CONTRAILS - Summer 2014

EVERYTHING YOU WANTED TO KNOW ABOUT JET FUEL

Learn more about what you’re putting in your tanks

THE PRIVATE JET MAGAZINE

BE SMART ABOUT SUMMER WEATHER

Convective outflow boundaries

SUMMER 2014

TAKE A RIDE IN

CESSNA’S NEW M2 JET! HOW HIGH SHOULD YOU FLY?

CALCULATING THE BEST ALTITUDE

SURVIVING THE SIM

LEARN MORE ABOUT HOW YOU LEARN

Backup ATTITUDE app

WAAS GPS unlocks track up moving map and terrain Subscription-free datalink WEATHER Dual band ADS-B TRAFFIC

Give your iPad

ATTITUDE STRATUS SECOND GENERATION The award-winning Stratus turns your iPad into the ultimate summer flying tool, delivering subscription-free weather, ADS-B traffic, GPS position and backup attitude information--all from a wireless receiver that fits in your pocket. But more capability doesn’t mean more hassle. Stratus features 8 hours of battery life, easy one-button operation and costs 30% less than comparable ADS-B receivers.

FEATURES: s Built-in AHRS for backup attitude s Dual band ADS-B traffic s Subscription-free in-flight weather s )mproved GPS and ADS-B reception s Totally wireless with 8-hour battery s -ADE FOR &ORE&LIGHT -OBILE s $ESIGNED AND BUILT IN 53!

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$899.00 Š2014 Sportsman’s Market, Inc.

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contents 06.14

FEATURES 14

20

CESSNA CITATION M2 A HIDDEN DANGER; A Mustang-CJ CONVECTIVE hybrid bolsters OUTFLOW Cessna’s light jet lineup.

BOUNDARIES

BY JAMES WYNBRANDT

Spring thunderstorms bring new challenges.

BY SCOTT C. DENNSTAEDT

Read the First Look review on the Cessna Citation M2 starting on page 14

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26

EVERYTHING YOU EVER WANTED TO KNOW ABOUT JET FUEL

Learn more about what you’re putting in your tanks.

BY BUDD CORBIN

32

HOW HIGH THE CRUISE?

Turboprops benefit from operating in the high sky, the higher the better.

BY BILL COX

50

THE UNIQUE RISKS OF THE BUSINESS PILOT Your airplane is one of your most important tools for success.

BY THOMAS P. TURNER

Sales • Training • Delivery

Your Turbine Transition Specialists jetAVIVA is an authority on owner/operator flown turbine aircraft, offering acquisition and sales services backed with the experience of completing hundreds of transactions. Furthermore, we provide acceptance, delivery, and training services in all production light turbine aircraft. jetAVIVA is focused on providing Clients with comprehensive services to choose the right aircraft and operate it with maximum efficiency and safety.

Learn what jetAVIVA can do for you at www.jetAVIVA.com or contact us directly at contact@jetAVIVA.com or +1.702.551.2055

contents 06.14 DEPARTMENTS

38

8 PUBLISHER’S LETTER 10 LIFESTYLES

The best new gadgets available to pilots on display.

12 ONBOARD

Must-have products to make those cross-country trips more pleasant.

36 MIPAD

Professional charts for the iPad Jepp TC and FD.

BY JOHN D. RULEY

38 WHERE THE WORDS CAME FROM

We use words that may sound funny to an outsider. Some of the words even sound funny to us!

BY LYN FREEMAN

42 TAX TALK

Understanding and planning for tax risks of overlapping loan guarantees.

BY JONATHAN LEVY

44 CITATION JET PILOTS

Owning and operating a Cessna Citation is a life-changing experience.

It allows you to go anywhere in the world on YOUR schedule.

46 EMBRAER PHENOM

10

A Phenom jet is nothing less than phenomenal. Learning it, flying it, enjoying it. Enhancing that experience is what the Phenom Jet Association is all about.

48 ECLIPSE 500 OWNERS CLUB (E5C)

If you are exploring all your options in the owner-flown twin-jet marketplace, then you will want to look at the Eclipse 500 and the Eclipse 550.

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42

54 CENTERLINE Surviving the sim.

BY NEIL SINGER

SUMMER 2014 VOLUME 1/ NUMBER 2

AJ PUBLICATIONS STAFF EDITOR-IN-CHIEF

Lyn Freeman MANAGING EDITOR

Michelle Carter SENIOR EDITOR

Bill Cox ASSOCIATE EDITOR

Hans Lubke EDITORIAL ASSISTANTS

William Henrys CONTRIBUTING EDITORS

Nina Harris, Paul Simington, Katrina Bradelaw, Paul Sanchez, Wayne Rash Jr. ART DIRECTOR

Robbie Destocki PHOTOGRAPHY

Paul Bowen, Mary Schwinn, James Lawrence, Lyn Freeman, Jodi Butler, Gregory L. Harris PUBLISHER

Thierry Pouille ASSOCIATE PUBLISHER

Sophie Pouille PRODUCTION MANAGER, U.S.

Guillaume Fabry ADVERTISING SALES

Thierry Pouille, 561.452.1225 Brad Elliott, 561.841.1551 AD SALES COORDINATOR

Anais Pouille, 561.841.1551 CORPORATE OFFICES

1931 Commerce Lane, Suite 5 Jupiter, FL 33458 Telephone: 561.841.1551 Fax: 954.252.3935 FOR SUBSCRIPTIONS, REPRINTS, BACK ISSUES

please log onto www.ContrailsMag.com CONTACT THE EDITOR:

Lyn@AJPublications.com CONTACT THE PUBLISHER:

Thierry@AJPublications.com ©2014 CONTRAILS Magazine is published quarterly.

All rights reserved. Reproduction in any form without written permission from the publisher is prohibited.

Please send comments to the attention of the publisher.

PRINTED IN THE USA.

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Publisher’s Letter

FILLING THE VOID

Thierry Pouille

When Air Journey first began operation more than 15 years ago, the world was truly our oyster. We tested our vision of escorting pilots on memory-making adventures with baby steps. Some of our first groups departed Florida for the cobalt waters of the Bahamas and Caribbean.

Others navigated the eastern edge of North America to the Maritimes while still others crisscrossed America to explore Alaska, one of the last great frontiers. Flight plans were ultimately drawn for our groups to visit Central America, then South America and finally across the Atlantic through Greenland and Iceland to the capitals of Europe.

It was a fresh new concept, pilots flying their own airplanes such distances, to so many points around the world. Every journey introduced us to more and more of the world’s aviation community, inside the cockpit and out. It gave us the passion to continue pushing the envelope, so to speak, with new expeditions planned and launched to circumnavigate both the African and South American continents. We may not have realized it at the time, but we were cutting our teeth in preparation for our most ambitious adventure yet — an escorted journey around the world.

As the number of countries visited by Air Journey swelled to more than 100, and the distances our groups flew expanded to sometimes more than 25,000 nm, we began to find ourselves more and more in the presence of a new customer — the jet pilot, both turboprop and pure jet. It was surely a change from our original piston-engine customers who flew with us on our first Bahamas Treasure Hunt!

The more time our journey directors spent escorting jets, the more we learned about their world. Air Journey found itself researching availabilities for Jet A, not 100LL AvGas. We began having to re-examine things like runway lengths, air spaces or packing extra cans of Prist! And then the ultimate — to better serve our turbine customers and their unique tours, Air Journey purchased a Cessna Mustang. As time passed, we realized there was one thing these jet pilots didn’t have — their own magazine.

And like all good ideas whose time has come, AJ Publications was born.

The first magazine, TBMOPA (TBM Owners and Pilots Association) was published in 2011. As its name implies, the issue was designed to serve and accommodate the worldwide family of TBM 700 and 850 owners (plus now the TBM 900 as well).

The magazine was designed to offer a vigorous exploration of TBM safety and proficiency concerns, a place to illustrate a pallet of planet-wide luxury travel, as well as provide a mouthpiece for some of the world’s leading experts on the popular French tur-

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boprop. To orchestrate this grand task, AJ Publications hired Lyn Freeman (formerly of Plane & Pilot and Pilot Journal magazines) as the editor-in-chief. To assure a top quality product, Freeman brought along some of the industry’s top-rated journalists like Bill Cox, from ABC television network’s Wide World of Flying, and Paul Bowen, the most accredited aviation photographer in the world.

The almost immediate embrace by the TBM community added passion to the idea of launching two more magazines, one for the Piper PA-46 association, MMOPA, one of the oldest pilot groups around, and the other for POPA, the PC-12 owners and operators. All three turboprop magazines are distributed by first class mail four times a year. But the last piece was not yet in place. AJ Publications had a vision of bringing you a fourth publication, Contrails, this one specialized for the jet driver.

Contrails is directed primarily at the owner-flown market, focusing on unique destinations and adventures, sharing tips on flying skills, avionics updates, tax evaluations and considerations, as well as technical tips specific to type. Our contributors are drawn from the field of aviation of course, as well as travel writers, world-renowned culinary chefs (who doesn’t enjoy great food enroute!) and much more. Contrails also features communication from the Cessna Jet Pilot Association and the Phenom Pilot Association as well as the Eclipse Pilot Association.

This is your magazine. Both Lyn and I are open to any suggestions or contributions you would like to offer. Like our other three magazines, Contrails is distributed free of charge. If you would like for us to mail a copy to your friends, send us an email with their addresses and we’ll handle the rest.

As always, tail winds and blue skies. See you anyplace around the world!

Sincerely, Thierry Pouille Publisher (writing to you from Muscat in Oman!)

What if you never paid posted price?

Every time you use your aircraft, you are reminded that fuel is your highest variable operating cost. Do you feel you are getting the price you deserve? Don’t you deserve more than just posted rates?

Through the UVairÂŽ Fuel Program, you can enjoy discount fuel pricing with no minimal uplifts or annual fees. As a cardmember, you have access to 24/7 expert assistance, fuel estimates for over 4,000 locations worldwide, and additional savings through the UVair FBO Networksm.

It costs nothing to join. Start saving today at uvair.com/save.

Call us at N. America +1 (866) 864-8404 or Worldwide +1 (713) 378-2708, or visit uvair.com to learn more.

LifeStyles Quit Shooting Disturbing Videos Take your regular video camera into the cockpit and all the images shot out the front of the airplane will have an extremely annoying distortion caused by the propeller. Now you can eliminate that disturbing effect with a brand new series of variable lens filters and kits from NFlight and Sporty’s.

This new technology is designed for specific use on both the GoPro video cameras and the Apple iPhone. The filters can be combined with headset audio cables to make complete cockpit videos. With the new Variable ND Filter, pilots can adjust the light through the lens to suit different conditions and different airplanes. The result is a clear and professional video every time.

For the GoPro, the filter snaps onto the GoPro waterproof case or skeleton case and is removable for use outside the cockpit. For smartphone users, pilots simply attach the metal bracket to the outside of their phones and line up the filter over the camera lens. The adjustable case is compatible with most smartphones, with or without case, including the iPhone and Samsung Galaxy.

