Even with the aviation economy only crawling along, I’m constantly amazed by the technological changes. Cessna has hung a diesel engine on a production airplane, Rotax engines are mainstream, lean of peak operations—largely forgotten since the 1940s—have been rediscovered and are saving owners thousands on fuel and maintenance costs. And those aren’t even new.
Vitatoe Aviation’s turbonormalized P210 conversion may just have turned the Cessna P210 into the airplane it should have been all along. I’ve liked the P210 ever since I first flew it in 1979. It’s fast, carries a good load, has honest handling and the pressurization spoiled me.
Being able to make a trip nonstop is more than just convenience—it can be a safety of flight issue as the risk of an accident is highest during takeoff and landing. The reality is that most flights of four- and six-place airplanes are conducted with only one or two of the seats occupied and at something below gross weight. For many owners, that means that some sort of auxiliary fuel tanks can give their airplanes more range and potentially increase safety.
If you are flying a high-performance single, piston twin or turboprop, particularly if you use it for business trips, there is an increasing probability that you will get a notice from your insurer or employer requiring that you take annual recurrent training.
Despite all the developments in the world of electronic charts, many pilots still like paper. Reasons include avoiding what can be pricey electronic device updates, a perceived ease in keeping track of the geographic “big picture” beyond the magenta line and not being quite convinced that electronics are infallible, are infallible, are infallible.
We hear a bad news about the aging pilot population and its effect on the decline of general aviation. For one segment of the market, aging is, in the short run, a good thing. Aircraft tug sales are up because pilots who used to be willing to shove their airplanes up uneven ramps into hangars have decided that doing so isn’t as easy as it used to be. The airplane’s obviously been getting heavier, so it’s time to buy a tug.
With new iPad apps appearing every day, it was inevitable that ground school, written prep and aviation reference materials would hit the tablet market. And sure enough, there’s plenty out there for someone looking to add a new rating or to just have a convenient reference library. We limited our app search to the instrument rating because it’s a popular and useful rating. We looked at the one app that’s available, Sporty’s, two online instrument written courses, ASA’s Prepware app and two e-Books. Overall, Gleim and King Schools got good marks for their online courses, and while we felt Sporty’s app was good, it needs improvement. We liked ASA’s inexpensive Prepware for final brushup for the written and the two e-Books we reviewed.
Ever since the price of personal pulse oximeters dropped out of the stratosphere, we’ve owned one because it is a fast and easy way check to see if we are at risk of doing something foolish because the lungs aren’t delivering enough oxygen to the brain. Now that the selection of pulse oximeters is confusingly large, with prices from about $25 to over $200, we decided to examine a cross section. We found that the lowest priced units worked pretty well, the others under $100 weren’t necessarily much better, and the most expensive was worth the money if you are going to be using it frequently, want a warranty and may subject it to a rough environment.
An oxygen concentrator is a way to have a supply of oxygen without having to deal with bottles or worry about whether they can be filled. We definitely like the concept, especially as we’ve “been there, done that” when it comes to getting an oxygen fill. Durr Technik developed Oxyfly and Oxyfly Light, two oxygen concentrators that will provide oxygen for up to six people at altitudes up to 18,000 feet. The units automatically compensate for altitude. They are designed to be portable, rather than installed equipment—although the Oxyfly weighs 55 pounds and the Oxyfly Light weighs 48.5 pounds—so they do not have to comply with FARs or equipment guidelines, just like your portable GPS. For our evaluation of the unit, we worked with two experienced A & P maintenance technicians, Terry Shafer, head of the shop at Vector Air on the Erie, Colorado Airport, and Michael Maya Charles.
In the December 2012 issue, I commented on what renters had a right to expect at an FBO when they make the decision to exchange their money for flying time. The feedback I received ranged from recitations of unpleasant experiences at unscrupulous or indifferent FBOs to pilots trying to find the right place to rent. What struck me was that number of the pilots looking for a place to rent weren’t so much trying to find an FBO that had well-maintained airplanes with reasonably clean interiors as they wanted a place where they could not only fly, but spend time with others who shared their passion for the sky. They were in aviation for the fun of it, had a budget to pay for it and socializing with other pilots meant they flew more.
How about this for a challenging design concept? Start with a two-seat speedster with fighter-like handling, slow it down to meet the LSA 120-knot speed limit without excising any of the structure necessary for the stresses of the higher speed, then jump through the ASTM hoops to turn it into a production machine. That is exactly what Arion Aircraft did with its Lightning LS-1, an LSA that is finger-on-the trigger responsive in flight and among the fastest LSAs out there. The Lightning is one of the few LSAs that is not intended to be used as a primary trainer. “Although a very few buyers have learned to fly in their Lightnings, we did not design it for flight training,” explained Arion’s Nick Otterbach, one of the lead designers of the airplane.
We’ve been watching and reporting on the progress toward a functional unleaded replacement for 100LL avgas for nearly 30 years. Boiled down, that replacement will have to do three things: 1) meet detonation margins, 2) meet material compatibility requirements—not attack any of the components of existing aircraft fuel systems and the fuel transport and storage, and 3) meet economic realities. That is, sell for a price near that of 100LL. The FAA and private industry have been working the replacement fuel issue for about three decades, spending millions on studies in an attempt to find a fuel that would work. Although the economics are unproven, there are now at least two potential replacement fuels in the U.S. SwiftFuel 100SF has undergone ground testing and has done some flight testing, although not yet on an FAA-approved flight testing program.
