Flying 2014-02

TOO FAT TO FLY?
FAAS WAR ON BIG PILOTS
AIRPARK LIVING
KEEP YOUR PLANE IN THE GARAGE
INVERTED ILS
IS P-FACTOR FOR REAL?
THE WORLDS MOST

WIDELY READ AVIATION MAGAZINE
-FEBRUARY 2014-
MULTIENGINE MAGIC
PIPERS SLEEK SENECA V
p. 48
ROMANCING
FOR WANNABE
FIGHTER JOCKS
WINTER DREAMS OF
Plus
HOT RIDES
THE CUB
SUMMERTIME FLIGHT
FLY SAFER
NOW
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CONTENTS
F E B R U A R Y
2 0 14
V O L U M E
1 4 1
I S S U E
ON THE COVER
THIS PIPER SENECA V WAS

PHOTOGRAPHED BY JIM
RAEDER IN VERO BEACH,
FLORIDA, HOME OF PIPERS
MANUFACTURING FACILITIES.
p.
48
PIPER SENECA V
PIPERS TOP TWIN IS BETTER THAN EVER

BY STEPHEN POPE
AVOIDING
CRUISE
CATASTROPHE
LIVING AT
THE AIRPORT
36
WHY RESIDENTIAL
AIRPARKS AROUND THE
COUNTRY ARE MORE
APPEALING THAN EVER
BY BETHANY WHITFIELD
41
KNOW THE HIDDEN

RISKS OF THIS OFTEN
BENIGN FLIGHT PHASE
BY ROBERT GOYER
F LY I N G M A G . C O M / 1 / F E B R U A R Y 2 0 1 4
HOT RIDES
FOR WANNABE
FIGHTER JOCKS
56
THOSE WANTING THE

FIGHTER EXPERIENCE
HAVE LOTS OF CHOICES
BY FLYING STAFF
32
ROMANCING
THE CUB
DREAMS OF SUMMERTIME
FLIGHT BY SAM WEIGEL
CONTENTS 72
FLYING AN
INVERTED ILS
IS P-FACTOR FOR REAL?
BY PETER GARRISON
16
ON THE WEB
GARMINS VIRB
TAKES ACTION
CAMERAS TO A
WHOLE NEW LEVEL
HOT PRIVATE FIGHTERS:
EXPANDED LIST
FLYINGMAG.COM/HOTRIDES
FLYING NEWS & NOTES
FLYING SAFELY
FLYING OPINION
08 GOING DIRECT
20 I LEARNED ABOUT
FLYING FROM THAT
32 TAKING WING
A SUPERSIZE PROBLEM
BY SAM WEIGEL
TOO FAT TO FLY?

BY ROBERT GOYER
12 FLYING MAIL
BY JOHN ROSENBERG
FEEDBACK FROM OUR READERS
SUNSET PATROL
64 UNUSUAL ATTITUDES
SOONERS, GROUNDHOGS AND
VIOLATORS BY MARTHA LUNKEN
READER LETTERS
15 AIRWAYS
FLYING BLOGS: AROUNDTHE-CLOCK OPINION

FROM OUR EDITORS
FLYINGMAG.COM/BLOGS
68 GEAR UP
THE LATEST IN AVIATION NEWS
GETTING STARTED IN A NEW

CAREER BY DICK KARL
EDITED BY PIA BERGQVIST
22 AFTERMATH
72 TECHNICALITIES
A VIOLENT SKY
INVERT TO UNTANGLE
BY PETER GARRISON
BY PETER GARRISON
26 ON THE RECORD
BRIEF ACCIDENT REPORTS
74 JUMPSEAT
FROM THE NTSB
BY LES ABEND
28 SKY KINGS
WHY DIDNT WE LISTEN?
80 FLASHBACKS
BY MARTHA KING
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F LY I N G N E W S & N O T E S | B Y r O b E r T g O y E r
Too FaT To Fly?

FAA pushes heAvy-hAnded mAndAte
By now, you probably know about the
back and forth in the FAAs attempt to institute a greatly increased level of scrutiny
of overweight pilots. The initiative comes
in the form of proposed guidance to aviation medical examiners intended to keep
pilots with sleep apnea out of the cockpit.
Late last year, the FAA signaled a decision
to step back from the proposal after an
outcry from the industry, including AMEs,
denouncing the new policy that the FAA
attempted to implement without going
through rule-making procedures. The reprieve was short-lived. In December, FAA
Federal Air Surgeon Fred Tilton publicly
announced his intention to go ahead with
the sleep apnea screening program despite
vociferous complaints from every imaginable aviation alphabet group.
While the specifcs of the proposal are
troubling enough, the larger implication
of it is of even greater concern.
With the guidance which as of press
time was an ongoing program AMEs
have been instructed to determine the

body mass index, commonly referred to
by its acronym BMI, of pilots coming in
for their fight physicals. If an applicant
has a BMI of 40 or higher, the AME must
refer him or her to a specialist for further
testing to see if the applicant suffers from
a condition known as obstructive sleep
apnea, which commonly affects people
with high BMIs.
If youre interested in determining your
BMI, it couldnt be easier. Just go online
and Google BMI calculator, and youll
see the results in seconds. I feel as though
Im in pretty good shape, 5 foot 8 inches
and 150 pounds, and my BMI is 22, meaning that Im in the normal range. To hit the
underweight target, Id have to weigh
less than 120 pounds, and to hit the bad
BMI mark of 40, Id have to tip the scales
to the tune of 275 pounds. Thats big.
The requirement asks an extraordinary
thing of AMEs by having them refer for
additional testing a patient who makes no
A Bold And
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BIggest Issues
reAl sAFety
IF Youve Been ARound
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one thAt CAn Be MeAsuRed
In the onlY MetRIC thAt
MAtteRs: lIves sAved.
Despite objections
even FRoM its own AMes,
the FAA hAs DoggeDly
puRsueD A cAMpAign to
scReen pilots with high
bMis, even those with no
histoRy oF sleep ApneA.
F lY I n g M A g . C o M / 8 / F e B R u A R Y 2 0 1 4
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G o I N G d I r e c t | F LY I N G N E W S & N O T E S
complaint, who didnt ask for the referral and who, in nearly every case,
would decline such a referral (at least
in the context of an FAA exam).
The requirement would put us pilots in a position where we can walk
into an FAA medical exam with a
clean bill of health and no history of
sleep apnea only to be required to
submit to thousands of dollars of
testing. The point of that testing
would be to make sure the pilot
doesnt have that thing hes never
had before. Its equivalent to an older
applicant coming in for an FAA medical examination and being told he
needs to get checked out by a specialist, including imaging and full blood
workup, because he might have prostate cancer.
The policy is deeply disturbing. After all, who is the FAA to mandate
screening (at great cost to the pilot/
citizen) for a sizable part of the population based on the assumption that
sleep apnea will cause crashes? Its
outrageous, in part because theres
only a tenuous connection between
sleep apnea and fying safety. Without
such a link, the proposal smacks of
social engineering, much like former
New York City mayor Michael Bloombergs attempt to regulate the size of
fountain drinks.
In response to my online commentary in November, which weighed in
vehemently against such mandated
testing, I received a number of emails
from physicians who specialize in
sleep disorders. In every case, they
reasoned that obstructive sleep apnea
is a very real danger that everyone
with a high BMI should be aware of
and take action to prevent. We do not
disagree that there would be benefts
to many of the pilot applicants who
get tagged through this program. But
in a segment thats crying out for real
safety initiatives, the cultural engineering the FAA wants to impose on
us is an outrageous imposition. It will
accomplish nothing relevant to aviation at great cost to us pilots and to
the industry as a whole.
Part 23 reWrIte aNd reaLItY
Like most folks in the industry, Im
excited about the FAAs coming adoption, mandated by Congress, of new
Part 23 regulations for light airplanes.
The stated goal is to create a new

wave of airplanes that are twice as
safe and cost half as much.
Theyre both huge goals. The twiceas-safe part has more to do with the
pilot than the airplane, though safeguards such as electronic envelope
protection, for example, can be built
in to help ratchet down the risk. But
cutting accidents in half will take a
whole new approach to how personal
aviators do their thing, something
that cant realistically be accomplished by the airplane itself.
For better or worse, cutting airplanes down to half the price wont
be as hard to pull off. New airplanes
these days cost a lot.
For starters, its important to manage expectations. If the light-sport
aircraft category had produced a lot
of great little $50,000 airplanes that
chINa
Speaking of managing expectations,
the news that China is planning to
liberalize its private aviation regulations should be greeted with a mix of
optimism and skepticism Ill leave
it to you to determine the ratio of
those reactions. The news has Western aviation manufacturers excited
at the prospects, and rightly so. A
major new market emerging within
the next decade would greatly enhance their bottom line. China has
all the requisite elements of the best
aviation market ever, next to North
America. Its a huge country with lots
of people, lots of capital and an economy on steroids. Bizjet makers are
right to be excited.
If a market emerges for a lot of
Cirrus, Cessna and Piper piston singles
and twins, that would be great for
I ThInk There are some bIg lessons

To learn From The lasT decade oF
lsa Fever, whIch sTarTed wITh
much excITemenT buT soon FIzzled.
pilots were excited about, that would
have been one thing. LSA, however,
created a new segment of $150,000
airplanes with (for the most part)
limited utility, though one advantage
is that pilots whove let their medicals
lapse can fy an LSA with a drivers
license (which should be the case for
Part 23 light planes too).
With the new breed of models
spawned by the Part 23 rewrite, we
need to not expect too much. If a 180
hp Cessna Skyhawk goes for north of
$350,000 these days, lets not expect
the new regulations (when they come
on line) to cut that price to $175,000.
Based on airplanes designed toward
the coming rules at least a best
guess toward what they will be the
target price is closer to $300,000.
That said, those new four-seat models
will be capable of 180 knots with a
1,000 nm range. There will be a great
market for that kind of an airplane.
F lY I n g M A g . C o M / 1 0 / F e B R u A R Y 2 0 1 4
those companies. It is much easier to

reverse engineer a light piston airplane than it is to clone a bizjet. That
said, China has shown limited interest
lately in making Western aviation
technology its own. It has preferred in
recent years simply to buy the companies making the airplanes. We expect
a push by China in coming years to
buy up companies making supporting
technologies, such as power plants,
landing gear and electronics.
Its likely that the effect of a lot
of Chinese pilots fying U.S.-made airplanes will be negligible. The emergence of Asian automotive technology
didnt make Detroits cars any
cheaper; it just made them better.
While Hondas cool jet is nearing certifcation, I wouldnt advise holding
your breath until Kia comes out with a
$50,000 piston single, as interesting
as such a move might be in energizing
our market.
It looks like they were made

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F LY I N G N E W S & N O T E S | F E E D B A C K F R O M O U R R E A D E R S
EaglEs ovEr afghanistan

Having just read F-15 Combat Flying in Afghanistan
by Nick Eberling [December 2013], I could hardly
wait to sit at this computer
and say Awesome! and
Job well done!
With more than 20,000
hours of fight time, I have
recently been taken aback
by the lack of stick and
rudder skills that Im fnding while instructing both
private and airline pilots
who wish to master tailwheel and basic aerobatic
fying. It seems like my
students are more interested in how many apps
my 115 hp Citabria has
than in fne-tuning and
mastering fying. Then after reading that the F-15E

has more than 60 unique
screens to scan and program, not to mention the
G-force, performance and
pilot skill required to accomplish a mission, Im
even more impressed with
what one of my former
aerobatic and pre-solo students has accomplished as
an Air Force fghter pilot
instructor. If I can just learn
how to master my new

smartphone, perhaps I will
think of those 60 unique
screens to scan and program instead of the steam
gauges in my Citabria in
an entirely different way.
Rob Mixon
Sebring, Florida
Your article F-15 Combat
Flying in Afghanistan is
one of the best Ive read in
the 25-plus years Ive been
fying and reading this
magazine. Although most
people will not get close to
fying in a jet fghter, my
wife, Phyllis, and I were
invited to visit a U.S. Naval
air station with the help of
Congressman Bob Goodlatte in 1997. On our visit, I
was allowed to fy an F-14
Tomcat simulator. Pilots
log their time in these simulators, so they must be
like the real airplanes. My
wife and I will never forget
that day, and I will never
forget the thrill of coming
as close as you can get to
fying a real fghter.
Raymond L. Hall
Roanoke, Virginia
The F-15E Strike Eagle article in this months edition

was top-notch. We are fortunate to have such a dedicated and skilled bunch of
servicemen and -women
protecting our country. I do
take issue with the rules of
engagement that the article
mentioned since when
do we use scare tactics on
enemy fghters that are
shooting at our men in
choppers instead of strafng
or dropping a laser-guided
bomb on them? I guess
thats what the special ops
guys are also up against,
where they now have to call
ahead to let the bad guys
know that their house is
going to be taken down.
Keep up the good work,
and I would like to see
more articles about our
military pilots and their
machines.
Tom Butz
Vero Beach, Florida
flying addictions
Kudos to Sam Weigel for his
article Hooked! in the
December 2013 issue of Flying. My addiction started
when I was 5, with my eldest brother taking me up
in a green-and-white
Cessna 152. Ill never forget
those 30 minutes in the air.
I too was hooked, and I
started ground school at
the local community college at the age of 13. I soloed on my 16th birthday,
almost 18 years ago.
Reading Sams articles
brings back many fond
memories of why I fell in

love with fying. I never followed my ultimate career
goal of becoming a commercial pilot because 9/11
changed everything. However, I am still in the aviation feld as an airport
planner, and I am an active
pilot. Keep up the good
work, Sam. I love reading
your articles.
Jared M. Raymond
Phoenix
MErgEr Musings
I just read Les Abends article about the merger
[Merger Musings,
Jumpseat, December
2013]. Theres a joke that
circulates among airline
pilots that says youre not a
real pilot until you have
been merged, divorced and
furloughed. I have two out
of three.
Your article took me
back to 1989, when then
Federal Express bought
Flying Tigers. I am working
today under the George
Nicolau-arbitrated seniority list. Being a new hire at
Tigers, I sat about 80 percent on the stand-alone
seniority list and about the
same on the merged list, so
it looked fair from my seat.
I, along with all the other
ex-Tigers, was branded
with a 96 or 97 seniority number, so all will know
until I retire that I was originally a Flying Tiger. I wear
it as a badge of honor now.
Mark Burckhard
Phoenix
Send mail to: edit@flyingmag.com or flying magazine, P.o. Box 8500, Winter Park, fl 32789
F LY I N G M A G . C O M / 1 2 / F E B R U A R Y 2 0 1 4
OUR FAMILY OF CUStOMeRS | A LetteR SeRIeS
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James Moore
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LEARJET 75 FAA CERTIFIED

UPgRADED light JEt EntERS thE BiZJEt MARKEt
Bombardier had reason to celebrate this fall
as the company achieved FAA certifcation
for the Learjet 75 light jet. The frst customer airplane was delivered to Louis Beck,
an entrepreneur and pilot from Boca Raton,
Florida. The Learjet 75 is a modifed version
of the model 45, which was introduced in
1998. Bombardier frst announced the
development of the Learjet 75 in May 2012
along with a smaller sibling, the Learjet 70,
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For the Learjet 75, Bombardier added
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As of this writing, the Learjet 70 has yet
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expects the sign off from the FAA very soon.
The clean sheet Learjet 85, originally slated
to hit the market in 2013, has been delayed
and is not expected to enter into service
until later this year. Pia Bergqvist
Flight bags have traditionally

been flled with products that
many pilots no longer carry
world, sectional and terminal paper charts; fat binders
or books with Jeppesens or
the FAAs instrument procedures; and manual E6Bs.
While there is traditional
gear that we still need, such as
a headset, a kneeboard and a
fuel sampler, cockpit equipment needs have changed,
causing Sportys to launch a
new series of fight bags.
Sportys Flight Gear collection
includes four bags of various
sizes, all of which can be customized with up to three initials.
The collection incorporates
pockets for tech essentials such
as tablets, automatic dependent
surveillance-broadcast receivers,
GPS units and cords.
The largest bag in the collection is called the Navigator,
and it sells for $99.95. If you
prefer to carry your fight gear
in a backpack, the collection
offers one for $64.95. The
smallest bag, the Mission,
costs $62.95. P.B.
lEARJEt 75 intERiOR
lEARJEt 75 SPECS
THE NEWLY UPGRADED INTERIOR AND

CABIN MANAGEMENT SYSTEM, WHICH
INCLUDES POP-UP TOUCH-SCREEN
DISPLAYS FOR MOST OF THE SEATS IN
THE MAIN CABIN, WILL LIKELY KEEP
PASSENGERS BOTH COMFORTABLE
AND ENTERTAINED.
PRICE
$13.8 MILLION
CRUISE SPEED
0.81 MACH
ECONOMY CRUISE SPEED
0.75 MACH
SERVICE CEILING
51,000 FEET
MAX RANGE
2,040 NM
TAKEOFF DISTANCE
4,440 FEET
LANDING DISTANCE
2,660 FEET
MAX TAKEOFF WEIGHT
21,500 POUNDS
a i r w a y s | F Ly i N G N E W S & N O T E S
GARMIN VIRB ACTION CAM SETS

NEW STANDARD
thE Mini high-DEFinitiOn CAMERA ShinES AS BESt in ClASS
THE GARMIN VIRB

