THE AMAZING PLANES OF AIRVENTURE OSHKOSH 2017

OCTOBER 2017

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CIRRUS SF50
VISION JET
A Revolution In Personal Flying

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i sid
OCT. 2017 VOL. 53 NO. 9

❯FEATURES

24 HOW TO KEEP FROM GOING

MISSING…FOREVER
Handheld devices give pilots a
way to ensure that, if they survive
a crash, searchers will be able to
find them, and quickly.
By Kate O’Connor

34 PLANE & PILOT 2017

PLANES OF THE YEAR
Our inaugural recognition of the
best new planes of the last 12
months.
Forward by Robert Goyer,
Editor-in-Chief

38 THE (UN)NATURAL
For plenty of pilots, learning to
fly an airplane doesn’t come
Cirrus SF50
naturally. Vision Jet
PAGE 34
By John Bishop

42 MASTERPIECE
GALLERY: AIRVENTURE
OSHKOSH 2017
Legendary aviation photographer
Jim Koepnick captured the magic
of the midsummer pageant that
is AirVenture.
Photography by Jim Koepnick

❯ VISIT THE PLANE & PILOT® WEBSITE AT PLANEANDPILOTMAG.COM

 inside
❯SPACES
8 GOING DIRECT
Business
Is Personal
By Robert Goyer

10 PLANE FACTS
Very Light Jets
12 ACCIDENT BRIEFS
Reports From The NTSB 20
14 GEAR
Cool Pilot Stuff
18 AIRFARE
Back To The Airport, Stat
By Jeremy King

20 LESSONS LEARNED
ABOUT FLYING
(and about life)
Sharing The Dream
By Nathan Schmieg

30 RISK 14 8
IMC To VMC?
By Alan Furr

56 AFTER THE ACCIDENT

Were These Two Pilots
Really Incapacitated?
By Peter Katz

60 LET IT ROLL
Fear Of Flying
By Patty Wagstaff
62
60
62 CROSS-COUNTRY LOG
Then And Now:
Spiral Instability
By Bill Cox

64 CONTRAILS
The Greatest Plane In
Oshkosh History
By Robert Goyer

64
ON THE COVER: Cirrus SF50
Vision Jet. We name the
2017 Planes of the Year.

2 OCTOBER 2017 Ç Plane&Pilot

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 Truly quiet flight planeandpilotmag.com
EDITORIAL
VP, Aviation Group / Editor-in-Chief
Robert Goyer
Senior Editors
Bill Cox, Lou Churchville, James Wynbrandt
Senior Technical Editor
Grant Opperman
Managing Editor
Maggie Devcich
· Hearing protection – block the Associate Editor
noise, save your hearing Kathleen O'Connor
Contributing Editors
· Comfort – no more heat, Kathleen Bangs, Jason Blair
pressure, or headaches Peter Katz, Jeremy King, W. Scott Olsen
Eric Radtke, Bradley Sunshine
· Clarity – Hear what the Mark Vanhoenacker, Patty Wagstaff
audiophiles are raving about ART & PRODUCTION
Art Director
Carolyn V. Marsden
Graphic Designer
Nate Silva
SALES & MARKETING
Vice President, Media Solutions
Stuart Crystal

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Michael Echevarria
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Marketing Director
Andrew Yeum
Marketing Associate
Briana Balboni

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4 OCTOBER 2017 Ç Plane&Pilot

 AV I AT I O N

Michael Goulian, Champion Aerobatic // Air Race Pilot

Why Michael flies with the Bose A20 headset.

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 GOING DIRECT
By Robert Goyer

Business
Is Personal
T
he National Business Aviation Association (NBAA)
Convention in Las Vegas is fast approaching—“fast”
being the operative term in all things related to the
activity. While business aviation has been dominated by
turbine-powered equipment for decades now, that wasn’t
always the case. The first business aircraft, dating back more
than 70 years now, were piston-powered personal machines,
including the Cessna 195, with its throwback seven-cylinder
radial engine and Art Deco design. Recently named by this
title as one of the 10 Most Beautiful GA Planes ever, the 195
has a special place in business aviation history.
As devotees of the 195 might know, Cessna named the
plane “The Business Liner,” and while the folks in Wichita
in the ’40s might seem today to have been stretching the
definition, at the time, it was right on the money. With a
still-fledgling aviation infrastructure, including far fewer
airliners flying about and far fewer destinations for them,

PHOTO: “1948 CESSNA 195 (N4339V)” BY D. MILLER – CC BY 2.0/FLICKR

small personal transportation made a lot of sense back
then. This is especially true since in the ’40s traveling for
business often meant driving a car, so an airplane, even a
150-knot cruiser like the 195, could make a really long day
a much shorter one, or it could condense a three-day trip
into one or two days.
And you know what? Nothing has changed. A couple
of months back, I flew to Oshkosh for AirVenture in my
Skylane. I’ll admit it: Austin to Oshkosh in a Cessna 182 is
a long cross-country flight. But at the same time, my com-
mercial airfare options were not great. Because Oshkosh is
a regional destination, you can’t get there nonstop on the
airlines. Also, because nearby Appleton and less-nearby
Green Bay are the airline airports in the area, and neither
one pretends to be O’Hare (or even Milwaukee, for that mat-
ter), you have to pay extra to travel there and then drive for
a while to get to Oshkosh once you do arrive.
So my flight all the way up to Oshkosh, and directly
into Oshkosh, I might add, was a deal. In terms of fuel, it
County airport in Paola, Kansas ($3.40 fuel and some great
barbeque at the on-airport joint, We Be Smokin.)
My next stop was Oshkosh. My total time, my door-to-
tied-down at KOSH, was about nine hours. That’s a long
day, for sure, but it would have taken just as long to fly
United, when you include the trip through security, travel to
Oshkosh from Green Bay or Appleton, and when I arrived,
I was exactly where I wanted to be.
I find that unless I’m traveling really far or to a major
airline destination, flying in the Skylane is competitive in
terms of cost. I reach that conclusion without factoring in
the cost of ownership, which I don’t because I’d own the
airplane anyway. And if you have to make a connection on
the airlines, on most trips the time invested is pretty close,
too. Besides, that first sip of coffee when I level off at my
cruise altitude, slide my seat back a couple of notches and
watch the world slide by below, well, that’s a feeling that the
airlines could never, ever, ever, ever hope to compete with.
I probably should have used a few more “evers.”
PORTRAIT: LARA TOMLIN

was about a wash. I spent around $400 each way—thanks

to Garmin Pilot’s fuel pricing feature that helped me find BIZJETS: LOVE AND HATE
cheap fuel—so my “airfare” was a little more than it would I’ve been working at aviation magazines for a while now,
have been for a ticket on United. My time enroute was 7.3 and one of the complaints I hear most often has to do with
hours, with an added 45 minutes for fuel and lunch at Miami coverage of turbine-powered aircraft, the question being,

