took a moment to absorb the spec-
tacular scenery, maybe for the first
time in nine hours of stalls, traffic
patterns, and turns around a point.
The stunning Blue Ridge Mountains,
their brilliant hues of green shrouded
in wisps of the mist, were a feast for
the eyes. I decided right then and
there I was home.
A few months later, another fateful
day arrived. With just more than 40
hours in the logbook and a freshly
minted private pilot certificate in
hand, I invited the woman who
would become my wife to come fly
with me. She said yes to the flight,
and the marriage proposal, and for
nearly 50 years we have shared the
joy of airplane travel and ownership.
Our boys, now grown with families of
their own, thought of our airplanes
as flying station wagons. Taxiing into
the FBO with the eyes of our waiting
parents and grandparents, eager to
see us and hug the kids, felt for a mo-
ment like Charles Lindbergh arriving
at Paris’ Le Bourget.
Our little family has flown our
simple fixed-gear airplanes coast to
coast, and we have seen just about
every corner of this beautiful country
and a bit of Canada. We have felt pity
for the folks stuck in traffic below
as we zipped across the LA basin to
downtown San Diego. Ripon, Fiske,
and Rock Your Wings are burned in
our memories as we made our way to
EAA AirVenture.
A career as a military pilot, nearly
800 hours of it flying low-level mis-
sions admiring the ever-changing
scenery from an altitude of 800 feet
and nearly 400 knots, and a handful
of additional ratings and certificates
confirmed that we pilots have the
best view in the world. Through it all,
a line from a nearly forgotten poem
rings out: “And I look down with
hungry eyes at the land below.”
My wife Debbie and I are sightse-
ers and travelers. And our trusty
Cessna 177B Cardinal is the magic
carpet that makes it all possible. It
is neither the newest, fastest, or the
fanciest, but it is ours. A factory-re-
built engine, overhauled prop, and an
IFR GPS keep it up to date. The paint
still shines after 25 years, a testament
to what a hangar and a little wax will
do. It still has a vacuum pump and
an elderly autopilot, but when we are
aloft, heading someplace new, we are
ready to be amazed by what we see.
The trip from Florida to North Caro-
lina to see our grandkids is a feast for
the eyes. And this time, as we taxi in,
the tables have turned, and our kids
and grandkids are waiting to greet us.
WHAT IS STOPPING YOU?
So, what is the point of this ram-
bling? These marvelous little
airplanes we either rent or own are
meant to go places.
Those of us lucky enough to be
able to fly can recharge our batteries
by slipping the surly bonds of Earth,
even if just for a local pattern flight
or trip around the local area. The
view from a few thousand feet up
puts so many things into perspective.
However, these little aluminum birds
we are entrusted with are meant for
more than that. And we happen to
live in a country where flying is still
one of the freest experiences in the
world. So maybe it’s time to get back
in the air and on the way to new
destinations and adventures.
WHAT TO SEE
Did you know the Beechcraft, Swift,
and Piper museums are each found
right on airports within easy reach
of most major East Coast cities?
Down here in Florida, the airport
restaurant is flourishing, with new
ones opening all the time. Out west,
even at 120 knots, our basic VFR
machines really shine. Severe clear
weather, long distances, stunning
vistas, and numerous airports in
busy cities that allow us to wing
our way over the traffic jams are
the norm. Head north to the Great
Lakes or New England, the scenery
is stunning, and the options are end-
less. So what is the secret to travel-
ing distances in our well-seasoned
little birds?
TAKE YOUR TIME AND
PLAN YOUR STOPS
The old saying, “If you have time
to spare, go by air,” comes to mind.
If you are planning a weeklong trip,
plan for a week and a half to allow
for the occasional breakdown and
marginal weather. Arrange your
stops based on the availability of
services, lodging, and transporta-
tion. Unplanned maintenance issues
should be part of the agenda. In the
long run, it might be less expensive
to tie down next to a full-service
maintenance shop than at an iso-
lated strip where gas is $1 cheaper.
