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February 03, 2010
by J. Mac McClellan

I think most of us in general aviation have been unfair, or at least uniformed, in our attitude toward the Light Sport Aircraft category. Most of us have focused almost exclusively on the 1,320-pound maximum weight LSA and ignored the incredible breadth of activity in this new category.

January 29, 2010
by Robert Goyer
Photo: Illustration: Robert Goyer

There's been a lot of hubbub about the Apple iPad. For a lot of folks, it's hard to see what the fuss is about. The iPad is, Apple says, a revolutionary new device. If that's true, it's apparently a revolutionary new device that does things that a number of other devices have been doing for years.

But that misses the point. If we've learned anything from Apple over the years, it's not necessarily what something does but how it does it. 

January 27, 2010
by J. Mac McClellan
Photo: Piper Aircraft, Inc.

When Piper announced its partnership with Czech Sport Aircraft to market and support the PiperSport LSA last week at the Sebring Sport Aviation Expo, it cemented the concept that the new category of light, basic airplanes is a key to a revival in pilot training.

January 27, 2010
by Robert Goyer
Photo: Illustration: Robert Goyer

One of the mantras of Modern Marketing 101 is this: “Don’t charge once for a product when you can charge for it over and over again.” This recurring-cost model is the business vision for companies that sell everything from cell phones to gym memberships. It’s also the attractive default model for handheld and portable GPS manufacturers. Whereas DirectTV and Verizon essentially give away (or close to it) their equipment, Garmin and Bendix/King can get full retail prices for their products and still charge recurring fees for their data packages.

January 27, 2010
by Connie Sue White

Practice Area Map

BLOGBOOK ENTRY 6

January 21, 2010
by J. Mac McClellan

It takes a long time to get past.
 
Heading to the Sebring U.S. Sport Aviation Expo, I was on the one way path south out of the New York City area yesterday at the only altitude normally available—6,000 feet. A Cirrus 22 pilot ahead of me was on the same route and somehow convinced the controllers over New Jersey to let him try 4,000 feet. He reported a whopping decrease of nearly 30 knots in headwind. Amazingly the Atlantic City controller asked me if I wanted to try 4,000 in my Baron for the lower winds. Of course I did.
 

January 20, 2010
by J. Mac McClellan

I was saddened to see the news that the Loran C stations are being shut down in the U.S. to save scarce taxpayer money. It was Loran C that first made long-range direct navigation possible to the wide swath of general aviation. When the technology flourished in the late 1970s a single-engine airplane owner could suddenly afford to have a nav system with capabilities on par with an intertial system costing hundreds of thousands and weighing a ton. Loran C was pure magic.

January 19, 2010
by Robert Goyer
Photo: Robert Goyer

I was sitting in my PlaneSmart Cirrus, engine idling, strobe light flashing, on the ramp at Oklahoma City’s Wiley Post Airport, and I was puzzled. I was staring down at my chicken scratch clearance as though it were written in some ancient lost language and wondering just what I was going to do with such a thing.

January 13, 2010
by J. Mac McClellan

Beechcraft Musketeer

Airplanes, particularly in general aviation, are living longer than anyone could have imagined 40 or 50 years ago. To most of us, an A36 Bonanza, for example, built in 1970 is still a perfectly good and useful airplane. And there are many airplanes, particularly piston singles, still regularly flown that were built a decade or two before 1970.

January 12, 2010
by Robert Goyer
Photo: Robert Goyer

"Tower, 224TX. No emergency, but a door popped open and I need to come back in and get it closed."

It was yesterday morning and I was in the SR22 going up north to fly with my buddy Scott from Aspen Avionics in his Cirrus. I had just rotated, 300 feet agl and climbing and I could feel the cold seeping in and hear the air slipping in through the cracked passenger-side door. I briefly, for about a tenth of a second, thought about continuing my two-hour flight up to Oklahoma City with the wind whistling in, but abandoned that idea before it was even fully formed.

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