Commentary

Thanks for the interesting article on the TBM 850. I am a happy Mooney TLS Bravo owner but must admit that my mouth starts to water when I think of VLJs and these high-performance single-engine turboprops. Like you, I was mystified by what Socata has decided to leave off this airplane, such as a glass cockpit. There are two other items that surprise me when I evaluate these aircraft. One is a toilet. My wife wont let me look at another airplane unless that has been addressed. Seems the companies are spending a lot of time and ink talking about range. What about passenger range?

While I appreciate the favorable coverage our products received in the report in your March issue, Id like the opportunity to add some comments. The only “Thumbs Down” we got was, “The Reiff sump pad proved difficult to install, due to adhesive bonding problems.” The problems described were not the fault of the J-B Weld epoxy, but of improper curing. The article states, “After two hours, we turned on the element to accelerate the…

I have just read your excellent reports on cylinders in the last two issues. Great timing, as we had our plane, a Cessna 210 with an IO-520, in the shop for an annual. We had to replace a jug, the fourth one since this factory-new engine was installed in 2001 and now has approximately 1000 hours.

A comment on the article, “Aviation Credit Cards: Compare the Fine Print,” by Chad Trautvetter, in the January Aviation Consumer. The FBO where I am based, and perhaps others, requires tiedown/hangar customers to keep an Exxon Airworld card on file against which fuel, tiedown and other charges are made.

Good column on the recent Cirrus publicity (see December 2006 First Word) and I agree with you, especially the point that the accident record has to do with the pilots, not the airplane. The inevitable result of Cirrus successful strategy to market the airplane to new pilots is the fact that there are now lots of low-time pilots flying complicated aircraft, many on long cross-country missions.

[IMGCAP(1)]When pressed, any hard-bitten magazine editor might concede that publications like this one are more than ink on paper. In concert with the whims and desires of their readers, they become living entities with distinct lives of their own. But in the end, its the editor who breathes life into the thing. A good one makes all the difference, elevating the everyday to the exceptional, the exceptional to the extraordinary. One of the best died the other day here in Florida, not a mile from where Im sitting in Sarasota. Richard B. Weeghman-all of us knew him as Dick-was 75 years old and succumbed to a sudden illness. He was editor-in-chief of Aviation Consumer from 1976 to 1994.

I…

WSI Fan
We just put a WSI Inflight displayed on a MX-20 in our Malibu. It is a fantastic piece of gear. It completely eliminates the need for a Stormscope-we spent seven grand on a WX-500, too-and it is really better than onboard radar due to the panning feature, which lets you look ahead (or around) as far as you want.

The articles that talk about the need forboth are just wrong and I suspect are driven by the same thought process that sold us on putting in the WX-500 and were originated by those who want to sell more avionics gear. The signal is almost never more than two minutes old and I have never seen it older than four minutes. The 1 nm resolution is sufficient bu…

As Lycomings massive crankshaft recalls draws to an end, heres one owners report card on the results.

Crank Comments
The crankshaft problems experienced, first by Continental and more recently and severely by Lycoming, are a symptom of an aging and stagnant industry.

These folks, set in their ways as they are, would not consider changing. The sad fact is that the solution is we’ll known and already in use by those building highly stressed, high reliability piston engines. The real solution to obtaining consistently high quality crankshafts in small quantities is to use billet cranks.

This is a process whereby a solid piece of rolled or forged bar stock is machined into the finished shape of the crank by a CNC machine designed specifically for that purpose. This process h…

Tablet Computers
Its a shame that you did not review the Northstar CT-1000. It is a unit that is specially designedfor use in an aircraft and the CT-1000G has been certified and an STC obtained for dual installation in Gulfstreams.

My experience with EFBs go backto the Navision 1000 produced by ARNAV in about 1989. After using it for about 10 years and with the advances in PCs (the NV1000 was not based on a PC), I was looking for a new EFB that would add the Jeppesen charts to the checklists and maps that the NV1000 provided.

I believe that the CT-1000 started life as prototype built by Regan Designs called the Junior. Northstar acquired a license to manufacture…

Cirrus Accidents
I have an aerospace manufacturing background and when I went to the Cirrus factory last spring, I was impressed with the manufacturing discipline and the redundant fail-safe features of the design.

They have done a lot to assure that the systems are easy to learn and very pilot friendly. This will sell a lot of airplanes. The Cirrus is a delight to fly and most everything about it is attractive.

But the fact that you are told not to spin it, and if you do, to use the ballistic chute, is a serious problem, in my opinion. At best, IFR flying for a low-time pilot is a challenge. Recovery from unusual attitudes is part of the IFR agenda.

Also, many pilo…

Diesel Pro/Con
In case you didnt know, diesels are not good for airplanes because they are too heavy. We are going to read a stream of articles in which researchers will be obfuscating the weight (comparable to a typical….) or fudging the power (125 HP, but it is just as good as..)

Of course, what counts is the sum of the weight of the powerplant and the fuel, and that brings us to the next point. The fuel economy of a diesel under constant load is only marginally better than that of a gasoline engine. (Remember the Continental Malibu burning 14 GPH when extreme leaned?)

If we are doing this because we have to burn Jet-A, someone should whip up a 150 HP gas turb…