IS AN ACTION CAM
AIMED AT ENTHUSIASTS,
FROM HIKERS TO
SKATEBOARDERS, BUT
IT HAPPENS TO HIT A
SWEET SPOT WITH PILOTS
THANKS TO A BEVY OF
CAPABILITIES LACKING IN
THE COMPETITION.
s you likely know by now,

Garmin has come out with the
new VIRB Action Camera, which
sells for $299 for the standard
model and $399 for the Elite version. The
little cam records high-defnition video
and good audio, is water-resistant, light,
and easy to use. It has a display with text
menus, easy-to-operate physical controls
and remote operation. The product was a
huge hit during the holiday season with
major retailers.
The approach Gamin clearly took in
designing VIRB was to dissect the GoPro
Hero, fnd the faws and fx them. The
faws, as we all know, are easy to spot.
GoPros Hero is the same product that
came out several years ago, just upgraded
with temporary fx after temporary fx.
The waterproof feature is a waterproof
case you put around it but only after
adding moisture wicks to keep it from
fogging up. The killer, however, is the
GoPros terrible battery life. The only
saving grace for the GoPro is that it takes
great video and is small and light.
BASiCS
VIRB is just as light as the GoPro, takes
video thats just as good or better, is
water-resistant out of the box, has a
built-in display with a menu so you can
see what youre doing on the cam, and
features a battery life that is many, many
hours long. I used VIRB for the majority of
a six-hour fight recently and had plenty
of battery reserve when I got to my
destination. Garmin advertises up to
three hours of battery life recording at
1080p defnition. In my testing, I easily
exceeded that fgure. In all of these ways,
VIRB is a huge improvement over the
GoPro product.
EXtRAS
The GoPro Hero can be controlled by an
optional remote, and VIRB can too. In
the case of the Garmin cam, that remote
is the Garmin D2 pilots watch, which
can easily control up to 10 VIRB cams
remotely. I controlled two VIRBs with the
D2 on a recent fight; the operation of
the system was fawless. While Garmin
ONE OF THE COOLEST

FEATURES OF VIRB IS ITS
INTEGRATION WITH GARMIN
PILOT. WITH VIRB, YOU CAN
CAPTURE YOUR FLIGHT AND
DISPLAY ALL THE DETAILS
OF IT, FROM A MOVING MAP
TO WEATHER TO CHARTING,
ALL WHILE ENJOYING THE
VIRBS-EYE-VIEW OF THE
OUTSIDE WORLD. BECAUSE
VIRB IS WATER-RESISTANT
AND DESIGNED TO STAND
UP TO SOME REAL-WORLD
USE, PILOTS OF HOMEBUILTS ARE SURE TO BE
DRAWN TO ITS LONG BATTERY LIFE, EASY REMOTECONTROLLABILITY AND
GREAT VIDEO QUALITY.
a i r w a y s | F Ly i N G N E W S & N O T E S
hasnt announced one yet, we expect

to see an iOS app to control VIRB
while providing a remote video view
of the action (the GoPro app that
does this is quite good).
In the Garmin Pilot app, in fact,
you can split the screen in order to
display the live image from VIRB. The
result is an image from VIRB
supplemented by a moving map
presentation of the fight being
conducted. Theres also a Garmin
video editor, the aptly named VIRB
Edit. While it has only basic features
right now, Garmin plans to add
additional editing features, such as
transitions and titles, in the future.
The beneft for now is that you can
import and edit VIRB video without having to convert it, which is
necessary if you want to edit the
footage in iMovie, for instance. One
thing VIRB Edit can do is superimpose GPS and other data on the VIRB
video, including G-forces and even
heart-rate data with optional

heart-rate monitor. That way your
videos viewers will have objective
proof of your excitement upon
nailing that crosswind landing.
Flying with ViRB

I tried out VIRB (along with a
GoPro Hero 3 for the sake of
comparison) on a long cross
country recently. The video from
the VIRB inside the cockpit was
better than that captured by the
GoPro Hero 3 mounted alongside
the Garmin unit. Perhaps more
importantly, VIRB kept capturing
footage long after the GoPro had
given up the ghost. With VIRB, you
can adjust the apparent focal
length of the lens for wide-angle
video or a zoom view, flip the video
to accommodate for upside-down
mounts, adjust the quality of the
video, set up for timed or looped
effects, and turn off the recording
indicator light to save battery life.

There are weaknesses. The
display is pretty dim when its not
brightly lit I used a key chain
flashlight to illuminate it. The
menu system and interface take
awhile to get used to, though after
a few hours, Id mastered it from
button to button.
In the end, the proof was in the
footage. I got many hours of
dynamite video from my flight,
which I edited on Garmins free
video editor to create a threeminute highlight reel. Visit our
website, flyingmag.com, for that
video and a VIRB video review.
The VIRB Elite features an
internal GPS, accelerometer and
altimeter and can include that data
in the video. An aviation-optimized
VIRB bundle with several popular
accessories is planned for the
future, so keep your eyes peeled for
that product. Robert Goyer
D E D I C A T E D T O H E L P I N G B U S I N E S S A C H I E V E I T S H I G H E S T G O A L S.
In your hands, a light airplane achieves signicant things. The National Business Aviation Association
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you relevant, cost-effective tools that can help make ying solo the path to even greater opportunities.
Learn more at www.yforbusiness.org.
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I LEARNED
ABOUT
FLYING
FROM
THAT
F LY I N G s a f e ly | B Y J o h n R o s e n b e R g | N O . 8 7 6
FLYING REAdERs shARE

LAstING LEssONs FROM CLOsE
CALLs ANd NEAR dIsAstERs
A SuperSize problem
sometimes, even pilots of the big airliners have

to learn things the hard way
Most lessons learned in this column
arise from personal experiences in airplanes weighing less than 12,500
pounds. But every once in a while, pilots
fying big airplanes weighing 870,000
pounds or more have embarrassing
moments that are worth sharing too.
My two frst offcers and I were fying a routine leg in a Boeing 747-400
from Honolulu to Tokyos Narita
International Airport. It was a pretty
day westbound over the Pacifc chasing
the afternoon sun. Upon arrival in the
Narita terminal area, we were assigned
Runway 16L, which is signifcantly
shorter than 16R but more than adequate for a relatively light 747. The
frst offcer occupying the right seat
was the fying pilot and made a routine, albeit slightly frm, landing in
consideration of the runway length.
After taking control of the aircraft,
I taxied clear of the runway to the
Y hold point, and the frst offcer
switched to ground control. But we
received no response. After repeated
attempts, we were still unsuccessful.
The frst offcer switched back to the
tower frequency, but we had no luck
establishing contact with them either.
We knew something was abnormal,
since we were not hearing feedback
through our headsets.
We heard the tower controller on the
No. 2 radio tell us to fash our nosewheel taxi light if we heard him, so I
fashed the light. We received taxi instructions to move along taxiway B and
hold short at the E5 intersection. At
that point, while awaiting further instructions, I told the frst offcers to
check all the mics while I watched for
light signals from the tower. The two
frst offcers were feverishly unplugging
and plugging back in all the mics we

had. Our upper engine indication crew
alerting system screen showed an amber advisory light labeled radio transmit, which confrmed a radio was
continuously transmitting and blocking
reception. No sooner did I say that Id
watch for light signals than a large
green dot appeared from the tower.
Although it had been awhile since I
last reviewed light signals in the
Aeronautical Information Manual, I
fgured it was a pretty good bet that
green meant go and red meant stop. I
advanced the thrust levers, and after
moving along the taxiway for a short
distance, I received a red stop signal.
At this point, we fgured out that we
could receive on the No. 2 radio. The
exasperated ground controller ordered
us to hold our position and wait for a
follow-me vehicle. While waiting, I
looked around and noticed down by
my left leg that my approach chart
book had fallen off the fight bag,
which sits outboard of each pilot. I
immediately knew what caused our
stuck mic problem and unleashed a
few expletives. Talk about a subtle
trap. Boeing installed the cradle for
the hand mic down low next to the
captains left leg.
As soon as I pulled the book up and
off the hand mic, communication returned to normal. I surmised that since
the book was resting on my fight bag
during our arrival, it must have slid
forward and fallen off the forward
edge of the bag during the deceleration
on the landing rollout. The approach
book was wedged just perfectly, depressing the mic transmit button.
I keyed my mic and told the tower
that we had solved our problem and all
communication was back to normal.

That would have been fne in most
places, but not in Japan. Pilots who
routinely fy in and out of Japan joke
about it being the land of no plan B.
Air traffc control is fairly rigid and
seldom deviates from planned routings or taxi fows.
The tower was quite put out with us
and said something to the effect of
too bad, you made two mistakes
you will wait for the follow-me vehicle. The three of us looked at each
other quizzically, wondering what
mistakes we had made. We had a
problem but did everything by the
book. The harried controller rattled
off something in broken English, and
after several requested repeats, we
fgured out that he was saying we had
tied up two of his frequencies. We
were being punished. I felt like I was
in a game of Monopoly: Go directly to
jail; do not pass go, and do not collect
$200. Although he gave us a taxi clearance, we had to wait for the follow-me
vehicle to lead us to our gate.
I parked the jet looking forward to
a big piece of humble pie. A couple
lessons learned: Dont put the
I L e a r N e d a B O u t F LY I N G F r O m t h a t | F LY I N G s a f e ly
To see more of Barry ross

aviaTion arT, go To BarryrossarT.com.
approach chart book on top of the

fight bag during landing and continue to remain vigilant for subtle
gotchas. Another pilot gave me a good
travel tip as well. Stow the hand mic
upside down so the transmit button
cant be pushed by anything that may
fall on top of it.
As I flled out my Aviation Safety
Action Partnership report, I was reminded of a favorite statement often
made by one of our former FAA operations inspectors who sat on the event
review committee of the ASAP program. After reviewing a voluntarily
submitted report where the pilot suffered a large dose of humility and embarrassment, my friend would state, I
think learning has occurred.
AFTERMATH
ACCIdENt ANALYsIs
thAt GOEs BEhINd ANd
BEYONd thE NtsB REpORt
F LY I N G s a f e ly | B Y P e T e R G a R R I s O N
A Violent Sky
You Dont Want to Go there
The businessman-pilot took off
at 3:15 in the afternoon from
St. Petersburg, Florida, in his
companys A36 Bonanza, bound
for Norman, Oklahoma. He
fled IFR, with a cruising
altitude of 10,000 feet and a
speed of 185 knots. The 900 nm
trip would have been at the
very limit of the airplanes
range, but he was evidently
counting on a tailwind.
He followed Floridas western
shore to the north-northwest
until it, and he, bent westward.
Skirting the southern edge of a
line of convective weather in the
Florida Panhandle and southern
Alabama, he encountered in
Mississippi a more formidable
obstacle: a squall line that
extended, practically unbroken,
all the way from the Gulf of
Mexico to Chicago.
He had left his initial cruising
altitude of 10,000 feet, climbing
frst to 16,000 feet then to
20,000. He had been airborne
for a little over two hours when
a Memphis Center controller
greeted him with a warning of
extreme precipitation ahead.
Roger, the pilot replied. Im
looking at that trying to see if
there is any way I can get
through it, and Im beginning to
think there is.
Theres a break in the
extreme portion of the precip,
the controller said. Theres
still some moderate to heavy in
that area though, at your, ah,
about 325, 330 heading and
about 115 miles.
The Bonanza was equipped
with a Stormscope and Nexrad
weather, and so the pilot was

seeing almost the same thing as
the controller but not quite:
Nexrad weather is always
several minutes old and cannot
provide a synchronous picture of
rapidly changing conditions.
Roger, I can see that, thats
the best spot I can see, so, ah, if
you dont mind Ill change course
and go towards that and see, if I
get up there, if I can see through
it. At this altitude, if I get any
precip its going to be ice.
After hearing an airliners
pirep of moderate to severe
mixed icing in Arkansas, the
pilot requested a precautionary
descent into warmer air. Half an
That was his last transmission. Three minutes later, wings,

ailerons, empennage and
fuselage fragments tumbled out
of the stormy sky and scattered
over a mile of bosky terrain.
Early news reports said the
airplane had been struck by
lightning and had exploded, but
the source of that interpretation
is unclear, and it is physically
unlikely. Lightning passes through
metal airplanes, leaving superfcial burns; it does not make them
explode. At any rate, the fnal
report of the National Transportation Safety Board cited no
evidence of an explosion, merely
reporting an infight breakup and
He HAd left HiS initiAl cruiSing

Altitude of 10,000 feet, climbing
firSt to 16,000 feet tHen to 20,000.
hour after frst contacting
Memphis Center, he was level at
12,000 feet and fying north,
converging gradually with the
leading edge of the squall line.
One gap he had hoped to thread
had flled in; he reported that he
was continuing a few miles
farther north toward another.
Center offered him a lower
altitude, but he declined, saying,
Its 40 degrees right now and
no ice or precip well, actually
its a little wet precip, but its
liquid, so Im OK right now.
blaming it on the pilots decision

to continue fight into an area of
known thunderstorms.
Contributing to the accident, the probable cause went
on, alluding to the 53-year-old
pilots 342-hour total time and
32 hours of actual instrument
experience, was the pilots
lack of experience in actual
instrument meteorological
conditions and his reliance on
datalink weather radar imagery
for tactical avoidance of
convective weather.
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The NTSB superimposed the

recorded fight track on stored weather
radar images, which are of higher
resolution than the pilots Nexrad
display. While the cockpit display was
showing the airplane on the edge of
the band of weather but still clear of
precipitation, it had, in fact, fown into
a building Level 5 cell. The pilot
appears to have been completely
unprepared for the sudden violence he
encountered. He said nothing to the
controller, and the memory of the
Bonanzas JPI 700 engine monitor
showed that he had made no effort to
reduce power or slow down prior to
the breakup.
It is commonly said that pilots, not
storms, break airplanes. This is true
when a panicked pilot is trying to
recover from a spin or spiral dive
entered in instrument conditions. It is
true in ordinary frontal weather, and
when VFR pilots stray into IMC and
become disoriented. But thunderstorms are a different story. The sheer
force of thunderstorm winds can break
an airplane, even if the airplane is
fying below its maneuvering speed.
Maneuvering speed is the speed at
or below which an airplanes fying
surfaces will stall before they generate
aerodynamic forces suffcient to break
them. Most pilots of smaller airplanes
do not make a clear distinction
between maneuvering speed (VA),
which depends on the airplane, and
turbulence-penetration speed (VB),
which depends on the atmosphere,
and they use VA for both.
The A36 Bonanza is certifcated as a
Utility Category airplane. At its gross
weight, it can withstand a positive load
factor of 4.4 G without permanent
deformation and 6.6 G without failure
16 percent more than is required for
Normal Category certifcation. The
Bonanzas maneuvering speed is 141
kias at 3,650 pounds, but with only
one person aboard and having been
airborne for nearly three hours, its
weight would have been 3,000 pounds
or so, and its maneuvering speed
would have fallen to 128 kias. At the
time of the breakup, its indicated
airspeed was around 140 knots.
Strength requirements for certifcation are based on a 50 foot per second
vertical gust. The effect of such a
gust is both to increase the indicated
airspeed slightly and, more important, to change the wings angle of

attack. An airplane moving horizontally at a true 170 knots would
experience an effective increase in
angle of attack of about 10 degrees.
This would be equivalent to a 4.7 G
pull-up enough to wrinkle the A36
but not to break it.
What kind of gust would be
necessary to produce the ultimate load
for which the A36 is designed? One at
around 90 to 100 feet per second. Is
such a gust plausible? Certainly.
Vertical velocities in strong thunderstorms cannot be measured directly or
predicted, but meteorologists have
published estimates of 150 to 220 feet
per second, or 90 to 130 knots, for
upward drafts upward ones are
somewhat stronger than downward
at 25,000 feet. At 12,000 feet they
are about a third slower, but in any
case such gusts are several times more
powerful than the ones on which structural designs are based. Normal
Category airplanes, whose ultimate
strength is 5.7 G rather than 6.6, are
obviously less likely to survive
thunderstorm winds than the A36 was.
Loss of control is probable, if not
certain, in extreme turbulence. The
airplane may experience unforeseeable attitudes and freakish combinations of forces. No mishandling by a
panicked or inept pilot is needed,
however, witness the 2006 breakup in
a Georgia thunderstorm of the Cessna
210 of Scott Crossfeld, one of the
coolest and most capable test pilots of
his generation.
Pilots cross squall lines between cells
all the time, usually with weather
radar that gives real-time information
about what lies ahead. But its hard to
do so safely when weather is active
and gaps in the line are small. With its
inevitable delays, datalink weather
requires a more cautious approach. If
the A36 pilot had circled for a few
minutes to the east of the spot where
he hoped to cross the line, he would
have seen that its apparent tranquillity
was temporary. Its leading edge was,
in fact, boiling with new cells. He
might have cursed his luck and kicked
himself for not acting more swiftly. But
then he would have landed, slept
soundly, and continued the next day
under clear skies.
ON THE RECORD
F LY I N G s a f e ly
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OF GENERAL AvIATION ACCIdENTs
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HOMES VILLAS CONDOMINIUMS