To make a GoPro the ultimate aviation video camera, Sporty’s offers a complete kit that includes everything a pilot needs: variable ND lens filter, headset audio cable, skeleton case and suction-cup mount. With this, pilots can record HD video, plus ATC and intercom audio. The filter and the kit are compatible with the GoPro Hero3+. For a complete iPhone video solution, Sporty’s offers the Deluxe iPhone Video Kit, which includes the variable ND filter, custom audio cable and suction-cup mount.

Finally, a new Telephoto Lens Kit is available for the iPhone 5/5S that makes it easy to record close up shots of the ground or other airplanes. Get all the information at Sportys.com.

LS Water in Your Ears?

Nah, or at least not in your Sony headsets. Amp up your workout in secure and cordless comfort, with this Bluetooth® sports headset with NFC2. It features a unique, behindthe-neck and water-resistant design powered by a rechargeable battery for up to nine hours of listening or chat time. Permission to hit the gym granted.

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Your Very Own Heads-Up Display This device is not ready for your airplane but, in your car, it makes you coolest guy going to or from the airport. Garmin’s heads-up display (HUD) gives you turn-byturn directions to your destination for easy viewing while driving. The HUD receives navigation information from your smartphone and projects it onto a transparent film on your windshield or an attached reflector lens. HUD automatically adjusts its brightness level, so its projections are clearly visible in direct sunlight or at night.

The unit provides estimated time of arrival and lane assist, as well as read-outs on speed, traffic and even “safety” camera alerts. It works wirelessly with your Bluetooth smartphone and uses Garmin StreetPilot for the iPhone or NAVIGON mobile apps. Get more at Garmin.com.

Defunding of DUATS (Direct user Access Terminal Service) Imminent The Federal Aviation Administration is attempting to defund the two companies (CSC and DTC) who provide the common safety program called DUAT Service. This free service to pilots, under contract to the FAA, is in danger of being defunded, placing the cost of running this service directly on the backs of pilots.

DUATS has been available to pilots as a free service since 1989, providing access over the internet, and even offers direct modem dial-in. DUATS has been the primary choice for pilots for pre-flight planning instead of voice-calling Flight Service. DUATS service is accessible via common Web browsers and mobile devices, such as smartphones and tablets. In addition, both equipment manufacturers and third-party software vendors (such as WingX and iFlightPlanner) depend on all or part of the DUATS program to provide pre- and in-flight services to the pilot community. Their interface to DUATS provides them and their users with assurance of their quality interface to the FAA NAS (National Airspace Systems).

Where Are You?

Since DUATS is a program built to strict FAA requirements and an approved source for pilots to receive their required pre-flight brief-

It’s the smallest and lightest on the

ings, doing away with this service presents a possible safety issue. The

market. As a personal locater bea-

FAA does not certify or directly approve any other sites available to

con (PLB), the ResQLink weighs in

the public. Without DUATS, pilots will be required to evaluate other

at just 4.6 ounces, less than a couple

sources of weather to insure that they meet the FAA’s requirement.

of energy bars. And topping just 3.9

The DUATS program is also the only online flight-planning service that

inches, it’s smaller than the cell phone

provides complete recording of all pilot online session activities as well

in your pocket. Small and mighty, the

as the provided output. This information is available to the FAA within

ResQLink™ PLB is a full-powered,

seconds, providing critical information for Search-and-Rescue.

GPS-enabled rescue beacon designed

From a taxpayer’s standpoint, the FAA DUATS program is a transac-

for anglers, pilots and back-country

tion-based competitive contract, which is one of the most innovative

sportsmen. The device can broadcast

and cost-effective programs in the FAA. Two vendors, in competition

your exact location directly to rescue

for market share, continuously innovate and update technology at no

satellites overhead.

cost to the FAA — benefiting both taxpayers and pilots.

The ResQLink PLB is a distress

According to a FAA study in 2013, DUATS provides over 130

radio beacon, which transmits location

million weather and NOTAM briefings, flight-planner generated logs,

information directly to Search and

and flight plans filed as well as other valuable services per year to

Rescue forces letting them know you

the aviation community (at a cost of $0.08/activity). In contrast, the

need immediate assistance. A unique

current Flight Service Station program, supporting only the lower

identifier number is programmed into

48 states, provides 4.6 million activities per year, at a cost of $140

each ResQLink at the factory. The

million per year (cost of $30/activity).

combination of 15 letters and numbers

By supporting our petition you will help get the message to the appropriate people who can influence what the FAA does next.

Go to DUATS.com/saveduats to sign the petition.

LS

is then registered to you as the owner, assuring you the highest level or protection. See more at Acrartex.com

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OnBoard Gizmos and Gadgets

Trackstick II Trackstick II is a fun and immersive way to show where you’ve been and record your explorations.

Trackstick is a pedometer on steroids as it traces your traveled locations on satellite photos and 3D terrain. Trackstick continuously records its exact route, stop times, speed, direction and other valuable information, all of which can be quickly downloaded and viewed on your computer. Trackstick.com

Bentgo Containers

Culinary-minded fliers will appreciate being able to pack and go with these stackable plastic food containers. Pack a great meal for those long flights!

Inspired by Japanese bento boxes, the BPAfree plastic packs include two containers, a built-in cutlery set, and a sealing strap. They’re safe for both microwaves and dishwashers.

Bentgo.com

Eye-Fi Memory Card

Eye-Fi Mobi automatically transfers your photos and videos from your camera to your smartphone or tablet, no matter where you are. That’s because Mobi creates its own Wi-Fi network.

You take the pictures and then watch them appear on your mobile device to enjoy and share, instantly. Available in 8GB, 16GB and 32GB. Eyefi.com

Great Apps for the Road

Travel Made Simple

Angry Birds Rio

($0.99)

(FREE)

The Tripit trip planner keeps all your travel plans in one spot.

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This fun game, based on the animated movie Rio, will have you hooked for hours!

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Shazam (FREE) Hear a song on the radio that you love but you don’t know who sings it? Use the Shazam app.

Sandisk Wireless Media Drive

Ideal for long flights with family and friends, the Wireless Media Drive is the perfect pocket-sized entertainment device that streams high-def movies, photos and music on tablets, smartphones and computers. It also includes an SDHC/SDXC card slot for instant sharing of those awesome birthday pictures and videos.

SanDisk.com

LifeProof Ipad Case Take your iPad in the tub, out in the elements, even let the kids enjoy it without a worry. The LifeProof iPad case protects your device from bangs, bumps and drops, rain, snow and drink spills, even dirt, mud and dust. LifeProof.com

Cessna Citation M2

ALL IN THE FAMILY A MUSTANG-CJ HYBRID BOLSTERS CESSNA’S LIGHT JET LINE-UP

By James Wynbrandt Who knew Cessna had a hole in its entry level Citation product line with its VLJ-inspired

FIRST LOOK

Mustang and smorgasbord of CJ family light jets? Apparently the company’s light-jet owners, because that’s where the idea for the M2, the newest Citation, originated.

“This product was derived directly from customer feedback,” said Chris Hearne, Cessna’s vice

president for business jets. “We listened to both the customer and the pilot, and [the M2] came out of it.”

Based on the resulting aircraft, one can surmise customers said things like, “400 knots would be an excellent round number for a top cruise speed,” and “an enclosed lav sure would be nice,” along with “I want a next-generation avionics system,” and a pithy “I don’t like step climbs” or two.

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Though the product name – which came from its employees, according to Cessna – suggests an updated Mustang, “It’s really a new airplane,” Hearne said. A derivative of the CJ1+ airframe, the M2 is designated a model 525, marking it as a CitationJet, rather than a model 510 Mustang, while in performance and cost, it plugs the gap separating the models.

The company doesn’t disclose orders, production rates or purchaser profiles, but Cessna President and CEO Scott Ernest expects a significant number of current Mustang and CJ1-series owners to be among M2 buyers. Deliveries began in late December and by June, 23 M2s were in service. International deliveries have just commenced and Cessna is “actively” working on EASA certification, Hearne said.

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Cessna Citation M2

“frost” and “pearl” are among the palettes’ On the ramp, the M2 is immediately distindecorous names.) Cessna completion guished from Mustangs and other CJs by its specialists conduct “spec sessions” using 3D winglets, developed by Textron Aviation, at tools and material samples to walk customthe tips of the natural-laminar-flow straight wing. Combined with the improved FADEC ers – and usually their spouses, according to Cessna - through the selection process. system controlling the two Williams FJ44Reflecting CitationJet interior design 1AP-21 turbofans, each generating 1,965 pounds of thrust, the winglets provide great- philosophy, the aircraft interior is treated as one unified space, without a formal barrier er “balance between engine performance between cabin and cockpit. Pilots with M2 and aerodynamics,” Hearne said. “That’s why we get 400 knots (cruise speed) and can experience will notice the pedestal anchoring the flight deck has been shortened, climb directly to 41,000 feet in 24 minutes.” making it easier to get in and out of the The wing’s wide-span flaps, incorporating front seats. a lift-dump feature, and upper and lower Options notwithstanding, one of the surface speed brakes help bring the M2 back major attractions for the pilot/owner is the down to earth. standard Garmin G3000 avionics suite powIn addition to the winglets, M2 owners ering Cessna’s proprietary Intrinzic flight can give their aircraft a little racier look with a custom paint scheme. (M2 launch custom- deck, a step up from both the G1000 in the Mustang, and the Collins Pro Line 21 in er author Stuart Woods opted for an Amerthe CJ series. (The Citation CJ3+, expected ican flag motif on the tail.) Cessna limits to receive certification and begin deliveries Mustang customers to a few simple choices on paint and interiors, but M2 buyers get the this year, will also have a G3000 panel.) The G3000 is compatible with all current and full range of customization (“a book full of anticipated next-generation air traffic options,” in Hearne’s words) available on all CJs, which includes a choice FIRST control mandates, including Link 2000+, ADS-B and Controller-Piof six standard palette schemes of LOOK lot Data Link Communications leathers, fabrics, carpeting, interior (CPDLC). The M2 also features a paint and wood veneers. (“Carbon,”

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new pressurization system whose operation has been integrated into the G3000, further reducing pilot workload.

The G3000’s three 14-inch touchscreens all support split-screen configuration, with Garmin Synthetic Vision Technology presented on the primary flight displays.

Onscreen symbology features smartphone-like icons which, along with dynamic scrolling menus on each of the dual GTC 570 touchscreen controllers, provides for intuitive system operation.

The fully digital, dual-channel autopilot is designed to maximize aircraft performance by using pre-stored airspeed-limit data to provide precise lateral and vertical navigation guidance for all phases of flight, including flying VNAV descent profiles and automated Takeoff/Go-Around procedures.