8 OCTOBER 2017 Ç Plane&Pilot

why would we cover something that so few people can afford. issue, is a revolutionary technology, and as much as we love
It’s a good question, and a fair one, too. At Plane & Pilot we the planes of the past, we have our eyes on the future, too.
are about two words, and they’re both in our title. If it’s a I might not have flat panels in my Skylane yet, but it’s very
plane that people own and fly themselves, we want to tell possible that it will happen before too long. Technology
everyone all about it. makes old planes better, safer and more reliable. It’s not a
There are several really good reasons for this. Perhaps cure-all for the woes our older planes suffer, but it helps a lot.
first off, just because I own a Skylane today Lastly, business aviation means a lot to
doesn’t mean I won’t have a Cirrus Jet or ❯❯ The first business aircraft, those of us who fly smaller, usually piston-
a TBM in my hangar in a few years. Is it dating back more than 70 powered planes. While we might complain
likely? You won’t have to ask my accountant years now, were piston- about fuel prices and ramp fees and the
that, which is good, because I don’t have like, the power that business aviation has
an accountant. The answer is “no.” Still, is
powered personal machines, to help protect all of private aviation is
it possible that it will happen? Absolutely. including the Cessna 195, something all of us benefit from every day
And even if it doesn’t happen, as is the with its throwback seven- our local airport is kept open and we know
likelihood, I will tell you right now that cylinder radial engine and Art we can get fuel there and at other airports
I’d love for it to happen. I wouldn’t get rid Deco design. along our way. Business aviation is about
of my Skylane. I’d add to my fleet. I have a infrastructure and jobs and innovation.
good friend whose first plane was a Quicksilver ultralight. Sure, there are very few of us who can afford to fly a Piper
He owns a few planes today, including a small jet, which he M600 or an Eclipse Jet, but my hat’s off to those who can
flies for business and for family visits. I can guarantee you afford to. And you know what? Many pilots who own and fly
that he was keeping his eye on turbine-powered planes even a Citation have an Aviat Husky, a Robinson R44 or a Cessna
in those ultralight days. 195 back in the hangar, ready to be broken out and taken
Another reason we cover turbines is that the technology for a ride on those special occasions when flying calls less
is just so cool. The Cirrus Jet, as you’ll see elsewhere in this for speed and a little more for joy. PP

planeandpilotmag.com 9
 PLANE
Very Light Jets
Year that the term VLJ became widely used: Around 2000

Widely accepted definition of VLJ:

Sub-10,000 pounds, single-pilot

First VLJ, kind of: Fouga Magister, single- First delivery: December 31, 2006
engine, 7,055 lbs, 385 knots, FL300
3HYNLZ[ZPUNSLVYKLY! 1,400 aircraft by DayJet
Introduced: 1956 for military training
Number of aircraft accepted by DayJet: 28
Number built: Just under 1,000
Stated purpose: Proposed large-scale, per-
5\TILYÅ`PUN[VKH`! Unknown, but still a popular civilian plane seat, on-demand air taxi operations

Companies today that have rejected VLJ name: Fate of such operations: Never happened
Cessna, Diamond, Embraer, Piper

Eclipse 500 production halted: October 2008

First large-scale VLJ program: Eclipse 500
Reason: Lack of capital—company entered bankruptcy
First certificated VLJ: Cessna Mustang, 2006
Rumored debt at time of bankruptcy: $1 billion

-\SS-(([`WLJLY[PÄJH[PVUMVY4\Z[HUNYLJLP]LK! September 8, 2006 Number of Eclipse 500s built: 260

-PYZ[ÅPNO[! April 2005 Advertised replacement: Citation M2

First production model delivered: November 22, 2006 4[`WL! C525 CitationJet

9HUNL! 1,167 nm First C525 delivery: 1991

4\Z[HUNWYVK\J[PVULUKLK! May 2017 First VLJ with whole-aircraft ballistic parachute: Cirrus Vision Jet

9LHZVUNP]LU! Lack of demand

Reason widely believed: Price point too close to M2

First single-engine VLJ to receive

PHOTO: “FOUGA CM.170M MAGISTER NO.1” BY RUTHAS – CC BY-SA 3.0/WIKIMEDIA COMMONS

FAA certification: Vision Jet
Number of Mustangs built: 472 -(([`WLJLY[PÄJH[PVUKH[L!6J[VILYÄYZ[ÅPNO[1\S`

Cost, 2015: $3.35 million Cruise speed: 300 ktas

4VZ[ZOPWWLKPUVUL`LHY ! 125 Vision Jet cost, 2017: $1.96 million

Number of orders: 600+

First 6,000-pound VLJ: Eclipse 500 :PUNSLLUNPUL=31\UKLYKL]LSVWTLU[! Stratos 714

-PYZ[ÅPNO[! August 2002 -PYZ[ÅPNO[! November 2016

(K]LY[PZLKYHUNL! Around 1,500 nm

Awards: 2005 Collier Trophy
4H_PT\TJY\PZLZWLLKWYV]PZPVUHS! 402 ktas

-\SS-(([`WLJLY[PÄJH[PVUYLJLP]LK! September 30, 2006 *LY[PÄJH[PVU[PTL[HISL! Pending funding

