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Going Direct by Robert Goyer

About Robert Goyer

In Going Direct, Robert Goyer airs his thoughts on some of the most controversial aviation issues of the day.

Robert has been with Flying since 1994. During that time he was written and photographed hundreds of feature stories on a wide variety of topics.

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Cessna Single-Engine Turboprop Around the Corner?

An artist's conception of what a
Cessna Mustang turboprop single
might look like.

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Photo: illustration by Robert Goyer

At the NBAA Convention Cessna head Jack Pelton was simultaneously in a particularly playful and forthcoming mood. In addition to tweaking Gulfstream with a veiled promise to upstage their claim of the G650 as the fastest civil jet with a newly improved Citation Ten (yes, spelled with letters now), Pelton confirmed that his company was ready to launch a new airplane, a turboprop single based on the Citation Mustang. Price would be just shy of $2 million, though Cessna is only hinting at that figure.

Preventing Buffalo II

In its misguided efforts to prevent a repeat of the horrific crash of a Colgan Air Q400 in Buffalo 18 months ago, Congress put the pressure on pilots entering the airline profession to spend a great deal more time and money to get into the right seat of an RJ. Here's why the scheme will do little to fix anything.

Molasses Money

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Photo: Robert Goyer

I was at the annual Honeywell Forecast in Orlando three years ago shortly after the world markets started to implode. The forecast itself, which is the work of a small, dedicated team, takes all year to prepare and is based on the reported buying behavior and buying expectations of thousands of flight departments and other operators worldwide. So it’s not just guessing at what’s going to happen. To some great extent, it’s reporting on what’s going to happen.

Flying Today and Into the Future

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As you might have heard, on Tuesday Bonnier Corporation, Flying's parent company, announced officially that I was editor-in-chief of Flying. The two months that had passed since the company decided to change focus here at Flying by replacing Mac as editor-in-chief have been hectic, as you’ve no doubt noticed, but we’ve still managed by hook or by crook to turn out a couple of pretty good issues.

Pilot-on-Pilot Hate

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Photo: Illustration: Robert Goyer

It was years ago, back in the early 90s at Southern California skydiving Mecca Perris. I was there to meet with the owner of a beautiful vintage Cessna 182 for a photo shoot. The guy was a 737 captain at a major airline and a really nice guy. But as it turned out, he was terrified of formation flying, though he’d insisted to us beforehand that he was well versed. The definition of “formation” for him seemed to be when two airplanes were in the same planet’s atmosphere at the same time. I could hardly see him, and I had quite the long lens, too.

Aviation's Big C: China

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There’s a new cable series on Showtime called “The Big C,” a comedy starring Broadway star Laura Linney that chronicles the life of a middle-aged woman’s day-to-day experiences living with terminal cancer. The show’s title refers to the fact that the word “cancer” is so dreaded that many dare not speak its name. In fact, in the early episodes of the show, Linney’s character hasn’t told anyone her big secret, except for her neighbor’s dog.

iPad versus Android Tablet; And the Winner is ...

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As regular readers of Going Direct know, I’ve been using an iPad for going on two months now. I love it. I’ve currently got about a dozen aviation apps installed, but my current fav is Jeppesen TC, which is a very simple app that shows me my Jepp terminal charts. Sorry to wreck the suspense, but my review of the system—look for it in the paper magazine soon—is a rave. Jeppesen got it just right. I can’t wait for the geo-referenced charts for the iPad it will be coming out with soon, too. Great stuff.

Dancing Lessons

Last year when I was in Brazil I was asked if I wanted to go on an unusual side trip and gave my default answer, which is “Yes, I’d love to go.” I always figure I can get details later.

How to Fly Until You're 85

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Photo: illustration by Robert Goyer

In a way, Sport Pilots have it made. When it’s time for the rest of us to visit our Aviation Medical Examiners and cough hard, they can just glance at their driver’s license, keep that $100 in their wallet, have an extra a cup of coffee or take a few laps around the pattern. And a lot of us doubt just how much good “the medical” does. We’ve all heard stories of pilots who got a clean bill of health from their AME only to drop dead the next day. Apocryphal or not, the concept is clear. The pilot physical, especially the Third Class version, is a cursory look at a pilot’s health.

After 10 Years, Cirrus Chute Controversy Persists

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Photo: Cirrus Aircraft

It was on a cool Texas morning back in October of 2002 when the pilot of a Cirrus SR22 on departure under clear skies felt the controls of his bird acting very strangely. Something just wasn’t right, and a quick check of the left wing showed what it was: the aileron was hanging by a single hinge, leaving the pilot with a hard choice: fly the disabled airplane as it was back to the field and risk losing control and dying in the process or pull the chute and take his chances that the Cirrus Airframe Parachute System (CAPS) would work as advertised and save the day.

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Going Direct by Robert Goyer

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