CONTRAILS - Winter 2015

READING BETWEEN THE LINES OF TAFS

Predicting Low-Level Windshear

WHAT’S AN ISA? Enhance Your Aircraft’s Performance

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FIRST LOOK AT THE NEW PC-24 JET The Pilatus Super Versatile Jet

WINTER 2 015

WHY PASSIVE TAX ACTIVITY CAN BE A GOTCHA! Protect yourself with properly filed elections

VOLUNTEER PILOTS MAKE A DIFFERENCE Lending wings to the conservation effort

THE HISTORY OF THE MILE HIGH CLUB Aviation’s most fabled fraternity

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contents 01.15

FEATURES 14

ECLIPSE SURVIVES

An improved Eclipse 550 suggests the VLJ concept is alive and well, for one model at least.

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24

30

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jet, FJ-44-powered PC-24

ISA helps define performance so that pilots can make accurate estimates of performance.

The ins and outs of joining aviation’s most fabled fraternity

READING BETWEEN PC-12 TIMES TWO Aircraft THE LINES OF TAFS Pilatus introduces a pure Steering clear of low-level wind shear.

BY SCOTT C. DENNSTAEDT

BY BILL COX

BY BILL COX

WHAT’S AN ISA?

BY BUD CORBAN

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THE MILE HIGH CLUB

BY JAMES WYNBRANDT

contents 01.15 WINTER 2015 VOLUME 1/ NUMBER 3

DEPARTMENTS

12

8 PUBLISHER’S LETTER 10 LIFESTYLES

The best new gadgets available to pilots on display.

AJ PUBLICATIONS STAFF EDITOR-IN-CHIEF

Lyn Freeman MANAGING EDITOR

Michelle Carter SENIOR EDITOR

Bill Cox

12 ONBOARD

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

ASSOCIATE EDITOR

Hans Lubke EDITORIAL ASSISTANTS

William Henrys

34 TAX TALK

A Tax Exposure Area: Passive Activity

BY JONATHAN LEVY

CONTRIBUTING EDITORS

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

42 POLAR BEARS AND YOU

44

This can be a once-in-a-lifetime chance for you safely to get up-close-and-personal with some large meat-eaters.

Robbie Destocki PHOTOGRAPHY

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

BY LYN FREEMAN PUBLISHER

Thierry Pouille

44 MIPAD

Upgrades and Legalities. The Best iPad Apps, Winter 2015.

BY JOHN D. RULEY

ASSOCIATE PUBLISHER

Sophie Pouille PRODUCTION MANAGER, U.S.

Guillaume Fabry

48 CITATION JET PILOTS Winter 2015.

10

50 LENDING WINGS TO THE CONSERVATION EFFORT

42

Volunteer pilots find a way to help through LightHawk.

BY MICHELLE CARTER

52 MUST-HAVE

Start Pac powers Air Journey’s high-altitude take-offs.

ADVERTISING SALES

Thierry Pouille, 561.452.1225 Grace Huseth, 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

54 CENTERLINE

Making a smooth transition from prop pilot to jet pilot.

34

BY NEIL SINGER

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

A GROWING AND PROSPEROUS INDUSTRY

What if you never paid posted price?

By Thierry Pouille

We just came through a very busy fall with a number of conventions. I was fortunate enough to attend the Phenomenal from Phenom in Coeur d’Alene, Idaho, in early September, followed by the Citation Jet Pilots Owner Pilot Association at The Greenbrier in West Virginia at the end of September, and finally NBAA in Orlando, Fla., in October.

The least I can say is that the owner-flown jet market is thriving.

It amazes me that a few years back these jets were only used at the corporate level with a professional flight crew. Now there are literally thousands of General Aviation pilots who own and operate their own jet aircraft.

And an overwhelming number of these pilots are members of the associations, which deftly represent their membership and the aircraft they fly, enjoying dedicated fuel programs, insurance enhancements, safety training and more. Also, these associations typically provide a level of contact with jet manufacturers that a single person could not easily accomplish. That alone is an increasingly valuable component to today’s flying game. It’s also a good sign that all these associations report a steady increase in membership.

It was also impressive to see all the new technology that’s showing up in privately owned jets — technology that, in many cases, rivals that of commercial jet airliners. The term “glass cockpit” has virtually disappeared because all these new jets come with glass panels, as well as lots of other leading-edge, high-tech additions like synthetic vision, ADS-B, satellite communication, Internet connectivity, texting between aircraft and ATC, and more.

We are all fortunate to live in a time when cockpit equipment seems to improve and reinvent itself with increasing regularity.

Some GA pilots are reportedly already wearing the new Google D2 pilot watch, which offers the wearer a growing number of flight-related capabilities, like looking at electronic checklists, charts and maps as well as updated weather information. A whole new arena of “wearable technology” will no doubt make its debut in General Aviation aircraft.

Nothing speaks to the health of the jet market more than the release of new jet aircraft products from the aerospace manufacturers. This year Embraer debuted two new jets, the Phenoms 450 and 500; Pilatus announced their new pure jet, the PC-24; Daher-Socata unveiled its new and improved TBM 900;

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and industry insiders tell us that Piper has a turbine-powered new M-Class aircraft ready to go.

HondaJet is flying a fleet of test aircraft and expects FAA certification in the second half of 2015. Cirrus, which is also managing a heaping handful of flying prototype aircraft, plans for certification of their new Vision SF50 jet late this next year. Eclipse is experiencing robust sales of its new 550 jet, and Syberjet, which owns the original SJ30 jet-type certificate, announced it will bring its all new SJ30i jet to market in the second half of 2015. Of course Cessna, responding to a healthy jet market place, has announced a myriad of improvements to their burgeoning line of Citations.

Equally encouraging is the fact that FAA is rewriting Part 23 regulations with an eye toward actually reducing the considerable cost of bringing new aircraft designs through the certification process and into the hands of pilots. If successful, these proposed changes could go a long ways toward bringing even more options to market for the jet pilot.

And finally, the biggest competition to the concept of flying your own jet — hopping an airliner — is looking at a gloomy future. Many airline CEOs are predicting a long-term decline in the number of surviving airlines, while experiencing an upturn in the number of passengers. It could be decades before the trend toward overcrowded flights, cramped leg room and stuffed overhead bins begins to turn the other way.

All in all, it may just be the best time ever to be a jet pilot.

Fly safe, fly often and fly well. See you soon in the air.

Happy Contrails, Thierry Pouille, Publisher

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LifeStyles

Carry your own wi-fi hotspot wherever you fly

Get a robot to do your heavy moving Wouldn’t it be fun to run your own robot drone around the airport and the FAA couldn’t say anything about it?

Have you ever been able to move your airplane on the ground while sitting on the wing?

Anthony Chan of AC Air Technology has developed a remote-control robot aircraft tug that is a true time-saver. There are all sorts of solutions on the market to move your airplane in and out of the hangar. Some are cheaper than others, but price doesn’t always stack up with true convenience.

The bottom line for an aircraft tug is that it must be reliable, easy and cheap to operate, as well as available when you need it. It turns out that a remotely controlled electric robot can fill just about every need on any airplane owner’s list.

If you have ever played with a remote-controlled car, you’ll get the hang of operating the TrackTech in a few minutes. With the gear capture rollers, you just drive the tug up to the nose wheel (or tail wheel of a tail-dragger). It’s best to leave the chocks in as you drive the tug under the wheel. It will lock in place, and you’ll be ready to move the airplane in seconds. No bending, crawling

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When you need to know what you know…

The smart phone, tablet and laptop have transformed General Aviation, but what happens when you find yourself out of range of your cellular network?

Not much. So consider the possibilities of Iridium GO! which promises a satellite-backed wi-fi hotspot — absolutely anywhere! This compact, durable and portable unit enables reliable voice and data for your phone or as many as five mobile devices. Just flip up the integrated antenna, and the battery-powered unit connects quickly and automatically to the Iridium LEO satellite constellation to create a hotspot anywhere in your cockpit or for 50 feet in any direction outside. For more info, go to SatellitePhoneStore.com.

Hypoxia has been in the news of late, and perhaps you’ve been thinking about a monitoring system that would tell you when you, as PIC, are

LS around on your knees or struggling to line up and hook the tow bar.

While controlling the tug using the remote, you can walk over and check the wingtip clearance from the hangar door. Or you can steer while watching from the rear of the airplane to avoid smashing the rudder. The TrackTech tug does very well on pavement and smooth grass and it handles moderate inclines with ease. Its powerful electric motors produce enough torque to move your airplane at a brisk walking pace, and the rechargeable lithium ion battery will last for 45 minutes of normal use.

Tail wheels, nose wheels, fairings or no fairings, tugs are available to tow gross weights from 5,000 pounds to 21,000 pounds. The T2 tug comes with a Lazy Susan to enable easier maneuvering of the larger airplanes.

When you finally park the airplane in the hangar, you can leave it on the tug, ready to move next time to make it even easier. Just hook it up with the charger, and it will be ready to go.

Check out ACAirTechnology.com and see the photos and videos of AC Air’s TrackTech tug in operation, and you might be seeing one in your future.

putting yourself and your loved ones in danger. Aircraft Spruce is offering

Everything in its place — in style

Now that pilots are packing iPads and chargers instead of loose-leaf binders, it’s probably time to reconsider how we haul them around.

Flight Gear tapped a team of GA pilots to design a flight bag for the 21st Century cockpit, and the Navigator Bag is the result. Just 10 inches wide by 22 inches long by 11 inches high, the Navigator offers room to carry multiple headsets, an iPad, backup charts and all the accessories (and their endless cords and chargers!). Exterior pockets are padded to protect those headsets, iPads and hand-held GPSs, and the main compartment can even take a change of clothes if you need to. Put this flight bag on your holiday wish list with the notation to visit Sportys.com.

a pulse oximeter, the MD300 C201, which will give you a non-invasive way to spot-check your functional oxygen saturation of arterial hemoglobin or SpO2. Once you’ve established what’s normal for you (at altitude and on the ground), you’ll know when you need to reach for the supplemental oxygen, even if you’re well below the FAA-mandated 14,000-foot altitude level. Generally speaking, that can be when your oxygen saturation level drops as little as 5 percent below nor-

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mal home altitude saturation level. For details, head for AircraftSpruce.com.

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OnBoard Put that smart phone to work while you fly Your phone could be your most valuable travel companion with the right applications.

UPGRADE YOUR PROTECTION. LET FALCON WORK FOR YOU.

Here are our suggestions of useful apps for the modern General Aviation traveler.

These apps cover everything from planning an overnight at a last-minute stop to providing entertainment during the long hauls. You can learn new skills, cook a meal, and track workouts, all on that little device we can’t seem to live without.

HOTEL TONIGHT

OYSTER

Are you making an impromptu weekend getaway with the airplane?

Hotel Tonight helps you select last-minute rooms in hotels sorted by categories such as hip, luxe, solid, basic or charming.

You’ll be able to find something last-minute that caters to your style. Not only does Hotel Tonight guarantee the lowest rates, but it only works with the best of the best. Think The W, not Motel 6.

Oh, and here’s a tip – check the app at noon every day. This is when the new (and best) deals are posted! Compatibility: iPhone, Android;

Oyster is Netflix for books. Read boundless books, anytime, anywhere.