MARINA DOCKS HOME & VILLA RENTALS
The airplane collided with remote

mountainous terrain in an inverted
position during the second leg of a
cross-country fight in day visual
meteorological conditions. Recorded
data recovered from the airplane
revealed that about 40 minutes into
the fight, the airplane reached its
highest recorded altitude of 7,847
feet mean sea level (msl). At this
time, the airplane was about 4 miles
from a mountain ridge directly ahead,
the lowest point of which was 8,470
feet msl, with terrain elevations of
more than 9,000 feet msl on both
sides. The airplanes recovered electronic data revealed that the airplanes stall warning system activated
about 3 minutes before the accident
and remained on for most of the
remaining recorded data. The data
indicated that the airplane rolled
steeply to the left, briefy recovered
and pitched up 10 to 15 degrees, and
then rolled to the left in a nearly
67-degree inverted nose-down
attitude before impacting terrain.
Postaccident calculations indicated
that at the time of the accident, the
airplane was likely being fown close
to the airplanes stall speed.
The pilot, who had rented the airplane, had extensive rotorcraft/helicopter fight experience but had
accumulated only about 160 hours
total fight time in fxed wing airplanes, with about 17 hours in the
accident airplane make and model.
The pilots most recent fight in the
make and model of the accident airplane took place about 18 months
before the accident fight.
Postaccident interviews with personnel from the company that rented
the airplane revealed that, on a previous occasion, the pilot had been
observed overloading the airplane
and was advised that he could not
take that much baggage on the fight.
The company personnel further stated
that on the morning of the accident,

after the company fueled the airplane
for the pilots fight, the pilot taxied
the airplane to another area on the
airport where he loaded his passengers and baggage. This location was
about mile away and was not visible from the companys facility. The
calculated density altitude at the time
of the accident was 9,287 feet, which
would have been detrimental to the
airplanes climb performance, especially if the airplane was overloaded.
A postaccident examination of the
airframe and engine did not reveal
any mechanical anomalies that would
have precluded normal operation.
Based on the available information,
it is likely that the pilot was unable to
maintain suffcient airspeed to climb
the airplane over the high terrain,
which resulted in an aerodynamic
stall. Further, it is likely that a combination of the pilot overloading the
airplane before taking off and the
high density altitude conditions
would have resulted in the airplanes
reduced climb performance. Further,
the pilots lack of total experience
operating fxed wing airplanes in
mountainous terrain likely negatively
affected his decision to attempt to fy
over the mountainous terrain with the
given conditions and contributed to
the accident.
PROBABLE CAUSE(S):
ThE pILOTs FAILURE TO MAINTAIN

sUFFICIENT AIRspEEd ANd AIRpLANE
CONTROL whILE MANEUvERING A
hEAvILY LOAdEd AIRpLANE OvER hIGh
MOUNTAINOUs TERRAIN IN A hIGh dENsITY
ALTITUdE ENvIRONMENT. CONTRIBUTING
TO ThE ACCIdENT wAs ThE pILOTs LACk
OF ExpERIENCE OpERATING FIxEd wING
AIRpLANEs IN sUCh AN ENvIRONMENT.
SKY KINGS
F LY I N G S A F E LY | B Y M A R T H A K I N G
why didnt we listen?

WE NEED TO SPEAK TO DANGEROUS PILOTS DIFFERENTLY
Most pilots who have been fying for a
while know pilots who scare them. My
husband, John, and I were two of
those pilots. We were so wrapped up
in using our airplane as a personal,
fun traveling machine that we would
not let anything inexperience,
nighttime, bad weather, even a roughrunning engine get in our way. We
had one close call after another until
we had our inevitable accident.
Its not that well-meaning pilots
didnt try to counsel us like the
guy in Albuquerque who suggested
that rather than taking off for a night
trip over the mountains in a snowstorm, it might be wiser for us to wait
until the morning. Or the multiple

pilots, including Johns uncle, who
felt we should have more time before
we moved from our Cherokee to the
higher-powered and complex Comanche, or at least we should get
some more time in it before we set
off on a one-day trip from California
to Indiana. In each case, we not only
ignored them, we were offended.
What seemed to annoy us was that
they told us what we were doing
wasnt safe. They even said we
were exercising poor decision making and judgment.
The interesting thing is these pilots
were right. What we were doing, in
NO-NONSENSE
RISK MITIGATION FOR
PILOTS LIKE US
fact, wasnt wise. But why didnt we

listen? I think the answer is that as
well meaning as these pilots were,
they didnt use a vocabulary that
would evoke a positive result from us.
For instance, even the word safe,
which is used by almost everybody,
didnt evoke a good reaction from us.
We had been following our pattern of
behavior for some time and had not
had an accident. We saw the interference from other people as disapproval and an attempt to stop us
from doing what we wanted to do.
The problem with the word safe is
that it is an absolute. According to
Merriam-Webster, the word safe
means free from harm or risk. Well,
nothing in aviation is free from harm
or risk. You cant start an engine without risk, and you certainly cant take
off without risk. So our reaction was,
if your goal is to be safe, you cant
do anything. We considered conversations about safety as being pompous
and prissy. Talk about safety certainly
didnt get anywhere with us.
We were equally unaccepting of
talk about decision making and judgment. We were blessed with fne selfimages and considered ourselves
successful business people. We
werent willing to entertain any
thought that we werent good at decision making or that we didnt have
good judgment.
So what would have triggered a
good response from us? I am not sure
anything would have. But using a
different vocabulary might have
helped. If the people who were concerned about us had said something
like, There are risks in everything
you do in aviation, but the key to
consistently successful outcomes is
managing those risks, it might have
resonated with us. Like everyone
else, we knew we were taking risks
when we few. We just thought we
could get away with them. We just
werent good yet at identifying all the
risks, assessing them and coming up
with a good mitigation strategy.
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S K Y K I N G S | F LY I N G S A F E LY
The reason we werent good at risk

management was because we hadnt
been taught to do it. Like many other
pilots, the way we learned risk management was by getting our certifcates and going out and trying stuff.
If we got away with something, we
put that into the acceptable category.
The more times we got away with it,
the more acceptable it became, when
in many cases, we very likely may
have just been lucky.
On the other hand, if we tried
something and scared ourselves,
wed say, Wow, well never do that
again, and wed place that on our
growing list of things wed decided
wed never do again. Thats what is
known as learning by experience. But
experience is a hard teacher. She
gives the test frst, and the lesson
comes afterward. We were very fortunate to have survived the tests in
order to get the lessons.
So how could we have been taught
differently? Well, some schools and
instructors are training pilots how to
manage risks by incorporating a riskmanagement exercise into every prefight briefng. They set aside a little
time with the learning pilot to have a
discussion in which they identify the
potential risks of the upcoming fight.
Some risks are obvious to a learning
pilot, but some are not.
For example, if the lesson topic is
ground reference maneuvers, an instructor might help the learning pilot
identify the insidious and counterintuitive risk of fying too fast while
trying to maneuver around a point
on the ground. The higher speed requires steeper bank angles to stay
near the point, and the increased
load factor increases the stall speed.
Once a risk is identifed, the instructor might help the learning pilot
assess the probabilities and consequences of harm caused by the risk.
In the case of high load factor while
maneuvering, the instructor could
point out that stall/spin accidents
while maneuvering are the most
common type of fatal accidents. The
instructor and learning pilot could
then go on to discuss mitigation
strategies, including selecting a reasonable speed during the maneuvers
and a maximum bank angle.
A pilot who has gone through a
similar risk-management exercise on

every training fight stands a much
higher chance of having a habit of
practicing good risk management
when he is out fying on his own. If
John and I had been trained this way
and then been approached by a concerned pilot who used this same vocabulary with us, we most likely
would have been much more accepting of his input.
Based on Johns and my experience, I think we in the aviation community can do a far better job of
thinking about risk and expressing
ourselves. I suggest that we change
our vocabulary, including banning
the words safe and safety for two
reasons. First, when we use those
I believe were not helpful were

judgment and decision making.
Although they refer to components of
risk management, I dont think using
these terms will be helpful with other
pilots either.
I believe these words will not be
well received by the recipient and are
not likely to produce positive results.
Aviation tends to attract competent,
achieving individuals who naturally
believe they already employ good
judgment and decision making. They
are unlikely to heed an (often
younger) instructor who tells them
he or she will teach them judgment
and decision making. Their reaction
is more likely to be, I dont think so,
kid. Additionally, the term decision
experience is a hard teacher. she

gives the test first, and
the lesson comes afterward.
we were very fortunate to
have survived the tests.
words, we usually dont mean them.
And second, they dont really give us
any useful guidance.
We say things like, Safety is our
No. 1 priority. If safety were our No. 1
priority, wed never fy. Or we say,
We will never compromise safety.
Getting into any moving vehicle, especially an airplane, is a compromise
with safety. Absolute safety is unattainable. So when we say these
things, they cannot literally be true.
All of this clichd talk about safety
comes across as insincere hypocrisy.
Plus, it is bad management because
we are setting unattainable goals.
Telling someone to have a safe trip is
a nice, courteous expression of good
will, but it is lousy advice. It is literally impossible and gives no advice
that can be acted on. Better advice
would be to suggest doing a good job
of managing the risks of a fight.
Of course, the other words that
were frequently used with us that
making tends to imply that you get

to a fork in the road and then make a
decision. I would like to see us be far
more proactive than that and anticipate that fork before we ever get to it.
Well, you might ask, if you dont
like the terms safe, safety, judgment and decision making, what
can we say? I like focusing on risk
management because it describes
the process necessary to get good
results. Risk management involves
anticipating risks, assessing them
and developing an ongoing strategy
for mitigating them. And that is exactly what we need to do to get better
outcomes.
When we have converted the culture of our aviation community to
focusing on risk management, pilots
wont have to gain their seasoning by
putting themselves repeatedly at risk
and accumulating a long list of things
that they wont ever do again like
John and I did.
TAKING WING
F LY i n g o p i n i o n | B Y S A M W E i G E L
TALES OF WHEN
FLYING, DISCOVERY
AND LIFE CONVERGE
sunset patrol
A MIDWINTER NIGHTS DREAM
Streetlights are twinkling to life as I
turn onto the feld, and the airport
beacon is already sweeping through
the afternoon gloom. Minnesota winters are as dark as they are cold, and in
January, both features are particularly
oppressive. I park by the hangar and
step out of the car, pulling my coat
tight against the raw wind; snow
crunches noisily under my feet. I fddle
with the hangar key and slip inside.
The fuorescent lights ficker and blink,
coolly revealing the hangars familiar
jumble of contents: a dozen classic
Ducati motorbikes in various states of
repair, an old airboat, a disassembled
Nieuport scale replica hanging from
the rafters and a beautifully-crafted
fying Pietenpol Air Camper. At the
front, facing the hangar door with
nose pointed expectantly skyward, is a
yellow 1946 Piper Cub. As always, she

looks happy to see me even after
weeks of being locked in a dark and
cold hangar without so much as a hop
around the patch.
I drag the homebuilt propane preheater around to the nose, though its
a hangar fre waiting to happen and
my chances of actually fying today
are getting slimmer by the minute.
Taking the Cub up sounded like a
great idea when I landed the Embraer
at MinneapolisSaint Paul earlier, but
the drive to Airlake Airport took longer than anticipated, and I forgot how
quickly it would get dark. This Cub is
strictly a daytime fier no electrical
system, no position lights, no landing
light. I heave the bifold door open and
am dismayed to see how much light
has faded already. Theres technically
ANOTHER FONDLY REMEMBERED

SUMMERS EVENING: IM ON FINAL
APPROACH TO STANTON AIRFIELD, A
WWII-ERA GRASS STRIP THATS STILL
PROWLED ALMOST EXCLUSIVELY BY
GLIDERS AND OLD TAILDRAGGERS.
20 minutes left till sunset, but with

the overcast, itll be dark as night by
then. I reluctantly close the door and
shut down the belching preheater. I
pause a minute, contemplating the old
birds battered leading edge. She isnt
the worlds prettiest Cub, but at least
shes mine well, one-twelfth mine,
anyway. I lean into the cockpit and
check the hour log. I havent fown her
in nearly a month, and neither has
t a k i n g w i n g | F LY i n g o p i n i o n
anyone else in the club. What the hell,

as long as Im here. I climb into the
cockpit with the usual contortions
familiar to anybody whos ever
strapped into a Cub. The vinyl seat is
rock hard and freezing cold.
I thumb the well-worn throttle and
palm the stick, feeling the heft of the
elevators and the tension in the cables.
I close my eyes, and the chill of the
seat fades; the ship dips and sways;
the throttle reverberates with the
thrum of the little Continental, and
my right leg catches a warm blast of
prop wash through the open door. I
open my eyes, and its last summer, or
next summer, or 50 summers ago
for this Cub is a time machine, you
see. Im fying from the front seat, so I
must have a passenger my wife,
Dawn, perhaps, or my friend Andy, or
my nephew Dylan, already a keen aviator at 10 years old. Were at the Cubs
favorite altitude, 500ish feet, loafng
along at 2,200 rpm and a leisurely 70
mph. The sun is low and vivid in the
haze, and the breeze carries just the
hint of night chill, a welcome respite
from the days humidity. I reach out
into the wind. Yes, it feels wonderful.
Lazily rustling felds of hay, corn and
beans glow dramatically in the warmly
slanting light. Hillocks and hollows
cast rambling shadows that rather exaggerate the vertical relief of the Minnesota landscape. The ground falls
away from our wings into a thickly
wooded valley; a stream glints through
the treetops, and I wheel around to
follow it, since I have no particular
destination in mind. My passenger
taps my shoulder and points to the hill
on our right, where our shadow plays
on golden rows of tall cornstalks. I jink
back and forth, tracing the path of the
stream; our hillside twin follows suit,
weaving through the corn.
The stream empties into a long blue
lake, and I bank to lap the shoreline.
There are a few pontoon and fshing
boats lingering on the water, loathe to
waste a single moment of a cherished
long summers evening. Heads turn to
follow the little yellow plane, and we
wave out the open door. Most wave
back, except for some fshermen who
perhaps dont appreciate the noise. I
eye the altimeter to ensure were plausibly close to 500 feet away; Im sure
there are FAA inspectors who fsh, and
in my limited angling experience, it is

easy to slip into a foul mood when the
fsh refuse to bite.
I check the setting sun; it seems in
no great hurry to dip below the horizon, and so I take one last detour,
working northeast till we sail over the
Mississippi bluffs and then turn upstream. I resist the urge to drop below
the bluffs and follow the river more
closely, for besides the occasional
barges and tugboats, there are hardto-see cables slung low across the water. An old adage claims that a Cub
can just barely kill you, but I suspect
that fying into a steel cable at 75 mph
would do the trick quite nicely.
At a familiar bend in the river, I drop
lower, slip across a treeline to a still
lagoon and then bank to the right;
there, slicing across a heavily wooded
you have from the back. Besides grass

strips many other lovely qualities, they
are thankfully forgiving surfaces that
help smooth over gaps in taildraggerwrangling technique.
Satisfed with my decent threepointer, I bring the little Continental
roaring back to life, ease the tail up,
and lift back off the grass. I accelerate
below the trees and notice that somebody is watching us from near the
shade hangar at midfeld the strips
owner? I rock my wings, and the man
gives a friendly wave, so I guess my
permission hasnt expired yet. I climb
above the trees, across the lagoon,
over the bluffs and southwest toward
home in a race against the setting sun.
I spy one of my companys Embraers
on fnal for Runway 30L at MSP, and I
wonder if a friend is at the controls.
I open my eyes, and Its last summer,

or next summer, or 50 summers ago
for thIs Cub Is a tIme maChIne.
peninsula, appears a beautifully manicured grass strip. Its about 2,000 feet
long with the lagoon on one end and
the river on the other and bordered by
60-foot trees on both sides with a slight
kink in the middle. Its a private strip,
but a few years ago, the owner told me
to feel free to use it just make a
pass frst to chase off the geese and
deer. This I proceed to do at a modest
altitude, for Ive found that the Cub is
so much slower than its sound that any
pass under 150 feet will spook the Canadian honkers directly up into the
planes path. Midfeld, I peel up and
away into the downwind, then spiral
down over the river to the gap in the
trees that marks the strips threshold. I
glide through the gap, clear the riverside picnic tables, ease the throttle to
idle and transition to using peripheral
vision as the runway disappears under
the rising nose. The Cub is harder to
three-point than to wheel land, especially from the front seat, where you
dont have nearly the peripheral cues
Nice night to be fying, even from the

antiseptic cockpit of a modern jet.
The air is defnitely cooling off now,
so I close the door and then the window. Its no use, for the sun is setting
faster than the little Cub can fy. Warm
sunlight fades to a cool forescent
glare and a mighty chill sweeps
through my bones despite my winter
jacket and gloves. The engines purr
wanes; the vibrating throttle goes still,
and the stick slackens as the airfow
ebbs. Assorted motorbike frames, oilcans and tool chests displace golden
felds and brooding dales. I sigh and
grasp the overhead framework to extricate myself from the cockpit. Next
time, old friend, I murmur with a
little pat of the cowl as I walk around
the nose. I reach the hangar door and
glance back. My favorite little yellow
airplane sits with her nose pointed
skyward, happy and expectant of summertime adventures together. I smile
wistfully, turn off the lights and step
out into the bitter night.
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living
At the
Airport
heavens landing
By BethAny Whitfield
todAys resident
AirpArk communities
mAke the prospect
of living With your
AirplAne more
tempting thAn ever.
or many pilots, the

thought of stepping
out of the house, getting into an airplane
and taxiing just a few
hundred feet to the runway all

without ever touching a car door
is the ultimate fantasy. For the
thousands who live in residential
airparks around the country, that
way of life isnt just a pipe dream
but an everyday reality. When it
comes to the benefts that fy-in
communities afford, the upsides
are plentiful, ranging from everything to more time spent in the air
to a strong sense of neighborhood
camaraderie among like-minded
aviators. But selecting the right
airpark to call home can be tricky,
and depending upon personal
preferences, airport amenities and
a variety of other factors, airparks
around the country can provide
vastly different experiences.
A neW kind of community

The concept of residential airparks
frst gained traction after World
War II, a time period when the United
States had an incredible abundance
of both airfelds and pilots. In order to
put countless deactivated military
strips across the nation to good use
and to accommodate a pilot population that had ballooned from fewer
than 34,000 in 1939 to more than
400,000 by 1946, the Civil Aeronautics Administration proposed the construction of 6,000 residential airparks
throughout the country, with initial
focus placed on the Southeast. While
that number was never fulflled, the
momentum created by the initial proposal paved the way for decades
worth of interest and investment in
what has become a large and active
network of fy-in communities.
According to Living With Your
Plane, an online airpark directory
and resource center, there are more
than 630 fy-in communities around
the globe. That list includes everything from the worlds largest and
most well-known aviation residential
areas to the multitude of smaller hidden gems scattered near and far.
When it comes to the United States,
Florida leads the pack with more
than 70 airparks on record with Living With Your Plane. Texas and
Washington trail close behind with
AirpArks Across
the country cAn
AccommodAte A vAriety
of AircrAft, including
turboprops And jets.
more than 65 and 50, respectively.

