My introduction to the Piper Mirage has been an unusual one, to say the least, because I came to fly the progenitor of the PA-46 line only after I’d flown all of the others, some of them a lot. Before the Piper Mirage, I’d flown three of its spinoffs, the turboprop powered Meridian, the unpressurized […]
Visitors to the National Business Aviation Association (NBAA) convention in Atlanta in October got the first public look at the results of a major transformation from the original proof-of-concept PiperJet. Even the name has changed. It’s now the PiperJet Altaire, and the new look and functionality are much more jetlike than the original’s. The basics […]
June 2010 — Like every other aviation journalist, I’ve been watching the development of the Embraer Phenom 300 for a few years now, and the more I’ve learned about the emerging light jet, the more I’ve come to appreciate just what an innovative airplane it is. It is, in essence, Embraer’s attempt to stretch the […]
June 2010 — BACK IN 1998 FLYING sent ace photographer Paul Bowen to Chicago to photograph a revolutionary new airplane, the Cirrus SR20. Editor-in-chief Mac McClellan flew the airplane and weighed in on such eye-opening new features as the BRS whole-airplane recovery parachute system, the down-and-welded landing gear (unusual at the time for such a […]
June 2010 I HAD HEARD THE NAME REDBIRD Flight Simulations before, but it wasn’t until I got a call from my former Meridian instructor, Bill Inglis, who told me that he was buying a pair of Redbird full-motion simulators for his flight-training company, that I took the opportunity to learn more about the sim maker. […]
We leveled off at 5,500 feet, I set the power, and we watched the Texas Hill Country slide by below us. The three of us, Tom Canavera and Gary Buchanan from Sierra Industries and I, were heading over to Gillespie County Airport in Fredericksburg to grab a bite to eat at the regionally famous and […]
The FAAs Wide Area Augmentation System (WAAS) has been widely hyped as a boon to safety because it offers more precise approach guidance with vertical capability. While thats true on some approaches, it can also cost an aircraft owner a bundle of money. Worse, the market offers limited choices in equipment-Garmins GNS430/530W and G1000 are among the short list. There are plenty of reasons to buy WAAS, and for many new installations WAAS comes standard. Theres also ADS-B, which relies on a WAAS-enhanced GPS position. But is the safety enhancement worth the upgrade costs for the typical pilot? And what exactly are you getting out of the WAAS deal?
Cutter Aviation takes a derelict C90 King Air and makes it look like a million bucks. Well, a million and a half, to be exact.
There used to be this guy on late-night television who would promote a home decorating store and would yell, “It ain’t just paint!” Wandering around Wittman Field at Oshkosh during AirVenture, I was reminded once again that, for me, the annual gathering “ain’t just planes!” Sure, on display there were more than 2,500 airplanes of […]
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