Enjoy instant access to everything from bestselling young adult fiction and romantic dramas to epic biographies, inspiring business stories and much more. This great application is perfect for those long hauls, offering unlimited access to more than 500,000 books for $9.95 a month, with new titles added all the time. Compatibility: iPhone, Android, Kindle, and more; COST: FREE WITH $9.95 MONTHLY SUBSCRIPTION

COST: FREE

POCKET

Sometimes you spot an article that you’d love to read but it’s the middle of the work day and you definitely don’t have the time right then. So you send it to yourself and clog up your email.

Pocket solves this problem. You can save articles, videos, recipes and web pages that you find online and get to them later. Pocket works on your phone, tablet and computer, so you can save something on your phone and read it later on your laptop. Compatibility: iPhone, Android; COST: FREE

AWESOME NOTE

Planning the next trip in the airplane?

You will want this application!

Usually personal organizer apps are pretty inconvenient to use. They’re over-cluttered with features and poorly designed. But Awesome Note is a well-designed organizer with a built-in calendar, to-do list, party-planning section and photo journal. Plus there are tabs for anniversary reminders and travel diaries. You’ll actually want to use this one. Compatibility: iPhone, Android; COST: $4.99

NIKE TRAINING CLUB

The perfect workout on the go! Workouts of 15, 30 and 45 minutes that can be done anywhere, anytime. You can use the Nike Training Club app and get your workouts done whenever you have a free second — right in your own room. There are over 100 workout videos by Nike trainers and superstar athletes on the app so that you can actually see what to do without the hassle of going to a gym. Compatibility: iPhone, Android; COST: FREE

TWO DOTS

Let’s have fun inflight! A minimalist puzzler through and through, TwoDots – the single player game – delivers accessible and satisfying challenges by the bucketful.

While its style and sound mirror the unvarnished nature of its puzzles, its seemingly simple exterior hides a compelling depth that will keep you coming back for more. Explore new challenges on your journey through multiple worlds.

Solve challenging puzzles by connecting the dots and more. Compatibility: iPhone, Android; COST: FREE

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Eclipse 550

ECLIPSE SURVIVES AN IMPROVED ECLIPSE 550 SUGGESTS THE VLJ CONCEPT IS ALIVE AND WELL, FOR ONE MODEL AT LEAST.

By Bill Cox

FIRST LOOK

Back in 1998, former Microsoft co-founder Vern Raeburn, father of the original Eclipse 500, claimed he planned to sell his wunderkind Very Light Jet for $837,500. (We’ll never know if he really believed that or if it was a strategic boast intended to garner publicity.) With heavy financial support from fellow Microsoft executives Bill Gates and Paul Allen, Raeburn launched the Eclipse project with promises

of spectacular sales to support the low price. Everyone believed pricing was impossibly low, and everyone was right.

A few airplanes were pushed out the door of the company’s Albuquerque plant at prices below $1.5 million, but the best estimates at the time suggested Eclipse was losing at least a half-million dollars on every one of those early airplanes. While the company eventually boasted it had orders for 2,600 airplanes, only 261 were delivered, and most of those were incomplete, missing avionics, de-ice and other essential items.

In combination with the 2008 recession that caused a universal contraction in the business aircraft sector, Raeburn was ousted, and Eclipse filed the largest bankruptcy in General Aviation history. Aviation Week reported the loss as $1.4 billion, a spectacular failure for an airplane that had showed so much promise. The title of VLJ was forever stained, one reason that no one except Eclipse uses the abbreviation these days.

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Eclipse 550

speed or a specific thrust (in conjunction After a group of new investors, led by with FADEC) and are a common feature partners Mason Holland and Mike Press, on corporate jets and airliners. Anti-lock acquired the company, Eclipse Aerobrakes are another typical convenience on space initiated a buyback of the existing most modern corporate and airline jets, as fleet and launched the Total Eclipse, a are synthetic vision (a GPS-based image of program that offered the vast majority of runway and terrain ahead) and enhanced completed Eclipse 500s for $2.5 million. vision (a forward-looking infrared, FLIR, Many of those airplanes had been missrepresentation of the forward quadrant). ing features and accessories the owners ADS-B OUT is also standard, required by had paid for but never received. Hol2020 to comply with the new air-traffic land and Press offered owners and VLJ system. The new windshield is a glass/ dreamers the opportunity to complete LEXAN laminate with de-fog and de-ice the original airplanes at bargain prices provisions built into the glass itself rather or purchase a finished Eclipse 500 with than added on. Bias-ply tires were installed a factory warranty. In 2011, Sikorsky to solve a problem some early buyers expebecame an equity partner, adding an air rienced with accelerated tire wear. of legitimacy to the effort and easing the In fairness, the problems with Eclipse minds of prospective buyers. had little to do with the airplane itself.

In the meantime, the partners were busy They were more related to the personality improving the airplane to the Eclipse 550. of company founder Raeburn. He estabIn fact, the 550 is identical to the original Eclipse in configuration, aerodynamics and lished unrealistic parts-delivery schedules, didn’t allow for contingencies and was power, but Eclipse Aerospace has made overly optimistic about every other aspect substantial improvements to systems. The of production. new Eclipse 550 includes a number of new Today’s Eclipse 550 is a better airplane features, the most prominent being a new in every way, not because it flies faster windshield, bias-ply tires, auto-throttles, and/or farther or carries more, but dual-integrated flight-management because buyers can be relatively systems, an anti-lock braking system, FIRST assured that they’ll receive the airsynthetic vision, enhanced vision LOOK plane they paid for — on schedule and ADS-B. and with everything they ordered Auto-throttles can be cominstalled and working properly. manded to maintain a specific

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Raeburn was proud of having single-handedly created the class known as VLJ, and in a sense, he should be. Almost 15 years after announcing the effort, however, there is a grand total of one model in the class.

The Diamond Jet project has been on hold for some time, and Piper’s single-engine Altaire jet was cancelled in late 2011.

Only the single-engine Cirrus Vision fits into the same specific class, and Cirrus anticipates certification by early 2015.

Cessna’s Mustang and Embraer’s Phenom 100 have been on the market and selling well since 2009, but their price points ($3.5 million and $4.35 million) suggest they’re in a class by themselves.

Eclipse Aerospace bases much of its publicity and advertising on the 550’s simplicity of operation, and that’s certainly a valid concept for pilots stepping up from piston or turboprop twins, Eclipse’s prime market. It’s a small airplane for a twin turbofan jet. Wingspan is only 38 feet, about the same as a Piper Seneca V. At 6,000 pounds gross takeoff weight, the Eclipse is lighter than a Cessna 421. Nevertheless, it’s a capable turbine-powered aircraft that should find favor with businessmen and private buyers.

At first glance, interior dimensions don’t look that different from those of a 421, except the Eclipse is wider in cross

Eclipse 550

2015 ECLIPSE 550

section, and that makes all the difference.

The cabin is 56 inches across by 50 inches tall, and that eases the task of moving around inside the airplane.

The Eclipse doesn’t enjoy six-seat payload with full fuel, not that dissimilar from most other General Aviation singles or twins, piston or jet. Partially for that reason, the Eclipse comes standard in a five-seat configuration. Maximum full-fuel payload is limited to 668 pounds, three people plus baggage or four lightweights.

Remember, however, that the rules change slightly when you step up to jets.

Turbofan engines burn disproportionate amounts of fuel per mile, so flight crews typically load aboard only the fuel reserve they’ll need rather than “tanker” unnecessary fuel.

While it may be true that the only time you can have too much fuel is when you’re on fire, you must burn fuel to carry fuel, so most crews carry only what they need. The Eclipse has an advantage over other light jets in that its 900-pound thrust PW610Fs burn less than 55 gallons per hour total, making the 550 the most economical mini jet on the market. If you needed to carry six, full-sized folks in an Eclipse, you’d have to limit fuel to about 190 gallons. That would provide roughly 2.8 hours endurance plus reserve. At a conservative power setting, you could still manage almost a 700-nm range.

I flew the airplane out of Van Nuys, Calif., a while back, and it’s apparent Raeburn had a great idea, and Mason Holland have carried it forward with excellent execution.

Hold the brakes against full thrust, and the

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550 comes off the line with a refreshing stab in the back, more than I remember from my fleeting time in Learjets, Mustangs, Citations and the Swearingen SJ-30.

This is one airplane that will lift off in less space than it needs to land.

With a stall speed under 70 knots, the airplane rotates in about 2,000 feet and starts uphill with enthusiasm. Once the under-wing is clean, you’ll typically see 3,000 fpm or better in ISA conditions. If an engine fails, you simply hold 110 knots Vyse, and the Eclipse will still manage 900 fpm ascent on the remaining Pratt.

Those folks lucky enough to be cleared directly to FL380 should click the stopwatch in roughly 25 minutes. Max operating altitude is FL410 where the 8.2-psi cabin pressurization differential provides a cabin altitude of 8,000 feet. In combination with an unusually quiet cockpit, the Eclipse is a nice place to travel for an hour or a day.

Cruise speed is typically 360 knots in the mid-30s, more than respectable for an airplane with only 1,800 pounds of thrust. If you want to see the advertised spec of 375 knots, you’ll need to drop down to FL300, but fuel burn will increase dramatically.

When it’s time to come back downhill, you’ll learn to love the auto-throttle feature.

With auto-throttles engaged, you can simply dial up whatever approach speed ATC commands, and the system will adjust power on both engines to hold that speed at whatever descent rate you wish.

You’re required to use the autopilot for all maneuvers above 28,000 feet in RVSM airspace, but it’s nice to have a strong two-axis system for all course and climb/

Price (2014) Engines Thrust (lbs) Max TO Wt (lbs) Typical Empty wt (lbs) Max Fuel (lbs) Payload (lbs) Rate of Climb (fpm) Cruise Spd (FL300 – kts) Cruise Spd (FL380-kts) Max Altitude (ft) Max Range (nm) Time to climb (FL350 - min) Vso (kts)

TO Over 50 Ft (ft) Ldg (ft) Cabin Ht (in) Cabin Width (in) Press Diff (lbs/sq in) Cabin Alt at FL410 (ft)

$2,895,000 P&W P610F (2) 900 6000 3634 1698 668 3424 375 360 FL410 1125 25 69 2433 2790 50 56 8.2 8000

For more information, contact

Albuquerque International Sunport (ABQ), 2503 Clark Carr Loop SE, Albuquerque, NM 87106 (505) 245-7555 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.

descent commands both above and below that altitude.

Another benefit of the Eclipse is that it has no Vmc to worry about. Stall is above Vmc in all configurations. The engines are mounted so close to each other in the rear of the airplane that you’ll always be above the effective Vmc. Generally, you’ll be flying very friendly approach speeds, often well below 100 knots, for instrument procedures.

The Eclipse 550 is easier to fly in nearly all respects than any of the high-performance piston twins of the 1970s and 1980s.

It’s easier to land, too. Trailing-link landing gear absorbs even amateur efforts and makes every pilot look like a pro.

In fact, that may be one of the Eclipse 550s most endearing qualities. It makes everyone who flies it look and feel like an accomplished jet pilot.

low-level wind shear

READING BETWEEN THE LINES OF

TAFS

STEERING CLEAR OF LOW-LEVEL WIND SHEAR .

By Scott C. Dennstaedt

There’s no doubt that terminal aerodrome forecasts, simply known to pilots as TAFs, are perhaps the most detailed aviation forecasts available. If you call Lockheed Martin Flight Services for a standard briefing or get an automated DUATS briefing, you can bet the farm that any TAFs along your proposed route and at your departure and destination airports will be a part of this briefing. There are, however, some finer details about TAFs that instructors fail to pass along to their students. The top one on the list includes a forecast for non-convective low-level wind shear (LLWS).