But almost every section of the United States boasts a healthy fgure. And
while airparks were once an American phenomenon, they have spread
around the world. Today, there are
thriving communities everywhere,
from Zandspruit, South Africa, to
Siljansns, Sweden.
The beauty of that wide spectrum
is that todays airparks provide living
experiences as diverse as the wants
and desires of the pilot population.
Whether youre a pilot who craves
quiet country landscapes and rural
living or someone steeped in the urban lifestyle, theres likely an airpark
right for you thats not too far away.
city living
When it comes to larger residential
aviation communities, many serve as
their own contained minitowns, offering almost every major airport
amenity imaginable, not to mention
countless extras, such as on-site
restaurants, sporting facilities and
country clubs. Spruce Creek, one of
the biggest and best known fy-in
communities in the country, is one
such airpark, providing residents with

everything from an 18-hole golf
course to community doctors who
make house calls. With its frst house
built in 1974, the Metro Daytona
Beach airpark now boasts more than
1,500 homes and 600 based aircraft,
which range from World War I classics, such as the Sopwith Camel, to
Cessna Citations. To accommodate
such a large pilot residency, which
has at times included such celebrities
as John Travolta and NASCARs fnest, Spruce Creek maintains a whopping 14 miles of taxiways and 30
miles of roadways. With a 4,000-by150-foot runway, GPS approach, several fying clubs, rental aircraft and
fight training all at residents fngertips, the community leaves little to be
desired in terms of services.
In addition to that lengthy list of
comforts, Lenny Ohlsson, owner of
Spruce Creek Fly-In Realty, says the
airparks proximity to an urban center
is largely responsible for its growth.
Were very popular because were
close to a town, he says. You can go
outside our front gate and bank, go to
the supermarket. You can go down
another mile and get your heart replaced. Theres everything you need
within fve miles.
Hal Shevers, founder of Sportys
Pilot Shop, hopes his new airparks
proximity to a major Midwestern city
will create similar popularity. Sandys

Airpark, named after Shevers wife,
was frst conceived in 2005, when
Sportys was expanding and pursuing
the development of 75 T-hangars on
Clermont County Airport in Batavia,
Ohio, located outside of Cincinnati.
Today, the airpark is just getting started, with four homes already completed
and 12 additional lots currently available for prospective buyers. Unlike
most airparks, the airport at Sandys
is publicly owned, and residents
receive access to it through an easement into the taxiway system.
In addition to Sportys presence
at the airport, avionics and maintenance companies call Clermont County home, providing pilots with a
one-stop shop for their fying needs.
With those great facilities, as well as
Sandys proximity to one of Americas
major cities, Shevers feels that Sandys offers the best of both worlds.
Cincinnatis a big small town, with
hundreds of restaurants, professional
sports, a symphony and a university
of 4,000 students, he says. And yet
youre here living out in the country
with a home in the woods.
idyllic lAndscApes
spruce creek Fly-in realty
A number of airparks offer the benefts of community in conjunction with
the beauty and privacy of country

living. Take for example, Heavens
Landing, which is nestled in the
mountains of North Georgia and offers sweeping scenic views along with
frst-rate aviation perks.
To fnd a fat piece of land in the
mountains where you can put in a
mile-long runway, thats pretty
unique, property manager Gerald
Silvious says.
With three quarters of the airpark
surrounded by a national forest, Heavens Landing provides an abundance
of activities in the immediate area for
nature lovers, including hiking and
rock climbing. To complement the
airparks existing 1,400-square-foot
clubhouse and racquetball facility, a
swimming pool will be fnished in the
spring. Tennis courts and an equestrian facility are also in the works.
One-and-a-half acre lots are priced
between $125,000 and $350,000,
and Silvious says many residents have
relocated from afar to set up their
homestead in Heavens Landing.
regulAr fly-outs And

other AviAtion events
Are just some of the
perks of living in A
fly-in community.
Its unbelievable the people weve

brought in from all parts of the country, Silvious says. Weve got all four
corners of the United States covered,
with people throughout the country
moving in.
Despite the residents various geographic origins, Silvious says the
main thread that runs through the
community and its residents is a genuine love of fying.
This is a community of pilots who
get along with each other and love to
fy, he says. And of course, they love
to brag about their airplanes.
shAring A pAssion
For Dave Martin, a retiree who relocated from San Diego to Independence Airpark in northeast Oregon
10 years ago, the large appeal of airpark living is that close-knit sense of
community often shared among residents. While Independence Airpark
contains almost 170 homes, Martin
says he is familiar with the majority
of his neighbors.
I suppose I know by face and
name more than half of the people
who live here, he says.
Martin, an RV-12 owner, says his
fellow residents in Independence
Airpark, which is home to a large
percentage of kitbuilders, were
prospective Buyers: WhAt to consider

certain airport amenities,
such as a full-service fbo or
maintenance shop, that you
simply cant live without? if
you have children, are there
nearby schools and services
that will meet their needs?
All of these questions should
be answered thoroughly.
one other consideration
is whether to purchase
property at a private or
publicly owned airport.
While congress recently
not be familiar with an
property is a big undertaking
area, airpark living, while
potential buyers should
residential through-the-
that requires serious
very special, is diferent,
perform a brutally honest
fence agreements at publicly
deliberation, individuals
says ben sclair, publisher
assessment of their priorities
owned airports, sclair
interested in purchasing a
of General Aviation News
and preferences before they
recommends that anyone
home or lot in a residential
and living With your plane.
start their search. Are you
considering purchasing a
airpark face several
if you buy into a bad
interested in the privacy of
property at an airport that
additional considerations.
situation, it could take a
a remote area, or do you
isnt privately owned secure
much longer period of time
crave the convenience of
a good lawyer to ensure their
to extract yourself.
an urban setting? Are there
interests are fully protected.
unlike a regular home,

where people may or may
incredibly supportive in his quest to

fnish his airplane, a task made much
easier thanks to the simple fact that
his hangar is attached to his house.
Theres a great community of
helping each other here, especially
related to aviation, he says. When I
started my RV-12, I had a number of
local folks who helped build the frst
part of the kit. People lend each other
tools, and we give each other a hand
with various things.
Airpark owner Greg Largen purchased Stearman Estates, located outside of Wichita, Kansas, with two
friends about 10 years ago and says
the relationships among neighbors is
what sets fy-in communities like his
apart from traditional residences.
Regular events hosted by the airpark,
including an annual summer fy-in,
chili cook-offs and frequent fy-outs,
only help strengthen those bonds.
Its kind of like family here. It
doesnt matter who you are, and we
dont care what you fy or if you fy,
to manage that risk,
he says. On a nice evening after

work, people are out on golf carts, out
walking, stopping by hangars. In that
respect, its special to us.
A home like no other

In addition to the convenience, the
camaraderie and the many other benefts airpark residents reap, nothing
beats the main advantage of living in
a fy-in community: the opportunity
to get up in the air easily and often.
For commuters, living in an airpark
makes it truly feasible and, in many
cases, more economical to use an airplane to get where their schedules
demand. For recreational pilots, fy-in
communities provide a means and a
strong incentive to enjoy fying on a
more regular basis.
The benefts are huge, says Ben
Sclair, publisher of General Aviation
News and Living With Your Plane.
Sclair grew up in the fy-in community of Shady Acres in Spanaway, Washington. What a joy to decide I want
to go fying today and walk 20 steps

to your hangar, push open the door,
fre up the airplane and away you go,
he says. Not having that 15-, 20-,
30-minute commute to the airport is
just an absolute treasure.
With the airport just a couple hundred feet from your doorstep, the
traditional barriers and excuses that
stop many of us from taking that evening joy ride or making that short
hop across town whether it be a
lack of time, a reluctance to make
the drive to the airport or one of the
numerous other distractions that
steal our attention fall away. Instead, were left with more occasions
to enjoy that one-of-a-kind feeling
that comes from hopping in the left
seat, inhaling that cockpit smell we
know so well and feeling the Earth
sink below us as we pull back on the
yoke. What better way to enjoy that
feeling than to live in a community
where it can be shared and appreciated by like-minded friends.
sandys airpark
passed legislation allowing
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THE EASIEST PHASE OF FLIGHT STILL CARRIES VERY REAL

RISK. UNDERSTAND WHAT CAN GO WRONG AND KNOW HOW
TO SPOT PROBLEMS BEFORE THEY GET OUT OF CONTROL.
BY ROBERT GOYER
ILLUSTRATIONS BY LUIS RUIZ
THE ACCIDENT STATISTICS DONT LIE,

AND THEY ARE CHILLING.
Since the FAA began collecting records in the early 1980s on the
number of fatalities, the number of deaths in general aviation
accidents has topped 400 every year.
The good news is the number of accidents, fatal accidents and fatalities has
dropped steadily over time, as have
the accident and fatal accident rates.
Since 1973, the rate of fatal accidents
for every 100,000 hours of ying has
been cut in half, from around 2.4 per
100,000 hours to about 1.2 per
100,000 hours. Since 1946, one of the
deadliest years in U.S. aviation history,
the fatal accident rate has been cut by
83 percent. These are great gains.
Still, the accident rate is unaccept-
ably high. Compared with automobiles, GA airplanes are much riskier,

though how much so depends on
how you compare aviation apples to
roadway oranges: per mile, per vehicle or per hour occupied. Motorcycles are, according to the National
Highway Trafc Safety Administration, about 35 times more deadly
than cars. Even so, motorcycles are
still safer than airplanes.
The purpose of these safety discussions is not to delve into the statis-
tics. Regardless of how you crunch

the numbers, theres clear risk involved in what we do. Instead, the
plan is to formulate strategies to
counter that risk.
So, what are the most hazardous
scenarios in GA ying? Its an easy
thing to know but a surprisingly hard
thing to quantify. Because of the way
the National Transportation Safety
Board categorizes probable and contributing causes of accidents in its
ofcial nal reports, which are written by many different inspectors with
their own perspectives on causal factors, its impossible to categorize accidents in any cohesive way.
The risk scenarios Ill be discussing
here might not be named as such by
the NTSB or FAA, but they will be instantly recognizable to every one of
our readers. The rst subject will be
accidents in cruise.
CRUISE MISHAPS
Cruise ight is generally when things
are going smoothly, when the complications of the climb have been dealt
with and the necessities of the descent getting the ATIS, checking
the arrivals or the approaches, and
tidying up the airplane dont yet
need to be addressed. Still, every year
a number of airplanes come to harm,
often with fatal results, during what
is normally a benign phase of ight.
With the power set, the airplane
trimmed up and needles centered on
the airway, what could go wrong? In
truth, not many things. But when
something does go wrong, it can be
potentially lethal.
We should remember that the
carefree cruise phase of ight is the
point at which Air France Flight 447,
an Airbus A330, went out of control
over the Atlantic when its pitot static
system iced up. Everything seemed

ne until it wasnt. By then, the crew,
unprepared to deal with an emergency, was unable to save their own
lives or those of their passengers,
though doing so was well within
their capability. In retrospect, the
failure was both easily understandable, given the nature of the failure,
and impossible to comprehend, given
the potential simplicity of the resolution that never came.
Based on sheer accident numbers,
the cruise phase of ight by itself is not
a great risk area. Of fatal GA accidents,
more than 20 percent occur during
cruise ight, but of those, about 15
percent are directly related to the
weather, which Ill discuss in a separate piece. The remaining ve percent
or so are related to fuel problems, mechanical failures and other systems
problems, according to the NTSB.
MECHANICAL FAILURES
Problems with the mechanical machine are hard to predict and difcult
to prepare for. In any given year, just
a handful of fatal accidents are directly attributable to mechanical
causes, but they deserve our attention. From Trans World Airlines
Flight 800 and its center fuel tank
explosion (if you subscribe to the
ofcial cause) to Swissair Flight 111,
which was taken out of the sky by an
electrical re that investigators say
began in the entertainment system,
its clear that danger from systems
issues is both very real if somewhat rare and extremely ckle.
Engine failure is the biggest and
most common offender. The loss
of an engine poses a great risk to
pilots of both singles and twins, as it
frequently leads to off-airport landings or loss of control, as was the
case with Sen. James Inhofes son,

who died in a crash when his newly
bought Mitsubishi MU-2 lost an
engine and never made it to an airport.
In many if not most cases, an engine gives up the ghost without
warning. In such a case, you need to
know by heart what to do to try to
restart the engine and at what altitude you would attempt to do that.
Bear in mind, it may or may not be
possible. In cruise, the decision to
restart is a no-brainer, but you need
to know what to do without reference to a checklist, unless youve got
someone to read it to you quickly. In
my airplane, and likely in yours, that
means switching tanks to a different
one with fuel in it, checking the
boost pump and likely switching it to
a different setting than it was on,
and checking engine parameters, all
while staying riveted on job No. 1,
keeping the airplane under control.
Depending on how much altitude
you have to work with remember,
we are talking about the cruise phase
of ight you might try multiple
restarts, though remember that
while doing this, you need to head
toward a good alternate airport and
give up as little altitude as practical
in the process. At some point, you
might need to resign yourself to a
power-out landing. Practice those
with an instructor under controlled
conditions. The practice could save
your life.
Malfunctions of ight instruments
are real dangers too. Situational
awareness is critically important in
cruise, which might come as a surprise to some pilots right up to the
point where they unintentionally lose
reference to the ground. Being aware
of the airplanes attitude, altitude,
airspeed and position will help you
keep the airplane under control while
sorting things out. This can make all
the difference between staying on top
of a bad situation and letting it get the
better of you. Again, Air France Flight
447 serves as a striking example of
this, as the crew of a high-tech airliner essentially ew the airplane into
the ocean because they were unable

to gure out what the airplane was
doing, nevermind why it was doing it.
AUTOMATION DANGER
The autopilot is an excellent safety
tool for pilots, but it can be a source
of confusion and risk when things go
wrong. My rule is whenever I have
any doubt about what the autopilot is
doing or whether its working properly, I quickly ensure the trim is set
within normal parameters and disconnect the autopilot. When you
hand-y the airplane, you immediately eliminate a good number of potential complex, interrelated issues
that youd otherwise need to troubleshoot. Then, IFR or VFR, you go to
the gauges, ensure that the airplane
is under control, and then, and only
then, proceed to gure out what the
problem is. Often, the problem is the
autopilot itself. More often, its faulty
instructions the pilot is giving it.
One real risk factor is the autopilot
stall, a danger to pilots of light GA
airplanes and crews of turbine airplanes as well. The crew of a militarydesignated King Air in Afghanistan
lost control of the airplane after it
slowed and stalled on autopilot.
If your airplane has an indicated
airspeed mode, the solution is to use
only that mode and not vertical
speed for climbs. That way the autopilot wont keep trying to maintain a
certain climb rate by continually raising the nose, which will bleed off
airspeed, sometimes to a dangerous
degree, before anyone notices.
Another risk is the level-off stall.
In descent with the power pulled
back to keep the airspeed in the yellow or green and an altitude selected, everything is ne. Then when
the autopilot levels the airplane at
the preselected altitude, the airplane will start to slow, slow some
more and yet some more, until the
pilot adds back in the power that
was reduced for the descent. It is a
mistake that happens all the time
and that can lead to a loss of control.
All of this underscores another
danger of the cruise phase: complacency. When things start going

wrong, having to spool back up to
focus mode is a bad place to be. It not
only takes extra time, but it also adds
an additional layer of anxiety, or
even fright, to what might be an already nerve-racking situation. When
complex problem solving is involved,
adrenaline is not our friend.
The solution is to maintain a good
level of attentiveness during cruise,
even when theres seemingly nothing
going on. Im not suggesting we
maintain a laser focus for the hours
we spend on cross-country legs, but
we need to be ready if a problem
arises. To counter complacency, I
maintain a routine that re-engages
my brain periodically. When on an