10 OCTOBER 2017 Ç Plane&Pilot

 ACCIDENTBRIEFS
ICON A5
Lake Berryessa, CA: 2 Fatal
The commercial pilot departed in the light sport,
amphibious airplane during daytime visual meteoro-
logical conditions to perform a new employee famil-
iarization flight with the passenger, who the company
had recently hired. A witness, who was in a boat on
a lake, reported seeing the accident airplane flying
about 30 to 50 feet over the water at what appeared
to be between 30 to 40 mph. The witness added that,
as the airplane passed by his position and entered a
nearby cove, which was surrounded by rising terrain
on either side and at its end, he heard the engine “rev
up and accelerate hard” as the airplane approached
the right side of the canyon “in what appeared to be
an effort to climb out of ” the canyon. Subsequently,
the airplane climbed to about 100 feet above the
water and entered a left turn as it began to descend
before it flew beyond the witness’s field of view. The
witness stated that he heard the sound of impact
shortly after losing sight of the airplane.
Review of recorded data from two separate record-
ing devices installed in the airplane revealed that,
about 15 minutes after departure, the airplane started
a descent from 3,700 feet GPS altitude. About 7 min-
utes later, it had descended to 450 feet GPS altitude
and turned to a northerly heading, staying over the
water between the shorelines. About 46 seconds later,
at a GPS altitude of 450 feet and 54 knots indicated
airspeed (KIAS), the airplane entered the cove. About
20 seconds later, engine power was increased, and the
PIPER PA-18 SUPER CUB
Greenville, Michigan: 2 Serious
The private pilot reported that, during the takeoff climb for
the personal cross-country flight, he turned the airplane
too early and at too low of an altitude to clear the trees
ahead. The pilot then turned the airplane to avoid the
trees, and it stalled. As he continued to try to maneuver
the airplane away from the trees, the airplane entered a
secondary stall, descended, and impacted terrain in a ver-
tical attitude. There were no mechanical anomalies with
the airplane, engine, or related systems that would have
precluded normal operation.
PROBABLE CAUSE: The pilot’s premature turn during
the takeoff climb and subsequent turn to avoid trees, which
resulted in his exceedance of the airplane’s critical angle-of-
attack and a subsequent aerodynamic stall.
12 OCTOBER 2017 Ç Plane&Pilot
airplane began to climb while it turned slightly right
before initiating a left turn. The airplane reached a
maximum GPS altitude of 506 feet before it began to
descend. Shortly after, the airplane impacted terrain
at a GPS altitude of 470 feet and 66 KIAS. Postaccident
examination of the airframe and engine revealed no
evidence of any preexisting mechanical malfunctions
that would have precluded normal operation.
It is likely that the pilot mistakenly thought the
canyon that he entered was a different canyon that led
to the larger, open portion of the lake. Additionally, it
is likely that, once the pilot realized there was no exit
from the canyon, he attempted to perform a 180° left
turn to exit in the direction from which he entered.
Based upon performance information outlined in the
Pilot’s Operating Handbook for the accident airplane,
the airplane’s altitude above the water’s surface and
its indicated airspeed, and the ridge line elevations
in the area adjacent to the accident site, the airplane
would have not been able to climb out of the rising
terrain that surrounded the area, which led to his
failure to maintain clearance from terrain.
PROBABLE CAUSE: The pilot’s failure to maintain
clearance from terrain while maneuvering at a low
altitude. Contributing to the accident was the pilot’s
mistaken entry into a canyon surrounded by steep rising
terrain while at a low altitude for reasons that could not
be determined.
AIR TRACTOR INC AT 802
Prosser, WA: 1 Uninjured
The pilot of the tailwheel-equipped airplane reported that,
during an agricultural application flight, about 800 ft into
the takeoff roll on a gravel airstrip, he veered the airplane
to the right to avoid hay bales that were stacked on the
left side of the runway. He added that, as the airplane
veered right, the right-wing spray boom encountered tall
wheat, and the airplane exited the right side of the runway.
Subsequently, the airplane came to rest nose down.
The airplane sustained substantial damage to the
left wing.
The pilot reported that there were no preaccident
mechanical failures or malfunctions with the airplane that
would have precluded normal operation.
PROBABLE CAUSE: The pilot’s abrupt maneuver to avoid
hay bales during the takeoff roll, which resulted in a loss of
directional control.
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Garmin D2 Charlie Pilot Watch
Since it introduced the first model five years ago, the Garmin D2 (for “Direct To”) has been
a popular item for the company, and every year or two it comes out with a new model that’s
slimmer, better looking and more feature-rich. This year’s D2 watch is up to Charlie (the
Bravo was the second iteration, because the D2 name wouldn’t make sense anymore as the
“D3,” right?). Anyway, D2 Charlie has a remarkable new feature: radar.
No, there’s not a radar pod you wear on your head to get the weather; the watch interfaces
with your smartphone or as a member of Garmin’s connected cockpit, communicating with a
number of compatible devices to get METARS, TAFS, NexRad radar and much more. There’s
also, as in previous versions of the D2, flight planning, airport info, a flight timer (which is
handy for switching fuel tanks), and even a baro-based O2 function that alerts you when
you might want to be on supplemental oxygen. There’s much more, of course, including a
number of non-aviation-specific functions for when you’re on the road or on the trail.
Cost of the D2 Charlie is $799 for the leather band version and $999 for the Titanium
edition. Both come with a rubber quick-change band and lifetime watch data.
• garmin.com/aviation

Bendix/King KI 30
Last year when Bendix/King announced its I 300 replacement atti-
de indicator, a lot of people—including us— —loved the things it did.
There were also a lot of folks who wanted ore.
background, the KI 300 is a solid-sta replacement attitude
indicator with a bright display that can take e place of an older
mechanical AI while allowing you to upgrade to digital attitude (instead
of failure-prone vacuum-powered attitude). T e original KI 300, which
atures a built-in MEMS-based attitude sensoor, lacked a few really
desirable features, including airspeed, altitu , VSI and flight direc-
