Ownership

Ask any aircraft owner what the TBO is for the engine(s) on his aircraft and you’ll almost always get the correct answer without hesitation: “My engine has a 1,700-hour TBO.” But ask that owner to explain the significance of that TBO figure and you’ll get all sorts of answers, most of them flat wrong. Here […]

Recently I talked at length with an aircraft owner who had acquired a 1980 Cessna 340A just a few months ago. He found the aircraft through one of the best-known twin-Cessna brokers in the industry. The pressurized twin appeared to be in pristine condition, with excellent logs and mid-time engines (about 850 hours SMOH). Because […]

Over the past three and a half decades, I’ve had the opportunity (and frequently the privilege) of working with a great many aircraft mechanics. At first it was as a nave customer having them perform inspections and repairs on my airplane. Later it was as a student and apprentice swinging wrenches under their supervision as […]

There’s a variety of obvious reasons why making the jump from piston-twin to regional jet is an exciting transition, but the potential to toss the heavy headgear in favor of a lightweight, non-head-crimping, non-tear-your-ear-off-your-head-when-you-remove-it headset is among the most anticipated. After a few thousand hours, I was looking forward to a peaceful, quiet cockpit, and […]

When I first became an airplane owner 35 years ago, I hadn’t the slightest interest in aircraft maintenance. I had just relocated from New York to Southern California to pursue a career in the up-and-coming field of computer software. I’d earned my private pilot certificate four years earlier while a student at Dartmouth College, and […]

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NOTE: This article was updated in November 2003 to reflect the unavailability of the previously recommended AIM and Senco detectors (both of which are no longer in production), and the introduction of the CO Experts Model 2002 which has now become our top choice for aircraft use. The dramatic crash of Piper Dakota N8263Y madeall […]

NOTE: This article originally appeared in the Cessna Pilots Association Magazine, and is reprinted here by permission. I tend to fly fairly long distances in my airplane, and have done so for decades. Since I acquired my Cessna T310R in 1987, I’ve probably averaged around three transcontinental trips a year. I figure if you’re going […]

While survival gear remains a hard sell to U.S. pilots, there is still a small minority who recognize that it doesn’t always happen to the other guy. They support a cottage industry providing ready-made aviation survival kits for general aviation use. There are relatively few kits that have been around for a long period of […]

Editor’s Note: This article originally appeared in Cessna Owner and Pipers Magazines. My wife, Kate, has been taking flying lessons on-and-off for a few years now. She’s been taking every opportunity to practice, so was up and out at the airport bright and early one Sunday while yours truly slept in.When the phone rang, I […]