Tweeting Crashes
A 15-Knot Aileron?
Hippos in the Pattern
The NTSB in the info age (p. 10)
The trick behind the claims (p. 68)
Risk assessment gone mad (p. 60)
THE WORLD’S MOST WIDELY READ AVIATION MAGAZINE / S E P T E M B E R 2013
Affordable Avionics Irresistible cockpit toys
FREIGHT DOGS
Life & death among the big rocks (p. 48)
SAFE OR UNSAFE?
Sim instructors size up their students (p. 64)
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S E P T E M B E R 2013 / V O L U M E 140 / I S S U E 9
ON THE COVER
CONTENTS
FEATURES
Photographer Paul Bowen captured the Gulfstream G650, the world’s most advanced business jet, over the Canyonlands of the American Southwest.
40
We Fly Gulfstream G650 Behind the yoke of the world’s current fastest bizjet. B Y
48
ROBERT GOYER
54 Life and Death: Flying the Owens Valley
Five Great and Affordable Cockpit Upgrades
BY SAM WEIGEL
BY STEPHEN POPE
The perils of single-engine freight-dogging in the high country.
We scour the avionics market to find the best values for your money. SEPTEMBER 2013 / FLYINGMAG.COM 1
CONTENTS F LY I N G N E W S & N O T E S
10
14
16
Tweeting Disaster
Feedback from our readers
The latest in aviation news
BY ROBERT GOYER
READER LETTERS
EDITED BY PIA BERGQVIST
Going Direct
Flying Mail
Airways
F LY I N G S A F E LY
26
34
The Human Factor
On the Record
Assessing Total Risk
Brief accident reports from the NTSB
B Y J AY H O P K I N S
36
I Learned About Flying From That My First Solo and My First Loop BY ROBERT L. WIEMAN
30
Aftermath An Ambiguous Accident BY PETER GARRISON
F LY I N G O P I N I O N
60
Unusual Attitudes The Matrix and Me
68
72
Technicalities
Jumpseat
Scratching My Head Over a Press Release Flight Training for Clients BY PETER GARRISON
BY LES ABEND
BY MARTHA LUNKEN
64
Gear Up
80
Flashbacks
Does Recurrent Training Work?
50 and 25 years ago in Flying
BY DICK KARL
BY BETHANY WHITFIELD
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F LY I N G N E W S & N O T E S
GOING DIRECT BY ROBERT GOYER
Tweeting Disaster
he crash IN JULY of the Asiana Airlines Boeing 777 on approach to San Francisco has highlighted how our information culture has changed the way we discuss airplane accidents. This is true from the highest levels of government to the way pilots talk about crashes around the virtual hangar. Things are just different in the age of WikiLeaks, NSA gone wild and drone wars, and it’s naive to pretend that the spread of easily accessible information hasn’t changed the way we look at accidents too. From our perspective at Flying, the Internet and people’s ready access to smartphones and the high-resolution still and video cameras they have on board means that there are often photos and videos of accidents as they happen. In the past, accidents were seldom
10 FLYINGMAG.COM / SEPTEMBER 2013
caught on flm, tape or daguerreotype. Today, it’s likely that even a crash of an airliner will be captured by multiple cams. The crash of a Boeing 747 freighter that lost control while departing Bagram, Afghanistan, earlier this year is a case in point. There were at least two very high-quality videos of the horrifying crash of the giant jet, both of which were captured on the dash cams of vehicles driving the perimeter road at the time of the accident. This ready availability of footage of noteworthy crashes has created a confict for us at Flying. Historically, we have taken the stance that we do not, except in rare instances, publish photographs of crashes. In his remarkable, long-running column, Aftermath, Flying columnist Peter Garrison conducts a close reading of a National
Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) accident report. For decades, Aftermath has lacked illustration, for this very reason. (It is our fortune that Peter’s prose is so descriptive that it needs little help.) We have stuck by our guns in this regard — and almost without exception, you will see no photography of accidents in the magazine, but Flying today has a huge digital presence, and that has changed our philosophy. Again using the Bagram tragedy as an example, we could have refrained from posting video of the crash online. Historically our rationale was in protecting the dignity of the human beings involved in the crash and sparing the feelings of the families of the victims. While we remain sensitive to these issues, the Web has changed everything. If we had refrained from posting the video from the Bagram crash, it would have been a gesture and nothing more. Our online readers simply would have gone elsewhere to fnd the footage. I know I would have. Why I sought out such footage in the frst place and why our readers would have is a fair question. I wanted to see what happened. I wanted to discover a secret. What happened, and how might I keep it from happening to me? Like many of our readers, I’m proud of my fying skills, but I’m not so naive as to think that better pilots than me haven’t come to harm. Doubtless, the pilots of that 747 were superior pilots to me, more seasoned, more in tune with their machine and quicker to react if something were to go wrong. The question I had is, what would I have done? After watching the video, the answer was easy and horribly sad. No pilot could have done anything. There was some strange comfort in that fact. Rest in peace, fellow aviators.
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F LY I N G N E W S & N O T E S G O I N G D I R E C T
Tragic and rare Asiana 214 was the frst accident involving a large airliner in the United States in nearly a dozen years in which a passenger or crew member was killed, and there were dozens of readily accessible videos and photos of the crash in the immediate aftermath. The next most recent fatal accident was the crash of an American Airlines Airbus A300 in a Queens, New York, neighborhood in 2001, which killed a total of 265 people. Since then there have been two major accidents involving commuter airliners: the 2009 loss of Colgan Air 3407, a Bombardier Dash 8, near Buffalo, New York, which killed 50, including one on the ground, and the sad mishap in Lexington, Kentucky, in 2006, involving a Comair regional jet that took off on the wrong, too-short runway and crashed on departure, leaving 49 of the 50 on board dead. In 2005 a Southwest 737 went off the end of the runway at Midway in Chicago, killing a child in a car on the street it crossed. This sounds like a grim recounting, and it is grim, but a glance at a list of historic airline accidents makes clear that the trend is a positive one. Airline fying has never been safer. When a crash does happen, it is of great interest to pilots and those involved in the tough job of improving aviation safety, as we are here at Flying. Some might think that pilots’ interest in accidents borders on the morbid. While I can’t speak for every pilot, I believe that this is seldom the case. Generally we pilots want to know more about accidents for two main reasons, pure science and self-preservation, which are in fact complementary. If we can understand why an accident happened, we have a chance to use that knowledge to prevent future mishaps. This goal might not be the sole mission of the NTSB, whose formation was one of the greatest ideas in the history of government, but it might as well be. By investing great resources in investigating aviation accidents (in addition to those involving other modes of transportation), the NTSB hopes to fnd out what happened and then make recommendations to the 12 FLYINGMAG.COM / SEPTEMBER 2013
appropriate government agencies for what to do to keep it from happening again. Those new to aviation might not realize that the NTSB has no enforcement or regulatory power; it’s an investigative body. In the case of airplane accidents, it’s then up to the FAA to implement the NTSB’s recommendations, something it can do fully, partially or not at all. Disagreements between the NTSB and the FAA are not unknown. There are also practical considerations. Since it costs nothing for the NTSB to suggest a solution to a problem it has identifed in the course of an investigation, it can recommend whatever it likes. If, for example, it decides that having twice as many tower controllers on duty might have
gains confdence in its investigation, discuss its major area or areas of focus. This might sound straightforward, and sometimes it is. Much more often, however, an accident is shrouded in mystery. With Asiana Flight 214, not so much. In fact, within hours of the crash, a worldwide community of pilots, many with thousands of hours of experience in the triple-seven, had weighed in, identifying the possible accident-chain scenarios so expertly that the NTSB’s disclosures of the details seemed late in the game; we already knew all of that. Still, when the NTSB chose to use the social networking platform Twitter to post photographs of the wreckage of Flight 214, there were gasps. The NTSB has long been conservative in its
Generally we pilots want to know more about accidents for two main reasons, pure science and self-preservation, which are in fact complementary. helped prevent a particular crash, it can recommend that. It’s the FAA that needs to pay for it, however. Good luck. The question that we have stopped asking is, do our efforts at investigation and remediation work? Does the NTSB’s work result in a lower accident rate? The answer to that is both easy and hard to discern. The downtick in accidents involving U.S.-based carriers over the past 30 years has been dramatic, and the kinds of accidents that used to dominate the reports — loss of control, controlled fight into terrain and fight into severe weather — have almost disappeared. The NTSB is one of the greatest success stories in aviation history. Its methods and philosophy have been copied around the world. As part of the way the NTSB conducts business, it has always closely guarded information related to the investigation. It has always disclosed the major details of the crash, the number on board, as well as the number of those killed and injured. The board will usually, after it
approach to investigations, carefully guarding the identities of the pilots, the cockpit voice-recording tapes, and any and all photographs of crash victims. So the use of a broadly popular application to disseminate photographs of a tragic aftermath appeared insensitive to some. To others it signaled the end of the board’s conservative approach to the way it communicates the progress of its investigations. I think it was neither. It was just a recognition that in the information age, it makes no sense to pretend that people don’t already have access to a lot of theories. The board’s transparency gives us more credible information to work with. My guess is that it won’t take us long to get used to the NTSB’s new communications presence, though we urge the board to never forget the sanctity of the circumstances surrounding any fatal crash it investigates or to pretend that 140 characters, the maximum allowed in a tweet, could ever adequately convey the gravity of the circumstances.
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F LY I N G N E W S & N O T E S
FLYING MAIL
FEEDBACK FROM OUR READERS
Flying in Hollywood
excellent writing from reading his blog, but we hope you’ll see fit to include more of his stories in your publication as well. Jim Densmore Colorado Springs, Colorado
Thanks so much for the piece on Hollywood’s inability to get anything right when it comes to aviation [“The Fantasy of Flight, the Movie,” Jumpseat, July 2013]. This has been a pet peeve of mine for 35-plus years. As a very modest example, in one movie — I forget which one — an airliner is cleared to land on Runway 44. I know, a minor point, but it still drives me crazy. I am especially irked when they completely rewrite the laws of aerodynamics. Rich Naumann Murphys, California
Capt. Abend, I have to say I agree with your assessment of the movie Flight. What bothered me was the fact that they inverted the plane because the stabilizer was jammed in the nose-down position. Logic — and basic physics, for that matter — dictates that when the airplane was righted it would have nosed over and drilled a nice smoking hole in the ground. This is Hollywood, after all. Wouldn’t it have been way cooler to continue the approach and land inverted? Chris Donawho Arlington, Texas I read Les Abend’s column about the movie Flight with a great deal of empathy and amusement. As a former professional law enforcement pilot, now retired, I always got a double dose of movie-itis until I just quit seeing Hollywood’s creations. TV is fully on board too. There used to be a series called NYPD Blue, in which cases were solved by basically kidnapping suspects off the street, threatening them and smacking a lawyerless confession out of them. Then there was Top Gun. The stuff Maverick pulled in a $50 million jet would have been a certain career ender. But Hollywood is focused on making money, and if they made a movie about a month in the average street cop’s life that was anything close to real, nobody
Tough Choices
would pay to see it. Have to wonder, though: Are there people who actually think this is the way it is? Yup ... Albert Johnson Tucson, Arizona
While Capt. Abend is, like all airline captains, completely correct in his pronouncements on Flight, he needs to be aware of a few simple facts: Cars, when hit from behind, do not fly into the air and explode; most people, when hit in the face by a strong, muscular person, bleed, fall down or both; and 24-year-old starlets don’t hang around with 60-yearolds. Except in the movies. Flight is a movie, not a documentary, and, in the final analysis, not about aviation either. Darcy Vernier Marina del Rey, California
Alaska Wild Especially for us Skywagon owners, George Mandes’ article on sheep hunting in Alaska with Charlie and Astro was a real treat, with wonderful photos and a story that makes you think hard about all the considerations that must be reviewed to safely make such a trip [“Alaska Wild, Skywagon Style,” July 2013]. We’re accustomed to George’s
As a longtime reader of Flying and an airambulance pilot, I wish to commend you for the excellent article “Air Ambulance Safety” [July 2013]. My compliments to Stephen Pope for a well-researched and balanced article on the subject. However, taking the decision to call or not call a helicopter out of the first responders’ purview would be detrimental. Medical personnel in ground units operate under strict protocols with the guidance of a medical director. There are many factors involved in requesting a helicopter; it rarely is an emotional decision, and they invariably get it right. Bottom line: While the industry and the FAA might be able to make great strides in safety, it will continue to be a job driven by human factors. There are no new accidents, only new people making the same old mistakes of commission and omission. Brian S. Thomas Via email
Affordable Airplanes Regarding “Certification Rules That Make Sense” [Going Direct, July 2013]: History has shown that such endeavors seldom produce the predicted results. For example, the whole concept of LSA was to produce airplanes that were affordable by the general public. After years of development, most factory-built LSAs still sell for over $100,000 — not my idea of affordable. New certification rules will probably cut the cost, but a 50 percent reduction will never happen. Tony Darmos Winston-Salem, North Carolina Send mail to: edit@flyingmag.com or P.O. Box 8500, Winter Park, FL 32789.
Have a subscription question? flyingmag.com/cs or 386-246-0411 14 FLYINGMAG.COM / SEPTEMBER 2013
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F LY I N G N E W S & N O T E S
AIRWAYS EDITED BY PIA BERGQVIST
Cessna Delivers First TTx
Single-engine speedster makes triumphant return to market.
C
ESSNA’S 200-PLUS-KNOT piston single is back. Now called the TTx, the $740,000 model officially went back on sale after a production stoppage caused by an issue with its composite manufacturing process. The first buyers are now getting to know their airplanes and the nuances of all the technology packed into the Garmin cockpit. Early feedback has been positive. Brian Steele, business leader for the Cessna TTx at Cessna, said the frst handful of TTx owners are fying their new airplanes and loving every minute of it. “Everything about it is fun, fast and sporty, while at the same time 16 FLYINGMAG.COM / SEPTEMBER 2013
intuitive and comfortable,” he said. He singled out the touch-screen Garmin G2000 avionics as “advanced and at the same time familiar,” while saying that the interior appointments add “a refned touch of class” to the TTx. Powered by a turbocharged Continental TSIO 550-C engine, the TTx has a top speed of 235 ktas and an operating ceiling of 25,000 feet. An optional TKS fight into known icing (FIKI) system is also offered. The four-place model has a range of 1,250 nm, a 1,000-pound useful load and a takeoff distance of 1,900 feet. The TTx originally earned its certifcation in 2004 as the Columbia 400
before Cessna bought the design and moved composite work to Mexico. That change led to a delay in deliveries after a wing delamination in fight, traced to excess humidity during production, occurred in late 2010 with an FAA pilot on board. Cessna used the delay to introduce several design improvements to what was then known as the Cessna Corvalis, designating the new model as the TTx. The frst customer to accept delivery was David Barnes, CEO of Watermark Retirement Communities. He said he plans to use his TTx to travel among 32 Watermark properties throughout the country. — Stephen Pope
F LY I N G N E W S & N O T E S
Garmin Adds Integrated Audio Comm GTR 200 combines features with G3X for the experimental/light sport market.
G
ARMIN INTERNATIONAL continues to embrace the experimental and light sport market. The Olathe, Kansas-based company’s latest avionics addition is the GTR 200 comm radio, which can be integrated with the G3X fight display and, despite its small size, offers a great combination of features. Frequencies from the G3X waypoint page can be transferred directly to the GTR 200, which not only makes it easier for the pilot but also eliminates the possibility of entering a digit incorrectly. Once transferred, the frequency’s
identifer and type (for example, KAPA ATIS for the ATIS frequency at Centennial Airport in Denver, Colorado) are displayed on the screen of the GTR 200. Nearest-airport frequencies are also quickly transferred through the integration with the G3X, and the GTR 200 stores the last 20 frequencies used and up to 20 pilot-selected frequencies for immediate access. Designed by “engineers who are fellow pilots and homebuilders,” according to Garmin’s vice president of aviation sales and marketing, Carl Wolf, the GTR 200 includes features such as
a two-place auto-squelch stereo intercom and stereo music input. The unit also provides Garmin’s 3-D audio capability, which separates audio input from different sources to make it easier for the pilot to quickly tell who is talking by separating the sound of the passenger from the voice on the active frequency. The standby frequency, if monitored, is also set apart. The GTR 200 is 1.35 inches high and 6.25 inches wide and, with the mounting rack, weighs 1.91 pounds. The price for the GTR 200 is targeted at $1,199. — Pia Bergqvist
Sonex AircrAft tAkeS orderS for PerSonAl Jet Manufacturer continues development of unique kitplane.
