Editorial

As you probably heard, the FAA is offering a limited first-come, first-served $500 rebate for certain mandate-compliant ADS-B equipment installations. This isn’t a generous gift to aircraft owners, of course. Obviously, its the FAAs first effort (there could be more) to get owners into avionics shops to have ADS-B Out equipment installed before the end of 2019. While the ADS-B market has become sharply competitive, the decline in equipment prices hasnt exactly created a surge of upgrades. The FAA says about 18,000 GA airplanes and 500 or so commercial aircraft have equipped so far. That means as many as 150,000 still need to be equipped in the remaining 42 months. After paying for a basic $4000 ADS-B project, eventually finding a $500 check in the mailbox is better than nothing. But, there’s a dilemma, which is stirring competition.

In our world, the editorial year commences in the summer instead of January, and the anticipated editors choice awards focuses deserved attention on the products and companies that really impressed us in our coverage over the year. As we do every July, we take a half step back and tip the hat to a dozen of them on page 12 of this issue. But there was more that caught our attention the past editorial year, some of it unforgettable. If we had a worst news of the year award, there would be takers.

One of our readers-an airplane owner and active CFI-recently called to ask why the magazine doesnt bring more attention to rule-bending, which he thinks is a growing trend. Although he had no hard statistics to back up his assertion, he offered the stereotype that older and financially capable pilots with medical issues are getting their hands on technically advanced and highly automated aircraft (yes, he mentions Cirrus). He went on that the combination of an aging pilot population and the anticipation of third class medical reform is making for a lot of scofflaws, while the advocacy of AOPA and other alphabets is fostering an arrogant sense of entitlement among the older and financially flush GA pilot community.

I wouldnt exactly say this overheard tongue-in-cheek comment was the common thread from this years Soaring Society of Americas (SSA) national convention in South Carolina this past February, but its proof that hardcore sailplane enthusiasts are barely lukewarm to the idea of electrically powered gliders. Talking with showgoers, I drew parallels with the skepticism of evolving electric technology in the powered aircraft market. Still, aside from Stemmes Rotax-powered touring motorglider and a healthy variety of two-stroke powered models displayed on the convention floor, electric sailplanes were, naturally, head-turners.

If the FAA gives it the nod, autonomy could help sell some airplanes. More on that in a minute. As Cirrus and other manufacturers have proven, whole airplane parachutes are deal-closing accessories, especially for new pilots and skeptical passengers. This when-all-else-fails backstop has even trickled down to unsuspecting backwoods utility taildraggers, with Cubcrafters recently introducing a BRS (Ballistic Recovery System) option for its Carbon Cub and Sport Cub models. The BRS will add roughly 40 pounds to the airframe, while tacking on $14,000 to the price. Its also available for retrofit.

The FAA turned a lot of heads with its official policy statement, PS-ACE-23-08, authorizing the installation of electronic attitude instruments for one-and-only primary use. Using rare language thats sympathetic to owners burdened by the high cost of iron gyro upkeep, the agency offers leniency for shops to sign off the installation as a minor alteration, which also includes yanking out the vacuum system even if its required per the aircraft type certificate. According to the policy, no field approvals, no additional STCs, no backup gyro or time-consuming paperwork is required. Progress at last, or so it seemed.

Back in 1977, the longest warranty most manufacturers could afford to offer on a new aircraft was six months with no hourly limit. There were a few market exceptions, including the newly introduced Meyers 200, which came with a one-year warranty. Its easy to understand the gripe an owner of a $300,000 aircraft had when left stranded because his new cabin-class twin broke down far from home base. Meanwhile, car makers like American Motors were picking up the hotel and bar tabs for owners waiting for repairs on a $5000 Pacer.

As we often do with products and companies-partly for our own cynical amusement-my colleague Paul Bertorelli and I were recently feeding off one another and poking holes in Garmins hugely successful G1000 integrated avionics. In case you havent been counting, the system turned 10 years old last year. In avionics life, thats a geriatric zone, which was partly the nature of our chiding.

A reader flagged me down in the UAS-dominant Innovations building at AirVenture last month and asked when Aviation Consumer was going to take the lead in protesting the operation of recreational and commercial drones that were on display. This guy was convinced that a midair with that drone over in the corner with the flashing lights and integrated GoPro (pointing to a DJI Phantom quadcopter on display) was going to take him and his Comanche down in the rural Iowa skies. After offering a polite deal with it, dude-these things arent going away, I pointed him to Mike Glasgow, who was manning the Lockheed Martin Flight Services booth strategically colocated in the UAS exhibition area.

The idea of the push-pull twin makes such fundamental sense that it has been applied to aircraft designs in one form or another for nearly 100 years and in literally dozens of models youve never even heard of. Back in 2005, Adam Aircraft tried the idea again with the A500 push-pull piston twin. Like many before it, it failed more by market reality than by a fundamental flaw in the idea.

The concept of a wireless cockpit-pushing flight plan data from a tablet app to certified avionics, to name one capability-is supposed to curtail the task of programming a panel GPS. I think Garmins Flight Stream Connect wireless network, via its Pilot tablet app, succeeds in doing that, but doesnt eliminate all of the workload, which is a good thing. That was my impression after Garmins Jessica Koss demonstrated the Flight Stream and ADS-B interface as we flew in the company Cirrus in the Northeast airspace, pictured to the right.

Our editors choice awards are all about innovation and value. As we look back at the last 12 issues of Aviation Consumer, we find no shortage of credible products, especially in the ADS-B and aircraft consumable markets. But no single product or company stood out for being the most innovative.So to keep our high standards in check, we wont hand out an award for product or company of the year. Instead, we’ll present a combination of a dozen products and companies that we believe deserve equal recognition for being the best of the best.