Commentary

In the long run, we plan to be a regular destination for pilots, as well as those pursuing flight training or anyone with even the slightest interest in learning to fly.

From the beginning, aircraft owners lost their minds over the idea that mandate-compliant ADS-B Out equipment might be used for more than just better traffic separation. Collecting usage fees were among the obvious concerns and a deeper dive into the data that’s actually being transmitted from both 1090ES transponders and UAT (Universal Access Transceiver) transmitters […]

Like a first-time homeowner buying more house than the checkbook can handle, it’s easy for first-time airplane owners to end up airplane poor. And it happens fast and hard, especially in a supply-starved market when an owner pays big and a prepurchase inspection fails to spot trouble areas. That’s a setup for the surprise of […]

Again and again when we research the NTSB accident reports for the magazine’s Used Aircraft Guide feature, we find wrecks that might have been avoided if it weren’t for maintenance errors.

Last year around this time, Garmin sounded the warning horn that it won’t be able to keep fully supporting the GNS 430—perhaps the most popular avionics unit of all time.

This past March, the NTSB and FAA did something we just don’t see often: They reversed previous conclusions about the cause of an accident, which in the initial investigation also implicated an aftermarket STC-approved modification as causing the accident. Flash back to 2018 when a Cessna CitationJet crashed near Memphis, killing the occupants and creating […]

No matter where you look in the general and business aviation markets you’ll find price increases—eye-widening ones—and I think it’s hindering safe aircraft ownership like nobody’s business.

So, how is EAGLE doing? Not great, in my view.

GARMIN RADAR INSTALLS Regarding the article authored by Larry Anglisano in the August 2021 Aviation Consumer, WX Radar Upgrades: Garmin’s GWX 75 Is Top, the article mentions the Cessna 210 and also includes a photo of a Cessna T210 with a 10-inch radar pod. The article never explicitly states that Garmin’s GWX 75 will play […]

It’s the airplanes with the first-generation fuel selectors you want to be cautious of. In August 2019 the FAA issued an airworthiness concern sheet (ACS) that requests PA-28 owners and operators of first-gen fuel selectors (these are the round, flat-plate selector assemblies installed in the lower sidewall) to provide operational input. It wants to know if operators have mistakenly selected the Off position instead of the intended Left or Right Tank position. It could turn into an AD.

At AirVenture I was looking at the new Garmin GPS 175 to replace my old GNS 430. The Garmin rep told me there was a nice rebate available if I traded my GNS 430 for a new GTN-series navigator-something like $4000 toward the GTN. I asked what they were doing with the trade-ins and he said they refurbished them and sold them, but I’m guessing not in the U.S. I asked if that meant that Garmin was continuing to support the GNS 430W and he said absolutely.

I wish you guys ran that digital fuel sensor article (August 2019 Aviation Consumer) last year when I committed to a JPI big-screen engine monitor for my aging Cessna 206. I was already at the threshold of my budget when I pulled the trigger on the engine monitor job, which of course included fuel quantity to replace the bouncing Cessna OEM gauges. After consultation with the shop manager, I could tell that using the existing senders would be a roll of the dice, so we ended up sending them away for a rebuild.