Ownership

In the past week I have had twopeople approach me and explain that they wanted to buy twin-engine airplanes that theycould fly for their own business and pleasure then offer them for charter when theyweren’t using them. On the surface it sounds like a great idea, getting some revenue outof the airplane to help offset […]

NOTE: Since this comparison was originally written, Garmin introduced itslower-priced GPS III Pilot which also has ground-mapping capability. We’ve reviewed thisunit in a separate article. Lowrance subsequently introducedits own lower-priced unit, the AirMap 100, which we’ve also reviewedseparately. Quick Links Ground Mapping … What’s the Big Deal? Hardware Comparison Software Comparison GPS Receiver Performance Summary […]

The typical owner-flown airplaneflies less than 100 hours a year. Since many of the costs of ownership-annual inspections,insurance, hangar, and so forth-are fixed costs that don’t vary with flight time, it’soften difficult to justify the cost of owning an airplane that flies so little. Some pilots want the benefit of owning their own airplane, even […]

Lie #1:Lycoming engines are better than Continental engines.(Or vice-versa.) Ibought my first airplane 30 years ago. It was a Cessna 182 powered by a ContinentalO-470-R engine. Since then I’ve owned a succession of airplanes, and each one-quitecoincidentally-was powered by a big-bore Continental. My engines have always made TBO andbeen relatively trouble-free. So it’s not surprising […]

Part of my job as an aircraftappraiser is to research the logbooks of each aircraft I inspect. It’s amazing how much,or how little, you can tell about a particular airplane by what’s in the maintenance logs.Some airplane records detail every nut and bolt that has ever been tightened, while otherstell little or nothing about the […]

Myfirst exposure to “serious” simulator training took place in October of 1987,about six months after I’d purchased my T310R. My motivation was the usual one: insurance.Despite the fact that I had 180 hours in type, 4,000 hours total, and 23 years ofaccident-free flying behind me, I was having a heck of a time finding aircraft […]

It wasn’t exactly what I hadexpected. Let me explain. I am a 1,500 hour pilot with about half those hours in a V35A Bonanza Ihave owned for seven years. I fly about one hundred hours per year – a combination of VFRand (mostly) light IFR in our usually mild Central California climate. I have participatedin […]

For nearly a year now, I’ve been hearing rumors of asmaller-sized aviation GPS from Lowrance Avionics to supersede the rather hefty AirMapthat they introduced in 1996. I was concerned that Lowrance might be following the lead ofthe Garmin GPS III Pilot, a unit that I don’t care for one bit. When Lowrance introducedtheir 12-channel AirMap […]

At my home airport, there isalways a copy of Trade-A-Plane sitting on the table in thelobby of the terminal building. The airport manager marks it “Lobby Copy — Do notremove.” That single copy is probably the most widely read of all the periodicals(and there are many) that are left for the reading pleasure of those […]

It is a big decision. You have wanted to fly for some time and now you’re going to doit. Excitement. Anticipation. You go to the airport and they take you out to the plane youare going to fulfill your dream of learning to fly in and… The plane is older thanyou are. It looks its […]