PACE YOURSELF
Break up your trip into easy bites.
Keeping the days to a comfortable
two-hop, rather than pushing a long
three-leg flight into darkness, makes
so much sense. And consider making
your first leg the longest and each
leg thereafter shorter. This helps
us manage fatigue and account for
unplanned delays.
TIME TO EMBARK ON A NEW ERA
As Plane & Pilot embarks on a new
era, it’s high time we do as well.
Hundred-dollar (OK, maybe $200
today) hamburger flights, long
weekend trips, or cross-country
adventures all reveal the value of our
pilot certificates and these amazing
little time machines we fly. Consider
traveling with friends on flights of
two or three. Try new airports and
destinations. And while you are at
it, take a few moments between
programming the GPS and adjusting
the mixture to marvel at the view
below. It is guaranteed to put a smile
on your face, and the world around
you may just look a little brighter.
Fly safe.
planeandpilotmag.com 59
ACCIDENT BRIEFS
Cessna 140
Keystone Heights, Florida
Injuries: None
The pilot reported that he was about
3 miles south of the non-tower-con-
trolled airport, inbound for landing,
when he heard another pilot announce
they were on the downwind leg of the
traffic pattern for the same runway.
[The pilot reporting] elected to per-
form a 360-degree right turn to “allow
the other aircraft time to clear the
pattern.” He further reported that
while in the turn he “noticed acres
and acres of pristine/plush land.” The
pilot then decided to perform an off-
airport landing in a field. During the
landing roll, livestock began to walk
in front of the airplane and the pilot
[activated the brakes] to avoid a col-
lision. This resulted in a nose over
and substantial damage to the vertical
stabilizer, rudder, wings, and fuselage.
The pilot reported that there were no
preaccident mechanical malfunctions
or failures with the airplane that would
have precluded normal operation.
PROBABLE CAUSE(S): The pilot’s
improper decision to perform an
impromptu off-airport landing and his
failure to maintain control of the airplane
during the landing, which resulted in a
nose over.
Cessna 172
Kinston, North Carolina
Injuries: None
The flight instructor [and learner
were] performing a touch-and-go land-
ing at night. Just prior to [reaching]
rotation speed, the learner noticed
a deer coming from the infield area.
The flight instructor also saw a deer
and heard a “clump” noise. The flight
instructor reduced the engine power
to idle and exited the runway. After
taxiing to the ramp, the pilot and flight
instructor noted damage to the airplane
and subsequently airport operations
personnel found one deceased and one
injured deer near the runway. The deer
strike resulted in substantial damage to
the left horizontal stabilizer. The flight
instructor reported that there were no
60 SEPTEMBER 2023 Ç Plane&Pilot
preaccident mechanical malfunctions
or failures with the airplane that would
have precluded normal operation.
PROBABLE CAUSE(S): The airplane’s
impact with two deer while performing
a takeoff at night.
Piper PA28 Cherokee
Fullerton, California
Injuries: None
The flight instructor [and a learner
pilot were practicing crosswind land-
ings. During an approach] a gust of
wind pushed the airplane left. The
flight instructor took the controls and
applied right rudder and added power
to [initiate a] go-around, but the air-
plane impacted a taxiway sign before
it transitioned into a climb. According
to the instructor, the airplane did not
exhibit any abnormal flight charac-
teristics once airborne. [The aircraft
sustained] substantial damage to
the left wing. The pilot reported that
there were no preaccident mechani-
cal failures or malfunctions with the
airplane that would have precluded
normal operation.
PROBABLE CAUSE(S): The student pilot’s
failure to maintain control of the air-
plane during the landing roll and the
flight instructor’s delayed remedial
action, which resulted in an impact with
an obstacle.
