The Downwind Turn Revisited
In 2018, a Junkers Ju 52 crashed in the Swiss Alps while attempting to cross a 10,000-foot saddle from south to north amid gusting winds.
Peter Garrison
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The Piaggio Avanti is Strange, but Great
I used up my entire allotment of blunders for the year in our July issue, where 1) I incorrectly referred to a Robertson STOL conversion as Robinson; 2) I said that the small forward lifting surfaces on the Robertson Wren 460 (a modified Cessna 182) were nicknamed “Wren’s teeth,” when in fact that name applied […]
Examining the Aftermath of a Cessna P210 Accident
The NTSB included among factors related to the accident the pilot’s overconfidence in himself—and the airplane.
Where Have All the Electrons Gone?
It wasn’t long after takeoff that I noticed that my ammeter showed a steady discharge of 3 or 4 amps. The ammeter reads charging current going to the battery, and so it ought to show 10 or 15 amps at first, gradually diminishing as the battery regains the energy it expended during start-up and taxi. […]
Only Questions Remain from a T-28A Trojan’s Final Flight
Examining the aftermath of a mysterious, fatal crash of a 1950s Air Force trainer.
The Staggerwing was the Climax, and the End, of an Era
Late in 1932, the newborn Beech Aircraft Co. flew its first product, a five-seat biplane with a 420 hp radial engine and fixed landing gear enclosed in huge fairings. Walter Beech gave it model number 17, since the last model built by the Travel Air company, which he had founded in 1925 with an all-star […]
When a Pilot’s Decision to Fly at Low Altitude Proved Fatal
Pilots like to fly low, so what can we learn from this 2017 Cessna 172 accident?
Where Have All the Foreplanes Gone?
Canard airplanes were the rage in the 1970s. The VariEze took the homebuilding world — which Jim Bede’s BD-5 had recently taken by storm — by storm. Storms were frequent those days; it was also in the 1970s that T-tails took general aviation by storm and popped up in a lot of places they had […]
A Case of Losing Power, Far From an Airport
The gospel on turn-backs after a power loss just after takeoff is to continue straight ahead, no matter how uninviting the terrain looks.
How is it Best to Build a Bird?
In our March issue, a short article about the Vulcanair V1.0 — an Italian four-seater strongly resembling a Cessna 172 — mentioned that it uses “a steel-frame and aluminum structure, which was the standard for decades.” I beg to differ. It’s true that the Vulcanair has a steel frame under its aluminum skin — I […]
