ISSUE 943

It takes nerve to compare an $895 ANR headset

to a $1,299 ANR headset.

Advanced comfort features not found on any other

premium ANR headset. Hybrid Electronic Noise-
Cancelling ANR technology. Bluetooth® wireless and
a 30-Day Money Back Guarantee. Just a few reasons
that make the DC ONE-X the best value, premium
ANR headset in aviation.
Compare features. Compare comfort. Compare
performance. Compare price. Then pocket the
$400 difference.

Call 1-800-298-6235 for more information or purchase

direct from David Clark at www.davidclark.com.

© 2023 David Clark Company Incorporated

® Green headset domes are a David Clark registered trademark.
W W W. D AV I D C L A R K . C O M
 ISSUE 943 NOVEMBER 2023

Ed i to r - i n - C h i e f
Julie Boatman

MANAGING EDITOR Kate O’Connor

EDITOR-AT-LARGE Pia Bergqvist
TECHNICAL EDITOR Meg Godlewski
SENIOR BUSINESS EDITOR Fred George
CREATIVE DIRECTOR Amy Jo Sledge
COPY EDITOR Travis Tingle
PHOTO/PRODUCTION EDITOR Theresa Petruso

CONTRIBUTING EDITORS

Les Abend
Jason Blair
Scott Dennstaedt
Peter Garrison
Dick Karl
Martha Lunken
Jason McDowell
Sam Weigel
Ben Younger

PUBLISHER AND CHIEF COMMERCIAL OFFICER Lisa deFrees / lisa@flying.media

DIRECTOR OF SPECIAL PROJECTS AND AD OPERATIONS Andy Welch / andy@flying.media
DIRECTOR OF MARKETPLACE Ian Hoyt / ian@flying.media
DIRECTOR OF AUDIENCE DEVELOPMENT Kevin Cortes / kevin@flying.media
SENIOR BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT MANAGER Roxanne Sweazey / roxanne@flying.media
DIGITAL COORDINATOR Aaron Will / aaron@flying.media
ADVERTISING SALES MANAGER Joshua Kelley / josh@flying.media

FLYING MEDIA
CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER Craig Fuller
CHIEF TECHNOLOGY OFFICER Fergus Caldicott
CHIEF STRATEGY OFFICER Keith Beckman
CHIEF CONTENT OFFICER Michael Ring
PUBLISHER AND CHIEF COMMERCIAL OFFICER Lisa deFrees
CONTROLLER Amanda Joyce
DIRECTOR, HUMAN RESOURCES Suzie Lenagar
EDITOR-IN-CHIEF, CONSUMER FMG Julie Boatman
CREATIVE DIRECTOR, FMG Amy Jo Sledge
MANAGING EDITOR, FLYING Kate O’Connor
MANAGING EDITOR, PLANE & PILOT Amy Wilder
MANAGING EDITOR, FLYING DEFENSE & SPACE Kimberly Johnson
GRAPHIC DESIGNER Amy Deal
COPY EDITOR Travis Tingle
TECHNICAL EDITOR, FLYING Meg Godlewski
SENIOR TRAVEL EDITOR, FLYING Jonathan Welsh
SENIOR REPORTER, UAS Jack Daleo
SOCIAL MEDIA MANAGER Grace Carlon
OPERATIONS MANAGER Reis Costa

For customer service and subscription questions, such as renewals, address changes, email preferences, billing, and account status, go to: flyingmag.com/cs. You can
also email flyingmagazine@emailcustomerservice.com; in the U.S. call toll-free 800-678-0797; outside the U.S., 303-943-1226; or write to FLYING Media Group, P.O.
Box 1946, Merrifield, VA 22116-1946.

For content reuse and permissions, please email reprint@flying.media.

Copyright 2023, FLYING Media Group. All rights reserved. Reproduction in whole or in part of any text, photograph, or illustration without written permission from the publisher is strictly prohibited. Email:
editorial@flying.media. Send all subscription correspondence to the Merrifield, VA, address. Please allow at least eight weeks for a change of address to become effective. Include both your old and your new
addresses and, if possible, an address label from a recent issue. Occasionally, we make portions of our subscriber list available to carefully screened companies that offer products and services we think might be
of interest to you. If you do not want to receive these offers, please advise us at 303-943-1226. FLYING is a registered trademark of FLYING Media Group. Printed in the USA.

Subscriptions: Go to flyingmag.com/cs if you have a subscription question, or write to FLYING, P.O. Box 1946, Merrifield, VA 22116-1946. Subscription Rates: U.S. addresses - one year for $75.00, Canadian
addresses - one year for $100.00, and all other international addresses - one year for $120.00. Cash orders only, payable in U.S. currency.

1
 ISSUE 943 NOVEMBER 2023
TABLE OF CONTENTS

stories 64
The Daily Life of a Repair Station /
Richard Scarbrough

34 50 70
We Fly: Cessna TTx / Buying an RV-4: Flight Jackets Tell a Story /
Julie Boatman An Experimental Adventure / Meg Godlewski
Kate O’Connor

44 58 76
MOSAIC Comments Closing / Destinations: Mackinac Island / Our Pilots of the Future /
Dan Johnson Jonathan Welsh Sean Siff
 PREFLIGHT LIFE IN THE AIR ON THE COVER

4 Next Great Flight 84 Taking Wing / Sam Weigel Jim Barrett made the most of a
88 Leading Edge / Ben Younger magic sunset to photograph the
8 View From Above
Van’s Aircraft RV-4 near Corona,
10 Taking Off in Public 90 Gear Up / Dick Karl
California.
12 Inbox 92 CFI Central / Meg Godlewski
16 Ask FLYING 94 Jumpseat / Les Abend
18 Chart Wise 96 Unusual Attitudes / Martha Lunken
20 I.L.A.F.F.T. 98 Technicalities / Peter Garrison
24 Aftermath 100 Sign Off
28 Racing Update: Reno
FLYING (0015-4806) (USPS 504-930), November 2023, Issue 943. FLYING is published monthly by FLYING Media Group, 605 Chestnut Avenue, Suite 800,
Chattanooga, TN, 37450. Periodicals postage paid at Chattanooga, TN, and additional mailing offices. Authorized periodicals postage by the Post Office Depart-
ment, Ottawa, Canada, and for payment in cash. POSTMASTER: Send address changes to FLYING Media Group, P.O. Box 1946, Merrifield, VA, 22116-1946; flying-
mag.com/cs; 303-943-1226 or 800-678-0797. If the postal service alerts us that your magazine is undeliverable, we have no further obligation unless we receive
a corrected address within one year.
Publications Mail Agreement No. 40612608 | (Canadian Registration Number 126018209RT0001) | Return undeliverable Canadian addresses to: IMEX Global
Solutions, P.O. Box 25542, London, ON N6C 6B2
 PREFLIGHT
N E XT G RE AT FL IG HT
BEHIND
THE LENS
Stephen Yeates

WE’D BEEN SHOOTING around Mackinac

Island in Michigan all afternoon, but as the day
progressed the forecast VFR conditions rapidly
changed into IMC. Some serious storm clouds
developed while we cruised back to Grand Rap-
ids, which eventually required us to divert en
route twice after changing altitude several
times to try and duck under the worst of the
turbulence.

Eventually, we landed at West Michigan Re-

gional Airport (KBIV) in Holland, joining a
ramp rapidly filling with other IFR aircraft
sheltering from the storms. As they say, if
Stephen Yeates Photography

you don’t like the weather in Michigan, hang

around a sec, it’ll change—unfortunately this
time only to become worse. But we had a good
Plan B, and C as it turned out, and the change-
able weather made the photos for the Desti-
nations feature this month that much more
dramatic.
DIFFERENT BY DESIGN.
DISRUPTIVE BY CHOICE.
 OCEAN REEF AIRPORT 4,451 FEET
Key Largo - FL Short Runway

Fly further thanks to full fly-by-wire.

N O W T H E O N LY Q U E S T I O N I S ,
W H E R E D O YO U WA N T T O G O N E X T ?

+1 321 751 5050 | embraer.com/praetor600


V I EW F RO M A BOV E
WE LOST ONE of the truly good
humans among us in the aviation
family on October 1. And it hap-
pened in an accident that strikes
me—ahead of any official report
from the National Transportation
Safety Board or otherwise—as a
confluence of objective hazards and
bad luck.
In the accident at the Lake Placid
Airport (KLKP) in New York, Rich-
ard McSpadden was in the right seat
of a Cessna 177RG Cardinal, with pi-
lot and former New England Patri-
ots star tight end Russ Francis in
the left seat. The Cardinal had just
lifted off when a so-far undefined
emergency caused them to initiate
a return to the ground. Though the
pair survived the subsequent forced
landing into trees, they both died
soon afterward.
McSpadden, 63, was a senior vice
president for the Aircraft Owners
and Pilots Association, and he had
led the Air Safety Institute as its ex-
ecutive director—a role tailor-made
for a pilot who held aviation safety
as his raison d’être throughout his
career. A former U.S. Air Force pi-
lot and commander of the branch’s
elite demonstration team, the Thun-
derbirds, “Spad,” as he was known to
} JULIE BOATMAN is a flight instructor with an airline transport pilot certificate and type ratings in the Cessna Citation Mustang
and Douglas DC-3—but she finds true happiness flying low and slow. Follow her on X (formerly Twitter): @julieinthesky.
LE T TER FROM THE EDITOR
LESSONS FROM ‘S PAD’
Reflecting on the loss of an aviation safety leader, pilot, and friend
friends, emerged as a leader for the
general aviation industry, with his
calm and measured countenance,
and his deliberate and realistic ap-
proach to improving safety.
But his message resonated to pi-
lots across the spectrum because
of the way he delivered it—with
care for those around him, an ap-
proachable aspect, and a genuine
smile and handshake for everyone
he met. There’s no question in my
mind his work saves lives in our
aviation community.
While our paths crossed many
times, I saw him regularly at the
Freder ick Mu n icipa l A ir por t
(KFDK) in Maryland, where AOPA
is based. He kept his cheery, yellow
Piper Cub in a hangar across the
row from the SOCATA TB-30 I get
to fly sometimes.
The Cardinal may at first glance
seem like a fairly pedestrian air-
plane for a pilot with Spad’s wide-
ranging abilities, but every model
has its quirks. We don’t know yet
what transpired in the cockpit,
whether an exchange of controls
took place, or the nature of any
communication with the pilot—
with whom Spad had never before
shared a cockpit.
What we understand now in-
cludes several observations that
run outside of the regular and seri-
ous hazards presented by a loss of
thrust on takeoff. We can look at the
airport environment. We can assess
the state of the airplane, as it came
to rest mostly intact. And at least
one of the pilots—Spad—had con-
stant exposure to a safety culture
that talked often about the “loss of
power on takeoff” scenario. Aware-
8
ness was not an issue here. Bad luck
certainly played a role.
What we can take away right
now is a renewal of the voice that
prompts us to thoroughly assess
the objective hazards present when
we take the runway for departure.
How can you adjust what you do
to reduce the objective hazards—
whether they lie in trees close to
the runway’s end, or high density
altitude, or an unfamiliar airplane
or pilot, or something unique to the
airport or your operation?
I thought about this on the drive
home the other night, after attend-
ing an informal gathering of Spad’s
many friends and colleagues on his
hangar row at Frederick. Because of
the geometry of the road we live on,
I pull up to the top of the hill to see
past its crest before backing up to
turn into our driveway. I make sure
there’s no traffic approaching that
would plow into the car as I make
the turn. It’s like lifting a wing to
look before you bank, or spinning
the airplane around at the hold
short line to survey the scene once
more before you depart. And en-
suring you fully brief the possible
emergencies on departure—includ-
ing the uncommanded loss of engine
power—every single time.
I have the sense that although
he’s left us, Spad would be happy
to stay in position as your invisible
wingman for the rest of your flying
career to remind you to take those
extra steps every time you fly.
atman
-Chief
PREPARED IS UNSHAKABLE.

There’s training to check a box and training for excellence. When training
to meet a requirement, the result is proficiency. When crew train with the
best—to be the best—skills are sharpened, preparing them for anything.
It’s like this: Proficient is capable. Prepared is unshakable.

Do you want your pilot to be proficient or prepared?

Call +1.201.584.8262 today or visit FlightSafety.com


FLYING MEDIA GROUP (FMG)
recently acquired AvBuyer, a lead-
ing business aircraft listing mar-
ketplace and large business aviation
media brand.
For 25 years, AvBuyer has been
providing aircraft owners and oper-
ators with key information so that
they can make better-informed buy-
ing decisions across all areas of busi-
ness aviation operations.
AvBuyer includes AvBuyer.com,
one of the most active business
aircraft listing marketplaces, and
AvBuyer Magazine, a publication
with market intelligence that is dis-
tributed to FBOs all over the world.
FMG also acquired GA Buyer Eu-
rope and GA Buyer Africa, which
offer classified listings and market-
Courtesy of Craig Fuller
places that cover the European and
African general aviation markets.
In addition to providing a liquid
marketplace for dealers to match
with prospective buyers, AvBuyer is
a leading market intelligence pro-
} CRAIG FULLER is CEO of FLYING Media Group and an active pilot of his ICON A5 and Tecnam Astore.
L E T T E R F R O M T H E C EO
TAKIN G O FF
I N P UB L I C
EXPANDING THE
MARKETPLACE
With FMG’s acquisition of AvBuyer, we continue our growth trajectory.
BY CRAIG FULLER
vider in the business aviation com-
munity.
AvBuyer is one of the most re-
spected brands in the aircraft dealer
and buyer communities. Now with a
significant global presence, I’m ex-
cited to say the FMG platform has
the most expansive reach for pro-
spective buyers of any classified
aircraft listing provider in aviation.
FMG ow ns one of the fa st-
est-growing aircraft listing mar-
ketplaces, Aircraft For Sale (AFS)
and AircraftforSale.com. The Air-
craft For Sale monthly print edition
is sent to every FLYING Magazine
subscriber and distributed to FBOs
across North America.
FMG plans to continue to build
Aircraft For Sale, which is fo-
cused on the pilot community,
and AvBuyer, which is aimed at the
business aviation and fleet operator
community.
This now ensures that FLYING
Media Group captures the larg-
est audience of active and prospec-
tive aircraft buyers of any media
provider across its portfolio of 26
aviation brands, online sites, and
marketplaces.
With our acquisition of AvBuyer,
FLYING Media Group’s massive and
engaged audience is unmatched by
any other aviation media provider.
10
Dealers and OEMs that want to get
their message and listings in front
of the largest number of prospects
should certainly look to FLYING
Media Group.
FMG plans to bring the AvBuyer
editorial operations and content
into its robust and expanding me-
dia platform that includes FLYING
Magazine, KITPLANES, Busines-
sAIR, Plane & Pilot, Aviation Con-
sumer, Aviation Safety, AVweb.com,
Airline Geeks, Aircraft For Sale, and
IFR.
Continuing a process that began
after the acquisition of FLYING,
FMG plans to make significant in-
vestments in its business-to-busi-
ness editorial and creative studios
over the next year.
FLYING Media Group features
nearly 100 reporters and regular
contributors that cover the aviation
industry, making it the largest me-
dia provider in the $2.5 trillion aero-
space industry. I commit to you that
we will continue to invest in the ex-
pansion of FMG through a combi-
nation of acquisitions and organic
growth initiatives in the markets
that we serve.
I would love to connect with you.
Have comments or ideas? You can
reach me @freightalley on X ( for-
merly Twitter).
 150,000
AVIATION
PRODUCTS
READY FOR
TAKEOFF
Same-day shipping on everything for every pilot and every
plane, from student to ATP and renter to owner. All at the
lowest prices. AircraftSpruce.com | 877 4-SPRUCE
LET TERS FROM OUR READERS
INBOX
FASTEST TRACK
TO AIRLINE PILOT
Proven Airline-Oriented Training with a Fast Track to All the Major Airlines.

Airline Career Pilot Program

Get the best training in the best aircraft, with a fast track to American Airlines,
Delta Air Lines, United Airlines, Frontier Airlines, Spirit Airlines, and more through
38 airline partnerships — proven by 1,100 graduates hired in the last 12 months.
ѭ Zero Time to Commercial and CFI/II/MEI
¿ 7 Months (5 Months with Credit for Private Pilot)
Ɣ Full Financing and Airline Tuition Reimbursement Available
» Over 125 New Airplanes
Seniority is Everything – Get There First with ATP Being Delivered Through 2026

Scan to Request Free Info

ATPFlightSchool.com/start
or Call/Text (912) 421-2877
All trademarks, trade names, service marks, product names, company names, logos, and brands used or mentioned herein are property of their
UHVSHFWLYHRZQHUVLQWKH8QLWHG6WDWHVDQGRWKHUFRXQWULHV0HQWLRQRIWKHPGRHVQRWLPSO\DQ\DƱ
OLDWLRQZLWKRUHQGRUVHPHQWE\WKHP
LET TERS FROM OUR READERS
INBOX
 Pilot
Pilo training
courses
c
2024 EDITION

NEW!

Three Courses
Available: WHat’s new:
LEARN TO FLY
New video segments FAA FAR study guides
INSTRUMENT RATING
Interactive exercises Windows tablet app
COMMERCIAL

$299 EACH Powerful note tool In-course messaging

SPORTYS.COM/DEMO FL2311A
 PREFLIGHT
ASK F LY ING

Most singles can glide eight times their height above the terrain. If you’re
at 7,500 feet and the local elevation is 700 feet, you’re about 1 1/4 miles
above the ground, so don’t pick a place to land outside a 10-mile radius. Don’t
count on achieving the longest possible glide—better a nearby
cornfield than a distant runway.

Slow to your best rate-of-climb speed. If the prop doesn’t

stop of its own accord, let it windmill. To reduce drag
from the windmilling propeller, open the throttle fully
and set a constant-speed prop to the lowest possible
rpm (vernier all the way out).

If you’re landing in the rough, turn off fuel to the

engine. Slide your seat as far back as you can while
still holding the yoke, and make your lap and shoulder
belts as tight as possible. Keep the flaps and gear
retracted until you’re in position to land, then use
full flaps.

Otherwise, touch down on the numbers.

} PETER GARRISON taught himself to use a slide rule and tinsnips, built an airplane in his backyard, and flew it to Japan. He
has contributed to FLYING since 1968, currently with the columns Aftermath and Technicalities.

16
 -KBTL-

GARMIN AVIONICS
MAINTENANCE
RESTORATION
FBO
BEFORE AFTER

CENTENNIALAIR.COM

MAC KIN AC ISLA ND
VO R/D ME-A
An approach to a modest runway at a popular Midwest bucket list island
A IAF AT
PELLSTON VOR
A pilot flying this ap-
proach might expect to
start at the PLN VOR
for it. While they might
be able to continue from
the enroute environment
directly inbound as the
chart indicates, “NoPT
for arrivals on the PLN
VORTAC airway radials
131 CW 219” (meaning in
general from the south),
they should expect a
turn in the hold other-
wise. Coming from other
directions would require
the pilot to conduct a
course reversal to es-
tablish inbound. A hold
is depicted to do this.
B VOR COURSE WIDENS
AT DISTANCE
This VOR isn’t on the
destination field, but in-
stead at the point where
the approach starts.
Traveling 14 miles to
the missed approach
point at MABEH, a pilot
} JASON BLAIR is a flight instructor, FAA examiner, and author in the general aviation and training communities.
PREFLIGHT
C H ART W IS E
BY JASON BLAIR
MACKINAC ISLAND AIRPORT (KMCD) in Michigan
is close to home for me, and it’s one I visit a few times a
year. Many pilots who fly in the Midwest have this his-
toric tourist destination on their GA bucket list.
The runway isn’t long—a mere 3,501 feet—so depend-
ing on your aircraft performance, it might be shorter at night, a note indi-
than many runways you use regularly. That being said, cates it would not be al-
lowed for Runway 8.
once you arrive and park, your aircraft may be the last
motorized vehicle you use until you leave an island d DME IS THE MISSED
where time appears to have stood still. Enjoy the horse A DME point at MABEH
and buggy or bicycle ride into town or to the historic is noted at 14 nm from
Grand Hotel. But before you get to relax, you just might the PLN VOR for the
find yourself in need of an approach to this airport missed approach point.
No other time or cross
where clouds often develop even in the summer months,
radials are given on
thanks to the cool waters of Lakes Michigan and Huron this approach, so make
that surround the island. sure you have the DME
During one personal experience on an IFR flight to tuned properly. An IFR
Mackinac, I found myself needing the VOR/DME-A GPS can substitute for
approach and a circle-to-land because of GPS system this normally, but if you
testing (signal blocking), thanks to a summer military were in the scenario
I had to use this ap-
exercise conducted to the south of the island. proach for when GPS
was being blocked,
should expect this VOR approach to the runway the GPS in your air-
course to widen as they on a south-to-north craft could not substi-
travel farther from the line for a runway that tute for DME. If I didn’t
VOR. This might mean is generally east-west, have a separate DME
they won’t be perfectly a pilot is going to need receiver, I wouldn’t
aligned with the center to circle to land. Rela- have been able to fly
of the airport. tively low minimums are this approach because
present—well below a of a lack of ability to
C CIRCLING IS normal traffic pattern identify the missed
THE ONLY OPTION altitude at 579 feet agl. approach point under
With only circling mini- Plus, if you are going to those NOTAMed con-
mums published, and an attempt this approach ditions.
18
 A
b