Cirrus Design SR22
Fernandina Beach, Florida
Injuries: None
The pilot reported that after conduct-
ing an instrument approach, the air-
plane descended out of the clouds at
an altitude of about 800 feet above the
ground and the pilot had a clear view
of the runway. The pilot described
that the descent was “uneventful
though blustery.” During the subse-
quent landing, while the airplane was
slow and in a nose-up pitch attitude,
he encountered a sudden wind gust
and the airplane subsequently [col-
lided with] a runway identifier sign.
The airplane’s left wing and fuselage
were substantially damaged during
the collision. The pilot reported that
there were no preaccident mechanical
failures or malfunctions with the air-
plane that would have precluded nor-
mal operation.
PROBABLE CAUSE(S): The pilot’s failure
to maintain control of the airplane while
landing in gusting crosswind conditions,
which resulted in a runway excursion and
collision with a runway identifier sign.
Ryan Navion (A1);
Yakovlev YAK-52 (A2)
Mesa, Arizona
Injuries: 1 Serious
The [accident aircraft were practic-
ing formation flight. The] pilot of
a Yakovlev Yak-52 reported that he
was in the number three position, off
the lead airplane’s left wing while in
a four-airplane formation flight. The
pilot of the lead airplane initiated a
left turn and the formation followed.
While in the left turn, the pilot of the
number three airplane felt “a bump”
from underneath and observed the
number four airplane pass under his
right wing and ascend toward the
lead airplane. The pilot of the num-
ber three airplane realized there had
been a midair collision, broke away
from the formation to the left, and
executed an emergency landing. The
number three airplane’s right wing
sustained substantial damage. The
pilot of a Ryan Navion reported that
he was in the number four position
off of the number three airplane’s left
wing in the four-airplane formation
flight. The pilot of the lead airplane
initiated a left turn and the formation
followed. When [the Navion pilot]
“felt to level off,” his airplane col-
lided with the number three airplane
from underneath. [The Navion pilot]
executed an emergency landing. The
fuselage, vertical stabilizer, and rud-
der were substantially damaged. The
pilots of both airplanes reported that
there were no preaccident mechani-
cal malfunctions or failures with the
airplanes that would have precluded
normal operation.
PROBABLE CAUSE(S): The pilot of the
Ryan Navion’s failure to maintain visual
sight of and clearance from another air-
plane during a formation flight, which
resulted in a midair collision.
 Grumman G-164B Ag-Cat
Vernalis, California
Injuries: 1 Serious
The pilot reported he was spraying
near power lines during an aerial
application flight. He made several
[uneventful] passes beneath a
power line, however, during a
subsequent pass, the pilot became
distracted and struck the power line.
The airplane impacted the ground
and was destroyed by post-crash fire.
The pilot reported no preaccident
mechanical malfunctions or failures.
PROBABLE CAUSE(S): The pilot’s fail-
ure to maintain clearance from a power
line during a low-level aerial applica-
tion flight.
Bellanca 17-30A
Longville, Minnesota
Injuries: None
The pilot reported that during his land-
ing roll the airplane encountered an
unexpected wind shift with quartering
tailwind gusts as he decelerated to
about 45 mph. The pilot had not yet
retracted his flaps and lost directional
EXCITING
THINGS ARE
HAPPENING
control of the airplane. The airplane to increase the airplane’s pitch atti-
departed the left side of the runway, tude as if engine power had not been
traversed through the grass, and came reduced. The flight instructor noted
to rest in a swale, resulting in substan- this, directed the pilot to decrease the
tial damage to the fuselage and engine airplane’s pitch, and then “nudged”
mount. The pilot did not report any the control stick forward to reduce the
mechanical malfunctions or failures. airplane’s angle of attack. As the flight
instructor released his forward pres-
PROBABLE CAUSE(S): The pilot’s failure sure on the control stick, the airplane’s
to maintain directional control during nose pitched up and its descent rate
the landing roll with an unexpected increased as the pilot continued to pull
wind shift, which resulted in a run- back on the control stick. The airplane
way excursion. subsequently touched down “hard” on
the runway, resulting in substantial
damage to the right wing. The opera-
Diamond Aircraft DA40 NG tor reported no preimpact mechani-
Lake Katrine, New York cal malfunctions or failures with the
Injuries: None
airplane that would have precluded
The flight instructor and the pilot normal operation, nor did the pilot or
receiving instruction were practic- flight instructor report any.