r capability.
In the current version, Bendix/King has ad d all of those features.
e unit is primary for attitude, so you can find a new home for your
mechanical attitude indicator. The KI 300 is for reference for airspeed,
altitude and VSI, so you’ll need to retain those riginal mechanical
instruments (or some other acceptable primary version of them) in
ur panel.
e KI 300 starts at $4,995 without the fligh director capability.
th the command bars, it sells for $5,995. For planes
p that need a
yaw rate gyro, the KI 300 can be upgraded to p vide that function
as well and replace the airplane’s mechanical ya rate gyro with a
solid-state component.
top of that B di /King is offering a trade-in offer for your old KI
256 attitude indicator. The bounty: $256. Ha! • bendixking.com

14 OCTOBER 2017 Ç Plane&Pilot

Test Flight: $199 ForeFlight
Scout ADS-B Receiver
How does ForeFlight’s thumb-sized ADS-B receiver measure
up compared to the competition? We take it on the busiest
route in the world to find out!
BY ROBERT GOYER
When I first saw the news that ForeFlight was
coming out with a $199 USB thumb-drive-sized
ADS-B device I was curious...but not sold. While
I liked the idea, I wanted to see how it worked.
So I decided to give it the ultimate test drive,
taking it into the hornet’s nest that is the Ripon
Arrival into KOSH.
I got the little Scout unit the day before I
left for AirVenture in my 182. I had ForeFlight
already loaded on my large-display iPhone 7
Plus, and the phone made the WiFi connection
right off the bat. Scout is tiny, only the size of a
largish USB thumb drive, and you can position it
anywhere you’d like using the cute little suction
cups that come with the unit. I put it on the
windscreen out of my line of sight. There’s no
battery in the Scout unit, so you need to run a
micro USB cable to the bottom of the receiver
and then plug it in to some USB port. I had an
external USB battery handy, so I plugged Scout
into that and just put the battery in the sidewall
pocket and forgot about it. It’s a pretty big bat-
tery and the Scout draws very little current…I
was guessing I had about a week’s worth of
charge available, and I’m not kidding.
For those of you who haven’t survived the
procedure themselves, the Oshkosh arrival from
th south
the th ffunnelsl roughly
hl four
f outt off every fifive
aircraft arriving at KOSH through a single
feeder lane, to RIPON intersection,
then to Fisk and then off to
one of four runway
ends, 36, 18, 27 or 9, depending on which way
the wind is blowing.
Soon after I took off from San Marcos, where
I keep my Skylane, I started picking up returns.
In addition to lacking a battery, Scout is also
missing a GPS receiver. It’s strictly an ADS-B
receiver. There’s no attitude indicator to drive
the synthetic vision in ForeFlight, and there’s
certainly no Sirius XM Aviation Weather, either. It
is a barebones unit. But how useful is it?
Despite its lean design, I found that Scout
was great at doing the two things it does do:
showing traffic and showing weather. I don’t
have a theory for why it is, but Scout was
tenacious at locking on to a tower’s signal and
not letting go. There’s no display of any kind on
Scout, just a power supplied indicator light, so
you control it through your device on ForeFlight.
I did run into one problem on a few occa-
sions, one that can happen on any portable
ADS-B receiver from any brand but that might
rightfully concern pilots: I saw a phantom air-
plane, at or very close to me in altitude and very
close behind me. I guessed and was right that
there was no second airplane there—I was talk-
ing with ATC the whole time and they never said
a word. Not only that, but when I queried them
b t th
about t
the return, th t ll nicely
the controller i l ttold
ld me
that he only saw my return. Because my plane
is not YET equipped with ADS-B Out, I was
seeing my plane’s Mode-C return
rebroadcast up to me through
the TIS-B traffic
system and displayed back to me via Scout on
my ForeFlight app. One clue to what was going
on was that there was no ADS-B information on
the aircraft symbol and the plane was never in
front of me; its distance behind me was appar-
ently a function of the latency of the system.
Still, it was disconcerting. And ForeFlight says
that it’s working to cut down on such ghosting
issues on the Scout’s software.
Looking ahead to the Ripon Arrival, even
when it was still a hundred miles out, I could see
traffic, and lots of it. So thick were the targets
as I got closer that it soon dawned on me that I
would have to disable traffic in order to see map
data, such as waypoint names and geographi-
cal features. But Scout was picking up so many
targets even in this over-busy environment it
was clear that it was up for any challenge.
Weather, while not an issue on my arrival,
was still very useful, as the forecast had been
for storms. They stayed well east of Lake
Michigan as it turned outout, so I had great
gr weather
for the arrival.
Scout couldn’t help in any way witth my deal-
ing with the slow-flight demonstration that the
pilot in the Citabria in front of me wass putting
on. But it did make me grateful that I did indeed
have all that traffic information. And if I hope
that next time I have a lot less traffic information
it’s only because I hope that next time there will
be a lot less traffic. • foreflight.com m
planeandpilootmag.com 15
GEAR Dual Electronics
XGPS170D
ADS-B Receiver
Dual Electronics has introduced a portable ADS-B
receiver that builds on the strengths of its previous
products. The dual-band, GPS-equipped unit gets
free Flight Information Service Broadcast (FIS-B)
weather and Traffic Information Service Broadcast
(TIS-B) traffic data.
Like other units of its type, the Dual Electronics
receiver can display its information on a variety of
separate devices. The unit is compatible with several
electronic flight bag apps on iPad, Android, and
Windows devices including AvPlan, FltPln Go and
iFlyGPS. It will also work with some non-certified GRT
EFIS devices. The XGPS170D can connect with up to
two devices simultaneously via Bluetooth.
In addition to its airborne features, the XGPS170D
can also act as a navigation device on the ground,
though the company points out the obvious, that it
probably won’t be able to receive any ADS-B weather
(or traffic!) data at ground level. It comes with a
non-slip pad designed to reduce vibration, a 12-30V
charging adapter and a wall charger. Its lithium-ion
battery is rechargeable and will last for up to five
hours per charge. Cost for the unit is $599.99. No
subscription is required. • gps.dualav.com