19
c
D
Reproduced with permission of Jeppesen. NOT FOR NAVIGATIONAL USE. © Jeppesen, 2020.
 PREFLIGHT
I . L . A . F. F.T.
A N EAR M I SS
Dealing with ice on the wings once presented an unexpected—and harrowing— learning opportunity.
BY DAN PHILGREEN
THE WELL-KNOWN accident chain we read about in
National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) reports
also happens, no doubt even more often, in incidents
that end up as hard-won lessons instead of accidents.
The chain often starts well before the first rotation of
a prop at start-up.
My father got his private certificate when I was a tyke.
He logged about 800 hours in his life. He never owned
his own airplane, but I grew up around aviation enough
to have caught the disease very early. Though he was
the one who actually taught me to fly, he was not an in-
structor. I went through the formality of earning my
private certificate in 1983 at the age of 26. I did this at
the Grosse Ile Municipal Airport (KONZ) in Michigan,
20
located on an island in the mouth of the Detroit River
where it empties into Lake Erie. I always loved flying,
but now I was rabid for it.
In those days I was working very long hours, and with
a fresh ticket and access to a Cessna 150, I squeezed in
flights whenever I could. That involved more night
flights than was probably advisable at that point in my
experience. But I loved being up at night and my regu-
lar routine of flying up the river and around downtown
Detroit at 1,000 feet. Taking in the tapestry of lights was
always magical and intoxicating.
Joel Kimmel
One night the urge to fly welled up within me, and I
headed to the airport where the 150 was tied down out-
side. Perhaps the most dangerous thing in life, and most
 PREFLIGHT
I . L . A . F. F.T.
I vowed right then and
there to never again fly...
with anything on the wings.
certainly in aviation, is that you don’t know what you
don’t know. And there were things I needed to know
but did not. (Obviously, as I had been stupidly flying
around at 1,000 feet at night.) As was a completely or-
dinary thing in Detroit in the winter, it had snowed.
Per my training, I got out the broom and brushed off all
the snow from the airframe. But (cue scary music here)
there had been a bit of thaw, and under the snow was
just a bit of ice. Not much, mind you. It was just a bit of
crustiness, so I thought it couldn’t weigh very much. I
figured it wasn’t a big deal since it was just me flying
with partial fuel in the tanks.. It was a cold, clear, still
night. Plenty of lift in this cold air, right? And, dang it, I
wanted to fly so badly.
Everything else checked out just fine. I fired up the
Continental O-200 and made my way across the big,
dark, completely deserted field to the longest runway,
did the run-up, lined her up, and shoved in the throttle.
All seemed completely normal until I was out of ground
effect, maybe 50 feet up. She felt saggy. This thing was
not climbing. I was staring ahead into the inky black-
ness, where I knew a tall stand of pine trees was wait-
ing for me at the north end of the runway. The accident
chain instantly marched across my consciousness: inex-
perience, winter, night, ice, overeagerness, and drag, you
idiot! I had stacked the deck against myself, and it was
all going to end in those trees in a few seconds. There
was really no better option than straight ahead, so I ut-
tered a short prayer and waited for the impact.
It didn’t come. In the pitch darkness, I held the atti-
tude indicator where I thought it should be and realized
from the altimeter reading that I must have cleared the
trees. I was soon high enough to have visual reference
from the lights on the ground to the north. All I could
think of was “climb.” The little 150 ponderously clawed
its way up, while the altimeter moved at about the pace
of hands on a clock. I eventually got up to a couple thou-
sand feet and realized with terror that I was at that mo-
ment a test pilot in an unknown machine. I had no idea
22
how to get it back down safely. I decided I needed to
find out what the stall speed was with this stuff on the
wings, so I would know what approach speed to use to
avoid falling out of the sky. I decided I had enough drag
already, so flaps probably would not be a good idea. I
slowed down with my eyes on the airspeed indicator and
waited for the break. To my surprise, the stall occurred
at about the same speed it would normally. OK, I guess
I’ll approach at the normal speed. I got her back to the
field and lined up.
Grosse Ile airport is basically surrounded by water,
and going in there on a moonless night one cannot see
the surrounding trees. The runway lights are all you’ve
got. It was a scary ride down the hill, and I carried a lit-
tle extra speed anyway. At first, all seemed normal, but
then almost too late, I realized that stalling wasn’t go-
ing to be my problem. This thing was coming down like
a brick. The sink rate registered on my brain, and I fire-
walled the throttle, once again terrified that I was going
to settle right down into those pine trees. The O-200
roared (like a mouse in a lion suit), and the laden lit-
tle 150 somehow lumbered over the unseen treetops.
I kept full throttle until I was just over the pavement.
Fortunately, the runway was plenty long and I settled
in smoothly. It was over, except my heart was about to
pound its way out of my chest.
I vowed right then and there to never again fly any
airplane with even a hint of anything on the wings. But
perhaps even more importantly, I came away from that
near miss with a constant question on my mind for any
situation: What about this do I not know? Finding the
answer is well worth any time and effort it takes. This
has served me well in airplanes and in many other areas,
such as just getting along with people. }
DAN PHILGREEN earned his private certificate in 1983. With
more than 40 years of flying now, he looks back on this as the
scariest thing he’s experienced in that time.
ËðéÝõïááéèåçáæñïðÝĥåãäðÞñðåðåïâÝîéëîáðäÝê
ðäÝð ÇÝßä æëñîêáõ åï ðäá ßñèéåêÝðåëê ëâ ßÝîáâñè
ìèÝêêåêã ĥÝóèáïï áôáßñðåëê Ýêà Ýê ñêÞîåàèáà
ìÝïïåëêðëìîëòåàáðäáÞáïðåêóëîèàßèÝïïßñïðëéáî
ïáîòåßá Ëð åï åê áÝßä âîåáêàèõ äÝêàïäÝçá óåðä ðäá
åêàñïðîõĎïÞáïðìåèëðïÝêàåðåïåêðäáßÝèéðäÝððÝçáï
ëòáîÝïõëñïáððèáåêðëõëñîïáÝðÝÞëÝîàÝìáîâáßðèõ
Ýììëåêðáà ÝåîßîÝâð Ýèè Ñóêáà Ýêà ÑìáîÝðáà Þõ
ÐËÅÊÑÎÃÕÃËÔ
ÈîëéðäáìáîïëêÝèåöáàÝððáêðåëêðëëñîßëééåðéáêð
ðëìîëòåàåêãðäáäåãäáïðíñÝèåðõÝåîßîÝâððëðäáÏëïð
ÔáĤêáà Õáð ëâ ÒîåòÝðá Èèõáîï ðäá ÐËÅÊÑÎÃÕ ÃËÔ
ðáÝéåïïëèáèõâëßñïáàëêëêáéåïïåëêõëñîï
ÅäëëïáâîëéëêáëâëñîĥáôåÞèáÝêàßëïðáĨáßðåòáÌáð
ÅÝîàìîëãîÝéïÝêàèáÝòáðäáîáïððëñï

ÙÃÖÅÊ

NicholasAir.com • 866.935.7771
#NicholasAir
ÃèèÝåîßîÝâðÝîáÑóêáàÝêàÑìáîÝðáàÞõÐËÅÊÑÎÃÕÃËÔ
ÐËÅÊÑÎÃÕÃËÔÝêàËÐÐÑØÃÖËØÇÒÔËØÃÖÇÃËÔÖÔÃØÇÎ
ÝîáîáãåïðáîáàðîÝàáéÝîçïĂÐËÅÊÑÎÃÕÃËÔÃèèîåãäðïîáïáîòáà
 PREFLIGHT
A FT ER M ATH
N I GHT F L I G H T
Into the dark unknown
BY PETER GARRISON
AROUND 7 IN THE EVENING on September 4, 2020,
the Muskogee, Oklahoma (KMKO), pilot-owner of a Cir-
rus SR22 telephoned his flight instructor to report he
was going to fly to Pickens, South Carolina (KLQK), that
night. His instructor advised him to wait until morning.
Instead, the pilot fueled the airplane, loaded his father,
wife, and child aboard, and took off at 8:27 p.m. for the
four-hour flight.
As you will have guessed, since you are reading about
this in Aftermath and not in I Learned About Flying
From That, the flight did not end well. About 25 min-
utes after takeoff and shortly after crossing the Arkan-
sas border, the 31-year-old pilot, whose in-command time
amounted to 75 hours, lost control of the airplane and
went down in a remote woodland. All aboard perished.
A few minutes before the impact, as he was climbing
to 9,500 feet msl, the pilot contacted ATC and requested
flight following. The weather along his route—which,
notably, he had last checked with ForeFlight 17 hours
earlier—was generally VFR, with a chance of scattered
convective activity. There was, however, one patch of
rainy weather just to the left of his course, and the con-
24
troller advised him to turn right to avoid it.
On the controller’s display, the target of the Cirrus
crept eastward just below the edge of the weather. Radar
paints rain, however, not cloud. The flight was over a re-
mote area with few ground lights and the harvest moon
had not yet risen, but its hidden glow may have faintly
defined an eastern horizon. In the inspissated blackness
of the night, the pilot, whose instrument experience was
limited to what little was required for the private certif-
icate, probably could not tell clear air from cloud.
As the Cirrus reached 9,500 feet, it began to turn to
the left toward the area of weather. Perhaps the tasks of
trimming and setting the mixture for cruise distracted
the pilot from his heading. The controller noticed the
change and pointed it out to the pilot, who replied he in-
tended to return to Muskogee. He now began a turn to the
right. Rather than reverse course, however, he continued
the turn until he was heading northward back into the
weather. The controller, who by now sensed trouble, said
to the pilot that he showed him on a heading of 340 de-
iStock
grees and asked whether he concurred. The pilot, whose
voice until this point had betrayed no sense of unease, re-
 PRESENTED BY
TOUR DATES

FEB
Pompano Beach, FL

MAR
Palo Alto, CA

APR
Addison, TX

MAY
Manassas, VA

JUNE
The Premier Showcase for 3DFLßF1RUWKZHVW

Today’s Newest Aircraft

SEPT
'HQYHU&2

OCT
SoCal

NOV
Scottsdale, AZ

REGISTRATION REQUIRED
AT 86$,5&5$)7(;32&20
#XVDLUFUDIWH[SR

SPONSORED BY

Manufacturer participation may vary per location. Dates subject to change.

 PREFLIGHT
A FT ER M ATH
plied somewhat incoherently that “the wind caught me,
[but now] I’m out of it.”
With a tone of increasing urgency, the controller in-
structed the pilot to turn left to a heading of 270. The pi-
lot acknowledged the instruction, but he did not comply.
Instead, he continued turning to the right. At the same
time, he was descending at an increasing rate and was
now at 6,000 feet. “I show you losing serious altitude,” the
controller said. “Level your wings if able and fly directly
southbound...Add power if you can.”
Rather than reverse course...
he continued the turn until he
was heading northward back
into the weather.
It was already too late. In a turning dive, its speed in-
creasing past 220 knots, the Cirrus continued downward.
Moments later, its radar target disappeared.
In its discussion of the accident, the National Trans-
portation Safety Board (NTSB) focused upon the pilot’s
preparedness—in the broadest sense—for the flight. A
former Marine, he should have been semper paratus—al-
ways ready—but his history suggested a headstrong per-
sonality with a certain tendency to ignore loose ends as
he plunged ahead.
He had failed his first private pilot test on questions
related to airplane systems; he passed on a retest the fol-
lowing week. But this little glitch tells us nothing about
his airmanship. His instructor reported he responded
calmly and reasonably to turbulence, and was “good” at
simulated instrument flight. He had enrolled in Cirrus
Embark transition training shortly before acquiring the
airplane. He completed all of the flight training lessons,
but—again, a hint of impatience with tiresome minutiae—
may not have completed the online self-study lessons.
The flight training was strictly VFR and did not include
night or instrument components.
The airplane was extremely well equipped for in-
strument flying, but it was a 2001 model, and its avion-
ics were, according to the Cirrus Embark instructors,
“old technology” and “not easy to use.” In other words,
it did not have a glass panel, and its classical instru-
ments, which included a flight director, were sophisti-
26
cated and possibly confusing to a novice. The airplane
was equipped with an autopilot, and the pilot had been
trained in at least the elements of its use.
The airplane was also equipped with an airframe para-
chute, but it was not deployed during the loss of control.
In any case, its use is limited to indicated speeds below
133 kias, and it might not have functioned properly in a
spiral dive.
An instructor familiar with the pilot and his airplane—
whether this was the same instructor as the one whom he
called on the night of the fatal flight is not clear—wrote
to the NTSB that the pilot had made the night flight to
South Carolina at least once before, and he had called her
at midnight before departing to come help him fix a flat
tire. She declined and urged him to get some sleep and
make the trip in the morning.
“I told him he was starting down the ‘accident chain,’”
she wrote. “New pilot, new plane, late start, night-
time, bad terrain, etc....To me, he seemed a little overly
self-confident in his piloting skills, but he didn’t know
enough to know what he didn’t know.”
He fixed the tire himself and made the trip safely that
night. Undoubtedly, that success encouraged him to go
again.
We have seen over and over how capable pilots, in-
cluding ones with much more experience than this pilot,
fail to perform at their usual level when they encounter
weather emergencies. A sudden, unexpected plunge into
IMC—which, on a dark night, can happen very easily—
opens the door to a Pandora’s box of fear, confusion, and
disorientation for which training cannot prepare you.
There are two clear avenues of escape. One is the au-
topilot. Switch it on, take your hands off the controls,
breathe, and count to 20. The fact the pilot did not take
this step suggests how paralyzed his mental faculties may
have become.
The other is the attitude indicator. It’s a simple me-
chanical game. Put the toy airplane on the horizon line
and align the wings with it. That’s all. It’s so simple. Yet in
a crisis, apparently, it’s terribly hard to do. The fact that
so many pilots have lost control of their airplanes in IMC
should be a warning to every noninstrument-rated pilot
to treat clouds—and, above all, clouds in darkness—with
extreme respect. }
This article is based on the National Transportation
Safety Board’s report of the accident and is intended to
bring the issues raised to our readers’ attention. It is not
intended to judge or reach any definitive conclusions
about the ability or capacity of any person, living or dead,
or any aircraft or accessory.
PETER GARRISON taught himself to use a slide rule and
tinsnips, built an airplane in his backyard, and flew it to
Japan. He has contributed to FLYING since 1968, currently
with the columns Aftermath and Technicalities.
TH E WORL D’S M OST W ID ELY RE A D
AV I ATI O N M AGAZIN E

flyingmag.com/subscribe
 PREFLIGHT
RAC I NG U P DAT E
RENO’S FINAL LAP
While tainted by tragedy, the final National Championship Air Races were a memorable example of community.
BY JONATHAN WELSH
MANY PEOPLE INVOLVED in aviation will recall 2023
as the last year for the National Championship Air Races
in Reno, Nevada. History will also mark it as a sad year for
the event because of a midair collision that claimed the
lives of two renowned AT-6 pilots.
For the estimated 140,000 fans who attended the
weeklong celebration of aircraft performance, I suspect
the overall experience was still one to treasure, in part
because the races are more than the sum of the event.
When you walk through the gates and head for the grand-
stands, you are stepping into a complex timeline that
stretches back to the competition’s conception in 1964
and beyond to aviation’s Golden Age, with the Cleveland
air races, and the Thompson, Bendix, and Greve trophies.
28
I know I will feel a tinge of joy every time I look back
on my days spent with the Yak-3 racer Miss Trinidad, its
owner Sam Davis, crew chief John Dowd, pilot John Ma-
loney, and the gang of volunteers that kept the complex
vintage machine ready to race. This group generously
made room for me in its pit stall so I could report on the
effort required to get a bunch of 80-year-old warbirds
to the starting line and the elements that, when blended
correctly, turn a race plane into a winner.
The performances seen at Reno are often the culmina-
Jonathan Welsh
tion of years of work spent modifying, testing, and refin-
ing these former fighting aircraft into racers capable of
lapping the 8-mile course at 400 mph or more. Favorites
change from year to year with certain airplanes enjoy-
ing runs of back-to-back victories and record-setting lap
speeds. Sometimes an airplane will languish at the back
of the pack until a new owner or change of sponsorship
brings the resources needed to make it a front-runner. In
other cases, finding the right pilot can put an airplane in
the winner’s circle. These combinations often become
part of air racing lore.
That tradition piqued my interest as a kid leafing
through aviation magazines. Photos of P-51 Mustangs,
F8F Bearcats, Hawker Sea Furies, and other models of
the World War II era rounding pylons, flying wingtip to
wingtip, seemed completely thrilling. Even more storied
than the aircraft were the pilots. From Chuck Lyford and
the Bardahl Special P-51 and Mira Slovak and the Smirn-
off Bearcat in the 1960s to Steven Hinton in the recently
restored Bardahl Special in this year’s races, the aviators
who compete at this level tend to lead interesting lives.
For decades, I was determined to make my way to
Reno to see the action firsthand. But life and all of its
schedules kept me away. As a result, I missed water-
shed developments, including the arrival of original
non-warbird designs Tsunami during the mid-1980s
and the twin-engine Pond Racer, a Burt Rutan compos-
ite design of the early 1990s. My father went to the races
with a group of friends in 1992 and brought back photos
of the Pond Racer. I was jealous.
Still, I followed the races for many years through print,
television, and video, catching memorable events like
Hinton flying the P-51 Red Baron to a new speed record
in 1979 to the classic 1989 showdown between Bill “Ti-
ger” Destefani and his P-51 Strega and longtime rival Lyle
Shelton in the Bearcat Rare Bear.
Seeing the event in person this year might have been
the ultimate case of “better late than never,” but it gave
me a sense of what the races truly represent and why the
tightly knit racing community returns each year despite
the expense and obvious risks.
“Community” really is the right word to describe Re-
no’s cast of characters that includes pilots, aircraft build-
ers, mechanics, owners, officials, sponsors, and families.
As expected, people serving as crewmembers work tire-
lessly for their teams, repairing, tuning, and tweaking
aircraft before and between qualifying flights and heat
races. What might surprise outsiders is how hard the
same folks will work to get a competitor’s airplane into a
race, especially if they are sidelined by a mishap.
If someone needs a spare part, a special tool, or some-
one with particular expertise, help is sure to emerge from
a neighboring section of the pits, which sprawls like a
small town across the vast ramp at Reno Stead Airport
(KRTS). It is the kind of town where some of your neigh-
bors might be celebrities.
Pete Law, the renowned former Lockheed engineer
and fluid dynamicist who for decades designed exotic
systems for cooling racers’ engines and keeping them
running properly, stopped by Trinidad’s pit stall for a
friendly visit. Across the ramp were the legendary P-51s
Miss America and Thunderbird. Take a shortcut through
29
Seeing the event in person
this year might have been the
ultimate case of ‘better late
than never...’
Trinidad’s backyard, and you would enter the Hinton
headquarters where Bardahl was undergoing constant
preparation. The airplane, restored and heavily modi-
fied over the past year, reportedly at great expense, was
favored to win the Unlimited Gold race.
The stakes were high, and the atmosphere in the pits
was intense, though still friendly, with visitors stopping
by to chat and bag the occasional autograph. In the back-
ground, generators hummed and power tools whirred as
workers opened hatches and removed exterior panels
to perform a range of surgeries on aircraft before send-
ing them to the line to start the next race. Occasionally,
someone shouts for a tool or bandage to dress bloody
knuckles. Sometimes you hear the echo of a nut, bolt,
screw, or other small part dropped deep inside a fuse-
lage or engine cowling, followed by an expletive. That is
about as harsh as it gets.
Proof of the air racing community’s openness came
when my wife, who did not grow up around airplanes,
flew out to join me for the final day of competition. The
entire crew welcomed her, and she wound up having such
a great time chatting with them and pitching in to help
when she could that the racing almost became secondary.
She wondered how you get so many accomplished people
to work free of charge.
As a physician, she happily answered medical ques-
tions with owner Davis and crew chief Dowd while
learning about the vagaries of twin-row radial engines
like the Yak’s Pratt & Whitney R2000. She cannot wait
for the races to resume at a new venue, which is planned
for 2025.
The ultimate show of friend-for-life status came just
before we departed on Sunday afternoon. Members of the
Davis team wore white T-shirts with an image of the air-
plane and the inscriptions “Miss Trinidad” and “Race 27.”
As we said our farewells, Davis approached and handed
us our own crew shirts.
We will wear them with pride. }
JONATHAN WELSH is the travel editor for FLYING. A private
pilot, he recently purchased his first airplane, a Commander
114B named Annie.
 EXP E R IEN C E T H E FI ELDS
To l e a r n m o re a b o u t l ot re ser 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 m i ng of liv i ng w ith thei r ai rc raft a nd being ab le to pref lig ht , tax i, an d take off to
a d est i nat io n w i t hi n m inu tes of leav in g th e h o use. Whether it ’s a sin g le - day bu si ness
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 wa nted to design a development that has community at its core,
allowing for pilots to enjoy the advantages 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 -foot 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
for fly-in communities.

FLYTHEFIELDS.COM
FLYTHEFIELDS.COM/AMENITIES
RELAX
AT THE FIELDS
 WE F LY

CESSNA
TTx
Seven years after production ceased, a phenomenal single still
powers through the skies , though it faltered in the marketplace.