ing short-field landings. After an ini-
tial unsuccessful approach, the pilot PROBABLE CAUSE(S): The pilot’s failure
conducted a go-around and set up to maintain an appropriate pitch attitude
for another landing approach. The and descent rate during landing, which
flight instructor described that after resulted in a hard landing. Contributing
passing over…told the pilot to reduce to the accident was the flight instructor’s
engine power to idle so that they would inadequate remedial action.
not overshoot the touchdown point
again. The pilot complied, and as NOTE: The reports republished here are from the NTSB
they descended, the pilot continued and printed with minor editing for style and length.
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THIS INCREDIBLE PLANE
Cessna 150
The iconic first airplane fondly remembered by several generations of pilots.
W
ith the advent of the light
sport aircraft (LSA) in
2004, this new category
of simple two-seaters
was expected to dominate the primary
training market. However, the demand
for these wonderful little airplanes fell
a bit short of its promise originally.
So, when the subject of the shortage
of two-seat trainers comes up in con-
versation, the question arises: “Why
doesn’t Cessna just start building the
Cessna 150 again?” It’s a fair one, but
I’ll explain why not in a moment.
Like so many others, my journey
toward a career in aviation began
in the left seat of a shiny, polished,
aluminum-and-red 1959 Cessna 150.
N5709E was the prize possession of
the Virginia Tech aviation department
and carried me and my friends on our
first flights, first solos, and private pilot
check rides, and then on to a career
in military or commercial aviation.
We were not alone. The Cessna 150
taught the post-1950s world to fly. So,
how did this remarkable little airplane
come to be such a success?
Those pilots who subscribe to the
axiom “never fly the A model of any-
thing” will be pleased to know the first
model of this small but sturdy aircraft
was simply the Cessna 150. Spanning
the 1959 and 1960 model years, the
original was an extensive update of the
successful Cessna 120/140 line. Cessna
140 production had ended in 1951 as
the postwar aviation boom flagged.
However, by the end of the decade,
the training market was beginning to
heat up, and Cessna decided to get
into the game.
The Cessna 150 prototype squared
off the wingtips and tail surfaces of
the 140, featured a straight, win-
dowless tail cone, manual 40-degree
Fowler flaps, and most important for
the training market, tricycle landing
62 SEPTEMBER 2023 Ç Plane&Pilot
BY FRANK AYERS
gear. The systems were simple and
even a bit rudimentary. The stout
little Continental O-200A, 100 hp
four-banger was started by pulling
on a shiny “T” handle at the top of
the minimal instrument panel. The
handle tugged a cable that engaged
the starter. Venturis powered the basic
vacuum system, and the generator was
driven directly off the accessory drive,
eliminating the need for a drive belt.
Of the first Cessna 150 model, 683
were produced in 1959 to ’60, and they
are, by most accounts, the lightest,
fastest and, many will say, most fun
to fly. Three models were offered—the
“Like so many others, my
journey toward a career in
aviation began in the left seat
of a shiny, polished, aluminum-
and-red 1959 Cessna 150. ”
standard, trainer, and intercity com-
muter. The latter added luxuries such
as a vacuum pump, attitude indicator,
and rotating beacon. The major short-
fall of the tiny Cessna was its narrow
cabin. Advertisements of the time
usually featured what appeared to be
7/8-scale pilots and passengers sitting
happily side by side with their luggage
neatly behind the seats. In reality, two
standard FAA 170-pound occupants
would find the cockpit a bit cramped,
and extensive crew coordination was
often required for simple acts such as
putting on a jacket.