Approach Aviation Fl l rt
Multifunction Annuncciator
Recently certified for all Part 23 aircraft, Approach
Aviation’s new FlexAlert Multifunction Annnunciator
provides a way to group many critical warning and
condition annunciations into one displayy. The unit is
compact—3 inches wide and 1.3 inch tall—with
the idea that it can be mounted directlyy in the pilot’s
field of view on most panels. It can be configured
c for
either fixed- or retractable-gear and c operate on
both 14V and 28V electrical systems.
The FlexAlert Multifunction Annunc tor includes
alerts for landing gear status, engine, oil and fuel pres-
sure, low fuel, pitot heat, low or over vvoltage, alternator
failure, doors, starter engaged, vacu m failure ndd
autopilot glideslope capture. The LE display s d -
mable and the landing gear indicato will wo for both
land and seaplanes. The annunciator will begin i ship-
hip
ping on August 1st at an introductory price of $699. •
approachaviation.com

16 OCTOBER 2017 Ç Plane&Pilot

 +

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©2017 Garmin Ltd. or its subsidiaries.

AIRFARE
By Jeremy King
Back To The
Airport, Stat
An inflight medical emergency leaves
no time to waste and no room to rush
W
hether your ground school was a set of video les-
sons or an instructor with a chalkboard, certainly
at some point in every pilot’s training, the “Aviate,
Navigate, Communicate” adage reared its head. I can still
hear the old instructors drumming the message home.
“Fly the plane and make sure that you’re not about to hit a
mountain or a tower,” they’d preach. “You can pick up the
microphone and worry about the controllers later.”
It’s a great idea when you’re training to fly alone. The
world of multi-crew aircraft, however, comes with its own
set of communication challenges. Captains and first officers
can’t read minds; and then there’s the flight deck door. In
addition to being intrusion-resistant, it can also hamper
messages relayed between the cabin and the flight deck.
Communicating on the flight deck was one of the biggest
challenges I faced when I joined the airline industry. After
years of flying airplanes alone, I wasn’t used to having to
explain myself. In a dual-pilot environment, the pilot flying
is usually not the one talking on the radio or manipulating
the landing gear and flaps. As a result, airlines have stan-
dardized procedures and profiles we fly so that there’s little
guesswork involved. Still, when you get right down to it,
learning to fly an airplane with an intermediary between
you and the controller is a process.
Flight instruction is by far the most common stepping
stone to flying at a regional carrier, so the question that
pilots automatically ask a new hire is, “Where did you
instruct?” My reply was quick and almost as automatic.
“I was a mechanic. I was flying planes that were trying to
kill me. I didn’t need students also trying for the same.” As
I grew comfortable with the airline flying, though, I came
to appreciate how much the communication skills of being
an instructor would have helped.
In an emergency, communication and crew coordina-
tion are paramount. On a recent flight from Atlanta to
Monterrey, Mexico, we were just above 10,000 feet when a
18 OCTOBER 2017 Ç Plane&Pilot
flight attendant called in a near panic. “We’ve got someone
back here in a seizure or convulsions.”
From the moment we declared an emergency, Atlanta
cleared every obstacle from our path. That rule about
250 knots below 10,000 feet? Any speed you desire, they
said. Emergency authority. All they asked of us was souls
onboard, fuel onboard, and the nature of our emergency.
The instinct to rush in moments like this is strong indeed.
The words of an old-timer ring true to this day—step
one of most any emergency should be to stop, wind your
watch, and make sure it’s properly set. The idea isn’t that
the investigators will use your broken watch to reconstruct
any part of the series of events. Instead, the goal is for you
to take a deep breath, see what’s going on around you, and
avoid rushing into any traps along the way. Unfortunately,
when you’ve got someone just a few feet behind your seat
experiencing a medical emergency, it’s mighty difficult to
resist the urge to hurry along. When quick action is needed,
it’s always good to consult some official guidance to ensure
nothing gets missed. Our reference cards for landing speeds
and performance assessments have a section with a diver-
sion checklist. With that page opened up on the center
console, we began the process of returning to Atlanta.
We performed a landing distance assessment to ensure
we didn’t need one of the longer runways. Having burned
off little of the seven-plus tons of fuel we’d left with, we
needed a little consideration for the overweight landing
ahead of us. CRJs have no means to dump fuel. While the
overweight landing is not a big deal, we do have to notify
maintenance. We needed a gate to park at. We called our
dispatcher, who helped coordinate emergency responders
and made preparations for the eventual continuation of our
flight to Monterrey. The captain checked in with the flight
attendants periodically to update them with our progress
and to ask if they had any new information. While it seemed
at times that he was spinning bald tires in a field of slush,
he had the presence of mind to take a deep breath every
once in a while to see what was developing. “Do you have
everything you need? Is there anything I need to know
that I missed out on while I was heads-down? Here’s what
I’ve done; can you think of any bases I’ve failed to cover?”
With those three questions answered, we went from two
guys knocking out a long list of separate tasks to working
as a coordinated team for the last few minutes of the flight.
As we neared the airport, the flight attendants relayed
bits of information to us about the customer’s symptoms.
Then they mentioned he wasn’t an English speaker. We
relayed all this to the folks in Atlanta.
When we landed, medics whisked our patient off the
plane and onto a gurney. We stayed on the plane to deal
with the maintenance write-up for the overweight landing.
Then we looked at our watches. The day was scheduled
PORTRAIT: LARA TOMLIN
right at the limits of duty per FAR part 117. This pushed us
well beyond that limit. One call to scheduling redirected
a reserve crew to fly the trip. The captain and I were sent
home for the night.
We stow our crew bags in the overhead bins at the very
back of the airplane. As I made my way aft to retrieve mine,
the captain leaned in close over my shoulder. “Hey, Jeremy,
would you mind picking up my bag while you’re back there?
I’ll buy you a beer at the next overnight.” I laughed and gave
him grief for not wanting to wade back through the plane,
but I went and pulled his bag down with mine. As I did, a
passenger very politely asked for a moment of my time.
The exhaustion of a long duty day coupled with the stress
and exhilaration of what we’d just done hit me like a ton of
bricks. I turned my bag sideways, collapsed the handle, and
sat on it like a milk stool. I braced for a tongue-lashing from
a frustrated passenger.
“I just wanted to say thank you. We could see the guy from
all the way back here. He was in a bad way. I’m not a pilot,
but I fly a lot, and I could tell you weren’t flying the plane
the way you normally would. You got us down in a hurry,”
she said. “Knowing that you’d take that action for any of us
in the same scenario makes me even more confident about
air travel. Thank you.”
It was the complete opposite of what I’d expected.
Completely off guard and trying to keep from getting emo-
tional, I stammered out a “you’re-welcome-it’s-all-in-a-day’s-
work,” and started to stand. She touched my elbow—not
an advance, just an affirmation of her sincerity. “No, really.
Thank you so much.” Everyone nearby echoed her senti-
ments. Instead of rioting at the thought of being so late to
the destination, our customers had mustered more humanity
than I could have ever hoped for as they expressed genuine
concern for a fellow traveler.
As I walked away from the plane, I saw paramedics and
customer service agents huddled around our customer with
the medical issues. I saw him smiling and trying to commu-
nicate with the medics. Curious to know how he was faring,
I walked over.
It turns out when we said “non-English speaker,” every-
one on the ground assumed our customer in distress spoke
Spanish. I caught a few clipped words as I walked up, and
noticed all the translators looking mighty sheepishly at
one another.
“Deutsche?”
His eyes cut to me in a hurry.
“Hilfe.” Help.
Foreign languages were my downfall in college, but before
the instructor kindly suggested a switch to Spanish, I made
it through a semester and a half of German. I stuttered out a
few halting words of his native tongue, tempered with apolo-
gies, while I unlocked my phone. With what bits remained
in my gray matter and some help from a translating app, we
established that he’d been awake for 30-plus hours without a
lot of food or hydration. The medical experts deemed it rea-
sonable that his body had begun a violent protest. He asked
if he could continue to Mexico. “These men suggest you stay
here tonight and get some rest.” He made his decision, and I
headed home, shaking my head at how a simple assumption
wound up compounding an already-tense situation.
Being able to laugh at the end of the day is a big plus in
air travel, but as I walked to my truck, there wasn’t even the
grin that usually fights for control of my face. I don’t know
how close our passenger came to dying. Maybe it was nearly
life-threatening, or maybe he would have pulled through
on his own. I was comforted with the reminder that we’re
trained and paid as professionals because these sorts of
things happen.
Even on the challenging days, flying still beats working
for a living. PP
Jeremy King is an airline pilot from Atlanta, Georgia. He and
his wife, Amy, are restoring a 1945 Piper J-3 Cub.
planeandpilotmag.com 19
LESSON EARNED
ABOUT FLYING (AND ABOUT LIFE)

Sharing The Dream

Chance meetings and a mutual
love of aviation pass along
the passion and joy of flying
By Nathan Schmieg

W
e’ve all seen that
“annoying” ramp kid who
wants to do nothing but
talk about your airplane.
Even if you’re trying to make a quick
turn for an important client, this kid just
wants to ask about your plane. Well, that
annoying kid working the ramp was me.
If I’d just gotten done putting gas in your
aircraft, I would stick around and ask
questions until the moment you closed
the doors and started the engines. It was
a wonder I didn’t hang onto the strut,
still shouting questions as the plane
taxied away.
After getting my private pilot’s license,
I finally felt as though I had a connection
with those lucky people who got to fly for
a living. As I built hours and experience,
I started to have more and more in com-
mon with the other corporate pilots I saw.
However, nothing could have prepared me
for what occurred during a simple cross-
country flight I flew one night. flights, I loved to listen to ATC and wanted
It was an uncomplicated route from someday just to sound like everyone else.
our university airport in Virginia down to As we descended into Charleston, South
Charleston. Nothing fancy, no IFR flight Carolina, I couldn’t help but stare at the
plan, all autopilot flying, time to sit back C-17 waiting to take off after our little move to a different practice area.
and enjoy the scenery. It was supposed to Piper Seminole touched down. The taxi Back from dinner, we noted the ramp lit
be just me and my instructor, Brandon, to the FBO was past Citations, Learjets, up by lamp posts around the tarmac gave
who was only a year older than me and a Falcons; you name it, it was there. In the us just enough light to start preflighting
senior in college. Right before heading out back of my mind, I knew that someday for the flight back to college. I was just
to the airplane, Brandon asked if one of that would be me. about to start my walk-around when I
his best friends, Conner, could ride in the Inside the FBO, all the pilots looked heard the roar of a jet engine approaching.
back seat. The more, the merrier, I thought, clean and polished. Stories of trips to the Like typical plane spotters, three heads
and before I knew it, we were heading out West Coast and even “across the pond” looked up to see a Challenger 600 taxiing
to the airplane. The sky was clear and the filled the room. And then there were the in. We couldn’t take our eyes off of the sleek
sun was still warm as we departed on our three of us, a trio of 20-something college black-and-silver aircraft parking. Before
late Sunday afternoon flight. Direct To students whose most exciting stories were the door dropped open, two black SUVs
and we were on our way. On cross-country about when air traffic control needed us to approached the aircraft, ready to pick up