BY JULIE BOATMAN
 ‘I just bought the assets of Columbia…’
The email came across while I was in a meeting at my former job, just weeks before I’d join Cessna Aircraft
Company as the Cessna Pilot Center manager in December 2007.
In a boardroom cross-country—literally—from where
I sat, former Cessna president and CEO Jack Pelton had
closed the deal, yes, buying “certain assets of the Co-
lumbia Aircraft Company.” His excitement about the
purchase rang through the few lines of text—for the
airplanes Textron had just bought as well as the poten-
tial for growing Cessna’s foothold in an evolving piston
marketplace. And from that moment, my own relation-
ship unfolded with the airplane. What started as the
Columbia 400 could have taken the high-performance,
piston-single segment by storm, born of the Lancair
heritage. It would become the Cessna 400—known
briefly by its marketing name, Corvalis TT—and finally,
in its most recent edition, the Cessna TTx.
The type designation—Cessna T240—would place it
atop the hierarchy of Cessna singles, but it began life as
an offshoot of a popular kitplane, the Lancair ES. Lan-
cair formed a new business entity, Columbia, to oversee
the development and manufacture of the 300, followed
by the 350, then the 400, under Part 23. The company
Under the cowl roars the 310 hp, twin-turbocharger-equipped Continental TSIO-550-C.
Stephen Yeates (opening spread); Mike Fizer/FLYING Archives
36
was new to the process of type certification, but not to
high-performance aircraft development, and this re-
sulted in a string of airplanes determined to knock a
pilot’s socks off with their ability to go fast, maneuver
fearlessly, and look nothing short of awesome doing it.
Columbia upgraded the original 300 (FAA type cer-
tificated in 1998) to the 350 with the addition of an op-
tional glass panel—Avidyne’s Entegra primary flight
display—in 2003, along with the more powerful, tur-
bocharged 400, right up until the company dissolved
in 2007. Columbia achieved the airplane’s stall speed
requirement with a multiphase wing, moving the aero-
dynamic stall inboard and limiting up elevator travel
and left rudder pedal range. These changes resulted in
an airplane that could be certified under the FAA’s defi-
nition of spin resistant—unable to enter a spin even with
pro-spin inputs. Recovery would come from normal an-
ti-spin procedures, as opposed to the ballistic recovery
parachute system required by its primary competitor,
the Cirrus SR20 and SR22.
 E
A
C
a The TTx featured the first—and perhaps only—
Garmin G2000 integrated flight deck in a piston
single. It works quite well, but the upgrade path is
uncertain at this point.
b The first of the GTC touchscreen controllers—a
single one—came with the introduction of the Cor-
valis model.
c TheContinental TSIO-550 up front requires man-
agement of the twin turbos, but a robust engine infor-
WESTBOUND
The only visible moisture we touched in 933 nm be-
tween Hagerstown, Maryland, and Wichita, Kansas,
came during the takeoff roll at KHGR—wisps of mist
that had suppressed the visibility below a quarter mile
for the hour prior to our departure still wavered across
the wide runway. As soon as we lifted off, we left it be-
hind and continued our climb over the first folds of the
Appalachian hills, as I revisited the TTx in September.
As we cut a path through the sky westbound above
the scattered threads of valley fog, I thought of the last
cross-country I made in an SR22T. Yes, the newer avion-
ics of the Cirrus have had the benefit of continuous evo-
Mike Fizer/FLYING Archives
lution—the TTx suffers from a paralysis in updating the
G2000, such that its capabilities seem encased in amber.
The touchscreen control pad—called by the model des-
ignation GTC—went under development with Garmin
immediately after the acquisition, as one of the primary
components of the G2000—a two-big-screen integrated
flight deck driven by softkeys on the display bezels as
37
mation system display aids with keeping everything in
the green.
d The beautiful, wood sidestick flight control in the
Columbia 400 transitioned to a leather-wrapped
model, but it still falls comfortably to hand and
maneuvers with ease throughout the significant flight
envelope.
e The GFC 700 takes FMS input for smooth climbs and
descents tracking a flight plan.
well as remotely through the GTC. This formed the foun-
dation that Garmin would leverage into the G3000 we
now find on single-engine turboprops and on up the
food chain. Thus the lack of a Perspective doesn’t hit
as keenly—you still feel like you’re in a modern cockpit
though the architecture is now 10-plus years old.
Cessna worked in concert with Garmin on the devel-
opment of the touchscreen and exactly how the pilot ac-
tions would activate the controls on the display. Though
it appears to be actuated by the heat of a finger—as our
smartphones do—early versions introduced crisscross-
ing beams across the screen that would be interrupted
by the presence of the pilot’s finger. But just breaking
the beam wouldn’t be enough to activate the “button” on
the screen below—a deliberate pause and stroke was re-
quired. This action has been refined in subsequent mod-
els of the GTCs—but it was intriguing to give my input to
the product management team during the testing phase
in Cessna’s R&D lab in Wichita in the early 2010s.
 THE WAY-BACK MACHINE
Continuing the flashbacks: Now we’ll move forward a
bit to 2014. I’d joined Jeppesen as a senior manager in
aviation courseware development—but was ready to
strike out on my own. I decided to take back two famil-
iar roles—working on a book and flight instructing. I
paired up with a retired race car driver and engineer
who had just bought a 2012 TTx on the preowned mar-
ket through the local Cessna piston sales dealer in the
Denver metro area. He needed a bit of transition train-
ing as he pursued his instrument rating. But he felt
clearly comfortable with the TTx’s speed and nimble
coupling, given his background. The TTx fit him and
his personality like a glove.
We headed to Independence, Kansas, for the facto-
ry-led portion of his TTx training—and my refresher
course in the model since I’d left Cessna. In fact, KIDP
was the scene where just a couple of years ago I’d seen
the TTx fuselages join together from their composite
halves on the production line as the company sorted
through the best way to replicate the former Columbia
Aircraft factory in Bend, Oregon. I’d visited that facility
as well—in February 2008, Cessna held a sales meeting
in Bend, and members of the team toured the compact
production line, with clearly skilled craftsmen attend-
ing to each unit. The initial promise to keep production
within the hands of this dedicated team boded well—
as well as retaining a beautiful location for customer
delivery and training—but internal and external eco-
nomic forces in late 2008 and 2009 conspired against
that original business plan.
For the likes of Six Sigma-led Cessna to pick up that
work and translate it to a line more like that of its leg-
acy singles, such as the 172, 182, and 206, it would be a
feat—but made more so by the nature of the Columbia
airplanes’ composite construction. At the time, most
composite work for Cessna was completed at the TAM
facility in Mexico, but these were nonstructural com-
ponents like fairings and nose bowls. The entire fuse-
lage required a complex layup process beyond that kind
of work. Still, Textron forced the movement of produc-
tion from Bend to Chihuahua. As it turned out, the need
wasn’t properly identified to upgrade all the environ-
mental systems at the Mexico plant to properly address
the layup and curing via autoclave of the carbon fiber
and Kevlar composites used in the Columbia design—
and early serial numbers on the Cessna 400 suffered.
Delamination in a handful of wings—discovered in an
FAA flight test when an integrated fuel tank in the wing
leaked—torpedoed the 400’s reputation in the market.
The move of more production and assembly to In-
dependence, and the rebranding and upgrades to the
model to create the TTx, sought to assuage those issues.
However, the loss of confidence—however temporary
and well addressed—combined with Cirrus Aircraft’s
powerful presence and success in the market gave the
TTx too far to go to make up lost ground. Though 110
units sold in 2008—the last of the Bend-built Colum-
bias—sales never reached beyond the double digits per
quarter, even after the upgrade to the TTx. In the end,
Cessna ceased production on the TTx in 2018, with a
total of 704 400s and TTxs built.
Pelton offers the perspective of reflection after 15
years have passed since Cessna made the transition
from Bend production to Kansas and Mexico: “The eco-
nomic downturn of 2008 really forced things, making
it necessary to move the line away from Oregon where
the knowledge base for composite layup was, as well as
a great place to have customer deliveries.” That stumble
cost dearly, along with a couple of other key delays, one
in bringing FIKI certification into play, and the other
in failing to market well on the strength of the airplane
aerodynamically over its competitors.
 The model T240 series was certificated in the utility category, making it attractive for its strength as well as speed.
Y E A H , B A B Y!
Yes, shunning the TTx as weak in any way would be a
serious mistake. In fact, the 400 from which it derived
carries a utility category certification, meaning it actu-
ally has as a limit load factor of 4.4 positive Gs—and mi-
nor aerobatic chops as a result. Legendary airshow pilot
Sean D. Tucker nabbed the Columbia 400 for use in his
Tutima Academy of Flight Safety in 2006—and if you
Mike Fizer/FLYING Archives (2)
search his name and the model on YouTube, you’ll find
inspiring video of the master taking the 400 through
a graceful routine. The FAA granted a reclassification
of the stock 400 into an experimental airworthiness
certificate so that it could be flown in aerobatic and up-
set prevention and recovery training. And that’s what
Tucker used the mount for, as it closely resembles the
airplanes many pilots fly for themselves—as opposed
39
to an Extra 330—yet it provided a slightly wider enve-
lope for maneuvers. Though Tucker no longer offers
the 400 as part of the academy’s portfolio, the legacy
remains meaningful.
So don’t get any ideas about taking a TTx out for a
loop and a roll—just know that the model carries this
strength forward, along with impressive maneuver-
ability and a real appeal to hand-flying pilots. The Co-
lumbia 400s came with carved mahogany flight control
sticks mounted on the side panels—left for the pilot,
right for the copilot—and they are true sticks, with a
natural range of motion and articulation. When I had
the chance to put the now leather-wrapped stick in my
hand during our flight to Wichita, it was like greeting
an old friend who falls into step next to you.
 CRUISE CONTROL

For our two-leg mission to Wichita, we planned a stop
at Spirit of St. Louis Airport (KSUS) on the north side of
the metro area on the western banks of the Mississippi
River near where the Missouri River joins it. At 8,000
feet, we kept 150 kias and 175 ktas most of the way, with
a little more or less in spots. The weather gods not only
blessed us with clear skies but also a mere breath of a
headwind, which translated into a crosswind some-
where over Illinois.
A quick fuel-up and turn at Signature Flight Support
at KSUS—and chicken tenders and waffle fries for the
road—had us off again for a two-hour jaunt across Mis-
souri and into Kansas for the slide into the bumps below
the LCL and Eisenhower National Airport (KICT). We
arrived in comfort and style, as we weaved through the
obstacle course of construction to the ramp at Yingling
Aviation.
For our troubles, we averaged about 15.8 gph on both
legs, taking a total of roughly 100 gallons of 100LL to
make the journey halfway across the country in about
six hours. Try getting from door to door, Maryland to
Wichita, in less than that on the airlines. I dare you.

2013 CESSNA TTX

Price New, Avg. Equipment: $810,000
Price, 2023: $450,000 to $700,000
Engine: Continental TSIO-550-C (310 hp)
TBO: 2,000 hours
Propeller: McCauley, three-blade, constant
speed
Seats: 4
Wingspan: 36 ft.
Wing Area: 141.2 sq. ft.
Wing Loading: 25.5 lbs./sq. ft.
Length: 25 ft., 2 in.
Height: 9 ft.
Baggage Weight: 120 lbs.
Standard Empty Weight: 2,520 lbs.
Max Takeoff Weight: 3,600 lb.
Max Landing Weight: 3,420 lbs.
Max Useful Load: 1,070 lbs.
Fuel: 106 gal./102 gal. usable
Max Rate of Climb: 1,400 fpm
Service Ceiling: 25,000 ft.
Stall Speed (landing config.): 60 kias
Max Cruise Speed: 235 ktas
Max Range: 1,250 nm
Normal Range: 502 nm with 3 passengers (Conk-
lin & deDecker/JSSI)
Takeoff Distance, Sea Level (over a 50 ft. obs.):
1,900 ft.
Landing Distance, Sea Level (over a 50 ft. obs.):
2,700 ft.
 The TTx gets off the ground in roughly 2,000 feet at sea level and can climb at up to 1,400 fpm.
ANY GOTCHAS?
The twin turbochargers on the Continental TSIO-550
respond well to careful management—and replacing
them is not cheap. Nor is making up for any damage
they might do if pressed to failure, so they’re worth
treating nicely.
When you do, however, you’re rewarded with great
performance figures across the board. The TTx can get
off the ground in a relatively short distance: a 1,300-
foot ground roll, with 1,900 feet to over a hypotheti-
cal 50-foot obstacle in sea-level standard conditions,
as shown in the book values and as I witnessed many
Mike Fizer/FLYING Archives (2)
times in practice. It will land just as short, as far as
ground roll is concerned—1,250 feet—but you need to
budget a bit more space for the whole trees-at-the-end
approach at around 2,700 feet.
Just as with the SR series, speed control on final re-
wards the pilot and helps to avoid the dreaded run-
way overrun that plagues high-performance singles.
One area in this regard where the SRs have an edge?
41
The approach flap speed has been raised to 150 kias
on SR22s—while the TTx’s remains at a painfully slow
127 kias. Fortunately, the TTx has speed brakes to help
you slow down and get down at the same time. You will
use them all the time—there’s no speed restriction on
them (apart from VNE)—just have them tucked in be-
fore you touch down.
The Columbia 400 originally came with an op-
tional E-Vade anti-ice system on the wings, which
used heat-conducting panels to shed the ice. How-
ever, it didn’t come certificated for flight into known
ice (FIKI). Whether to add the option was debated
within Cessna ranks until finally the TKS “weeping
wing” de-icing system was introduced in March 2012,
with full FIKI certification coming in June 2014. The
TKS Ice Protection system offers up to 2.5 hours of ic-
ing protection—but that translates into 10.15 gallons
at a hefty 9 pounds per gallon weight for a total of 91.4
pounds fluid weight—137 pounds for the system.
 ACC E L E RAT E D BL I SS
Flying the Cessna 400 series was a true pleasure.
In my 24-plus years of flying, I have
been fortunate to take the controls of
many different types of airplanes. Like
adopted children, the two airplanes I have
owned—'Peppermint Patty,' the Cessna
170, and 'Manny,' the Mooney—occupy
the softest part of my pilot heart. But
the airplane that brought me the most
enjoyable personal flying experience
was one that, like some favorite children,
bears many names. It started out as the
Columbia 400, became the Cessna 400
when I first flew it, and was later renamed
Corvalis TT and TTx.
I was one of four Cessna 350/400
product specialists (the 350 being the
non turbocharged version) spread around
the country when the company took over
and started marketing the aircraft type
in 2008. Emily Waters covered the West
Coast, Doug Walker the Northeast, and
Kel Jones the Southeast—all three were
previous Columbia pilots. I was new to
the airplane, and my territory spanned
from New Mexico to Tennessee and South
Dakota to Texas. It might appear to be
a large area for a single-engine piston
BY PIA BERGQVIST
four-seater. But covering the region in
this sports car with wings was no trouble
at all.
I will never forget traveling to Bend,
Oregon, where the factory was located
at the time, to pick up my first demo
airplane. The terrific team of employees
there gave me first-class treatment, as if I
was a customer. There was a sign bearing
my name standing in front of a facto-
ry-new Cessna 400—a black, silver, and
white beauty—N86DE. The production
quality was stellar, with flawless com-
posite production, paint finishing, and
interior and avionics installation. It was
easy to proudly represent the airplane for
the Wichita, Kansas-based company.
In no other airplane have I been able
to sit as comfortably, with my left hand
on the sidestick and the right hand
on the keypad that manipulated most
functions on the G1000 MFD—the flight
deck installed in the 400 before the TTx
moved up to the G2000. I had many long
days in that seat, without even a hint of
discomfort. While the Cessna 350/400
was equipped with the terrific GFC 700
autopilot, I hand-flew the airplane on
most legs. It was simply a really fun
airplane to fly, with enough maneuver-
ability to satisfy one of the best aerobatic
airshow performers of all time—Sean D.
Tucker (yes, there are YouTube videos to
prove it). In fact, the airplane earned well
its certification in the utility category.
And the Cessna 400 got me where I
needed to go quickly. I could count on
around 200 ktas at 10,000 feet, but if I
wanted to go faster, I simply hooked on to
the built-in oxygen system and climbed
higher. On one flight from Independence,
Kansas, to Memphis, Tennessee, I
reached 306 knots ground speed. Walker
was kind enough to send me a patch,
inaugurating me into the 300-knot club
of Columbia pilots.
In the nearly 600 hours I was fortu-
nate enough to fly the Cessna 400 and
350, I flew from coast to coast to dealers
and airshows, and I took countless friends
and strangers for rides. Many fond mem-
ories were forged in that airplane, and I
hope, one day, I will return to that blissful
seat. [
 ON THE MARKET
You’ll want to search for the Columbia 400, Cessna
400, Corvalis, and TTx in order to capture all of the
possible models existing on the market. At press time,
I found roughly 20 TTxs available, mostly in the U.S.
but a few overseas. The original 400 gained FAA type
certification in April 2004 under Lancair’s direction,
and European Union Aviation Safety Agency approval
Stephen Yeates
followed in 2009.
Pricing runs the gamut—from the mid-$300,000s
to just north of $700,000—depending on equipment,
total time, and location. But most appear to have be-
43
tween 900 and 2,000 hours, reflecting flight time of
100 to 200 hours per year since new. With the TBO at
2,000 hours, the cost of a new big-bore Continental or
its overhaul may need to be factored into your purchase
price.
Still, with the SR22Ts of the same vintage asking an
average from $699,000 and up in Aircraft For Sale, the
TTx looks mighty attractive on the spreadsheet.
But the numbers tell only a small part of the story. As
with all airplanes for which we harbor grand affections,
the real joy comes in the flying. [
 MOSAIC
COMMENTS
CLOSING

BY DAN JOHNSON
 OVERVIEW
MOSAIC is an acronym for a regulation that affects all
aircraft with special airworthiness certificates. Air-
craft built by Cessna, Piper, Cirrus, Diamond, and oth-
ers instead have standard certificates, and their new
models remain untouched by this proposed regulation.
In contrast, all light sport aircraft (LSA), experi-
mental amateur-built airplanes, and warbirds are is-
sued special certificates. In my view, the rule can be
divided into two main parts: airplane descriptions and
AIRPLANES…WHAT WE GAINED
Here’s the list of what FA A offered and how each
changed:
Gross weight: LSAs have been limited to 1,320 pounds
(land) or 1,430 pounds (water). Under MOSAIC, the
weight limit is removed and clean stall constrains size
so the aircraft remains what FAA sought: those “easy to
fly, operate, and maintain.” It is expected that weight can
rise to 3,000 pounds depending on the design.
Stall speed: Presently, LSAs cannot stall faster than
45 knots. This will be raised 20 percent to 54 knots, but
this is clean stall, the purpose of which is to limit air-
craft size and difficulty. It has no relation to landing
speed or slow-flight qualities. This more than doubled
the potential size, hence a new term, “MOSAIC LSA.”
Four seats: LSAs are presently limited by definition
to two seats. This rises to four in a MOSAIC LSA, but if
operated by someone using sport pilot certificate priv-
ileges, then only one passenger can be carried. A private
certificate with medical may fill all four seats, assuming
weight and balance allows.
Retractable gear: Light sport aircraft have been fixed
gear only, except for amphibious models. Now any MO-
SAIC LSA can be retractable. Several imported LSAs al-
ready offer retractable options in other countries.
Adjustable prop: LSAs were allowed only ground-ad-
justable props. Now a MOSAIC LSA can have an in-
flight adjustable prop. Such equipment on similar
aircraft is common in other countries.
250 knot max speed: An LSA was limited by defi-
nition to 120 knots at full power. Now the speed limit
matches all other aircraft below 10,000 feet: 250 knots.
No one expected such a large expansion, but now re-
tractable and adjustable props make more sense.
Rotary expansion: After 20 years of waiting, fully
built gyroplanes will be allowed. That followed years of
advocacy effort, but when the opposition finally yielded,
the FAA also granted helicopters.
46
capabilities, and pilot certificates, technician privi-
leges, and operating limitations. In short, airplanes
or people.
For airplanes, the NPRM felt like Christmas in July,
granting many capabilities industry and pilot member
organizations had sought over some years of negoti-
ation. The people part describes who gets to fly and
maintain these MOSAIC LSAs and under what rules.
This latter section inspired greater concern.
Electric or hybrid: Because the FAA did not want
turbine LSAs in 2004, it specified reciprocating en-
gines, unintentionally knocking out electric motors that
few were considering at the time. In fixing the definition
to allow electric, the agency will also permit hybrids.
Examples are already flying in Europe.
Turbine: Perhaps turbine engines were harder to op-
erate 20 years ago when LSA were defined, but today
they are seen as simpler, and the FAA will allow them.
Turbine-powered MOSAIC LSA candidates are already
flying in Europe.
Multiple engines/motors: The LSA has been limited
to a single engine by definition. That constraint is re-
moved, although no language was given to address how
the pilot qualifies.
Aerial work: The Light Aircraft Manufacturers Asso-
ciation (LAMA) lobbied for MOSAIC LSAs to be permit-
ted to do forms of aerial work, although not passenger
or cargo hauling. The FAA has granted this opportunity
to the manufacturers, which can specify what opera-
tions they will permit. A commercial pilot certificate
will be required.
Courtesy of Lockwood Aviation (opening spread and at right)
One downside to all these goodies? Each will increase
the price. The good news? Present-day LSAs offer lower
prices and have proven enjoyable and dependable. Many
LSAs are fine as they are and have no need to change.
A lot of LSA producers already meet higher weights
in other countries where permitted. They are merely
reduced on paper to meet U.S. standards. It should
be straightforward for them to redeclare meeting all
MOSAIC-level ASTM standards to qualify for higher
weights.
The only question is how far backward compatible
they can go for aircraft in the field over which they
have had no control for some time. It’s an industry
question to resolve, and it will swiftly be handled to
aid sales.
Describing an MLSA
P RO P OSED LI GHT- SP ORT AIRC RA FT CHA NGES

Maximum Number of Seats 4 2

Stall Speed (VS1) 54 knots 45 knots

Maximum Takeoff Weight Not specified, 3,000 lbs. likely 1,320 or 1,430 lbs.