IFR ight plan, this is pretty easy to
do. For the most part, the controllers
will keep you hopping from one frequency to the next as you transition
through sectors. In some parts of
the country, re-routes are a constant
reminder to keep alert. My strategy is
to use the ATC communications as a
reminder to scan the systems.
FUEL MANAGEMENT RISK
Timers can work wonders too. In the
Cirrus, I need to switch fuel tanks
about every 20 minutes in cruise. A
timer set on the PFD reminds me to
do this, though my internal clock
usually has me checking the fuel
levels moments before the message
light illuminates. Though you do need
to switch tanks regularly throughout

the ight, overall fuel management in
the SR22 is dirt simple. The same
might not be true for your airplane.
Sadly, running out of fuel is the biggest cause of GA airplane accidents in
the cruise phase of ight.
Fuel exhaustion running completely out of fuel is a real danger
and entirely avoidable. I know why
pilots run their airplanes out of fuel,
usually passing several good airports
with available fuel in the process,
because Ive been tempted in the past
to do the very same thing. The solution is easy. Give yourself a hard and
fast reserve. For me, its an hour of
ying time, which can safely get me
150 nm of additional tanks-nearlydry range in a dire emergency.
As I wrote about in a recent blog

on yingmag.com, the other key to
avoiding fuel exhaustion is to learn
how to just land the damn airplane.
Know how to immediately nd a
good close-by alternative, and go
land there to get fuel, or if need be,
y to and land at one even if it
doesnt have fuel. Better to be on the
ground with a little fuel than in the
air with empty tanks. We have so
much information available at our
ngertips with great iPad apps and
MFD databases that theres no excuse for not nding an alternate
airport if fuel becomes an issue.
Fuel starvation, which is when
theres fuel onboard but its not getting to the engine for some reason, is
a real danger too, especially in air-
planes with ill-designed fuel systems. With an airplane you know

well, develop a regular plan and
stick with it. Manufacturers of older
airplanes, most notably some legacy
cabin twins, would sometimes add
fuel capacity whichever way they
could without a great deal of
thought given to how that fuel would
be managed. It should be pointed
out that todays airplanes have much
better fuel systems, which is a good
argument for buying a new, or at
least newer, airplane.
The Cherokee Six I partnered in a
few years ago had tip tanks and required a very deliberate approach to
fuel management, as you need to
take off and land on the main tanks,
per the POH. Id take off on the
mains, switch to the tips for cruise,
then back to the mains for the arrival. Still, it was easy to screw up
the management of the tanks if

you werent paying careful attention. With some airplanes, fuel
management is even more complicated than that.
The key is to know your airplanes
fuel system and requirements. If
youre renting an airplane, know how
to operate its fuel system by heart,
something many pilots neglect to
learn when checking out in a new
ride. Making sure the engine is getting fuel is absolutely critical. Dont
treat it as an afterthought.
There are numerous strategies that
you can employ to stay on top of systems status, including fuel data, as
you y along in cruise. In addition to
radio calls and timer alerts, I use a
ow check that runs from the tank
selector on the console to the engine
page of my MFD. I then check fuel,
fuel pump status, engine temps, en-
gine power, the electrical status,

de-icing uid (if icing is at all a possibility) and oxygen (if Im ying
high). It takes just a few seconds,
keeps me apprised of the status of
every system every few minutes and
keeps me focused on ying. In only a
few instances, its kept me out of
trouble, as Ive been able to spot engine issues early and take the appropriate action to divert and keep a
minor problem from developing into
a major one.
Nonweather-related cruise mishaps are not the most common kind
of airplane accident, but they are
disproportionately dangerous.
Tragically, they are often preventable given sufcient prociency,
knowledge of the airplanes systems and focus on the job at hand,
which is, lets all remember, to y
the airplane.
BY STEPHEN POPE
pIpER sENECA v
photo by Jim raeder
STiLL reLeVanT aFTer aLL THeSe YearS, PiPerS

TOP TWin iS BeTTer THan eVer THanKS TO a SWeeT
PaneL MaKeOVer.

Anybody in the market for a new light piston twin
wont have to spend much time creating a list of
potential airplanes to buy. As long as we can agree
that the French single-seater Cri Cri and the open
cockpit AirCam dont quite cut it as viable options
in the quest for a do-it-all twin, there is just a handful of airplanes up for consideration. If your criteria includes bringing along more than three
passengers, the list is suddenly winnowed to only
two choices. And if you have less than $1 million to
spend, you have no choice youre buying a Piper
Seneca V or nothing at all.
Thats a sad commentary on the current state of
the light piston twin market, but its not a knock on
the Seneca. Just the opposite, the Piper PA-34 is a

classic thats still relevant today perhaps more
relevant than ever in a market offering just two sixseat general aviation piston twins, namely the Seneca V and the pricier Beech Baron G58. The Seneca
has often been thought of as an also-ran to the Baron, known for its crisp handling and vaultlike build
quality. But when you compare them side by side,
theres an argument to be made that the Seneca is
the smarter choice. It actually has a more comfortable cabin than the Baron, cruises nearly as fast, can
carry almost as much, burns less fuel, costs less to
maintain and sells for about $300,000 less than the
sticker price of a comparable G58.
attributes of a personal airplane: two

engines for redundancy in power and
systems, respectable performance,
stable handling, ice protection, the
latest in avionics technology and lots
of room in a comfortable cabin.
The latest Seneca V, which is built
in Vero Beach, Florida, is the best one
yet, thanks to the addition of Garmin
G1000 avionics up front and smart
improvements inside of what was

already one of GAs widest cabins. A
lot of airplanes beneft from Garmin
technology, but in the Senecas case,
G1000 is precisely what this gracefully aging twin needed. That it took
Piper so long to fgure this out is surprising considering the manufacturers emphasis on selling airplanes in
the training market, but now that
Jim raeder
he Seneca has managed to stay in continuous production for so

long by combining a
solid airframe with a
host of refnements and upgrades
inside and out since the frst PA-34
rolled out of the Piper factory in 1971.
Todays highly evolved Seneca offers
what a lot of pilots consider the ideal
the seneca has stayed atoP the market

for more than 40 years thanks to
continuous design imProVements.
G1000 has arrived in the Seneca V,

tire kickers from North America to
Brazil and beyond are taking notice.
When Piper introduced the Seneca V
in 1997, it represented a major improvement over the Seneca IV and
in the 17 years since then, Pipers topof-the-line twin has undergone major
changes. For starters, it has courted a
dizzying number of avionics suitors
before fnally settling down with

G1000. First, there was a package centered around the Bendix/King KLN90B GPS receiver, which wasnt a bad
choice at the time. Later, there was an
optional electronic fight information
system paired with a Garmin GNS
430/530 combination. Next, Piper offered Avidyne Entegra. And most recently, the Garmin G600 system mated
to a pair of GNS430s became the standard avionics package. None of these

panels did the Seneca justice, however.
Thats all changed with G1000,
which looks as if it were tailor-made
for the space. The three-display arrangement fts the wide panel almost
perfectly. The upgrade from G600 to
G1000 makes a difference not only in
the size of the displays (6.5 inches
versus 10.4 inches) but also in terms
of capabilities. When Piper brought
G600 to the Seneca, it seemed like a
temporary fx probably because it
was. G1000, on the other hand, elevates the Seneca to a more level
playing feld with the Baron G58,
which also features a G1000 panel.
Senecas standard avionics package
also features an Aspen Avionics standby display, something the Baron lacks.
This display provides all the information youd need to keep fying in just
about any weather and eliminates the
requirement for electromechanical
backups or even a whiskey compass.
Adding the three-display version of
G1000 to the Seneca also allowed
Piper to get creative with the shape of
the glareshield. A fatter design improves the view outside, a change
that is especially welcome on approach and during the fare, as I
would fnd out when I few the Seneca V out of Vero Beach with Piper
engineering test pilot John Kronsnoble. The airplane I piloted was actually the avionics certifcation test
mule with a cabin devoid of the usual
club leather seats, plush carpeting
and other touches. Still, it was no
stretch to imagine what a comfortable
long-haul airplane this would be once
all the engineering test gear in back
was replaced with production furnishings. Besides, I didnt really care
much about what the cabin looked
like I was too interested with what
was new in the panel.
Ive been fying G1000-equipped
airplanes since G1000 frst emerged,
so its tough for me to get really excited about seeing yet another iteration of the ubiquitous Garmin cockpit.
But the G1000 in the Seneca just
seems so right the layout of the
engine and systems indications is exceptionally well executed, with no
overlapping needles anywhere and
fap and gear position indications
front and center on the MFD. Crew
smart door design

eases entry into the
cabin, which features
leather seating, a
writing table and a
refreshment center.
alert messages are easy to read and

understand. Among the new features
are user-defned holding patterns that
can be created at any point in space
through a series of menu selections on
the MFD. The Senecas S-Tec 55X autopilot (due for replacement by the
Garmin GFC 700 fight control system
later this year) will even fy the correct entry for you automatically.
Another welcome upgrade is the
selection of the Aspen standby system

in lieu of the usual mechanical backups that are normally required in
G1000 installations. Together, they
provide some exceptional redundancy. There are G1000 primary and
backup batteries, dual alternators
and a backup battery in the Aspen
display making the chance of a
total electrical failure in the Seneca
extremely unlikely. Thanks to the
thought that has gone into the avionics design, fying in a degraded
avionics mode is really a nonevent,
Kronsnoble says. And anyway, not
much can go wrong in this airplane
without the pilot being warned about
it through the G1000 alerting system.
My initial impressions of the latest
Seneca were reinforced when I few
it. In truth, this iteration of the PA-34
handles about the same as any other
and thats a good thing. The Seneca is fun to hand fy and rock solid in
roll and pitch, thanks to its constantchord wing, long ailerons and a nicely
weighted stabilator at the back. The
props connected to the Senecas 220
hp Continental TSIO-360-RB engines
are counter-rotating, meaning there
is no critical engine in an engine-out
The Seneca Through

1971 Seneca I
Piper originally began development
of the PA-34 Seneca in the late
1960s as a twin-engine variant of
the Cherokee Six. Power in the certifed airplane came from a pair of
counter-rotating 180 hp Lycoming
IO-360 engines. A total of 934 Seneca Is were built from 1971 to 1974.
1974 Seneca II
The Seneca II represented a major
improvement over the original. Most
noteworthy was the switch to turbocharged 200 hp Continental TSIO360E engines, which performed better
at higher altitudes. Piper also introduced larger ailerons and rudder and
stabilator changes for better handling.
top: Jim raeder (2); bottom Left: roy feLLer; center right: Joachim LippL
the seneca V is the ffth

generation of Pipers
popular light twin, more
than 5,000 of which
have been built since
production began in
1971. while the airframe
has changed little over
the years, the Pa-34 is
a substantially diferent
airplane today. heres a
look at how the design has
evolved from the start.
with room for siX,

the seneca has one
of the widest and
most comfortable
cabins of any light
twin eVer Produced.
emergency another advantage over

the Baron. Those turbocharged Continentals can produce rated power all
the way to 19,500 feet. Even down at
12,000 feet, the Seneca can true at 180
knots on 24 gallons of fuel per hour.
TO THe TeST
Lined up on Vero Beachs Runway

11R, I put the power to the TSIO360s and rotated in no time. Pitching
for the Senecas best angle airspeed

of 83 knots, I retracted the gear once
a positive rate was established, and
the useable runway slipped away
below us. It was a humid day in
South Florida, with some scraggly
low clouds to maneuver around as
we climbed briskly in VFR conditions
out over the Atlantic. At 5,500 feet, I
found a slice of airspace to execute a
series of maneuvers, starting with
50-degree steep turns, power-on and

-off stalls, and some brisk climbs and
descents. Through it all, power response was smooth and control pressures balanced. The Seneca might
not be quite the pilots airplane that
a Baron is, but its close.
Next, I switched on the autopilot,
so Kronsnoble and I could dig deeper
into the G1000 system. With some
prompting, I was able to program a
hold at my current position and let
the autopilot fy a smooth teardrop
entry into an oval racetrack pattern. I
then hit the autopilot disconnect
switch on the yoke and hand few a
circuit in the hold. It really couldnt
have been easier thanks to the
G1000s fght director cues and the
Senecas natural stability keeping us
The YearS
1981 Seneca III
1997 Seneca V
The Seneca III benefted from a power increase to 220 hp for takeoff, giving the airplane signifcantly better
climb performance. Later models of
the Seneca III also incorporated additional improvements, such as electric faps and a 28-volt electrical
system.
Piper totally revamped the Seneca

for 1997, changing to improved Continental TSIO-360-RB engines, adding capability to the cockpit and
refning the cabin. This same basic
version has remained in production
ever since, albeit with a succession
of upgrades inside and out.
1994 Seneca IV
The Seneca IV introduced a number
of aerodynamic improvements, including streamlined engine cowls
that increased its speed. But in many
ways, the new model remained little
changed from its predecessor, the
Seneca III.
2014 PiPer Seneca V
The Piper Seneca V fown for this report featured Garmin

G1000 avionics with synthetic vision technology, GTS 825
trafc advisory system, S-Tec 55X autopilot, Aspen backup
display, Iridium satphone with text and email connectivity, air
conditioning, ice protection, oxygen, propeller synchrophaser
and more. A six-seat leather interior and two-tone exterior paint
are standard. Weights shown are for a standard airplane.
Base Price
$972,400
Max useaBle fuel

122 gallons, 732 pounds
engines
Continental TSIO-360-RB,
220 hp (2)
full fuel Payload

599 pounds
TBo
1,800 hours
ceiling
25,000 feet
ProPellers
McCauley three-blade,
76-inch diameter (2)
Max raTe of cliMB

1,360 fpm
seaTs
6
never exceed sPeed (vne)

204 kias
lengTh
28 feet, 7 inches
Max sTrucTural cruise (vno)

164 kias
heighT
9 feet, 11 inches
Max cruise
200 ktas
WingsPan
38 feet, 11 inches
range (no Wind, 75% PoWer)

826 nm
Wing area
208.7 square feet
Min conTrollaBle engine

ouT (vMc)
66 kias
Wing loading
22.7 pounds per square foot
sTalling sPeed, flaPs uP

67 kias
PoWer loading
10.8 pounds/hp
sTalling sPeed, full flaPs

61 kias
Max Takeoff WeighT

4,750 pounds
Takeoff disTance
1,143 feet
Max zero fuel WeighT

4,018 pounds
Takeoff over 50 feeT

1,707 feet
eMPTy WeighT
3,442 pounds
landing disTance
1,400 feet
useful load
1,331 pounds
landing over 50 feeT

2,180 feet
on a precise track. Some pilots prefer

a conventional elevator to the Pipers
stabilator, but I had no complaints. It
felt right.
For our next technology demonstration, Kronsnoble called up the
satcom page on the MFD and showed
me how to place a telephone call. I
dialed the number he gave me using
the straightforward G1000 interface,
and just like that, the phone was ringing in my headset. Somebody back at
the Piper factory picked up and confrmed they heard us loud and clear.
They sounded good on our end too.
Thanks to the Iridium satellite networks global coverage, calls can be
made and received literally anywhere
in the world. The same goes for
emails and text messages sent using
the service. (Keep in mind, though,
that outgoing calls cost $1.50 per
minute and incoming calls as much as
$4 a minute.)
There wasnt any icing for us to
sample, but this Seneca was ftted
with full and approved deicing
equipment. Ice protection is optional, but virtually all Senecas come
with it. Another option this Seneca
had, which is probably well worth
the extra cost in hot climates, is
PiperAire air conditioning it will
set you back an additional $22,000,
but youll be glad you sprang for it
when the asphalt is scorching.
Piper claims a max speed of
just over 200 ktas at the Senecas
the most noteworthy change in the latest seneca is

the addition of garmin g1000 uP front. the cockPit
seems tailor-made for this feature-heaVy Panel.
25,000-foot ceiling. I saw cruise

speeds at our lower altitude on the
day of my test of around 173 ktas.
Thats still respectable speed, though
a bit slower than a turbo Baron. At
2,500 rpm, the airplane was burning
around 12.5 gph per side. Throttling
back slowed us to the mid 150s and
fuel burn dropped to around 10 gph
per side.
Next, we headed back to the airport to try a few circuits in the pattern. Heres where the Seneca shines,
in my opinion. Turning fnal with two
notches of faps (25 degrees) at 90
knots provides a nicely stabilized descent path. Once the runway was ensured on my frst try, I selected full
faps and rounded out for a nice landing. For the next try, I few with two
notches of faps all the way down fnal, which allows for a nice tail-low
touchdown. I found that the reshaped
instrument panel affords good visibility in the fare, providing just the
right visual cues to ensure consistently smooth arrivals.
Engine-out performance in the
Seneca V is respectable, with a singleengine rate of climb at sea level of
253 fpm. Thats at a lower speed
than some other light twins too, so
the single-engine climb gradient is
comparatively better. At 8,000 feet
and ISA+10, the Seneca V will still
climb at better than 143 fpm. Even at
16,000 feet and max gross weight,
the airplane will barely manage a
climb, providing just the peace of

mind pilots who opt for twins expect.
As mentioned earlier, sales in Brazil have been a bright spot for Piper,
precisely because of the Senecas
engine-out capability. Flight schools
are also taking a closer look at the
Seneca, along with Pipers other
light twin, the Seminole. It should
Seminole seat only four, a limitation

that eliminates them from consideration for many light twin shoppers.
That leaves the Seneca in a market
niche all its own.
Piper is doing an admirable job
of capitalizing on the dearth of
new piston twins in the market by
making the Senecas cabin even
I FOUNd thAt thE REshApEd INstRUMENt

pANEL AFFORds GOOd vIsIBILItY IN thE FLARE,
pROvIdING jUst thE RIGht vIsUAL CUEs tO
ENsURE CONsIstENtLY sMOOth ARRIvALs.
come as no surprise that there has
also been a good deal of renewed
interest among personal fiers and
even air taxi outfts. Add them all up,
and the Seneca Vs long list of positive attributes compares favorably
against the competition.
Not that the Seneca V has much
competition, of course. The Beechcraft G58 Baron, Piper Seminole and
Diamonds DA42 are the only other
all-weather piston twins in production today, and none of them goes
head to head with the Seneca. The
Baron is a better performer with a
price tag to match. The DA42 and
more comfortable and convenient

with a variety of amenities, including a cooler integrated into the center armrest. An attractive two-tone
paint scheme is another nice touch
in the modern-looking space. The
Senecas large and comfortable cabin also helps accentuate its big-airplane feel, as always. The fact that
buyers are left with few alternatives
when shopping for a new light twin
shouldnt be a deterrent. For a great
many buyers looking for a complete
personal airplane with cockpit technology to match, the Seneca V answers the call.
hot
rides
for Wannabe
fighter Jocks
ince shortly after World