A terrain awareness and warning system (TAWS), weather radar, and TCAS I are standard with the G3000, while popular system upgrades on the M2 include color weather radar and TCAS II. The interior, at 15 feet, 9 inches from the front of the cockpit to the aft bulkhead, feels rather roomy for a light jet. The constant circular cross section (57 inches high and 58 inches wide) fuselage includes a dropped

Cessna Citation M2

CESSNA CITATION M2 Base Price: approx. $4.5 million (in 2014)

Dimensions Length Height Wingspan

Wing

Wing Area Wing Sweep Wheelbase Tread

42 ft 7 in (12.98 m) 13 ft 11 in (4.24 m) 47 ft 3 in (14.40 m)

240 sq ft (22 sq m) 0.0 degrees 15 ft 4 in (4.67 m) 13 ft (3.96 m)

Cabin Interior

aisle, providing an additional five inches of headroom. Indirect, overhead LED lighting complements the eight large cabin windows and provides ample cabin illumination for any condition. Newly designed seats are more comfortable and stylish than their predecessors, right down to the nicely sculpted arm rests. Each seating position is equipped with adjustable air vents and individual LED reading light. The headliner and valance design maximizes available headroom for passengers while seated.

Passengers can also access a wide variety of entertainment and data en route via optional domestic and international broadband connectivity. The M2 is the launch airframe for Cessna’s wireless Clairity CMS, providing in flight entertainment, moving maps, XM radio and more, all accessible via personal smart devices. Developed by Cessna with Heads Up Technologies, the Clairity system utilizes Aircell’s Gogo Biz Service in the U.S., and Inmarsat’s SwiftBroadband for international service. Cessna is working on an Iridium solution as well for international connectivity, Hearne said. Cindy Halsey, Textron Aviation’s vice president for interior design and engineering, said most M2 customers are opting for the Wi-Fi option.

Other popular cabin upgrades include the refreshment center and an entry air stair in place of the standard ladder.

Two 110-volt AC outlets in the cabin with a 5-amp maximum per outlet deliver plenty of power for plug-ins, while a pair of unpressurized baggage areas offer 45.6 cubic feet of space accommodating up to 725 pounds

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of gear. And of course the lavatory at the rear of the cabin, belted, fully flushable and featuring a solid, closing door, is standard.

Meanwhile, the M2’s 1,300 nm range links a host of popular city pairs that Cessna highlights to underscore the platform’s appeal to international operators — not just Houston to Washington, D.C, but Frankfurt to Moscow, Dubai to Mumbai, and Beijing to Central and Eastern China.

Certified for single-pilot operation, acting as PIC on the M2 requires a Cessna 525 type rating. Pilots already type-rated simply require M2-specific courses. Training for either is including with the purchase price.

Comparisons to the Mustang and CJ siblings are inevitable, but perhaps the matchups that matter most for the $4.5 million M2 are those with Embraer’s Phenom 100 and the HA-420 HondaJet, both offering similar price/performance profiles.

The Phenom is a little less expensive and slower (by about $400,000 and 10 knots respectively), while the comparably priced HondaJet offers about 20 knots more speed.

But the M2 offers about 10 percent more useful load and range than either. Cessna can also assure potential customers access to aftermarket care through the global network of 21 Textron Aviation Service Centers, and mobile service solutions, while its dedicated Team M2 deals with issues exclusively for M2 owners and operators.

It may be at the entry level of Citation’s offerings, but with its superior speed, performance, styling and avionics, the M2 is not a jet to be taken lightly.

Height Width Length Seating Capacity

Baggage Capacity Weight Volume

57 in (1.45 m) 58 in (1.47 m) 11 ft (3.35 m) 7+2 725 lb (329 kg) 46 cu ft (1.29 cu m)

Weights

Maximum Ramp Weight 10,800 lb (4,899 kg) Maximum Takeoff Weight 10,700 lb (4,853 kg) Maximum Landing Weight 9,900 lb (4,491 kg) Maximum Zero Fuel Weight 8,400 lb (3,810 kg)

Usable Fuel Capacity Weight Volume Basic Operating Weight Useful Load` Maximum Payload Full Fuel Payload

3,296 lb (1,495 kg) 492 gal (1,862 l) 7,000 lb (3,175 kg) 3,800 lb (1,724 kg) 1,400 lb (635 kg) 504 lb (229 kg)

Performance

Maximum Cruise Speed 404 ktas (748 km/h) Range 1,300 nm (2,408 km) Takeoff Distance 3,210 ft (978 m) Landing Distance 2,590 ft (789 m) Maximum Operating Altitude 41,000 ft (12,497 m) Maximum Climb Rate 3,698 fpm (1,127 mpm) Maximum Limit Speed 0.710 Mach

Powerplant

Manufacturer: Williams International Model: (2) FJ44-1AP-21 Thrust: 1,965 lbf Time Between Overhaul: 3,500 hr

For more information, contact 1 Cessna Boulevard Wichita, KS 67215 Phone: (316) 517-6000 Web: www.cessna.com

All specifications are based on manufacturer’s calculations. All performance figures are based on standard day, standard atmosphere, sea level, maximum weight conditions unless otherwise noted.

SPRING THUNDERSTORMS BRING NEW CHALLENGES

By Scott C. Dennstaedt

Whether you’re scanning the sky with your onboard radar or have the weather in your immediate view, many pilots flying turboprop aircraft have little difficulty maneuvering around a convective threat while en route. It’s the terminal environment that can become really dicey and get the heart pumping, especially when the thunderstorms are embedded. Onboard radar can do a great job keeping you away from the worst part of the storm, but thunderstorms create significant hazards down low that are essentially invisible up to the moment you encounter them, especially when you are in IMC. One of these hidden threats is called a convective outflow boundary.

Convective outflow boundaries emanating from deep, moist convection or thunderstorms may be a precursor for an encounter with severe or extreme turbulence and dangerous low-level wind shear. But they may also quietly pass by without raising a single leaf on a tree. The pilot’s best defense is to recognize and characterize the outflow boundary using visible satellite and ground-based radar imagery before departing in advance of deep, moist convection.

So what is a convective outflow boundary?

A Gust Front According to research meteorologist and thunderstorm expert, Dr. Charles Doswell, “cold, stable air is the ‘exhaust’ of deep, moist convection, descending in downdrafts and then spreading outward like pancake batter poured on a griddle.” As a thunderstorm reaches a point where its updraft can no longer support the load of precipitation it has accumulated inside, the precipitation load collapses down

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through the original updraft area. Evaporation of some of the precipitation cools the downdraft, often making it even denser when compared to the surrounding air. When the downdraft reaches the ground, it is deflected laterally and spreads out almost uniformly in all directions, further retarding the inflow of unstable air into what was left of the storm. This outward flow away from the storm is called an outflow boundary.

Outflow boundaries are often seen moving away from weakening thunderstorm cores. They tend to have a very circular or crescent-shaped symmetry just like that pancake batter on the griddle.

Such symmetry to the outflow is common in environments of very weak flow near the surface in the surrounding air mass. Otherwise, the shapes of the boundaries would be more distorted. An outflow boundary is essentially a mesoscale cold front; it is a boundary between the cooler, denser outflow air from the storm and the surrounding, warmer environmental air.

Spring Thunderstorms

The Microburst An outflow boundary is not the same creature as a microburst. While they are similar in many respects, microbursts occur on a much smaller scale and may persist for only five minutes or less. As defined by Dr. Theodore Fujita, a microburst is a small concentrated downburst with a spatial scale on the order of a runway length (four kilometers) and can be more violent than any outflow boundary.

In many cases, these microbursts are associated with moderate to heavy precipitation that may be visible below the cloud base as a concentrated rain shaft. From a distance, you may see what appears to be an opaque globular mass of rain at the bottom of the shaft that represents precipitation “piling up” in the downburst of rain-soaked air from storm. Many microbursts occur in what seem like rather benign conditions, such as a high-base convection inviting the pilot to fly under one of these.

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The Surface Analysis Chart Whenever a significant outflow boundary exists, it will be analyzed on the mean sea level (MSL) surface-analysis chart. Every three hours beginning at 0000 UTC the Weather Prediction Center (WPC) in College Park, Md., issues a new surface-analysis chart. This chart depicts surface weather features such as an isobaric analysis (including high and low pressure centers), surface observations, fronts, squall lines, drylines, troughs and outflow boundaries. Outflow boundaries are depicted by a dashed tan line, two of which are shown here (Figure 1), and are labeled OUTFLOW BNDRY on the chart. Pressure troughs are also depicted similarly, but do not carry any specific label.

While this chart is very useful to identify the location of outflow boundaries, it isn’t much help in real time since the surface-analysis chart is only issued every three hours and is not available for nearly 90 minutes after the valid time. To identify outflow boundaries in

near real time, you have to examine visible satellite and ground-based radar imagery.

Detection on the Visible Satellite On the visible satellite image, an outflow boundary in southwest Missouri is the crescent-shaped area of clouds on the southern edge of the deep, moist convection (Figure 2).

An important observation is to note the motion of the outflow boundary relative to the motion of the convection, using a satellite loop. If the outflow boundary is moving in advance of the convection, it likely represents a gust front and should strictly be avoided. However, the motion of the outflow boundary isn’t always in the same direction as the general motion of the thunderstorms.

Outflow boundaries such as this one are still considered gust fronts even if they don’t move in advance of the convection.

However, they generally do not produce as strong straight line winds and equivalent severe turbulence and low-level wind shear

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Spring Thunderstorms FIGURE 1

as a gust front that tracks ahead of the convection. The risk of significant turbulence and low-level wind shear decreases as the leading edge moves away from the convection that generated the outflow boundary.

After spreading outward, the leading edge of the boundary often climbs and may produce dense cumuliform clouds on the boundary and may initiate other convection. This is seen quite often in southern Florida. As is the case of most cumuliform clouds, they can contain moderate or greater turbulence within the cloud boundary.

A Rough Ride The inherent danger in flying through or near an outflow boundary is the wall of atmospheric mixing (turbulence) that occurs over a short distance. Let’s assume you are departing an airport and hit the outflow boundary head on while climbing out at 3,000 feet above the ground. You will first encounter a curtain of upward moving air. The average maximum upward vertical velocity of air in the gust front is on the order of 10 meters per second or about 2,000 feet per minute. Just when you think it may be over, in less than a minute this upward moving air is usually followed by a similar downward vertical velocity of air at the same magnitude. For an aircraft in flight, these two events can happen nearly back-to-back, creating an extreme hazard.

There is a silver lining, however. The ascent and descent for an average outflow boundary is usually contained within 6,000

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feet above the surface. So this is indeed a low-level event that is ordinarily encountered on approach or departure, not in the flight levels while en route.

Detection on NEXRAD At night or when no clouds are associated with the outflow, a gust front may be detected on the NWS WSR-88D NEXRAD Doppler radar. Given that outflow boundaries are low-level events as discussed above, they do not necessarily produce precipitation. Instead, the radar will detect the density discontinuity of the boundary itself along with any dust,

insects and other debris that might be carried along with the boundary. In this particular case, the outflow boundary (Figure 3) shows up very well on the NWS radar image out of Springfield, Mo., as a bow-shaped line of low reflectivity returns. Keep in mind, as the outflow boundary moves away from the radar site, the boundary may appear to dissipate.

When, in fact, it may be that the lowest elevation scan of the radar may be overshooting the boundary.