Maximum Speed 250 knots 120 knots

Engines No restriction on number or type Single, reciprocating (piston)

Adjustable Propeller Allowed Ground adjustable only

Retractable Gear Allowed Allowed for water operation only

Mandatory Safety Bulletins Mandatory SBs “recommended” Manufacturer’s Mandatory SBs

Time Before Overhaul No change proposed Overhaul required for COS

Source: LAMA board director Phil Solomon

47
 MLSA Highlights
• Weight to = 3,000 lbs.
with 54-knot stall
• Four Seats
• Retractable Gear
• Adjustable Prop
• 250 Knot Max Speed
PEO PLE A ND ARE AS O F CO NCERN
Medicals: Lots of questions surround one of the
principal benefits of LSA operation: the lack of require-
ment for an aviation medical if operating as a sport pi-
lot. More specifically, pilots want to fly larger aircraft
using these privileges, meaning no medical certificate,
or BasicMed, instead using the driver’s license as evi-
dence of their medical fitness.
To keep within their budget, many pilots wish to buy
(or keep flying) legacy GA aircraft such as the Cessna
150, 172, 177, and some 182s, plus certain Pipers, Dia-
monds, Champions, or other brands. Many of the lat-
ter aircraft are too heavy to allow such privilege today.
MOSAIC appears to change that, but without present-
ing compelling evidence that possession of a medical
assures a flight proceeds safely, the FAA nonetheless
clings to this premise. Many assert the occurrence of
medical problems sufficient to upset a flight or cause
an accident are incredibly small in number.
Stall speed: Most NPRM readers agree that it was a
worthy solution to use 54 knots clean stall as a means
to limit the size of the airplane and to keep it within
the FAA’s mantra of LSAs being “easy to fly, operate,
and maintain.”
However, many respondents note that adding just a
couple knots to that limit will allow several more air-
planes that some wish to buy and fly under MOSAIC
rules. Note that the 54-knot reference is not related to
landing speeds or slow flight, where lift-enhancing de-
vices like flaps would normally be used.
Some pilots asked if adding vortex generators could
reduce stall speed enough to qualify. The problem lies
in proving a slower stall speed was achieved. Stall (VS1)
printed in the POH will be the standard about com-
pliance.
48
• Fully Built Gyros
• Electric or Hybrid
• Multiple Engines
• Turbine
• Helicopters
• Aerial Work
Several pilots have complained about use of cali-
brated versus indicated airspeed for the stall limit, but
this is another matter that might be clarified after the
comment period.
Endorsements: One of the significant lessons learned
in 20 years of pilots operating LSAs is the so-called
magic of endorsements. Instead of asking pilots to re-
ceive training, take a knowledge test and possibly an
oral exam, followed by a practical flight test, they can
just go get trained for added skills from an instruc-
tor who then endorses their logbook accordingly, and
they’re good to go. This puts a significant burden on
flight instructors to do their jobs well, but that’s al-
ready the situation.
The NPRM already refers to the use of endorsements
for retractable gear training or adjustable prop train-
ing, and many believe that expanding endorsements to
all privileges described in the MOSAIC proposal has
merit.
Noise: For the first time, the NPRM introduced noise
requirements that encompass several pages. Coinci-
dentally, the LSA sector is already one of the quietest
in the airborne fleet.
This is partly because of European noise regulations
that have been in place for a long time, motivating qui-
eter engine and exhaust system development. How-
ever, LSAs are also quieter because the powerplants
are modern, thanks to the faster approval process im-
Courtesy of Flight Design
plied by industry consensus standards.
The industry was not pleased about the noise pro-
posal, as these requirements add burden without iden-
tifiable benefit. Nonetheless, the situation might be
handled through the ASTM process more quickly and
still satisfy political demands.
 Night: MOSAIC’s language invigorated many read-
ers when the NPRM expressed support for a sport pi-
lot to fly at night—with proper training and a logbook
endorsement. Then the proposal refers to other FAA
regulations that require BasicMed or a medical. If you
must have a medical, you are not exercising the central
privilege of a sport pilot. Why suggest that a sport pi-
lot can do things that are blocked by other regulations?
This conflict should be resolved.
This is one of several aspects of the NPRM that many
describe as “inconsistencies,” where one part of MO-
SAIC appears to restrict another part, often for unclear
reasons. Such observations lead many to declare the
NPRM looks “rushed to market.” Hopefully, most prob-
lems can be addressed in the post-comment period.
When surveyed about why night privileges are
valued, most pilots wanted to be able to complete a
cross-country flight with a landing after dark.
IFR/IMC: Contrary to what many think, the FAA
has never prohibited LSAs from IFR/IMC operation.
It is the lack of an ASTM standard to which manu-
facturers can declare compliance that prevents such
sales. (Some special LSA owners elect a change to ex-
perimental LSA status and can then file IFR, assum-
ing they have a rating, are current, and the airplane is
properly equipped.)
However, as with night operations, many LSA owners
report higher-level pilot certificates often including in-
strument ratings, and they would like to be able to use
their LSAs to get through a thin cloud layer.
Maintenance and TBOs: The maintenance commu-
nity has found several objections within the NPRM. It
appears that changes could cause a loss of privilege for
LSA owners who have taken training to perform basic
maintenance on their own LSAs.
In addition to altering the privileges of light sport
repairman mechanic (LSRM) certificate holders, MO-
SAIC adds capabilities such as electric propulsion, hy-
brid, turbine, and powered-lift devices, which leaves
the mechanic-training industry guessing where to
start. Some organizations wonder if it’s worth the in-
vestment to create appropriate courses with uncertain
privilege at the end.
Indeed, eight training organizations suggested they
would petition for an extension to the comment pe-
riod. It was successful, so the extension will delay the
expected arrival of the finished MOSAIC regulation.
Absent any extension, the FAA has repeatedly said 16
months were needed, equating to the end of 2024 or
early 2025.
One group creatively suggested using add-on train-
ing modules to solve the problem in much the same way
that endorsements can be used to solve pilot training
enhancements.
Lack of sector expertise: The FAA knows a great
deal about conventional, three-axis airplanes but far
less about so-called “alternative LSAs.” For machines
that use different control systems or operate substan-
tially differently than airplanes—weight shift and pow-
ered parachutes come to mind—some industry experts
believe a better system is to authorize an industry orga-
nization to manage these sectors. This has been com-
mon throughout Europe for many years and could work
well in the U.S.
In a document of its size, some errors will arise and
some clarifications will be needed. It is only a proposal
after all. Pilots can comment on certain aspects but will
have little idea how the FAA can or will solve various
points, even if they offer solutions.
This frustrates some readers and can cause uncer-
tainty about a pending or planned airplane purchase. In
turn, purchase-decision delays frustrate airplane man-
ufacturers. That’s the precarious terrain surrounding
new regulations. Such comments on regulation are part
of the American way, where the citizens can be part of
the process. Here’s your chance to speak and be heard. [
 AN
EXPERIMENTAL
ADVENTURE
As pilots, almost all of us regularly trust our lives to an aircraft someone else has built. We do
not pull each rivet, run the wiring, or bolt in the engine before hopping into the cockpit. It is part of what
makes getting into an airplane an act of trust.
In many cases, that trust is bought with the stan- When looking for a less expensive, more flexible op-
dardization, quality control, and testing that goes into tion, would you buy and fly an airplane your hangar
type and production certification. However, that has neighbor built?
its limits, not the least of which are the oft-dispar- Most of us can probably agree that it depends pretty
aged cost of certified models and a certain inability much entirely on the neighbor in question. For Tyler
for significant customization. As Henry Ford said of Gibbs, 27, who flies out of California’s Corona Munic-
the Model T: “You can have it in any color you want, as ipal Airport (KAJO), it was a decision that just made
long as it is black.” sense.

With more than 1,400 examples having completed first flights, the Van’s RV-4 is a popular, well-respected kitplane.
 FA M I LY H I STOR Y
About a year and a half ago, Gibbs purchased a Van’s
Aircraft RV-4, a two-seat experimental/amateur-built
(E/A-B) airplane, from his older brother. It’s his first
aircraft, though he says it won’t be his last. While he
trained in certified models, he had some exposure to
the world of experimentals through his brother, open-
ing the door to the possibility when it came time to find
his own airplane.
Flying runs in the Gibbs family: His father, brother,
and sister-in-law are all pilots. Even so, it took a bit for
Gibbs to take the controls himself. In spite of, or per-
haps because of, the early exposure to aviation, he had
graduated from college and was working at the family
trailer sales business before the flying bug finally bit.
Once it had, he didn’t look back. He earned his private
pilot certificate, followed promptly by his multiengine
and instrument ratings and commercial pilot certif-
icate. With those in hand, he began to work as a pilot
for hire, picking up gigs flying skydive jump planes and
towing gliders. With two and a half years of aviation ex-
perience, Tyler is pursuing his glider rating and begin-
ning to look toward earning his CFI.
About a year after getting his private certificate,
Gibbs decided it was time to purchase his own airplane.
Aircraft ownership was not a new concept in the Gibbs
family either. The family has owned a number of air-
planes over the years, including a Cessna 172 and 210.
But, like flying, aircraft ownership wasn’t something
Gibbs had really considered for himself.
Once he decided it was something he wanted, he
didn’t have to look far to find the one that suited him
53
best. His brother had an RV-4 (N527CG) he was will-
ing to pass along.
N527CG had several owners before coming to Gibbs,
having been built by Luther Arthur and flown for the
first time in 1991. Gibbs’ brother bought it from a friend
years later. He and his wife flew it for almost four years
before selling it to Tyler.
There’s a lot to be said for buying a known aircraft
from a trusted source, especially when taking the step
from certified models to experimentals. For those not
familiar with the segment, E/A-B aircraft aren’t sub-
ject to the same construction and maintenance rules
as their certified counterparts—though the RV-4 is
made from extremely conventional materials wielded
in very conventional fashion, and all experimentals are
required to have annual inspections. They can be built
and worked on by pretty much anyone and modified
to suit the builder. It’s also safe to assume that no two
builds—even if the same plans or kit components were
used in construction—will be exactly alike. That’s an
adventure for a first-time E/A-B buyer, for sure.
With N527CG, Gibbs had the advantage of direct
knowledge of the aircraft’s maintenance and opera-
tional history. Prior to coming to the Gibbs family, the
aircraft was repainted with its current World War II
U.S. Army Air Corps-inspired livery.
When Tyler’s brother owned the airplane, the en-
gine was rebuilt after it developed an oil leak. During
the overhaul, the Lycoming O-320 received some new
additions, including electronic ignition and a conver-
sion to fuel injection.
 ASSESSING A HOMEBUILT
As Gibbs’ story might suggest, there are a few things to
consider when buying a used E/A-B that might not come
up when purchasing a certified aircraft. To start, a po-
tential buyer will need to study up on the model they
intend to purchase. The goal is to develop a solid idea of
what a well-built example should look like, what types
of problems are most common to the design, and what
kinds of modifications are likely to crop up. If possi-
ble, a look at the plans for the kit can help provide a bet-
ter sense of how everything should fit together. Buyers
looking at Van’s designs have another tool in the drawer:
Because of the popularity of all of its airplanes, it’s easy
to find “comparable” examples, and several shops have
popped up around the country that specialize in RV
maintenance and prepurchase inspections.
In Gibbs’ case, he had a source on hand who knew
the aircraft nearly as well as the original builder. Not
to mention, the RV-4 wasn’t his brother’s first experi-
mental—and Gibbs had experience helping him work on
several of those. That familiarity made it a comfortable,
reliable purchase, and a solid choice for a first aircraft.
When examining a potential E/A-B buy, the first
thing to look at is the overall quality of the build. It’s
usually safe to assume that an aircraft with signifi-
cant problems on the surface (i.e. wavy fiberglass or
deformed rivets) is likely to have other, not-so-visible
issues underneath. A clean, tidy build with no obvious
faults is a good place to start when considering a used
experimental.
N527CG is a beautifully built and maintained air-
craft with a long and well-documented history. Having
been in the family for four years—with significant en-
gine work done during that time—it doesn’t have many
surprises left. While Gibbs’ particular situation might
be hard to come by for another first-time E/A-B buyer, it
does bring up the importance of taking the time to talk
with people who know and have worked on the airplane.
If a builder isn’t excited to talk about the trials and tri-
umphs of making an aircraft, it’s probably time to look
for a different one to buy.
Another aspect to pay close attention to with an ex-
perimental is how the builder might have modified
the design from the original plans or kit components.
Mods are common in this segment and can signifi-
cantly affect the performance and handling charac-
teristics of the model. While this provides a lot of room
to adapt a design for its intended mission, it is a poten-
tial trouble spot for a buyer who will be tasked with
figuring out exactly how, where, and why the aircraft
differs from factory specifications and to understand
if the nature of the modification is common (therefore
vetted by the fleet, or at least some of it) or an outlier.
In general, the fewer mods the better when it comes to
buying a used E/A-B.
As previously discussed, N527CG received its big-
gest mod while in family hands and was then flown for
a meaningful period of time. Post-modification per-
formance reports were likely to be accurate. Even so,
 An all-metal, low-wing monoplane, the RV-4 is the first Van’s RV model to seat two.
Gibbs says his first flight in N527CG was a memorable
experience. He’d completed his tailwheel training in a
Cessna 140 and flew with a friend to get in some dual in
a different RV-4 before heading out in his own airplane.
Gibbs was smart to do so, but even better are full transi-
tion courses available for most RVs that have proven to
reduce risk for pilots new to the type. With the engine
modifications giving it more power (and being solo in
the cockpit), it took off like a rocket. As it should: The
RV-4’s maximum gross weight is 1,000 pounds less than
a Cessna 172’s of similar horsepower.
While it seems obvious, it is important to take the
time to check which equipment has been installed be-
fore buying an aircraft. Returning to the flexibility as-
pect, the options can vary far more widely in an E/A-B
than in a certified model. An airplane outfitted with old,
unsupported avionics isn’t a great place to start unless
the buyer is planning to overhaul it themselves. Espe-
cially for a first-time E/A-B owner, it is worth looking
for an aircraft with an updated panel.
The panel in Gibbs’ RV-4 is set up with a Dynon
FlightDEK-D180, Garmin GTR 200 radio, and Ben-
dixKing KT-71 transponder. While the current avi-
onics aren’t exactly getting any younger, he has plans
to update them in the near future. Since he is already
aiming to do the work necessary to make the aircraft
IFR-capable, what it came with is of less interest than
55
it might be to a buyer who doesn’t want to perform any
panel work any time soon.
When it comes to assessing a used homebuilt, another
thing to look at is which engine and propeller the builder
chose to install. A good prospect will have an engine and
prop specifically listed by the kit manufacturer. When it
comes to reliability, accident records, and resale value,
alternative options—those not named by the manufac-
turer—generally don’t hold up as well.
In the case of N527CG, the engine selected when it
was built makes the list. However, the modifications
make it a little less of a slam-dunk for a buyer looking
for the perfect homebuilt prospect. A stock O-320 pro-
duces 150 to 160 hp. Gibbs reports that post-rebuild, the
modifications to N527CG’s engine have boosted power
above the stock 160 hp. While he had insider intel on the
work done and how the aircraft performed afterward, a
buyer less familiar would need to put in extra effort to
ensure they knew what they were getting.
As a final note on purchasing considerations, when
buying a used experimental aircraft (any aircraft, re-
ally), a thorough prebuy inspection conducted by
someone familiar with the specific model being con-
sidered—or at least who knows homebuilts—is highly
recommended. The upfront cost of an inspection can
keep a “great deal” from turning into a money-guzzling,
unflyable, uninsurable headache in the long run.
A BRIEF LOOK AT THE VAN’S RV-4
 OWNING AN RV- 4
N527CG has been Gibbs’ for a year and a half. During
that time, he has flown it all over the West Coast, build-
ing tailwheel time, commuting to work, and mostly just
having a great time. These days, the aircraft is based
at KAJO, where he is also a member of the California
Flyers Club.
FLIGHT FUTURE
When asked about his aviation goals, Gibbs says he is
thinking hard about getting into aerial firefighting.
He’s also very interested in teaching and believes he
will always want to spend at least some of his time with
students after earning his CFI. When it comes to air-
craft ownership, he has no plans on stopping with the
E /A-B VS. C ERT IFIED
There are always a great many things to consider when
buying an airplane. Not only is it a significant invest-
ment, it is one in which we trust our lives—and those of
our family and friends. With that in mind, it might be
easy to assume that flying anything not built in a fac-
tory, even ages ago, increases the risk. Rather, like the
rest of aviation, it usually comes down to making good,
well-reasoned choices.
A certified model with a murky maintenance his-
tory and more stop-drilled cracks than solid surface
57
In terms of reliability, the airplane hasn’t needed
much of anything beyond regular upkeep. In Gibbs’
words, it’s a simple airplane with simple maintenance
needs—just a really good aircraft. It has also proven to
be a good example of what’s available beyond the occa-
sionally narrow world of certified airplanes.
RV-4. He is thinking about adding an airplane more
suited to traveling cross-country with a family—some-
thing like a Cessna 310.
Also on his bucket list, proving that it can be hard to
walk away from experimentals once you’ve had a taste,
is building an RV-8.
should raise flags with a buyer in much the same way
as weirdly rippled sheet metal on a homebuilt.
On the other hand, a good example of each airplane
is a ticket to adventures defined by arguing pattern et-
iquette, grumbling about fuel prices, and knowing that
no one else is doing it right, for the love of Orville and
Wilbur.
Also, there’s that feeling when the wheels leave the
pavement and the sky opens up in front of you.
You know the one. [
MACKINAC
ISLAND
 Beautiful fall foliage and smaller crowds are among the advantages of a late-season visit to Mackinac Island.
After months of trying, we finally made our way to
Michigan’s Mackinac Island just as the tourist season
was winding down. People say the island is open from
May to October. Or did they say “through October?” It
depends on where you seek your information, but we
have found you can rely only on the period beginning
with the Memorial Day weekend and ending with La-
bor Day for having the most tourist amenities available.
60
The good news is that there is a lot to do on Mackinac
during the summer. And while there is far less going on
during the offseason months, the place becomes a true
escape from the daily grind. A handful of hotels and one
or two restaurants stay open year-round, and when-
ever you choose to visit, general aviation is the best way
to get there. With our suggestions, you can make your
plans for the coming season.
 GETTI NG THERE
I usually make destination flights like this one in
Annie, my Commander 114B, but it’s more than 500
nm from my home base at Sussex Airport (KFWN)
in northern New Jersey to Mackinac Island Airport
(KMCD). Because poor weather on the island and
along the route had kept me from flying there earlier,
I started looking for a professional pilot familiar with
the area to take me there.
A friend recommended Nick Sanderson of Hangar9
Aviation, a Part 135 charter operation based at Padgham
Field (K35D) in Allegan, Michigan. Sanderson and his
partner, Colin West, have flown passengers to Mackinac
many times in their Cessna 414A, so we booked passage
with them. Like many vacation trips that involve ferries,
travelers typically have to set aside a day at the begin-
TH E AI RP ORT
Pilots and passengers will enjoy a dramatic approach
over Lake Huron to Runway 8/26 at KMCD, but you
will not be over water for long, though, because the is-
land’s airport lies just a few miles offshore. You can spot
other airports nearby even as you fly the traffic pat-
tern, including Bois Blanc Island (6Y1) 8.1 nm south-
east, Mackinac County (83D) 5 nm west northwest, and
Cheboygan County 14 nm south.
Views from the air are stunning, especially for Sep-
tember through October, as the foliage is changing col-
ors. The island’s winter semi-hibernation seems to wait
until the end of this natural show, which typically forms
its last big attraction of the season.
MACKINAC ISLAND
AIRPORT (KMCD)
Location: Mackinac Island, Michigan
Airport elevation: 729 ft. msl
Airspace: Nontowered, Class E/G
Runways: 8/26, 3,501 ft.
Lighted: Yes, no fuel
Pattern altitude: 1,900 ft. msl
61
ning and end for travel. Even though the ferry ride is
fairly short, the island’s remote location near the north-
ern tip of Michigan’s Lower Peninsula and the south-
ern tip of the Upper Peninsula means a long drive to the
boat for most people. Those who live a state or two away
are ideal candidates for GA, which speeds the trip along
considerably.
Driving from Chicago to the island takes about seven
hours or more, depending on ferry schedules. Flying
there from Chicago Executive Airport (KPWK) would
take less than two hours in Annie or less than 90 min-
utes in the 414A. Part of the driving time is the result of
having to get around Lake Michigan in a car or across
it in another ferry—but with proper planning you can
safely cross the lake easily in a light GA aircraft.
The field is nontowered, with a 3,501-foot runway
that is 75 feet wide—same as my home airport. This is
not a big challenge, though breezy conditions will gen-
erally guarantee that it will not be the easiest landing
you make this year. West was flying into a headwind of
about 15 knots and probably could have made it with a
runway less than half as long. The 414 coasted gently to
a turnoff about two-thirds down the strip. A Beechcraft
King Air arrived a few minutes after us, but most visi-
tors that day arrived in piston singles. Jets with good
short-field performance occasionally stop by, airport
staff told us, but we did not see any during our stay. The
airport averages 30 operations per day.
 THINGS TO DO
The island is tiny, covering 3.8 square miles, but offers
plenty of sights and activities. The downtown area is
packed with hotels, restaurants, gift shops and pur-
veyors of fudge, a signature island product. There are
also a lot of horse-drawn carriages on the streets, but
no cars. They are not allowed. Indeed, M-185, the 8.2-
mile road around the island’s perimeter, is said to be
the only state highway in the U.S. that forbids motor
vehicles. There are, however, 600 horses on the island
during peak season, mostly for pulling carriages. Much
of the island is covered by Mackinac Island State Park,
H I STOR Y
The island was a sacred place for Indigenous peo-
ples long before European colonists arrived, partic-
ularly for the Anishinaabek (Odawa, Ojibway, and
Potawatomi). Mackinac became a bone of contention
between U.S. and British forces during the War of 1812,
when British, Canadian, and Native American soldiers
captured Fort Mackinac from the small garrison based
there. The taking of Mackinac was among the first en-
gagements of the war and began more than two years
of fighting between the U.S. and Britain for control of
Michigan and the Great Lakes. Both sides sought con-
trol of the Great Lakes fur trade, and the conflict came
to a head in 1814 when seven U.S. warships and about
1,000 soldiers arrived on a mission to recapture the is-
land. They clashed with British forces on August 4, in
a battle that the U.S. lost. It took the Treaty of Ghent
to return peace to Mackinac, with U.S. soldiers taking
possession of Fort Mackinac in July 1815.
You might wonder why cars are forbidden here.
When the auto industry started in the late 1800s,
CO DA: BE WEATHER MINDFUL
Rapidly changing weather is always a consideration
when flying in Michigan and the surrounding area.
While I thoroughly enjoyed my time, I knew I could
not rely on forecasts. Flight planning in this area
means picking more alternates than usual, as our re-
turn would prove. About halfway through the flight to
Allegan, the broken cloud layers converged from about
3,000 feet to above 10,000.
It was not nighttime yet, but the skies darkened
enough that I could look through the engine cover
vents and see the orange glow of turbochargers on the
414’s Continental TSIO-520s. The situation became in-
creasingly dramatic as the sounds of rain, then freez-
62
which means there is a lot of quiet, uncrowded space
available, including more than 70 miles of trails in the
park that take visitors past caves, rock formations, and
cemeteries dating back 200 years.
People like to recite impressive numbers when
talking about the island, from the 500 year-round res-
idents, 1,489 bicycles for rent, and 24 restaurants with
outdoor seating to the famous Grand Hotel’s 660-foot
front porch, which they say is the longest in the world.
There are also between 120 and 140 geocaches hidden
on the island for modern sleuths to find.
horse-drawn carriages were the standard for trans-
port on the island and had been operating there for
decades. They also played a part in the island’s trans-
formation to a destination and, for many, reflected
the unique culture. As cars gained popularity among
the well-to-do families that could afford them, they
also began to roll off ferries onto the island. Carriage
operators petitioned local officials to prohibit what
they called the “dangerous horseless carriages” that
frightened their horses and fouled the air. The village
enacted a ban on cars in 1898. Today the lack of cars
makes the island different and a true escape from the
noise, congestion, and pace of everyday life.
Aircraft, on the other hand, have become key to is-
land commerce. Many would hesitate to visit without
the option of flying, and air tours are also a popular
attraction. Airplanes might be most important in the
cold months: When the lake freezes and Mackinac be-
comes what some consider a true winter wonderland,
an airplane might be the only way to get there.
ing rain followed by hail rang through the cabin. The
airplane felt solid, Sanderson and West were cool and
professional, but there was absolutely no reason to stay
in that storm.
We diverted to West Michigan Regional (KBIV) in
Holland. Safely on the ground, we heard support for
the decision to divert in the form of extremely heavy
rain pounding the FBO roof. Lightning flashed. More
aircraft arrived on the ramp, fleeing the deluge. Pi-
lots and passengers entered the FBO, jackets drenched
from the short walk.
The scene made a great case for ride-sharing. We
called Uber for the 30-minute final leg to Allegan. [
The Grand Hotel (top left and right, and bottom right) features the world's longest porch, and you can shop at the
only store on the island ( bottom left). With no avgas on the island (center), you’ll need to stop elsewhere if needed.