Probably the most misunderstood aviation forecast among pilots and instructors is one for non-convective LLWS. In a TAF, this forecast appears in coded form with a WS code such as WS020/15035KT. Such a forecast for non-convective LLWS can also appear in AIRMET Tango. I will discuss this a bit later. In a preflight briefing, pilots hear the term “wind shear” and immediately equate this with thunderstorms and severe turbulence. It’s a common misconception, but non-convective LLWS, as it appears in a TAF, is not ordinarily a forecast for turbulence. In fact, in most cases when this is forecast, the air is glassy smooth.

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low-level wind shear This form of wind shear is typically found in the warm sector ahead of the cold front and south of the warm front. But it’s also quite prevalent in the overnight hours during fair weather conditions coupled with clear skies and calm wind at or near the surface.

Even though wind seems to be the common denominator, atmospheric stability is the catalyst behind most non-convective LLWS occurrences.

By definition, wind shear is a marked change in wind speed and/or wind direction over a given distance. Wind can change direction as you are flying along at a particular altitude. This is referred to as horizontal wind shear. If the marked change in direction and/or speed occurs over a layer of altitudes, it’s referred to as vertical wind shear. When the wind shear occurs near the surface, it is referred to as low-level wind shear and abbreviated LLWS. We know that wind naturally tends to increase in speed with increasing height, but it normally does so fairly gradually. But what if the winds are nearly calm at the surface and increase to 45 knots just 2,000 feet above the ground? That’s an example of vertical speed shear, also known as non-convective LLWS. When the winds are expected to increase rapidly with height within 2,000 feet of the airport’s surface, a forecast for non-convective LLWS will likely be issued in a TAF for that airport. The forecast for non-convective LLWS found in a TAF tells the pilot about the potential for the wind speed to increase quickly with height above the ground within a shallow layer. That is, faster air at the top of the wind shear layer is moving over slower air near the bottom of that layer. There also may be an accompanying shift in wind direction with height in this layer as well.

Keep in mind that it’s not the same horizontal and vertical wind shear that may be experienced in the vicinity of deep, moist convection or thunderstorms, hence the name non-convective LLWS. Forecasts for convective and non-convective LLWS have very distinct differences. In a TAF, convective LLWS will typically contain a reference to thunderstorms (TS or VCTS) and will contain CB, which stands for cumulonimbus, in the cloud group.

Also, the surface winds are typically forecast to be strong and gusty. While convective LLWS can occur at any time of the day or night, most convective LLWS occurs in the afternoon and early evening when thunderstorms are the most prevalent. Here are three examples of forecasts for convective LLWS.

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1. FM132200 33010G20KT P6SM VCTS SCT015 BKN040CB 2. FM131600 22013G35KT 3SM TSRA BR BKN035CB 3. FM140000 VRB20G55KT 1/2SM +TSRA FG BKN015CB As mentioned earlier, non-convective LLWS can occur in the warm sector of an area of low pressure, but it can frequently occur in the presence of a strong nocturnal temperature inversion. Frontal non-convective LLWS can occur any time of the day or night and normally has the characteristics of light winds at the surface and cloudy skies but can be strong and gusty when the weather system is associated with an intense area of low pressure. Here are three examples of TAFs non-convective LLWS when associated with a frontal system.

1. FM111600 13010KT 5SM -RA OVC015 WS020/27055KT 2. FM120100 VRB03KT 4SM BR OVC008 WS015/25045KT 3. FM120900 19018G30KT 3SM +SHRA BR OVC005 WS020/17075KT On the other hand, nocturnal non-convective LLWS occurs in the overnight or early morning hours, often with light winds and clear skies. This is a manifestation of radiational cooling and likely occurs in the region under an area of high pressure. Here are three examples of the nocturnal version of non-convective LLWS you might see in a TAF. 1. FM221100 19004KT P6SM SKC WS015/17040KT 2. FM230800 VRB03KT P6SM SCT010 WS010/22035KT 3. FM230400 00000KT P6SM SKC WS020/23055KT In both cases of non-convective LLWS, the LLWS code “WS” will be included in the TAF immediately after the cloud group. Let’s take a closer look at this misunderstood forecast group. Assume the following snippet from a TAF. FM130300 17005KT P6SM SKC WS020/23055KT The first element to the immediate right of the WS code is a height above the airport, in this case 020 or 2,000 feet. This represents the top of the wind shear layer. This altitude is typically one of three values: 010 for 1,000 feet AGL, 015 for 1,500 feet AGL or 020 for 2,000 feet AGL. Even if the WS layer extends higher, the maximum height that is forecast is 2,000 feet.

After the forward slash, the next group contains the true wind direction followed by the wind speed in knots at the indicated height or 230 degrees at 55 knots in this

example. This implies indirectly that the wind is rapidly increasing from the surface through the indicated height although this says nothing about the wind direction throughout this shear layer.

Effectively this forecast translates into “the wind at 2,000 feet is 230 degrees at 55 knots.” But it does not imply there will be turbulence at 2,000 feet AGL or below. In most cases, you’ll find smooth conditions in this wind shear layer, especially for the nocturnal instance of non-convective LLWS. The catalyst for the development of all non-convective LLWS is atmospheric stability. We also know that temperature normally decreases with increasing altitude. This is generically referred to as a lapse rate. A lapse rate is simply a change of temperature over a change of increasing altitude. Anytime the temperature decreases with increasing altitude, it’s referred to as a positive lapse rate. If the temperature increases with altitude, that’s referred to as a negative lapse rate or more commonly labelled a temperature inversion.

The larger the lapse rate is, the greater the atmospheric instability. An unstable environment (large lapse rate) promotes vertical mixing and provides for a more turbulent air-flow potential. On the other hand, a stable atmosphere (small or negative lapse rate) inhibits vertical mixing and provides for a laminar and non-turbulent flow.

One might suspect that vertical speed shear (faster air flowing over slower air) could cause the air to overturn and produce turbulent eddies within this wind-shear layer. However, just about all non-convective LLWS occurrences feature a strong temperature inversion. Any kind of overturning or vertical mixing introduces the potential for turbulence; however, an extremely stable layer such as this tends to dampen or resist vertical mixing. Simply put, any air that is forced to ascend within this stable layer will expand and cool and immediately finds itself in warmer temperatures aloft, due to the inversion. The air is forced to return back to its original altitude almost immediately. In other words, this air has neutral buoyancy and doesn’t want to rise or sink.

So why does the air accelerate rapidly with height? The extreme stability, courtesy of the temperature inversion, eliminates upward and downward motion or vertical

non-convective LLWS can make for a difficult climb if the low-level jet is off your tail. It’s not uncommon for the winds to be light or calm at the surface although they may be 30 knots or more just above the tree tops. With light or calm winds at the surface, you may not realize that, during the initial climb to pattern altitude, the prevailing wind is at your back.

The most important one to watch out for is when non-convective LLWS of 50 knots or greater is coupled with the potential for moderate to heavy rain showers (SHRA or +SHRA) or thunderstorms (TSRA or +TSRA) as shown in the snippet below.

FM120900 19018G30KT 3SM +SHRA BR OVC005 WS020/17075KT

Non-convective LLWS will usually occur in what is referred to as the warm sector of an area of low pressure. This is usually located to the south of the warm front and to the east of the cold front.

mixing (neutral buoyancy). This promotes a laminar flow, and the effects of surface friction are no longer “felt” at heights a few hundred feet above the surface. This allows the flow of air just above the tree tops to accelerate uninhibited and insulated from surface friction below through the depth of the wind-shear layer. You can think of this as a faster-flowing river of air (called a low-level jet) located just above the surface. The stronger and deeper the inversion, the less likely there will be any kind of turbulence.

TAFs are one way to identify the potential for non-convective LLWS. However, not all airports are served by a TAF. Meteorologists at the Aviation Weather Center also issue a forecast for widespread non-convective LLWS that is expected to cover an area of at least 3,000 square miles. You’ll see this issued as part of AIRMET Tango. AIRMET Tango can be issued for one of three different reasons, namely, non-convective moderate turbulence, sustained winds over 30 knots and non-convective LLWS below 2,000 feet AGL. It’s unfortunate that this is issued under the auspices of AIRMET Tango, suggesting to the pilot the potential for turbulence. As explained earlier, the air is normally smooth in most situations where this is forecast.

So if non-convective LLWS isn’t a forecast for turbulence, why is it forecast

at all? When the sky is clear and surface winds are light, the nocturnal version of this phenomenon is just as common as low-level thermal turbulence is during the afternoon in the summer. Unless you were fixated on your groundspeed approaching an airport late at night or in the early morning hours, you probably flew right through it without even noticing that it existed. In most cases, nocturnal non-convective LLWS isn’t usually forecast.

Nevertheless, there are several situations where you should pay close attention. First, if you are departing from an airport with a high density altitude,

As the moderate to heavy rain falls through the low-level jet, some of the momentum of the jet gets directed downward toward the surface of the earth. This is like taking a fire hose and deflecting it downward toward the ground. The downward momentum of that low-level jet creates the potential for wet microbursts or downbursts. In this case, the magnitude of the non-convective LLWS event and convective outflow can make for a real interesting approach to land.

In the end, I don’t get too excited when I see a forecast for non-convective LLWS, especially when it occurs in the overnight hours. It’s not a forecast that should instill fear in a pilot. In most cases, it’s a non-event that you may not even notice was there.

Scott C. Dennstaedt is an instrument flight instructor and former NWS meteorologist. He also teaches aviation weather to pilots online and in person throughout the U.S. To learn more about aviation weather, you can visit his website at AvWxWorkshops.com.

Meteorologists at the Aviation Weather Center issue a forecast for widespread areas of non-convective LLWS as seen here for western Washington. This is actually a graphical AIRMET (G-AIRMET), which is the successor to the legacy AIRMET. In a G-AIRMET, LLWS is separated from other adverse weather, such as widespread non-convective moderate turbulence and sustained surface winds greater than 30 knots.

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pilatus pc-24

The whole point of a corporate aircraft is to transport people and things to places that are sometimes inaccessible or inFIRST LOOK convenient to reach by airline. Whether it’s a turboprop or a corporate jet, the primary function of most business aircraft is to save time. While it’s true some smaller jets can access relatively short strips that may be closer to a corporate destination, most demand at least 4,000 feet for convenient operation.

Pilatus rolled out the first prototype of its proposed twin jet at Stans, Switzerland, on Aug. 1, and it’s looking to capitalize on the utility jet market. Pilatus employed a team of 24 horses to tow the PC-24 on the Swiss National Day holiday and help announce the company’s new model designation and emphasize its workhorse flight and loading characteristics. In keeping with its penchant for using abbreviations to summarize jet capabilities, Pilatus is calling the airplane a Super Versatile Jet or SVJ.

PILATUS AIRCRAFT INTRODUCES A PURE JET, FJ-44-POWERED PC-24. By Bill Cox 24 I

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pilatus pc-24 That’s a tall order for a pure jet. As a result, Pilatus engineers began design studies five years ago, configuring a jet that could carry roughly the same load as the company’s premier turboprop, fly 150 knots faster and land in a short distance. In this case, balanced field length is less than 3,000 feet.

Pilatus calculates that the PC-24’s short and unimproved runway capability will open up something like 21,000 additional airports worldwide that aren’t available to other jets.