S
ONEX AIRCRAFT STARTED taking orders for its new SubSonex personal jet at this year’s EAA AirVenture in Oshkosh, Wisconsin, four years after the homebuilt aircraft kit maker frst unveiled the airplane. If it weren’t for the PBS TJ-100 turbine engine positioned atop the rear fuselage, the SubSonex jet would look like almost any other Sonex homebuilt. Billed as the airplane that will bring jet fight within the reach of pilots of
average means, the SubSonex frst few in 2011 at the hands of test pilot Bob Carlton, who has spent years fying the airshow circuit with his PBS TJ-100powered sailplane. Sonex Aircraft is currently working on a second SubSonex prototype, which will feature fully retractable landing gear and a ballistic recovery parachute system. Like all of Sonex’s other products, the SubSonex jet will be sold in kit form. — Bethany Whitfeld SEPTEMBER 2013 / FLYINGMAG.COM 17
F LY I N G N E W S & N O T E S
Solar Impulse Flies Across America Cross-country mission ends in success, despite major challenges.
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hE SOL AR IMPULSE team likely breathed a sigh of relief after the all-solarpowered HB-SIA landed at the John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York, completing its ambitious mission named Across America. On the final leg, a sizable tear appeared in the skin underneath the left wing of the airplane, causing the pilot, André Borschberg, co-founder and CEO of Solar Impulse, to consider bailing out. But Borschberg opted to press on and complete the trip, landing about three hours earlier than planned after completing the last leg from Washington Dulles International Airport in 18 hours and 23 minutes. 18 FLYINGMAG.COM / SEPTEMBER 2013
The remainder of the cross-country journey was not without challenges either. A major storm front hit the Midwest, with many devastating tornados, while the Solar Impulse was making the crossing. One tornado tore through the St. Louis/Lambert Airport in St. Louis, Missouri, days before the Solar Impulse’s planned stop there, damaging many structures, including the hangar that was to house the HB-SIA. With a wingspan of 208 feet, the airplane needs a lot of space and the irreplaceable airplane had to be protected from the elements. The team considered diverting but decided instead to pull an unexpected card out of the hat and erect its own hangar — an infatable structure that is 289 feet long,
105 feet wide and up to 36 feet tall. Despite being waterproof, freproof and capable of withstanding winds up to 62 mph, the mobile hangar is translucent, allowing sun rays to penetrate the skin to recharge the solarpowered batteries of the HB-SIA. The 3,511-mile f light across America, which took a total of 105 hours and 41 minutes to complete, was by no means an attempt at a speed record, but rather an attempt to prove the feasibility of day-andnight fight of the Solar Impulse technology in preparation for a planned round-the-world fight scheduled for 2015. Whether the team will ultimately undertake that fight remains to be seen. — P.B.
F LY I N G N E W S & N O T E S
eSpyder Becomes First Certifed All-Electric Aircraft
I
Design gets sign-off from German DULV.
n whAt AppEArs to bE an aviation frst, the eSpyder has achieved certifcation from the German D U LV (Deutschen Ultraleichtfugverbandes), becoming the very frst all-electric airplane to attain certifcation. The eSpyder continues to be produced by Chinese Yuneec International, based in Kunshan, China, but it is marketed under a newly formed U.S.-based company known as GreenWing International, which will handle marketing, sales and support for Yuneec’s electric airplanes. The eSpyder’s ultralight-like design features a small, single-seat cockpit mounted on a fuselage boom
20 FLYINGMAG.COM / SEPTEMBER 2013
to which the wings, horizontal and vertical stabilizers and the small electric motor are also attached. The motor, which produces only 51 dB of
noise, according to GreenWing, is capable of at least one hour of flight with a 30-minute reserve. Although the eSpyder is considered an ultralight in Germany, at 410 pounds of empty weight it is too heavy to be categorized that way in the United States. Instead it would be certified under the light sport aircraft ASTM rules. That certification has yet to be accomplished, and standards for electric aircraft have not yet been established. But GreenWing will offer the eSpyder as an experimental kit to U.S. customers. GreenWing said production of the eSpyder is set to begin later this year. — P.B.
F LY I N G N E W S & N O T E S
UnmAnned x-47B lAndS on cArrier Successful mission concludes at-sea testing period.
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N JULY 10, IN A hISTORIC moment for the U.S. armed forces, the X-47B Unmanned Combat Air System (UCAS) made an arrested landing on USS George H.W. Bush. It was the frst time an unmanned aerial vehicle had hooked a wire on an aircraft carrier. The X-47B is a tailless UAV that frst few in 2011. Developed in partnership with defense contractor Northrop Grumman, the drone departed from the Naval Air Station Patuxent River in Maryland and made a 35-minute fight to reach the carrier. The UAV successfully hooked the No. 3 wire, the last one on the carrier, bringing the vehicle from a speed of approximately 145 knots to a stop in less than 350 feet. The X-47B was then catapulted from the carrier and made another successful arrested landing before a computer anomaly forced the UAV to divert to Wallops Island Air Field, where the X-47B landed without further incident. “When I think about all of the hours and all of the work-ups the team put into executing this event, I had no doubt the air vehicle was going to do exactly what it was supposed to do,” said Captain Jaime Engdahl, Navy UCAS program manager. The historic landing came only two months after the X-47B was frst successfully catapulted off the same Navy carrier. The test fight was the conclusion of a three-stage, eight-month test period at sea for the strike-fghter-size X-47B. “We’ve certainly come a long way in the 102 years since Eugene Ely made the frst arrested landing aboard an aircraft carrier,” said Secretary of the Navy Ray Mabus. The Navy is slated to begin using the X-47B in active service in 2019. — P.B.
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SEPTEMBER 2013 / FLYINGMAG.COM 21
F LY I N G N E W S & N O T E S
OpenAirplane Offcially Opens for business Nationwide Zipcar-style rental idea takes off.
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EntIng AIrpl AnEs from the local flight school might usually fit your needs, but there are always those times when you’re out of town and would love to go flying. The trouble is, you need to complete a time-consuming checkout flight before you can rent in a distant city. Now a new concept in airplane rental is open for business, with the official launch of OpenAirplane, a network of participating FBOs and flight schools that allows pilots to receive one annual checkout and then rent airplanes at locations across the country. So far OpenAirplane is limited to only six partner locations, but the plan is to expand that network as quickly as possible to maximize the benefit for members seeking to utilize the Zipcar-style service. Pilots who are interested in joining OpenAirplane must undergo a checkout with an instructor at a participating
FBO or school, and it’s a more rigorous evaluation than a run-of-the-mill biannual fight review. OpenAirplane’s Universal Pilot Checkout includes an hour-long oral exam followed by an hour or more in the air, where potential OpenAirplane members will be expected to fy to practical test standards. The checkout is pass-fail. Once a prospective pilot completes both the ground and flight tests, he or she can rent an aircraft from any participating location. OpenAirplane has partner locations in New York; Los Angeles; Chicago; Detroit; San Jose, California; and Kissimmee, Florida. The network requires that members complete a checkout once every 12 months to remain current (in the same make/ model airplane as the one they are checked out in), as well as receive a “local knowledge briefing” at least once a year. Before signing up, pilots also need to obtain their own rent-
er’s insurance, with a minimum of $250,000 in liability coverage. It is free to join OpenAirplane and it is free for FBOs, flight schools and flying clubs to list their airplanes in the network. OpenAirplane makes its money by charging members’ credit cards and keeping 10 percent of the rental fee (based on wet Hobbs time). Participating schools can choose to charge OpenAirplane members more to cover the fee. There is also fine print that requires members to pay for rental time if they don’t show up for a reservation or return an airplane later than scheduled. Pilots who are approved for VFR-only flying are allowed to cancel their reservation without penalty if the visibility is less than 6 miles, the ceiling is less than 3,000 feet or there’s a crosswind of more than 15 knots. Visit openairplane.com for more information about the new rental concept. — S.P.
Aircraft spruce launches headset buy-back program Upgrade your headset for less.
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AVE A UsED hEADsEt that you’d like to trade in for a newer one? As part of its new buy-back program, Aircraft Spruce will now give pilots monetary credit toward the purchase of a new headset when they give the company their old model. The credit can be used to purchase any new headset priced above $750 from Aircraft Spruce’s collection, such as the Bose A20, the Sennheiser S1, the Lightspeed Zulu.2, the David Clark 22 FLYINGMAG.COM / SEPTEMBER 2013
H10-13XL and the Beyerdynamics HS 800, among others. In order for pilots to receive top dollar, their headsets must be in complete working condition, without cracks or exposed wires. Aircraft Spruce is promising credits of $450 for used Bose X headsets, $425 for used Lightspeed Zulu models and up to $325 for David Clark X11 models, to name a few. Customers can use credit from just one old headset in the purchase of a new model. Clients can participate in the buy-back program online or over the phone. — B.W.
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F LY I N G N E W S & N O T E S
Cirrus Readies Factory for Jet Production Giant autoclave arrives for production of composite parts.
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IRRUS IS IN ThE PROCESS of expanding its Grand Forks, North Dakota, factory, the site of a brand-new autoclave oven that will be used in the production of the Cirrus Jet. Modifications to the Grand Forks facility began in the spring, and the
24 FLYINGMAG.COM / SEPTEMBER 2013
autoclave was then expected to go into full operation soon. It will be used in the manufacture of composite parts, such as the jet’s carbon-fiber main spar, and for the Cirrus SR20 and SR22. Previously, production of carbon spars using an autoclave was
outsourced to an out-of-state company, Cirrus said. Bringing the capability in house will save Cirrus several millions of dollars over the next decade, the company said. The autoclave makes composite parts stronger and more durable by pressurizing nitrogen gas up to 125 psi during the cure cycle, which more effectively compresses the parts. The oven weighs 40 tons and is 8.5 feet in diameter and 40 feet long. Cirrus hopes to roll out the frst prototype for the latest iteration of the Cirrus Jet later this year and start certifcation fight testing next year. The SF50 is projected to have a selling price of around $2 million in 2013 dollars. — S.P.
F LY I N G N E W S & N O T E S
51 HeroeS of AviAtion: WHo’S no. 1?
Flying salutes 51 fying icons and names the top hero of all time.
One thing we are pretty certain about is that the person we selected as No. 1 will have unanimous approval. And, yes, that’s right. We’re not telling. You can fnd out who takes that spot by reading and viewing “Flying Magazine’s 51 Heroes of AviationÓ at fyingmag.com/aviationheroes.
Oh, and if you’re wondering why we went with 51 heroes of aviation instead of the rounder preceding number, then you’ll have to take a look and see who we pegged at number 51. If you know your aviation history, you might even be able to guess. — Robert Goyer
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F YOU ARE ONE OF ThE hundreds of thousands of aviation enthusiasts who enjoyed “Flying Magazine’s Top 100 Airplanes” when it launched last year, then we have another treat in store for you: “Flying Magazine’s 51 Heroes of Aviation.” This, our third special expanded Web gallery, highlights 51 remarkable figures in aviation who are famous not necessarily for their flying but for what they gave back to aviation in other ways.
>>> Who is this gentleman, and what did he contribute to aviation during his lifetime? Check out our “51 Heroes of Aviation” list at fyingmag.com/ aviationheroes to fnd out his story and those of other legendary fgures.
Some of these figures, like French writer Antoine de Saint-Exupery, author of the fable The Little Prince, will be familiar names to you. Others, like Boris Popov and Fred Weick, might be new. As was the case with last year’s “Top 100 AirplanesÓ and this years’ “Top 50 Navigation Innovations,” the list was nearly impossible to create. We’re confident we did not include anyone who does not belong, but unfortunately we’re equally sure that we left off people who definitely belong on any such list. You’ll have to read it and let us know your take on it.
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SEPTEMBER 2013 / FLYINGMAG.COM 25
F LY I N G S A F E LY
THE HUMAN FACTOR B Y J AY H O P K I N S
Assessing Total Risk
The combined effect of small risk factors can add up to disaster.
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Any of The AviATion accidents I have written about fall into the “What were they thinking?” category. This would include a noninstrument-rated pilot who takes off into weather that is so bad even the birds are walking; the pilot who continues into ominous weather; and the pilot who tries to take off on a short, high-elevation runway in an airplane loaded far beyond its allowable maximum gross weight. Although there may have been a number of factors that contributed to the accident, there was ultimately one major instigating failure in judgment that would have ordained an adverse outcome even without the other factors.
26 FLYINGMAG.COM / SEPTEMBER 2013
On the other hand, in many cases there is no “smoking gun,” the one signifcant factor that made an accident inevitable. Often experts are unsure what caused a crash, and even the pilot, if he survived, may have no idea what caused the accident or, if it was pilot error, what led him to make the fatal mistake that led to the crash. In the May issue of Flying (“No Greater Burden”), I wrote about how Russ Jeter landed his amphibious foatplane geardown on a lake, leading to the death of his young son. Jeter, a very careful and professional pilot, was totally mystifed as to why he had neglected to do the fnal GUMP check that he always does to ensure that the gear is up or down as appropriate. It was only after
a specialist in human factors gave him a stress test that he realized he had not been sleeping well after the death of his mother and had felt unusually drowsy that morning. That one subtle factor that he was not consciously aware of, combined with a relaxed fight and the distraction of his son asking him questions as he descended to land on the lake, was enough to cause a momentary loss of focus that allowed him to land gear-down. The crash of a Cessna P210N on takeoff from Burley, Idaho, in August 2011 provides a classic example of how several little factors can add up to a fatal accident: 1. The private pilot had 480 hours total time and 160 hours in the Cessna P210. There is no information in the NTSB report about how long he had been a pilot or his recent experience, but generally the 500-hour mark can be a risky point in a pilot’s fying career, when he may begin to get complacent. This can be especially risky in a sophisticated, high-performance airplane like a Cessna P210. 2. The pilot had stopped at a nearby airport to fll the main and auxiliary tanks with less expensive gas. He stated to his sister that this would allow him to make it home to Southern California with only one gas stop, in Provo, Utah. 3. With the pilot, his wife, two children and approximately 100 pounds of luggage on board, the airplane was estimated to be very close to the maximum allowed takeoff weight. 4. The weather was clear, but the temperature at the airport, which is at an elevation of 4,154 feet, was 91 degrees Fahrenheit (33 degrees Celsius), resulting in a density altitude of over 7,000 feet. 5. The winds at the time of the crash were about 6 knots out of the northeast.