However, none of this really mat-
ters because the Cessna 150 remains
to this day a delight to fly. It cruises at
90 mph (78 knots), stalls at 47 mph
(41 knots), and the manually actu-
ated, 40-degree flaps allow for very
precise short-field performance. Its
22.5-gallon fuel tanks and 6-gallon-
per-hour fuel consumption allow for
a realistic no-reserve range near 300
nm. Control forces are light and vis-
ibility is good, as long as a wing is lifted
before each turn, and the spring steel
“Land-O-Matic” main landing gear
forgives the wide variety of student
pilot landings. To top it off, the secret
to the longevity of the Cessna 150 was
its ability to be upgraded, modernized,
and adapted to the needs of newer
generations of pilots.
The Cessna 150A, introduced in
1961, increased the size of the rear side
windows and moved the main landing
gear legs rearward by 2 inches. This
counteracted the original’s disturbing
habit of settling on its tail.
The next big upgrade occurred in
1964. The Cessna 150D model intro-
duced the ubiquitous “Omni-Vision”
rear window. Both the 1964 D model
and 1965 E model combined the manu-
ally activated 40-degree flaps and the
straight vertical tail from the earlier
models, making them a favorite of
the National Intercollegiate Flight
Association’s (NIFA) annual precision
landing competition. By 1965, the F
Model introduced a 35-degree swept
vertical tail, electric flaps, and a list of
aerodynamic improvements, including
a standard spinner in all models.
One of the most welcome additions
arrived in 1967 with the 150G model’s
curved entry doors, which provided an
additional 3 inches of cabin width. Not
to be outdone, the 1970 model her-
alded the introduction of the Cessna
150K Aerobat. The Aerobat—with its
EMBRY-RIDDLE AERONAUTICAL UNIVERSITY
six positive and three negative G limits,
shoulder harnesses, distinctive check-
erboard paint, and dual skylights—was
an instant hit. Still powered by the 100
hp Continental O-200A, the Aerobat
is no Pitts Special or Extra 300, but
it provides a great platform for basic
 Ask your pilot friends about their first airplane. You might be surprised how many got their start in a Cessna 150.
aerobatic training, and spin and upset
recovery, as well as energy manage-
ment training.
The Cessna 150 proved to be an
international success too. Nearly 2,000
Cessna 150 models were constructed
in Reims, France. While these aircraft
usually mirrored their stateside mod-
els, many featured the Rolls-Royce-
built Continental O-240 variant that
increased horsepower by 30 percent.
The Cessna 150 enjoys many after-
market modifications to the Cessna
150. At least two supplemental type
certificates (STCs) allow for the instal-
lation of the Lycoming O-320 or O-360
in place of the original Continental.
This mod increases fuel consumption
and reduces range significantly, but it
dramatically increases performance
at high and hot airports. And in a
return to its Cessna 120/140 roots, the
“Texas Taildragger” conversion puts
the Cessna 150 back on conventional
gear, providing the added benefit of
reduced drag and weight associated
with the removal of the nose land-
ing gear.
By 1977, the final year of Cessna
150 production, the reduced avail-
ability of 80 octane fuel and a nearly
150-pound empty weight increase over
the original Cessna 150 necessitated
a change to the Lycoming O-235.
Designated the Cessna 152, power
increased modestly to 108 hp and,
because of concerns about full-flap
go-arounds, the electric flaps were
limited to 30 degrees. Approximately
7,500 Cessna 152s were produced in
the U.S. and France during its 10-year
production run that ended in 1988.
When production halted, the com-
pany had built 31,471 Cessna 150/152s,
placing the 150 in fifth on the list of
most produced aircraft, just behind the
entire Piper PA-28 line and just ahead
of the Cessna 182. As to that original
question—“Why not just restart the
production line?”—you will have to ask
Cessna. It may be increased produc-
tion costs, an effort to avoid clashing
with its incredibly successful Cessna
172 (the most produced airplane in
the world), or competition from the
growing LSA market, just to name
a few. In any event, the Cessna 150
stands out as the definitive two-seat
trainer of its time with nearly 23,000
registered around the world.
