Modifications & Maintenance

Take out your pilot logbook. Have you logged fewer hours this year? A slow economy will do that. Making the decision to pump that disposable income — don’t you love that term? — into your airplane’s fuel tank can be difficult, especially when the disposable-income pool isn’t what it used to be. Yet if airplanes […]

Blackhawk Aerospace says replacing a stock King Air 300’s PT6A-60A engines on 12,500-pound and 14,000-pound gross weight models with the Pratt & Whitney Canada PT6A-67A engines while adding a new Hartzell optimized composite five-blade swept propeller will create a King Air that delivers a maximum speed of over 340 knots. This new airplane is made […]

Turbine conversion company Blackhawk Modifications is celebrating its 20th anniversary this year with a bang. The company is doubling the size of its facility at the Waco Regional Airport (KACT) in Waco, Texas, adding hangar and office space. As part of the physical expansion, the company is gathering four groups under an umbrella company named […]

Making a good aviation product better is a concept as old as capitalistic ingenuity itself. OEMs release improved versions of their best airplanes and power plants, each perhaps a bit faster or more versatile than its predecessor. Not everyone can afford the latest edition of a machine, of course, nor does everyone want one. Some […]

With the ADS-B mandate quickly approaching, Textron Aviation announced that its service centers are offering ADS-B retrofits for an expanding number of models. The manufacturer announced this week that it recently achieved certification for an ADS-B Out solution for the Cessna Citation Mustang. Earlier this year Textron Aviation issued 10 service bulletins for ADS-B equipment […]

Turboprop engine-upgrade company Blackhawk Modifications this week announced progress toward a supplemental type certificate (STC) that will boost performance in the workhorse Beechcraft King Air 350. The Waco, Texas-based company recently submitted a flight test plan to the FAA for the engine upgrade that will replace the original Pratt & Whitney 1,050 shp PT6A-60A engines […]

A few years back, my parents bought a beautiful tiled wood stove for their home. The first year, they bought a light truckload of wood. But Dad found buying wood to be a pricey way to feed the stove. Being retired with spare time on his hands and the desire for physical work, he decided […]

LAM Aviation in San Francisco this week announced a new wing flight control system aimed at providing a low-risk method for improving GA airplane performance, handling and overall operational safety. The LAM system replaces an airplane’s traditionally separate aileron and flaps, allowing a new, potentially smaller wing to combine these controls in a variety of […]

Owners of pre-NG Pilatus PC-12s hankering to upgrade their airplane’s original P&W PT-6 engine, can now add a Hartzell five-blade composite swept-tip propeller when the work is completed by Broomfield, Colorado-based Finnoff Aviation. The upgraded prop, now standard on new PC-12s, is 5 pounds lighter than the original aluminum four-blade Hartzell standard on nearly 800 […]

The cost and hassle of complying with the FAA’s 2020 ADS-B Out mandate is vexing many aircraft owners, but quite a few of us are already enjoying the benefits of ADS-B In: real-time weather, Nexrad radar and traffic information, all for free. There are a number of feature-rich portable receivers on the market, like the […]