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6. On his only previous visit to the Burley Municipal Airport during the winter, the pilot had departed to the southwest on Runway 20 and had initiated a left turn as soon as he was airborne, possibly to give his family a better view of other family members waving goodbye from the ground. Even though the winds were out of the northeast and Cessna performance charts showed that the airplane would barely reach 50 feet by the end of the runway, the pilot again departed from Runway 20, lifting off about 3,000 feet down the 4,092-foot runway, and initiated a left turn after retracting the landing gear. The airplane immediately began to sink toward the ground, crashing into
density altitude. It is very possible that this was his frst takeoff at a high elevation on a hot day. His previous takeoff on a cold winter day had been no problem, and he apparently did not anticipate the risks involved and how differently his airplane would fy in the summer versus the winter, especially with a light tailwind. If the pilot had accumulated more fight time, he might have scared himself enough times to recover that sense of professional caution that is critical to aviation safety. Ironically, if he had had less experience, he might have still had that caution that leads new pilots to double- and triple-check everything and to take the most conservative
Assessing each risk individually, the pilot might have considered that he was good to go: Experience — Legal and current Weight — Within limits at maximum gross weight Weather — Clear and hot, with light winds out of the northeast Airplane — Powerful turbocharged engine that will develop sealevel horsepower despite the high-density altitude Takeoff Performance — Climbing out of 50 feet at the end of the runway, with no signifcant obstacles ahead a road and railroad tracks. Everybody on board was killed in the crash, and the airplane was almost completely consumed in the ensuing fre. When it comes to assessing risk, the combined total risk is often much greater than the individual risk factors might suggest. Basically, one plus one plus one equals about 10 on a risk-analysis scale. In this case, even though the pilot was technically legal and within limits on all risk factors, the combined total effect of those individual risk factors put that pilot in a very tenuous situation on takeoff. Any unanticipated factor, like less than book performance from the engine or an increasing tailwind with altitude, could spell disaster. Somehow, as this pilot accumulated a moderate amount of experience in his very sophisticated airplane, he lost that aggressive skepticism that is always asking “What could kill us today?” The obvious answer on that takeoff was the 28 FLYINGMAG.COM / SEPTEMBER 2013
response in all situations. Besides the pilot’s experience level, there were fve factors that contributed to this accident: • Full Fuel Tanks — Instead of focusing on saving money by flling up with less expensive gas, the pilot could have instead planned to depart with only partial fuel and made two fuel stops on the way home. • Baggage — The pilot could have shipped some of the family’s luggage home, further reducing the airplane’s takeoff weight by up to 100 pounds. • High-Density Altitude — The pilot could have planned to depart early in the morning, when the temperatures were cooler, rather than at 2:30 p.m., when the temperatures were hottest. The temperatures in Burley are often 30 degrees cooler in the early morning hours, so an early morning departure would have resulted in signifcantly enhanced performance.
• Tailwind — We don’t know why the pilot chose to depart with a 6-knot tailwind. He could have been focused on turning left adjacent to the ramp area again, so his family could see other family members on the ground, or perhaps he was just trying to save a couple of minutes by departing in the direction of his next destination. Maybe because the wind was so light, he fgured it wouldn’t make any difference. • Rapid Turn After Takeoff — The most important objectives on any takeoff are maintaining control of the airplane, maintaining the appropriate climb airspeed, and gaining altitude. Any unnecessary maneuvering reduces climb performance and increases risk, especially after taking off at a high-density altitude. It appears this pilot was experiencing macho and invulnerable attitudes, showing off while disregarding the risks involved. Toward the end of my corporate Preventing Human Error seminar, I say that every time a person or a team experiences any sort of a significant problem, after they determine how they are going to handle the problem they should go back and add up all the other problems and risk factors they have experienced to see if they are sliding into what I call an untenable situation. If this pilot had changed any one of these five factors, he would have probably avoided the accident. Taking the conservative approach and adjusting all five factors would have provided a significant margin of safety for the pilot and his family. Throughout the process of planning and conducting a fight, there will invariably be risk factors to assess, often associated with problems and issues that need to be handled. In addition to assessing each individual risk factor, it is crucial to assess the total combined risk involved throughout this process to ensure that the combination of several small risk factors does not tip you over the edge into an untenable situation.
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F LY I N G S A F E LY
AFTERMATH BY PETER GARRISON
An Ambiguous Accident Was the “probable cause” really probable?
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S REGULAR READERS OF this column know, I at times cavil at the NTSB’s published fndings of “probable cause.” Sometimes that “probable” is there from force of habit, the conclusions being beyond dispute; but often probable causes sound as if their components had been picked from a menu, without careful consideration of the nuances of the particular case. Here is the “probable cause” of an accident that took place in 2012:
The non-instrument-rated pilot’s continued fight into instrument meteorological conditions, which resulted in the design limits of the airplane being exceeded and an in-fight breakup. The airplane was a classic Bonanza, manufactured in 1947. Originally it would have had a 165 hp Continental E185 engine — what later continued life as the O-470 — but at some point in the airplane’s 65-year, almost 5,000hour career, the engine had been upgraded to 205 horsepower. There were three people — the pilot (who was not a doctor, by the way), his wife and his mother — and three dogs aboard. All died instantly on impact. The flight began in Minneapolis, bound for Colorado. The NTSB dutifully observes that there was no record of the pilot’s having obtained a weather briefing, but that fact has become meaningless in the era of online weather and does not imply recklessness any more than that perennial shibboleth of reporters, the lack of a fight plan, should. The 250hour pilot had an iPad, and there is no reason to doubt that he checked the weather before the fight. The forecast to the southwest called for 2,500-foot ceilings, with visibilities occasionally as low as 3 to 5 miles in mist. 30 FLYINGMAG.COM / SEPTEMBER 2013
Now, if you are planning a fight through an area of low ceilings and you call a fight service station for a briefng, a good briefer will look over the metars for airports along your route and tell you whether their recent reports differ substantially from the outlook. You can do that online as well, but chances are you may not be so familiar with the reporting stations en route, and so it might not have occurred to you, after seeing that encouraging prediction of 2,500-foot ceilings west of Minneapolis, to check what the automated reporting station at little Glencoe, 35 nm away, was seeing. If you had done so, you would have discovered that Glencoe had not read the forecast and was showing a 900-foot ceiling and 5 miles.
that witness statements can often be mined for information that the published NTSB report omits, I went to the NTSB “dockets” site, where they store the documents, photographs, maps and other records on which reports are partially based. There I found two witness reports that had actually been transcribed; it’s possible that others were received but not formally recorded. One of these came from a point about 20 nm east of the accident site; the witness heard an airplane traveling from east to west, did not see it, and reported that its engine was revving up and down “like a lawnmower running out of gas.” Assuming that the airplane could cruise at something under 3 miles a minute, this would have been seven or eight
Thirty seconds after the airplane disappeared from view, the witness heard “a loud bang that sounded like a shotgun going off.” So we know that at the time of the accident, which took place 5 miles north of Glencoe, the ceilings were slightly below VFR standards, but the visibility was pretty good, the wind was calm, and there was no convective activity. In other words, one could be airborne around there without danger of anything but violating a few FARs. The brief version of the accident report states that “Witnesses in the area reported hearing the airplane fying from east to west but could not see the airplane due to the low clouds and reduced visibility.” The long version mentions “several” witnesses hearing the airplane but makes no mention of anyone seeing it. Having discovered
minutes before the crash. A second report preceded the crash by only 30 seconds and was much more informative. This witness saw the airplane traveling east to west at high speed — over 200 mph, he believed — and low altitude, just below the bottoms of the clouds. It was drizzling or raining at the time. The airplane few in a straight line and the engine “was purring just fne.” Thirty seconds after the airplane disappeared from view, the witness heard “a loud bang that sounded like a shotgun going off, and right after that a loud explosion.” Looking to the west, he saw black smoke rising. So we have, both from the probable cause and from the implication that
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“several” witnesses heard but did not see the airplane because it was in cloud, the initial impression that the noninstrument-rated pilot few into cloud and sooner or later lost control of the airplane, perhaps in a spin or a spiral dive. But it turns out that according to this detailed and reliable-sounding witness statement, he was not in cloud but in the clear below the clouds, and seemingly not out of control at all. Setting aside for the moment the question of what happened between that sighting and the shotgun-like report, let us visit the accident site. Photographs show a large furrowed feld upon which fragments of an airplane, few of them recognizable, lie widely scattered. From the linear arrangement of certain parts, it can be deduced that the airplane broke up in
to which V-tail Bonanzas were not immune. But if the wing failed in upward bending, prior failure of the empennage would be ruled out, and a more probable explanation might be that the disintegrating left wing struck the tail and somehow severed both balance weights. Why did the left wing fail? The evidence suggests that the pilot, perhaps at the urging of his wife and mother or perhaps because the weather looked as if it would get worse before it got better, decided to turn back. He banked fairly steeply, to judge from the short time it took to reverse course. Possibly, if he was fying just below the clouds, he found himself heading toward a low-hanging cloud and tightened the turn to avoid it. Possibly he found himself losing altitude at some point and overcontrolled in a sudden effort to arrest the descent.
If the wing failed in upward bending, prior failure of the empennage would be ruled out. fight and that its “energy vector” — in other words, its heading — was 108 degrees at the time of impact. The ground track of the fight up to the last witness sighting would have had a bearing of about 250 degrees. It follows that during the 30 seconds or so preceding the crash, the airplane turned 140 degrees. The conclusion drawn from the arrangement of the broken parts along the ground is that frst the left wing failed upward at midspan, and then the V-tail and part of the tail cone broke away. The sequence of events is important. The notorious spate of V-tail Bonanza breakups that ended two decades ago with an AD-mandated tail modifcation involved the tail failing initially and the wings then breaking downward, because without balancing download on the stabilizer the airplane would pitch nose-down abruptly. Interestingly, the balance weights from both elevators had separated and were found at a distance from them. This fact might suggest ruddervator futter,
It appears that the pilot did overstress the wing. We don’t know why. Whether the airplane was still as strong as it had been in 1947 is unknowable; there is no mention in the accident report of corrosion or previous damage that could have weakened the left wing. I think, at any rate, that the sequence of events in this accident may not have been the familiar one suggested by the probable cause. The phrase “into instrument meteorological conditions” strongly suggests that the pilot was in cloud at the time of the breakup, became disoriented, and overcontrolled. I think it is at least equally possible that he was in the clear and under control, but overcontrolled for some other reason — quite a different picture. This article is based on the NTSB’s report of the accident and is intended to bring the issues raised to our readers’ attention. It is not intended to judge or to reach any defnitive conclusions about the ability or capacity of any person, living or dead, or any aircraft or accessory.
F LY I N G S A F E LY
ON THE RECORD The following are excerpts from offcial NTSB summaries of general aviation accidents in the United States.
Cessna 172S
Land O’ Lakes, Florida/INJURIES: 1 Fatal The pilot purchased the airplane and he was returning to his home base. The pilot checked in with an approach controller about 52 miles north-northwest of the destination airport; at the time, the airplane was fying under visual fight rules, and night visual meteorological conditions PROBABLE CAUSE(S): prevailed. The pilot The pilot’s decision to coninitiated a gradual tinue the cross-country fight while fatigued, which resulted descent from 7,500 in him falling asleep during feet mean sea level the initial descent for landing. and an air traffc controller radioed the pilot after he observed the airplane descending below 1,000 feet mean sea level. The pilot never responded to the controller’s radio calls, and the airplane impacted pastureland about 17 miles from the destination airport. Examination of the wreckage revealed that the airplane collided with trees at a very shallow descent angle. No evidence of a pre-existing mechanical failure or anomaly was observed.
Aeronca 65C
Grand Rapids, Minnesota/INJURIES: 2 Uninjured The fight instructor hand-propped the engine and the student pilot set the engine controls before the fight. The fight consisted mainly of practicing ground PROBABLE CAUSE(S): reference maneuThe student pilot’s failure to vers and slips. The adequately lock the primer flight instructor before takeoff and the fight reported that they instructor’s failure to verify that the primer was adewere about 700 quately locked. feet above the ground when the engine lost all power and the propeller stopped spinning. The fight instructor performed the emergency checklist by memory and located a frozen lake on which to land. The
Beech P35
Correctionville, Iowa/INJURIES: 2 Fatal, 1 Serious The commercial pilot was receiving flight-following services. He advised an air traffc conPROBABLE CAUSE(S): troller that he had The pilot’s failure to perform the airport in sight, a go-around after encounterand the controller ing thick fog at night. acknowledged and told the pilot that radar services were terminated. The airport had an unimproved grass strip and runway lights. 34 Flyingmag.com / September 2013
A review of the pilot’s actions during the 9 days prior to the accident revealed that he few a 5-day international trip as a crewmember for the airline for which he few as a captain, and then returned to Zurich 3 days before the accident. About 4 hours later, he began a trip as a passenger to Colorado. On the day before the accident, the pilot began the frst of three legs of a cross country fight, with the third leg being the accident fight. He was awake for about 18 hours at the time of the accident, with stops only being taken for food and airplane servicing. Over the 9-day period before the accident, the pilot made three crossings of the Atlantic Ocean (each exceeding 6 time zones). These multiple and frequent time zone crossings would result in circadian disruption and would have diminished the pilot’s ability to obtain restorative sleep during this period, which, in combination with the pilot’s extended time awake on the day of the accident, would have caused the pilot to be in a fatigued state. The circumstances of the accident and his fatigueinducing schedule in the preceding days indicate that the pilot most likely fell asleep during the initial descent for landing, and the airplane subsequently descended into the trees and terrain.
airplane nosed over during the landing roll, which resulted in substantial damage to the wing spars. Photos taken at the accident site showed that the fuel primer control was unlocked and the primer control was at an intermediate position. The fight instructor reported that the student stated he locked the primer control, but only turned the control about 1/8 inch to lock it. The fight instructor stated that the primer control was in its locked position when he checked it before the fight. It could not be determined how the primer control became unlocked. The engine was started and ran normally during the postaccident examination. When the primer control was placed in the position found after the accident and the power was reduced to 1,000 rpm, the engine lost all power. The airplane was not equipped with an electrical system and therefore could not be restarted in fight.
Two witnesses who lived next to the airport said thick fog quickly enveloped the area shortly before the accident. Another witness said that visibility had dropped to less than 1/4 mile and that he heard the airplane fy low over his house but could not see it. On the approach to land, the airplane struck trees and terrain about 1/4 mile northeast of the airport. A postimpact fre ensued. A postaccident examination of the airplane revealed no anomalies that would have precluded normal operation. The airplane was instrument equipped and the commercial pilot held an instrument rating.
F ly i n g S a F e ly
I learned about flyIng from that no. 871 / by robert l. WIeman
My First Solo and My First Loop A young pilot cooks up a dangerous scheme.
T
he daTe waS dec. 23, 1943 — I was 21 years old. I was in the rear cockpit of a Fairchild PT-19 primary trainer with a total dual time to date of 10 hours. My instructor was in the front cockpit. The wide-open grass landing strip of Cimarron Field Primary Flight School in Oklahoma was dead ahead. The instructor waved at me to make a landing. I did everything right and made the prettiest three-point landing I had ever made. The instructor said, “Take off, circle the feld and make another
landing. If the next landing is as good as this one, tomorrow you’ll make your frst solo fight.” Everything went well. The second landing was just like the frst. “Meet me in the hangar at 9 a.m. tomorrow morning and we’ll get that frst solo fight under your belt,” the instructor said. The next morning everything was set for that frst solo fight. During the night it had snowed, and everything was covered with 3 inches of
the white powdery stuff. The ground crew had cleaned the snow off the PT19, topped off the gas tanks and performed the usual engine warm-up. The instructor and I got into our respective cockpits. He told me that we would not do the frst solo fight at the home feld. If something were to go wrong, he did not want me to crash into the parked airplanes, the hangar or the barracks. Instead, a cow pasture approximately 15 miles due west of the main base was used for these frst solo fights. It was a mile square patch of perfectly fat land that lacked buildings, trees or anything else to set it apart from the miles of fat land surrounding it. After landing the airplane, the instructor got out and said, “Take off, fy the usual pattern, and make a
>>> To see more of Barry Ross’ aviation art, go to barryrossart.com. 36 Flyingmag.com / September 2013
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f ly I n g S a f e ly I l a f f t
landing right here and pick me up.” I took off straight ahead, climbed to 1,000 feet, made a left turn and, 30 seconds later, made another left turn into the downwind leg. But when I looked down to my left to see where I was going to land, I saw nothing but white, white, white. I could not spot my instructor standing down there in the snow. I few a couple of circles around the area but still saw nothing but white. I climbed another 500 feet while fying circles, hoping to spot my instructor standing down there and looking up at me — but still no luck. During my next circle I spotted another blue and yellow PT-19, just like the one I was fying, about 500 feet below me. I assumed he was going to land where my instructor was standing, so I got behind him and followed him down. I was happier than you can imagine when I saw my instructor standing there. He just smiled and said he knew the exact problem I was having, and that I had handled it very well. Before he got into the front cockpit, he flled out, signed and dated my frst solo fight certifcate, gave it to me, and we took off for the home base. The following two weeks, I few every day, often with the instructor and very often solo. We were still working on the basics of fying, and my instructor was trying to teach me the fner points of piloting skill. I performed 90-degree, 180-degree and 360-degree turns while trying to hold the assigned altitude, as was stressed. The shallow turns were easy compared to the steep turns, but practice continued until the instructor was satisfed that I had mastered the turn/altitude maneuver. Aerobatics would be introduced in a few more weeks. While I was doing the 360-degree turn I realized that it was essentially the same as a loop but on a different axis (horizontal vs. vertical), with the exception, of course, that gravity was a constant in the 360-degree turn, whereas in the loop it was a positive during half of the maneuver and a negative during the other half. My college physics classes taught that centrifugal force is a force from the center outward and is a constant, but 38 Flyingmag.com / September 2013
gravity is a factor that could not be ignored. When you swing a bucket of water in a circle in a vertical axis, the centrifugal force has to be suffcient to overcome the pull of gravity on the top of the circle. My thinking at this point was that in performing a loop, you just had to have enough speed and be in a tight enough circle so that the resultant centrifugal force would be more than equal to the force of gravity, consequently keeping the net force always outward. This would not be a problem on the bottom half of the loop, but it would be critical on the top.
