Search Results for: Cessna 172

All right, you finally scared me. After years of reading your excellent articles as a low time pilot and thinking Ill never do that, you sent me one on spatial disorientation that I probably would have done: launch into a dark, moonless, featureless night without anything even remotely resembling an instrument rating [What If?, February].

Perhaps Ive been lulled into a false sense of confidence by instructors who tell me my instrument skills are pretty good for a non-rated pilot. Perhaps its because there are almost always lights around to provide a ground reference in Northeastern New Jersey. Maybe because most of my 12 hours per year are flown at night and that I periodically spen…

The word emergency comes from the classical Greek, Emergos, meaning lets get out of here. Consider Icarus, the pilot who disregarded the service ceiling limitation on his Daedulus Skycoupe and failed to handle the subsequent forced landing by foolishly attempting a turn back to the island of Crete. Icarus perished because he had no plan to get out of there.

Three thousand years later, experienced pilots still take off with little thought of engine failure. Maybe thats because engines are fairly reliable and such a tiny portion of a flight is spent in the climb.

Still, depending on the type of aircraft, as many as 20 percent of emergency landings originate in the takeoff and cli…

The column of black smoke rose like an obscene gesture to the north west of our control tower at Reid Hillview airport in San Jose, Calif. Id just come off a break and saw it as I stepped into the tower cab. The ground controller was busy lining up a string of trainers from one of the flying schools.

The tower controller, or what we called the Local controller, had a loaded traffic pattern with two parallel runways – one full of touch and go traffic the other reserved for itinerants. It was a busy shift, no different than most, except for the black smoke.

The phone rang, Did you guys lose one? the unidentified caller asked. I looked around. Nothing seemed out of order. No, I sa…

It would take a clinical psychologist to explain, but there are some people who are not meant to fly airplanes.

It certainly doesnt take a superman or superwoman to become a competent pilot, of course. Like riding a bicycle, most people can learn to do it competently, with a few becoming exceptionally skillful. The flip side of that is that there are also those who cant get the hang of it.

So it is with flying: There are some people who, for whatever the reason, simply can not put it all together and fly competently. The difference is that in aviation, this apparent learning disability costs lives and money, rather than scrapes and bruises.

My first exposure to this phenomenon w…

The following briefs were selected from the 89 preliminary reports filed with the NTSB in January 1999. Statments in quotes were taken directly from the NTSB documents. The information is subject to change as the investigations are completed. Click here to view “Accident Totals, January.”

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Jan. 01, Shelbyville, Texas
Cessna 421C Golden Eagle
At 17:05 CST, a Cessna 421C was substantially damaged during a forced landing near Shelbyville. The pilot was not injured but his four passengers sustained minor injuries. The flight was enroute from New Orleans to Omaha, Neb. During cruise flight at 14,000 feet the aircraft en…

Reports several months ago of a tailwheel spring clip coming off of an Aeronca has lead to a spate of reports of similar problems on different makes of taildraggers. Many mechanics encourage operators to safety-wire the retention clips.

An amateur-built Thorpe T-18, for example, suffered substantial damage while landing on a rough runway surface. The aircraft had just been completed and had been test flown at an airport with a paved runway.

The two test pilots then flew back to the home airport, which had a rough landing surface, and the tailwheel bounced hard. The spring retention clip rotated and came off of one of the tiller springs. The pilot applied brakes, but the other tiller s…

The following information is derived from the FAAs Service Difficulty Reports and Aviation Maintenance Alerts. Click here to view “Airworthiness Directives.”

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The FAA has issued a Special Airworthiness Information Bulletin addressing Textron Lycoming piston plug wear. The bulletin aims to help identify abnormally worn piston pin plugs and describes appropriate inspection/maintenance actions.

Lycoming engines have plugs that center the piston pin in the cylinder, which ensures that the piston is centered within the cylinder barrel. The plugs, by design, experience some wear on the plug face, which contacts the cylinder barrel. This…

The following information is derived from the FAAs Service Difficulty Reports and Aviation Maintenance Alerts. Click here to view “Airworthiness Directives.”

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The FAAs Aircraft Certification Office in Atlanta has received reports of problems with oil filters manufactured by Champion. The problems include collapsed elements, rubber gasket material inside the filter canister, and other one-time events. The reports were serious enough for the manufacturer and the FAA to launch an investigation, which revealed that the collapsed elements were caused by the engine oil bypass valve that is installed in some Textron Lycoming engines.

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The following briefs were selected from the 189 preliminary reports filed with the NTSB in May 1999. Statements in quotes were taken directly from the NTSB documents. The information is subject to change as the investigations are completed. Click here to view “Accident Totals, March.”

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May 1, New Milford, Conn.
Glaser-Dirks DG-400
At about 15:03 EDT, a Glaser-Dirks DG-400 broke up in flight and crashed. The pilot bailed out and received only minor injuries. The glider was self-launched from Mountain Meadow Airport in Burlington about 13:30. Flying straight and level at about 6,500 feet, the pilot heard a sharp ban…

The following information is derived from the FAAs Service Difficulty Reports and Aviation Maintenance Alerts. Click here to view “Airworthiness Directives.”

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Fuel bladders in a variety of aircraft may be substandard.

The FAAs Manufacturing Inspection Office in Fort Worth says unapproved fuel bladders were sold and repaired by Duraflex Fuel Cells Corp. and Fuel Cells Maintenance Inc., both of Little Rock, Ark., for use in Twin Commanders, Raytheon Beech 65 and 90 series, Cessna 300 and 400 series, Piper PA-23s and PA-24s, and possibly other aircraft as well.

The FAA says the production and repair of these fuel cells do not m…