The PC-24 will be certified for single-pilot operation that will allow for as many as 11 passengers. The Pilatus cabin is huge, 504 cubic feet, nearly twice the size of the competition’s aft compartment. The cabin will be similar to that in the PC-12 but four feet longer. This will allow a variety of quickchange configurations, including all-cargo or EMS missions.

More typical business layouts will accommodate two pilots and six to eight passengers with plenty of room for baggage. Cabin

The new Pilatus PC-24 was announced at last year’s European Business Aircraft Conference and Exhibition in Geneva. The new aircraft will incorporate many of the most desirable features of the existing PC-12 turboprop on a twin-jet platform.

Power for the PC-24 will be provided by a pair of new-generation Williams FJ-444A turbofans. The engines utilize Dual Channel FADEC and are rated for 3,435 pounds normal takeoff thrust each. They

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also employ Williams’ Exact passive-thrust vectoring technology. This uses the Coanda effect to provide a three-degree vectored thrust during high-power operations. More than 5 percent additional thrust will be available through a new Automatic Thrust Reserve feature, boosting max power to 3,600 pounds.

The engines also feature Williams’ Quiet Power Mode, a self-starter that will provide limited ground power and eliminate the

need for an APU. TBO has been set at 5,000 hours with an on-wing inspection of the hot section at 2,500 hours.

This new airplane is partially the result of a Pilatus market survey that asked existing PC-12 customers what features they’d like to see in a new model. The answers were almost universally “higher, faster and bigger” into the same unimproved short strips that the PC-12 uses so handily and with the same palletized cargo capability.

This new airplane is partially the result of a Pilatus market survey that asked existing PC-12 customers what features they’d like to see in a new model. The answers were almost universally “higher, faster and bigger” into the same unimproved short strips that the PC-12 uses so handily and with the same palletized cargo capability. dimensions are 61 inches tall by 67 inches across, and the popular, pressurized, heated, cavernous, aft baggage compartment will still accept a shipping pallet loaded by fork lift (with extreme care).

Pressurization differential is 8.8 psi which will allow inflating the PC-24 to offer a sea-level cabin at 23,000 feet and an 8,000 foot cabin at the airplane’s maximum operating altitude of 45,000 feet.

Performance will be well into the medium-jet class, comparable to the Embraer Phenom 300 or Cessna Citation CJ-4. Climb

at the PC-24’s max takeoff weight of 17,650 pounds will be over 4,000 fpm, and an unrestricted ascent from near sea level to FL450 should require only 30 minutes.

Max cruise is listed as 425 knots, slightly slower than the Phenom 300 and Cessna Citation CJ4, but on a typical 1,200 nm trip, the difference in time en route should be no more than 10 minutes. All three models will probably be operated at 400-420 knots anyway to reduce fuel cost and extend range.

A paper aircraft will nearly always beat a real machine in performance, so we proba-

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pilatus pc-24

Advanced Type Rating Courses for Citation Aircraft 2017 PILATUS PC-24 Specifications New Price: Engines make/model:

$8.9 M Williams FJ44-4A

Thrust (lbs):

3,600

TBO - hours:

Fuel type:

Gross weight (lbs):

8.8 Jet A

17,650

Std empty weight (lbs):

10,950

Useful load – std (lbs):

6,700

Max Ldg Wt (lbs):

16,250

Zero Fuel Wt (lbs):

13,450

Usable fuel – std (gal/lbs):

Payload– full std fuel (lbs):

888.5/5953

915

Wingspan:

55’ 9”

Overall length:

55’ 1”

Height:

PIC / SIC INITIAL, UPGRADE, AND RECURRENT TRAINING FOR:

17’ 5”

Wing area (sq ft):

Wing loading (lbs/sq ft):

332

53.1

Seating capacity:

Cabin doors:

1

Cabin width (in):

5’ 76”

Cabin height (in):

5’ 1”

Pressurization (lbs/sq in):

8.8

CE-500 Citation Series Type Rating CE-510 Citation Mustang Type Rating CE-525 CitationJet CJ Series Type Rating CE-650 Citation III, VI, VII Series Type Rating Aircraft Model Differences Training

772.223.1219

1 + 11

Performance Max Cruise Speed (kts):

bly won’t know for another year if Pilatus’s projections are accurate. (The first flight is planned for early 2015.) But history suggests they will be.

All three aircraft in the class offer maximum range in the 1,900 nm class. The PC-24 will be able to carry nearly 6,000 pounds of fuel for long-range, light-payload missions, but it may experience shorter range, not because of any performance deficiency, but because its ability to operate from abbreviated or unimproved strips may result in out-andback missions that don’t demand refueling.

The PC-24’s dual-wheel main-landing gear swings inward into uncovered wells and is designed specifically for rough runways.

Assuming Pilatus meets its performance projections, it will have a pronounced advantage in short-field performance over the competition, both in takeoff and landing.

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The PC-24 should record takeoff distances well below 3,000 feet and landing requirements closer to 2,500 feet.

Pilatus estimates the PC-24 will sell for $8.9 million in 2017 dollars, roughly what the Embraer Phenom 300 and Cessna Citation CJ4 cost today. For that reason, again assuming the economy doesn’t tank, it’s probably a safe bet the PC-24 will be the least expensive medium jet in the sky when the first one is delivered. To date, Pilatus has deposits on 84 aircraft.

If the PC-24 can even approach the level of market penetration experienced by the PC-12 (so far, the company has delivered 1,200 of its best-selling corporate turboprops), the Swiss manufacturer could indeed be building what Pilatus Chairman Oscar Schwenk dubbed an SVJ for Super Versatile Jet.

FL300

Best rate of climb, SL (fpm):

Time SL to FL450:

Maximum Operating Altitude (ft):

425 4075

30 min 45,000

Stall – Vso (kts):

81

Max Range (nm):

1950

2690

TO ground roll (ft):

Ldg ground roll (ft):

2525

All specs and performance numbers are drawn from official sources, in this case, the manufacturer’s website. All specifications are preliminary, based on engineering estimates. First flight is anticipated in late 2014/early 2015.

For more information, contact

Pilatus Business Aircraft Ltd PC-24 Sales Rocky Mountain Metropolitan Airport 11755 Airport Way Broomfield, CO 80021, USA Phone: +1 800 745 2887 http://www.pilatus-aircraft.com

www.premierjettraining.com MAILING & HANGAR 2324 SE Liberator Lane, #104 Stuart, FL 34996

Corporate Office 2382 Curtis King Blvd.

Fort Pierce, FL 34946 772.223.1219

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Performance & Safety

My former next-door neighbor, a fellow pilot and California Highway Patrolman, once told me that most automobile speedometers read fast. That’s convenient for those of us who sometimes suffer from a heavy foot on the freeway. You know who you are.

An exaggerated ground speed makes us think we’re travelling faster than we are. It also helps explain why some drivers who are simply staying with the flow of traffic are amazed that everyone

WHAT’S AN ISA? ISA HELPS DEFINE PERFORMANCE SO THAT PILOTS CAN MAKE ACCURATE ESTIMATES OF PERFORMANCE.

By Bud Corban

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seems to be doing 80 mph.

Airspeed indicators have a similar problem, only in the opposite direction. As every aspiring private pilot knows, ASIs read low on an expanding scale as altitude increases. The only time an airspeed indicator will read accurately is when the airplane is parked on the ramp. It’s common knowledge that you must consider altitude and temperature to come up with an accurate velocity (ignoring wind), strangely enough called true airspeed.

Those of us occasionally entrusted with measuring comparative aircraft performance often must adjust some instrument indications and ignore others almost completely. Through a long process of trial and error (mostly error), we’ve learned to partially distrust airspeed indicators, compasses, fuel-flow indicators, directional gyros, fuel-quantity gauges, tachometers, voltmeters/ammeters, cylinder-head temp gauges, EGTs and other aircraft instruments until they’ve proven worthy of trust.

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what’s an ISA? Fortunately, we do have a fairly accurate method of measuring the most important parameters that define aircraft performance. The International Standard Atmosphere helps us define conditions with a relatively simple formula that avoids errors associated with outside factors. In theory, about a dozen standard parameters could affect accuracy of aircraft instruments, everything from atmospheric pressure to air density, humidity, viscosity, thermal conductivity, specific heat, gravitational acceleration and a number of other issues. Variations in any of the factors above are normally so minor that they’re not even considered in formulating the ISA, but the most important evaluator is temperature.

As with anything labeled “standard,” the devil is in the details, or in this case, the inevitable variations of those details. It seems some factor always deviates from the ISA, causing anomalies in lift, drag and thrust. As mentioned above, ISA is based primarily on temperature, and for that reason, most aircraft flight manuals include charts targeting deviations from standard conditions.

In the real world, however, perhaps the most important instrument in any aircraft is the altimeter, and major atmospheric pressure changes can cause dramatic variations in instrument readouts, often irrespective of temperature.

A dozen years ago, I was almost the victim of exactly such a glitch, my own fault. I’d contracted to deliver a new aircraft from Florida to Germany in mid-winter. After major problems in Bangor and Goose Bay getting the gear to extend in the extreme cold, I elected to sidestep the problem altogether on the 680-nm leg from Narsarsuaq to Iceland.

After clearing the Greenland Icecap, I was cruising in the late afternoon darkness at FL230 with a 50-knot tailwind and the usual undercast below.

All around me, the waving curtains of Northern Lights shimmered in the high sky. Since I was operating above 18,000 feet, I had my altimeter set to the ISA-required 29.92.

Three hundred nautical miles out from Reykjavik, I called Iceland Control and requested a descent to 1,000 feet. After a short pause, the controller

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came back and advised I’d be below radar coverage. I advised that I understood but needed to find warmer air to avoid the same gear problems I’d experienced in Maine and Labrador. The controller cleared me down to 1,000 feet and to advise reaching, though there were no other idiots down there.

I tipped the nose over, descended through the overcast, and a few minutes later, leveled at 1,000 feet with a comfortable -10 degrees C outside.

As I settled in for the last hour into Reykjavik, I noticed a dim, blue/green phosphorescence beneath the airplane.

It only took me a few seconds to realize what it had to be. I punched off the autopilot and hauled back on the yoke until the altimeter read 2,000 feet.

Calmed down at 2,000 feet, I called Iceland and asked for an altimeter setting. Sure enough, it was 28.98. Iceland was under the influence of a North Atlantic oscillation, a regular, extreme low-pressure system. Apparently, either the controller had neglected to give me the current Reykjavik altimeter when I descended out of FL230 or, more likely, I’d simply missed it, as my instrument was still set on 29.92.

In the pitch dark of a frozen winter afternoon near the Arctic Circle, I’d been cruising a few feet above the North Atlantic. The blue/green color was phosphorescence off the waves below.

The ISA standard originated in France and Italy in 1920 and was adopted by England four years later. Though an obvious application was to help define aircraft performance, another major goal was to derive more accurate firing tables for long-range artillery, where air resistance had a major impact on accuracy. Before that, specifically during WWI, the accuracy of heavy artillery was hit or miss. (Sorry.)

Some gunners had a basic understanding that temperature and firing elevation had an effect on range, but their knowledge was anecdotal at best. They knew artillery rounds of a certain weight and shape, with a given propellant load, resulted in a rainbow trajectory, but they weren’t sure what other factors might improve or limit their accuracy.

By worldwide agreement in 1952, the United States and virtually all other

countries embraced the basic ISA model in use today. Although modifications have been proposed from time to time, the 1920 ISA remains essentially intact.