back, the nose came up and the airspeed dropped — 140 … 130 … 120 … 110. I kept the stick pulled back. At 105 mph I appeared to be upside down and heading south. The airspeed started increasing. I kept the stick back and started reducing the throttle setting. The airspeed increased to 110 … 120 … 130. I reduced the throttle setting even more. At 135 mph I was starting to level out at 7,000 feet and was heading north. I reduced the back pressure on the stick and was soon fying straight and level at 105 mph. The loop was complete — just as I had
i pulled the stick back, the nose came up and the airspeed dropped — 140 … 130 … 120 … 110. at 105 mph i appeared to be upside down. Next came the calculation: The normal cruise speed of a PT-19 is about 105 mph. I made the assumption that if I could get the airspeed to 145 to 150 mph, pull the stick back into a steep climb position and keep it there, sooner or later I would be upside down — in the top of the loop — where the centrifugal force would be slightly more than the pull of gravity, thus keeping everything from falling (just like the water in the bucket at the top of the circle). At that point, if I continued to hold the stick back, the nose of the airplane would start pointing downward and the force of gravity would start to increase the speed to the point that the throttle setting would have to be reduced to avoid going too fast — the goal being 105 mph at the bottom of the loop (the starting point). In my mind, I thought it should work. I thought more about it overnight, and the next day I decided to try it. I was fying solo about 30 miles from Cimarron Field. It was a cloudless sunny day. I climbed to 8,000 feet and got myself oriented to a north heading. I pushed the stick forward, the nose went down and the airspeed soon reached 150 mph. I pulled the stick
calculated in my mind, thanks to my physics studies. I never told my fight instructor about the event. I was too afraid that he would not have approved of my little scientifc experiment. Now I’m 90 years old, and when I look back at the stunt, I realize how stupid and ill advised it was. Had my mental calculations been only slightly in error and the airspeed at the top of the loop been less than the airplane’s stall speed — and I had no idea what the stall speed of an upside-down PT-19 was — the airplane could have potentially fipped into an inverted spin. Such an event is diffcult — sometimes impossible — to recover from, even for an experienced aerobatic pilot, much less for someone who had absolutely no aerobatic training at all. I guess therein lies the reason that pilots in training for combat missions are always young 21- or 22-year-olds and not 50- or 60-year-olds. Combat missions are always dangerous, and young guys are more likely to ignore the hazards and “go for it,” whereas older pilots tend to be more cautious and unwilling to take the chances the mission requires.
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We Fly
GUlFSTReAM
G650 Behind the yoke of the world’s current fastest bizjet.
40 FLYINGMAG.COM / SEPTEMBER 2013
By Robert Goyer
In the driving rain, I taxied the big G650 across the ramp, being careful to keep it at a crawl on the slightly downhill grade. The line guy in optic-green rain gear directed me to nose up to the slab-sided metal hangar, its proud Gulfstream logo just visible through the fast-moving streaks of water on the big windscreen obscuring my view. After we ran the short post-fight list and shut down, I sat there in silence, taking in the most remarkable fight of my life in what just might be the most capable and advanced civil airplane ever produced. SEPTEMBER 2013 / FLYINGMAG.COM 41
I
T HAD BEEN A GOOD morning, something for which I was ready but which nothing could have suffciently prepared me. It had all started with what sounded like a softball question. A few hours earlier I had been sitting in a briefng room with some friends from Gulfstream, having coffee, chatting and getting ready to discuss the airplane I’d soon be flying, the Gulfstream G650, the fastest production airplane in the world. Between sips of java, Gulfstream fight engineering pilot Tom Horne asked me, seemingly just off the cuff, to name the best-fying airplane I’d ever fown. In my line of work, I have a few hours in a lot of different airplanes and a lot of time in a few, and to be honest my mental list of great fiers includes more than a couple of oddballs. I threw out an airplane I fgured Tom would know well, the Extra 300. He did know it. Then he asked what I liked about it, to which I replied that it gave you exactly what you asked for every time, and if you got something different, it was only
because you didn’t know how to ask correctly. He smiled. “Remember that answer,” he said.
An All-new AirplAne As proud as they are of their current jets and as much as they love to discuss them in great detail, employees at Gulfstream Aerospace get used to not talking about other projects that are in development. Because big jet programs take up to a decade to progress from frst concept to frst delivery, for a company like Gulfstream there always has to be something in the pipeline that isn’t ready for public release. For many years, that unspoken project was the Gulfstream G650. Gulfstream began discussing the new jet publicly in 2008. By then the company had been working on it for five years. It wasn’t entirely secret, I should add. Gulfstream had not only discussed the 650 with its customers ahead of time, it had relied in large part on its customers to define the new airplane. After all, why should a company build an airplane its
customers might or might not want when it could simply ask them exactly what they want and then build that product? The group they assembled, called the Advanced Technical Customer Advisory Team (ATCAT), would come to be intimately involved in the design process. Of course, the problem with that approach is customers for products as expensive as the G650 are seldom shy about asking for what they want. And they weren’t shy. What they asked for was, to put it very simply, an airplane that was bigger than the very successful ultralong-range G550, that had even longer range, that was even faster, that was under 100,000 pounds (the cutoff weight for some important business aviation airports, including Teterboro), and that could operate out of all the same felds that Gulfstream’s other airplanes do. To everyone’s amazement, Gulfstream granted every one of its customers’ wishes. The airplane they developed, the G650, is the biggest, fastest, most luxurious, longest-range and most technologically
>>> With head-up display integration, synthetic vision, enhanced vision, 3-D weather radar and every other conceivable safety utility on top of fy-by-wire fight controls, the G650 can claim the title of world’s most advanced business jet. 42 FLYINGMAG.COM / SEPTEMBER 2013
advanced jet — by far — that Gulfstream has ever built. And they did it all on schedule while developing the brand-new super-midsize G280 at the same time. To say that Gulfstream is on a roll is an understatement.
MAnufActuring philosophy For Gulfstream the G650 represented not only a new airplane design but a new way of building airplanes. In addition to the impressive new plant at the Gulfstream campus in Savannah, Georgia, which is home to the G650, Gulfstream created a new and more effcient way of building airplanes — something that it was already great at doing. The chief manufacturing innovation is the use of bonded skins to create a fuselage that’s better in a variety of ways. With bonding, it can be more optimally shaped (with an oval) for more comfortable seating areas — the G650 has the best Gulfstream cabin by far. Bonding also makes for a stronger structure that is able to easily
withstand higher pressurization values, giving the G650 a remarkably low cabin altitude; at 45,000 feet on our test fight, the cabin altitude was a strikingly low 4,100 feet, or approximately half that of older-generation bizjets. The fuselage is also more cost effective to produce, so Gulfstream can actually build that better product more effciently. Anyone who doesn’t immediately understand that Gulfstream will leverage this new way of building airplanes into new products down the line doesn’t know Gulfstream. The investment in new technologies and facilities will continue to pay off.
g650 Design Gulfstream chose to create its new design, the G650, very much in the Gulfstream mold by making it a modestly sized jet with a large, comfortable cabin and insisting on great runway performance. All of these things describe the company’s former fagship, the G550. What makes the G650 different is that it’s a
>>>While sightly bigger than the G550 in every regard, the G650 is still identifably a Gulfstream. In fact, it’s hard for plane spotters to differentiate between the two.
little (or in some cases, a lot) better at everything. It’s faster, has longer range and has a greatly improved cabin over the G550’s already fne seating area. The question was, how would Gulfstream pull this off? The frst necessity was an improved engine, and Gulfstream got that with the latest generation of Rolls-Royce turbofan, the BR725, which puts out nearly 17,000 pounds of thrust but with unprecedented effciency. The new wing was a key element too. Its simple (no leading-edge devices), clean (fap tracks contained within the structure of the wing) and effcient (variable geometry and nextgen winglets) yet capacious structure meant a fast wing with lots of room for fuel. The sweep is greater than on previous Gulfstreams too, with 36 degrees of sweep for great effciency at high speeds. The long, deep chord Fowler flaps provide excellent approach speeds, while the powerful reversers of the Rolls engines and giant anti-skid brakes combine to cut landing distances substantially.
>>> The windows, the biggest in the bizjet world, defne G650 elegance. SEPTEMBER 2013 / FLYINGMAG.COM 43
>>> The wing of the G650 is indeed the thing. Its all-new, variable leading-edge airfoil is effcient; no leading-edge devices or VGs were needed to tailor the airfow.
>>> Carbon brakes are powerful and sophisticated but lack autobraking.
The frst chance I had to ride in the G650 was on a hop from Luton, just north of London, to Geneva for the European business aviation show. I was frustrated not to be fying the G650, sure, but I had the rare opportunity to see how the folks in back enjoy the ride. A few things were clear right off the bat. The windows, which look nice from the outside, are truly amazing on the inside. They’re not big; they’re huge. They’re also bright and perfectly positioned, so every passenger with an individual seat has a window to call their own. I also loved being able, thanks to high-speed wireless Internet, to check out the Red Sox scores in fight, send emails back to the offce and check my hotel reservation in Geneva. (What
The cabin also makes use of what Gulfstream calls Cabin Essential design. The idea is that in an airplane that travels such great distances, the operation of such things as sinks, vents, Wi-Fi connections, seat adjustments and the like are critical to conducting the flight, so Gulfstream engineered the cabin so there’s a great deal of redundancy in every component. While that’s no guarantee that something won’t go wrong, it greatly reduces that possibility.
rue was that place on?) We were treated to a fabulous meal, including champagne and ice cream for dessert, in addition to the wonderful conversation with the folks from Gulfstream and my fellow aviation journalists (none of whom, it just so happened, were pilots too). The conversation is worthy of note. Cruising along at Mach .92 on our way to Switzerland we were still able to talk in normal conversational voices. It is the quietest cabin I’ve ever fown in, gliders included. This is in large part due to the efforts of the dedicated Gulfstream acoustics lab, which worked diligently to fnd out exactly where every peep was coming from in the airplane and do something to quiet it. It paid off.
perforMAnce It’s clear that today the sophisticated customers of the most capable business aircraft are looking for great performance across the board, from low cabin
Fastest of the Fast A look at speedy aircraft
Cessna TTx: Top speed: 235 knots (Masks need to be on at 25,000 feet.)
Eurocopter X3: Top speed: 255 knots (Is this the future of vertical fight?)
44 FLYINGMAG.COM / SEPTEMBER 2013
Piaggio Avanti II: Top speed: 400 knots (Tri-surface fuel miser is fastest turboprop.)
Bombardier Global 6000: Top speed: Mach .89 (Jet becomes 6,000 nm cruiser at slower speeds)
Boeing 747: Top speed: Mach .92 (After nearly 50 years, this jumbo still wows.)
a HigH-TecH Wonder
>>> The day brought scattered convection to the Savannah, Georgia, area. As we discovered, it’s in this kind of weather that the HUD is best put to use and appreciated.
altitudes to excellent climbing ability. But in today’s market, ultimately nothing trumps range. So when members of Gulfstream’s customer advisory team asked for 7,000 nm of range, or roughly a 15 percent improvement from the already remarkable range of the thencurrent Gulfstream range leader, it was a tall order. But Gulfstream did just that, delivering an airplane that can fly 7,000 nm with reserves and do it at around Mach .87 (an improvement over the promised Mach .85). No other bizjet comes close to those performance figures. That means that the G650 can pair an impressive number of cities that no other purpose-built bizjet can,
Gulfstream G650: Top speed: Mach .925 (It’s fast, effcient, fexible and comfortable.)
Cessna Citation X: Top speed: Mach .935 (Midsize speedster will nudge G650 by a hair.)
including Washington, D.C., to Qatar in 11 hours and 40 minutes at Mach .88 and Teterboro to Moscow at .90. It is important to think about all of the steps that such flights save. Instead of airports, security lines, changing planes and dedicating two days to such trips even on the nicest airline’s best first-class experience, the entire flight can literally be done in pretty much the f lying time involved. Add in the great cabin experience, including fine dining — the galley in the G650 is unrivaled in its class — world-class connectivity and almost-as-good-as-home sleeping arrangements, and it is easy to see how the G650 essentially makes the entire world a day trip.
Concorde: Top speed: Mach 2.04 (The civil speed king is no longer fying.)
The G650 design is ingenious in its clean, simple and effcient approach to speed and range, but it’s important to understand that this is arguably the most advanced business aircraft on the planet. The most noteworthy example of this is the three-axis fy-by-wire (FBW) fight control system on the G650. The G650 is the frst FBW airplane for Gulfstream, but I can pretty much guarantee you it won’t be the last. The advantages so far outweigh the disadvantages at this point, it’s hard to remember what the downsides are. If you are not familiar with it (there are very few such airplanes in the GA feet), fy-by-wire is a different way of giving pilots control of the airplane. As the name implies, instead of the pilot being on one side of a mechanical connection — think control cables or push tubes — between yoke and aileron, fyby-wire controls simply allow the pilot to electronically command the fight path. With the G650 this gives not only extraordinarily smooth fying qualities but allows a range of fight control redundancies, so you can fy it with or without the primary fight control computer, depending on what kind of failure mode you fnd yourself in. With each of the backup modes, there are certain functions, such as autopilot or speed control, that are lost or less aggressively maintained. That said, the chance of a failure of the fight control system is hovering a fraction of a hair’s breadth above zero.
North American X-15A-2: Top speed: Mach 6+ (Hourly operating costs are classifed.)
Aurora: We would tell you how fast, but the NSA might be reading.
SEPTEMBER 2013 / FLYINGMAG.COM 45
G550
1 3
Telling the difference between the G650 and the G550 isnÕt as easy as you might think. Here are a few clues to help you out.
1. The top part of the Gulfstream G550Õs horizontal tail is visibly more slanted than that of the new G650.
What fy-by-wire does is make the G650 behave the same regardless of the loading, so the crew isn’t fying one airplane at 70,000 pounds takeoff weight and a completely different-feeling one at 95,000 pounds. The control feeling is identical. Similar in design to the fyby-wire systems in Boeing aircraft (the 777 and 787), the fy-by-wire computer in the G650 is a smart compromise between computer aiding and pilot control. The system helps provide a feel of fnesse and precision that no human pilot could otherwise achieve, while protecting the fight without forcing the pilot to give up control in any normal fight regimen.