The radar signature for outflow boundaries is ordinarily quite weak. Therefore, they are often filtered by satellite-delivered weather. The XM-delivered radar broadcast, for example, does not include any returns that are less than 10 dBZ. While this broadcast will keep you away from the worst part of the storm, don’t expect it to capture any outflow boundaries marching away from a line of convection.

What is particularly interesting is that outflow boundaries are often tracked by forecasters. Over time, outflow boundaries can move hundreds of miles away from the convection that created them. In fact, they often persist much longer than the convection itself. Each day’s thunderstorms lay down outflow boundaries that will almost certainly play a role in the next day’s convective activity.

Therefore, by tracking these outflow boundaries, an astute forecaster can often get a headsup on where those thunderstorms may erupt the next afternoon.

Scott C. Dennstaedt is a CFI and former NWS research meteorologist. He holds live aviation weather workshops throughout the U.S. To learn more about aviation weather, visit his website at AvWxWorkshops.com.

Figure 2 - Visible-Satellite-Outflow-Boundary.gif – An outflow boundary is seen on this visible satellite image as a crescent-shaped line of clouds in extreme southwestern Missouri. The convection just to the north was moving from west to east.

Given its close proximity to the thunderstorms, it would be advisable to wait for this outflow boundary to pass before departing Branson West Municipal Airport (KFWB) located at the southernmost edge of this outflow boundary.

Figure 3 - NEXRAD-Outflow-Boundary.gif – The outflow boundary shown on the visible satellite image in Figure 2 is also visible on the Springfield, Mo., NEXRAD Doppler radar image. The outflow boundary is the crescent-shaped line of low reflectivity returns oriented west to east in extreme southwestern Missouri.

FIGURE 2

FIGURE 3

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jet fuel

EVERYTHING YOU EVER WANTED TO KNOW ABOUT

JET FUEL LEARN MORE ABOUT WHAT YOU’RE PUTTING IN YOUR TANKS.

By Budd Corbin

FUEL UP

The myth is that jet fuel is one of the world’s simplest combustibles. It’s been compared to kerosene many times but, in fact, jet fuel is a considerably more complex chemical compound that includes kerosene and dozens of other refined products.

One thing’s for sure, it has an odor all its own, not really kerosene, not AvGas, a smell of

excitement, of exploration. No matter how many times pilots fly in turbine-powered aircraft, we never quite get used to that aroma so frequently associated with the ultimate aeronautical aphrodisiac: speed.

Many pilots of pure-jet aircraft take Jet A for granted. Though it is kerosene-based, it adds anti-freeze and a dozen other hydrocarbons to produce a more stable and slightly safer combustible. On the North American Continent, Jet A is the standard fuel for turbine aircraft. Jet A-1 is more readily available overseas, offering a greater concentration of anti-freeze additives and a mandatory anti-static component designed to help inhibit static electricity discharges, more common at the operating heights of turbine aircraft.

Not surprisingly, the first jet fuel was produced by the Germans in World War II for use in the primitive, axial compressor Juno 004 engines employed on the Messerschmidt Me-262 fighter and Arado Ar-234B light bomber. The German fuel was a special synthetic known as J2 and, when that wasn’t available, automotive diesel oil was used as a substitute. Straight kerosene and kerosene/avgas mixtures also became common in the last year of the war when Allied bombing raids virtually eliminated the supply of J2 and diesel.

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jet fuel Those early Luftwaffe jets could also burn conventional AvGas, but fuel consumption increased dramatically, and flight endurance was only about 30 minutes under the best of conditions, so that was a final alternative.

With sorties limited to 30-45 minutes maximum, the German’s remarkable jets were strictly defensive weapons.

America produced its first jet fuel to power the XP-59 Airacomet fighter prototype, flown initially in 1942. Unfortunately, unlike the Me-262 that had a 100-knot advantage over any WWII piston fighter in the sky, the Airacomet’s performance was so poor and fuel burn so high that the XP-59 was judged unsuitable for military service. The flight test article was consistently outperformed even by its chase planes, usually P-51 Mustangs.

Jet-fuel development in the U.S. was not inhibited by bombing raids, however, so research and development of kerosene power was uninterrupted.

After the war, both the U.S. and Great Britain began experiments to produce their own fuels. The U.S. formulated Jet A based on existing aviation gasoline, while the British derived a fuel based on Paraffin, basically lamp oil, and designated it Jet A-1.

A-1 quickly became the standard for Europe and much of the rest of the world. Jet A was designed to operate at temperatures as cold as -40 degrees C. Jet A-1 extended the low temperature limit down to -47 degrees C.

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Operating temperature becomes especially important on turbines because jet engines operate most efficiently at 35,000 feet or higher where drag is minimum and outside air temperature typically averages -55 degrees C. Fuel heaters in many turbine aircraft raise the Centigrade count and allow engines to operate at the temperature extremes of high altitude. Military aircraft frequently fly higher than business or commercial aviation, but OAT remains at about -57 degrees C between FL360 and FL660.

The litany of jet fuels over the last 65 years reads like a history of high-performance aircraft. JP-2 and -3 are obsolete types employed for experimental purposes during WWII. JP-4 was a 50/50 gasoline kerosene mix, with a lower flash point than JP-1, but it was preferred by the U.S. Air Force until the 1990s. JP-5 was formulated with a high flash point (60 degrees C), designed specifically for aircraft stationed aboard carriers where any fire on board could cause loss of the ship. The flash point of a volatile liquid is the lowest temperature at which it can vaporize to form an ignitable mixture in air.

JP-6, -7 and -8 are military fuels specifically designed for aircraft such as the U2, the B-58 Hustler, the XB-70 Valkyrie and the Mach 3.0 SR-71 Blackbird. Little is known about these fuels except that they are probably among the most expensive jet propellants in the world. JP-10 is rocket fuel.

Your tax dollars at work.

Finally, Jet B is a naptha/kerosene formula that’s renowned for its performance in extreme cold. Unfortunately, Jet B’s lighter composition makes it more dangerous to handle and, for that reason, the fuel is rarely used except in the polar regions. Jet B is a blend of roughly 30 percent kerosene and 70 percent AvGas and has a very low freezing point of -60 degrees C. As we’ve seen so often in video coverage of airline crashes, jet fuel is highly volatile.

The FAA and NASA developed a special demisting version of Jet A in 1984 and tested it on a radio-controlled Boeing 720 airliner at Edwards AFB, Calif. The aircraft was deliberately crashed on a special test range in a remote section of Edwards in hopes that the demisting additive would inhibit combustion. No such luck. Several aspects of the test started to go wrong well before the aircraft was crashed into the desert, but the test article immediately burst into flames on ground contact and started a fire that took over an hour to extinguish. So much for demisting fuel.

Though the large population of piston and jet aircraft in North America has created a ready market for both AvGas and jet fuel and helped bring their prices to near parity, that’s not the situation overseas.

Standard jet fuel in Europe, Africa, Asia, the South Pacific, Indonesia and the Far East

jet fuel is often less expensive than AvGas in many other parts of the world.

That’s one of jet fuels’ major attractions.

The reduced price overseas may be partially a function of greater demand, but it’s also probably related to the fact that jet fuel is less efficient than AvGas. A typical piston engine requires only about .38 to .42 pounds of AvGas to produce one horsepower/hour -known as specific fuel consumption or SFC. A turbine engine typically demands about .58 pounds of jet fuel to produce one shaft horsepower per hour. (The situation becomes even more confusing because shaft and brake horsepower are defined differently. “Shaft” horsepower is the total power produced after all power drains, whereas “brake” horsepower refers to the rating at the crank and does not reflect any losses to generators, fuel pumps or other accessories. Jet engines have no crankshaft.)

One factor that makes it difficult to compare the efficiency of the two fuels is that turbine engines are typically designed to deliver a minimum of 400 shp, while that’s more often the maximum for piston engines. A standard turbine engine, such as the P&W PT6A-42A that develops 500 shp on the Piper Meridian turboprop, burns about 43 gph, while a piston engine delivering the same hp (the Falconer V12 on the Thunder Mustang, for example) consumes 25 percent less fuel, about 33 gph.

Fortunately, misfueling problems are unusual between jets and piston aircraft, as airframe and wing configuration without propellors to worry about is far simpler, and the airplanes are rarely constructed in

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Stories are legend of pilots who had their piston aircraft mistaken for a similar turbinepowered model and misfueled with Jet A, often providing just enough fuel in the lines to taxi out and get into the air before the engine(s) quit cold. the same configuration. Mistakes are more common between look-alike turboprop versions of what were formerly exclusive piston models. Misfueling is less serious for pure turbine aircraft than for piston machines, primarily because the former will run on practically anything, while piston aircraft won’t run on jet fuel at all.

Stories are legend of pilots who had their piston aircraft mistaken for a similar turbine-powered model and misfueled with Jet A, often providing just enough fuel in the lines to taxi out and get into the air before the engine(s) quit cold. The Cessna 421 and Conquest 1 are frequent victims because the airplanes look very similar. Piper Malibus and Malibu Jetprop conversions are another pair that can be mistaken for one another, as are the piston and turbine Commanders and the Piper Navajos and Cheyennes, especially overseas where language problems can frustrate the best intentions.

The problem is less significant these days because most modern jet fuel nozzles have a duck-billed dispenser at the end, too large to fit into the standard, round, AvGas receptacles fitted to the wings of most piston-powered, General Aviation singles and twins.

(Curiously, the new, diesel-powered Cessna Skylane JT-A continues to use the original circular filler neck, profusely marked with warnings not to fill with AvGas. Perhaps ironically, the Skylane JT-A features a French SMA diesel engine out front but is not approved to burn diesel fuel. Go figure.)

Pilots of jetprop aircraft take a second hit because turbine fuel is denser than AvGas and weighs about 13 percent more. Specifically, a gallon of AvGas weighs only 6.00 pounds versus a gallon of jet fuel that weighs 6.79 pounds. In contrast, a gallon of water weighs 8.10 pounds, but won’t power much of anything except perhaps a water gun.

In fact, however, heavy water can be one of the primary problems in jet fuel. In extremely cold conditions, the water may settle out in low spots in the fuel lines and induction system and freeze, possibly causing power interruptions or even total engine failure. For that reason, Fuel System Icing Inhibitors (inevitably, FSIIs) such as Prist are often used in extreme cold climates to assure continuous fuel flow.

Despite (or perhaps because of) all the technical aspects of jet fuel, the smell is one of power and excitement. To paraphrase Robert Duvall in the movie, “Apocalypse Now,” I’m one of those strange humans who loves the smell of jet fuel in the morning, or the afternoon, or…

HOW HIGH THE CRUISE? TURBOPROPS BENEFIT FROM OPERATING IN THE HIGH SKY, THE HIGHER THE BETTER.

By Bill Cox Did you ever notice how success nearly always dictates higher altitude for pilots? Most civilian aviators start off in small, two-seat, piston trainers that fly in the bottom 10,000 feet of sky. As many pilots become older, more experienced and more successful, they graduate to four-seaters with extra power, and the max altitude steps up to perhaps 15,000 feet.