63
THE DAILY
LIFE OF A
REPAIR
STATION
A look at these businesses reveals the state of modern maintenance—
from the individual owner to a global scale.

BY RICHARD SCARBROUGH
The day begins like any other. At sunrise, a commute to the office, choose a
parking spot, and pull in. Tap the security pad with an ID badge, flick on the lights, dock in the laptop, and start the
coffee. The screen blinks to life, emails flood the inbox, and Outlook dings and pops up with the day’s first meeting.
This is how the day in the life of a certified repair
station begins. While the above may seem routine and
mundane—no different from any other profession—it
is not. Long before the day starts, scores of others are
already hard at work. Teams operate in every corner of
the globe, working to fulfill the mission.
Some companies are conglomerates with policies and
procedures designed to ensure success at any facility
across the world. Others are true small business ven-
tures, staffed by family members.
Precision Aviation Group (PAG) FAA Repair Station
is one of humble beginnings, as the company was lit-
erally founded in a broom closet. Since then, Atlan-
ta-based PAG has begun an upward trajectory.
MISSION- CRITICAL OPERATOR SUPP ORT
PAG began life as Precision Heliparts Inc. (PHP).
Founded in 1993 by Scott James, the company’s first
business model was to supply parts to the helicop-
ter industry, centering on mission-critical operators:
medevac, law enforcement, and the Department of De-
fense (DOD). They rely on PAG’s supply chain to keep
them mission ready. One canceled flight could lead to
loss of life, a reminder of why PAG is in business.
In 1996, David Mast became president and CEO, and
shortly after in 1999, PHP was named one of Ameri-
ca’s fastest growing companies by Inc. magazine. Mast
and James knew there was strength in numbers, and
an expansion seemed to be the next step for progres-
sion. Western Canada is home to scores of helicopter
operators, and in 2002 PHP established Precision Heli-
parts-Canada (PHP-C) in Vancouver, British Columbia.
CUSTOMER SUPP ORT COMMITMENT
PHP reached another milestone in 2004 with the ac-
quisition of Atlanta neighbor Precision Avionics and
Instruments (PAI), and rebranded as Precision Avi-
ation Group (PAG). PAG maintains 20 repair stations
and more than 850,000 square feet of sales and service
facilities in the U.S., Canada, Australia, Singapore, and
Brazil. Using an inventory-supported maintenance,
66
Adjacent to Atlanta Regional Airport-Falcon Field
(KFFC), Aircraft Accessories International (AAI) FAA
Repair Station in Peachtree City, Georgia, is an up-and-
coming shop. Founded in 2014, it specializes in helping
owners maintain older aircraft. Longtime readers of my
Maintaining Your Airplane column online will be fa-
miliar with Pinnacle Aircraft Engines FAA Repair Sta-
tion in Silverhill, Alabama, where JD Kuti overhauls
Lycoming and Continental aircraft engines.
Not to be confused with the manufacturer, Sensenich
Propeller Service FAA Repair Station in Lititz, Penn-
sylvania, specializes in propeller service and overhaul.
Each of these is successful in its own right. Understand-
ing their success means understanding the mission.
Customers demand precision, so PAG begins its
name with that. After expanding the company, the
founders sought to control its destiny by becoming an
FAA Part 145-certified repair station (CRS). In 2003,
PHP obtained FAA certification and entered the main-
tenance, repair, and overhaul (MRO) market.
AAI’s journey began when team members of another
repair station wanted to take a different approach to
the customer experience. There comes a time when one
must exercise the freedom to make a choice if necessary.
AAI recognized a need to upgrade the support of older
aircraft and seized the opportunity.
Courtesy of Richard Scarbrough (opening spread and at right)
When Pinnacle changed ownership, the new leaders
expanded the business model from a single scope, serv-
ing essentially one customer, to expanding and offering
top-quality reciprocating engine service to everyone.
repair, and overhaul (ISMRO) business model, PAG
is well positioned to support its growing global client
base, providing MRO and supply chain solutions for
fixed and rotary-wing aircraft.
PAG world headquarters sits adjacent to Harts-
field-Jackson International Airport (KATL) in At-
lanta, led by accountable manager David Scarbrough.
The AM, as defined by the FAA in Advisory Circular
(AC) No. 145-9A, is the person designated by the re-
pair station to be responsible for and have the author-
ity over all operations conducted under Part 145. The
AM also acts as the station’s FAA point of contact.
“Things are busy, and we are growing,” Scarbrough
said. “Please forgive the dust. The facility is going
through a renovation and expansion.”
The company is creating centers of excellence and
overhauling its workspaces, shops, and conference
rooms. In today’s world of lean manufacturing, 5S
methodology, and Kaizen events under Six Sigma,
companies must evolve through continuous improve-
ment or lose market share.
We started our tour in the shipping and receiving
department. Here, rows of boxes lined up on conveyor
belts wait their turn to be checked in by the crew. Peo-
ple overlook the importance of shipping and receiving,
which is a huge mistake. This team is your first line of
defense for spotting incoming errors, such as paper-
work issues or critical damage incurred during ship-
ping. It is also the last to touch the parts before your
customer sees them.
The tour then proceeds through the various repair
shops at the Atlanta branch. Our next stop was the in-
strument shop. We visited several more functional
shops, including gyro and pneumatic, starter genera-
tor, accessories, and avionics. We finished up at wheels
and brakes. As we walk through the shops, my A&P
brain cannot help but start to piece together all the dif-
67
ferent components I see. Pretty soon, we almost have
an entire airplane.
One of PAG’s stated growth strategies is to combine
unmatched customer service with investments in in-
ventory and MRO capabilities. This is where the ISMRO
comes into play. Let’s say you are the director of mainte-
nance for a corporate aviation entity with a small fleet
of Beechcraft King Airs and one Cessna Citation X. One
of the King Airs is coming due for an inspection, and an-
other just experienced a starter generator failure. The X
is off on a trip, and one of the company executives has to
be in Omaha, Nebraska, to close a huge deal. They could
fly commercial, but why go to the trouble and expense of
maintaining a corporate flight department if you have
to buy a ticket and stand in line with your shoes off?
Your choice is clear: Fix the King Air, pronto. The
engine cowling comes off, and the maintenance crew
pulls off the starter generator from the left engine. The
generator comes off, but the end of the shaft is still in
the engine. Yep, it’s a sheared shaft. A quick trip down
to PAG, and the shop inducts the part. The good news
is it can fix it. The bad news is a shaft is on back order
and will not be in for a week. When all hope seems lost,
the DOM calls PAG, and a customer experience coordi-
nator answers before the third ring. The rep states an
exchange is ready to go, and they will accept the older
part as a core. The part ships, the mechanics install it,
and the executive makes the meeting. Everyone wins.
Adam Fett, director of sales for PAG Atlanta, said
the company does not deploy an outside sales force.
Rather, the inside team will make customer visits and
solidify the relationship. When I asked if the team was
split by region or aircraft platform, Fett said that was
not the case. “At PAG, we let the client decide who their
rep is,” he said of a concept that is revolutionary for the
MRO industry.
Our stop at AAI is essentially the same, only on a
much smaller scale. CEO Kevin Allen and I met at the
shop, and I could tell from the first few minutes that
his facility was squared away. Are you familiar with
the book Broken Windows, Broken Business: How the
Smallest Remedies Reap the Biggest Rewards by Mi-
chael Levine? Its main point: Take care of the little de-
tails in your business, and the rest will fall into line.
AAI maintains a spotless facility, which is not easy
when dealing with decades-old aircraft parts.
Dan Landis serves as the general manager of
Sensenich Propeller Service, and he is the main point
of contact for technical support. Landis recently told
me that the best part of his job is getting into the field
and talking propellers with his customers. One of the
best ways to connect with people is through organized
events, so there is always something on the company’s
calendar. Landis attended the Beechcraft Heritage
Museum’s biggest event of the year, the Beech Party,
in October in Tullahoma, Tennessee.

START WI TH WHY
Simon Sinek has a best-selling book called Start with
Why: How Great Leaders Inspire Everyone to Take Ac-
tion. To begin, a business must establish and live by
its core values. Many companies lose sight of this and
drift far from the intended path. PAG states its clearly:
“passion, service, integrity, teamwork, and quality.”
The leaders of PAG’s four sectors, avionics, com-
ponents, engines, and manufacturing/DER services
gather periodically to map out a strategy for the fu-
ture. Mast established this practice years ago and even
saves old goals written on index cards. PAG’s growth is
based on two key foundations: combining unmatched
customer service with investments in inventory and
MRO capabilities, and establishing sales and service
facilities close to customers worldwide.
Keith Stringer, vice president of engine services,
oversees PAG’s Engine division. When asked about
his biggest challenges, Stringer singled out the supply
chain, specifically raw materials. Jordan Webber, vice
president of component services, joined the organi-
zation in 2012, launching from scratch and running
several divisions of PAG. In addition to running the
component services division, Webber is also managing
Canada and Australia. The supply chain is also a head-
wind for him, along with rubber for tires.
Ketan Desai is PAG’s chief sales and marketing of-
ficer. Desai said he has to be conscious of the cultural
nuances when operating in other parts of the world.
Some cultures wish to negotiate the price of goods and
services, and it is up to the on-site leadership to work

THE REPAIR STATION PROCESS

Pilots need to understand specific, helpful
nuances before engaging a certified repair
station. This is hardly an all-inclusive list,
but one that can provide familiarity with
the process to significantly enhance your
understanding:
BEFORE THE CALL
• Do your homework when choosing a repair
station.
• Call or visit the shop and build a relation-
ship with a specific rep. Building a rapport
will give you confidence and may even save
you some money.
• Ask for a detailed estimate, clearly
identifying standard overhaul and over/
above items. Inquire if the shop charges a
clean-and-inspect fee.
DURING THE VISIT
• Ask to approve any new charges in writing
not included in the original estimate.
• Do not try to source this material on your
own. The shop is most likely receiving a
discount and buying from approved sourc-
es. You may end up paying more for less of
a product.
• Review the bill of material (BOM) and ver-
ify it matches the original estimate. If you
see terms like “convenience assembly,” it
is a legitimate charge the shop uses to cov-
er additional costs like supplies, solvents,
and hardware.
AFTER RETURN TO SERVICE
• Follow all post-visit instructions from the
shop, including handling, setup, and break-
in procedures.
• If your unit cannot be repaired or you
decline the quote, the shop may initiate
beyond economical repair (BER) charges.
• If it happens, always ask for your core back.
• After the visit is not time to negotiate. Take
care of that before sending in the part for
service.
 with the team to manage the transactions. Each loca-
tion takes pride in the region it serves and incorpo-
rates that culture into the local PAG business. This is
evident in the PHP-Canada logo, which features the
corporate brand but also sports a Canadian maple leaf.
For those who work in the aviation sales business,
they know of special elements not found in other in-
dustries. Take, for example, the aircraft rotable parts
sales and core charges. KT MacIntosh, chief finan-
cial officer, explained that she has specific internal
controls for outstanding cores, core returns, and un-
serviceable core inventory. In the story of the starter
generator mentioned earlier, there was no core charge
because the mechanic provided the core in advance.
Mast first joined the company with a singular vi-
sion: serving customers. That was his “why.” He knew
that the core customer base was wholly first respond-
ers, and every mission was critical for them. One key
thing to remember is that helicopters require 10 hours
of maintenance for every one hour of use on a fixed
week. To PAG, there are 10 times more opportunities
to serve. We aren’t discussing just missing a big pre-
sentation—someone could perish.
Following the day of interviews, I reviewed my
Courtesy of Richard Scarbrough
Moleskine notebook and the notes from every inter-
view from the executive team to the technicians. They
all had the same “why,” simply to serve. This was real.
As I type this out, I keep glancing back at the Sinek
book subtitle. Service is baked into the culture.
Over at A AI, Allen will point-blank tell you his
“why.” Allen and I met recently and discussed why he
chose the small business route and what makes his
69
shop tick. “There needs to be an alternative between
the original equipment manufacturer (OEM) and
eBay,” Allen said. “At AAI, we have a passion to help
older aircraft operate safely.”
We talked about how sometimes, if an older part is
no longer available, a solution could be obtained using
parts manufacturer approval (PMA) pieces or a desig-
nated engineering representative (DER) repair to re-
turn the unit to service.
At Kuti’s Pinnacle shop, the focus is on aircraft re-
ciprocating engine service. Sometimes, diversification
can dilute a brand, especially regarding reciprocating
engine overhaul. Kuti said he needs to control quality,
which means sticking to what he knows best—a pas-
sion for perfection.
PAG is constantly looking for ways to improve its
business. When armature and stator rewinding be-
came a bottleneck for production in 2020, it bought a
rewind facility, invested some capital, and kept the line
rolling. Landing gear requires a great deal of mainte-
nance, and in the spirit of tip-to-tail coverage, PAG ac-
quired landing gear provider Trace Aviation in 2021.
This is only the beginning, and each move forward is
another step toward the vision set in the early days of
the firm. We finished our conversation by touching
on my favorite subject—aircraft maintenance. There
is beauty in what those folks create behind the shop
doors—honest work, technical in nature, and mission
critical to serve the customer. [
RICHARD SCARBROUGH is an A&P technician with
experience from general aviation to commercial airliners.
 FLIGHT
JACKETS
TELL A
STORY
O r i gi n a l o r t r i bu te , t h e y a re
ch er i sh ed arti cl e s .

BY MEG GODLEWSKI

SINCE THE EARLY days of aviation, the leather jacket

has been fashion de rigueur for pilots. Because leather
is windproof, these jackets were a favorite of pilots in
open cockpits. By the 1930s the military issued A-2,
G-1, and B-3 jackets that were often adorned with hand-
painted squadron patches and the name of the aircraft
or unit the owner flew with. Although leather jackets
are no longer worn into combat, they are still a large
part of pilot culture—and they are prized by collectors
of all genres.

Jackets on Display
Aviation museums have become repositories for flight
jackets, including one of the most storied, the National
Air and Space Museum in Washington, D.C. Accord-
ing to Alex Spencer, curator of European, British, and
Commonwealth military aviation, military flight cloth-
ing, and memorabilia, the museum boasts 25 flight
jackets in its collection, most from World War II and a
few from later conflicts and wars.
Three of Spencer’s favorites are the A-2s worn by
Claire Chennault, Thomas Weems, and Kenneth Wil-
liams. Chennault was a U.S. major general who com-
manded the U.S. Army Air Forces in China during
World War II and created the American Volunteer
Group (AVG), best known as the “Flying Tigers.”
Weems served as a navigator aboard Martin B-26 Ma-
Rebeca Rambal

rauder Winsockie in the 69th Bombardment Squadron

at the Battle of Midway in 1942. Winsockie was one of
five B-26s sent to attack the Japanese carrier fleet.
Only two of the aircraft returned.
 Williams was a member of the crew of the B-17
Murder Inc.
“The B-17 was named after a mafia group in New
York City in the 1920s and 1930s,” says Spencer. “The
guys on the airplane thought it was a good idea. When
the airplane was shot down by the Germans, the pro-
paganda arm took the name of the aircraft to show they
had ‘absolute proof’ [that] the Americans were terror
fliers out to murder civilians. It became an interna-
tional incident and, when it got back to General Hap
Arnold, he ordered a review of all airplane names. Any-
thing to do with murder or killing or such were ordered
to be erased and renamed."
Williams was captured and sent to a POW camp.
“He scratched the name of the airplane off the jacket.
After the war he had the jacket repainted,” says Spen-
cer, adding that it is not uncommon for the families of
the veterans to visit the museum to see a flight jacket
that belonged to a relative.
The WASP Jacket
The latest jacket to be placed in the care of the Smithso-
nian Institute is an A-2 that belonged to Janice Chris-
tensen, a member of the Women Airforce Service Pilots
(WASP) class of 43-W-5.
According to Dorothy Cochrane, curator for general
aviation and aerial photography at the museum, Chris-
tensen flew many aircraft, including the B-24, until the
WASP program was disbanded in December 1944. Af-
ter her WASP service, Christensen worked at the U.S.
Airway Traffic Control Center in Chicago and at var-
ious weather stations in Ohio, then transitioned to a
career in medicine. She continued to fly as a member
of the Civil Air Patrol, and in 1949 she joined the Air
Force Reserve with the rank of first lieutenant. She re-
ceived an honorable discharge with the rank of captain
on November 7, 1963. Christensen died in 1965, so she
did not live to see the WASP granted veteran status.
Her jacket, donated to the museum by her sister, Dag-
mar Joyce Noll, is scheduled to undergo preservation
and restoration before being displayed.
Museum of Flight Jackets
One of the challenges of exhibiting flight jackets is
deciding how much history to share, says Matthew
Burchette, senior curator at the Museum of Flight in
Seattle. The MOF has several jackets on display in the
Personal Courage wing that include details of what
company made the jacket. “Not many people realize
that there were several manufacturers of A-2s during
World War II, ” Burchette says.
Burchette’s favorite jacket on display comes from
Richard Jacobson, who was the copilot of the B-17 5
Rebeca Rambal (all)
Grand.
“The aircraft was the 5,000th B-17 built since the
attack on Pearl Harbor, and nearly every Boeing em-
ployee signed it as it rolled off the line,” Burchette says.
“Covered in signatures, it flew 78 missions over Ger-
72
many. I love how the Boeing workers took such great
pride in their work that they were willing to sign an ob-
ject that might not come home. 5 Grand did come home
but was scrapped after the war.”
Burchette believes it is important that people realize
flight jackets are more than just clothing or protective
gear for pilots and crewmembers.
“They are an extension of the planes they flew and
took pride in,” he says. “The flight jacket is an item of
uniquely American clothing, and the artwork painted
on many is even more so. Looking at the jackets on dis-
play, it is clear that the owner was proud to wear them.
Some show signs of much wear after the war, while oth-
ers are nearly pristine, showing they were treated with
respect and reverence.”
Post-WWII Jacket
Leather flight jackets were still worn up through the
Vietnam War. Many military pilots kept their jackets
when they separated from the service. Rusty Sachs, a
flight instructor for airplanes and rotorcraft, and ex-
ecutive director of the National Association of Flight
Instructors (NAFI) from 2004 to 2007, is one of those.
Sachs still has the leather jacket issued to him when he
was a cadet in the U.S. Marine Corps. He enlisted in
1964 and became a helicopter pilot. According to Sachs,
the jacket was handed to him in Pensacola, Florida, in
February 1965 upon completion of preflight training.
Sachs, who served in Vietnam, tells the story of an
enemy attack that had the soldiers running for cover
in the bunker. Sachs left his jacket in the tent. A few
weeks after the attack, he noted his jacket “had a few
small holes in it made by shrapnel.” He had the jacket
relined in 1969 when he entered the Marine Reserve,
making the holes more difficult to find. After Sachs
separated from the Marines in 1970, the jacket went
into the closet but was recently sent out for restoration.
Family Heirlooms, Legacy
John Niehaus, a 5,500-hour airline transport pilot and
the director of development for NAFI, wears a jacket
that belonged to a Marine helicopter pilot in Vietnam
who and was a good friend of his uncle.
Niehaus decided on a career in aviation while in high
school and received the jacket as a graduation gift.
“The note inside read, ‘I know I haven’t been the un-
cle you always wanted or needed, but this jacket was
earned by my best friend who was a pilot in the mil-
itary. It served him well, and he left it to me after he
passed away. He would have wanted me to pass it on to
you. I hope it serves you just as well. Good luck living
your dream.’”
Unfortunately, the uncle died before he had the op-
portunity to share more about his friend. The name
“Barthel” is stenciled inside the jacket.
Niehaus says he is very careful about where and how
he wears the jacket because he doesn’t want people to
assume he served in the military. “I never wanted to
 You’ll find a nice collection of vintage flight jackets in the Personal Courage Wing at the Museum of Flight
in Seattle, with several variations , as there were many different styles in use by several manufacturers . The jacket
offers a snapshot into the owner’s life, with hand-painted patches and artwork the norm.