FlyinG The G650 As I mentioned earlier, it was a rainy summer day in Savannah with a nasty front in the offng when I showed up to learn about and fy the G650. My guide for the fight would be Tom Horne, with international captain Dave Smith acting as safety pilot. We had all checked the radar a few times before we showed up for the meeting, and we thought it best to go fying earlier in the day, when the weather looked at least fyable, rather than wait for some unknown circumstances in this fastchanging weather system. Like other Gulfstreams, the G650 is equipped with the PlaneView cockpit, which in this case is based on Honeywell’s 46 FLYINGMAG.COM / SEPTEMBER 2013
2
2. The Gulfstream G550 features seven windows on each side, versus the G650, which features rows of eight.
Primus Epic fight deck. I’d not only fown Gulfstreams with PlaneView before, but I’d fown a couple of other business jets with differently confgured versions of Primus Epic. To be honest, I like them all. So I was familiar with it but certainly not profcient in its operation. With the G650 you use a sidemounted controller for the avionics suite. It looks for all the world like a sidestick, but it’s not. There are multiple ways to do anything you want to do on the various displays. The side-mount cursor control device is in many cases the handiest one. There’s also a head-up display with enhanced vision. The primary fight displays feature synthetic vision, all technologies that Gulfstream pioneered, many of them with longtime partners Honeywell and Rockwell Collins. Taxiing is done via the side-mounted tiller. It’s very sensitive, so you need to lead all of your turns and make very slight and smooth inputs. I got a little better by the time we arrived at the takeoff end of the runway. Once you line up to go, you can forget about the tiller and just fy the airplane. We weighed around 70,000 pounds, and our V1 and VR speeds were 107 and 109 knots, respectively. The rest of the Gulfstream feet was staying on the ground due to incoming weather, but thankfully we were given the OK to go fying. The tower cleared us to go on Runway 19.
3. The G550Õs winglets are longer than those featured on the G650, but they donÕt stand up quite as straight.
After activating the autothrottles, I stood them up and watched as they automatically advanced to our best takeoff power. And off we went, accelerating very briskly, barreling down the runway, the nosewheel within easy shouting distance of the centerline. To avoid the need to negotiate with Center controllers for our strange fight plan, up to 45,000 feet and back down in stages, with maneuvering and slow fight in the mid-teens, Tom fightplanned us out to a military operations area off the coast, which we’d get to share with a bunch of fghter jets that day playing in and among the clouds like we were. None of that stuff was in the FMS, but Tom played the system like a virtuoso and we were soon on our way out over the Atlantic. Our journey up to Flight Level 450 took just over 20 minutes at an airspeed of 300 knots and between 1,500 and 2,000 fpm. To get the feel of the fy-bywire controls, I hand-few the airplane on the departure and up through the mid-20s, using the HUD for primary reference and letting the autothrottles handle the thrust. At 45,000 feet we leveled out and were able to see the airplane’s maximum forward speed of Mach .925. At that same altitude and Mach .90, we were burning a total of 1,500 pounds of fuel per hour, a remarkably low fgure but one that is specifcally crucial
vs.
G650 4
7
6
5
8
4. The Gulfstream G650 comes equipped with EVS on the upper deck of the nose.
5. While it’s hard to tell from a distance, the G650’s windows are larger than the G550’s.
in the airplane achieving the kind of range fgures it boasts. At 45,000 feet hand-fying the airplane is easy. There’s plenty of control feel, and maneuvering feels very natural. I commented to Tom that if I hadn’t known it was a fy-by-wire airplane I never would have guessed. Gulfstream nailed the control feel. We headed down to 15,000 feet at .90, so we got there fast and proceeded to do a number of maneuvers designed to demonstrate the smart envelope protection built into the system. With the airplane in landing confguration, for instance, you can hold the stick back and the plane will descend, never getting too slow but staying very slow, down to around 90 knots. Yikes. We also did an alpha limit demonstration, where we climbed at the maximum angle of attack, the envelope protection never once letting us get too slow, while allowing us to climb at maximum effort. Heading back to KSAV we used another cool G650 safety device, its sophisticated 3-D weather radar, to pick our way between the buildups back to the base. As we listened on frequency, we heard a number of airliners calling the missed approach on the ILS and heading for an alternate. Instead we asked for the LPV to Runway 19 and got vectors toward the final and were cleared for the approach. On fnal and on glidepath, the auto-
6. The engine nacelles featured on the G650 are slightly bigger than those of the G550.
7. In addition to larger windows, the G650’s door is also bigger than that of the G550.
throttles kept us right on Vref, and using the HUD, I kept the needles centered. At our decision altitude (DA), I could see the runway lights through the enhanced vision system on the HUD — Tom said he saw the runway from there, and I believed him. The rain was lashing the windshield, and I was ready to go missed, but acquiring the runway environment at the normal DA allowed us to descend to 100 feet on the approach, so I kept it coming down, ready to go missed at any second. We needed every inch. I saw the runway, fipped up the HUD and landed. There is no automatic braking, but the big and
8. Finally, if the jet features “G650”or “G550” in tall characters on the tail, it probably is one!
smile on his face, Tom again asked what was the best airplane I’d fown. I smiled back. “I just got out of it,” I said.
coST/BeneFiTS With the G650, Gulfstream has created an airplane that is at once instantly recognizable as a Gulfstream while being a brand-new airplane with bestin-class performance, comfort, safety features and support. At a cost of $65 million, the G650 is competitive within its market, even more so because that price represents an all-up cost. You get paint, interior, EVS, synthetic vision, cabin manage-
The G650 fy-by-wire computer is a smart compromise between computer aiding and pilot control. powerful anti-skid brakes coupled with the powerful reversers got us stopped in no time, water fying up and in back of us as we made the frst turnoff, less than 3,000 feet from touchdown, in a blinding rainstorm while airliners diverted elsewhere. I’m still smiling. And that, my friends, is what the Gulfstream magic is all about. A while later, after shutting down and grabbing a few last pictures, we regrouped in the briefng room. A wry
ment and much, much more, all of which are very substantial extra charges on some airplanes. Gulfstream has orders for about 200 G650s, and at this writing it has delivered around 20 of them. My airplane, the factory demonstrator, was lucky serial number 13. If you were to order an airplane today, you’d get it in 2017. Having had the chance to both fy it and fy in it, I can only say this: It would totally be worth the wait. SEPTEMBER 2013 / FLYINGMAG.COM 47
48 Flyingmag.com / September 2013
By sam Weigel
The perils of single-engine freighT-dogging in The high counTry.
C
limbing through 15,000 feet, I breathe a sigh of relief,
slide my seat back and take a look around. Orange Coun-
ty, California, has one of the busier departure procedures in the country, and it’s a bit of a workout even when
you’re familiar with it. But now that we’re high above
the LAX Class B and talking to LA Center, there’s time to gaze down on some very familiar territory from my misbegotten youth. Nestled in the mountains to our right is Big Bear Airport, where, as a new instructor, I nearly paid the price for an ill-advised hot and
high takeoff. Brackett Field, my home airport in those days, is sliding beneath us. Ahead is the impassive Mojave Desert, above which I spent so many dark, lonely nights hauling checks. And to my left, in the hazy distance beyond the Mojave, I can make out the jagged escarpment of the Sierra Nevada and the sheer hollow of the Owens Valley. I know it well. Some of the greatest beauty, terror, and sorrow of my career came out of that abysmal, parched
valley. It was only 10 years ago, but it seems like another lifetime.
September 2013 / Flyingmag.com 49
life And deATh: flying The oWens VAlley
I
n the fall of 2003, I was a 22-year-old newly married “freight dog” facing unemployment with the impending liquidation of my small Part 135 employer. Few airlines were hiring in the wake of 9/11, and with 1,700 hours I was still considered a “low-timer.” Regional carriers back then still insisted that pilots gain experience before being unleashed on 50 paying passengers. Thus I jumped at the chance to fy for Amerifight, then and now among the largest and most reputable of Part 135 cargo operators. Like all new hires at the Burbank base, I was assigned the Piper PA-32R Lance, a sturdy single-engine workhorse I had fown at my last job. As the most junior Lance pilot, I inherited Route 132, from Burbank to Mammoth Lakes via the Owens Valley. Amfight 132 had a fearsome reputation among Amerifight crew members, just as many California GA pilots speak of the Owens Valley in dread tones. Brent Cordill, the pilot who few the route before me, often wore a football helmet into the valley. Another pilot before him reportedly quit on the spot on a bad day, preferring to take Greyhound back to LA. Severe turbulence, howling crosswinds and ferce snowstorms were all common wintertime occurrences. I ended up fying the route fve days a week from October 2003 through April 2004.
A seVere BeAuTy The frst time I few Amfight 132 under Brent’s tutelage, it was a still, clear autumn day. In such conditions, the threehop trip to Mammoth Lakes was an enjoyable one. I departed Burbank at 6:30 a.m. with 400 pounds of canceled checks destined for the drawers’ banks. Climbing out through the Newhall Pass, I skirted the western Mojave to Inyokern, near China Lake. After dropping off a dozen sealed canvas bank bags at Inyokern, I took off to the northwest and aimed for Owens Dry Lake, where I entered the valley proper. Here some description is necessary for the uninitiated, though words do little justice to the severe beauty of the place. The Owens Valley is an 80-mile50 Flyingmag.com / September 2013
long, stirringly dramatic gorge — one of the deepest in the country — hewn between the vertiginous wall of the Sierra Nevada to the west and the White and Inyo Mountains to the east. Many peaks on both sides rise above 14,000 feet. The valley foor averages 8 miles wide and is mostly fat at around 4,000 feet elevation, with one exception: Crater Mountain, a large dark-red cinder cone plopped in the middle of the valley 20 miles south of Bishop. The Owens Valley is sparsely populated, treeless and arid, but it wasn’t always like that: Runoff from the Sierra made the valley bloom until the beginning of the 20th century, when a burgeoning Los Angeles acquired water
rights under shadowy circumstances, constructed an aqueduct and drained the valley of its lifeblood. The enraged, doomed ranchers of the valley responded with bullets and dynamite, igniting a low-grade civil war. Into this newly desiccated high-walled prison, the U.S. government deposited some 11,000 Japanese-Americans for the duration of World War II. Manzanar internment camp was quietly erased after the war, but from the air one can still see the barracks’ sun-bleached foundations scattered among scrub brush in the shadow of Mount Whitney. The valley took about 30 minutes to traverse, from Owens Dry Lake in the south to Bishop Airport in the north. Here I landed to offoad more bags, and then made the fnal hop over the Sherman Grade to Mammoth-Yosemite Airport’s lofty elevation of 7,100 feet. After unloading the last of the checks, I drove the crew car — an ancient, decrepit Dodge Colt — into the ski village of Mammoth Lakes, where Amerifight owned a condo it had bought on the cheap during the volcano scare of the 1990s. At 4 p.m., I returned to the airport, awaited the arrival of the outgoing bank bags and departed for Bishop. The afternoon route was the same as the morning’s, but in reverse, arriving back home in Burbank around 7:30 p.m. That was how the route usually went on good days. I enjoyed the stark beauty of the valley and the implacable wall of the Sierra; I appreciated the change of pace and fresh mountain air afforded by the seven-hour layover in Mammoth Lakes. I befriended a few locals: the waitresses at my morning cafe, the town librarians, the laid-back staff at Hot Creek Aviation. I also got to know the route’s lead couriers quite well, for they were the frst to meet an arriving fight and the last to see it off. At Inyokern the lead was Dottie, a hard-bitten, boozing old desert rat who seldom had a kind word for anything or anybody. In Bishop it was Bill, a genial mountain of a man with wild, upcurled eyebrows. Dottie and Bill held court while the other couriers came and went, and woe be to the pilot who wasn’t ready to launch when the last bank bag arrived.
life And deATh: flying The oWens VAlley
A Wild ride The good days outnumbered the bad, but I came to live in dread of the bad days, which could be very bad indeed. I never knew for sure what kind of day it would be until I was in the valley. A Pacifc storm making landfall farther up the coast was cause for concern, although it depended on the strength of the storm and exactly where it came ashore. I’d take off from Inyokern and turn northward, light chop quickly increasing to moderate turbulence. I’d spy bone-white lenticulars standing sentinel over the high Sierra in a bright blue sky smudged with dusty haze. At Owens Dry Lake, I’d fnd great ochre streaks of poisonous dust scouring the alkaline lake bed. Rounding the bend into the valley, I might even spot the evil torn wisp of a rotor cloud ahead. At this I slowed the airplane below 100 knots, tightened my seat belt as snugly as it would go, and dropped down to 6,500 feet or lower in preparation for the maelstrom. The Sierra came alive; I watched angry squalls clamber over the peaks and squeeze through the canyons at breakneck speed. I would be slogging miserably along, getting knocked off my line into 30-degree banks, when I came abeam the mouth of one of these canyons. I knew exactly what was going to happen. I hunched over like a crippled man, one hand death-gripping the instrument panel and the other clutching the yoke, and waited. I could predict almost to the second when the hapless little Lance would be struck with terrible force, two or three times in quick succession, before getting tossed onto its side. No matter how low I hunched, my head would hit the headliner or slam into the side window, and I’d woozily crank over full aileron in an attempt to right the ship before it was struck again. This continued all the way to Bishop — 30 interminable, hellish minutes. The northern end of the valley was usually a bit less violent, but then I was faced with the prospect of landing in blistering 40-knot winds. At Bishop this wasn’t so hard, given the airport’s threerunway layout that makes for manageable crosswinds. Mammoth Lakes, however, has a single east-west runway.
Frequently, there was a direct crosswind with moderate to severe turbulence. Most of the time, I was able to get the sturdy Lance on the ground in one or two tries. If not, I’d beat a retreat to Bishop, getting bashed the whole way. Sudden snowstorms were another frequent hazard on the route. You could reasonably predict that it would be snowing in the Sierra itself during any cold-front activity, but it was impossible to tell when the weather would sneak over the high peaks into the valley. With minimum en route altitudes of 16,000 feet, IFR was out of the question; the route was strictly VFR north of Inyokern. There were a few airports along the way if conditions got really bad. Given the limitations of the route, Amerifight gave me a lot of leeway in decision-making; the only cardinal rule was “Don’t get stuck.” On really bad
time, the standing mountain wave phenomenon was not well understood, so this small group of enthusiasts and scientists beefed up two gliders, equipped them with atmospheric instrumentation, and then launched them into conditions similar to those I was experiencing. Pilots with the Sierra Wave Project shattered world soaring records for altitude, endurance and distance, some of which stood for decades afterward. They also lost a glider near Bishop, when the tail snapped off in extreme rotor conditions; the instruments recorded a gust of some 160 mph that put over 16G load on the airframe. The pilot bailed out and escaped with his life after a wild ride through the rotor under parachute. I received yet another demonstration of the Sierra Wave’s awesome power on a seemingly benign afternoon, with nothing worse than moderate turbulence
i would be slogging miserably along, getting knocked off my line into 30-degree banks. mornings, I few as far up the valley as I could, and the Mammoth couriers drove down Highway 395 to pick up their bank bags. During layovers, I kept a close eye on the weather and scooted out to the airport at the frst sign of snow moving out of the mountains. If it started getting bad at Mammoth, I repositioned to Bishop or even farther south as conditions warranted. Once, an unexpectedly strong cold front chased me down the valley all day, with snow squalls and low ceilings; the couriers fnally caught up with me that night in Lancaster, a mere 40 miles from Burbank.
The sierrA WAVe An interesting piece of local lore underscored the terrifc forces that were regularly leaving bruises on my head and lap. The Sierra Wave Project was a 1951-1952 collaboration among the Southern California Soaring Society, the Air Force and UCLA’s meteorology department. At the
most of the way down the valley. Passing Owens Dry Lake, though, the ride became increasingly wild. I dropped lower as I approached Inyokern, only to get knocked to a near-vertical bank several times. Suddenly, as I descended through 6,500 feet, the turbulence abruptly and totally ceased. Something wasn’t right. I looked down to fnd the VSI pegged upward and the airspeed approaching redline. I chopped the throttle to idle; it made little difference. I gained 4,000 feet, power off in silky-smooth wave, in under two minutes. I didn’t have the oxygen or the inclination to fnd out how high the wave would take me; I turned downwind and within a mile or two was riding it down as fast as I’d gone up. A few months of such adventures and I was ready to be done with the valley forever. Luckily, in January a slot opened up on the twin-engine Piper PA-31 Navajo/Chieftain. Shortly before my training date, I route-trained my replacement September 2013 / Flyingmag.com 51
life And deATh: flying The oWens VAlley
on Amfight 132. Michael Ahn and I had worked together at my previous cargo outft, as well as a fight school before that. On the second day of route training, we were napping at the layover condo in Mammoth Lakes when something woke me up: the frst snowfakes of an ugly-looking storm coming over the mountain. We raced to the airport, fred up, and were nearly to the runway when a wall of white engulfed our little airplane. Having broken the cardinal rule, we shut down and returned to the condo to watch 3 feet of unforecast snow bury the town overnight.