20 OCTOBER 2017 Ç Plane&Pilot


whoever was onboard. Still needing to
preflight, the three of us just kept staring.
I’m sure, from the cockpit of the Challenger,
the pilots knew people were watching. The
SUVs left after about 15 minutes of sitting
on the ramp.
“The logo on the tail says Racing.”
ILLUSTRATION: GABRIEL CAMPANARIO
Conner said, trying to get a picture of the
aircraft. I looked at Brandon as we both
shrugged our shoulders. I walked out,
trying to get a better look. As I made out
the tail logo, my jaw hit the ramp. It was
a NASCAR jet. The people that we had
seen getting off and being whisked away
were NASCAR drivers coming back from a
race. Being a huge NASCAR fan, I couldn’t
believe what I was seeing.
“It’s a NASCAR driver!” Luckily my shout
couldn’t be heard over the roar of the APU
from the Challenger. By that phase in my
life, I didn’t want to be that kid anymore.
“I wanna talk to the pilots,” Conner
turned around and said. Now, working
ramp for a couple summers, I knew that
the bigger the aircraft, and more important
the passengers, the less the pilots wanted
to be bothered.
“Hold on a sec, Conner,” I said. “These
aren’t your usual charter pilots; these guys
are flying superstars around.”
Conner persisted. “It will be quick,”
he said as he started to walk toward the
600. As we got closer to the sleek jet,
one of the pilots noticed us and started
approaching. His clean, pressed slacks and
tucked-in team polo shirt showed that he
meant business.
“Can I help you boys with something?”
He stared at us, trying to figure why we
would come over.
“Uh,” Conner was trying to find the
words to say, “We just wanted to get a
picture of your jet, sir.” My instructor and
I stood silent waiting for a reply.
“You want to see inside?” the pilot
asked, pointing toward the door.
“Are you serious?!” I yelled, to myself,
luckily, and just like that, he was offering
planeandpilotmag.com 21
M600 600 HORSEPOWER.
ZERO COMPROMISE.
a private tour of an aircraft that we could
only dream of even seeing never mind get-
ting into. As we climbed aboard, we were
offered seats in the back. The other pilot
was in the back cleaning as our tour guide
started talking. The three of us sat back and
tried to soak it all in. Nothing could have
ever prepared us for this. I couldn’t believe
what I was doing. Our pilot explained
that they were coming back from a race
and there were three or four drivers and
their girlfriends who would be onboard.
Walking to the back, just to see what the
bathroom on a $26 million jet looked like,
I had to ask the question.
“So, how did you get a job working for a
NASCAR team?” The pilot had just popped
open a can of soda as he chuckled.
“Funny story. Twenty years ago, I was
flying a Baron charter to a college football
game. Sitting in the pilot lounge, I got to
talking to another pilot, who asked if I
wanted to help him get his plane ready. We
walked out onto the ramp and come to find
out it was a Gulfstream IV. We exchanged
contact information, and six months later
I got an email saying that there was a flight
department that he had heard about from
a friend’s brother that was hiring. I went
through the pipeline and got an applica-
tion in. Now, welcome aboard.”
I was awestruck. Someone had shared
with him a tour of an aircraft and now,
because of that, I had the opportunity to
see the inside of a jet that was owned by
one of my favorite athletes. After 45 min-
utes of getting to just sit back and talk to
two pilots who went out of their way to
show us around, including a tour of the
cockpit, we needed to get going. A quick
handshake and nothing but thanks for
letting us see inside the Challenger, and
we were headed down the stairs.
“Real quick,” I looked back at the pilot.
“Any career advice?” He said always,
always, always share what you do with
others. Don’t let anyone walk away from
an airplane unhappy. I smiled and thanked
him again and started walking back to
my little Piper Seminole. The flight back
was laughter and smiles all around from
our surprise tour. Even writing this, I
cannot help but smile reflecting back on
what happened.
I still don’t have a commercial ticket—
just a dream of flying professionally some-
day—but what that pilot said to me that
night will never leave me. The dream of
flying will only be fulfilled by a few lucky
people. For everyone else, they can only
look skyward. It is important for us as a
community of pilots to reach out to anyone
who wants to see around the airplane, no
matter what our schedule is. It will never
hurt to offer a tour or even to answer ques-
tions to prospective pilots and aviation
fans alike. The job of a pilot is never just a
job. It’s a passion and a dream. The world
below looks at the captain’s bars and only
dreams of maybe, maybe wearing them.
Even becoming a GA pilot cannot be ful-
filled by everyone.
Earlier last summer, I was refueling a
150 I rented when I noticed a small child,
probably not even 6, standing by a fence
with his parents, watching. After topping
off and putting the fuel hose away, I walked
over. “You want to sit inside?” The child’s
eyes lit up as his parents sat him in the
left seat. Looking back, I know I looked
the same way sitting in the left seat of the
Challenger. I was just an annoying airport
punk who wanted to talk to a pilot. That
pilot shared his passion with me, and I will
never be the same. That should be the real
mission of pilots—to share their passion
with others. PP
 How To Keep From
Going Missing…
Handheld devices give pilots a way to ensure
that, if they survive a crash, searchers will be
able to find them, and quickly
BY KATE O’CONNOR
N obody really wants to think
about what happens when
their plane goes down, but,
as pilots, it’s our job to plan for every
eventuality. According to the most recent
data available from the NTSB, only about
19 percent of general aviation accidents
are fatal. That gives you roughly a four
in five chance of surviving a crash. Not
too bad, right?
But what happens if you go down
in a remote area with no one around
to help? Even if a pilot is able to com-
municate their location when they’re
in trouble, finding a downed aircraft
in a wilderness area can be a needle-
in-a-haystack undertaking. Emergency
Locator Transmitters (ELTs), while cer-
tainly better than nothing, don’t have
the best record for helping search and
rescue personnel locate crash survivors.
Thankfully, as technology improves, so
do relatively inexpensive backup options
like personal locator beacons (PLBs).
PLBs were approved for use in the U.S.
in 2003. Even if you can’t get cell phone
reception, a PLB signal will get through
and, these days, track your location to
within about 100 meters—usually in just
a few minutes. PLBs transmit a personal-
ized signal at 406 MHz, an international
distress frequency that can be received
24 OCTOBER 2017 Ç Plane&Pilot
by the COSPAS-SARSAT satellite con-
stellation. The National Oceanic and
Atmospheric Administration (NOAA)
monitors the system in the U.S., includ-
ing PLB registration (beaconregistration.
noaa.gov). Registration is good for two
years and is required by law. One of the
benefits of registration is that any distress
signal will identify the owner to search
and rescue personnel.
These devices fall into two general
categories—basic PLBs and satellite
messengers. PLBs only act as beacons.
They are extremely simple to operate
and typically have no other functions.
Satellite messengers are a different
story. They come with a range of capa-
bilities that include GPS functions and
text communications.
When considering which one to buy,
the first question to ask is what’s the mis-
sion? If you’re simply looking for a solid
backup for an ELT—something anyone
with an older-generation ELT should
think about given their less-than-reliable
track record—a basic PLB is probably
the best way to go. Little maintenance is
required, and the price for most models
isn’t excessive. Given the similarity in
cost, deciding between basic PLB mod-
els is largely a matter of picking which
features and operating styles you prefer,
ACR ResQLink+
such as waterproofing and protection
against accidentally sending out a dis-
tress signal while testing the unit.
For pilots planning more extensive
backwoods travel or flying over sparsely
populated terrain, satellite messenger
functions can offer a lot of great safety
options geared specifically for trips away
from cell phone reception. In terms of
budget, a good rule of thumb for these is
that more features equal greater expense.
Even for units with similar initial costs,
most satellite messengers also require
ongoing subscription plans, which is
worth paying attention to as the price
for plans can vary significantly.
With all of that in mind, here are some
of the options currently available.
ACR RESQLINK+
In addition to the 406 MHz signal, the
ACR ResQLink+ PLB has 121.5 MHz
homing capability. A true PLB, the unit
planeandpilotmag.com 25
A WORD
ABOUT 121.5
MHZ ELTS
In addition to the now-standard
406 MHz emergency band, all
PLBs have a low-power beacon
that transmits on 121.5 MHz, the
same frequency band used by
older-model ELTs. While the 121.5
MHz signal works well for PLBs—
the 406 MHz signal gets rescuers
to the right area and the 121.5
MHz beacon helps them home
in on the source of the signal—it
hasn’t proven to be an effective
method for locating downed
aircraft by itself. According to
NOAA-SARSAT data, 121.5 MHz
ELTs have a 97 percent false alarm
rate and only activate properly
in about 12 percent of airplane