73
misrepresent myself to be something that I am not,”
says Niehaus. “When I wear it, people ask questions
to which I reply that it is continuing a family legacy of
honoring a family friend. The person was special to my
uncle as a friend, and…knowing that my uncle parted
with something of such high sentimental value as a
show of support to me was so incredibly special.”
Someday, the jacket will likely be handed down to
Niehaus’ son, who, at age 4, already loves aviation and
wears a jacket that looks very much like his father’s.
Receive and Bestow
I have been on both sides of the heirloom equation. In
my collection, I have jackets given to me by gentlemen
who will never be a size 40 again but who want theirs
to be appreciated and occasionally worn on “military
days of remembrance and obligation.” A recent acqui-
sition is a pre-WWII A-2 that belonged to Captain Jack
L. Martin, U.S. Army Air Forces pilot and father-in-
law of Anne Palmer Martin, a college friend and my
chosen family. Captain Martin went West in 1970 de-
cades before his son Robert married Anne Palmer.
We’re still trying to determine what Captain Martin
did in the war. We’ve been able to figure out that the
patch on the jacket is the early version of the 760th
Bombardment Squadron, but we don’t know if Mar-
tin went overseas. We do know after the war he flew
for Flying Tiger airlines.
Recently, I gifted my first flight jacket, a 1980s era
distressed leather A-2, to my niece Sophie Keene. My
aviation and journalism careers began concurrently.
My first “big paycheck” was used for flying lessons and
the purchase of the jacket from the Smithsonian cat-
alog. Top Gun had been released, and leather jackets
were in style, worn by reporters in the Persian Gulf
War. I was known in that small market as “the re-
porter who flies.” A few years later when I decided to
make aviation a career, I upgraded to a new A-2, put-
ting the distressed one into the closet. The day Sophie
was born, I packed away the jacket for safekeeping. The
jacket was gifted to her for her 18th birthday. Since we
are an aviation family, Sophie grew up hearing stories
about my flying adventures and about grandma Kay
(my Mom), who took flying lessons during WWII and
loved the P-38 Lighting. I am hopeful Sophie values the
jacket as more than a fashion statement.

P ROT ECT I NG YOUR JACK ET

BY MEG GODLEWSKI

No matter how old the jacket is, if it means

something to you, it’s valuable.
Protect it by nourishing it with profes-
sional leather care products. You can get
these from shoe repair stores. If it is an
heirloom, consider storing the jacket flat
in a box or footlocker. It will last you a
lifetime or more.
If you intend to sell it, have the jacket
appraised by a reputable dealer. Authentic
World War II jackets in good condition can
fetch $1,500 or more.
If you want to buy one, modern flight
jackets are not cheap. Expect to pay close
to $300 or more for a basic A-2 and as
high as $2,000 for an RAF bomber jacket.
Beware of scammers who claim to have
new authentic A-2 and shearling-lined RAF
jackets for ridiculously low prices (less
than $200). They may have the design of
the jacket, but the materials are subpar.
Instead of leather with a sheepskin lining,
it looks more like someone tore up a faux
leather couch and skinned a muppet. Save
your money and go for the real deal.
Where to find vintage? Prowl swap meets
and even garage and estate sales near
military bases.
 Matthew Burchette, senior curator at the MOF, can show you details that help tell the authentic from knockoffs .
Tribute Jackets
Most vintage jackets are too valuable and fragile to
wear every day, but if you are set on sporting a piece
of history, consider a replica often known as a “tribute
jacket.” Kevin Wisniewski, a skilled artist from Mil-
waukee has been painting these jackets since 1987. Ac-
cording to Wisniewski, tribute jackets are often designs
commissioned by someone to honor a person or com-
memorate an event.
For replica jackets, he often works off photographs
because the original jacket has long since disappeared.
Pinup girls are popular.
“They painted these on their jackets and aircraft as
good luck, reminding them of what they were fighting
for back home,” says Wisniewski. “We have to remem-
ber these were young boys in their late teens and early
20s who, if not for the war, would be courting these
women and planning futures. Other paintings of air-
craft or cartoon characters depicting giving the en-
emy what they had coming were also a morale booster.”
He has two favorite reproduced jackets. “One…I
painted a while back with the likeness of my wife, Beth,
in a classic period ‘nose art’ pose as was on an origi-
nal aircraft, Bottom's Up! The other is a jacket that was
given to me by a fellow reenactor and friend, George
Bruckert’s estate. He had painted it himself quite well
and very authentically. He passed from cancer way too
young, and I think of him when I see it.”
Wisniewski uses only hand brushes and brush-tex-
Rebeca Rambal (2)
ture techniques. “This is how they were done during
the war,” he says. “Airbrushing is a bad word in my dic-
tionary. One modern improvement is that I use acrylic
leather dyes that, unlike original acrylics, won’t crack
over time or chip off.”
75
Another Kind of Tribute
The A-2 I wear today falls under the heading of a “trib-
ute jacket,” but instead of paint, it has patches to honor
a person and commemorate an event. The first patch
was Fifinella, the mascot of the WASPs, and a gift from
Florence Shutsy Reynolds, WASP class of 44-W-5. The
next patch is from the “Lost Squadron” P-38 Glacier
Girl, gracing the jacket to honor Mom and cover a hole
I acquired when I rescued a kitten from a tree. There
also are multiple patches for my mentors. For Dean
Boyd, the man who made an instructor out of me, I
display the 8th Air Force. Boyd enlisted at the age of
17 and made a career of it.
There is also the Tico Tiger from the USS Ticond-
eroga in honor of aviation journalist and retired na-
val aviator Captain Thomas F. Norton, who flew off
the carrier during Vietnam and taught nuggets to fly.
There are patches from Lockheed to honor Dad, as
well as ones for every B-17 I have been aboard: Mem-
phis Belle, Texas Raiders, Yankee Lady, and Nine-O-
Nine. And there are patches for Red Tails and Hemlock
Films, which continues to share the stories of vintage
aviation.
Aviation education is marked with a patch from the
Society of Aviation Flight Educators, as I am a found-
ing member of the group, and it was from it that I
earned the master CFI designation several times over.
On one pocket there is a vintage Moffett Field (KNUQ)
patch to commemorate attending Zeppelin NT school
in California in 2009. We are also an airship family,
and putting that patch on was a must. I have found
the jacket to be an excellent conversation starter. It
encourages people to share their aviation stories with
me. And I gladly listen. ]
 OUR
PILOTS OF
THE FUTURE
Digital aviation experiences continue to drive
interested people into real-world aviation .

BY SEAN SIFF

MY INTRODUCTON TO the world of aviation oc-

curred on an afternoon in fall 1990, when I was 7 years
old. I remember it clearly. My childhood best friend
and I were taken to the local movie theater in Concord,
New Hampshire, to see Memphis Belle. Although it was
rated PG-13, my best friend’s father was our chaper-
one, and I believe he hoped the film would open our
eyes to the seriousness of air combat. He was a U.S.
Navy pilot during Vietnam, flying the Douglas A-4
Skyhawk, and served as a captain at Delta Air Lines,
flying the McDonnell Douglas MD-80. At the begin-
ning of the film, a B-17 returning from a World War
II mission makes a low pass over the Memphis Belle’s
aircrew playing touch football at their base, signaling
the return of the squadron. The beautiful shape and
proportions of the B-17 and the unmistakable sound
of those four Wright R-1820 engines thundering over
me in the theater made the most indelible impression, war, he became a successful businessman and amassed
and my love for aviation began at that very moment. an impressive personal collection of military aircraft.
In spring 1991, David Tallichet, the pilot/owner of Before we departed his company, Tallichet asked if
N3703G, one of the B-17s flown in the film—the other I wanted to fly when I grew up, and I automatically
was Sally G.—brought it to Concord Municipal Airport answered yes. Standing between him and my grand-
(KCON), and I waited in line one rainy afternoon to father, who wouldn’t aspire to what each had accom-
tour the interior with my mother and grandfather, all plished as pilots? That poster with his autograph hung
three of us climbing up the steep ladder into the hatch in my childhood room until I went to college.
located below the cockpit on the pilot’s side. One of my After that close encounter with the movie Memphis
favorite early memories was pausing with my grand- Belle on the ramp, I drove my friends and family crazy
father behind the pilot’s seat as he patiently answered by asking to rent the film at least once per month,
my questions about the dizzying array of instruments, watching it until I could recite most of the dialogue
levers, and switches in the cockpit. As a boy, it looked with my sister. Without YouTube in the mid-’90s, there
impossibly complicated, but I was intensely fascinated. was no easily accessible footage of what it looked like to
After the tour, I purchased a poster at the souvenir fly a B-17 from the pilot’s seat, so I repeatedly rewound
stand that Tallichet politely signed for me. At nearly the videocassette to watch the flying sequences to try
70, he was gallant in both appearance and manner and and understand how it all worked. In 1993, a friend of
spent some extra time with my grandfather and I, tak- mine in the neighborhood heard me talking about the
ing us around the exterior of his B-17 while he and my movie and invited me over to his house after school.
grandfather compared notes on their flying experi- He owned an early PC with a color monitor and had a
ences. During WWII, Tallichet was a copilot of a B-17 copy of the recently released combat flight simulation
in the 8th Air Force, completing 20 missions. After the called B-17 Flying Fortress: World War II Bombers in

76
Action by MicroProse. This was my first flight sim
experience of any kind, and I had so much fun trying
to fly the B-17 that I didn’t move from the cockpit to try
the other crew positions. The cockpit and the gunner
stations on the bomber were faithfully modeled as
much as was possible at the time. For example, in the
waist gun position, you could look toward the front of
the B-17 and see the wings, round engine nacelles, and
propellers spinning. Your role in one of the gunner
positions was to defend the Flying Fortress from
attacking enemy fighter aircraft. All of this sounds
rudimentary today, but the missions, crew stations,
and color animation were created in the early 1990s.
Experiencing the B-17 combat simulator came at a
critical and impressionable time in my childhood, and
I can still remember the thrill. In speaking with many
pilots I have met over the years, a lot of us had a chance
to try a home flight sim that served as a connection and
an on-ramp to the larger world of aviation. For me, us-
ing a flight sim was a lot of fun, and it only made me
more excited to try my first real-world flight lesson
when I turned 14.
77
Back during the late ’90s, Chris Palmer—aka
@AngleofAttack and a CFI who now runs a successful
general aviation training business and popular
aviation YouTube channel from his home airport in
Homer, Alaska—started flying the European Air War
WWII combat simulator. Palmer remembers learning
the basic flight and power controls and the thrill of
flying a fighter aircraft over the English Channel to
challenge the Germans in air-to-air combat. As a teen,
he purchased Microsoft Flight Simulator X (FSX) and
Courtesy of Sean Siff/Microsoft Flight Simulator
dreamed of becoming an airline pilot. He would load
an airliner into the simulator and enjoy departing
from many of the major airports around the world
contained in the title’s library.
That early exposure inspired him to pursue real-
world flight training. By the time he turned 17, Palmer
started ground school and had already learned radio
communication basics from the hours he spent on
VATSIM, the live air traffic control service staffed by
trained volunteer controllers that can be layered into a
home flight sim with a software plug-in. After learning
how to edit highlight videos for his high school football
In the author’s youth , he re wound videos of ‘Memphis Belle’ to feed his flying dreams . Now we have sims .
team, he built a study-level training course on how to
fly the Boeing 767 on FSX. These video lessons achieved
scale and, 17 years later, the DVDs, which complement a
professional ground school study program, are selling
to aspiring pilots training for their next upgrade.
When I came back to the world of GA to finish attain-
ing my private pilot certificate in 2010, there was ner-
vousness about the coming pilot shortage. Articles on
the topic abounded, and writers made educated guesses
about from where the next wave of pilots would come.
The question poised at that time was could enough dis-
covery or EAA Young Eagles flights be conducted to
successfully introduce the next generation to general
aviation in time to stave off the looming airline pilot
retirements not too many years in the future.
In 2014, I changed jobs into a marketing position
where I could combine my passion for GA with my skill
set as a social media marketer tasked with represent-
ing a leading general and commercial aviation product.
Around this time, YouTube’s user base was rapidly ex-
panding in popularity, and aviation enthusiasts could
follow pilots on journeys from their first training les-
sons all the way to the airlines. Some pilots such as
@flightchops (Steve Thorne) and @steveo1kinevo, who
had modest followings of around 30,000 subscribers at
that time, would amass hundreds of thousands of them
over the next few years as their content attracted avia-
tion enthusiasts from all over the world.
Today there are popular pilot/content creators who
have used their engaging videos to help bring pilots of
all ages to the airport for their first flight lessons. You-
Tube and the other social media channels have con-
nected a global audience made up of millions around
the world to pilot content creators with the time, equip-
ment, and capability to publish their flying stories and
share the world of GA with new, ever-widening, and
more diverse global audiences through the mysteri-
ous and perplexing magic of the algorithm.
78
Fast forward to this summer, and Jorg Nuemann,
head of Microsoft Flight Simulator, presented to a large,
in-person audience in June at FlightSimExpo, where
he shared that MSFS2020 had achieved more than 12
million individual users since the software launched
in September 2020. With the recent launch of X-Plane
12 in 2022, and the continued growth in popularity of
Digital Combat Simulator (known as “DCS” and featur-
ing modern fighter and rotor wing aircraft), each soft-
ware program continues to attract a specific segment of
digital aviation enthusiasts. Acknowledging that there
is some crossover of home flight simulation pilots be-
tween these popular software titles, each offers a dig-
ital aviation experience where the user can hop over
the virtual airport fence and climb into the cockpit or
flight deck of so many faithfully digitally created gen-
eral, commercial, and military aircraft.
Taken together, these software titles have amassed
a worldwide user base on a scale not seen before. The
result is YouTube and flight simulation are introduc-
ing enthusiasts to the world of aviation by serving as
the top of a giant funnel, bringing the user into digital
aircraft that are visually accurate to their real-world
counterpart complete with high fidelity systems mod-
eling. I believe the next generation of pilots is already
here. They are fluent users in the digital world, easily
finding flight simulation and aviation video content
online.
Although we may not see them at real-world GA air-
ports yet, I am already flying with them in the flight
sim club of which I am a member. Listening to their ra-
dio calls approaching the Boston Class Bravo airspace,
these flight sim pilots, many years my junior, are fly-
ing digital airliners into KBOS executing complex IFR
arrivals with crisp and professional radio communi-
cation. Any of these flight sim pilots could show up to
their first real-world discovery flight and surprise their
unsuspecting CFI by being able to file and read back an
 IFR clearance without a single hour in the real-world
logbook. Although these students will be well prepared
in some aspects of flight training, they will have areas
where the flight sim experience can’t adequately do so.
But I’m confident a capable CFI will be able to diagnose
any weaknesses and bring the student up to the rele-
vant test standards.
To check that assumption, I asked Palmer about his
thoughts on home flight-sim use and how it could po-
tentially complement real-world flight training. As an
experienced CFI who has successfully trained many
private pilots, I wondered if he had any concerns about
flight students crossing over from the digital world of
flying into the real world—specifically the cross-coun-
try stage of private pilot training.
“If flight sim is used in the correct way, it can help
you advance your flight training,” Palmer said. “There
are more advantages than disadvantages. For example,
you can easily mix pilotage and dead reckoning to prac-
tice navigation skills. You can plan the flight, get the
exact winds, get the exact weather, and set the correct
time of day. Putting that high-fidelity tool in the hands
of a student will allow them to find the airport, and [so]
on their first cross-country flight, it doesn’t have to be
a surprise anymore.”
Within the MSFS2020 and X-Plane 12 software, the
student can explore most local airports since they are
nearly all modeled. If the student pilot already has
ForeFlight, they can pair their tablet with the sim and
use it to find the FBO and plan the radio frequencies
and approach to the airfield. Even just being able to
explore the basics of ForeFlight while on your home
sim can be time well spent. “If you approach the sim
seriously, and fly it to a high fidelity, it will pay you
dividends by helping you feel more prepared for your
private pilot flight training,” Palmer said.
The fidelit y of modern flight sim soft ware means more skills transfer from the computer to the flight deck .
Courtesy of Sean Siff/Microsoft Flight Simulator (2)
In terms of behaviors to watch, Palmer cautions the
new student to be ready to practice converting some of
the flight sim knowledge into the real world, including
getting used to the traffic scan since that is a habit not
readily practiced in the sim. Simply recognizing there
will be areas to relearn in actual flight training is the
first step.
Equipped with their many hours of flight simulation
experience, the student may already have a strong un-
derstanding of airspace, communication, navigation,
and checklist use but may require some fine-tuning by
their CFI.
“There’s nothing like real flying, no matter how
much flight sim time you have,” Palmer said. “Go try
flying a real airplane. You’re one of us. You like flying
things. I am passionate about it, and I want flight sim
pilots to experience real-world flight. Take a few dis-
covery flights and see where it leads. At the very least,
a real instructor can provide feedback and lesson point-
ers that you can bring back into the flight sim world.”
The next generation of pilots will one day share their
stories about how they found aviation. In our youth,
both Palmer and I supplemented our interest in avia-
tion with early flight simulation experiences.
With the growing popularity of the home flight sim-
ulation, coupled with aviation content on YouTube and
other channels, we are in the middle of a rising tide of
digital flying activity that will hopefully continue to
widen the funnel, bringing new people into real-world
aviation, making it more accessible, and strengthening
it for the future. ]
SEAN SIFF is a private pilot who worked in marketing in the
aviation industry. He's an active flight sim user as he works
to stay current in the airplane.
 Joey Gerardi/AirlineGeeks.com

The iconic woman on the tail of the Hawaiian Airlines livery was Leina’ala Ann
Teruya Drummond, Miss Hawaii 1964. She died at age 77 on September 18.
 LIFE IN THE AIR
TA K ING W I N G

ACROSS THE
GLIT TERING SE A
On the allure of international flying

BY SAM WEIGEL

T
WO WEEKS AGO I flew with John Pullen, the same amiable first officer I’ve mentioned
twice in these pages already (“Bomb Cyclone,” March 2023; “Beyond the Uniform,”
July 2023). He greeted me with a grin, a handshake, and a vow: “OK, no drama that
gets me into FLYING Magazine again, I promise!” No problems there, I told him. After weeks of
iStock (2)

unceasing thunderstorms up and down the East Coast with air traffic chaos and endemic delays
and cancellations, the forecast promised unusually smooth sailing for the next four days.