War I, civilian pilots have
longed to recreate the exploits of famous aviators.
Heroes and villains of the
Great War, from the Red Baron to
Eddie Rickenbacker, inspired people
to fy and, in some cases, to fy like
fghter pilots in military-inspired
racing planes.
But it was in the three decades
following World War II that wannabe fghter jocks had the opportunity to get their hands on private
fghters more so than they ever
had before or ever would again.
Thanks to the march of aviation
progress, some cutting-edge hardware has been relegated to the trash
heap of history. With the advent of
the jet age in the 1950s, tens of
thousands of former piston fghters
and trainers were made available on

the used market, often for a pittance. There were easy pickings for
pilots looking for P-51 Mustangs,
T-6 Texans, Vultee BT-13s and even
WWII bombers.
Today, the market for warbirds is
still going strong. There are a number of good warbirds or faux-birds
available that can give todays pilots
the best parts of the experience of
yesteryears fying heroes. The vast
majority are piston-powered models, but there are jet fghters and
trainers, from Grumman Panthers
to Cessna T-37 Tweety Birds, in private hands too. With the addition of
former Eastern Bloc aircraft, liaison
and training models from the Vietnam era, and military-inspired
homebuilts, the warbird scene is in
full swing today. Robert Goyer
JangSu Lee
BY flYing Staff
the yak 52 and nanchang cj-6 are highly capable but very
affordable warbirds with low initial purchase costs and
manageable fuel and maintenance bills.
AverAge Price
$70,000
ou may not have the desire to

imagine yourself as a communist fghter pilot, but the
Nanchang CJ-6 and Yakovlev
52, or Yak 52 for short, are two terrifc
warbirds that are not only beautiful
and fun to fy but also affordable.
These former military trainers are
popular on the airshow circuit, with
groups such as the Aerostars performing formation aerobatics in Yak 52s.
The Nanchang CJ-6 is a modifed Chinese version of the Yak, which was
produced in Russia and is still produced under license in Romania.
The low-wing confguration and
full-window canopy of these airplanes provide terrifc visibility
around all quadrants, making both
airplanes wonderful platforms for
formation fying and aerobatics. Like
the North American T-6, the Yak and
CJ-6 are both equipped with roaring
radial engines, though there is a difference in the amount of horsepower
they each produce.
There are some fairly signifcant
other differences between the
Yak and the CJ-6 that you should
consider before committing to a purchase. If you plan to do a lot of heavyduty aerobatics, you may want to
consider the Yak over the CJ-6, as the
design has a higher load limit, greater
horsepower and an inverted fuel system. The CJ-6 was also produced
only in the tricycle confguration, so
if you are looking for a taildragger,
you should go with a Yak.
However, if your mission is focused
more on cross-country fight, the CJ-6
is a better choice. Although the power
plant has just 285 hp compared to the
Yaks 360, the CJ-6 cruises faster and
has a greater range than its Russian
sibling. With its bigger fuselage, the
CJ-6 also provides more space for any
gear you may want to take with you.
While the fight characteristics of
the Yak and CJ-6 make them great
warbirds, what makes them stand
out as particularly good choices is
their affordability. Nice examples of
these fghters can be found for less
than $100,000, and the cost of operation is economical, with a fuel
burn of around 15 gph, about half
that of a T-6. Pia Bergqvist
PrimAry conStruction
Metal
LAnding geAr
Retractable
engine
Vendeneyev M14P
HorSePower
360
cruiSe SPeed
147 knots
never exceed SPeed
230 knots
StALL SPeed (cLeAn)
60 knots
StALL SPeed (dirty)
54 knots
tAkeoff diStAnce
585 feet
LAnding diStAnce
975 feet
rAnge
280 nm
uSAbLe fueL
30 gallons
uSefuL LoAd
639 pounds
Limit LoAd fActor
+7/-5
Gavin Conroy
NaNchaNg cJ-6/Yak 52
SeAtS
2
AverAge Price
$40,000
SeAtS
2
VaNs RV-4
ans lineup of kitplanes might

lack the military pedigree of
some other airplanes on our
list, but the legion of loyal
owners known as Vans Air Force can
tell you these sporting homebuilt
models are all about pushing limits.
And for the purest Vans Aircraft experience that you can share with a
friend, the tandem-seat RV-4 taildragger is the airplane to have.
With handling virtually identical to
that of the single-seat RV-3 (the airplane that put Vans on the map in
1972), the RV-4 is compact but comfortable inside, with fghter jet-like
appeal. The fying is done from the
front seat, although both occupants
have controls in the RV-4s case,
stick and rudder.
The typical engine for the RV-4 is
in the 150 to 160 hp range, though
Vans says engines as small as 125
and as large as 180 hp have been tried
since the frst kits were sold in 1979.
Cruise speed with a 160 hp Lycoming
is estimated at 168 knots at 7,500
feet blindingly fast compared with
tricycle gear production airplanes
Metal
that fy with the exact same engine.

If you plan on building your own
RV-4, keep in mind it will take longer compared with Vans more recent kit models that have parts that
are pre-drilled and prefabricated to
a higher degree. Vans estimates an
RV-4 will take about 2,000 to 2,200
hours to build versus about 1,500 or
so for an RV-7, RV-8 or RV-9.
Another possible drawback of the
RV-4 is the tight ft. If youre taller
than 6 feet, opt for the roomier RV-8,
Vans other tandem-seat taildragger.
The advantage of the smaller RV-4 is
in its handling, which is more likely
to induce the famed Vans grin
than any other model, save the RV-3.
The RV-4 also needs less room for
takeoff and landing, a potentially
important factor for pilots who fy
out of their own small farm strips.
Buying a used RV-4 can be a real
bargain, with prices averaging about
half of a used RV-8. Asking prices are
generally less than $50,000. You can
also get a steal of a deal on an unfnished kit, but beware of missing or
damaged parts. Stephen Pope
while many of vans designs are configured with

side-by-side seating, the rv-4 is a tandem-seat taildragger,
making it a better platform for formation flight.
LAnding geAr
Fixed
engine
Builders choice
HorSePower
150-180 (typical)
cruiSe SPeed
168 knots
never exceed SPeed
185 knots
StALL SPeed (cLeAn)
48 knots
StALL SPeed (dirty)
44 knots
tAkeoff diStAnce
450 feet
LAnding diStAnce
425 feet
rAnge
685 nm
uSAbLe fueL
32 gallons
uSefuL LoAd
615 pounds
Limit LoAd fActor
+6/-3
with fat exhaust stacks protruding from each side of its

pratt & whitney pt-6 engine, the t-34c turbo mentor is easily
distinguishable from its piston-powered predecessors.
AverAge Price
$265,000
BeechcRaft t-34 MeNtoR
eveloped as a derivative of the

Beech Bonanza, the T-34
Mentor trainer might have
been built with a V-tail if
Walter Beech had his way. But with
the military having the fnal say, the
T-34 incorporated a conventional tail
to go with a narrow fuselage, bubble
canopy and tandem seating. The result is an enduring U.S. military primary trainer that occupies a place in
history alongside icons such as the
Piper L-4 Grasshopper and North
American T-6 as the piston airplanes
that taught fghting men to fy in both
the Navy and Air Force.
Still, the T-34 almost didnt make
it off the drawing board. After a
lengthy selection period during
which the Air Force grappled with
the decision to train new pilots in
jets or piston airplanes, the T-34 fnally won out, making its formal
debut in 1953, fve years after the
prototypes frst fight. The Navy
soon followed with a sizeable order
for the more powerful T-34B and
would eventually place an order for
the turboprop T-34C Turbo Mentor
after a 15-year production hiatus.

Today, the Mentor is prized among
private owners for its maneuverability, comparative economy and striking looks. The original T-34 rolled off
the production line with the 225 hp
Continental O-470, although a number have since been upgraded with
larger IO-520 and IO-550 engines.
The difference between the A and B
models generally center on the A
model being certifed in the Aerobatic Category and the B model in
the Utility Category. Handling is superb, and thanks to its Beech pedigree, the T-34 Mentor lands like a
baby carriage.
All told, Beech built more than
1,300 T-34s, about 100 of which remain in service with various militaries around the world and another 100
or so in the hands of private owners.
Asking prices currently range from
about $140,000 up to $350,000 for a
fully restored example. Thanks to its
commonality with the Beech Bonanza, parts are easy to come by, making
this a warbird thats easier to live
with than many. S.P.
SeAtS
2
Metal
LAnding geAr
Retractable
engine
Continental O-470-4
HorSePower
225
cruiSe SPeed
150 knots
never exceed SPeed
243 knots
StALL SPeed (cLeAn)
63 knots
StALL SPeed (dirty)
53 knots
tAkeoff diStAnce
820 feet
LAnding diStAnce
420 feet
rAnge
670 nm
uSAbLe fueL
50 gallons
uSefuL LoAd
740 pounds
Limit LoAd fActor
+6/-3
cessNa L-19/o-1 BiRd dog
Gavin Conroy
hile it might lack some of

the conventional fair of
more notable warbirds,
theres no denying that the
Cessna L-19/O-1 Bird Dog is a wolf in
olive-drab clothing. Based on Cessnas 170, which was introduced to the
civilian market in 1948, the Bird Dog
has a more powerful Continental
O-470 fat six that gives it Super Cublike performance. One L-19 owner we
spoke with joked that his airplane
could just about fy itself out of a well.
With the Bird Dog, Cessna gave the
U.S. Army exactly what it wanted: a
rough-and-ready observation platform constructed of all metal with
tandem seats and big, angled side
windows all attributes that todays
owners appreciate. The Bird Dog
name was chosen as a nod to the
L-19s primary role of fying low and
close to the battlefeld to spot enemy
positions. Cessna built almost 3,500
from 1950 until 1963. The Army, Air
Force and Marines few them extensively in Vietnam, where the Bird Dog
fulflled its most important operational role sniffng out the Viet Cong.
Although its based on the
Cessna 170, the Bird Dog incorporates several notable changes. Apart
from an increase in power from
145 hp in the 170 to 213 hp in the
L-19, the military version also came
ftted with 60-degree faps for setting
down in tight spots.
The change from four seats to two
provides for a comfortable cabin
complemented by great visibility.
While not built for speed, Bird Dogs
upgraded with constant speed propellers can shorten ETAs. In the
1970s and 1980s, a company out of
Texas called Ector Aircraft remanufactured Bird Dogs under the
Mountaineer name with constant
speed props and bush STOL kits.
Ector even offered a model called the
Super Mountaineer with a 240 hp
Lycoming IO-540.
Asking prices for L-19s on the used
market range from about $50,000 to
$100,000. We saw one gorgeously
restored California 305F model going
for $137,900 (including reproduction
wing-mounted rockets). If youve
always dreamed of owning a budget
warbird, this ones certainly affordable and a hoot to fy to boot. S.P.
AverAge Price
$80,000
SeAtS
2
Metal
LAnding geAr
Fixed
engine
Continental O-470-11
HorSePower
213
cruiSe SPeed
90 knots
never exceed SPeed
137 knots
StALL SPeed (cLeAn)
51 knots
StALL SPeed (dirty)
47 knots
tAkeoff diStAnce
400 feet
LAnding diStAnce
300 feet
rAnge
460 nm
uSAbLe fueL
41 gallons
uSefuL LoAd
786 pounds
Limit LoAd fActor
+4.4/-1.76
cessnas l-19/o-1 bird dog is a derivative of the 170 taildragger and

the predecessor to the immensely popular c-172 skyhawk. while
not a speedster, the l-19 offers plenty of affordable fun.
if you want to play dog fight, air combat usa out of fullerton,
california, offers training with former navy and air force pilots
in marchettis. just dont try this at home.
siai-MaRchetti sf.260
n Italian piece of art, the SIAIMarchetti SF.260, commonly

known simply as the Marchetti,
is one of the coolest looking
affordable fghter airplanes available.
About 1,000 of these high-performance,
single-engine propeller airplanes
have been produced since they were
introduced in the mid 1960s.
While the S in SF.260 stands for
the name of the initial manufacturer,
the F is for its designer, Stelio Frati.
Before his death in 2010, the Italian
engineer designed a long list of wondrous machines, many for the experimental market, including the
F.8L Falco. The SF.260 is, however,
his most widely produced model.
The number 260 is the number of
horses under the cowling, where a
Lycoming O-540 can be found.
The small wing area makes the
handling of the Marchetti nearly jetlike but gives it an unforgiving stall
speed of 69 knots with a sharp buffet
if pushed to the limit. Twenty degrees
of faps are necessary to achieve a
reasonable takeoff distance. But as
long as the airplane is kept above the
stall, it behaves beautifully, responding swiftly and precisely to the
control inputs of a skilled pilot.

In addition to its swift handling
qualities, the Marchetti is a terrifc
cross-country platform. Sixty-fve
percent power in cruise will produce
around 165 knots, with the engine
sipping as little as 12 gph. However,
with four separate fuel tanks, good
fuel management is essential.
Unlike most fghter airplanes, the
SF.260 has a side-by-side seating
confguration and can ft up to four
people. However, unlike most similarly confgured airplanes, the pilot
in command fies from the right seat
with the throttle in the left hand and
control stick in the right. The bubble
canopy provides great visibility for
all occupants.
The SF.260 has been used in various military functions mostly
training but also some light combat.
About 10 percent of the airplanes
were originally delivered to civilian
customers. However, most of them
have a military paint scheme, providing the desirable fghter look. There
is not an abundance of Marchettis
available, but if you keep your eyes
peeled, you can get lucky. Marchettis
fetch around $200,000. P.B.
AverAge Price
$215,000
SeAtS
3-4
Metal
LAnding geAr
Retractable/tricycle
engine
Lycoming O-540-D or AEIO-540-D
HorSePower
260
cruiSe SPeed
186 knots
never exceed SPeed
236 knots
StALL SPeed (cLeAn)
69 knots
StALL SPeed (dirty)
60 knots
tAkeoff diStAnce
820 feet
LAnding diStAnce
790 feet
rAnge
1,040 nm
uSAbLe fueL
62 gallons
uSefuL LoAd
766 pounds
Limit LoAd fActor
+6/-3
AverAge Price
$225,000
aeRo VodochodY L-39 aLBatRos
Tom Hedlund
f the roaring engines that power

most warbirds give you a headache, you can play aerial combat
games in peace and quiet in a
fghter jet trainer, such as the Aero
Vodochody L-39 Albatros. This singleengine, tandem-seat jet was designed
and developed as a fghter trainer in
Czechoslovakia in the late 1960s.
More than 2,800 L-39s were produced before Aero Vodochody, which
still exists today, ceased production.
Most L-39s are employed in air force
programs around the world, but
around 250 of these sleek airplanes
are registered for civilian use in the
United States.
You may think that fghter jet ownership is out of reach, but a decent
L-39 can be found for less than
$200,000. However, you will need to
consider other costs, such as the fuel
burn and annual inspection, which at
an average of around $350 per hour
and $13,000 annually, according to
the group known as L-39 Enthusiasts,
could run up the bills quite quickly.
Part of the reason for the high annual inspection cost is the maintenance
of the ejection seats. While the cost

may be a nuisance, the bragging
rights of having ejection seats in your
airplane may be worth it.
Because the L-39 is jet powered,
you will need to go through a training
program and a check ride similar to a
type rating. At least 10 operators
around the country are available for
such training. Once trained, however,
you are restricted to using the airplane under the Experimental Exhibition Category, which technically
means you can only use it for the purpose of fying to and from places
where the airplane will be exhibited,
to and from maintenance facilities
and for training purposes.
The quiet cabin and lack of vibration in the L-39 doesnt mean you
need to stick with straight and level,
smooth fying. With a wide-load factor envelope from 8 to -4 G, the L-39
will allow you to go beyond many
pilots comfort levels, something you
should only do as an expert pilot or
with a highly experienced instructor.
But it is certainly nice to have the
option. P.B.
the aero vodochody l-39 provides almost limitless possibilities

for combatlike flying without the noise and vibration of a
high-powered piston engine up front.
SeAtS
2
Metal
LAnding geAr
Retractable/tricycle
engine
Ivchenko AI-25 TL
tHruSt
3,792 pounds
cruiSe SPeed
367 knots
never exceed SPeed
491 knots
StALL SPeed (cLeAn)
103 knots
StALL SPeed (dirty)
88 knots
tAkeoff diStAnce
1,476 feet
LAnding diStAnce
2,034 feet
rAnge
593 nm
uSAbLe fueL
340 gallons
uSefuL LoAd
1,245 pounds
Limit LoAd fActor
+8/-4
F lY i n G O p i n i O n | B Y M A R T H A L U n K E n
SOONerS, grOuNdhOgS
aNd ViOlaTOrS
HOW FAA VIOLATION INVESTIGATIONS WORK

AND HOW SOMETIMES THEY DONT
In my former life on the dark side,
the only thing worse than investigating
petty violations was sitting through
classes on conducting violation investigations. So I was less than thrilled to
fnd myself at something called Compliance and Enforcement, one in a
huge array of training courses at the
Mike Monroney Aeronautical Center
at Will Rogers World Airport in Oklahoma City. Oklahoma City isnt exactly
my idea of a vacation spot, and C&E,
taught by a couple of old triple dippers,
was dry, tedious and focused on how
to prepare a complex document called
an Enforcement Investigative Report.
Hold on, Sooners, before you fre

off outraged emails. I think Oklahomans are really nice people, but,
cmon, you live in a dusty brown place
with gale force winds and temperatures that fuctuate between stifing
and frigid, often within the same
week. The only thing I truly miss
about going where the wind comes
sweeping down the plains is Cattlemans Steakhouse, with its great
steaks, lamb fries and rugged guys in
cowboy hats, boots and, sometimes,
spurs. Sitting in a red leather booth
facing that haunting mural of cattlemen on horseback makes you really
feel like youre in cowboy country.

