Editorial

Lycoming Crankshaft Suit
As I write this, were barely six weeks into the new year but already the first colossally bad development of 2005 has bubbled to the surface: The Interstate Southwest Ltd. lawsuit against Lycoming. In mid-February, Interstate won this suit and was awarded a staggering $96.1 million in damages.

In case youve deleted the details from your short-term memory, recall that Lycoming blamed Interstate for a bad batch of crankshaft forgings that resulted in a massive recall. The problem came to light in mid-2002, following a spate of engine failures caused by broken crankshafts. A joint Lycoming/FAA investigation blamed the problem on improper heating and…

Engine Shops: Which is Your Favorite?
I sometimes think aircraft ownership is like a pleasant walk in the woods on a summer evening. One moment, life is good, youre taking in the honeysuckle and lilac and the next moment, youre flat on your back with a fallen oak across your chest. The airplane owner equivalent of the windowmaker is a call from your shop with the bad news that the compression in number 4 is down to 39 pounds and the other jugs arent looking too good, either.

We got that call last month and we’ll be doing what so many owners have to do from time to time: shopping for a new engine. Will it be a field overhaul? A reman? Which shop will we use? Quite coincid…

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Cirrus and Unintended Consequences
In this months issue is something entirely new: the first Used Aircraft Guide on Cirrus airplanes. Although it seems like only yesterday, the Cirrus SR20 has been on the market for six years and owners have been turning them over in the used market for quite some time. As we report, used SR20s generally appear to be good buys; for under $200,000-well under, perhaps-you can have a nearly new, well-equipped airframe. A recent issue of Trade-A-Plane had about 15 Cirrus aircraft listed, including a 2000 model SR20 with 670 hours for $180,000. Just for comparison, the same sum buys a late 1980s Mooney 252, an early 1980s F33A Bonanza o…

Battery Notes
The conclusions in your battery review in the December issue were right on: Alkalines in the headset and ANRs and Ni-MH in the constant-use GPS.

Ive had a problem with Duracells over the past many years, where I can count on one battery in 10 leaking. On the NiMHs, some are now purporting to deliver 2000 ma/hour or more, up from 1500, which will skew your curve even more in favor of these. But, as noted, self-discharge is phenomenal.

Ive been using the Rayovac rechargeable alkalines since they first came out. My experience says you’ll be doing we’ll if you get 20 cycles out of them, compared to your guess of 50, and those last few cycles will be short-l…

The Wild Ride Ahead
Now that the election is behind us and the bile is receding, the guessing game begins. AOPA reports that general aviation interests are we’ll represented in the new Congress; some 14 recently re-elected Representatives or Senators are pilots and most candidates AOPA supported won, all good news. The larger question is does general aviation have a friend in the White House? My prediction is no, it does not, and the next four years will prove a wild ride for the industry.

On the security front, AOPA and other industry groups have done a superb job of keeping TSA (mostly) off our backs. We still have to put up with massive TFRs that shut down absurdly large…

Hey, Just Kidding
In the November Aviation Consumer on page 10, you say, Its not morally wrong to lie about how fast your airplane flies as long as you know the truth. Shame on you. For a publication that emphasizes the truth without advertising to state that it is not morally wrong to lie leads one to wonder about the morals of the author, period.

The article should be we’ll received, however, as many people do not know or care about the truth or the speed of their airplane, the factory included. I have been told that American Airlines received a check for $1 million from Convair when the CV-990 did not reach the 600 MPH mark that Convair touted in their presentation. (…

Dakota Data
Thank you for your review of the Piper Cherokee 235/236 line of airplanes. (See October, 2004 issue.) This line-until now-has been one of the best kept secret values in used aircraft. I found your review to be comprehensive, accurate and helpful to one who is looking for the best value in a heavy hauler.

I would like to add one more group to your list of resources: The Cherokee 235/236 Owners Group has a Website dedicated to these airplanes and is a wealth of information specific to these models. There are no access fees or restrictions to the site and the Web-board forums are informative and allow owners of these models to share their experiences as we’ll as c…

[IMGCAP(1)]In times like these, I wish I hadnt snoozed through Mrs. Websters ninth-grade American lit class, at least the part where those more attentive than I-basically everybody-learned about the man-against-nature plot device. Given the events of the past six weeks-four major hurricanes pounding Florida and who knows what brewing-I could at least manufacture some entertaining fiction out of the entirely implausible tropical season unfolding.

Not that irony is in short supply. There’s something amusingly twisted about a knot of office workers clustered around a computer terminal browsing satellite images and arguing about outflow patterns and cloud top temps. Up north, you put a cou…

Kerosene Dreams
If you have any airline pilot friends, youve probably had this conversation: What? You really fly IFR in a single-engine airplane? Are you nuts? Some airline pilots own little airplanes and don’t think twice about flying IMC in them but many others believe the very notion of it is insane. Without triple-redundant electrical systems, enough bleed air to heat Indiana in January and dual flight instruments, your back-up is skin deep in a piston single. Unfortunately, theyre right. If you fly serious IMC in piston airplanes, there’s real risk. You may believe-as I do-that the risk is tolerable, but any warm feeling you get from analyzing the risk intellectuall…

Web Wars
Some years ago, my editorial predecessor, the late Dick Weeghman and I shared a good laugh over what can best be described as conditional perception. Being in the business of reviewing aviation products and picking winners and losers, we noticed a certain pattern in the way companies react to our product reviews when quoting the magazine in advertisements.

This is perfectly predictable but still amusing, at least to us. If we happened to like the product in question, the companys ad would describe Aviation Consumer as the respected, independent voice in general aviation. You could almost hear the brass fanfare in the background. The gravitas could be stifling.<...

Avidynes Dilemma
Companies that sell high technology sometimes lose sight of the fact that when it doesnt work-at all, let alone correctly some of the time-buyers become profoundly disgusted. Sometimes irretrievably. In my view, some of Avidynes datalink customers appear to be getting to that point. As we report on page 4 of this issue, weve been getting an earful from some of them about what they view as poor performance of Avidynes Orbcomm-based weather datalink system. The receiver for this system is standard equipment in Avidynes latest color MFD, the EX500. With the addition of an antenna and a service subscription, datalinked weather is at your fingertips. Except…