Search Results for: Citation X

My wife and I flew in our Cessna Cardinal from our home base at Dutchess County Airport to Wallkill, NY for dinner. After dinner, we took off VFR without talking to Departure, since New York is always so busy. We did a practice ILS to Runway 3 at Montgomery/Orange County, an airport not far south, and then started the few miles back home, skirting around the Class D at Stewart International.

Id heard Stevie Ray recite The heat, the light, the auto-ignite during the last two takeoff rolls in the Citation before finally asking him what he was mumbling. Steve was known for cutting sarcasm and a lightning-fast wit; I hesitated to inquire but sensed a piloting technique was in there somewhere. Steve was surprisingly honest: I dont want to miss the pitot heat, the strobes, or the ignition switches when we get our clearance to roll, thats all. But Steve, I asked, we did the checklist and besides, there are no igniters on this bird, right? Maybe not, but our Gulfstream has em and Im not changing my habits. Stunned, all I could do was thoughtfully nod.Back then I would have dismissed Steves practice as feeble, but experience has brought an understanding that we pilots are the weakest link on the airplane-it only takes one bad day to prove it. Good day or bad, there are a number of steps that must be accomplished and it may come down to ritual or habit to see that the job gets done.

Many questions still remain about Tuesday’s horrifying crash of Germanwings Flight 9525 into the French Alps, but the lead prosecutor handling the investigation said today new information suggests the A320’s copilot locked the captain out of the cockpit and deliberately initiated the fateful descent. Still unclear, however, is what specific information investigators have uncovered to […]

It was a growing cumulus cloud, cauliflower-shaped with distinct edges. Our IFR route was taking us right through it. “You’re not going to fly through that, are you? That’s a thunderstorm,” said Martha, clearly alarmed. “Well, yeah. But that’s not a thunderstorm. It’s not tall enough. We’re only at 17,000 feet. Besides, it’s right in […]

Garmin has announced the release of a product for the Experimental market that automatically brings airplanes back to a safe flight attitude if they go beyond certain pitch, bank and airspeed limits. The Electronic Stability and Protection (ESP) concept has already been available in certified airplanes for some time, but now (ESP-X) is also available […]

Textron Aviation is continuing the integration of its Beechcraft, Cessna and Hawker aircraft product lines. Most recently, the Kansas-based mega company has started adding King Air turboprop capabilities to its formerly Citation-focused service centers. The first centers to achieve FAA authorization for King Air services are Sacramento, California; Mesa, Arizona; and Paris, France. These company-owned […]

My brother is an air traffic controller here in our city. My father and I occasionally get the chance to be on frequency with him when his schedules and our flights overlap. Radio transmission quality makes it hard to know for sure if we are talking to him or not.

In a sign of a rebounding market for light and midsize business jets, Textron Aviation reported higher delivery totals, revenue and profits at Cessna for the full year 2014 while also pointing to last year’s acquisition of Beechcraft as providing a major boost to the company’s bottom line. Textron Aviation delivered 159 Cessna business jets […]

Despite the hard work from every segment of aviation, we have to reluctantly admit that there are still unforeseeable factors that can lead to incidents and accidents. From TWA Flight 800 to Air France 447, seemingly standard missions can be hit by disaster, with flight crews left unable to respond adequately, if at all. Through […]

I read Zero-Zero Departures in your December 2014 issue with great interest. Like the author, I have heard over the years many of the same comments about zero-zero departures. They are risky, stupid, crazy, a death-wish, etc. While most of these comments largely are overstatement, unlike the author, I do agree with the naysayers: A zero-zero departure is riskier than a missed approach. The risk is in the first 200 feet the author with a wave of his pen dismisses.