That stockyard area is full of stores
with Western gear, and new FAA inspectors commonly go back to Pittsburgh or Seattle in cowboy boots, bolo
ties and big Stetsons none of which
are ever seen again.
Violation investigations are a relatively minor part of an inspectors
job, but EIRs are intricate and timeconsuming and the paralegal skills
required are often a huge challenge
for ex-pilots and mechanics who can
barely write a coherent letter. In our
offce, they were frst scrutinized by a
committee of peers, then by a supervisor and fnally by the offce manager
before going to Legal in the regional
offce. A FSDO, you see, gets very bad
marks for poorly written, incomplete
or inaccurate EIRs.
Its a rare FAA attorney who has experience fying or maintaining airplanes, so the EIR has to describe a
violation clearly enough for him to
decide if its provable and if the proposed sanctions are appropriate. If he
thinks itll fy, a scary letter goes to the
alleged offender who will, hopefully,
mail in his certifcate or pay the fne. If
the airman doesnt cave and the case
ends up before a National Transportation Safety Board judge, the FAA attorney will face off against another lawyer
likely one with real aviation experience. So its vital to his case (and his
ego) that the EIR is clear and logical
and contains convincing items of
proof. He also will depend on the testimony of inspectors technical experts
who are familiar with the commission
of dirty deeds by careless airmen.
As a new hire in the Chicago Air
Carrier District Offce, my frst assignments were violations, including one
involving a venerable and veteran pilot
who allegedly nicked a Control
Zone (remember those?) while fying
a Beech 18 loaded with freight from
Oshkosh, Wisconsin, to Chicago
OHare on a bad December night. The
other desperado I handled was a retired United captain who relied on his
co-pilots yeah, were well clear and
SHUTTERSTOCK
UNUSUAL ATTITUDES
A NO-HOLDS-BARRED
LOOK AT PILOTS, PLANES
AND LIFE IN THE AIR
How to Outsmart
a Millionaire
Only the Robin Hood of Watchmakers can steal
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wasnt looking for trouble. I sat in a caf, sipping my espresso

and enjoying the quiet. Then it got noisy. Mr. Bigshot
rolled up in a roaring high-performance Italian sports car, dropping attitude like his $14,000 watch made it okay for him to
be rude. Thats when I decided to roll up my sleeves and teach
him a lesson.
Nice watch, I said, pointing to his and holding up mine. He

nodded like we belonged to the same club. We did, but he literally paid 100 times more for his membership. Bigshot bragged
about his five-figure purchase, a luxury heavyweight from the
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U n U s U a l a t t i t U d e s | F lY i n G O p i n i O n
planted the right wingtip of a King Air

into the tail of a Gulfstream G-1 on
Butlers ramp at Midway. I probably
should have bailed at that point for
the FAAs sake as well as mine. It is
doubtful I had ever made a 100 percent, squeaky-clean legal fight, and I
was a relative amateur, a little airplane driver. Should I be passing judgment on real-deal guys, pros with
lifetimes of fying people and freight in
all kinds of equipment and weather? I
badly needed the job, so I stifed my
feelings, processed the violations and
wrote a couple passable EIRs.
By the time these fles wound their
way through the FAA legal process,
the ACDO realized I knew nothing
about big air carriers or jet airplanes,
so I was shunted out to the DuPage
FSDO in West Chicago. I was consoled
when neither violator (both of whom
later became friends) got anything
more than a slap on the wrist. And I
made some peace with the violation
thing by reminding myself that if it
werent for cops enforcing speed limits
on the highway, I would have killed or
maimed myself and maybe somebody else a long time ago.
Four years later, I escaped the toxic
atmosphere of DuPage for Indianapolis, where life took a defnite turn for
the better. By then I was a GS-13,
qualifed on the full gamut of inspectors duties and curiously adept at
sweet-talking almost any violator into
spilling his guts. Yes, of course, Im
embarrassed about that, but I learned
enough to help a lot of guys stay out of
hot water later on. These days, with
the Pilots Bill of Rights, the FAA is
required to advise people that anything they say in an investigation can
and will be used against them. That
same mandate, by the way, opens that
heretofore secret EIR to scrutiny by a
plaintiffs attorney.
My boss in the Indianapolis FSDO, a
wonderful man named Jay Peterson,
sent me to investigate a low-fying
complaint from a neighborhood near
the Eagle Creek Reservoir. Since it
seemed to be the same airplane that
appeared on a semiregular schedule, it
almost had to be a pipeline patroller,
but our offce had no record of a lowaltitude waiver or even of a pipeline in
that area. After hours of patient but
fruitless surveillance from a G-car in
the subdivision, I checked the maps at

the city/county offce downtown. Sure
enough, there was a line running
through the area from the southwest
to a refnery on the north side of town.
So I got the name of the gas company
and from them the aerial patrol contractor and fnally, after considerable
arm-twisting with an old Cajun, the
name of the pilot who few that route
from Louisiana to Maine. They could
go as low as 400 feet over sparsely populated areas, but this guy was allegedly
even lower and repeatedly dusting off
a densely populated neighborhood.
Naturally, he denied the accusations, but I sent out the standard Letter of Investigation and then handed
the fle over to another inspector. Id
been transferred to the Cincinnati
my Cub there early in the morning to

go groundhog hunting with a state
trooper friend. As I rolled out on landing, a P-51 made a spectacular low pass
and a roll right over the runway. There
were no spectators yet, so I waited, and
when he landed, we had a serious talk.
Jim, maybe I really didnt see what
I thought I saw, but I sure wouldnt
want to see it again.
He was contrite, almost in tears, and
OK, I understood the temptation, so my
friend Bruce Cornett and I left to reduce the groundhog population in Clinton County with his CZ .204 Ruger and
high-powered scope. We returned late
that afternoon to a ramp now crowded
with warbirds and spectators and
a P-51 making a beautiful roll low
over the runway with a parachuteless
The NTSB judge aSked me

if whaT id wiTNeSSed waS
illegal, aNd i Said iT Sure waS.
FSDO to work the safety program and
lend myself to the operations unit
mostly for fight checks. Several
months later, the manager tossed a
crumpled, mud- and blood-stained
letter on my desk (it was a little looser
in those days). A low-fying pipeline
patroller had been killed when his
airplane struck power lines and
crashed in farmland north of Cincinnati. I recognized the LOI, addressed
to a pilot whose name was familiar
and signed by an inspector in the Indianapolis FSDO: me.
As a safety program person, I was
supposedly out of the violation business but
It was a Saturday in midsummer
when a small county airport held its
annual open house featuring a static
display of warbirds. For a rather hefty
charitable contribution, a spectator
could buy a ride in a two-seat P-51,
but the fights were neither aerobatic
nor for proft, so no waiver was required. By pure coincidence, Id fown
passenger in the back seat. Despite

hating it, I did what I had to do.
The years suspension proposed
would be a considerable hardship; the
pilot owned a large aviation business.
So the case went to an NTSB hearing,
and his attorney argued effectively to
mitigate the sanction. The FAA attorney hadnt even met with or briefed me
his expert, on-scene witness beforehand. On the stand, I described
what I saw (except the morning thing,
which may have been my imagination), and the FAA lawyer confdently
rested his case. The NTSB judge asked
me if what Id witnessed was illegal,
and I said it sure was. When he asked
me if I thought it was unsafe, I said,
No, your honor, this man is a highly
qualifed, experienced aerobatic pilot.
In place of the suspension, the judge
fned the pilot $1,000. The pilot was
relieved; his lawyer was pleased; the
FAA attorney was furious, and I was
sure thered be no more low-altitude
rolls. Justice had been served.
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F LY I N G O p i n i O n | B Y d i c k k a r l
GettinG Started
in a new Career
Indoc at JetsuIte and type ratIng at cae

The lobby of the Hilton Hotel across
from the John Wayne Airport in Orange
County, California, is packed with conventioneers. They are making a joyous
noise. I am looking for Phil Smith among
the throng; we will be joined at the hip
for the better part of a month as we
progress through Indoc at JetSuite
headquarters here and Cessna CJ3 training at CAE in Whippany, New Jersey.
At 8 a.m. on a Sunday morning, we
fnd ourselves in the mostly quiet offce
suite; only mission control, which manages all the airplanes, pilots and maintenance issues, and a few sales
personnel are here. Director of Training
Sam Stalvey welcomes the two of us
this will be a very personal Indoc.
This also means I have nowhere to hide.
Good thing Phil seems like a good guy.
Over the next three days, we learn
about JetSuite standard operating procedures, Class II over water navigation,
how mission control works and how to
fll out an expense reimbursement request on Expensify. It is bewildering to

me but not to Phil. Phil is half my age, a
United States Air Force Academy graduate and just separated from the Air
Force after 12 years. Oh, yes, I forgot:
hes an F-16 pilot, the Air Forces F-15
demo pilot and an ardent general aviation guy with a Lancair parked at home
in Tampa. Well see how I measure up
against such formidable competition.
Not so well, at frst, it turns out. At
one point after a lengthy discussion of
navigation requirements, Brian Coulter, the director of operations, surprises me with a simple question: If you
burn 600 pounds of fuel in 45 minutes,
how much do you burn in two hours?
Stunned, I am suddenly completely
bereft of any mathematical skill. I
stammer an incorrect guess. With my
trifocals, I look more like a book editor
than a jet pilot. Bad start.
At night, Phil and I dine, drink a little
FROM thE
OpERAtING ROOM
tO FLIGht Ops: A
sURGEONs jOURNEY
and learn about each other. It is a
unique human interaction to be thrown
together day and night for several
weeks, yet once were on the line, we
will not fy together. We are the bottom
two pilots on JetSuites seniority list,
bound for separate captains and different trips. For now, though, we are a
hardy band of two. I deputize Phil to
handle all mathematics from here on in.
The JetSuite culture is welcoming,
and it is clear that certain basic principles are to be lived not just espoused.
The sticker on the back of my new
company-provided iPad says, Serve
from the heart. Love what you do. Improve something today. Deliver on commitments. Have fun. Ask for help. Make
mistakes valuable, among other uplifting phrases. The tenor seems good.
On day four, we drive to the Van
Nuys neighborhood in Los Angeles,
where we undergo emergency training. We crawl out of a Gulfstream escape hatch in pitch-black smoke; it is
so dark that you have to touch the person in front of you and feel for reference landmarks in order to fnd the
hatch. After lunch and more academics about ditching, we adjourn to a
nearby motel swimming pool to practice entering a raft. There are about 30
of us in the class, and many are here
for recurrent training. They fy all sorts
of airplanes; some are on Gulfstreams
and some are fight attendants on big
iron. The latter add to the festive nature of the water training by virtue of
their California-appropriate swimwear. After a fnal dinner, Phil and I
part for a few days of leave before
reassembling in Parsippany, New Jersey, for our Cessna CJ3 type rating
training at CAE.
The Fairfeld Inn in Parsippany looks
like any other, I suppose, but I soon
learn that it is staffed by some truly
remarkable people. I have never stayed
in any hotel for two entire weeks. Welcome to the real world of fying. I am
about to learn the true difference between a hobbyist and a professional.
Though I have been fying for 45 years,
only a tiny bit has been professionally.
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g e a r u p | F LY I N g O p i n i O n
Just 60 hours of my fight time are in

jets or in a two-pilot cockpit. I am here
to get a type rating and to take my
place in the ranks of a people who fy
for a living. It is a lifelong dream.
CAE is a welcoming, huge and professional place. School is similar to other type ratings I have done great
visuals, interactive screens and knowledgeable teachers. Class extends beyond 18:30, and I begin to confuse
hydraulic pressure values with engine
oil pressure numbers. Learning about
this airplane is like watching evolution.
I have gotten type ratings in the Cessna
500, Boeing 737-200 and the Lear 31,
each designed after the other you
can just see how engineers went about
solving problems.
Andy Lemons is a pilot with JetSuite.
He got me the interview that led to this
job, which led to this hotel and this
training facility. He keeps a close eye
on our progress. At one point, I send
him a photo of class. The student in
front of me is slumped over in a late
afternoon stupor and a complicated
schematic is projected on the screen.
Andy sends me a photo taken from the
cockpit of his JetSuite CJ3; it is a picture of Mexico taken from 45,000 feet.
I vow to press on.
After a week, we get to the simulator.
The airplane is simpler than the Lear
31A that I have been fying a little. It has
the Rockwell Collins Pro Line 21 fight
management system, which, though
intimidating, proves to be a remarkable
piece of electronics. Phil makes me go
frst, so he can see how I screw up.
There is a lot for him to admire. My
steep turns are sloppy. My situational
awareness is poor. And this is just the
frst session, composed only of routine
maneuvers. No emergencies yet.
Phil takes over. He nails everything.
He doesnt gain or lose a knot of speed
or a foot of altitude in steep turns. I
wonder if the sim is actually on. Two
hours later, I retreat to the Fairfeld Inn
a beaten man. I call my wife, Cathy,
who patiently points out that Phil is
younger than my youngest child, has
been a professional fghter pilot and
has done nothing else but aviation
since he headed to the Air Force Academy out of high school. Still.
I resolve to pick up my game and
try harder. Phil is encouraging. We get
dinner together every night. Phil is
becoming a good friend. His fghterpilot chops are held in high regard at
CAE, and I hope to hide in his shadow.
He charms everybody. I try to lie low,
still feeling more like a former surgeon
than a jet pilot.
Were in the thick of it now: fres,
emergency descents, engine shutdowns and restarts, and the dreaded
V1 cut, where an engine fails after the
commit-to-fy speed but you are still on
the runway. The airplane is easier to
steer than the Lear 31A, and the V1
cuts are more benign. We run into several great instructors, but Tony Carmagnola stands out. He laughs when
Phil and I kid each other. The instructors seem to feed off the rapport that
Phil and I have developed. Things are
getting better rapidly. Good thing, as
the check ride is fast upon us.
I turn 68 years old in the Fairfeld
Two hours later, I am exhausted. The

ride is fair, and I think I did OK. Steep
turns, stalls, engine restart, single engine ILS, a circle to land at Kennedy
(dont turn too soon you are a category C airplane) all seems OK, though
my performance is defnitely degraded
by anxiety. Now, it is Phils turn.
My pride precludes an in-depth assay
of his performance, but it is so satisfactory that we are rewarded with a sim
ride down the Hudson River, with
CAEs incredible graphics (including
the new Freedom Tower) ushering us
along until Phil fies under the George
Washington Bridge and brings the nose
up 90 degrees.
In the debriefng room, John is complimentary to us both of us, I am
careful to note. We are awarded new
type ratings, but we arent done yet. We
have to stay another day in order to do
The check ride is sTraighTforward,

buT i have a loT riding on iT This Time.
Inn. Phil sneaks out to get a cake and
with the help of David, the night manager, they surprise me. We sit in the
lobby, offering birthday cake to guests
as they check in. The next night, Cathy
arrives, surprising me by driving for six
hours, so she could bring our dog, Corbett. She takes me to a fancy restaurant
in New York City. In many ways this is
the best birthday of my life.
We start the check ride in a briefng
room. John Gregor is our designated
examiner. He alternates between Phil
and me with questions. Max takeoff
weight, max landing weight. Max generator output on the ground (less cooling). Limitations on gear and faps.
What is on the squat switch? (About 20
items, if you want to know.)
Apparently, we do well enough. Off
to the sim. I still go frst. The check ride
is straightforward, but I have a lot riding on it this time. My employment with
JetSuite and a lifelong dream to fy
jets is predicated on passing. My previous type ratings have been more of a
lark than of a profession. I am nervous.
our single-pilot check ride. Fortunately,