Specifically, ISA delineations begin at sea level where a standard temperature is defined as 15 degrees C (59 degrees F). The typical ISA model suggests a temperature lapse rate of 2 degrees C per 1,000 feet in the troposphere to a height of 36,000 feet where temperature becomes isothermal (constant) at -56.5 degrees C. It maintains that level through 65,000 feet, the normal limit of turbine-aircraft performance, unless you happen to be flying a Lockheed U-2 or SR-71. (In fact, there are actually two lapse rates, one for dry air and one for wet air. The ISA splits the difference and uses a single number for simplicity.)

Technically, the standard ISA chart defines temperature variations precisely only at mid-latitudes above and below the equator. Standard atmosphere varies slightly at the equator and the poles, but the effect is less than one percent and is usually ignored. Gravity is reduced at the equator because of centrifugal force, but the International Civil Aviation Organization has adopted the same standard all over the world.

The constant temperature at 36,000 feet is one reason some airliners and corporate jets flying legs longer than 500 nm file for an initial altitude of FL350 or FL360, then drift higher as they consume fuel and burn down to lighter weight.

Above FL650 in the stratosphere, the temperature begins to increase by roughly .3 degrees C per 1,000 feet to 105,000 feet, where it’s risen to about -46 degrees C. Above FL1050, we’ll leave ISA calculations to NASA and Burt Rutan.

If your immediate reaction is a slightly stifled yawn, consider that variations from ISA conditions are vitally important to pilots of all aircraft, especially turbines, because they help define expected performance. Both cruise speed and fuel burn are dependent upon altitude and temperature, and by definition, that means range also is affected by temperatures above or below standard.

Here come the numbers. These are two real-world examples of the difference in climb and cruise performance between operating in ISA conditions and ISA + 20 degrees C. Flying a Pilatus PC-12/47E at 8,000 pounds from sea level to a cruise height of FL280, time to

climb in ISA conditions is 16 minutes, and the aircraft can be expected to burn 154 pounds (23 gallons). Raise the temperature to ISA +20 degrees C, and you can expect to take 24 minutes for the same climb and burn 204 pounds (30.5 gallons) of jet fuel.

Once you’re established at max cruise and 28,000 feet in ISA conditions, plan on truing 272 knots at high-speed cruise while burning 56 gallons/hour.

If the temperature rises to ISA +20 degrees C, you’re more likely to score 256 knots while burning 50 gph.

Since there’s no such thing as turbocharging on turbine engines, any temperature that’s higher than normal has a greater effect the higher you fly, especially if you’re operating the aircraft near its service ceiling and you’re already down on power.

ISA has other applications besides defining aircraft performance. Pretty obviously, colder, denser air presents more drag and reduces range. More recently, ISA standards have helped define rates of satellite and spacecraft orbital decay upon re-entry to the Earth’s atmosphere.

De-orbit concerns are a little beyond the reach of today’s corporate turboprops. But give us a few years…

Those of us occasionally entrusted with measuring comparative aircraft performance often must adjust some instrument indications and ignore others almost complete ly. Through a long process of trial and error (mostly error), we’ve learned to partially distrust airspeed indicators, compasses, fuel-flow indicators, directional gyros, fuel-quantity gauges, tachometers, voltme ters/ammeters, cylinder-head temp gauges, EGTs and other aircraft instruments until they’ve proven worthy of trust.

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TaxTalk u FINANCE

A KEY TAX EXPOSURE AREA: PASSIVE ACTIVITY PROTECT YOURSELF WITH PROPERLY FILED ELECTIONS. By Jonathan Levy A notable milestone in the cat-and-mouse game of individuals seeking to minimize their tax burden and Congress making new laws to end potential shelter activity is the Passive Activity Rule, which was originally enacted as part of the Tax Reform Act of 1986. Recent developments have brought it to the minds of tax advisors. In particular, an important one-time opportunity to avoid being trapped under this rule arises from new IRS regulations, issued in November, due to the new net-investment income tax passed as part of the 2010 Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (aka Obamacare). Without proper planning, the Passive Activity Rule threatens to deny taxpayers the ability to utilize deductions to which they are fully entitled.

The Passive Activity Rule Lawmakers consider the Passive Activity Rule necessary because of the way the tax law allows businesses to write off the cost of equipment: Each item is assigned a schedule (stated in

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terms of a percentage of the purchase price each year) for writing-off the cost of the property.

This provides the business with a tax deduction, even though the business has not actually, in the year of the deduction,

incurred any cash expense.

The theory in allowing the depreciation deduction is that it corresponds to the amount of value the property lost during the given year and, thus, the depreciation rules simply allow

the business to accurately report its income by taking into account the loss in value that has occurred but that has not yet been reduced to a dollar amount and realized under the accounting rules. However, as a further measure, Congress has chosen to encourage businesses to invest in equipment by allowing these write offs to be taken over an accelerated period. For example, a non-commercial business aircraft can generally be fully written off over a fiveyear period, even though its true economic useful life may be much longer.

However, in creating the Passive Activity Rule, Congress determined that the benefit of accelerated depreciation should not be freely available to business equipment in all cases, but only under appropriate circumstances. The Senate Finance Committee, in enacting the Passive Activity Rule, wrote that, “in order for tax preferences to function as intended, their benefit must be directed primarily

to taxpayers with a substantial and bona fide involvement in the activities to which the preferences relate.” (The provision for accelerated depreciation, discussed above, is the most prominent example of the “tax preferences” the committee refers to.) To accomplish the goal of restricting “tax preferences” to taxpayers who have “substantial and bona fide involvement” in the underlying activity, rules were established to divide items of income and expense into two categories — passive and non-passive (generally referred to as “active”).

The first essential concept in separating passive from non-passive is the concept of an “activity,” which is an abstract notion that can be thought of as the way a person might answer the question, “What business are you in?” Some people will have multiple answers to that question (if they engaged in more than one business). Some will have a single answer (for example, a W-2 employee who has no side businesses), and some will answer with none (a retiree). Each is a candidate for being considered an “activity” under the Passive Activity Rule.

Once the activity has been ascertained, it will be considered passive if either (1) the individual does not “materially participate” in the activity (based on a complicated definition, but generally meaning more than 500 hours of work in the given year), or (2) the activity is a “rental” activity (another complicated definition, but generally referring to activities that make money by selling use of tangible property to others, such as a leasing company); of course, various exceptions apply.

When a passive activity incurs losses, those losses cannot be used as a tax deduction against income from non-passive activities. Rather, the losses accumulate until either used to offset other passive income or

until the passive activity C corporations. Once TAX is disposed of. At that entities are involved, TALK time, the formerly defining an individual’s passive activity becomes activities can be quite non-passive, and the vague. Take, for example, accumulated losses can be a real-estate developer who used to offset non-passive inis engaged in developing 10 come, thus reducing net income different properties, with each and therefore tax. When passive property being, as is common activities generate income, that in the industry, owned by a income, starting in 2013, is subdifferent, though related, LLC. ject to an additional 3.8 percent Is such a developer involved in Net Investment Income Tax, a single activity of real estate on top of regular income tax, development or is he involved if received by a high-income in 10 different activities, one for taxpayer (starting at $250,000 each project? The tax law largely per year for joint filers). permits the individual to decide the answer to that question, so Defining an “activity” long as the answer represents when business entities one of the various ways these are involved entities can be carved up into The activities of an individual appropriate economic units. can include not only what he Traditionally, the individual was or she does personally, but also not forced to declare to the IRS activities conducted through his chosen method of divvying related business entities, whethup the entities into activities. er they are partnership, LLCs, Since 2011, however, taxpayS corporations, or even certain ers have had to disclose the

chosen grouping to the IRS or be subject to a default rule that each LLC will be regarded as a separate activity.

The consequences of treating entities separately or together Under the default rule of treating each entity as a separate activity, it is likely that at least some of the hypothetical development projects would be considered passive because it is unlikely that the developer “materially participates” in all 10 (which would require as much as 5,000 hours of work per year). If the passive ones were generating losses, this would mean that those losses could not be used to offset income the developer has from other, active, sources. On the other hand, treating the LLCs as separate activities may make it easier to later convert accumulated passive losses to active ones be-

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TaxTalk u FINANCE Starting in 2013, the new Net Investment Income Tax raises the tax rate on passive income.

Before this new tax, it was often desirable to treat income-generating activities as passive rather than active because this would mean that the income from them might be offset by other passive activities. The fact that passive activities may now be subject to a higher tax rate radically changes this analysis.

Recognizing this unfairness, the IRS will allow a one-time regrouping of activities, without the need to show that the prior grouping was clearly inappropriate.

Complex eligibility criteria govern when a taxpayer is able to take advantage of this fresh-start, but it is generally available in the first year the taxpayer would (without the re-grouping) be required to pay Net Investment Income Tax.

cause it will be easier to dispose of a single LLC (and therefore of an entire activity, which would convert its accumulated passive losses to non-passive) than it would be to dispose of the entire collective endeavor of 10 LLCs.

offset the income earned in the operating company with the losses generated in the aircraft-ownership company.

However, if the principal neglects to make an IRS grouping disclosure declaring that the two entities should be treated as Heightened impact part of the same activity, the two to aircraft entities risk being treated as sepFor numerous reasons, a comarate. The likely result of such mon aircraft-industry practice is treatment is that the aircraft to purchase a business aircraft in entity will be deemed passive, a dedicated, special-purpose enti- either as a rental activity, or ty and then have that entity lease because the principal does not the aircraft to a related materially participate in it, in company for that comisolation. The tax depreTAX pany’s use in its trade or ciation losses generated TALK business. Typically, the by the aircraft will not be aircraft-ownership entiusable to reduce the printy will generate tax losses, cipal’s individual income due to depreciation, while taxes, unless he or she receives the lessee/operator entity which significant passive income, conducts the main business may which usually is not the case.

This means it is essential for be very profitable. It is extremely aircraft owners to properly subvaluable for the principal in both mit the Passive-Activity grouprelated companies to be able to

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ing election to the IRS, which will generally require coordination between the individual’s 1040 tax preparer, and those who prepare the tax returns for each entity. This is true because the grouping election must be filed with the 1040 return, but depends on the nature of the activities carried out in business entities owned, in whole or in part, by the individual.

One-time opportunity to correct activity grouping Generally, once a taxpayer has declared his/her chosen grouping of activities, that decision is irrevocable unless changed conditions render it clearly inappropriate, in which case the taxpayer must file an explanatory statement with the IRS. However, in recent regulations, the IRS provides a one-time opportunity to make changes without providing justification.

Conclusion The Passive Activity Rule, if not appropriately handled, has the potential to present an unpleasant surprise to many aircraft owners.

There are numerous cases where simply filing a piece of paper (the grouping election) can make all the difference. Tax return 1040 preparers who are not versed in the subject matter should seek guidance before filing tax returns without such elections that may come back to haunt.

This article provides a basic introduction to a complex area, but only covers a small portion of the field.

Always consult a qualified advisor.

Advocate 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, federal aviation 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.

aviation history

THE MILE HIGH CLUB THE INS AND OUTS OF JOINING AVIATION’S MOST FABLED FRATERNITY

By James Wynbrandt

You may be unwelcome in the Quiet Birdmen, unqualified for the Society of Experimental Test Pilots, and have insufficient miles for admittance to your favorite airline’s VIP lounge, but you are always eligible to join aviation’s most fabled fraternity, the Mile High Club.

