Search Results for: Citation X

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.

The leaders of 14 aviation organizations sent a dire warning to FAA Administrator Michael Huerta, telling him in a joint letter to do something now to bring down the costs of ADS-B compliance or risk seeing a “significant reduction” in general aviation activity when the ADS-B Out mandate takes effect on Jan. 1, 2020. Writing […]

After our story last year on great values in used aircraft “Aftermarket Stars,” January 2014 our readers told us they wanted more. So here’s Part II. Only this time we’ll focus on airplanes that are in our opinion historically underrated. It’s no secret that over the past three decades the prices of new airplanes have […]

The AOPA Air Safety Foundations annual Nall Report found an increase in accidents involving amateur-built aircraft. The statistics from 2008 showed the highest rate of fatal accidents and fatalities in 10 years. The 27-percent lethality rate in these accidents was 10 full percentage points higher than that for accidents in type-certificated airplanes, according to the report.

Make no mistake about it: Going through a two- to three-week type-rating course is grueling. Many pilots have a strong preference for turboprop aircraft for the explicit reason that no type rating is required. But like the process of flying jets itself, the type course is structured; a specific set of steps impart a specific knowledge to the pilot. The information that must be learned is clear and finite for a type rating. Unfortunately, finite doesnt mean small.

It was a lousy day for a VFR trip — not unusual in coastal Southern California in the spring. We get stratus clouds that come in from the ocean and create low ceilings that last for days. On this particular day we needed to get a package up to Corona Airport, and I did not […]