A cleAr Blue dAy The following Monday I was in PA-31 training, and Mike was on Amfight 132. It was an utterly miserable week in the valley, one of the worst of the winter. Mike never made it all the way to Mammoth, instead passing time and watching
52 Flyingmag.com / September 2013
the weather from the Bishop FBO’s pilot lounge. I saw him that Friday, and he looked completely beat up. “I don’t know how you do this!” he sputtered. “Don’t worry, it’ll get better,” I assured him. Indeed, the next Wednesday, Jan. 21, dawned still and clear all the way up the west coast. I few the early Chieftain run to Oakland under instructor supervision and was back by midmorning. The next day, I reported to Burbank for the last training fight before my check ride and was passing the unusually subdued dispatch offce when a notice tacked to the message board caught my eye: “Amerifight regrets to announce the loss of Lance N8701E, operating as Amfight 132, yesterday near Bishop, California. The pilot, Captain Michael Ahn, was fatally injured ….” I stood blinking with incomprehension. Amfight 132 is my route! What’s this about Mike? Mike can’t be gone. It
was a good day in the valley! I turned to the glum-faced dispatchers, who somberly affrmed the terrible news. In shock, I called up two of our mutual friends; they had heard the previous evening and had little to say. There was nothing to do but collect my instructor, strap into a Navajo, and take off to practice NDB approaches and single-engine landings through choked-back tears. I passed my PA-31 check ride the next day but was back in the valley by Monday. With Mike’s death, the company needed Lance pilots more than it needed PA-31 captains. When I landed at Inyokern, Dottie threw her arms around me and sobbed, a startling display of emotion from a woman not given to it. She had been the last person to see Mike alive, and the news had hit her hard. In subsequent weeks, I couldn’t be two minutes late without Dottie calling the company to worriedly inquire about my whereabouts.
life And deATh: flying The oWens VAlley
The sirens of crATer MounTAin Unsettling details about the crash emerged. Mike had clipped the very top of Crater Mountain, the lone cinder cone in the middle of the valley, in straight and level fight and at cruise airspeed. He had talked to Joshua Approach earlier in the fight but canceled radar advisories around Owens Dry Lake, as usual. The last radar returns showed a track heading roughly toward Crater Mountain and, more unusually, the start of a slow descent. I now few over the accident site twice a day, wondering what had lured Mike to his fate on that lonely outcropping. Investigators from the NTSB interviewed me, and they were clearly focusing on pilot fatigue. Two previously innocuous incidents took on new signifcance. On the frst day of route training, Mike was tired between Inyokern
and Bishop and asked me if he could take a short nap. It was an uneventful portion of the fight, so I said yes. The next day, he fell asleep in the same area, 15 minutes south of Crater Mountain, without asking frst. When the NTSB’s fnal report came out, it mentioned my statement, as well as several other facts that would suggest chronic fatigue, but ruled the probable cause to be the “failure of the pilot to maintain clearance with mountainous terrain for undetermined reasons.” The cause of the crash will never be known for sure, but everyone’s best guess is that Mike was simply dog-tired, let his guard down, and nodded off on a beautiful day in the valley. Weeks and months went by without another PA-31 slot in sight, and so I stayed on Amfight 132 through the winter. I could have bid another Lance route by now but didn’t, perhaps out of lingering guilt over my role in Mike’s death. It was because of my training that he was on my route, and I’d missed the warning signs when he had fallen asleep. The guilt may have been misplaced, but it imbued the valley with a more sinister character. Now the bad days felt personal, like I was being punished. The sunny days of early spring felt like soothing lullabies crooned by the sirens of Crater Mountain. springTiMe in The VAlley Amerifight actually lost two airplanes in the week of Mike’s death. A Metroliner crash in Spokane killed the Seattle base chief pilot, who had thousands of hours in type, and occurred under similarly puzzling circumstances. Even at reputable operators like Amerifight, single-pilot Part 135 is a risky business. Besides Mike, one of my frst fight instructors was killed fying night freight, and I’d had a few scares myself. I often thought about that beefed-up glider torn apart by the Sierra rotor. The Lances were built strong and were well maintained, but they were nearly 30 years old and had suffered many rough trips up the Owens Valley. I made up my mind to leave and redoubled my efforts to get hired at a regional airline. On a still, clear spring day in the valley, I got the telephone call that led to
my frst airline job. I route-trained my replacement and left Amfight 132 as snowmelt poured from the Sierra and made the parched valley foor bloom again for a few weeks of springtime. My last day at Amerifight was spent fying the Chieftain from Las Vegas to Burbank, and so I ended my Part 135 career where it began, where I’d fought my own battles against sleep by the dim red light of a gently rocking, thrumming cocoon suspended in the inky void of a Mojave night. The Owens Valley continued to challenge Amerifight’s new pilots for a few more years before technology fnally made the check-fying business obsolete and put an end to the stout Lance’s long, faithful service. Bill, the friendly lead courier from Bishop, wrote me after the last fight of Amfight 132, and again when Dottie passed away shortly thereafter. She talked about Mike and me up until the end, Bill said. I think about that lonely old lady now and then, and Mike, and the Lance, and the angry gods of the Sierra. The joys and sorrows of those days come rushing back even now, as I gaze out of my fight-deck window and across the desert to the valley that was my home and my tormentor for a season, 10 years and a lifetime ago. Perhaps it is odd to feel nostalgia for such a place, but I’m hardly the only one. Most pilots who’ve been in this business for very long have at least one tough, dangerous fying job in their past. Most of us scared ourselves a few times, and many of us knew a fellow aviator who didn’t make it through. Yet even the senior veterans of the line often look back on those early days with real affection — perhaps more in retrospect than they felt at the time. Those hard years often yield the greatest beauty, adventure and friendships of a pilot’s life. Both the terror of the Sierra rotor and the tragedy on Crater Mountain are diminished by all my good memories of Amfight 132. It was the most demanding, most interesting fying of my career thus far. I’m glad I did it. But like most of my colleagues, looking back, I’m sure as hell glad I don’t have to do it again. I’m not sure my luck would last another winter in the valley. September 2013 / Flyingmag.com 53
GREAT AND AFFORDABLE COCKPIT UPGRADES
WE SCOUR THE MARKET TO FIND THE BEST VALUES FOR YOUR MONEY. BY STEPHEN POPE
T
he word “cheap” sometimes carries negative connotations. It can be taken to suggest inferior quality or a poor value. But pilots who are hit with shelling out upward of $5 or even $6 a gallon for avgas, plus hundreds of dollars a month in hangar or tie-down fees and thousands more on annual inspections, insurance and maintenance will be the frst to admit they’re nothing if not bargain shoppers. You might even proudly label yourself a cheapskate — in spite of your $160 aviator sunglasses and $1,400 noise-canceling headset. But hey, you got a deal on your pilot watch, so it’s all good. Well, as we’re about to show, you don’t always have to spend a lot to get a lot. We’ve searched the market to fnd the
best values in aviation, uncovering a host of cockpit upgrades that will make your fying experience more enjoyable — and in many ways safer — without draining your bank account. That said, cheap is a relative term, isn’t it? It should be fairly obvious that we’re talking about aviation’s concept of low prices and not the image most people conjure when they walk into the neighborhood dollar store. By the same token, we didn’t build our list of must-consider cockpit add-ons based on price alone. The overall equation is built around total value — what you get for your hard-earned money. Thanks to a down market and fierce competition among the companies that make the products on our list, it turns out you can get quite a lot these days. SEPTEMBER 2013 / FLYINGMAG.COM 55
Five Great — and aFFordable — CoCkpit UpGrades
Budget Glass Cockpits Garmin G500
R
emember when a basic twodisplay EFIS upgrade cost $75,000? The early adopters of glass cockpit technology got great capability but paid dearly for it. Today you can buy an integrated glass cockpit with synthetic-vision primary fight display, solid-state attitude and heading reference system, air-data computer, built-in terrain alerting, color moving map and a lot more for well under $20,000. What is the bargain glass cockpit upgrade that has us drooling? Without a doubt, it’s Garmin’s G500 system. It’s available with all of the features listed above, plus optional XM weather and radio interface, Jeppesen charts, and
>>> Garmin’s G500 retrofit avionics system ranks as one of the best values in aviation, offering a host of advanced capabilities for under $20,000.
created the G500 for Part 23 Class 1 and 2 singles and twins with MTOWs under 6,000 pounds. The G600 is intended for heavier Class 3 airplanes with MTOWs above 6,000 pounds up to the Part 23 limit of 12,500 pounds. The displays, measuring 6.5 inches diagonally, are exactly the same in either system. Approved model list STCs cover installations in hundreds of airplanes, from the G500 in an early model Cessna 150 all the way up to the G600 in a King Air turboprop. As for capabilities, the G500 system provides many of the features of the G600 suite but for around $10,000 less. But you won’t get everything. Garmin’s exceptional Synthetic Vision Technology is standard in the G600 but optional in the
is Aspen Avionics’ Evolution 1000 primary fight display. Ingeniously designed to ft in the space occupied by two conventional round instruments, the EFD1000 is hands down the cheapest high-performance glass cockpit in the certifed market. It’s also a very nice unit, with a colorful and bright display that makes smart use of display real estate. Best of all, the Aspen PFD plays well with others, interfacing with nearly any GPS receiver or nav radio you might have. The price of the EFD1000 primary fight display starts at $5,995, and you can add an EFD500 multifunction display to slide in right next to it for an extra $4,390.
as for capabilities, the G500 provides many of the features of the G600 but for around $10,000 less. even control and display of Garmin’s GWX 68 airborne weather radar, if you happen to have one, all for the low starting price of $17,895. The system can do 90 percent of what a full-up G1000 installation can, but in a compact package that’s perfect for replacing the instrument six pack in your light single or twin. That doesn’t mean we aren’t equally enamored with Garmin’s G600 cockpit. But let’s face it, the G600 costs more, and we’re bargain-hunting here. Garmin 56 FLYINGMAG.COM / SEPTEMBER 2013
G500 (although the price we quoted above for the G500 includes SVT, since we consider it a must have). Another standard G600 feature that’s optional in the G500 is a digital AHRS output to the autopilot for heading, yaw and baro. Both systems are approved for installation in Class 1 and 2 airplanes, meaning the G600 is a good ft for nearly all Part 23 airplanes, while the G500 is limited to those up to the size of, say, a Beech Baron. The other bargain champ on our list
aspen avionics evolution 1000 >>> Aspen Avionics has made a name for itself by offering great products at low prices. The Aspen EFD1000 fight display sells for around $6,000.
Five Great — and aFFordable — CoCkpit UpGrades
IFR GPS Navigators
O
f course, if you are going to shell out the cash for a new glass cockpit, you might want to consider upgrading your GPS and navcoms at the same time. This is an easy decision, in our opinion. To make your aviation dollar go further, you will want to buy a bundled unit that combines a WAAS IFR GPS receiver (required for the upcoming ADS-B mandate, which we’ll talk about) with top-notch navcom radios and a brilliant color LCD moving-map touchscreen display. Obviously, we are talking about Brand A versus Brand G, pitting Avidyne’s new IFD440 navigator against Garmin’s market-dominating GTN 650. Garmin invented the all-in-one GPS navigator with the wildly popular GNS 430 more than a decade ago. The replacement for that revolutionary product is the impressive GTN 650. The new product is pretty much exactly the same size as the GNS 430, yet it incorporates a larger, ultrahigh-resolution, capacitive touch-sensitive display and gobs more computer processing power. The touch display makes it so much more user-friendly than its predecessor, as the 430’s endless knob twisting is replaced with friendly graphical icons and alphanumerical keys for quick data entry. The map view is similar to what we’ve become accustomed to in the G1000, with terrain, traffc and weather pages that look great. With a price of $10,295 and packed with capabilities, this navigator is really hard to beat. That hasn’t stopped Avidyne from trying. The Massachusetts avionics manufacturer fnally decided to go toe to toe with Garmin with the introduction of the IFD440 and the larger IFD540 (which competes with Garmin’s GTN 750 navigator). The only problem is the IFD440 hasn’t hit the market yet, so we’re not sure how good it will be. The pluses are the prices and
avidyne iFd540 and 440 >>> Both the Avidyne IFD540 and the smaller IFD440 are based on the Entegra R9 cockpit. The price of the 440 starts at less than $10,000.
the capabilities Avidyne has announced. The retail price is $14,995, but we’ve seen Avidyne promotions advertising the IFD440 for as low as $9,200. As far as what it can do, the IFD440 is based on the user interface from the Entegra R9 integrated cock-
pit. We’ve fown the R9 several times now and love it. Adding a touchscreen to the mix should make the experience even better. We won’t know for certain until the IFD440 goes on sale later this year, but from what we’ve seen, it’s looking like a promising option.
Preparing for ADS-B
T
he ADS-B mandate goes into effect in 2020, which is still a good way into the future, so you shouldn’t panic yet. Our advice is to hold off on equipping for ADS-B until the requirements become a little clearer. But don’t wait too long. Some experts are already worried that the mandate will devolve into an
epic disaster as tens of thousands of aircraft owners wait until the eleventh hour to think about scheduling their installs. The law of supply and demand being what it is, you can see what this type of logjam could do to the wallets of airplane owners who wait too long and must pay full retail for products that are suddenly in hot demand. Another consideration is that the SEPTEMBER 2013 / FLYINGMAG.COM 57
Five Great — and aFFordable — CoCkpit UpGrades
trig avionics tt31 >>> Trig Avionics isn’t as well known in America as some other companies, but based on price, the company’s new TT31 product wins out in most cases.
nationwide network of ADS-B ground stations is growing larger every month. There are very real benefts to gain from installing some ADS-B gear now. And since you’ll need it for the mandate anyway, you might as well buy certifed equipment. If you’re still unclear about what ADS-B is and what you’ll need, you’re not alone. We won’t go into all the details here, but the big item you must have aboard your airplane to comply with the mandate is a WAAS-enabled GPS receiver. Besides a WAAS GPS, if you fy below 18,000 feet and only inside the United States, the cheapest path to ADSB compliance will be a 978 MHz universal access transceiver. If the 987 MHz UAT unit you buy has ADS-B In capability as well, you’ll also be able to view traffc and weather information on your MFD. Garmin has created an online ADS-B Academy at garmin.com/ADS-B with lots of great information. The one important piece of the puzzle is what ADS-B compliance will cost. Part of the confusion is the required performance of ADS-B avionics needed to meet the mandate hasn’t been completely defned. The other is that
there are many pathways to compliance at price points that are all over the map. If you want to go the cheapest route possible, a few companies are creating solutions that will let you do just that. FreeFlight Systems has introduced the Xplorer line of ADS-B avionics, which includes an ADS-B weather receiver for reaping benefts right now, plus a WAAS GPS upgrade for the NextGen requirement for high-accuracy position, and a 987 MHz ADS-B Out transmitter. Trig Avionics recently introduced the TT31 ADS-B Out-compliant Mode S transponder. Designed as a plug-in replacement for the Bendix/King KT76A transponder, the TT31 is also being billed as a simple upgrade solution. At a price of $2,750, it’s one of the cheapest too. Best of all, the Trig transponder is compatible with the FreeFlight ADSB transmitter. To take advantage of ADS-B traffc and weather without addressing the mandate, lots of companies are producing portable units that can link with an iPad or Android tablet. The great news is many of the portables can be had for under
$1,000. For more information, check out our feature story “iPad Apps and Sensors” in last month’s issue. We haven’t discussed noncertifed avionics for kit-built and light-sport aircraft, but obviously non-TSO’d products can be had for far less than a WAAS IFR GPS receiver from Garmin or a certifed PFD from Aspen. Still, Garmin has jumped into the experimental market in a big way, as it looks to muscle in on the inroads made by companies like Dynon, Grand Rapids Technologies, Advanced Flight Systems, Vertical Power and others. Here we’re talking really cheap avionics, with prices for a full Dynon EFIS with PFD and MFD, for example, starting at $3,600. Garmin’s G3X PFD with built-in GPS receiver, digital ADAHRS, obstacle/ terrain database, synthetic vision and more starts at $4,775. Add an MFD to the package and the price rises to a still quite affordable $6,495. As we’ve seen, you can add some great capabilities to your airplane to transform its cockpit into something nearly as good as brand-new airplanes rolling out of the factory today. You’ll have to spend a few dollars to buy the products you want — and a few dollars more to have them installed — but if you love your current airplane and are seeking ways to bring it gracefully into the 21st century, our list of upgrades will keep you happily fying for many years to come.
