Maintenance

“Cheap” and “aircraft ownership” are mutually exclusive terms, it seems. If you own an airplane, you’re resigned to the fact that the privilege will cost you a handsome sum, perhaps much of your disposable income. Yet if flying isn’t the center point of your life but you still want to own an airplane, there are […]

Seems like everybody wants to strap a larger engine onto a successful aircraft design and call it “improved.” But when Cirrus Design was ready to develop a step-up model after its very successful SR20, they knew they wanted to do more than just add some horsepower. AVweb’s Dave Higdon shows that, while you might mistake […]

Seats seven, and bring all the luggage you want in the big compartment on top. There’s even a baggage loading and unloading arm for the lazy among you. Fuel burn? Block to block fuel burn is about the same as an A36 … an amazing MPG for such a big, multi-engine aircraft. If you can […]

PERFORMANCE Takeoff distance, ground roll: 0 ft Takeoff distance over 50-ft obstacle: 0 ft Maximum demonstrated crosswind component: 15 kt Rate of climb (typical ascent profile at 130,000 ft): 132,000 fpm Orbit Altitude: 185 to 643 kilometers (115 to 400 statute miles) Orbit Velocity: 27,875 kph (17,321 mph) Lift-to-drag (glide) ratio — Hypersonic: 1.05 Subsonic: […]

What’s in a name? Or a label? When it comes toaircraft engines, a simple label — or, more properly, a logbook notation — cancarry an impressive cache that, in reality, may not mean what you think. A casein point is the value a buyer or owner puts on a “zero-time” engine asopposed to a freshly […]

There are many things that you as an owner cando to extend the life of a prop, regardless of whether it’s made of wood on aCub or a fancy feathering rig on a Navajo. While inspections can be done by youas part of a normal preflight or extended routine inspection, you are limited onwhat you […]

When we’re airplane shopping, not many of us buy new models so we’re stuckmaking our picks from an increasingly older fleet. You’d think that a30-year-old airframe flown a couple of hundred hours a year would be tapped out,but most aren’t. Yet many are corroded almost to the point of being unrepairable.Increasingly, in doing annuals and […]

I had been suffering with the original frontseats in my 1977 Tiger since I bought the plane more than three years ago. I really didn’tlike those seats. Since I was refurbishing the interior, I decided to make a change. As a first step, I had a well-known Grummanaficionado upgrade my seat backs to the 78-79 […]

Here’s the issue: Suppose you want to refurbish the interior of your FAA-certificated light plane with new carpet and upholstery. Further suppose that you have found a reputable auto upholstery shop that does great work and will reupholster your seats and cut you new carpets if you bring the stuff to them. What does the […]

Winters in northern states like Montana can be brutal which is why theprincipal means of maintaining controlled flight is with the heater knob.Freezing temperatures can begin in late September and are last seen sometime inApril. This is quite a chore for the lowly aircraft heating system, akin to theold Volkswagen beetle’s air-cooled engine and non-heater. […]