The next step is often turbocharging that elevates the service ceiling to 20,000 feet or higher, often accompanied by pressurization. After that, the usual transition is to turboprop power and potential cruise at 29,000 feet or above.

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turbocharging

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turbocharging There’s a reason turboprops do their best work up high. The atmosphere more than five miles above the sea is notably thinner than in the lower sky. That means less drag.

More specifically, standard atmosphere at 25,000 feet has less than a quarter of the pressure at sea level, and at 30,000 feet, it’s only about an eighth the weight of air at the seashore. In other words, atmospheric pressure decreases by about half between 25,000 and 30,000 feet. The higher you fly, the thinner the air, and the less power is required to push it out of the way.

In a similar sense, the weather nearly always improves with altitude because the ingredients necessary to create weather become scarce. Not only is the air less dense, the thinner, colder atmosphere contains less moisture, and that translates directly to reduced cloud cover at higher altitude. It’s true that the occasional summer thunderstorm can reach up into the stratosphere, but such storms are the exceptions and usually confined to the sky above high-mountain terrain.

The reduced temperature up high also makes icing less likely. At temps below minus-15 degrees C, so little humidity remains in the air that there’s not much left to freeze. You may occasionally see some cold weather frost up high, but even

that becomes rare at temperatures below minus-20 C. Clear air turbulence at high altitude is still possible, but it’s improbable. We do occasionally read stories about airlines that run into CAT in the flight levels above 30,000 feet, though those encounters are becoming semi-predictable with some of the newer Doppler radars. Flying above the clouds in a clean sky with sun shining is almost guaranteed to provide a smooth ride and improve pilot and passenger disposition.

Turboprop aircraft with the capability to operate at heights in the high 20s enjoy a number of advantages over traffic flying at lower levels. One of the primary ones is the sky can seem almost empty of other traffic. You may see a crosshatch of contrails above, but you’ll rarely encounter conflicting traffic within 4,000 feet of your altitude.

Virtually all piston models (and the pending single-engine jets) are limited to 25,000 feet, and the airlines prefer to fly in the rarefied air above 33,000 feet.

The temperature typically bottoms out at about minus-56 degrees C at 35,000 feet, so the airlines nearly always opt for that initial height as a compromise between best speed and optimum fuel burn. If

conditions are favorable and the load will allow, the big jets may even drift on up to 41,000 feet as they burn down fuel load.

At this height, the Boeings and Airbuses can realize good speed with minimal fuel burn, depending upon how you define “minimal.”

Years ago, I was riding jump seat in a 747 coming home on South African Airways from a Caravan delivery to Johannesburg, and I asked the captain about fuel burn in the airplane some crew members jokingly call the “condominium.” He gave me a short answer I’ll never forget.

“Most of the time in cruise, we burn about a gallon a second.”

This leaves a large gap of relatively vacant sky between 25,000 and 33,000 feet where turboprops can operate with relative impunity, above most of the weather, clear of the majority of conflicting traffic and with an efficiency not possible down low. Most single-engine turboprops without RVSM certification must restrict their max height to 29,000 feet, but that’s still a substantial improvement over flying in the bottom four/five miles of atmosphere.

The benefits are several and substantial.

If you’re flying eastbound in the northern hemisphere, especially in winter when the jet stream strengthens and dips farther

Turboprop aircraft with the capability to operate at heights in the high 20s enjoy a number of advantages over traffic flying at lower levels.

One of the primary ones is the sky can seem almost empty of other traffic. You may see a crosshatch of contrails above, but you’ll rarely encounter conflicting traffic within 4,000 feet of your altitude.

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south, you can often realize significant tailwinds, as much as 70-80 knots. If the winds aren’t going your way up high, you can always opt to fly lower and slower. I used to deliver freshly converted Malibu Jetprops from Spokane, Wash., to Europe.

On several trips across the top of the U.S. to Bangor, Maine, in winter and on to Europe via Greenland and Iceland, I’d often see ground speeds approaching 350 knots, 100 knots better than normal cruise.

Trouble is, some pilots of airplanes that can easily climb to the high 20s often find excuses to fly at lower levels no matter what the wind, often because they feel the stage length is too short or average speed will be reduced by the longer climb or the fuel savings up high will be minimal.

In fact, single-engine turboprops such as the Pilatus PC-12 can find happiness at FL290, the highest non-RVSM altitude.

There are few reasons to fly lower unless there’s a major inversion and temperature up high is ISA plus-20 or hotter.

Operating at 10,000 pounds gross from a sea-level airport on an ISA standard day, the Pilatus requires only 10 extra minutes to ascend to FL290 rather than level at FL230. That’s a small price to pay for all the advantages of taking the high road. The big Pilatus has a pressurization

differential of 6.35 psi, so the airplane can maintain a cabin altitude below 10,000 feet at FL290.

Fuel savings can be significant and the performance differences are barely noticeable, especially on the long stage lengths that PC-12s are noted for. Fuel specifics suggest some major benefits. It’s true the Pilatus can manage 270 knots at 20,000 feet, but fuel specifics for that height aren’t nearly as optimum as at 29,000. At 20,000, you’ll see a specific range of .57 nm/ pound of fuel, while at 29,000 feet, speed only diminishes to just under 260 knots and specific air range jumps up to .76 nm/ lb. Choose the lower altitude and you’ll be sacrificing 33 percent higher fuel burn in exchange for only 4 percent more speed.

Again, we’re comparing performance in ISA conditions at 10,000 pounds.

With such significant savings available by simply flying higher, it makes sense to ascend to tall heights on any flight over about an hour. That’s the criterion the airlines use and, if it works for them, it should work for you. On the West Coast, several lines fly back and forth between Los Angeles and San Francisco a dozen or more times a day, a distance of a little over 300 nm. The airplanes that fly that route nevertheless climb to FL330-350, level for

only about 10 minutes and start down.

You can bet if a more efficient method existed, the airlines would adopt it. The same rules apply to Pilatus pilots.

The benefits of high-level cruise become even more impressive as the stage length increases. The PC-12 enjoys range that’s superior to anything else in the class.

Using the numbers above, a 1,000 nm trip would require about 250 gallons of fuel whereas cruise over the same distance at the higher altitude would demand only 210 gallons. Using max range settings, the Pilatus PC-12 can reach out and touch destinations nearly 1,800 nm away.

Another obvious benefit of flying higher is that glide time and distance increases, providing a greater safety buffer between the airplane and the ground. Comparing glide time from 29,000 feet to that at 20,000 feet in a PC-12, you’ll have about 31 minutes to glide to sea level versus 22 minutes from 20,000 feet. That extra nine minutes can make all the difference in the world.

Combine increased range with the improved safety margin of high altitude, a smoother, quieter ride for pilots and passengers and the better fuel specifics that can reduce operating costs by 10-15 percent, and you’ll agree that flying high offers the best of all possible worlds.

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MiPad u ELECTRONICS an application called JeppView for Notebook and Tablet PCs. There was no way to get Jeppesen instrument charts (particularly approach plates) on other portable devices.

Two years ago, Jeppesen began offering approach plates and airport diagrams on an e-book viewer, and last year the same capability arrived on the iPad through Jepp TC. This quickly caught on because it saves a lot of weight – paper IFR charts for the lower 48 states weigh a whopping 22 pounds, not counting the binders! Jepp TC also greatly simplifies revisions. Traditionally, Jeppesen subscribers got individual pages with changes every 28 days and spent time replacing old pages in their binders. Electronic revisions are much faster. And electronic subscriptions are cheaper than getting all those pages in the mail – a full year of

PROFESSIONAL CHARTS FOR THE IPAD JEPP TC AND FD

By John D. Ruley

Ever noticed the square black cases airline pilots carry? Open any of those cases and I guarantee that you’ll find at least one Jeppesen airway manual: A loose-leaf binder with text, terminal arrival/approach/departure plates and airport diagrams on very thin paper, and pockets for en-route charts. While FAA AeroNav (formerly NACO) charts are common among private pilots, when you get to the big leagues, Jeppesen (a division of Boeing) is the world standard.

That said, FAA charts are what you’ll find on most electronic chart viewing apps – largely because, as government

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documents, they’re available without paying a license fee.

Until 2009, the only way to get electronic Jeppesen charts was

electronic coverage for the lower 48 costs $787 vs. $1,241 for paper.

Needless to say, given all those advantages – and the runaway popularity of the iPad among pilots – Jepp TC quickly became a hit, and that brought recognition by none other than the FAA. The combination of an iPad and Jepp TC was the first off-the-shelf commercially available electronic charting solution authorized as a complete replacement for paper approach plates for airline use — after the iPad passed a rapid decompression test.

However, Jepp TC didn’t quite replace the paper airway manual – it did not provide en-route and area charts. Those still came on paper. This year, that changed: A new app, Jepp FD, provides a complete replacement for all the paper in a Jeppesen Airway manual: Plates,

diagrams, charts and even the airway manual text (which is provided in PDF format for viewing in iBooks).

On startup, Jepp FD defaults to a page that includes an enroute chart and allows you to enter your origin and destination airports and specify a route using waypoints. Pressing an “apply” tab will generate the route and scale the chart to show it. You can then zoom in on any route segment. An on-screen button, shaped like an airplane, lists airports on the route. Tap on one and you’ll get a list of available terminal charts. Tap on a chart and it will come up. By default it’s scaled to fit on the screen, but there is an option to have it fit to the width of the screen instead. If you have an iPad2 or external GPS, your airplane position can optionally be shown on airport diagrams.

Tapping an on-screen route button takes you back to the enroute chart.

While all the information from paper en-route charts is available in Jepp FD, it’s not always immediately obvious.

Some details (waypoints and airway numbers, for example) only show up when you zoom in. Other details are available only by request. For example, tap-and-hold on an airport icon, and a pop-up window will appear offering runway and communications information.

With a GPS and ship’s position enabled (using an on-screen button that looks like a stylized arrowhead), you can choose “north-up” or “track-up” orientation. The latter is the closest thing I’ve seen to a moving-map display on the iPad, with labels always oriented properly, in contrast to ForeFlight and other apps that display scanned charts, which often have the text upside-down or sideways depending on what direction you’re flying.

I tested Jepp FD on a four-

hour leg flying home to California from a vacation in Jackson Hole and Yellowstone earlier this year. I had generally good results once I got used to the app, though I quickly realized that it’s not a true moving map – even in “track-up” mode. If you make a turn, the on-screen airplane symbol will start moving off at an angle. An easy workaround is to switch momentarily to “north-up” mode and then back to “track-up” mode. And I didn’t figure out how to look up Center frequencies until after I got home. Turns out, it’s in the comms section of the pop-up page for any airport.

Jepp FD isn’t perfect. At this point, it’s just a chart viewing and GPS mapping application, without the advanced flight planning, weather and other features offered by JeppView.

But over time that’s going to change. Jeff Buhl, senior product manager for mobile solutions, told me that on-

screen “rubber band” flight-plan editing is due in the next major release, and other features, including weather, are planned beginning next year.

Once or twice a year, I fly on a charity mission to Mexico with a group called Liga International (The Flying Doctors of Mercy).

