Search Results for: Citation X

Flying has obtained information from a law enforcement source about the federal program that detains pilots upon their arrival at their destination airports and searches their airplanes. Training for the program was conducted via an “aviation drug interdiction” class sponsored by HIDTA (High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area), a government organization that is a conglomerate of […]

Tamarack Aerospace Group recently showed good performance results with its Active Winglets, which the Sandpoint, Idaho-based company has been** testing on a Cessna Citation CJ1**. Recently the CJ1 flew from its headquarters in Idaho to White Plains, New York, on one fuel tank — a flight that took 6 hours and 16 minutes and spanned […]

We witness the most powerful Caravan’s remarkable new abilities.

A homebuilt airplane can be built, as the name suggests, in the comfort of your own garage. (Photo courtesy of Justin Twilbeck)| As we all know, the cost of flying has increased tremendously over the past few decades, and today a factory new airplane is too expensive an option for many would-be airplane owners. While […]

Earlier this week at a Cessna Citation owners conference in Wichita, Cessna President and CEO Scott Ernest responded to a blog in Tuesday’s Flying eNews entitled “Cessna CJ Hiatus: End of the Niche Jet.” The article wondered what Cessna’s slowdown in Citation production, announced earlier in the week, might mean in the long run for […]

From paper charts to satellites in space, Flying’s Top 50 Navigation Innovations counts down to the single most noteworthy navigation innovation of all time.

As I was talking with Dr. Martin Smith about the research he and his associates at Presage Group were doing on unstable approaches, he commented that visual approaches “were a little more seductive than instrument approaches in terms of continuing with an approach that is unstable.” Dr. Smith said even though all of the participants […]

SimuFlite’s level-C King Air 200 simulator can be transformed in a few hours from round instruments to a B200 model’s EFIS gear.| Morning light was just beginning to illuminate the New York City skyline in soft shades of lilac and pale vermilion as I swung the King Air 200 onto John F. Kennedy International Airport’s […]

The only time ice on the airframe is a good thing is when it’s tied down and you really didn’t want to go flying today, anyway. Otherwise, it’s always something to be avoided. As we all should have been taught, ice adhering to the wings, tail and other components tends to add weight and drag. If it forms on an airfoil, the surface’s lift characteristics can be dramatically different, in addition to the weight and drag. Bad karma all around. But ice can affect other systems, too. The pitot/static system is problematic, as is the electrical system, as more current is demanded to keep things warm. Depending on the aircraft, ice also can extend the landing gear, fail an engine or cause critical electrical failures. The NASA Aviation Safety Reporting System (ASRS) recently updated one of its database report sets, the one covering icing incidents among commuter and general aviation aircraft. The incident descriptions have several lessons for us and highlight airframe icing’s complications, even if having the stuff on the airfoils turns out not to be a factor.

Sometimes it’s the small things that matter and, if the claims of Premier Aviation out of Concord, California, are true, a simple wheel cover has achieved impressive performance improvements for the Cessna 400 twin-series of airplanes. The company recently received the sign off from the FAA for an STC to install its dome wheel cover […]