we know just where to celebrate the
check ride: Anthonys Pizzeria and Restaurant in Rockaway, New Jersey. This
family restaurant is owned by Tony Cs
dad and uncle, and weve eaten there
once before. Tonight, we celebrate with
two JetSuite captains who have just
arrived for recurrent training. Once
again, the food is extraordinary, and it
will just not stop coming. Dish after
dish arrives with precision and a smile.
Good thing the sim has no takeoff
weight limits.
The next morning, we hurry back
into test-taking mode, but it is clear
that John has already fgured us out.
The single-pilot check ride is straightforward. Again, two new type ratings
are awarded, this time with the singlepilot endorsement. Though I have dearly missed my wife and family, I am
sorry to leave. This last month with
Phil has been great. Next week we start
IOE initial operating experience.
Our conversations will be by phone and
text. We are off to fy.
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technicalities
F LY I N G o p i n i o n | B Y p e t e r g a r r i s o n
CUttING thROUGh
thE MYths tO GEt tO
thE FACts OF FLIGht
Invert to Untangle
The LefTisTs and The RighTisTs duke iT ouT
When climbing, you need some
right rudder to keep the ball centered. If you perform a half roll and
continue to climb upside-down,
which rudder will you have to use to
stay coordinated?
Why do we need right rudder in
a climb, anyway? Is it because of
slipstream rotation? The propeller
drags some air around with it, and
the airplane continually advances
through this slipstream of defected
air. The fn, being behind the portion
of the propeller disk where the
blades are going left to right, feels a
push to the right.
But what about P-factor? When an
airplane is nose-high, its propeller is
tilted a few degrees upward with
respect to the direction of its travel
through the air, and a downgoing
blade has a greater angle of attack
than an upgoing one. The downgoing blade is on the right side, and so
it tends to pull the nose of the airplane to the left. I once did some
calculations that suggested the difference in blade speed that results
from tilting the propeller is at least
as infuential as the difference in
angle of attack, but that doesnt matter. The general principle remains
the same.
A big problem with the P-factor explanation is that the pull to the left is
felt early in the takeoff roll, when the
airplane if it is not a taildragger or a
Comanche is in a level attitude; but
the pull is absent when the airplane
holds the same level attitude in fight.
So at least some of the pull to the left
has to be due to something other than
the airplanes pitch attitude.
Another mysterious being is
sometimes blamed: torque. Torque is

the twisting force supplied by the
engine to make the propeller spin.
The natural effect of torque, if we did
not do something to prevent it, would
be to spin the airplane in the opposite
direction to the propeller in the same
way that a helicopter deprived of its
tail rotor begins to rotate in the direction opposite to the main rotors.
Torque and slipstream rotation are
two sides of the same coin; part of
the torque is imparted to the slipstream, making it rotate.
In fight, rigging, small aileron
defections, and the effect of slipstream rotation on the wings and tail
cancel out torque, but at low speed
on the ground most of the work is
done between the tires and the pavement. Like everything else, it makes
the airplane want to veer to the left.
T E C H N I C A L I T I E S | F LY I N G o p i n i o n
Once youre off the ground, the

slight excess lift on the left side
needed to cancel torque produces a
small adverse yaw. Again, it pulls the
nose to the left.
Because all the forces at play pull
to the left, it is diffcult to tell which
is doing what. The beauty of the
inverted-climb test is that it distinguishes between P-factor and slipstream rotation. To see why, imagine
an airplane climbing, and that we
are observing from a position behind
and above it.
We have already seen how P-factor
pulls the nose to the left and slipstream rotation pushes the tail to the
right. To overcome these undesired
movements, the pilot presses on the
right rudder pedal. The rudder defects to the right, producing a force
that pushes the tail to the left, and
equilibrium is restored.
Well, almost. Actually, right rudder
does neutralize the effect of slipstream rotation without producing
any side effects. But when it neutralizes P-factor, the side force on the
vertical fn is unbalanced. The airplane wants to slide sideways; an
imperceptibly slight right bank is required to keep it going straight. This
is a smaller version of the bank into
the good engine that is needed when
fying a twin on one.
But just sticking to the big frstorder effects, consider what happens
when the airplane rolls over and continues its climb inverted.
The P-factor force still pulls left
because the propeller looks the same
when the airplane is upside-down as
it did when it was upright. The rudder will still need to be defected toward our the observers right.
But now the pilot is upside-down,
and our right is his left, so he uses his
left foot to compensate for P-factor.
On the other hand, the vertical fn
is now below the airplane, and so it is
in the wake of the portion of the propeller disk in which the blades travel
right to left. Slipstream rotation,
therefore, wants to push the tail to
our left, and the rudder will have to
defect to the left. The topsy-turvy
pilot will have to step on his right
rudder pedal to compensate.
Assuming that P-factor and slipstream rotation are the two major
factors governing the need for rudder

during climb, can a comparison of
upright and inverted climbs reveal the
size of their respective contributions?
I frst got interested in that question back in 2005 and queried some
acrobatic pilots about it. I got mixed
answers, wrote an inconclusive article, let the topic drop for a few years
and recently got interested in it
again. I asked two pilots, JD Crow of
Port Angeles, Washington, who has
an Extra 300, and Mike Melvill of
Tehachapi, California, who has a
Pitts, to fy some inverted climbs and
report the results. I also still had the
feet. I infer that slipstream rotation is

playing more of a role; its strength is
about one-third that of P-factor. The
Pitts has no engine or fn offset; perhaps that is why the effect of slipstream rotation is more prominent in
it than in the Extra.
From these experiments, I concluded that in most airplanes the
predominant cause of the need for
right rudder in climb is P-factor, not
slipstream rotation. On the other
hand, during the takeoff roll, when
the fuselage attitude is more or less
horizontal, P-factor does not exist,
and some combination of slipstream
In most aIrplanes, the

predomInant caUse of the need
for rIght rUdder In clImb Is
p-factor, not slIpstream rotatIon.
results of then Scaled Composites
engineer Chuck Colemans Extra 300
tests from nine years ago.
Coleman had found that with feet
on the foor, the Extra showed the
same amount of out-of-center ball
upright and inverted and, incidentally, about twice as much at 70 kias
as at 80. But inverted fight required
left rudder rather than right. The
overriding force, therefore, was Pfactor; slipstream rotation had no
noticeable infuence, most likely because the engines 1-degree right
offset was neutralizing it.
Crow found the same in his Extra:
right rudder upright, left rudder inverted and no apparent contribution
from the slipstream. By an odd coincidence, both Coleman and Crow
refected, quite irrelevantly, upon the
various adjustments a pilot would
have to make to fy an inverted ILS.
Crow considered the omission of this
information from the Aeronautical
Information Manual lamentable.
Melvills Pitts was a bit different.
At 83 kias, it required only half as
much rudder to coordinate inverted
as upright but, again, with opposite
rotation and the torque reaction of

the pavement against the tires must
be the culprit. Im inclined to guess
that the infuence of slipstream rotation diminishes with increasing speed
because the faster the plane goes, the
smaller the angle at which the defected slipstream strikes the fn.
It may be that taildraggers experience an exaggerated leftward pull
early in the takeoff roll because both
P-factor and slipstream rotation are
at their strongest. Perhaps that is
why so many runway lights have
been fattened by P-51s.
To a pilot, of course, all this is academic. Provided you stay ahead of
the airplane, the transition from one
cause of left pull to another is
smooth and imperceptible. They feel
like a single force. Few of us climb
inverted, and not all of those who do
have inverted inclinometers; they
must rely instead on a feeling that
their heads are dangling at a strange
angle. The important practical advice to take away from the discussion is this: When fying the ILS
inverted, you should treat it as a
back-course approach.
JUMPSEAT
F LY I N G O P I N I O N | B Y L E S A B E N D
FLYING THE
HEAVY METAL WITH
AN AIRLINE CAPTAIN
LES AND FUTURE AIRLINE PILOT

ADAM JULIO STAND IN FRONT OF
A 777-300 GE ENGINE.
PAYING IT FORWARD
GIVING BACK, AIRLINE STYLE
If youre a private pilot or an airline
transport pilot, it doesnt take long to
discover that the small world axiom
is very true within the aviation community. A relationship developed
years earlier can resurface in the
most unlikely places. Because of that,
I was given advice to never burn a
bridge in my climb up the airline ladder. The line boy that topped off the
Cessna 150 in subzero temperatures
when I was a wet-behind-the-ears,
pimply faced ight instructor might
someday become my chief pilot.
Although Id like to believe the success Ive been rewarded was the result of initiative and perseverance,
achieving it wasnt accomplished in a

vacuum. I had help along the way.
With the natural passage of time,
expressing gratitude for that help is
not always possible. Instead, paying
it forward by giving back is a great
start. In that regard, I was gratied to
give back in three separate ways, all
involving the future of the airline
pilot profession. Interestingly
enough, all three pay-it-forward
events were within the same month.
At lunch during one of my favorite
day trips to Montauk, New York, via
my Cherokee Six, I had extended
an invitation for two enthusiastic
12-year-olds and their fathers to take
a tour of a 777 and our airlines operations at JFK. Chris Orici, one of the
fathers, is the primary owner of the
FBO in Connecticut where my airplane
resides. The other father was a friend
who had brought his son, Adam,
along for a ride in Chris Cirrus SR20.
Tom Torti, a name you have probably
seen from previous columns and an
owner in the same FBO, volunteered
to y the entourage in his Citation
Mustang an exciting proposition
for him, as he had never experienced
a personal arrival into JFK.
When the subject of my profession
and airline surfaced, Adam inquired,
How do you like your new livery?
His blue eyes were unwavering. In
other words, how did I like our new
paint job? The word livery is foreign
to most adults, let alone a 12-year-old
boy. After years of watching parents
coax and prod their shy kids into the
cockpit while I attempted simplied
explanations of the functionality for
switches and controls, I knew the look
of serious. And this kid was serious.
With the preliminaries of TSA complete and the escort assistance of a senior ofce staff member, I began the
tour of JFK Ops. My friend and New
York chief pilot graciously offered a
rare moment of his time to escort us on
our visit of a 777. Our group departed
the ight ofce and walked through
the concourse, detouring around a
movie shoot in progress near our gate.
We trotted down the jet bridge and
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the airplane, I glanced back. Grins
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look at the upper crew bunks to the

intricacy of the frst class seats to the
sophistication of the cockpit, not one
area was met without an abundance
of enthusiasm.
Walking out the jet bridge door and
down the steep grated metal steps, we
spilled out onto the ramp. All eyes focused up at the airplane. The smiles
and open mouths were acknowledgment that the outside of the 777 made
as much of an impression as the inside.
Pictures were taken. Questions were
asked. And when employment opportunities were discussed and a business
card from the chief pilot requested,
Adam innocently asked my 50-plusyear-old friend whether he would still
be around when Adam applied. That
question brought a coy grin.
Later, after an impromptu meeting
with one of our ramp controllers back
inside the terminal, we were offered a
visit to the ramp tower. Among many
other operations, the ramp tower is
responsible for the movement and
coordination of airplanes within our
terminal area. The facility is very similar to that of a typical FAA tower. It
provided our group with an unprecedented birds-eye view of not only our
gates but also a portion of JFKs taxiways and runways.
My tour group departed with handshakes and thank yous. Perhaps I had
helped a future airline pilot move
closer to adding his name to the seniority list. If nothing else, I had created a once-in-a-lifetime experience.
Next on the calendar was a trip to
Southern Illinois University. For nine
years, my airline has coordinated
with the schools aviation program,
donating a Super 80 for fuel costs.
The Super 80 is the transportation to
Carbondale, Illinois, home of the SIU
campus. About 100 preselected local
Chicago area high school students
are given a tour of the campus and
introduced to the aviation program.
The students are separated into
groups and given introductory fight
lessons conducted by SIU undergraduate instructors. My participation,
along with other airline colleagues,
was to represent aviation occupations. A formal presentation was given to the students later in the day.
Jay Rud, my friend and 767 check
airman, coordinates the event every
year. Jay is an SIU alumnus. Despite

having graduated from Purdue University, I was still invited. The fact
that SIU had just won the National
Intercollegiate Flying Association regional championship hosted by my
alma mater didnt help.
A combination of a low, broken
cloud deck and a short nonstandardwidth runway added a level of diffculty to the approach into Carbondale.
From my vantage point in the cabin,
the crew made it appear seamless.
The volunteer fight attendants, all
SIU alumni wearing the appropriate
maroon school T-shirts, kept the kids
entertained and safe. As our arrival
was not an everyday occurrence for
colleagues from my pilots union. The

union hired an outside consultant to
facilitate a change in our governing
structure, a necessity recognized by
our union leadership.
Conference participants, the majority of whom do not hold an offcial
offce like myself, volunteered to put
our collective heads together to effect
a more functional union. Considering
that we will most likely increase our
membership dramatically through a
merger, we have all the more reason to
have a workable governance solution.
The interesting dynamic was the fact
that most volunteers were approaching an age where the results of the
conference may not be fully realized
With a slice of pizza in hand as a

parting gift, We left siU hoping
We had shared oUr limited Wisdom.
the airport, we were met with enthusiastic fanfare. A crowd of students
and locals, including the Saluki mascot dog, greeted the airplane.
First on the agenda was a brief tour
of SIUs scenic campus. It was homecoming day. We lunched on barbecue
sandwiches at the alumni area but
were unfortunately unable to partake
of the adult beverages, having worn
our uniforms for the occasion. The
bulk of our day was spent in the
Transportation Education Center at
the airport. Barely a year old, the
building is a testament to the universitys commitment to aviation education. State-of-the-art simulators,
laboratories and interactive classrooms are contemporary representations of a quality learning experience.
With a slice of pizza in hand as a
parting gift, we left SIU hoping we
had shared our limited wisdom. Aside
from the interaction with prospective
students, I think Jay and I would
agree that the most gratifying part of
the day was our interaction with enrolled undergrads.
Last on my pay-it-forward calendar
was a two-day conference with 40
F LY I N G M A G . C O M / 7 6 / J A N U A R Y 2 0 1 4
until after they are retired, myself

included. This was an indication of
an unselfsh dedication to the future
of our profession and a genuine interest in doing the right thing. I am
proud to be associated with such people. Throughout the presentations of
each volunteer group, it was apparent that a lot of thought was being
applied to the proposals white
paper fow chart creativity and humor notwithstanding.
The governance project will continue at a later date after our union leadership narrows down the proposals to
a hybrid of all the contributions.
Eventually the majority will rule. The
general membership will have a voice
in the form of a vote.
In comparison to the union participation of others, my 29 years of involvement is miniscule. I am grateful
to those who have sacrifced much
more on my behalf. By participating
in these three events, it is my hope
that I have paid it forward because of
people like Don Perricone, my nurturing fight instructor when I was 16
years old. He will always be part of
my success.
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F LY I N G M A G . C O M / 7 9 / F e b r u A r Y 2 0 1 4
F L ASH BAC K S
25
A LOOK BACK
AT FLYING MAGAZINE
25 AND 50 YEARS AGO
Author and former Flying

staffer Richard Bach
REVIEWED the ying
characteristics of the
German-built Bolkow
Junior, a boxy two seater
whose outward appearance
belied its aerobatic
capabilities. For $7,800, the
homely machine provided
450 miles in range and
positive-G roll capability.
YEARS
AGO
OUR COVER FEATURED AN AGUSTA A109 MKII PLUS. WITH ITS

SPEED, SMOOTH FLYING MANNERS AND SINGLE-PILOT IFR
CAPABILITIES, THE ITALIAN-BUILT A109 MKII PLUS STRUCK US
AS THE FERRARI OF HELICOPTERS.
WE EXPLORED the state of aerobatics in the United States as

the sport attempted to gain the same kind of traction it had
already achieved in Europe. Despite the wide popularity of
general aviation in the United States, the lack of Americanmade aerobatic airplanes hindered the sports growth here.
In Ghost Story WE REPORTED on the unique warbirds

that were saved from the chopping block after the close of
World War II by the Confederate Air Force, today known as
the Commemorative Air Force. The organization rescued a
number of airplanes bound for the boneyard, including the
revered B-29 Fi, which still ies today.
WE COVERED the rst-ever

public unveiling of the B-2
Stealth Bomber, which
came seven years after the
aircrafts inception. While
much of the technology
behind the ying wing
was still kept secret, its
innovative composite
construction and arresting
design provided plenty to
feed the imagination of
interested onlookers.
50
YEARS
AGO
OUR COVER FEATURED A BELL 204B, THE CIVIL VERSION OF THE

ARMYS FAMED UH-1, FLYING OVER NEW YORK CITY. AT THE TIME,
HELICOPTERS HAD ONLY BEEN IN USE FOR ABOUT 20 YEARS,
AND THE NUMBER OF HELIPORTS NATIONWIDE WAS SLIM.
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A I R C RA FT E V E R PU B LI S H E D !
More than 150

spectacular color photos
and 200 illustrations
reveal the distinctive tails,
wing shapes and handpainted details, and more
Over 1,600 ight
facts and gures
Written by pilots and
aviation journalists Mark
Phelps and Robert Goyer,
Editor-in-Chief of FLYING
magazine
240 PAGES
10 X 11 INCHES
$40.00
www.yingmag.com/book
Not all twins are identical.
Look at the Piper Seneca V. Now look at every other piston twin. You wont see
another with the power to climb to 16,500 feet on one engine. You wont see a
cabin this wide or a cockpit with a standard three-screen G1000 panel. And you
certainly wont fnd another new six-place twin that costs signifcantly less to
own and operate than the competition. But what really sets the Seneca V apart
is genetics it has the strength of the Piper name to stand behind it. See? The
closer you look at twins, the more obvious the differences become.
Scan for a 360 interactive tour

of the Piper Seneca.
2014 Piper Aircraft, Inc.
piper.com | 866.FLY.PIPER

Flying 2014-02

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TOO FAT TO FLY?

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