Maintenance

If a new airplane is a must, small-aircraft fractional ownership systems, like those from OurPLANE and AirShares, deserve a look. Depending on your flying habits, it could be cheaper in the long run. But as the editors of Aviation Consumer recently explained, put a sharp pencil on the numbers. This article appears in the June […]

Perhaps there can be some good to come out of the nearly hysterical news reports on high-profile fatalities in 2001, and that is to become totally aware of all the things you can do to be safer from a maintenance, training, and an optional-equipment perspective. The concepts of safe, legal, and smart also apply here, […]

“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 […]