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For some, the fun part of owning an aircraft is the time spent alone with it in the hangar. That eventually leads to wrenching it. Before you get too deep in the cowling, you should evaluate your technical skills, understand the regulations and inventory the proper tooling. In this article, Ill outline the regulations and some of the maintenance items the FAA allows you to perform on your certified aircraft (for more freedom, consider an experimental, plus an A&P rating).

Turn a straight-legged Skylane into a retractable and you'll gain speed yet lose none of the airplanes roominess, range and utility.

Utilitarian to the core, we arent impressed by flashy instrument panel work. And by this, we mean panels decked out in custom colors and patterns that blend with a pricey leather interior and a toney exterior paint job. But were not crazy about the 1970s-style Royalite overlays, either. These long ago outlived their appeal and few have aged gracefully.

As we’ve said in recent reports, there’s a rapidly growing market of navigation apps designed solely for Android tablets. We think that’s a good thing because our evaluations have proven that many Android devices work we'll in the cockpit. We even prefer Samsung’s latest Galaxy tablets over Apple’s iPad. Some have longer battery life and better screen quality.

The implacable laws of aerodynamics mean it costs money to make an airplane faster. Fortunately, there are speed mods that won’t break the bank.

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It takes a crowbar to separate image from reality with the big Commander twins-the image pitched by Rockwell Intl. in a blaze of promotional glory-and the one left by Bob Hoover in his airshow demo, hanging a Shrike on a prop and deadsticking it out of a loop.

When the image is pried away, what actually remains? Well, something not too far away from the Tough Bird notion of all the hype and promo. Time and again, Commander 500 series owners, in their letters and phone calls to us, talked about reliability and freedom from breakdowns as among the outstanding qualities of the airplane.

But potential buyers might figure its more appropriate to ask: How tough do owners...

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Much is made of the resurgence of Cessna and Piper in recent years. Less-often acknowledged, however, is the fact that a number of airplanes either weathered the storm or returned to production several years ago. One of the latter is the Commander 114. With a small but steady level of production, Commander is evidently here to stay for the immediate future. Thats due at least in part to the deep-pocket backing enjoyed by Commander Aircraft. Much of the company is owned by interests in Kuwait, and a fair number of the new airplanes have been sold there.

The new Commander is several notches above the older version in terms of price, and to date about 120 have been built. Thu...

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Years ago, the legendary Bob Hoover proved the 500-series Rockwell Shrike Commander’s nimble handling with an eye-widening airshow routine that will forever live on....

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.

Anyone who has flown a Beechcraft will have come away impressed with the lines quality and, especially, the handling qualities. All the way down to the lowly Musketeer, Beech just took pains to get the airplanes handling qualities a cut above everything else, and that applies in spades to the Baron series. Even so, every aircraft company has to make compromises. In the 55 Baron, for instance, what many find to be pleasant handling characteristics can prove to be a handful in poor weather, or when the air turns green with turbulence. And nothing comes for free. No one mistake the Barons for being cheap to own or operate, although thanks to a perennially soft market for twins, theyre no longer ruinously expensive to buy. In fact, there are some real bargains out there on 55s.