Joining this rather loosely organized group simply requires, of course, achieving sexual intimacy while airborne. Once you’re admitted, there are no membership dues, clubhouses, newsletters, meetings or even officially sanctioned group activities. In short, compared to the initiation, being a member of the club is downright boring. The only apparent benefits are bragging rights: More about that later.

Nonetheless, multitudes appear eager to join, judging by anecdotal evidence and informal surveys.

You might imagine the origins of the Mile High Club have been lost to history or that multiple claimants vie for the title of founder.

But the first member, so to speak, is well known to aviation buffs — pioneering aviator and bon vivant Lawrence Sperry, whose inventions include the turn-and-bank indicator and retractable landing gear. In November 1916, Sperry began giving flying lessons to a New York socialite and, later that month, the Curtiss flying boat in which he was instructing her crashed over Long Island. The duck

hunters who came to their rescue found the couple naked. The Mile High Club is said to have been born that day. All too typically, the woman’s vital contribution to this aviation first often goes uncredited. For the record, she was Mrs. Waldo Polk.

Mainstream media coverage of club activities typically focuses on intimacy aboard commercial airliners. Stories of dalliances in airliner cockpits and firstclass cabins are as old as the crackers they serve as dinner back in coach.

But private pilots enjoy an obvious advantage in gaining entry to the club, having ready access to aircraft that aren’t filled with strangers.

Another of Sperry’s inventions has doubtlessly eased entry into the club for many aviators: the autopilot.

Perhaps “Otto” was inspired by the events surrounding the club’s formation. So should we celebrate Sperry’s amorous exploits by imitation or take his accidental climax as a cautionary tale? And even using protection like an autopilot, how safe is sex when you’re PIC?

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aviation history Curtiss flying boat after prize winning flight with Sperry automatic pilot in 1914

Another of Sperry’s inventions has doubtlessly eased entry into the club for many aviators: the autopilot. Perhaps “Otto” was inspired by the events surrounding the club’s formation. So should we celebrate Sperry’s amorous exploits by imitation or take his accidental climax as a cautionary tale? And even using protection like an autopilot, how safe is sex when you’re PIC? “It’s a great way to have a mid-air (collision) or controlled flight into terrain,” said Anthony Stevens, an ATP who managed a Los Angeles-based Part 135 operation that offered Mile High Club flights. Simply maintaining control of the aircraft while amorous activity is occurring onboard can be a challenge.

“There’s no such thing as trimming the airplane and leaving it alone,” Stevens said.

“You’ve got a lot of CG shift going on. Moderate turbulence, that’s what it feels like.”

“Oh, my gracious, I know it’s been done, but I certainly wouldn’t advocate it,” said David “The Captain” MacDonald, president of Flamingo Air in Cincinnati, which offers such love flights, when asked about the advisability of piloting one’s one way onto the membership rolls.

But statistics, or rather the lack of them, seem to belie the notion that self-piloted inductions into the club represent unsafe sex – if such activity is going on.

“Of course, it’s going on,” said an official at a major aviation safety organization, before adding, “I don’t recall any such accidents in our database we’ve ever read. I would have to say the incidence is extremely rare.”

Granted, no category of causal factors related to sexual activity, by which a data search could be conducted, exists. And furthermore,

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the NTSB wouldn’t investigate an accident precipitated by amorous activity aloft.

“If (sexual activity) became the cause, then that’s not a mechanical issue. Therefore, it would be turned over to other authorities,” said Keith Holloway, an NTSB spokesman.

Moreover, the accident cause would likely never become a matter of public record and would be omitted from any preliminary accident report, as well.

“There’s a privacy act we deal with, and if it falls under that, the information is not made public,” said Holloway.

Whatever the public disclosure policy, it’s clear the FAA isn’t swamped with Mile High Club-related accidents referred to them for investigation by the NTSB. “To the best of my recollection, no cause of an accident is attributable to what you’re suggesting,” said James Peters, an FAA spokesman, when sex-in-the-cockpit safety was raised.

As ATP Stevens’ experience hints, many commercial operators have tried catering to aspiring club members over the years, offering couples the opportunity to make love aloft in single- and twin-engine aircraft configured for amorous activity. Typically, these flights are marketed as romantic packages under names like Romeo and Juliet and Young Lovers, rather than Mile High adventures, because the vast majority of customers booking these flights are women.

“It’s a female market,” said MacDonald.

“Ladies don’t want to hear about Mile High.

They want to hear about romance.” He should know, having launched Flamingo Air’s love flights in 1991.

“Since ‘91 we’ve done thousands of flights, and so far less than a dozen men have called

to book them; it’s strictly the ladies, and I’m here to tell you they take it darn seriously.

“As opposed to popular belief, most customers are very straitlaced, upper middle class and well-to-do folks. They’re free spirited, (but) they have standards and morals.”

Flights are often purchased as birthday or anniversary presents, and peak booking season is around Valentine’s Day. Most love flights are conducted under Part 119 rules, which cover aerial tours, with the aircraft remaining within 25 miles of the airport of origin and landing at the same facility.

Flamingo Air’s one-hour flights cost $425 and are conducted in daylight in VFR conditions. Doubtless some couples would enjoy a late-night rendezvous, but Flamingo also offers flight training, scenic tours and other flight services, and “we reach a point where enough is enough,” MacDonald said.

As for any questions about the route, “I say, Who cares?”

Once airborne, “We try to get up to a mile to make it official, but sometimes the weather prevents it,” MacDonald said. Not to worry: While the desire to attain the club’s eponymous altitude before commencing initiation is understandable, the fraternity’s loose rules mandate no minimum altitude to qualify for membership.

Airplanes used for such flights typically have curtained partitions between the cockpit and cabin, though not everyone appreciates the privacy. “Somebody asked us to leave the curtain open,” Stevens recalled.

“They said they liked to be watched.”

Back on the ground, customers receive certificates attesting to their membership in the Mile High Club, a standard memento of such flights.

Stevens remembers that “one of the things that struck me was how genuinely nice the people that we dealt with were. Most of the people are fun, and they’re with someone they care very much about.”

“It’s something really neat to do with someone special,” said MacDonald.

So how many people actually belong to the Mile High Club? With no official sanctioning authority or membership registry, the number remains, of course, unknown.

However, it should be remembered that not only can anyone join, anyone can say they already have. Thus, claims of membership should be regarded with a healthy degree of skepticism. As an earlier account of the organization found, “evidently those who manage copulation in the air are far fewer than those making the claim.”

Travel u MANITOBA, CANADA

POLAR BEARS AND YOU THIS CAN BE A ONCE-IN-A-LIFETIME CHANCE FOR YOU SAFELY TO GET UP-CLOSE-AND-PERSONAL WITH SOME LARGE MEAT-EATERS.

By Lyn Freeman

It’s a long way to Churchill, Manitoba, Canada, population 923. There are no roads. Only trains and planes come and go to this Arctic town on the tundra. Flying yourself out of Winnipeg, it’s more than 700 miles across the barren wilderness of northern Canada to the town’s small airport (CYYQ) on the Hudson Bay. But thousands of people come to Churchill, nevertheless.

In the spring and summer months, they watch nearly 300 different species of birds or the thousands of Beluga whales coming into the bay to calf and mate. In the colder months of October and November, people begin showing up from every continent in the world. Every year in the fall and early winter, Churchill hosts the largest gathering of polar bears on earth.

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Frontiers North Adventures began taking visitors out into the Churchill Wildlife Management Area more than 20 years ago. Its efforts resulted in Tundra Buggy Adventure, a dream-of-alifetime excursion in a highly modified four-wheel drive vehicle that takes guests deep into bear country.

“Although you cannot guarantee wildlife, it is still

not unusual to have half a dozen bears right outside a Tundra Buggy,” said Frontiers North’s Jaime Dzikowski.

Guests often find themselves nose-to-nose with a polar bear, separated only by a glass window, or sometimes, nothing at all, standing on an open-air platform just out of paw’s reach.

The bears come to Churchill to wait for Hudson Bay

to freeze. The ice then opens up the pathway northward to their favorite winter hunting grounds and their favorite food, the Ringed Seals. It’s a cycle that’s been going on for thousands of years although the polar bear now finds itself on the endangered species list.

It shouldn’t be surprising that, over the years, Frontiers North Adventures has escorted a medley of visitors from National Geographic photographers to scientists.

They will also be glad to take you. The company offers twoto eight-day trips in their big Tundra Buggies, and if you like, you can come back to your hotel room in Churchill each night.

There’s also the Tundra Buggy Lodge with sleeping rooms, dining area and lounge. Elevated open decks around the lodge allow bear and guest to look at each other without encumbrance. During their 24 hours of polar bear viewing, guests sometimes watch polar bears emerge from their snow blankets, tucked gently around them during the night by Mother Nature.

Frontiers North Adventures offers variations of the basic experience, sometimes including dog sledding or visits to aboriginal cultural programs, all well explained on its website. Not surprisingly, these remarkable opportunities to see the bears fill up very quickly. Only a limited number of people can go each year and, if you want to see the bears this fall, you really need to sign up now.

These are the kinds of experiences life should be made of.

For more, contact Frontiers North Adventures, 800.663.9832, or visit its website, TundraBuggy.com

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MiPad u ELECTRONICS material, this is the first time I’ve seen it all collected in one place and competently explained in plain language: iPadPilotNews.com/2013/09/ ipad-legal-briefing-for-pilots/.

UPGRADES AND LEGALITIES THE BEST IPAD APPS, WINTER 2015. By John D. Ruley This month we feature major upgrades to two of the most popular iPad electronic flight bag (EFB) apps for propjet pilots – but first, some questions and answers about the legality of using an iPad on the flight deck.

Ever since the first EFBs appeared back in the 1990s, there have been fundamental questions about using portable devices on the flight deck. In a nutshell, these can be reduced to two: First, is it legal to use an EFB in flight?

Second, can an EFB (with appropriate software) legally replace paper charts (and other documents)?

The broad answer for most

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Part 91 operators has been “yes, provided you secure it during critical phases of flight (think takeoff and landing) and confirm it doesn’t interfere with any of the installed equipment,” for the first question. Over time the second question has basically moved from “yes, but keep the paper charts as a backup” to “yes, with a separate backup” which may be paper or another form

of electronic charts (a chart subscription on the MFD in your panel, for instance – or a second EFB).

The rules are more restrictive for air carrier or air taxi pilots operating under Part 121 or 135, Part 91 subpart K fractional owners, and operators of large (over 12,500 pounds gross weight) and/ or turbojet aircraft, who may require formal authorization to use an EFB (or any other portable electronic device) when operating below 10,000 feet MSL. The details for all of this are covered in Federal Air Regulation 91.21 and no less than three Advisory Circulars: 91-21b, 91-78 and 120-76.

The folks who write the iPad Pilot News email newsletter for Sporty’s Pilot Shop have performed a real service by compiling this information and explaining it on one of their web pages. While I’m already familiar with the

ForeFlight Mobile version 6.3.1 Now for the updates: ForeFlight Mobile has been a runaway success, used very widely by pilots of all types of aircraft (including some turbojet operators). It offers a simple to use but powerful combination of pre-flight planning and inflight navigation.

I last covered version 4.7 over a year ago. Since then, the developers have added a slew of new features, including an in-app weight-and-balance function; cloud-based track logging and synchronization of recent and favorite airports, routes, user waypoints and procedures between iPad and iPhone; approach-plate annotations; geo-referenced airport diagrams for high-use airports that don’t have an FAA airport diagram; and a Pack feature that automatically identifies which updates are required for a route, filling a need I’ve personally run into on long, cross-country legs.