Cockpit Video Cameras
I
f you have been on YouTube lately,
for $199, versus $399 for the GoPro. Both
you know that in-cockpit video has
cameras are Wi-Fi enabled, allowing you to
become all the rage, as everyone
download videos directly to your computer.
from the nervous student pilot gin-
They also both shoot in 1080p HD resolution
gerly launching on his first solo flight
and have a screen resolution of 1920 x 1080.
to world-famous aerobatic champions seek
We have seen comparison videos of both
to capture their air-bound exploits on cam-
cameras shooting identical scenes, and quite
era. The best HD cameras we’ve tried are
honestly it is pretty hard to tell which is
GoPro’s Hero 3: Black Edition and JVC’s Ad-
which. Both are great. GoPro may be the
dixion “action camera.”
sexier brand name at the moment, but based
Both products bring a lot to the table, but the JVC camera wins out on price, retailing 58 FLYINGMAG.COM / SEPTEMBER 2013
on price and performance, JVC is worth
checking out as well.
>>> GoPro’s mount-anywhere cameras are a favorite among pilots. The latest GoPro Hero 3: Black Edition camera features a new ultrasharp lens.
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F ly i n g o p i n i o n
UnUsUal attitUdes By martha lUnken
The Matrix and Me Will the FAA’s love affair with Risk Management stand the test of time?
A
Two-MAn TeAM froM Oklahoma City was in town last month with the “live” portion of the FAA’s designated pilot examiner renewal seminar. Half of the mandatory training happens online, but we still get eight hours in one of those hotel meeting rooms; if the air conditioning is cold enough and the coffee strong and plentiful enough, most examiners remain at least semiconscious through endless PowerPoint slides — mostly paragraphs from handbooks or the regulations. After too much time with obscure certifcation issues (a sport pilot with a powered parachute rating who wants to add weight shift control, for example), we got into Risk Management, Aeronautical Decision Making and Single-Pilot Resource Management. The FAA’s in love with this stuff, which I suspect is the product of “academics” who don’t fy airplanes — at least beyond the traffc pattern. Along with cute acronyms like PAVE and DECIDE and I’M SAFE, there’s a nifty matrix to consult before “risking” a fight. It’s kind of an aeronautical Ouija board. If, for example, you’re concerned
about colliding with a hippopotamus on the runway at your destination, you scan horizontally across the top of the chart to determine the “severity” of this encounter — which is certainly “critical,” if not “catastrophic.” Since the runway is in Duluth, the “likelihood” (left vertical) of encountering a hippopotamus is “improbable,” meaning the box where they meet is blue. So go fy — cautiously. But should Duluth Airport be adjacent to a wild-animal sanctuary with a history of escaping hippopotamuses, the likelihood becomes “occasional,” and then you’re in a red box. You should probably land somewhere else — unless it’s January and the herd has migrated south. This is a ridiculous example of what I think is a ridiculous idea — the matrix certainly, and maybe even Risk Management training in general. Identifying the severity of a risk — thunderstorms, ice, fatigue, limited fuel capacity — is a no-brainer. But determining the likelihood of it becoming an issue on your fight is an individual call that requires common sense. And I don’t think that you can teach or test common sense.
We also spent some time with an NTSB accident report of a Bonanza that crashed on takeoff, killing the pilot and severely injuring three passengers. Extensive damage to the cockpit prevented investigators from identifying the position of most switches and selectors. With evidence of plenty of fuel at the crash site but none in the fuel lines, they concluded that the pilot-owner was unfamiliar with the modifed fuel system and had inadvertently run a tank dry. We were supposed to determine if the use of Risk Management tools could have prevented the crash. Could he have averted the disastrous consequences by frst assessing his competency and knowledge of the airplane, his experience, his mental, emotional and physical health, his attitude? Did he ponder his history of decision making? Another pilot who few with him reported he was often “really hot” on approaches and didn’t seem to be in control of the airplane. Nor was he familiar with aircraft systems; more than once he inadvertently ran fuel tanks dry in fight or had engine failures on the runway after touchdown. On another fight he was unaware that the autopilot had disengaged until a passenger remarked they were in a climbing turn and, when asked to demonstrate a coupled instrument approach, he was unable to confgure the autopilot. Although his most recent medical application listed no medications or medical history, hospital records from a recent shoulder operation listed mild obesity, high blood pressure, irregular heartbeat, elevated cholesterol, <<< The FAA says charts like this one can help determine overall risk by comparing the likelihood of an event and the consequence of that event.
60 FLYINGMAG.COM / SEPTEMBER 2013
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depression and anxiety with panic attacks. He was taking at least eight prescription medications and using a CPAP (continuous positive airway pressure) device at night for sleeping. So, sure, by using Risk Management tools he’d realize he wasn’t ft to fy. But would a guy so defcient in common sense have even considered Risk Management, Aeronautical Decision Making or how to construct a Risk Matrix? I think not. The report resonated, because I’d made a dead-stick landing at WrightPatterson Air Force Base some years before in a Bonanza I was fying. In those days it wasn’t uncommon for FAA inspectors to use privately owned airplanes and combine currency fying with the performance of some work function. In this case I was going to Detroit to do DC-3 check rides at the Yankee Air Museum. And I’d fown this airplane enough to be aware (and wary) of its converted and complex fuel system. We left Cincinnati early on a July morning, another newly hired inspector in the right seat for “on-the-job training,” although I’m surprised, in retrospect, that I was training or acting as a role model for anybody. John would go on to become a very big name at FAA headquarters in Washington; I would play out my FAA career — defnitely not management material — in the Cincinnati FSDO. The 1956 G-model Bonanza came from the factory with a 225-horsepower, carbureted engine, holding 80 gallons of fuel and consuming about 11 gph. A previous owner had installed an injected, 260 hp Continental engine and an Osborne conversion with wingtip tanks that provided an additional 20 gallons per side. Now the airplane few faster and burned more fuel but held 100 gallons, albeit in six separate and relatively small fuel tanks. Another issue is that the rate of return fuel, always to the left main tank, is quite high — as much as 10 gph. So you start with fuel from the left main tank and then switch to an aux tank or turn the selector to “tip” and use a second selector valve to 62 FLYINGMAG.COM / SEPTEMBER 2013
open the tip line. You run that tank nearly dry (remembering to select the proper gauge, monitor the time and watch the fuel fow) and then go back to the left main. Again, you run that tank down until it’s low enough to accommodate return fuel from the next aux or tip tank you select. The fuel lines are long, and if you run a tank dry — which is easy to do — you experience a “power interruption” (it quits) and risk vapor lock. The system was complex enough that somebody had drawn and laminated a fuel selector diagram and checklist, both of which were attached (chained) near the fuel selectors. After the check rides at YIP we headed back to Cincinnati without
controller suggested Xenia Greene County Airport, about 12 miles southeast. I told him we would rather take the 12,600-foot runway at WrightPatterson Air Force Base, directly beneath our wing. Spiraling down I remarked to John that we’d probably be met with guns and spend the weekend flling out forms. But when we came to a stop on 23R, we were met by friendly and unarmed (I think) guys, who towed us off the runway to base ops. And, because it was an FAA operation, the Bonanza was a “public aircraft,” which eliminated most of the paperwork and bureaucratic hassle. The Indianapolis FAA airworthiness inspectors who investigated the
The air temperature was really hot at 6,000 feet, and i was switching tanks constantly, wondering why that left main was reflling so much more quickly than i expected. refueling — we had left that morning before I could get authorization from my boss to use the government credit card for fuel and, besides, there was plenty in the tanks. It was soft IFR, in and out of clouds, until we broke into the clear just north of Dayton. The outside air temperature was really hot at 6,000 feet, and I was switching tanks constantly, wondering why that left main was reflling so much more quickly than I expected. We were with Dayton Approach and running off one of the auxes or tips — I don’t remember which. Before I caught the wiggle on the fuel fow gauge and far sooner than I expected, the engine suddenly quit. Switching back to the left main didn’t have any effect, so I pulled out the checklist and asked John to lean over and verify that I had the selectors in the correct position. The left main fuel gauge showed about half full, and John confrmed we were on that tank but still “no joy” on the restart. I told Dayton about our dilemma, and the
incident (to avoid any appearance of favoritism) found nothing wrong with the tanks, pumps or injectors. “Vapor lock” was the offcial verdict — I had run a tank completely dry, it was hot and the engine wouldn’t restart. But even now I wonder. Vapor lock has always seemed a little like fbromyalgia — the diagnosis given when a doctor runs out of ideas. My big mistake was my failure to buy fuel at YIP for the return fight that July afternoon. Yeah, we had enough, but I let my worry about getting another reprimand from my manager override what little common sense I had. With a full fuel load I wouldn’t have needed to switch tanks as carefully and as often and probably wouldn’t have run one dry. Instead of feeling smug about a great emergency landing, I had to remind myself that “truly superior pilots are those who use their superior judgment to avoid those situations where they might have to use their superior skills.”
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F LY I N G O P I N I O N
GEAR UP BY DICK KARL
Does Recurrent Training Work?
“
LET’S FACE IT, SOME OF the items on the checklist are written in blood,” our sim instructor says. It is day three of recurrent training. My training partner and I sit up straight. These words compel us to think carefully about why we are there and what we are doing. It means
Am I really getting safer? that accidents, once investigated, have led to changed and augmented checklists. This is a painful, iterative process. Proving that recurrent training in any aircraft type prevents accidents is a statistical challenge. Accidents are infrequent enough, thank God, that it is hard to prove that this type of prevention
>>> FlightSafety’s Lear 31A simulator can throw some challenging curve balls. Better to experience them in the comfort of a building than on a dark, stormy night.
64 FLYINGMAG.COM / SEPTEMBER 2013
works. We know that pilots who have received training and are current die in airplane crashes. Not often, but it happens. We also know that pilots who are poorly trained end up dying in accidents. We see the ads that tout the value of training, as reported by pilots who have survived infight emergencies and credit their training with saving their lives. But these are anecdotal reports; they don’t really prove that recurrent training saves lives. The insurance companies have concluded that recurrent training in turboprops saves money, if not lives. In order to insure the Cheyenne that my wife, Cathy, and I own, I must attend recurrent training at an approved site. In order to fy Part 135 in jets, the FAA stipulates not only that I attend recurrent training but also that I perform tasks in the simulator to certain standards. My favorite is the V1 cut on takeoff with RVR of 500 feet. At least you can’t see much. In my previous life as a cancer surgeon, the value of recurrent training was not yet an established standard. Physicians are skeptical — doctors are trained to be empiricists. If it has not been proved in a randomized doubleblind controlled trial, they do not believe it. And because they don’t believe that training, CRM and checklists reduce the likelihood of hurting a patient, they resist using the very things that aviators now accept as professional standards. Why malpractice carriers don’t insist is a puzzle to me. All of this becomes abundantly clear to me when I train yearly in the Lear 31A that I fly for Elite Air in St. Petersburg, Florida, and in the Cheyenne. This year I asked about the evidence for recurrent profciency training at SimCom in Orlando, where I do
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Cheyenne training, and at FlightSafety in Atlanta, where I do the Learjet. When I climbed out of the sim at SimCom this year, after shooting the Localizer ZDME-E approach to Aspen, I asked a simple question: Why in the world would anybody attempt this approach without practicing it frst in the simulator? The step-down fxes come so fast and the end of the approach leaves the airplane so high above the airport that you have to force the nose down in order to see it. I can’t imagine anything but a skein of missed approaches without prior training. With the remarkable SimCom visuals, though, I think I could make it in. What if I lost an engine on that approach? After a few days at SimCom, a certain sense of competency sets in, so I am reasonably confdent that I would likely survive. Not a guarantee, but a sense of reassurance. No doubt a real emergency would scare me to death, especially in that part of the country, but I think I would have a set of basic skills and a familiarity with the procedures that would be lifesaving. After several sessions of unimaginable faults and emergencies piled on top of each other and compounded, I always marvel at how well everything works when I get back in my own airplane. I look at 58 Whiskey with renewed appreciation, though I wish it would fy those GPS approaches as crisply as the SimCom Cheyenne. The atmosphere at SimCom is a combination of approachability and dedication to precision. The training is always one-to-one or one-to-two if you have a training partner, as I do. The instructors have thousands of hours in type. The visuals in the sims are really lifelike and can be customized. When I asked the question about the demonstrated effectiveness of this type of program, I got three interesting responses. CEO Wally David caught my attention when he said “I suppose it is human nature to think ‘It will never happen to me,’ but the human cost of not being prepared is so catastrophically high. From March 2011 through February 2012, there were 11 accidents involving 24 fatalities in aircraft we 66 FLYINGMAG.COM / SEPTEMBER 2013
train that had a remarkably common characteristic. In each case, the pilot contacted us about training but chose not to attend.” SimCom’s COO, Tracy Brannon, spoke about the skepticism common among pilots who are unfamiliar with sim training. “Simulator training can be viewed as unrealistic and intimidating for those who have not had the experience,” he said. They usually change their minds, he added. As
pretty, but will likely be survivable.” Ed Klonoski runs the Atlanta center. When asked about defnitive proof of value, he said FlightSafety trains a large majority of corporate pilots, and yet their clients account for only a small proportion of accidents. He was pretty specifc and noted that initial type ratings were in large part a weeding-out process. Quoting FSI’s founder, Al Ueltschi, he said, “You are not buying a type rating. You are buying a chance
“I suppose it is human nature to think ‘It will never happen to me,’ but the human cost of not being prepared is so catastrophically high.” President Eric Hinson said, “nothing prepares you better than practice.” Our Cheyenne is in SimCom’s sweet spot: an owner-fown turboprop. One of the benefts to me is the cross-pollination that takes place. Other pilots drag their stories into the training center, and the instructors pass these near misses and mechanical glitches on to us. It is a great way to get hundreds of hours of experience vicariously. FlightSafety in Atlanta has a somewhat different, though in some cases overlapping, clientele. Their bread and butter are corporate pilots fying jets and military pilots coming up to speed on the King Air 350. This year I had a great partner in class, David Schoettle, a man with 15 years of Learjet PIC experience. When I got a bird strike that took out the left pitot-static system and resulted in zero airspeed and an erratic altimeter, I was thinking of the Air France A330 that crashed into the Atlantic a few years ago. “I am going to maintain an attitude and a power setting that I know is compatible with level fight at this altitude,” I said. David quickly pointed out that I could easily move his ADC (air data computer) information to my side and skip all the drama. The man had been here before. A Virgin Atlantic captain once told me that if all the air data are deleted, the attitude/power technique “won’t be
to earn a type rating.” FlightSafety has been known to refund a pilot’s training costs rather than issue a certifcate that was not earned. When I recounted the bird-strike event to Klonoski, he said, “We have ever-improving technology. Situation awareness is much, much better. We have become cockpit managers. But when the technology fails or confuses us, we may have less stick-and-rudder skill precisely because of the automation and technology.” I asked if one could spot a pilot heading for trouble. “It is a combination of skills and attitude. Sometimes pilots with substandard skills are very selfaware. Sometimes they are as bad at assessing their skills as they are at fying an airplane.” The week after fnishing training, I found myself picking my way through large cells on the way to Teterboro, New Jersey. New York Approach was advertising severe weather procedures in effect. When I fnally got to smooth (I did not say clear) air and lined up for the ILS 19, the words of an instructor rang in my head. When I asked how long it took to assess a pilot’s skill and attitude, he said, “I can tell by the way they get in the seat.” What, I wondered, did he see in me? A checklist written in blood? Or the careful aviator I hold myself to be?