crashes. Not good odds for
getting help.
New-model ELTs operate on 406
MHz, which has the advantage
of providing global coverage—
unlike 121.5 MHz ELTs, which
need an aircraft or station in signal
range to pick up an emergency
alert. There is also no way to
personalize a 121.5 MHz signal,
while the 406 MHz ELTs and PLBs
are registered to their owners,
allowing emergency responders
nearly immediate access to
information about who they are
looking for. Time for responders to
reach an accident site is reduced
by an average of six hours with
406 MHz ELTs.
While there is no mandate to
update a 121.5 MHz ELT, NOAA
discontinued satellite-based
monitoring of the frequency in
2009. NOAA estimates there
are still about 170,000 121.5
MHz ELTs in operation in the
U.S. While the 406 MHz models
are significantly more effective
and reliable, they also cost
about $1,000 more. Though not
automatically activated like an ELT,
a basic PLB can provide 406 MHz
capability for less than a third of
the price.
26 OCTOBER 2017 Ç Plane&Pilot
operates by unlatching and folding the
antenna up and pressing the ON button
located behind the antenna. Nothing
fancier than that. The ResQLink+ can
broadcast for about 30 hours. A red flash-
ing light indicates that the beacon is
active, and a green light indicates that
the distress signal and GPS coordinates
are being transmitted.
The unit does have a few nice extras.
If you end up needing to send a signal
to approaching assistance at night, the
ResQLink+ has a bright LED strobe light.
In the event of a water landing, the unit
is buoyant and waterproof. The battery
expiration date is printed on the bea-
con—it can’t be changed at home and
must be sent into the service center.
The unit weighs in at 5.4 ounces and has
self- and GPS-test functions so the owner
can make sure everything is working
properly without accidentally alerting
the rescue squad.
The ResQLink+ doesn’t require any
kind of subscription fee. If you end up
having to use your PLB, ACR will replace
it for no charge. Purchase price ranges
from $244.99 to $275.00, depending on
the distributor. acrartex.com
MCMURDO FASTFIND 220
The FastFind 220 from McMurdo is a
solid, go-anywhere PLB. It can transmit
continually for a minii
mum of 24 hours on
both 406 and 121.5
MHz. Activating
it is as simple as
removing the sealed
cap, unfurling the
antenna, and push-
ing the ON button.
The ON button is
located under the cap p
to help prevent acci-
dental activation.
The FastFind 220
doesn’t come with too many frills, but
it is waterproof to 10 meters and comes
with a floatation pouch and lanyard,
so no need to worry about getting it
wet. It also has an LED strobe that will
flash S.O.S. in Morse code when acti-
vated. When the unit is turned on, the
indicator light will begin to flash. The
pattern and number of flashes show the
progress of the emergency signal—two
flashes per second when the unit is
activated and looking for a GPS fix,
three per second when a GPS fix has
been acquired, and one long followed by
three short flashes in 50 seconds when
the distress signal and GPS position
have been transmitted.
The FastFind 220 has test functions
for both the battery and the GPS—
accessible without having to break the
seal. The battery has a six-year storage
life. It is not replaceable—the unit must
be sent to the manufacturer when it
needs to be changed. No subscription
is needed to use the FastFind 220. The
unit costs $249.99. mcmurdomarine.com
OCEAN SIGNAL
RESCUEME PLB1
The rescueME PLB is probably the small-
est PLB on n the
h market
k at the
h moment.
It weighss about 4
ounces an nd is just
3 inches llong. The
antenna pulls out
of the unitt—there is
a knob to o manually
rewind it w when neces-
sary. To turn it on, the
operator only has to
lift the flap
p protecting
the powerr button out
of the way and hold the
button for one second. Once activated,
the strobe will begin to flash.
In case of accidental activation, the
unit doesn’t transmit a signal until 50
seconds after it’s been turned on—if
turned off during that time, no signal
will be sent. The rescueME will oper-
ate continuously for at least 24 hours.
The unit must be sent to an authorized
dealer to have the battery replaced once
its seven-year life has passed.
Be careful when testing—the test but-
ton is behind the same flap as the power
button. The company also offers a seven-
year warranty. The rescueME comes with
a mounting clip that can attach to a belt.
The unit purchase price is $299. There
are no additional fees or subscriptions.
oceansignal.com
SPOT GEN3
The SPOT Gen3 straddles the line
between satellite messenger and basic
PLB. It doesn’t provide any kind of
two-way messaging, but it can be used
to send either an S.O.S. alert to the
emergency net-
work or a stan-
dardized all-okay
check-in mes-
sage to personal
contacts. It can
also send a preset
text message or
an alert for road-
side assistance if
the car breaks downn
on the way to a remmote airfield. Lastly,
there is a help button that will alert
personal contacts that you need assis-
tance in a non-emergency situation.
Messages and personal contacts are set
by logging in to your online account, so
they can’t be changed without internet
access. Each type of message has its
own button.
The SPOT Gen3 also has a tracking
function that shares your GPS loca-
tion to your online account at selected
intervals. The unit is dust-proof and
waterproof. It can stay functional after
being submerged (1 meter) for up to 30
minutes. It runs on 4 AAA batteries,
which are good for 1,250 messages.
Like the other satellite messengers,
SPOT requires a subscription to func-
tion. Plans are either $199.99 per year
or $19.99 a month. The SPOT Gen3 unit
costs $149.99. findmespot.com
BENDIXKING
AEROWAVE TEXT
& TRACK
The AeroWave Text & Track
from BendixKing is a two-
way satellite messenger,
and, as the name
implies, a location
tracker. The Text &
Track makes use of
the Iridium satellite
network to provide
total global coverage,
so no need to search
for a cell signal. The
device will send texts
of up to 90 characters
and receive up to 140
characters. It can also send any of 50
user-defined pre-set messages.
Perhaps most importantly for
pilots traveling in remote areas, the
Text & Track can act as an S.O.S. bea-
con in the event of an emergency. Its
28 OCTOBER 2017 Ç Plane&Pilot
rechargeable lithium-ion batteries are
both uuser-replaceable and will operate
for up
p to five days without needing to
be reccharged. In addition, the Text &
Trackk can be paired via Bluetooth with
a smaartphone, which allows access to
additiional features through the smart-
phonee app. An optional holder can be
used to further integrate phone and
trackeer, allowing for power sharing and
charging. As an introductory special,
unit pprice for the AeroWave Text &
Track is $399.95. A subscription is also
required. bendixking.com
GARMIN INREACH
EXPLORER+
The inReach Explorer+ from Garmin
falls squarely in the satellite messenger
category. It goes a lot further than just
providing a location in an emergency.
It offers two-way text messaging via
satellite, so it’s available in areas without
cell service (100 percent global coverage
through the Iridium satellite network).
Once an S.O.S. is triggered by the user,
the unit can be used to text message
directly with the GEOS 24/7 search and
rescue monitoring center throughout
the emergency.
In addition, the Explorer+ has a digi-
tal compass, barometric altimeter and
accelerometer. It can also be paired with
compatible mobile devices—both iOS
(iOS 9 or higher) and Android (4.1 or
higher)—via the free Earthmate app.
Earthmate provides access to topo-
graphic maps and NOAA charts.
The Explorer+’s rechargeable lithium
battery can last up to 100 hours in track-
ing mode. If the unit is in power-save
mode, battery life can stretch to 30 days.
The Explorer+ is 6.5 inches long and
weighs in at 7.5 ounces. It is impact- and
water-resistant. Other features include
non-emergency location tracking and
sharing, access to weather forecasts
and GPS guidance.
Cost for the unit is $449.99. An active
satellite subscription is required to use
it—and that includes the S.O.S. and
emergency features. Monthly subscrip-
tion plans range from $11.95 to $99.95.
garmin.com
IRIDIUM GO!
For even more functionality than the
standard satellite messengers, there’s
the Iridium GO! mobile Wi-Fi hotspot.
Iridium GO! enables your smartphone
to call and text message from just about
anywhere in the world via the Iridium
satellite network. It’s compatible with
both Apple and Android products.
The Iridium GO! unit works with
associated apps for a variety of mobile
devices. For emergencies, the unit has
an S.O.S. button. Users need to configure
the S.O.S.—via the Iridium GO! app—
prior to use. It can be programmed
either to send the GPS location and
emergency alert to a preset phone
number or to GEOS worldwide search
and rescue. An active subscription is
required for GEOS service. A working
mobile device isn’t needed to activate
the S.O.S. function.
One Iridium GO! unit can support up
to five mobile devices operating within
a 100-foot radius. While it provides the
most communications options in an
emergency, there are some drawbacks.
The rechargeable battery lasts just 15.5
hours when it’s on standby and 5.5
hours talk time. Purchase price for the
Iridium GO! is between $799 and $879.95.
Subscription plans range from $49.00 to
$129.99 per month. iridium.com PP
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 RISK
By Alan Furr

