Search Results for: Garmin G1000

Like just about everybody else, I first saw the Mooney Acclaim on the opening day at this year’s Sun ‘n Fun Fly-In, when Mooney unveiled it before a standing-room only crowd of aviation journalists and interested show-goers. The particular airplane that Mooney unveiled, N312TN, cut a striking figure on thegreen grass that sunny Florida morning, […]

In the February 1975 issue of Flying, I wrote a story comparing a new Bonanza with a used Baron of about the same value. Either a new Bonanza or a four- or five-year-old Baron rang in at just under $100,000 at that time. (A B55 Baron sold for about 65 percent more than a V35B […]

Amid much fanfare at the Sun ‘n Fun Fly-In in April, Mooney launched its new Acclaim piston single. The ceremoney featured a surprise appearance by Mooney CEO Gretchen Jahn, who just before the announcement had snuck into the airplane and was waiting inside as the new model was unveiled. If it meets the manufacturer’s projections, […]

Battery Maintenance
With reference to Its Not A River In Egypt (Learning Experiences, January 2006), I do not agree with the crews judgment to fly the airplane with a known problem. The Barons batteries were in such a low state of charge they would not crank the engines.

External power should never be used when the internal battery power isnt sufficient to start the engine(s). Dead batteries require three to four hours to recharge fully from the aircraft generating system. Therefore they are not considered airworthy in a discharged state.

Batteries that have enough power to crank and start the engine(s) will generally recharge to a reasonable state of charge prior t…

Every pilot who stays reasonably up to date with the march of aviation technology knows that today even pilots of piston singles and light twins can get aviation weather in the cockpit. For those pilots who fly their airplanes for transportation, this is nothing short of a safety revolution. Instead of guessing and hoping and […]

New technologies have brought us very capable glass panels, and theyre popping up everywhere. But has training progressed at the same rate?

I told our son on the phone that I was going to fly a new 206. He asked if that wasn’t the airplane we flew to Alabama on his first birthday. It was. He will be 41 in August. The 206 has been around for a long time. The biggest change over time, up until […]

Aircraft designers have put new effort into accident avoidance and crashworthiness. If only the elements could be adapted to older airplanes

The SR20 still has a troubling accident record. Revamped training might be the key, but its too soon to say if thats working

As I have noted many times, the advances that have taken place in piston airplane development over the past 25 years have been portable. New avionics, better interiors, more powerful engines, improved propellers and even air conditioning can usually be installed in an existing airplane, as well as a newly manufactured one. This evolutionary process […]