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F LY I N G O P I N I O N
TECHNICALITIES BY PETER GARRISON
Scratching My Head Over a Press Release A new aileron makes big claims — but read the fne print.
>>> With a new aileron and a wing of smaller area and larger span, a modifed Lancair Columbia boasts surprising performance gains.
W
e Received a PReSS release from Lam Aviation concerning a novel type of aileron, which was said to have brought about remarkable performance gains on a Lancair Columbia testbed. Cruising speed increased by 12 to 16 knots, fuel consumption decreased by 20 to 30 percent, and rate of climb increased by 40 to 50 percent. Useful load rose by 200 pounds. I know that the writer of an advertisement is not under oath, but I wondered how such millennial improvements had been achieved by merely modifying an aileron. The Lam aileron was developed by Larry Lam, an aerospace engineer who died in 2010. He few around for years in a two-seat homebuilt with a full-span fap and his novel ailerons. His son Michael is carrying on the idea, with the 68 FLYINGMAG.COM / SEPTEMBER 2013
help of Greg Cole, a respected and innovative sailplane designer and builder. The Lam aileron is, in effect, a normal aileron split horizontally into upper and lower halves, separately hinged. These can be rigged to behave in various ways — even defecting simultaneously in opposite directions as speedbrakes — but the most likely arrangement is one in which the upper half defects upward, like a spoiler, for roll, while the lower half is used like a fap and can actually be part of a continuous full-span fap rather than a separate outboard panel. In maneuvering fight, such an aileron will likely feel different from a conventional one. For one thing, it should be practically free of adverse yaw, because the parasite drag increment due to aileron defection is all on the inside of the turn. Control forces may also be lighter, since
it is the downgoing aileron that offers more resistance to the pilot, and in this case there is no downgoing aileron. In normal fight the Lam aileron looks just like any other aileron, however, so it should not affect speed or rate of climb. The large gains reported clearly cannot come from the aileron itself. They come, as it turns out, from the fact that the Columbia with the Lam aileron also has an entirely new wing, designed and built by Greg Cole, with 21 square feet less area and 2 feet more span. The aspect ratio of the new wing is 12; that of the old wing was 9. The reduction in wing area, I assume without an attendant increase in landing speed, is made possible by the fact that the faps now occupy the full length of the trailing edge. On a conventional wing, the trailing edge might be 60 percent fap and 40
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F LY I N G O P I N I O N T E C H N I C A L I T I E S
percent aileron. Because stalling angle of attack diminishes when faps are defected, the fapped portion of the wing stalls before the outboard portion reaches its maximum lift, and so some of the lifting potential of the outer panel is lost. Full-span faps are therefore desirable, but some alternative to conventional
70 FLYINGMAG.COM / SEPTEMBER 2013
ailerons must be found for roll control. Spoilers — spanwise fences emerging from the upper surface of the wing — can be used, but it is often diffcult to make them feel right. They tend to have a dead band in the middle, because the frst bit of their travel is within the wing’s low-energy boundary layer. The
Mitsubishi MU-2 is an example of an airplane that successfully combined full-span faps with roll-control spoilers, but there are not many others. Some airplanes, for example the Northrop P-61 Black Widow and early models of the B-52, have supplemented spoilers with small “feeler” ailerons to achieve more pleasant and natural stick forces. A variation consisting of a partialspan fap and ailerons that droop for landing has often been tried as well, despite some degradation of roll performance owing to fow separation on the upper surfaces of the drooped ailerons. During World War II several systems akin to the Lam were studied at NACA Langley. In one of them, a Fowler fap traveled aft until its leading edge was below the trailing edge of the aileron, which now supplied roll control in the same way that the movable “direct lift control” slot lips on many airliners and fghters do. In another, the deployed Fowler fap ended up directly under the aileron. The main difference between these proposals and the Lam one is that in them the retracted fap was stowed ahead of the aileron, whereas in the Lam system it nests beneath it. The main reason full-span faps are seldom used in production airplanes is that they are not quite as effective as they look. Lift diminishes toward the wingtip, more so on tapered wings. A moderately tapered wing would be hard pressed to gain as much as 25 percent in lifting capability from a 67 percent increase in fap span — that is, from changing a fap occupying 60 percent of the trailing edge to a full-span one. Lam claims only a 16 percent gain in maximum lift coeffcient — which means a reduction of only 4 knots at typical landing speeds. The Lam website provides some performance points for the stock and the modifed Columbia. These were measured at 19,000-foot density altitude, where the beneft of increased wingspan is greatest. The airplane has a 300 hp naturally aspirated engine. With a manifold pressure of 15.3 in. Hg, the stock confguration yielded, for example, an indicated airspeed of 120 knots — 161 ktas — at 2,400 rpm and 11 gph,
F LY I N G O P I N I O N T E C H N I C A L I T I E S
whereas the modifed airplane managed 134 kias (179 ktas) at the same power setting. Making the usual assumptions about induced drag, propeller and span effciencies, and specifc fuel consumption, these numbers imply equivalent drag areas of around 3.6 square feet for the stock airplane and 2.8 square feet for the re-winged one. Since the original clean, composite laminar-profle wing should contribute no more than about 0.6 square foot of drag area, I am at a loss to see where a reduction in drag area of 0.8 square foot can be coming from. The reported improvement in rate of climb puzzles me as well. The website has the stock airplane climbing at 640 fpm at 8,000 feet, the modifed airplane at 860. Supposing that both were tested at 3,400 pounds, that gain of 220 fpm means that almost 27 horsepower was liberated by reducing the wing area. The induced drag of the longer wing is naturally a bit less, but I still fnd the improvement unexpectedly large. To be sure, I would not fnd either the stock numbers or the modifed ones incredible if I saw them alone. Neither 3.6 nor 2.8 square feet is an impossible drag area for a 300 hp four-seater. It’s seeing them side by side that makes me scratch my head. Setting aside the performance claims, however, if the roll effectiveness of the Lam aileron is as claimed I think it’s a promising concept. I wish I had tried it on my own homebuilt, which is a 200 hp retractable-gear four-seater. I could not reduce my wing area, now 105 square feet, without sacrifcing the fuel volume for 3,000-mile range, but a computer simulation suggests that a 23 percent gain in maximum lift coeffcient might be had by extending the fap to full span. That would reduce the stalling speed by 10 percent and the landing distance by 19 percent — a worthwhile change, even though cruising speed and rate of climb would not be affected. It has never been a secret that, all other things being equal, an airplane with a smaller wing will go faster than one with a larger wing, or that an airplane with a longer wingspan will climb better and be more at home at high
altitude. A reader of the recent Lam Aviation press release or website could be forgiven for taking away the impression that the performance gains being claimed were due solely to the ailerons themselves. The fact that they were recorded on an airplane with an entirely different wing — and, for all I know,
other differences — is not emphasized. Like Cheerios, which, as the box says, can help prevent heart disease and lower cholesterol as part of a low-fat diet, Lam ailerons can help improve performance as part of a redesign of an airplane. They are a valuable part — but still only a part.
SEPTEMBER 2013 / FLYINGMAG.COM 71
F ly i n g o p i n i o n
Jumpseat By Les aBend
Flight Training for Clients An airline guy’s FlightSafety experience.
A
FEW MONTHS BACK I wrote about fying a Citation Mustang, comparing its attributes to those of the 777. After the initial fight, thanks to my friend and Mustang owner Tom Torti, I became more familiar with the airplane, via a smattering of other trips. On those trips, informal instruction and a few doses of good-natured harassment were included at no extra charge. When I was given the opportunity to attend a formal Citation Mustang course, through the magazine and FlightSafety, I couldn’t refuse. Two weeks of intensive study in Orlando? Absolutely. After almost 29 years with
the airline, why wouldn’t I want to subject myself to the rigors of another fight-training facility for recreational purposes? My experience would allow a comparison between my airline and one of the world’s most respected fight-training organizations. If I’ve learned anything over the years as a professional pilot, it’s to have a systematic method of studying the particulars of a new airplane. First, I build a foundation by becoming familiar with the dimensions of the machine. The dimensions provide a basic overview. Next, I (attempt to) commit to memory the pertinent limitations: max gross weight, speeds, altitudes,
>>> the Flightsafety training center at the corner of Orlando International airport is conveniently located across the street from Cessna’s maintenance and sales facility. 72 Flyingmag.com / September 2013
etc. While studying the systems of the airplane, I begin to memorize — you guessed it — the memory items of the emergency checklists. An understanding of the reasons for performing the tasks of an emergency checklist assists in more intimate systems knowledge. In that regard, familiarity with the Mustang CAS (crew alerting system) messages was invaluable. Utilizing the above study strategy, the classroom serves as reinforcement and/or clarifcation of material already reviewed — in theory, of course. But I discovered a faw in my plans. I hadn’t included familiarity with the Garmin G1000 system. My ground school instructor and designated examiner, Steve Watkins, profoundly stated, “The Garmin is not your friend.” It’s true, especially if you have limited skills operating the system. Prior to my arrival, I took the FlightSafety online course. The online course and an hour with the GPU plugged into Tom’s airplane was my saving grace. Even with that foundation, I still fumbled with the big-knoblittle-knob operation. With my head armed and dangerous, I arrived at the doorstep of FlightSafety with a smile and an iPad crammed full of Mustang reference materials. It was the frst Monday of the month — start-up day. Approximately 140 pilots begin their initial training. If recurrent training is included, about 3,500 pilots cycle through for the year, or about 100 per week. Orlando has 120 full-time employees, with around 90 instructors. The instructors teach both ground school and simulator, a contrast with my airline, where the tasks are separated. Another difference is the diversity of the students. Approximately 20 to 25 percent are from other countries.
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Language, culture and foreign experience all have to be accommodated. Eleven simulators are in the building, with the Citation XLS+ being a new addition. FlightSafety designs and builds its own simulators, giving the company a vested interest in their quality. All in all, the Mustang simulator was a great
learning tool, but I could have done without the oversensitive rudder control. My frst takeoff involved heartstopping pilot-induced oscillations that steered us toward an almost certain off-runway excursion. The service area throbbed with activity. Andy Johnson, the Orlando
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facility manager, greeted me with a warm grin and a handshake. After the initial paperwork and introductions were complete, Andy gave me a personal tour of the building. Andy is a 27-year Navy veteran with P-3 experience and a six-year career with FlightSafety. Almost every morning without fail, he greeted people at the door by their frst name. It was then I realized the frst major difference from my airline training. I wasn’t a student. I was a client. Way cool. FlightSafety’s philosophy is to create a learning environment rather than an evaluation environment. This philosophy was refected in the spotless classrooms with the appropriate cockpit pictorials and video technology, impeccably maintained restrooms (mouthwash and other sundries included), bottomless coffee always available in the break room, and the ability to have the friendly offce staff order lunch for delivery. Steve Watkins offered to replace any reference material or study tool, right down to the dictionary-size training manual. Smiles from employees were numerous. A relaxed atmosphere prevailed. As part of the daily routine, Andy conducted informal “prefight” briefngs with most of the staff in the lobby area just outside his offce. The briefng included a status report and current issues. In addition, recognition was given to any employee exhibiting outstanding performance. Sure, it’s a pep talk, but the briefng is a refection of company culture. Unfortunately, I’ve never witnessed any such presentation at my airline. Seven clients, including me, were part of the Mustang ground school. I parked myself in the front row next to a young Brazilian pilot employed by a private owner based south of São Paulo, Brazil. Three pilots with corporate experience were scattered in other rows. A young woman from Cessna’s sales department monitored the class. And fnally, Brad Yeager Smith (yes, he was named for exactly who you think) was my 26-year-old sim partner. Brad had accumulated fewer than 500 hours of total time and had fown as a copilot for about 25 hours on a
F Ly I n g O p I n I O n J u m p s e at
Mustang utilized in a Part 135 operation. By day Brad was an engineer. The Mustang was owned by his employer in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. Because of his experience level, Brad was in training for a crew type rating, as opposed to the single-pilot C510S that the rest of us hoped to attain. He was enthusiastically naive, intelligent, had great judgment skills, and few an incredible airplane. The backpack he carried made a quiet statement about our age difference and the new generation of professional pilots. I wanted to hate him. That being said, Brad and I complemented each other. He had limited exposure to cockpit resource management. And I had limited exposure to single-pilot operations. Brad helped with Mustang nuances. I helped with copilot duties. Brad found it diffcult to sit on his hands while I made mistakes. I found it diffcult not to assist in the decision-making process. Dave Larson, our simulator instructor, immediately recognized the synergy of our relationship. Sharing the same age, Dave and I wasted no time in targeting Brad with a program of abuse. Toward the end of our training, in conjunction with Prince Harry’s U.S. visit, I bestowed upon Brad the title of Sir Royal Awesomeness. He cringed. Single-pilot operation being unfamiliar territory, I resorted to a familiar tool: checklists. Whether the procedure was normal or an emergency, I read both the challenge and the response. I was both the captain and the copilot, talking to myself as if I were in need of therapy. The autopilot was my friend. And if all else failed, I prioritized the tasks and few the airplane. Part 135 companies, corporate fight departments and owner/operators in command of their own businesses brought a level of challenge to the training that was unique to the Mustang. As discussed with program manager Robert Aliaga, the Mustang required a higher grasp of people skills from its instructors. Armed with the background of quality training and overstuffed with preparation, my solo check ride was a nonevent — as my instructors had promised. Even with almost 23,000
hours in my logbook, it was still gratifying to be presented with a temporary certifcate and a shiny, new type rating. FlightSafety versus airline training? My experience found virtually no professional difference. My airline colleagues in the training department strive for a great learning environment,
but FlightSafety seems to have set a new standard. Perhaps when I see a fruit bowl and pastries instead of the vending machines that have been anchored to our submarine-like break room for almost 40 years, I’ll feel like a client. But I’m thinking it just might take more than that.
Photo courtesy of Scott Slocum.
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“A riveting, white-knuckle read, with writing so vivid you’ll believe you are sitting right there in the plane’s cockpit with these unforgettable characters. McTeer is a natural-born storyteller who writes with the authority of a real adventure. He doesn’t just talk the talk- he has actually walked the walk.” - Tess Gerritsen
“McTeer walks the reader into a treacherous maze where entanglement and evil wait at every turn. This is a journey where there are no right moves, no one is to be trusted and there are no clear exits. A spine-tingling novel from beginning to end.” - Steve Zettler
“A thrilling tale of a talented pilot addicted to adventure. McTeer so deftly handles plot, subplots, and characterization that only on landing do you realize you’ve been gripping the armrests.” - Jamie Fox
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Flashbacks by bethany WhitField
25 50 Years ago
25 years ago our cover featured a Cessna 208 Caravan. Within just a few years of its introduction, the Caravan’s remarkable success was able to put to rest questions and doubts surrounding the safety and reliability of a turboprop with just one engine.
We reported on the Beech Starship as it entered full production after a lengthy battle for certification. Bringing the one-of-a-kind design to fruition required an investment of $300 million, but Starship production was short-lived, with only 53 aircraft ever built.
We investigated the perks promised by the slick new TBM 700. The first-ever pressurized single-engine turboprop design pledged greater performance and reliability than its twin-engine competitors. 80 Flyingmag.com / September 2013
Years ago
50 years ago our cover featured Northrop T-38s. Thanks to its low maintenance demands and cheap operating costs, the supersonic trainer built a legacy outside of its use in military instruction, serving as the inspiration for several future light fghter designs.
We explored the thrill-seeking aerobatics and formation fying of the Tiger Club, a European group that dazzled spectators across the continent with daring fying feats reminiscent of the barnstorming of the 1930s.
We took the Lane SIAI Riviera for a spin and surveyed the pleasing handling characteristics of this bullet-shaped Italian amphibian. We found the fne-crafted Riviera — which at the time held two speed records — a delight to fy.
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