Search Results for: Garmin G1000

The Phenom 100 sitting on the ramp at Clay Lacy Aviation in Van Nuys, California, looked for all the world like a Brazilian airplane, but it wasn’t, at least not entirely. It was, in fact, the second Phenom 100 to be assembled in the United States, at Embraer‘s impressive facility in Melbourne, Florida. The Melbourne […]

(March 2012) Slipping gradually toward an accident is very common, but it is not the only way accidents happen. At the opposite end of the spectrum lie accidents in which a pilot who has always flown in a safe and professional manner makes one critical mistake. One area in which this type of accident is […]

Cessna reached a milestone on Friday when it rolled out its 400th Citation Mustang at its manufacturing plant in Independence, Kansas. The achievement comes slightly more than five years after the first Citation Mustang delivery in November 2006. Since then, the Mustang fleet has averaged 480 hours per airplane, with close to 50 aircraft above […]

The evolution of the Cessna 172 over the years.

(January 2012) The question that was being debated around the halls of NBAA 2011 the other week was about as technical and geeky as it gets: When flying a very low approach, lower even than a decision height of 200 feet, where is the proper place for your “head,” that is, your eyes and your […]

Among the first things pilots learn is what to do if something goes wrong. Instrument pilots get to learn what to do when instruments or the systems powering them fail and how to get back on the ground with what’s left. Back in the days when each instrument was a separate, physical thing instead of a software construct presenting symbols or alphanumeric data, their presentation was relatively well known and predictable. These days, however, those same instruments often have been replaced with what is essentially a computer screen. What happens when it fails?

(September 2011) Anyone who’s been around aviation for any length of time knows that there’s no such thing as a perfect airplane. As good as they are when they come out of the factory, they can almost always be made better with the application of some ingenuity and some well-thought-out hardware. Seemingly simple solutions and […]

My wife and I visited Bell Helicopter in Texas recently for recurrent training in the Bell 407. The day following completion of our training, we had the opportunity to make a 90-minute flight in the new Garmin G1000-equipped Bell 407GX. I have extensive Garmin experience, and have flown G1000-equipped fixed-wing aircraft since Cessna first offered […]

(August 2011) It’s certainly not hard to understand the allure of a new airplane. There’s nothing quite like the smile on the face of a buyer who has just been handed the keys to a brand-new bird. There’s an undeniable pride of ownership there, along with other advantages. New airplanes have the latest features, they’re […]

Here’s a look at a few refurbished aircraft that make buying used an appealing choice.