Search Results for: bellanca

It was Sunday morning and time to head home. I had been fishing in British Columbia over the previous four days with some of my friends. There were four airplanes in our group, my T-tail Piper Lance II, a Bellanca Aries, a Cessna 210 and a Piper Dakota. We were located about 70 miles southwest […]

Well guys, if theres an aviation subject, other than lean-of-peak EGT, guaranteed to generate a multitude of conflicting opinions, traffic patterns and entries at non-towered airports certainly qualify (Unicom, July). You are to be commended for your bravery in taking it on! Unfortunately, and like so many other aspects of aviation, there is seldom a “one size fits all” situation. As Im sure you are well aware, there is that faction who believe straight-in-approaches are blatantly illegal at non-towered airports. Then there is another group who will blunder straight in regardless of how many aircraft are in the pattern. As always, good judgment must prevail and, unfortunately, there seem to be those few who are totally immune to learning or exercising same! One advantage to the 45 is that it allows you to break off the entry safely if there doesnt seem to be an adequate interval within which to fit, make a 360 away from the airport and try again.

The National Transportation Safety Board has determined that mountain downdrafts-as strong as 400 feet per minute-exceeded the climb capability of Steve Fossett’s borrowed Bellanca Decathlon. He crashed into the side of a mountain in eastern California after taking off from a friend’s ranch airstrip for a pleasure flight. High density altitude (estimated at 13,000 feet) […]

The rear seat (p/n 7-1500; revision B) failed at the left hinge point. The AN3 series bolt pulled through the hinge lugs, which are welded to the seat frame bottom. The right hinge holes show elongation, but remained intact. This aircraft was doing spin training at the time of the incident. Modifying the seat frame to current standards is recommended.

After sitting idle on a ramp for at least 10 months, the airplane underwent maintenance. A strong fuel odor was observed in the cabin; an exterior inspection failed to detect anomalies. The odor subsided. Once the engines were started and the fuel selector placed in crossfeed, the odor returned. After removing the floorboards, a heater duct running perpendicular to the crossfeed lines was observed to be in contact, causing corrosion. Pinhole leaks had developed in both lines, p/n 5300108-53 and -54.

The mere mention of “unusual attitudes” not only raises eyebrows but-as pilots conjure up out-of-control airplanes plummeting from the sky-can measurably elevate stress levels. The phrase is often a catchall, including encounters with inadvertent stalls and spins, wake turbulence, and uncommanded spirals. Yet a stall by itself, though often a precursor to an unusual attitude event, is not an unusual attitude per se.

Autopilots are a fabulous workload management tool. In a busy, single-pilot cockpit they quite literally can be a lifesaver. Weve come to accept their precision and dependability. Theres a growing viewpoint that a functioning autopilot is an essential requirement for all instrument flight-many pilots I know say they would not contemplate IFR without an autopilot.

The modern piston-engine airplane is really a technological marvel. For not that much more in fuel than a large SUV, one can operate an airplane in and through most weather conditions, over long distances and with navigational accuracy unheard of just a few years ago. At our fingertips are all kinds of aeronautical data and weather graphics. We have airborne sensors alerting us to thunderstorms and nearby airplanes. With the right equipment, we can send e-mail or make telephone calls, all from the comfort of our left seat.

Forcasting future trends is difficult in any business, but predicting the direction aviation will move has been particularly inaccurate over the past many decades. Part of the problem is that aviation is fundamentally cyclical, both in the manufacture of airplanes and in their use. Changes in the economy appear to have more to do with […]

It was an August afternoon in 1980 and I had my wife and two business associates in the back of our Cessna 182. We had just spent a successful yet exhausting week at Chicagos McCormick Place for an annual trade show.

We were on our way back to Eugene, Ore., and I had a raging head cold. My wonderful wife had been flying the leg from Iowa to Wyoming, but she elbowed me as we approached Billings, Mon. She said it was IFR ahead and that I needed to take over.

I was sound asleep but rallied to her call. I filed with Salt Lake Center and entered the clouds near Billings.

Understand that we had been in the air for five hours and had emptied our bladders into the onboard containers. In th…