Until now, that always involved getting a Mexico trip kit so that I’d have en-route charts and approach plates for my route south of the border. The next time I make one of those flights, my trip kit will be electronic, downloaded to Jepp FD on my iPad. It will save weight, money and time!

For more information, browse ww1.Jeppesen.com/ index.jsp.

John D. Ruley is an instrument-rated pilot, freelance writer and recent graduate of the University of North Dakota Space Studies graduate program (Space.edu).

He is also a volunteer pilot with LigaInternational.org, and a member of the board of directors of Mission Doctors Association (MissionDoctors.org). You can reach him by email to jruley@ainet.com.

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pilot talk born slightly more than 100 years ago, it was easier to adopt and adapt a vocabulary from the sea, where mariners had already spent 1,000 years getting the words right. For example: Knot: From the Anglo-Saxon knotta, and the Norse knuta, and the English cnotta, all referring to the type of knot one ties in a rope. In older days, a vessel trailed a long stern rope which was knotted at regular intervals, allowing an accurate determination of the ship’s speed, expressed then in “nautical” miles per hour.

Crew: As the number of sailing ships exploring the new world grew in the 1600s, so did the number of men on board the vessel. Those extra sailors were referred to as “crew,” coming from the Latin crescere, meaning “increase or grow.”

Pitch: Describing an aircraft’s nose-up to nose-down attitude into the vertical, the word appears from the old English word picchen, meaning “angle.”

Dead Reckoning: While a number of explanations have been offered, the term appears to have originated in the 17th Century and is a slang from the longer “deduced reckoning.” Just as aircraft use speed, direction and drift (wind) to navigate, this type of navigation also originated on ships.

WHERE THE WORDS CAME FROM WE USE WORDS THAT MAY SOUND FUNNY TO AN OUTSIDER. SOME OF THE WORDS EVEN SOUND FUNNY TO US!

By Lyn Freeman

To the uninitiated, the lexicon of aviation can be a bit befuddling.

What the heck is an “empennage”? Why do pilots want to be in a “cockpit”? How come pilots want to have a certain number of “knots” before they fly? And why would you reckon anyone would want to practice “dead reckoning”? The words we use when slipping the surly bonds are not always intuitive in their meaning.

The language for some activities — let’s pick baseball, for example — is fairly easy to make sense of. The guy standing on the first base bag is, in fact, the first baseman, not a first “officer.” And he plays the game on a

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team, not a crew, and with a glove and a ball, not something called an “aileron.” So how did aviation come up with all this colloquy for the clouds?

The answer is simple. When aviation was

Hold: The space in larger aircraft where cargo is kept, originated with the Norse word bol, meaning “hollow.”

Aft: Although occurring in both German and Dutch, it probably originated during the 15th Century from the Anglo-Saxon aefter, which meant “toward the back.”

Log: In early days, ships would toss a tree log overboard and use it as a reference to determine a vessel’s speed, timing the log as it floated from the bow to the stern. The book in which this speed data was recorded eventually was referred to as the “log.”

Over the years, the numbers were supplemented with more and more information, thus making the ship’s “log” an important source of specifics about the vessel. It was a natural for aircraft to adopt the same type of “log.”

Cruise: From the Dutch kruizer, “to cross.”

From the 17th Century, the word meant “to go to sea for war.”

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pilot talk Aloft: From the 12th Century, of English derivation, meaning “atop the mast,” the word easily migrated to aviation, describing an aircraft that was up in the air.

Pilot: From the Greek pedotes, meaning “steersman,” and the French pedot, the term’s earliest use referred to an officer in charge of the ship’s maneuvers.

Annunciator: From the Latin annutilatus, to “announce.” When equipment was installed on vessels to send orders below to the engine room, they were called “annunciators.” This early form of communication is in use in airplanes today, with annunciators now talking back to the pilot about engine conditions.

Cabin: From the 15th Century, it referred to a coffin-styled box (built for sleeping) that was suspended beneath the deck by ropes to offset the rolling of the ocean.

Eventually, the word came to refer to any area aboard ship for people, the idea easily transferring to aviation to indicate the area set aside for people.

Scud: In old English, skyndan meant “running before the wind,” but an older Swedish word, skyde, refers to low clouds and inclimate weather. From that it’s easy to see how pilots arrived at “scud running.”

Yaw: When an aircraft moves about its vertical axis, which is to say it moves from side to side, the motion is referred to as “yaw.” It comes from the Norse ga, which translates to “leaving the course,” a sensible definition since that is, in effect, what an aircraft does when it yaws.

Cowl: Originally thought to describe the top of a ship’s ventilator system, which had a bell-shaped cover. From the Latin cucillus, meaning “hood.”

Mayday: The international distress call for ships and airplanes since the late 1940s, the term comes from the anglicized French m’aidez, or “help me.”

Wake: The term referring to disturbed air behind an aircraft originated from the Norse term waken, which described the distinct trail left by a ship passing through ice.

Slip: From the 16th Century German slippe, meaning a “cut.”

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Camber: Early French meaning “bent.”

Stow: If you don’t get extra points for neatness when you load your aircraft’s baggage compartment, take heart. The early Dutch word, stouwen, means to “pack or cram.”

Rudder: From the Norse word roder, a “steering” oar, first seen in the 12th Century.

Aileron: French, diminutive of aile, “wing,” and from Latin ala.

Squall: Icelandic derivation, from the word skvaj, meaning to “shout,” referring to a the storm’s ferocity.

Trim: When we trim an airplane, we arrange the airflow over the airfoils to create a stabilized condition. The term is derived from an early English word trymian, which in turn came from the Anglo-Saxon trymman, meaning to “arrange or make firm.”

Oil: From the old English oile, and originally the Latin olea, and the Greek elaia, it refers to the oil from olive trees.

Compass: From the Latin compassare, meaning “circle.”

Spitfire: Earliest occurrences of the word connote “defiance of the high winds.”

Propeller: From the Latin propellere, to “drive forward.”

Captain: Probably a combination of the Latin caput, meaning “head” and the French chevetagne, meaning “chieftain.”

Steer: From the Anglo-Saxon word steoran, meaning to “steer.”

Chart: Possibly from Egyptian beginnings, and certainly from the Greek khartes, meaning “map.” A modernized French word is charte.

Shipshape: From the days when Bristol, England, was at its prime as a seaport, many ships prided themselves as being clean and neat, and the term “shipshape” came into general use to describe them.

Chronometer: Originally a ship’s clock, the word comes from the Greek chronos meaning “time” and metron, to “measure.”

Skin: While it seems obvious that the cloth or aluminum covering the skeletal framework of an airplane could be called a skin, the term originated from a time when boats had actual animal skin stretched over a wood frame.

Nacelle: Typically describing a smaller aerodynamic “fuselage” around an engine, the word comes from the Latin naucella, meaning “small boat.”

Fuselage: No surprise here. The word is French, meaning “shaped like a spindle.”

Cockpit: The word originated as a landlubber’s literal description of where fighting cocks were put together. Then eventually it migrated in use to describe the area on a warship where wounded sailors were treated. Though the exact timeframe is obscure, the word eventually came to mean the area where all the instruments and devices are in the reach of one man.

Course: Perhaps from the Latin word cursus meaning “direction,” or from the French cours, meaning “cause to run.”

Galley: Currently referring to the kitchen section of boats and aircraft, the word is thought to have come from the idea that those who worked there thought of themselves as “galley slaves.” From the Latin galea.

Empennage: Referring to the tail section of the airplane, where the elevator and rudder meet the airframe, the word comes from the French verb empenner, which means “to put feathers on an arrow,” and as a noun, empennage means “the feathers of an arrow.”

Despite the fact that much of our aviation vocabulary came from the seven seas, there will always be differences between those seafarers and aviators.

For example, no mariner is likely to sail out of the harbor for $100 hamburger or worry about a hurricane blowing them into a Temporary Flight Restriction.

And no sailor has ever been chastised for making landfall without the gear down.

Still, the common denominator of our languages will always make our worlds related. Let’s just hope that pilots don’t start getting scurvy.

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ROLL OF THE DICE UNDERSTANDING AND PLANNING FOR TAX RISKS OF OVERLAPPING LOAN GUARANTEES

By Jonathan Levy

When a financed aircraft is owned in a special-purpose company, which lacks assets other than the aircraft, it is typical and understandable for the financing bank to insist that that loan be guaranteed by another, more solvent person or company.

In fact, banks will often seek multiple, overlapping guarantees — for example, from both spouses of a couple or from an individual and another company owned by that individual.

These overlapping guarantees will provide the bank the right, in the case of default, to collect from any of the guarantors in order to make the bank whole.

However, a recent court case Moreno v. U.S. (Federal District Court Louisiana, May 19, 2014)

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placed such guarantees in a different light. In Moreno, the IRS attempted a wide array of arguments to assess additional tax. The sole argument the court accepted creates surprising and negative tax consequences for overlapping loan guarantees.

The Moreno Case The facts of Moreno (altered here for simplification) involved an individual taxpayer who was the sole owner of an LLC,

which owned an aircraft. The LLC received tax flow-through treatment, meaning that items of income and expense of the LLC flowed through to the individual’s 1040 tax return. The LLC had borrowed money from a bank to finance the aircraft acquisition, and the loan was guaranteed both by the taxpayer, individually, and by another, larger company (“Company X”) which the taxpayer also owned. Thus, in an economic sense, all the parties involved could be thought of as “being” the individual taxpayer (i.e., he and the two companies he owned). But, in a legal sense, the three were distinct.

The LLC had purchased the aircraft for $1 million with no down payment (100 percent financed) and was entitled to $600,000 tax depreciation of the aircraft (and, because we are already simplifying the facts, we will assume this depreciation to be the only income/ expense item the LLC had for the year). Because of the flow-through nature of the LLC, the individual sought to claim this depreciation

TAX TALK

The ‘At Risk’ Rules Pose an Obstacle The “at risk” rule of Section 465 of the Internal Revenue Code provides that an individual taxpayer may only deduct loss from an activity (in this case the LLC) “to the extent of the aggregate amount with respect to which the taxpayer is at risk.” An individual’s amount “at risk” can include “amounts borrowed” in the activity (in this case, the LLC’s loan to purchase the aircraft), to the extent the individual is “personally liable for the repayment of such amounts.” Because, in Moreno, the individual had guarantied the LLC loan, he was personally liable for repayment of it and, therefore, at risk (at least, so far through the analysis). However, an individual’s amount “at risk” is reduced “with respect to amounts protected against loss….”

So the Moreno court considered whether the individual “was protected against loss” if the LLC were to default and the bank were to sue the individual under his guarantee for recovery of the loan. The court found a partial protection against loss to be present under the legal doctrine of contribution. Under this doctrine, if the bank sues one of the two guarantors for the full amount of the loan, that guarantor can, in turn, sue the other guarantor for “contribution,” requiring the other guarantor to pay its half of the liability. The theory is that the overlapping guarantee arrangement was not intended give the lender the right to stick one guarantor or the other with the full amount of the liability. But, rather, the goal was to have the guarantors split the responsibility, but maximize the lender’s

likelihood of full recovery by giving it the power to recover the full amount from either, in case one became insolvent.