84
 As we settled into the Boeing 737’s cozy cockpit and
started to build our nests, I recounted some of the more
maddening episodes of my last four-day tour and told
John that after this trip my wife and I were headed to It-
aly for 11 days of sightseeing, hanging out on Lake Como,
and attending the Formula 1 race at Monza. John, for his
part, revealed that this pairing would be his very last
outing in the senescent, unloved 737 as henceforth, he
was departing for the sunlit uplands of the Airbus A330.
John’s pronouncement induced a flood of conflicting
emotions. On one hand, I hate to lose good first officers
who I actually know, and John is not the only cockpit
companion who has recently succumbed to the glittering
charms of an international widebody fleet. But on the
other hand, he’s been at the airline for six years, and in
these heady days of explosive advancement, that’s con-
sidered quite a long time indeed to hang out in the right
seat of a narrowbody aircraft. John’s promotion to the
A330 will yield him a considerable leap in both pay and
quality of life, not to mention a welcome change of scen-
ery. I’m glad for him, and a little jealous too. I was a Boe-
ing 757/767 FO for four years, and the fleet took me to
five continents. I miss that flying. I’d like to do it again.
To pilots who haven’t done both, the differences be-
tween domestic and international airline flying must
seem a bit frivolous, perhaps even ego driven: There is
the prestige and romance of jetting across oceans versus
the workaday squalor of flogging aging “little” airplanes
up and down interstate corridors three or four times a
day. To be sure, there is absolutely an element of that.
Rolling down the runway in a 370,000-pound airplane,
85
lifting off with ponderous ceremony, and embarking on
a transoceanic journey of some 4,000 miles always gave
me a really warm, stirring sense of contented excite-
ment, a feeling of setting off on a grand adventure. Few
domestic routes impart such a poignant sense of wonder.
And to be sure, friends and strangers are always more in-
terested to hear about your exploits in Barcelona than a
12-hour layover in Cleveland.
Aesthetics aside, though, there are real distinctions
in the working environment between domestic and in-
ternational fleets. “It’s like a whole different airline,”
goes the common refrain. Things are far more relaxed,
much more “gentlemanly” to use an archaic but apropos
term. We have only one leg per duty period on which to
concentrate our energies. There are three pilots to share
the load (four on flights of more than 12 hours). We show
up at the airport 90 minutes or more before departure
and have all the time in the world to go through our pre-
flight duties. Dispatch usually completes the release
well ahead of schedule and is quite proactive in head-
ing off potential problems. Likewise, there are multiple
gate agents plus a supervisor to ably handle most pas-
senger issues in conjunction with the purser. In domes-
tic flying, it often seems that the captain is the default
troubleshooter. With international operations, very few
problems make it forward of the cockpit door.
With an augmented crew of three pilots, you spend
one-third of the cruise time absent from the flight deck,
resting on your designated break. Long flights are rather
shortened by being broken up into thirds as pilots cy-
cle in and out. I found that most international flights of
 LIFE IN THE AIR
TA K ING W I N G
The real draw of
international flying is that
it’s supremely efficient.
eight or 10 hours practically flew by, in comparison to
five-hour domestic transcontinental flights that seem
to drag on forever. It helps that you change out cockpit
companions every three hours or so, keeping conversa-
tion fresh. Even if you can’t stand the person—and I’ve
found maybe two or three of these in 19 years of airline
flying—you only need to stew in silence for a few hours
before being relieved.
Relief pilot is not a predesignated position at my airline.
Theoretically, the captain assigns duties at the beginning
of the trip, but in practice they will usually fly the first
leg and let the two first officers hash out the rest among
themselves. The relief FO normally takes the first rest
break and then relieves the pilot flying (second break)
and pilot monitoring (third break) in turn. This made it
an unpopular position on eastbound trans-Atlantic legs,
where first break often coincides with a circadian high
and an active meal service, making for difficult rest (most
of our 767s lack a bunk room like the A330; we use a first-
class seat with a curtain). As a lifelong flexible sleeper,
I usually volunteered for relief duties on these flights,
and, besides the gratitude of my fellow FOs, was often
rewarded with a flying leg on the westbound return.
I took a lot of pride in being a good relief pilot, espe-
cially during high-workload periods at busy interna-
tional airports, where a sharp relief crew can be worth
its weight in gold. You see a ton from the jumpseat and
can often help the flying pilots head off trouble before it
ever begins. My crowning moment came during a take-
off from London-Heathrow (EGLL), when the captain’s
oxygen mask started spontaneously free flowing, but the
sound was masked by unusually loud packs. Just after
rotation, I realized the source of the noise and, throwing
off my harness and headset, flew across the cockpit to
smack the errant mask into submission. We all glanced
up at the crew oxygen gauge; it was barely above the min-
imum, saving us from a mandatory divert. The captain
bought the layover beers that night.
You might suppose the primary draw of international
flying to be the layovers, and in my case you wouldn’t
be wide of the mark. I took full advantage of 24- to 48-
hour Europe layovers and 36-hour South American
interludes, cramming in as much adventure as was
prudent. It’s instructive that I’ve written about many
international layovers in these pages—flying a microlight
in Germany and a classic Robin taildragger in France,
86
hang gliding in Rio, visiting a World War I aerodrome in
Italy and a flying boat museum in Ireland—while spilling
minimal ink over their domestic counterparts.
I also enjoyed the international crew dynamic. It’s not
unusual for all three pilots and a majority of the flight
attendants to at least meet for happy hour, if not for
dinner or a night on the town. This is much rarer on the
domestic side at my airline, though I’ve put good effort
into rectifying that since upgrade, with better-than-
average results.
A lot of my compatriots, however, don’t necessarily
care if they quaff Maibock in Munich or Miller in Mil-
waukee, and an equal number profess indifference to the
cabin crew’s participation, or lack thereof, in layover fun.
The real draw of international flying, for most, is that it’s
supremely efficient. In John’s new category of Seattle
A330, even junior pilots can easily cram a full month’s
flying into only 12 days, leaving the rest free for family,
hobbies, or second careers or businesses. The trips are
also very commuter-friendly, with late report times and
early releases. On international fleets, there’s very little
the company can legally do to reschedule you to cover
broken trips. One need not fear storms up and down the
East Coast. At worst, you go home early with full pay.
All of which explains why the international fleets go
insanely senior at my airline. John is just now able to
hold A330 first officer status, but he could have held Se-
attle 737 captain more than two years ago. Likewise, I
would be slightly more junior as an A330 FO than I am
as a 737 captain. Despite that—and the prospect of a 20
percent pay cut—the idea of taking a downgrade looks at-
tractive each time I see the A330’s monthly bid package.
Pretty much my entire career—and my life—has been
divided up into roughly five-year chunks. Whenever I
do anything for that long, I tend to become bored and
knock over the house of cards to see what I can build
next. I’ve been a 737 captain for three and a half years,
and while I’m still reasonably engaged, I’ve started to
eye my next move. The most optimistic projections
show that I might be able to hold A330 captain in six
years (be still my heart). I probably ought to go “learn
French” on an Airbus product in the meantime, which
in Seattle means A320 captain or A330 FO. Which
to choose? I won’t lie. I do enjoy flying with “my own
favorite captain” every single week, and to be stripped
of that fourth stripe does involve a certain subjugation
of the ego. On the other hand, I’m writing this column at
a table overlooking the Grand Canal in sunny, beautiful
Venice, sipping an Aperol spritz and remembering a time
not so long ago when this was my everyday work life. It’s
tempting, very tempting, to go back to that. We’ll see, but
John and I may yet fly together again somewhere across
the glittering sea. [
SAM WEIGEL began flight lessons at 13 and worked his way
up to flying for a major airline. His online series, V1 Rotate,
explores the world of the professional pilot.
M IDW EST MO D EL STOR E

SHO P N OW
 LIFE IN THE AIR
LE A DI NG E D GE

DEPARTURE
DIALOGUE
Conversations in dispatch
Courtesy of Ben Younger

BY BEN YOUNGER

NEWARK TOWER CAME on the radio, and the voice sounded urgent: “Bonanza Five Zero
Whiskey, go around. Go around.”

88
 It’s not like I’ve never heard those words before. Things
happen at busy airports, and the tower will sometimes
throw something at you at the last second. But this was
unusual in that I was on short final. No, short final is ac-
tually a misnomer in this case. I was over the numbers.
Flaps down, gear down, throttle back to 15 inches, trim
plus-9 and increasing. I was, quite literally, about to land.
Things went a little sideways from there, but let’s back up
a minute first.
I was flying a friend to Newark Liberty International
Airport (KEWR) so she could catch a commercial flight
home. I worked it out so that we’d land before 3 p.m. in
New Jersey, avoiding the afternoon rush (and the in-
creased landing fees the Port Authority charges). I filed
IFR even though it was clear and a million. Always best
to do so when flying into Class B airspace. Many pilots
get nervous about flying IFR into busy airspace, but the
reality is that it’s far easier than VFR. You’re told what to
do and when to do it. It’s actually a great help in regard
to workload mitigation. You can’t bust airspace when
you’re IFR as they take all the decision-making out of
your hands. Well, not all the decision-making. And that’s
where my problem was.
It’s a short flight from Sullivan County International
Airport (KMSV) in Monticello, New York, to KEWR, and
before we even settled into cruise, we were being vectored
around for a visual to Runway 11. Approach sent me over
to Tower and immediately they asked me to keep my
speed up then cleared me to land. I have been in this situ-
ation before and, wanting to help out, I do my best to com-
ply. Flying into Newark in a single-engine piston makes
you the redheaded stepchild. No way around that. So you
do what you can to fit into the fast-moving environment. I
maintained 160 kias for as long as I could then had to slow
down to get configured for a stable approach. As it was, I
did this on the later side. On a 5-mile final, I pitched up
and pulled power to get below the 150 kias landing gear
actuation speed. We quickly decelerated. The airplane
stabilized in no time as I flew my Bo “by the numbers.”
In this case, a descent, which means 18 inches manifold
pressure and plus-3 on the trim. This setting will always
give me a 500 fpm descent with the gear down.
I had heard nothing from the tower since being cleared
to land, though I was aware there was a jet behind me.
Being just a half mile from the runway, I dumped all the
flaps at once and trimmed up to plus-9 to maintain my
stabilized approach. Over the numbers I pulled power
to idle and was trimming up to plus-12 when Tower told
me to go around.
I have been asked to do things on short final before and
it’s normally a nonevent. Flying into Van Nuys, California
(KVNY), this past spring, I was told to change from 16R
to 16L about a mile from the threshold. No problem. Bank
left, continue descent, squeak the landing, impress your
friends. Like most of us, I’ve also been told to go around
more than once. No biggie. But this was different. I looked
at my ForeFlight log, and it showed I got as low as 61 feet
89
It’s that voice-of-God vibe the
controllers have.
msl. That’s 44 feet agl at KEWR. This is where that deci-
sion-making I mentioned earlier comes into play. I should
have simply said, “Unable.” There was no hazard in front
of me. I was cleared to land. It was my runway, and I was
committed at that point.
I knew full well what was happening: The controller
got the spacing wrong and did not want to make the jet
behind me go around as he knew I might not exit the run-
way in time.
It’s that voice-of-God vibe the controllers have. Some-
times you forget you’re allowed to push back. I did what I
was told. And this is where it got a bit rough. My aircraft
does not have approach flaps. Practically, what this means
for me is that I don’t extend flaps on an instrument ap-
proach until I know I have the runway made. Why? Be-
cause this is the most dangerous, busiest envelope of flight
that exists for a GA piston pilot. You’re close to the ground,
and the airplane is about to go through some serious aero-
dynamic changes because of what you’re about to do. It’s a
far simpler affair in a Pilatus or TBM. They have as little
as one lever. I have three. For this reason, I don’t use flaps
until it’s a sure thing since it means there’s one less thing
for me to do when transitioning to a missed approach.
So…I acknowledged the go-around while I pulled back
on the yoke to stop the descent. I added mixture, prop,
and then throttle in quick succession. I retracted the
flaps next. She moved around a little bit, but I kept things
together and, as the airplane started to climb, I pulled
the gear up. Not too bad, I thought. More than usual but
not too bad. Except I had forgotten one important item—
trim. At plus-12 with a clean airframe and full power, she
suddenly shot straight up into the air.
It wasn’t close. No stall warning, but it got my full at-
tention. I pressed forward on the yoke—hard. Forced the
nose down as I spun the trim wheel forward with my right
hand (not a time for the electric hat) until I felt the pres-
sure subside and entered a normal climb. For a newer pi-
lot, this is exactly how you enter a stall/spin condition.
Tower then sheepishly asked if I could make a short
approach. Affirmative. Pulled back throttle to 18 inches
and dumped the gear again. Flaps as well. Dove back to-
ward the runway and squeaked the landing. The control-
ler thanked me. No problem. }
BEN YOUNGER is a TV and film writer/director, avid motor-
cyclist, and surfer—but it’s being a pilot that he treats as
a second profession. Follow Ben Younger on Instagram:
@thisisbenyounger.
 LIFE IN THE AIR
GE A R U P

MAS TER OF
AIRPL ANES
Courtesy of Dick Karl; Amy Jo Sledge photo illustration; freepik

He’s one lucky lab, indeed.

BY DICK KARL

H
E MAY BE FROM rural Kentucky, but he lives a big-city life. In the eight years I’ve
known him, he’s owned four airplanes—a turboprop, two jets, and now a piston
twin. He uses general aviation to commute from his home in Tampa, Florida, to his
summer cottage in New Hampshire. He handles all this with a weary sense of ennui seasoned
with aplomb. He does, however, have his idiosyncrasies. For instance, he hates dogs. His name
is Rocco and, well, he is a dog.

90
 I first learned of Rocco from a video posted on a web-
site called “Lucky Lab Rescue.” He looked like the lab
mix he was reported to be. Tellingly, he had no “bio.”
Usually dogs up for adoption have been fostered and
their traits have been cataloged. “Needs lots of space
to run” and “not good with children” are a couple of red
flags. Rocco had none. He was cute, if a little “mouthy,”
Rocco’s first flight and
first airplane was in our 1980
Piper Cheyenne I. He acted
like it was natural to scurry
up the airstairs and to make
himself comfortable...
on the 20-second video, so my wife, Cathy, and I ar-
ranged to have him join a caravan of dogs being shipped
from the Midwest to the good folks of New England. Ap-
parently, there is a well-worn path for dogs abandoned
at kill shelters to adoption facilities in the Northeast.
We have had excellent luck with labs and lab mixes.
We knew Rocco first showed up in a kill shelter in Ken-
tucky and was transferred to a veterinary technical
school in Indiana. From the paperwork that accompa-
nied him, we found that he had been used for students to
practice putting him under anesthesia and drawing his
blood. I’m thinking that might give a fellow an attitude.
It did. Surprisingly, his animosity is not toward hu-
mans but dogs. It took several surprise attacks against
friends’ and neighborhood dogs before we learned to
keep him separated from all canines. His vet hospital
and human emergency department visit bills topped
10 grand before we got the picture. We spent similar
amounts on dog training with the graduation certifi-
cates as proof.
“Why don’t you put him down?” We heard this a lot.
There was one problem: We were falling in love. With
the kids, grandkids, furnace repair guy, and the pest
man, he was an enthusiastic lab love. Our vet said, “I
will not put a dog down for dog aggression. Your job is
to keep him safe.” That sealed it.
Rocco’s first flight and first airplane was in our 1980
Piper Cheyenne I. He acted like it was natural to scurry
up the airstairs and to make himself comfortable in an
91
empty seat. When that became uncomfortable, he’d
come forward, put his front paws on the wing spar, and
peer into the flight deck with a bemused expression.
“Can’t this thing go any faster?” he seemed to say. He’d
stare in hypnotic trance at the blinking reply light on
the transponder.
It wasn’t long before we decided to buy a jet. Three
years of Part 135 flying had finally taught me how, and
I felt comfortable with single-pilot jet ops. We bought a
Raytheon Premier 1. With its magnificent height, im-
posing airstairs, and lavish interior, not to mention Pro
Line 21 avionics, I was in heaven.
Apparently, so was Rocco. It gradually dawned on us
that perhaps this dog had been fibbing about his back-
ground. He climbed into the Premier and looked around
as if to say, “This is all you got?” I wondered if he’d ac-
tually belonged to a family with a Gulfstream. We sent
off his DNA to see if he was related to a Rockefeller, but
no joy.
Still, he got awfully cozy awfully quickly, though he
seemed to look askance at the ornate gold fixtures—not
the kind of thing a well-bred dog would accept for haute
couture.
When an errant pelican commuting at 4,500 feet
dinged the wing, we sought the comfort of a Cessna Ci-
tation CJ1. Not quite as fast as the Premier, but never as
maintenance needy, the airplane fit like a glove. Rocco
claimed a seat, which we protected with a sheet. There
was no question this was a smaller seat than the one to
which he had been accustomed, but he took the indig-
nity like a lab. He logged hundreds of trouble-free hours
curled up in a ball and ready to party when he arrived.
Alas, my abilities as a dog aircraft provider atrophied
with age, and we had to sell the CJ1 owing to insurance
costs for “elderly” single-pilot jet ops. Looking to be
“unleashed” myself from the aerospace medical boys
and girls in Oklahoma City, I chose BasicMed. This led
to a fine Beechcraft P-Baron.
And guess what? This is the most comfortable air-
plane for Rocco. He leaps easily into the back cabin,
and the rear seats are so close together that he now ef-
fectively has a bench seat. This allows uninterrupted
sleep for hours and hours. Rocco is good at this. It’s one
of his finest skills. This is a good thing as his commute
has become longer and regularly features a tech stop. At
such interruptions, he parades around the FBO while
Cathy and I keep an eye out for some unsuspecting fel-
low dog traveler. We’d hate for him to have a rap sheet
in another state. His countenance at the high-end FBOs
could be best described as expectant. Just don’t let him
spot a Chihuahua with a rhinestone collar—the fur will
fly. So far, so good, though—just a dog and his airplane
in harmony. }
DICK KARL is a cancer surgeon turned Part 135 pilot who is
happy to have found his next airplane.
 LIFE IN THE AIR
C FI C E NT RA L
CROSSWIND
L ANDINGS
Practice whenever you can.
BY MEG GODLEWSKI
“HOW ARE YOUR CROSSWIND LANDINGS?”
“WE’RE ABOUT TO FIND OUT.”
Have you ever had this conversation in the aircraft? It
often occurs when you listen to the one-minute weather
or ATIS and learn the winds are blowing at an angle to the
runway rather than parallel to the direction of landing.
As a result, there is the increased potential for drifting
off the centerline—unless the pilot is prepared to take
prompt and corrective action. As we go into the winter
months, winds tend to kick up across the U.S., making it
more likely for you to encounter a crosswind.
Since most airports are designed with runways aligned
into prevailing winds, many pilots don’t get much prac-
tice with crosswind takeoffs and landings—and it shows.
A search of accident and incident reports compiled by the
National Transportation Safety Board shows pages upon
pages of landing accidents and incidents where a cross-
wind got the better of a pilot.
92
In FAA Advisory Circular 150/5300-13, it is noted
that “generally, the smaller the airplane, the more it is
affected by wind, particularly crosswind components.
Crosswinds are often a contributing factor in small air-
plane accidents.” The FAA has devoted several pages in
the Airplane Flying Handbook and the Pilot’s Handbook
of Aeronautical Knowledge to giving pilots tools for land-
ing in crosswinds.
Determining the Crosswind Component
Many POHs also have a performance chart that allows
the pilot to determine the crosswind and headwind
component.
Adobe Stock
The first step is to determine what direction the wind
is coming from and note the velocity. Next, select the run-
way that gives you the smallest angle between the wind
direction and the runway. For example, if the wind is re-
ported as 300 at 15 knots and the runway options are
34/16, 34, (Runway 340) the angle difference is 40 de-
grees. If you select Runway 16, there’s a 140-degree angle.
Make It Visual
This is where the mechanical E6B flight computer
shines. Look at the wind side of the unit, placing the
runway heading under the True Index—300 is to the
left. Using Runway 34 will mean a wind from the left
side of the nose.
Now put 160 under the True Index—300 is now a tail-
wind from the right. Taking off and landing with a quar-
tering tailwind is dangerous and should be avoided.
Demonstrated Crosswind Component
Before an airplane is type certificated by the FAA, it is
flight-tested to ensure it meets certain requirements.
Among these is the demonstration of being satisfactorily
controllable with no exceptional degree of skill or alert-
ness on the part of the pilot in 90-degree crosswinds up
to a velocity equal to 0.2 VSO. This means a wind speed
of two-tenths of the airplane’s stalling speed with power
off and in landing configuration. Often this information
is placarded in the aircraft.
According to the POH for the Cessna 172S, the cross-
wind component chart has fine print reading “maxi-
mum demonstrated crosswind velocity is 15 knots (not
a limitation).” This means 15 knots was the maximum
component the manufacturer tested to, so it does not
necessarily mean operations with a great crosswind are
particularly dangerous or difficult. It greatly depends on
the type of airplane and the experience, skill, and profi-
ciency of the pilot. However, in Chapter 9 of the Airplane
Flying Handbook, the FAA offers the warning that “it is
imperative that pilots determine the maximum cross-
wind component of each airplane they fly and avoid op-
erations in wind conditions that exceed the capability of
the airplane.”
Crosswind Technique
Both crosswind landings and takeoffs require the pilot
to put aileron deflection into the wind to maintain di-
rectional control. As control effectiveness (especially ai-
lerons) increases with a rise in airflow over the wings,
landings tend to be more difficult, because control effec-
tiveness is reduced as the aircraft slows down.
There are two methods for the crosswind approach and
landing: the crab method and sideslip method.
In the crab method, the pilot aligns the airplane’s
ground track with the centerline of the runway, with
the nose of the aircraft pointed into the wind. The pilot
makes small adjustments, maintaining the crab angle
until just before touchdown. The pilot must use rudder
control to align the longitudinal axis of the airplane with
the runway centerline to avoid side loading the landing
gear. Ideally, the pilot will straighten out the airplane just
in time for the upwind wheel to touch down a moment
93
before the downwind wheel. This takes practice to get
right. If the pilot is too early or too late, side loading can
occur. Too much side load and there can be gear damage
and possibly a wingtip strike.
Using the sideslip method, the pilot first uses the rud-
der to align the airplane on runway heading then notes
the amount of drift occurring as a result of the crosswind.
The pilot then adjusts the bank angle, with some calling
it “leaning into the wind” to keep the airplane’s longitu-
dinal access and ground track aligned with the runway
centerline.
You need to hold that alignment through final ap-
proach, roundout, touchdown, and rollout, remember-
ing that as the aircraft’s speed diminishes, so does flight
control effectiveness. If you’re struggling, running out of
rudder on final, it’s probably only going to get worse. The
prudent thing to do is go around.
The roundout is made like a normal landing approach,
but the application of a crosswind correction is continued
as necessary to prevent drifting.
Some pilots use a combination of the two methods,
using the slip into the wind and opposite rudder to keep
the aircraft from turning into the wind. If there is not
enough rudder to compensate for the strong turning
tendency caused by the steep bank, the wind is likely
too strong for a safe landing on that particular runway
with those wind conditions. This is the time to find an
alternate runway.
Weathervaning, when the aircraft makes an uncom-
manded turn into the wind, is possible with strong
crosswinds, especially in a tailwheel aircraft because of
greater side area behind the main landing gear, which
acts as a pivot point. The greater the crosswind compo-
nent, the more difficult it is to prevent weathervaning.
Challenge to Find Crosswind Runways
Our aviation infrastructure is designed to mitigate cross-
winds, as you will note runway orientation is usually into
the prevailing winds. You show me an area with runways
aligned 17/35, 18/36, or 1/19, and I’ll show you an area
where the winds blow north-south. You may be lucky and
fly out of an airport that was built in the 1940s when the
runways were arranged in a triangle shape to accommo-
date the propeller-driven airplanes.
No matter how strong the winds, one of those run-
ways had to work. Over the decades, most of these air-
ports lost one if not two of the runways because the FAA
determined they were not being used frequently, and the
agency or airport sponsor did not want to pay for their up-
keep. Some were turned into ramp space or taxiways—en-
suring good crosswind technique is required. [
MEG GODLEWSKI has been an aviation journalist for
more than 22 years and a CFI for 20 years. If she is not
flying or teaching aviation, she is writing about it. She
is a founding member of the Pilot Proficiency Center at
EAA AirVenture.
 LIFE IN THE AIR
JUMPSEAT

A BOURBON TR AIL
FLYING ADVENTURE
Threading the decision-making needle

BY LES ABEND

A
LTHOUGH THE CAPTAIN had uttered more than a handful of expletives to express
his dissatisfaction, the translation of his communication to me and the flight engineer
was, “You gotta be kidding!” His remark was a reaction to the fact we had just been
advised over the company frequency that cargo loaded on board our brown-and-white Boeing
727-100 in Louisville, Kentucky (KSDF), had been destined for Jackson, Mississippi (KJAN).
Unfortunately, our airplane had been flight planned for Jacksonville, Florida (KJAX). Yours
truly had unknowingly crunched the provided weight-and-balance numbers for the wrong cargo
using the infamous “whiz wheel.”