Three new features I particularly appreciate are the profile view, hazard advisor and split screen attitude/ moving map display. The first two of these work together.

The profile view graphically shows terrain along your route of flight, which I find most useful in preflight planning; if there’s a terrain conflict, you can see it and adjust your filed altitude request accordingly.

As you fly, the hazard advisor dynamically colors terrain that would present a conflict, much like a panel-mount terrain awareness and warning system. The split-screen display is available only if you have a Stratus II ADS-B/GPS-

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MiPad u ELECTRONICS Ever since the first EFBs appeared back in the 1990s, there have been fundamental questions about using portable devices on the flight deck.

In a nutshell, these can be reduced to two: First, is it legal to use an EFB in flight? Second, can an EFB (with appropriate software) legally replace paper charts (and other documents)?

Jeppesen Mobile Flight Deck

Jeppesen Mobile Flight Deck Update

WAAS/AHARS device. As you can see from the screenshot on this page, it turns your iPad into what amounts to a glass panel, with Stratus-based attitude, altitude, airspeed and heading on one side and moving map on the other.

There’s also a new version of ForeFlight for U.S. military and government operators with access to Department of Defense Flight Information Publications, and limited chart coverage (airport thumbnail diagrams and, in some cases, IFR en-route charts) is now available for

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Asia, Australia, the Caribbean, Central America and Mexico.

Incidentally, it can be hard to keep up on all the changes – and while ForeFlight remains easy to use, some features are more obvious than others. A good place to check is ForeFlight’s bulletin at http://blog. foreflight.com/, which you can simply browse or sign up for regular email updates.

Jeppesen Mobile Flight Deck 2.6 While ForeFlight is popular, it’s based on FAA chart data, and many pilots (especial-

ly commercial operators) continue to prefer Jeppesen.

Their iPad Mobile Flight Deck went through a major revision earlier this year, with new features that display additional navigation elements (changeover points, signal gaps, waypoint formations, distance between navaids), user-defined waypoints, SID and STAR transitions shown when associated with a runway, flight-sharing of data between two iPads (or two apps on the same iPad), radial DME support and a redesigned user interface that combines the functions of the former route drawer and saved flights popover into a single flight info drawer. The new interface also does a better job of indicating what updates are current. And the new features are available not only for individual pilots using Mobile Flight Deck, but also for commercial and military operators using the similar Flight Deck Pro app, which runs on both iOS 7 and Windows 8 devices.

Now for the bad news: I’ve seen a lot of complaints about performance problems with the latest Mobile FlightDeck update, particularly on older hardware. As an iPad 2 user myself, I can confirm that it’s noticeably slower than earlier versions – but still usable.

Based on my own experience and what I’ve read from others, in many cases it may be necessary to reset app data or reinstall when upgrading.

Both can be done from the JeppFD section of the iPad Settings app. Scroll to the bottom and you’ll find two slider buttons for Reset User Settings and De-activate. Try the reset first – it restores the app to its default state, but does not release the site key required for activation. If that fails, de-activating will let you completely remove the app and reinstall it from scratch.

According to the version 2.6 release notes, performance also improves if you shut down other apps running in the background and disable terrain display when it’s not required. You can find the release notes, along with video training and a user guide in PDF format, in the Training and Documentation section of Jeppesen’s Mobile Flight Deck web page at ww1.Jeppesen. com/aviation/products/mobile-flitedeck/resources.jsp.

I highly recommend viewing the video training, as it helps to explain some features of the revised user interface. And if you have trouble upgrading to the new version, pick up the phone and call Jeppesen customer support (800.732.2800 in the U.S.). I can say from personal experience that they are very helpful!

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.

Citation Jet Pilots

IS THE CJP OWNER PILOT ASSOCIATION FOR ALL CITATION OPERATORS? While going through CE-525 training back in August, two pilots in my class from a small flight department asked “Could we, as pro pilots, join Citation Jet Pilots? And is there any value in doing so?” The answers are “Yes” and “Yes!” CJP was founded six years ago by 10 individual owners to share information on operating their newly acquired Citations. Since then we have become THE resource for owners, operators and pilots of these great jets. Single-pilot or crew-cockpit, it doesn’t matter.

As we approach 400 aircraft and 900 members in CJP, we are seeing more professional pilots join with us. Although the majority of our members fly their jet single-pilot, we are gaining professional pilots and owners who operate the larger jets in the Citation family. Just this month, we welcomed our second Citation X into the CJP ranks. Our growing membership means increased scale and, because of that scale, we have some great industry partners that have joined with us to provide even more value to our members: Bendix King, ProFlight, Garmin, FlightSafety and Rockwell-Collins, to name a few.

On this insert, you will see a list of some of the monetary savings you can receive as a member: insurance, training, maintenance, etc. Yes, those savings pay for the $300 membership fee many times over.

But the value in CJP goes much deeper than a $750 certificate, or a potential $1,500-$2,000 discount on your insurance.

In my opinion, our greatest value is the exchange of information among our members, primarily through our website forum, our various Regional events and the network of other owners and operators whom you will get know as a CJP member. It is information that is timely, accurate, and valuable. And it is as pertinent to the professional pilots as it is to the individual owners who fly single-pilot.

I invite you join us for 90 days — no cost — and access our website and forum. See it for yourself. To do that, contact me at Contact@CitationJetPilots.com, or at 916.672.6515. I look forward to hearing from you.

Blue skies, Jon Huggins, Executive Director, CJP

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SCHOLARSHIP AND EDUCATION With the continued support from our sponsors and a successful auction at our recent annual convention, CJP is proud to be in a position to continue our increasing support for the next generation of aviation leaders through scholarship and education.

Scholarship Recipients: • Sophomore Dakota Foster, an aeronautical science major with an aviation safety minor who aspires to a career as an airline pilot, is a member of the Embry-Riddle Women’s Ambassador Program.

• Senior Robert Morgan is an aeronautical science major at Embry-Riddle’s Prescott campus who plans to attend

$500 VOUCHER TOWARDS SERVICES OR PARTS

$500 credit towards any services or parts purchased directly from a Cessna Citation Service Center, a Cessna owned Mobile Service Unit or Cessna Service Parts & Programs. (This Benefit is available to Owner Members Only)

By Rob Finfrock

CJP recently joined with the Bob Hoover Legacy Foundation in contributing $50,000 each toward four Bob Hoover Presidential Scholarships for students attending Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University on campuses in Prescott, Ariz., and Daytona Beach, Fla. These latest scholarships, worth $25,000 each, were awarded during a reception held Oct. 23 in Daytona Beach and attended by storied test pilot, aviation legend and foundation namesake Bob Hoover, as well as Embry-Riddle President Dr. John P. Johnson, members of the university’s board of trustees and President’s Advisory Board, and members of the CJP and Hoover Foundation boards.

This is the second year that CJP has bestowed the Bob Hoover Presidential Scholarship, after honoring last year’s inaugural recipient, Yann Bosch. Along with the Bob Hoover Legacy Foundation, CJP expanded the program to encompass four academic scholarships to Embry-Riddle students pursuing careers in the aviation industry.

“CJP is pleased to once again partner with Embry-Riddle and the Bob Hoover Legacy Foundation to provide these meaningful scholarships to deserving students, so they may move ahead in their aviation careers,” said CJP Chairman Mark Aloe.

MEMBERSHIP BENEFITS

Officer Training School and become a U.S. Air Force pilot after graduation from Embry-Riddle.

• Junior Achyut Nair, who has double major in aeronautical science and aerospace engineering, mentors new flight students and plans to become an Embry-Riddle flight instructor and then an airline pilot, with the ultimate goal of starting his own airline.

• Junior Anna Robinson is a student assistant at the Flight Dispatch Center and FAA Testing Center at Embry-Riddle, majoring in aeronautical science.

She is also an Embry-Riddle Orientation Ambassador for new students.

Each of these students aspires to become a professional pilot and was selected based on his/her academic record, leadership skills, service to others, work ethic and financial need. Each also submitted a written essay demonstrating his/her passion for — and commitment to — the aviation industry.

“I would like to thank Embry-Riddle President Dr. John P. Johnson for bestowing these honors on these future aviation leaders,” Aloe added. “I also found it particularly meaningful to see Mr. Hoover, someone who has been so instrumental in establishing the very foundation of this industry, at a ceremony celebrating its future potential.”

Aloe also acknowledged CJP Chief Operating Officer Cheryl Hardy, and CJP Treasurer and Director Tracy Forrest, for their efforts in selecting potential candidates and interviewing the finalists for the scholarships.

$750 CJP TRAINING INCENTIVE PROGRAM

ProFlight. This member benefit entitles members of the Citation Jet Pilots Association to a $750 credit toward any training services offered by and purchased from ProFlight.

WAGNER FAMILY OF WINE Enjoy a compli-

mentary tasting for Citation Jets Pilots Association Members.

Members will also receive 20% off any wine purchase made in our tasting room, online or by phone using a special code. (Code: CJP)

JETAVIVA AIRCRAFT VALUATION TOOL This tool

is available to you as a member at no additional cost.

Other valuation services would cost you thousands

CJP TRAINING INCENTIVE PROGRAM

As a new CJP Member, you will receive a $750 Training Voucher that can be applied towards any Cessna Citation Jet training course or other instructor led ancillary training product offered by FlightSafety International.

MEMBERSHIP IN NBAAThe National

Business Aviation Association has served the business aviation community for more than 60 years by enhancing safety and security, shaping public policy, providing world-renowned industry events and advancing the business aviation goals.

CJP-SHELL CONTRACT FUELING PROGRAM The Citation Jet Pilots Shell Fuel card is accepted at Shell Aviation Dealers worldwide and provides additional fuel discounts for Citation Jet Pilots members at over 130 U.S. locations.

CJP/UVAIR FUEL PROGRAM

Available exclusively to CJP members, this card will give you access to discounts averaging 5-10 cents per gallon beyond the already discounted UVair fuel services.

CJP INSURANCE PROGRAM

Our members save as much as $1,500 or more on their insurance premium and work with participating insurance underwriters that are offering “no claims renewal bonuses or premium credits” for the completion of the safety seminars offered at our annual conventions.

PRIVATE MEMBER FORUMS AND MEMBERS-ONLY EVENTS

Each year, we host several regional events as well as our, exceptionally attended, annual conference. These faceto-face events allow our members to not only network, receive valuable training, and meet with service providers, but they also give our members the chance to share with each other the valuable experiences they have had owning and operating their jets throughout the year.

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LightHawku CONSERVATION

LENDING WINGS TO THE CONSERVATION EFFORT VOLUNTEER PILOTS FIND A WAY TO HELP THROUGH LIGHTHAWK

By Michelle Carter

Gabrielle and Kenneth Adelman were packing their Citation at the Watsonville, Calif., airport last May in preparation for a trip to KUAO in Aurora, Ore., when they got an email that a California condor egg needed a lift from Southern California to Boise, Idaho. Without much hesitation, they added a couple extra legs to their flight plan and headed south.

As volunteer pilots for LightHawk, a non-profit that pairs pilots with conservation projects throughout North and Central America, the Adelmans were familiar with the Peregrine Fund’s World Center for Birds of Prey in Boise. They already had airlifted rare Aplomado falcon chicks from the center for release into their former range in the Southwest. The near extinction of the condors had

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been an issue close to Gabrielle’s heart for years.

“I was born in California, so the story of the California condor was familiar to me,” she said.

“Getting to see one hatch is such a rare opportunity that we were well compensated for our time.

