Ownership

Looking at actual cockpit noise profiles, and how well aviation headsets cope with it In Section 2 of this series, you learned how engineers measure effectiveness of active noise canceling systems in the laboratory. But since we don’t fly in the lab, our emphasis will now shift to studying the actual noise spectrums in various […]

Understanding and comparing cancellation specifications Section 1 of this series dealt with the variables and complexity involved in canceling the repetitive and random aspects of airplane noise. It explained that although the basic elements of all active noise reduction systems are pretty much the same, the details of how they are designed and implemented has […]

A good place to start is with one of the most-asked questions that we receive from pilots: Don’t all active headsets work the same way…or do the same thing? The answer is a simple “yes”…and a much more detailed “no.” It’s yes because the principles of additive cancellation with out-of-phase sound is several decades old […]

NOTE: Air Chart Systems atlases, NOS IFR charts and plates, NOS Sectionals, WACs, Terminal Area Charts and other chart products may be purchased online. I‘ve got a confession to make. I’ve flown at least a hundred transcontinental trips during the past thirty years and, more often than not, I’ve flown them with outdated charts. There…I […]

Airplane appraisals are a dimea dozen, right? There are all kinds of methods of evaluating airplanes from appraisalsoftware you can purchase, to “blue books” that supposedly give you the latestprices, to the old throw-the-dart routine. Some of those systems are useful inestablishing a range of value when a buyer is trying to decide if an […]

Over the years, I have beenasked many questions by prospective aircraft buyers about various aspects of the purchaseprocess. Many of these questions reveal the questioner’s lack of knowledge about buyingaircraft, and demonstrate the need for a prospective buyer to learn as much as possibleabout the process before plunging ahead. This article is a collection of […]

Cessnahas always been a marketing-driven company, and one of the company’s signature marketingstrategies has been to offer more aircraft models than any of its competitors. Back in thedays when GA was predominantly propelled by piston powerplants, Cessna started with fourbasic models in the 1950s (140, 170, 180, 310) and exploded to some 30 different pistonmodels […]

I had been flying Beechcraft Barons for about eight years in connection with my business in New Jersey, but when I sold the company and took a job as CEO of a larger company in Florida, the Baron no longer made sense. The places I had to go were too far away and I had […]

Insurance can be one of the most expensive elements in the fixedcost of owning an aircraft. It can be, but it doesn’t always have to be. Before we go further into the cost issues, I should caution that the least expensiveisn’t always the best choice. Aircraft insurance is not heavily regulated, except in ageneral way. […]

Why do pilots pay more for life insurance? Why? Ever sit down and study an Insurance Mortality Table? Probably not. Well,unfortunately for pilots, the folks who set and approve insurance rates (they’re calledactuaries and underwriters) rarely pilot aircraft. If they did, they’d understand that pilots in general are pretty good risks. They’dunderstand that pilots as […]