Having never departed the UPS ramp, we shut down
the three engines that had just been started. We waited
for the just-out-of-college loading supervisor with the
clipboard and stopwatch to climb up the portable
airstairs/scaffolding.
The captain was incredulous that the young man had
parently.) My employer at the time was Evergreen In-
ternational Airlines, one of the contract carriers flying
UPS freight when the shipping company was in its avi-
ation infancy.
So when my wife expressed an interest in flying our
airplane to Louisville for a Kentucky Bourbon Trail
Adobe Stock

to be convinced of the fact our flight couldn’t just get tour, the above described 40-year-old memory evoked a
off the highway at another exit without replanning and snicker and a smile. I had survived that employment and
recalculating. (Jackson, Jacksonville…same thing, ap- gained invaluable experience that assisted in launching

94
an enviable career with my dream airline. My only ex-
posure to Louisville had been a nearby Holiday Inn and
a pilot operations trailer on the UPS ramp in the dark-
ness of night.
Our excursion more recently began with a visit to
Greenwood, South Carolina (KGRD). The group of pilots
and their wives who had conquered Iceland the year prior
converged on Mike and Christa’s new lake house for a few
days of water fun. We departed from separate Florida air-
ports in separate airplanes with the goal of arriving at the
same time. And thus began the process of threading the
decision needle.
With Florida’s typical August spawning convective
weather by early afternoon, it didn’t take much convinc-
ing that a morning departure was mandatory. Although
my friend, Scott Roze, a retired colleague, wanted to co-
ordinate departures in his Piper Dakota so that my wife
and I arrived at KGRD via our Piper Arrow at the same
time, it wasn’t one of my concerns.
Fortunately, Scott gathered his group for an earli-
er-than-planned wheels-up time that allowed them to
avoid a band of convective weather rolling through the
Jacksonville area. Despite his thousands of hours in all
types of airplanes, Scott considers the Dakota and him-
self a VFR-only operation. Since retiring from the airline,
he hasn’t maintained instrument proficiency to his satis-
faction. Although I chide him about being a “Boy Scout”
for following rules, I respect and admire him.
After our lake visit, my wife and I departed Green-
wood for Louisville’s Bowman Field (KLOU). The
2-hour, 15-minute flight seemed simple enough for
planning a direct routing, but a closer look revealed the
Great Smoky Mountains as a terrain threat. Although
the maximum sector elevation was 7,000 feet, it would
be bad marital policy to subject my wife to potential
orographic turbulence. To avoid such pain, I filed for
a jog in the route farther to the south, nearer the lower
elevations of the Blue Ridge Mountains.
In my former life, the mountains in South America,
Latin America, and the U.S. required us to be situation-
ally aware and vigilant of the terrain threat. In addition
to our training, the airline designated certain areas of
the world with specific alternate routing over mountain-
ous terrain for an emergency or depressurization event.
Specific terrain-affected airports were also designated,
requiring us to review idiosyncrasies in procedures, ar-
rivals, and departures prior to our trip. In addition, some
airports required a check airman to be on a captain’s ini-
tial flight. A 90-day currency was also a requirement. Te-
gucigalpa (MHTG) in Honduras is a good example.
Fortunately, our trek across the Smokies was accom-
plished with nary a bump. Aside from a handful of vec-
tors through some cumulus attempting to go nimbus, our
late morning arrival into Bowman Field was seamless. As
fate would have it, the Uber driver was a flight instructor
and airplane owner who had been encouraging his son to
fulfill his airline pilot aspirations.
95
We kicked off the Kentucky Bourbon Trail with a tour
of the Angel’s Envy Distillery, an easy walk from our bou-
tique hotel. The tour became a valuable template for the
remainder of the trip, imparting to us the necessary skill
to properly taste bourbon.
It would have been un-American to not visit the race-
track at Churchill Downs, or not to tour the city, so we ac-
complished both the following day. After the Louisville
visit and a couple more distillery tours, the next day’s
plan was to return our rental car and fly 15 minutes to
Bardstown, Kentucky (KBRY), where numerous distill-
eries and much cheaper 100LL was located.
Mother Nature decided to play her own cards with a
line of convective weather. Although beating the thun-
derstorms was not out of the question, it seemed the right
time for discretion to be the better part of valor. Keeping
the rental car, we humbled ourselves with a 40-minute
drive to Bardstown.
Maintaining the long-standing tradition of cheap air-
line pilot, I awoke just before dawn and returned the
rental car to Louisville. With thanks to my new friends at
Bowman’s Executive Aviation, the Arrow was rolled out of
a hangar for my short trip to Bardstown. I arrived through
a thin, translucent cloud layer, reflecting later that maybe
the RNAV (GPS) approach should have been requested
despite the field technically reporting VFR conditions.
Tom, the affable Bardstown airport manager, greeted
me with fueling assistance and our new rental car deliv-
ered right to the airplane at the tie-down spot. My wife
had claimed never to have set foot in Kentucky, but we si-
multaneously had a déjà vu moment after entering a local
restaurant for lunch. A later glance in the airplane log-
book revealed a KBRY entry. Apparently, we had made
a fuel/lunch stop at the airport six years ago when we
brought the airplane home from Amarillo, Texas, shortly
after its purchase.
After three days of touring the town and distilleries,
we departed for home at sunrise in order to beat the usual
Florida convective weather in the afternoon. Despite the
capability to complete a four-hour flight with full wing
tanks, my abundance of caution and our personal blad-
ders don’t allow for such an operation. As it was, we had
to thread the needle around a thin line of building con-
vective weather that ForeFlight had displayed before de-
parture. The technique of “looking into the light” got us
through the line without a bump.
Aside from the typical frequency congestion through
the Jacksonville area and the usual dive from the last as-
signed altitude, we arrived at Flagler, Florida (KFIN), no
worse for the wear. It was a fun challenge to thread the
decision needle, notwithstanding great memories and a
newly stocked liquor closet. }
LES ABEND is a retired 34-year veteran of American Airlines,
attempting to readjust his passion for flying airplanes in the
lower flight levels without the assistance of a first officer.
 LIFE IN THE AIR
UNUSUAL ATTITUDES

KEEPING THE
FIRE BURNING
The need for pilots can’t take the place of passion.

BY MARTHA LUNKEN

A
GOOD FRIEND—a well-known, longtime aviator and author of books and aviation
columns (alas, for another magazine)—told me he had attempted to write something
about the glorious obsession many of us have with airplanes and flying…often from
childhood. But despite chewing on it for a long time, he finally gave up—saying it just wouldn’t
“come together.”

Fearless when it comes to busting into places where
other—often more competent—flyers and writers are re-
luctant to go, I decided to give it a try. After all, who has
more firsthand knowledge of what happens when this
lem, or even something as weird as flying under a bridge?
(And, no, I didn’t turn my transponder off!)
It can’t be “genetic.” After all, there were no powered
airplanes until 120 years ago and, for many years after
iStock

very real, deep-rooted part of us is sabotaged by events Wilbur and Orville figured it out in 1903, few people flew
such as a denied medical or insurance, a financial prob- or owned one. Then, beginning with ex-World War I fly-

96
ers who became the daredevil barnstormers and mail
pilots of the 1920s and ’30s and feats of Lindbergh, Ear-
hart, Post, and other household names, publicity and in-
terest grew. In the years following World War II, a bunch
of “little” airplanes appeared that were simple enough
that almost anybody could learn to fly. And aviation was
more accessible, affordable, and hugely popular.
Sporty’s Pilot Shop founder Hal Shevers told me
one time, “Marf, we lived through the ‘Golden Era of
General Aviation.’” And he was right. The 1950s, ’60s,
and ’70s were the glory days before airplane prices
exploded—as did tomes of onerous regulations and
complex airspace restrictions—and insurance require-
ments, maintenance costs, and manufacturer liability
issues mushroomed. Sadly, it was those liability issues
and an unacceptable accident rate that began to choke
private and small business aviation in the ’80s and ’90s.
But the die-hards stayed with it, forming flying clubs
and partnerships, buying and renovating old airplanes,
or building experimental models themselves. It was
costly, but their obsession made them find a way.
Now there’s a desperate need for pilots. With that
comes the danger of “enticing” applicants who lack the
deep-seated desire and passion but are beguiled by the
salaries and prestige that go with being an airline pilot.
Flight training schools and universities are eager to en-
roll students who qualify for generous scholarships—
some from the airlines themselves. Others are attracted
by the ease of borrowing huge sums to complete “fast-
track” training with the promise of an interview and
likely a job in the right seat of an airliner. What isn’t
advertised is that flight training dropout statistics av-
erage 80 percent.
A genuine interest in and aptitude for flying airplanes
is a huge blessing for those becoming professional pi-
lots. Despite the growing need for more pilots, it is vital
that airline companies don’t lower hiring standards—
as has been accused—and put marginally qualified new
hires in their cockpits by maybe thinking experience
will “fix” the problem.
Flight schools advertise that you’re guaranteed an
airline interview by successfully completing their “fast-
track” programs. They’ll guide you through the process
of logging 1,500 hours of flight and simulator time. Sim-
ply sign up, pay something close to $100,000, pass an
FAA medical, get a student certificate, and take the dual
for solo and solo cross-country signoffs. You’ll learn
enough in ground schools to pass the FAA knowledge
exams and log enough time and have the skill to pass a
private pilot check ride. Ditto for the instrument, com-
mercial, multiengine, and CFI certificates and ratings.
And they assure you this can be accomplished in “only
seven months.” Then you instruct for the school, earn-
ing between $15 and $50 per hour until you accumulate
the necessary 1,500 (or, in some cases, 1,200) hours to
apply for the right seat with an air carrier. All this is pos-
sible in two to three years with no guarantee of actually
being hired…and not living in your parents’ basement.
97
One major carrier has pledged that 50 percent of its
new hires will be “people of color and females.” Its pro-
gram offers scholarships from the Latino Pilots Associ-
ation, National Gay Pilots Association, Organization of
Black Aerospace Professionals, Professional Asian Pi-
lots Association, Sisters of the Skies, and Women in Avi-
ation International. It is hoped that making the training
available inspires young people—regardless of sex, color,
ethnicity, people who may never have had the opportu-
nity to learn about aviation—to embrace the training.
That’s laudable, so long as it doesn’t exclude anyone.
A retired airline pilot friend commented: “Anyone
who remembers the Colgan [Air] crash at KBUF [Buf-
falo, New York, in 2009] should understand the signif-
icance of airlines hiring qualified pilots. That accident
was a ‘perfect storm’ of pilot incompetence, manage-
ment failure, weather, and other factors causing the
deaths of a planeload of people. Aviation is inherently
dangerous, and when incompetent pilots are given the
controls of an aircraft filled with people, the situation
becomes an accident waiting to happen.”
Here’s a poignant quote from an article in FLYING
Magazine in July 1953: “Ten-thousand articles have been
written about the ebb of aviation enthusiasm and activity
in the land. Apathy to aviation is just one of many indica-
tions that 20 years’ education that ‘the world owes me a
living’ has wrought havoc with our individual spirits. We
babble about Social Security and prate in terms of masses
and promise ‘extended benefits.’ …It means we’ve had a
flameout of the fire that molded us and gave us power.
We’ve stopped running to meet life because that takes
faith and courage and pride.”
It was written by no less a personage than Gill Robb
Wilson, one of the magazine’s founders and editors, and
a World War I combat pilot in France, devoted patriot,
founder of the Civil Air Patrol, writer, and poet (and, cu-
riously, a Presbyterian minister). I think his comments
apply to young men and women today who look upon
aviation training and airline flying as a quick road to
success, prestige, and security.
I recently took Theo, a neighborhood kid, up in the
Cessna 180 because he’s crazy about aviation and air-
planes. Theo is intelligent and amazingly knowledgeable
because he reads everything in sight about airplanes and
pilots. He’s just beginning high school but, when I asked
him if he’d thought about college, he named a large “de-
gree plus aviation training mill” in Florida. I suggested
maybe he think about a degree in engineering, business,
or whatever at a good college while learning to fly “the
old-fashioned way” and then instructing to learn and
build time. He’s wired for an airline career, and he’ll make
it—with the passion for it well in place. [
MARTHA LUNKEN is a lifelong pilot, former FAA inspector,
and defrocked pilot examiner. She owns and flies a Cessna
180, and she loves anything with a tailwheel, from Piper
Cubs to Douglas DC-3s.
 LIFE IN THE AIR
TEC HN ICAL ITI ES

THE IMPORTANCE
OF WINGSPAN
In the drive toward greater efficiency, the span’s the thing.

BY PETER GARRISON

U
NLESS YOU ARE the civilian owner of an F-14, you cannot change the wingspan of
your airplane. If you’re a manufacturer, however, you can, and the same privilege
extends to that miniature of a manufacturer, the amateur builder. Extending span
requires adding strength to the spar or finding unnoticed extra strength in an existing spar. Or
you can just start over and build a new wing from scratch.

Recent years have seen a general drift toward longer
spans and higher aspect ratios. The Beechcraft Bonanza
has a span of 33.5 feet and an aspect ratio of 6.2; the Cir-
rus SR22, which might be seen as today’s Bonanza, has a
span of more than 38 feet and an aspect ratio of 10.1. The
trend is generally toward greater aerodynamic efficiency,
partly in response to fuel costs and partly because the in-
creasing use of turbocharging leads to higher cruising al-
The two airplanes I’ve built, Melmoth and Melmoth 2,
are (or were—the first Melmoth was destroyed in an ac-
cident long ago) broadly similar, with low wings, T-tails,
bubble canopies, retractable gear, and the same 200 hp
Continental 360 engine and Hartzell constant-speed
prop. The first Melmoth was aluminum, with 2+1 seat-
ing; the second is composite and seats four. Both were
built with long-distance travel in mind and have lots
iStock

titudes, where longer wings are more at home. of internal tankage: Melmoth’s wing and tip tanks held

98
155 gallons; Melmoth 2’s completely wet wings hold 142
gallons. The two Melmoths, with the same engine, pro-
peller, empty weight, and cabin cross-section, differ sig-
nificantly in one aspect: wingspan. The first began life
with a wingspan of 23 feet and went through 21-foot and
28-foot iterations before its eventual demise. Melmoth
2 has a wingspan of 36 feet but only a little more wing
area—106 square feet to the first Melmoth’s 93. (For com-
parison, the wing areas of most commercial four-seaters
range from 145 to 180 square feet.) The first Melmoth’s
aspect ratio was 5.75; Melmoth 2’s is 12.6.
Span and area are entangled with one another in the
sense that structural strength and stiffness (not to men-
tion space for retracting landing gear) require a certain
wing thickness, and that in turn implies a minimum
chord (the distance from leading to trailing edge), be-
cause airfoils shouldn’t be too thick. So you can’t just
increase span willy-nilly without at some point having
to increase chord and area as well. However, increasing
the wing area, which was originally selected to permit a
certain landing speed at a certain weight, adds drag and
makes the airplane heavier.
Increased wingspan—other things remaining the
same—rewards you with better efficiency and climb
rate, and improved high-altitude performance. The first
Melmoth had a maximum lift-drag, or L/D, ratio of about
11.8 and a “Breguet range”—a fictional, greatly exagger-
ated number that ignores takeoff, climb, and varying en-
gine efficiency and assumes that you always fly at a low
and ever-decreasing ideal speed—of 3,000 nm. Melmoth
2, with half again the span, has an L/D ratio of 17 and a
Breguet range of 3,600 nm, despite carrying 8 percent
less fuel. Rate of climb is less strongly influenced by span
than L/D and range are, but Melmoth 2, climbing at 1,800
fpm at full power and a typical weight of 2,200 pounds,
betters the original Melmoth by about 20 percent.
Note that I said “half again the span” and added noth-
ing about aspect ratio. That is because, contrary to wide-
spread belief, aspect ratio actually does not enter into it.
Aspect ratio is generally thought of as the quintessen-
tial measure of efficiency, but if you could double an
airplane’s wing area (thereby halving the aspect ratio)
without increasing its parasite drag, the L/D ratio and
Breguet range would remain the same. But you can’t in-
crease wing area without increasing drag and weight, and
that’s why aspect ratio becomes important: It’s a measure
of how little wing area you can have with a given span.
Curiously, and I think unexpectedly for most pilots,
altitude also does not enter into it. You might intuitively
suppose that thinner air would make the airplane more
efficient, but in fact neither the maximum L/D ratio nor
the maximum range is affected by altitude.
You will object that at 8,000 feet you will go faster,
with the same fuel flow, than at 2,000 feet. True. But
that is because your indicated airspeed is lower. If you
flew at the same indicated airspeed and fuel-air ratio at
both altitudes, you would find your fuel flow is greater at
the high altitude. The reason is that drag at a given indi-
99
Increased wingspan rewards
you with better efficiency
and climb rate, and improved
high-altitude performance.
cated airspeed is the same at all altitudes, but the power
required to overcome it is proportional to the square of
the true airspeed, not the indicated airspeed. At the best-
range speed, the miles per gallon is at a maximum, how-
ever, and is unaffected by altitude except to the extent
the engine’s efficiency might vary at different settings
of manifold pressure and rpm.
“Best range” and “best efficiency” are not seen in nor-
mal flying. Under actual cruising conditions, Melmoth 2
is not that different from the original Melmoth. The rea-
son is that maximum L/D and the Breguet range assume
speeds that are quite low—around 40 percent above the
clean stalling speed—and remote from those we actually
use. At real-world speeds, 65 percent or 75 percent power,
the differences shrink. Melmoth 2 will cruise at 170 knots
at 12,500 feet using about 8.5 gallons an hour—about 60
percent of rated power; the first Melmoth would burn
about 9.6, around 70 percent power, at the same weight
and altitude. So you see that despite a 50 percent im-
provement in best L/D, the practical benefit of the lon-
ger wing is much smaller.
When I designed the first Melmoth, I was strongly in-
fluenced by John Thorp and his T-18 homebuilt, whose
wing I copied almost exactly. Thorp, who also designed
the original rectangular-wing Piper Cherokee, used to
say that low aspect ratio wings perform better than the-
ory would lead you to expect, and he was adamant there
was no reason to taper the wings of any airplane weigh-
ing less than 12,000 pounds. When I designed Melmoth
2, however, I was more influenced by Burt Rutan’s deri-
sive observation that if I intended to fly long distances, I
had certainly chosen the wrong wing to do it. Aesthetics,
too—hence the long, slender, tapered wing of Melmoth 2,
of which Thorp might have disapproved.
For efficiency—the least fuel burned for the most work
done—a large wingspan is necessary. But Melmoth 2’s
long wing cost it the rollicking roll rate I enjoyed so much
in the first Melmoth. Melmoth 2 rolls more like an Airbus.
Sometimes, I think I would pay for the extra fuel just to
have the rolls back. [
PETER GARRISON taught himself to use a slide rule and
tinsnips, built an airplane in his backyard, and flew it to
Japan. He has contributed to FLYING since 1968. He writes
the Aftermath and Technicalities columns for the magazine.
 SI GN O FF

LANCAIR 350/
LANCAIR ES-P

AS IS ABUNDANTLY clear from the photos of FLYING Magazine’s

May 2004 cover shot of the Lancair Columbia 350 (left) and the kit-built
Lancair ES-P (above), both share parentage and composite composition—
and more than a few common qualities in speed and handling. The ES drew
its heritage from the slick Lancair IV, with a larger wing to provide lower
approach and landing speeds, somewhat taming the beast. The Columbia
300 and 350 took the evolution even further, with a discontinuous leading
edge on that wing, to move the stall inboard, according to the report in the
Dave Higdon

2004 feature. But with no vacuum pump—replaced with a dual electric

system—the 350 would set the stage inside as well as out for the later
expressions of the design, which would culminate in the Cessna TTx. [

100
THE
SOURCE FOR
SUPERCARS
SINCE 1985
THE SUPER VERSATILE JET
With its best-in-class payload, large cargo door, quickly reconfigurable cabin/cargo area, and
ability to operate from unpaved surfaces, the new PC-24 provides unmatched versatility.

pilatus-aircraft.com