These birds nearly didn’t exist any more when I first learned of them in the ‘70s.”

This time, the Los Angeles Zoo and Botanical Gardens had bred

the condor egg, and a pair of condor foster parents was waiting for it at the Boise center. The “stork,” in this case, was the Citation, which they keep at KWVI with their Robinson R44 helicopter.

“The Citation is good for longer missions,“ Gabrielle said, “as it’s comfortable and very weather-capable. But it’s fairly economical on fuel (for a jet) and can get into smaller runways.”

The Adelmans met as stu-

dents at Caltech, married and found jobs in the tech industry.

Less than a decade later, they had launched and sold dot. com companies and no longer needed day jobs. They learned to fly at a flight school at the Watsonville airport.

“And we are still flying,” Gabrielle added, “traveling with friends, taking photographs of the coast, helping the sheriff, Angel Flight, Young Eagles, other pilots, carrying exotic cats — and just plain house cats — where they need to go, or just enjoying the sky and the patterned earth below.”

The earth below, in particular the California coastline, has fascinated the Adelmans ever since they started flying, and the result is the California Coastal Records Project. Their website (CaliforniaCoastline.org) features more than 80,000 photos that together form an aerial photographic survey of the coast from Oregon to Mexico. It’s become their lives’ work, which they update regularly with Gabrielle flying the R44 and Kenneth shooting digital frames every few seconds.

With that kind of commitment to the environment, the connection to LightHawk was a natural.

The Adelmans and other LightHawk volunteers have become the air support for all kinds of conservation efforts, flying photographers in their Cessnas with the doors removed, attaching video cameras to their Bonanzas to map regions for reconstruction projects or showing potential donors precisely how their dollars would be used to protect special places for humans and wildlife alike. By bringing the aerial perspective to conservation efforts, LightHawk enables groups on the ground to accomplish their goals faster and more efficiently.

At LightHawk’s recent annual gathering in Santa Fe, N.M., the work of the Sonoran Institute to restore the Colorado River Delta was highlighted. For more than five years, an entire cadre of

other 1,000-hour PIC-qualified pilots with access to planes from single-engine oneto-four seaters for photography and aerial tours to turboprops and jets for wildlife survival flights. Pilots donate all the costs associated with the conservation flights, and LightHawk has a detailed system to

document these donations for tax purposes. Visit LightHawk.org to volunteer.

Oh, and if you think it’s counterproductive to burn AvGas or Jet A to benefit conservation efforts, LightHawk is pleased to tell you that it buys carbon credits to offset that fuel use.

Oh, and if you think it’s counterproductive to burn AvGas or Jet A to benefit conservation efforts, LightHawk is pleased to tell you that it buys carbon credits to offset that fuel use. volunteer pilots carried politicians, conservationists, reporters and videographers over the 23-mile stretch of parched riverbed through Baja California that was reborn in May 2014 when the Colorado met the Gulf of California for the first time in 16 years.

The pulse-flow restoration was a demonstration project to show what could be done through the cross-border cooperation of Mexico and the United States. Some LightHawk pilots got so involved that they left their cockpits to plant cottonwood trees and dig the trenches that would direct the river that would once again reach its natural outlet in the Sea of Cortez.

Still other pilots have flown representatives of national organizations like The Nature Conservancy or locals like Save the (San Francisco) Bay as they monitor conservation projects across the U.S. and Central America or spread the word about efforts to restore habitat for Coho salmon and cut channels to recreate estuaries for healthy water systems. Flights range from tracking jaguars in the jungles of Guatemala to helping scientists count sharks and rays off the coast of Florida.

More than 230 pilots now volunteer for LightHawk, and the organization is seeking

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Must-Haveu PRODUCT REVIEW

START PAC POWERS AIR JOURNEY’S HIGH-ALTITUDE TAKE-OFFS Nevada-based Start Pac manufactures a wide selection of portable power units that replace the need for ground power service for small to medium-sized turbine aircraft. The company has been producing an American-made product line, which features both 24- and 28-volt models designed for repeated starts and maintenance functions for 14 years.

“I had no idea that the small unit could be so powerful. It is very responsive and convenient,” said Thierry Pouille, CEO of Air Journey, a company that takes clients and their turbine-powered aircraft to the four corners of the world. Some of the airports the groups use are more than two miles above sea level, often requiring expensive encounters with local GPU services.

This past March, Air Journey circumnavigated South America in its annual Explore South America trip. The journey started with the colonial charm of Cartagena, Colombia, and included a four-night cruise on the Amazon River in Peru, Lake Titicaca and the floating island of Uros in Peru, the salt flats of Uyuni, Bolivia, a traditional ranch experience at Estancia Vik in the rolling countryside of Uruguay,

the exclusive beach resort Ponta dos Ganchos and a dune buggy adventure in Brazil. The trip ended with a stay at the new Pink Sands Club in Barbados.

Planning for engine problems was not on the agenda; however, the beauty of the Andes Mountains comes with the added challenge of departing from high-altitude runways. Engine batteries hold a charge just fine the closer you are to sea level, but as you make your way into the mountains, the atmosphere is less dense, taxing the aircraft that then requires more outside power through a generator.

“We have paid as much as $1,500 to get a GPU start, and that’s just for one aircraft,” Pouille said.

When he learned about Start Pac, Pouille had one delivered to him before a departure from

Juliaca, Peru, at 12,552 feet above sea level.

Pouille and the five-plane Air Journey caravan had just explored Bogota, Colombia, and headed for their next leg to Juliaca, Peru, to see the impressive pre-Incan burial ground at Sillustani.

Juliaca’s airport had a GPU unit that hadn’t worked for three years since few private pilots fly into these rural airports. Air Journey was not going to risk any potential problems with the unit and prepared for Plan B. Start Pac’s Quick Change line has lightweight, powerful battery packs, and the beauty of the unit is that it is low-maintenance. You simply plug the portable GPU into a normal power outlet, which could even be in your hotel room, and with just five to eight hours of charge, you could get four good engine starts. Twenty-eight volts

was needed for the Citation in the group, and each start of the engine requires 800-1100 amps.

The four TBMs on the journey could all be charged for take off, along with the Citation Mustang.

The Start Pac unit further impressed the fleet in La Paz, Bolivia. The sky-high airport is rightfully named El Alto, Spanish for “the high,” and at 13,323 feet, it is the highest international airport and fifth highest commercial airport in the world. El Alto also has a four-kilometer runway to counteract the low-pressure atmosphere that reduces air resistance. Start Pac’s Ground Power Unit allowed pilots to breathe a sigh of relief — or as much as they could at that altitude. The energy gave the aircraft the additional speed required to lift the wings and, by the time the gears were up, the birds were halfway to their cruise altitude.

To up the ante even further, Start Pac has a patent-pending quick-change product line. These lithium-ion starting units are 42 percent smaller and 33 percent lighter but have twice the battery life of lead acid units. The quickchange technology eliminates the need to disassemble the unit to replace the batteries, a process that normally requires shop time, maintenance personnel, lead time and a repair facility. Now a separate battery pack can be switched out with a new one in seconds.

Even if you are not planning on taking off from a high-altitude runway in Peru, the Start Pac is a good investment for your aircraft.

FBOs can charge up to $1,500 for GPU access. Just store the 40-pound lithium Start Pac in the back of the aircraft for guaranteed ease of mind. This Start Pac also leaves a very small ecological footprint, with non-toxic, recyclable batteries and a powder coating to support the efforts against global warming “I knew Start Pac existed,” Pouille said, “but now I find it irreplaceable. Everyone reading this article should get access.”

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centerline

MOVING ON UP MAKING A SMOOTH TRANSITION FROM PROP PILOT TO JET PILOT.

By Neil Singer

One of my more well-worn reminders to would-be jet pilots starting the preparations for their type rating is, “Remember that the job of the big sim schools isn’t to turn a pilot into a jet pilot; it’s to turn a jet pilot into a typed pilot.”

The simple fact is the two largest training organizations have disproportionately more professional pilots (training for their “nth” type rating) pass through their doors than they do owner/pilots proudly (and anxiously) stepping away from their propeller background into their first jet. Thus, over several decades, a standard track has developed for type-rating courses that dives deeply into the specifics of operating a particular jet, while touching only lightly (if at all) on more broad topics equally critical to safe operations.

While a wealth of online and live courses is available to prepare pilots for transitioning to the world of flying jets, many pilots don’t avail themselves of the opportunities, or else do, but end up with a wide but shallow immersion into the general operational lore. However they get there, it’s far more common than not that a new jet pilot, particularly an owner/operator, ends up very knowledgeable about his/her specific aircraft, but with some dangerous “unknown unknowns” about jet flying in general.

This state of affairs can go on for quite some time before the pilot slowly acquires, in bits and pieces, the disparate knowledge he/she really needed from the beginning. The good news is that the truth is out there, and it’s not too hard to “fill the holes” in a deliberate and efficient manner sooner rather than later. Here are some of the general operational subject gaps I find most often in newish jet pilots along with suggestions on how to get busy filling them.

On-board weather radar use If radar is discussed at all in a type-rating course, it will often be a rapid overview of buttons, modes and display possibilities. Typically nothing is taught about the theory behind radar operation, most importantly as it relates to tilt management during the various phases of flight. Likewise, general thunderstorm theory isn’t often covered.

A recommendation here takes no thought at all: Erik Eliel of Radar Training International, the spiritual successor to the near-legendary Archie Trammell, can provide an unparalleled immersion into the essentials of radar and thunderstorms. This is information no pilot should fly a jet without. Wherever in the world you fly, you will encounter thunderstorms at some time, and too many pilots simply don’t know even the most basic elements of operating their radar properly.

Ground de-icing Jets provided unmatched weather capability, including the possibility of safely operating in and out of icing conditions that many propeller airplanes couldn’t handle. Here too, a study source is easy to recommend and, best of all, it’s completely free. NASA has produced a superb online training course entitled, “A Pilot’s Guide

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to Ground Icing,” http://aircrafticing.grc.nasa.gov/courses_ground. html. Using animations and accident reports, NASA has done an excellent job breaking the subject down into manageable bits and throws in some excellent reference documents to boot.

Takeoff and landing performance While initial type courses often spend the better part of a day poring through tomes of performance data, little time is dedicated to what those numbers really mean or to the big picture of the performance requirements jet aircraft must meet. There’s a lot more to V1, VR and V2 than meets the eye, and no jet pilot should fly without a thorough understanding of what’s “behind the curtain” of performance computations. Likewise, landing performance, particularly regarding contamination and safety factoring is often poorly understood.

A good primer on these topics was recently released online by a joint FAA/industry working group and is available at https:// www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ry-12gl2L8A to view one of four videos. The material is weighty and may require several viewings, but it is comprehensive and features excellent graphics.

International procedures The final topic of my “big four” international procedures study is often given short shift by pilots. Many pilots aren’t aware of how different IFR procedures can be, outside the U.S., nor of the myriad customs, immigrations and permitting requirements.

Pilots can be lucky (until they’re not), operating OK for a while, not knowing what they don’t know, until the lack of knowledge bites them in the form of a violation.

Several training providers exist in this arena. Every large sim organization also offers supplemental international-procedures training courses, as do dedicated international-training specialists. Some are quite dry, and many focus heavily on the procedures used by the largest of large business jets while omitting topics critical to pilots of short-range light jets. Yet, this is a case where some knowledge is better than none, so even less-thanperfect is a good place to start. Perform a web search for “international procedures training” and get cracking

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