Under our simplified facts, this means that the Moreno individual had an “at risk” amount of $500,000 — half of the $1million loan amount. (The other half is not at risk because of his right of contribution against Company X.) This means that the individual is not able to take advantage of the full $600,000 depreciation deduction but, instead, only $500,000. The remaining $100,000 deduction is not lost, but is suspended for later use when/if the individual’s at-risk is increased.

This legal conclusion elevates fiction over substance by imagining that the individual’s option to sue his own company (Company X, the other guarantor) under the doctrine of contribution provides the individual with meaningful relief. A more rational approach would be to recognize that, because the individual owns

Company X, a loss by Company X is equivalent to a loss by the individual and find him, therefore, at risk for the whole amount.

Unfortunately, the Moreno court rejected this point of view.

Planning Remedy The problem in Moreno was that some of the “at risk” associated with the aircraft financing was allocated to Company X, which was not the flow-through owner of the aircraft and, therefore, not the recipient of the aircraft depreciation deductions. The reasons the “at risk” was thus allocated were (1) that Company X had guaranteed the loan, and (2) in the event the bank recovered against the individual (who was the aircraft’s flow-through owner), Company X would be required, under the doctrine of contribution, to partially reimburse the individual.

The planning approaches are promising. Most obviously, taxpayers could ask their lend-

ing institutions to be satisfied with guarantees solely from the flow-through aircraft owners.

If, in Moreno, the individual had been the sole guarantor of the loan, the at-risk division in the case would not have arisen.

Unfortunately, this approach is likely not practical, as lenders will want to maximize their recovery rights, regardless of the tax consequences this might have for their borrowers.

A more practical approach may be to draft contracts between the guarantors (“Contribution Agreements”), specifically setting out what contribution rights each has in case the lender exercises a guarantee. The nature of these agreements would be to shift the burden solely to the flow-through owner of the aircraft; the flow-through owner would waive his/her right to contribution from the other/s; the other/s would receive a 100 percent contribution right from the flow-through owner. It is unclear how courts would view

such agreements in shaping the analysis of “at risk,” but the logic of Moreno suggests that such shifting could be effective by overriding the default legal rules of contribution with specific terms chosen by the parties to govern their particular arrangement.

This memorandum is not a definitive treatment of the subject and has omitted discussion of various rules. Be sure to consult the regulations themselves and a tax professional before making any decisions.

Jonathan Levy, Esq.Legal AdvisorAdvocate Consulting Legal Group, PLLC, is a law firm whose practice is limited to serving the needs of aircraft owners and operators relating to issues of income tax, sales tax, FAA regulations and other related organizational and operational issues. IRS Circular 230 Disclosure. New IRS rules impose requirements concerning any written federal tax advice from attorneys. To ensure compliance with those rules, we inform you that any U.S. federal tax advice contained in this communication (including any attachments) is not intended or written to be used, and cannot be used, for the purpose of (i) avoiding penalties under federal tax laws, specifically including the Internal Revenue Code, or (ii) promoting, marketing or recommending to another party any transaction or matter addressed herein.

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citation jet pilots

Owning and operating a Cessna Citation is a life-changing experience. It allows you to go anywhere in the world on YOUR schedule.

Whether you travel for business or pleasure, you want to operate and maintain your airplane to the highest standards possible. Safety is always the No. 1 priority of the Citation Jet Pilots/Owner Pilots Association (CJP).

Many fine training and service facilities are available to you, but one of the most important investments you can make is joining CJP. As a member, you will have access to a wealth of experience that our members are willing to share. They will become your network for all that is Citation!

The value of CJP membership is anchored around the network of contacts you will develop, but it does not stop there. CJP Partners, who are industry leaders, provide valuable financial benefits as well as serving as information resources. CJP regional events and our national

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convention will open the door to friendships that will last a lifetime.

Your $300 investment in annual dues will repay itself many times over, but more importantly, you will gain access to a network of contacts that money can’t buy.

CJP’s Russ Meyer Citation Library, which is under development, will be a comprehensive, on-line resource of safety and operational information that will be valuable to all Citation owners and pilots.

Many fine training and service facilities are available to you, but one of the most important investments you can make is joining CJP.

To join CJP or obtain more information, visit citationjetpilots.com or call 877-795-7810. Dont’t miss the CJP annual convention at the Greenbriar in White Sulphur Springs, W.V. - September 17-21.

Embraer Phenom

A PHENOMENAL EXPERIENCE Owning a Phenom jet is nothing less than a phenomenal experience. Learning it, flying it, enjoying it. Enhancing that experience is what the Phenom Jet Association is all about.

How? By providing Phenom 100 and 300 owners, operators and type-rated pilots with continuing education focused on: • • • •

Flying the airplane safely, efficiently and confidently Caring for it properly Upgrading it intelligently Using it to its full potential

It’s also about interacting with other Phenom owners and operators online and at our members-only conferences.

The Phenom Jet Association is dedicated to helping make your Phenom experience a phenomenal one.

History In March 2010, a small group of early-delivery Phenom 100 and 300 owners met to determine if there was sufficient interest in an informal Phenom type club to exchange information about owning and operating these two exciting models from a manufacturer new to the General Aviation jet market.

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They also thought it would be beneficial for members of such a group to get together periodically in nice places to compare notes, learn something new and enjoy the company of other like-minded souls.

Thus was born the Phenom Pilots and Owners Association, soon to be renamed the Phenom Jet Association.

A website was developed, information and resources collected, and benefits defined. In March 2011, on the Riverwalk in San Antonio, the first professional Phenomenal conference was held.

As the fleet of Phenom 100s and 300s continues to grow, so does the Phenom Jet Association. We have Active (Phenom owners and pilots) and Affiliate (individuals and companies that offer products and services to the Phenom community) members in 14 countries.

We invite you to take a look at what the Phenom Jet Association has to offer to enhance your Phenom owner experience.

Benefits of Membership Why join the Phenom Jet Association?

• Access to members-only website with a broad array of information and communication resources for Phenom 100 and 300 owners, operators and pilots.

• Interactive, push-to-email members’ forum with 10 different topics • Member eLetter with news and information important to Phenom owners • Annual conferences dedicated to continuing education (Savannah, Ga., in 2012; Montreal in 2013; Coeur d’Alene, Idaho, in 2014)

• Winter/spring mini-conferences at resort destination (Puerto Rico in 2013, Napa Valley, Calif., in 2014) • Discounts on Phenom 100/300 products and services • Phenom Jet Association-branded UVAir discount fuel card • Opportunities to meet other Phenom owners and operators from the U.S. and internationally • Worldwide adventure travel opportunities in your Phenom myPhenom Flight-Planning App One of the great benefits of being a member of the Phenom Jet Association is free access to myPhenom from Apple’s App Store. With myPhenom on your iPad you can: • Store weight-and-balance data for your Phenom 100 or 300 and see real-time graphical representation of CG envelope.

• Calculate takeoff and landing MAC and interpolated takeoff and landing calculations based on POH data, includes world airport runway database, automatically populates airport weather data from most recent METAR, and calculates data for all POHprovided runway conditions.

• Interpolate cruise performance calculations from POH data.

Provides specific-range calculations adjusted for winds aloft for all POH-provided cruise settings, allowing pilots to calculate maximum-range cruise speeds based on wind, altitude, SAT and weight.

www.Phenom.aero Explore the association’s website and its many information resources.

• The Library section in the Resources area of the website has detailed articles and discussions on training and mentoring, delivery experiences, operations and performance, airframe and engines, avionics and regulations, among others.

• Have some questions about Phenom pilot training, using the Prodigy system, or what the new ICAO equipment codes are for a Phenom 100? Put it out to the membership on one of 10 different Forum topics.

• Review technical presentations from Embraer, Pratt & Whitney, Garmin, and others from past conferences.

• Check out the photos, videos and narratives from exciting delivery flights and international adventure trips flown by members.

To take advantage of all that the Phenom Jet Association has to offer, go to Phenom.aero, click on the About tab at top right and follow the instructions for joining.

We’re confident that you will find the Phenom Jet Association the perfect option for getting the most out of Phenom 100 or 300 ownership.

And don’t miss the Phenom Jet Association convention Sept. 3-8 in Coeur d’Alene, Idaho.

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Eclipse 500

ECLIPSE 500 OWNERS CLUB (E5C) If you are exploring all your options in the owner-flown twin-jet marketplace, then you will want to look at the Eclipse 500 and the Eclipse 550. This little gem of a jet has been delighting owners and pilots with its incredible fuel economy, flight envelope and, most of all, safety of flight.

You will not meet an Eclipse pilot who doesn’t say the aircraft is one You will not meet an Eclipse pilot who doesn’t say the aircraft is one of the most fun and enjoyable airplanes they have ever flown. And now, with the introduction of the Eclipse 550, best-in-class is even better with anti-lock brakes, dual FMS and the only auto-throttle system in the light-jet marketplace.

For first-hand, in-depth information on all aspects of the Eclipse jet from Eclipse pilots and owners themselves, the only place to go is the Eclipse 500 Owners Club (E5C), which was established in 2006 and became an independent member association in 2008. The E5C website serves as a hub for interaction and communication among all the members, highlighting educational articles, news and activities as well as a forum where all E5C members can discuss indepth any subject having to do with the Eclipse aircraft. The forum

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currently has more than 40,000 posts on everything Eclipse.

The E5C library offers a comprehensive set of videos on all the Eclipse systems, thorough information on getting your Eclipse type rating, tips and tricks on operating the Eclipse in all environments, and much more. E5C members receive special discounts on training, fuel and related aviation products.

With the vast majority of all Eclipse owners and pilots as members of E5C, you can get answers to most any question and insights on almost any topic concerning operations, training, avionics, safety, upgrades, modifications, pricing — the whole breadth and scope of Eclipse.

The mission statement of the Eclipse 500 Owners Club is simple: The E5C exists to serve the needs and well-being of Eclipse Aircraft Owners and Pilots around the world.

The Eclipse 500 Owners Club: • Brings together like-minded individuals to share the joy of aviation and the delight of flying the Eclipse aircraft.

• Fosters the highest levels of safe Eclipse aircraft operations.

• Provides a timely and thorough two-way communication link between Eclipse Aerospace and Eclipse owners and pilots covering all aspects of the Eclipse aircraft and its operation.

• Provides an education forum and information exchange for Eclipse pilots and owners on all aspects of the Eclipse aircraft.

• Serves as a General Aviation role model by benefiting the communities where we work and live.

Membership is only $125 a year. You can get more information at Eclipse500Club.org. We look forward to having you join our community and becoming an active participant.

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business pilot

THE UNIQUE RISKS OF THE BUSINESS PILOT YOUR AIRPLANE IS ONE OF YOUR MOST IMPORTANT TOOLS FOR SUCCESS.

By Thomas P. Turner

You derive great pleasure and satisfaction from flying your airplane. You enjoy being aloft, the interaction with other pilots and controllers, and the feeling of mastery over a complex technical skill. Flying may be an artistic or creative outlet and enhance your perspective on other aspects of your life.