Oh, and how about N5709E?
Lovingly restored to its 1959 livery,
it is still on the active rolls and can be
seen flying to various events where
classics are appreciated. So, next time
you talk to your pilot friends, ask them
about their first airplane. You might be
surprised how many got their start in
the sturdy Cessna 150. PP
planeandpilotmag.com 63
 THIS INCREDIBLE PILOT
Wiley Post
The Oklahoman overcame many obstacles to become
a world-renowned aviation pioneer.
I
f only airplanes could talk. The
white and two-toned blue Lockheed
Vega Winnie Mae residing in the
Smithsonian Institution’s Udvar-
Hazy Center, outside of Washington,
D.C., would have more than a few
stories to share. This particular Vega
has been up to the stratosphere and
around the world. And all at the capa-
ble hands of one Wiley Post.
Post’s beginnings were humble. He
was born in 1898 to cotton farmers in
northeast Texas. The family relocated
to Oklahoma when he was 5. At 15,
Post got his first look at an airplane, a
Curtiss design. Although he had only
completed seventh grade, and not as a
particularly remarkable student, Post
immediately enrolled in the Sweeney
Automobile and Aviation School in
Kansas City, Missouri.
Post completed the seven-month
program, but aviation remained out of
his reach. He returned to Oklahoma
to work in construction—but he was
determined to fly. In April 1917, the
U.S. entered World War I. Post saw it
as an opportunity and signed up for
the U.S. Army in the hope of joining
the Air Service. While Germany’s sur-
render in 1918 was a welcome end to a
LIBRARY OF CONGRESS
64 SEPTEMBER 2023 Ç Plane&Pilot
BY SHALYN MARCHETTI
kk “The Canuck would
eventually be damaged...but it
had given Post his start.”
painful war for most, for Post it meant
another roadblock to becoming a pilot,
as he was out of the military before
he had received his pilot certificates.
The next few years were rough for
Post. He spent time working in the
Oklahoma oil fields, but the job was
sporadic, and he wound up turning to
armed robbery, landing him in prison
for more than a year. An accident in
the oil fields in 1926 cost him the
sight in his left eye. The settlement
from the accident financed Post’s first
airplane, a Curtiss JN-4 Canuck. The
Canuck would eventually be damaged
in an accident, but it had given Post
his start. He was soon hired to fly for
oil executive Florence C. Hall, who
bought a Lockheed Vega for Post to
fly—and he named it the Winnie Mae.
By 1930, Post was using the Vega
for more than just transportation,
winning the National Air Race Derby
from Los Angeles to Chicago. In 1931,
Post flew around the world in nine
days alongside navigator Harold Gatty,
and in 1933 Post matched his around-
the-world flight, this time solo, and
eclipsed his previous record, complet-
ing the flight in seven days, 18 hours,
and 49 minutes.
But there was more to aviation for
Post than speed. In 1934, he decided
to set an altitude record. Because the
Winnie Mae was not pressurized, he
began experimenting with pressurized
suits, and his design, while clunky,
was ultimately successful. He used
his pressurized suit to reach 40,000
feet in 1934, helping him to discover
what we now know as the jet stream.
His suit became the predecessor for
astronaut suits in the ’50s and ’60s.
Post was killed at age 36 in a 1935
airplane accident alongside pilot
and friend Will Rogers. As a tribute
to the Oklahoman, Post lay in state
in the capitol rotunda in Oklahoma
City. Wiley Post Airport (KPWA) in
Oklahoma City bears his name, and he
was enshrined in the National Aviation
Hall of Fame in 1969. All are fitting
tributes to a man who wanted to touch
the sky and was willing to do whatever
it took to get there. PP
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