But if you fly for a business you own or manage, ultimately the airplane is a business tool. Flying gives your business a greater operational reach. It permits you to oversee remote operations more closely and better serve your customers. A company airplane lets you outflank the competition. Your airplane is a vital extension of your business.

The National Transportation Safety Board tells us business flying is statistically much safer than General Aviation as a whole. Unfortunately, deadly mishaps still happen in business aviation. And more disturbing, there is a clear trend upward in the rate of fatal business-flying accidents.

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business pilot That pilot’s dedication and his quick summation of the situation to his passengers left a great impression on me.

Looking back, I wonder what would have happened if one of the business owners was the pilot. Would he have let the stress of an impending meeting cloud his judgment and try to pick his way through the storms? So very often that’s exactly what we read about when a business airplane is involved in a crash.

The things that make us safer in all types of General Aviation — crosswind control, fuel management, weather avoidance, aircraft maintenance, emergency preparedness — work equally well in the business cockpit. There are some unique aspects of flying an airplane in the furtherance of a business you own or manage, however, that can add an additional layer of risk.

The good news is that, if you apply the same forward thinking to piloting the company airplane that you do to piloting the company itself, you can manage the unique risks of the business pilot.

Schedule What good is a business airplane if you can’t fly where you want, when you want? Some conditions or situations, despite your best efforts, are going to require you delay or cancel a flight. A line of strong thunderstorms, heavy icing conditions, or areas of low fog can make the no-go decision easy. Severe personal health issues or major mechanical issues with the airplane are also obvious no-go calls. The unique risks of the business pilot occur when the conditions are not so clear-cut, situations that require a judgment call and that may be in direct opposition to your business transportation needs.

True Story While I was a young flight instructor in a one-man flight school in central Missou-

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ri, a shiny new Beechcraft Bonanza A36 landed at our rural airport. Two passengers drove off with their local business contact, while the pilot stayed behind.

I learned the Bonanza was owned by a chain of funeral homes based in Topeka, Kan., and the passengers were owners on an inspection tour of their remote offices.

As the afternoon wore on, the pilot was watching a line of thunderstorms form along the Kansas/Missouri border on the FBO’s computer. When the company owners returned, he explained that the storms were cutting off their path home, and they would have to wait a couple of hours until the line blew past. The passengers became very agitated, one stating repeatedly that he had to get back to Topeka for a very important meeting. They were heavily pressuring the pilot to get them through the line of storms that was by then solid, severe and extending hundreds of miles in each direction. One owner threatened to fire the pilot and looked at me in a way that suggested, “You’ll get me through it, won’t you kid?”

The Bonanza pilot then said something very wise: “Do you want to be owners of a funeral home, or customers?”

This struck home, because the passengers backed down immediately. An hour and a half later, they were airborne in smooth, clear skies behind the line of storms after it passed.

Risk factors Let’s look at some of the risk factors and suggest some ways you can avoid making a bad business aviation call: Weather: Assuming you and the airplane are instrument-rated and current, there’s not much you can do about the weather. NEXRAD uplinks and ADS-B weather are a help, but they do not alter the airplane’s ability to handle adverse weather; they just make it easier to avoid getting too close to it. Weather hazards are the No. 1 reason for delays and cancellations of airline flights, and your business-use airplane isn’t any different. In other words, there’s no such thing as an all-weather airplane.

The more you fly, the more often you’ll cancel or reschedule flights.

So how do you protect against adverse weather impacting your business schedule? Like any other business contingency, you plan for it. Be ready to leave a few hours earlier, or to stay a few hours later, if the weather requires. Keep a RON (Remain Over Night) bag in the airplane with fresh clothes and toiletries in case you have to cancel a flight away from home.

Watch the weather frequently enough that you can make alternate transportation plans if a major weather outbreak is forecast. Let the people you’ll meet know you may have to change your meeting plans if the weather’s too bad. It may limit your ability to make the sale today, but subtly let them know it’s a part of your strategy to ensure you’ll be around to serve their needs after the contract is signed.

These mitigations all help you maintain a constant mindset that weather delays are going to happen, and you’ll have Plan B at the ready if needed.

Maintenance: The best defense against aircraft maintenance delays or cancellations is to give the airplane the maintenance budget it needs. If your computer system broke down, you’d fix it. The airplane may be just as important to your

business, so you have to keep it maintained as well.

The next most important defense is to catch issues before they impact your flight schedule. Take a few moments after the last flight of the day to give the airplane a post-flight inspection, the same as a preflight, done when there’s time to have a discrepancy fixed before your next planned trip. Do a thorough preflight inspection a couple of days before a flight for the same reason. If you don’t have time to get to the hangar that often, teach a local instructor how to conduct a good exterior preflight inspection of your airplane, and then pay him or her for an hour at their instructional rate to check out the airplane and report discrepancies once a week or on demand. None of this replaces your need to personally preflight the airplane before a trip, but these added inspections will curtail those last-minute maintenance squawks and help you avoid the temptation to fly with a known maintenance fault.

Training: Deep down you know you should train more often or seek out more challenging training than you currently do.

Trouble is, training takes time — the businessperson’s most valuable resource — and

it’s easy to defer training again and again under the stress of running a business. Before you know it, two years will have passed, and you need a quickie Flight Review just to meet minimum requirements. You probably don’t accept minimum standards from your employees (or yourself) in the business, and a business mistake probably won’t kill you. Think of quality recurrent training a couple of times each year as a mini-vacation, a time away to indulge your interest in flying. Put it on your calendar far enough in advance so you can schedule work around it.

Fatigue: You put in long hours at the office. You wear yourself out when you’re on the road. Are you in any shape to pilot a complex machine into potentially dark and stormy skies? Will you be alert enough to fly a complex approach after a couple of hours bouncing along in the airplane? Growing evidence suggests sleep deprivation and fatigue have an adverse impact on almost every aspect of our lives (including business decisions). The NTSB is beginning to investigate the sleep cycles of pilots for the 72 hours prior to a crash.

There is no FAA standard regarding

crew rest for Part 91 pilots. No one has done real science into the impact of fatigue on business pilots. It’s up to you to decide if you’re too tired to take off and predict whether you’ll be alert enough to approach and land on the other end. Taking a cue from the airline industry, which science has addressed, the National Business Aircraft Association has recently published recommended crew rest and duty day standards for business pilots. In its simplest form, NBAA suggests no more than 10 flying hours in any 24-hour period, and more apropos to most business pilots, a maximum 14-hour duty day from wake-up in the morning to engine shutdown at the end of a flight. (See the full recommendation at NBAA.org.) A 14-hour limit may be challenging in a business environment, but it’s a limitation you can live with.

The risks affecting business pilots are the same that impact pilots of all General Aviation airplanes. The hazards become more acute, however, under the real and imagined time pressures of running a company. With planning, discipline and flexibility — the same attributes that make you successful in business, you can manage the unique risks of the business pilot.

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SURVIVING THE SIM

YOU CAN LEARN A LOT ABOUT HOW YOU LEARN. By Neil Singer Another year, another type-rating course. So life seems to go lately, and it offers another reminder of what tremendous tools simulators are for mastering a particular aircraft. Yet is also serves as a reminder of what an uncomfortable partner-in-learning simulators can be for many new jet pilots. There’s definitely a touch of love/hate relationship the first time (for some, every time!) a pilot goes through a type course in a full-motion sim. Making peace with two fundamental truths about simulators, however, can go a long way in increasing enjoyment and learning during type training.

The single most important point to remember: Just like an airplane, a simulator makes a terrible classroom. Yes, it’s true that in contrast to an airplane the sim can be paused, giving time to clarify a confused point, and a tricky maneuver can be “backed up” and redone as often as needed. So to be fair, in theory, a sim could make a great classroom.

However, the practical truth is that simulators are incredibly expensive to build, and as a result, quite expensive to operate. For some of the lighter light-jets, the retail rental cost of time in a fullmotion simulator well exceeds the actual operating costs of the aircraft. So time in the simulator during an initial course is tightly regulated, and very little “wiggle room” exists.

Think of the sim as a place to practice, not as much to learn, and you’ll be far more successful in an initial course. Every sim-based type course uses a minutely scripted syllabus, which you will be provided with on the first day of the course. Before going into a sim session, practice each planned maneuver and emergency/abnormal procedure in front of a cockpit poster until comfortable. For checkride maneuvers, however, particularly the toughest three — circleto-land approach, engine failure during takeoff, and single-engine go-around — it’s essential to go far beyond merely comfortable.

These maneuvers can be such a high workload for a new or low-time jet pilot to execute that a theoretically memorized profile can completely evaporate in the heat of the moment.

I’ve seen this over and over, to the point that I expect it. A pilot thinks he or she has the profiles memorized, only to miss steps, transpose the order ofsteps, or just completely lose recall in the sim. Profiles need to be more than memorized; they need to be utterly burned in. To get to this point, there’s only one path, ad nauseum repetition of the profiles before trying them in the sim.

Most type courses have roughly a week of ground school before starting a week or so of simulator. At least an hour of every evening during the ground portion should be dedicated to chair flying the check-ride profiles. Set up a cockpit poster on the wall of the hotel room (beg, borrow or steal an extra poster Day One of ground school so it can be left up on the wall), pull up a chair, and touch each control as you go through the profiles. It can’t be

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said enough: Even when you think Think of the the profiles are memorized, keep sim as a place to repeating them as you speak the steps out loud. When the conscious practice, not as mind is saturated with rudder control, maintaining proper speed, much to learn, navigating the missed, etc. Having and you’ll be “positive rate, gear up, select NAV, far more sucflight level change V2” pop out cessful in an without thought can serve as an oral checklist of sorts. initial course.

If going into the sim session over-prepared is Rule One, once you’re “flying” the sim, it’s equally important to remember you’re not flying at all. Trying to fly a sim like an airplane is a trap even experienced pilots fall into. For the first few minutes of every recurrent I’ve done, I find myself swearing at the sim until I get into the groove of sim-world aerodynamics.

The air must be pretty thin in sim-world, as very little aerodynamic dampening occurd; every axis (particularly pitch) feels obnoxiously light, inviting over control. Landings are a prime opportunity for pilot-induced oscillations across the centerline — touch down fine, but then a small lateral deviation is over-corrected, and the over-correction is caught but leads to a bigger swerve the other way. Pretty soon, a nicely flown approach ends with the pilot staring in disbelief at the “red screen of death” after ground-looping a 12,000-pound jet.

Think of the sim as having about a quarter-second delay between control input and result, and you can go a long way to reducing sim-induced oscillations. The plane deviates off centerline slightly?

Put in a moderate correcting input, and then wait. If you expect the sim to respond like the plane, it’s natural to panic that it’s not reacting properly and putting in additional correction just as the sim decides to come around to your point of view.

So starts the dance. Keep at the forefront of your mind that, between every input and effect, there’s room for one quick breath, and you will find yourself more naturally adapting to the timing of the sim and better able to use it as the great tool it is.