IMC To VMC?
Transitioning to visual conditions shouldn’t
be a problem, but sometimes it is

M
uch ink has been, and continues to be, expended on
the subject of transitioning from visual meteorologi-
cal conditions (VMC) to instrument meteorological
conditions (IMC), and, without question, for good reason.
Loss of aircraft control while in instrument conditions
usually results in loss of life.
Except for those articles concerning flying approaches
to minimums, there are relatively few articles that deal
with transitioning the other way: from IMC to VMC. Most
likely this is because any issues that may result are not
usually fatal. Nevertheless, there are pitfalls to be avoided
when flying out of the clouds and into visual conditions. I
stumbled upon one of those on a recent trip.
I own and fly a Mooney M20C. My Mooney is well
equipped for flight in instrument conditions. A Garmin
530W GPS unit paints a reassuring magenta line from point
to point along the route of flight. The GPS is connected to
an ASPEN Pro 1000 primary flight display that, in addition
to displaying flight data such as altitude, speed, attitude
and heading, also provides GPS steering for an S-Tec 30
autopilot. For traffic and weather, the Mooney is equipped Airport in Montgomery, Alabama, for an overnight visit
with a Garmin GTX-345 transponder, which provides ADS-B with my mother, who lives south of the city. The flight from
in-and-out surveillance. I always fly with an Apple iPad Cobb County to Montgomery required some instrument
Pro utilizing ForeFlight Pro software to provide additional flying but was otherwise uneventful.
situational awareness during flight. The iPad connects to During my flight planning the next morning, I found that
the avionics panel through a Garmin FlightStream 210, instrument meteorological conditions were forecast for our
enabling me to stream flight plans and route amendments return flight with marginal VFR conditions at Cobb County.
between the iPad and the GPS unit. We drove back to Montgomery Regional where the
With all of the great gadgets and terrific technology in Mooney had been topped with fuel. I completed the preflight
my Mooney, you’d think that transitioning from IMC into inspection and made one final check of the weather. I was
VMC would be snap. Well, here’s what happened. confident that we could safely return to the Cobb County
My wife, Sandra, and I live in Pell City, Alabama. Our airport. I obtained an IFR clearance and taxied for takeoff.
daughter, Emily, lives in Roswell, Georgia, which is a three- Dark and foreboding clouds hung approximately 500
hour drive, or a 40-minute flight, from our home. Whenever feet above the ground in Montgomery. Less than a minute
Emily desires to come “home” for a visit, I am always happy after the Mooney became airborne, we were swallowed
to make the short flight to Cobb County International- up into the gray gloominess. My transition from visual to
McCollum Field in Kennesaw, Georgia, to fetch her. At the instrument conditions was flawless. The Mooney was under
end of her visit, I provide her with a return flight. Needless control and on course.
to say, I fly to and from Cobb County frequently and, conse- When I called Atlanta Center after being handed off by
quently, am very familiar with the airspace in and around Montgomery Departure, I was informed that there would
Atlanta Class Bravo, as well as the five or six airports in be an amendment to my route. I was cleared to fly direct
fairly close proximity to Cobb County. to the BOKRT (pronounced Booker T, as in Booker T. & the
One day this past winter, Sandra and I flew to Cobb MG’s) waypoint for the BOKRT.1 arrival into Cobb County.
County to get Emily. We then flew to Montgomery Regional I entered the amendment into ForeFlight and transmitted

30 OCTOBER 2017 Ç Plane&Pilot

the amended flight plan to the GPS. I activated the amended
flight plan from the GPS, which then directed the GPS steer-
ing computer in the primary flight display to command the
autopilot to turn toward the BOKRT intersection. Technology
is a marvelous thing, provided that the human component
provides correct information!
As we began the arrival procedure, Atlanta Center handed
me off to Atlanta Approach. The new controller advised that
I was cleared direct to Cobb County. I entered the “Direct To”
command on the GPS, and the Mooney turned to a 20-degree
heading, putting us on a magenta line running straight to
Cobb County International Airport.
I obtained the weather at Cobb County and found that
visual conditions prevailed and runway 27 was in use for
landing and departing aircraft. So, I was not surprised when
Atlanta Approach advised me to expect the visual approach
to runway 27.
The controller directed me to descend to 4,000 feet and to
report the flight conditions at that altitude. At 4,000 feet we
were still in the clouds; however, the clouds were broken, and I
could occasionally see the ground below us. It appeared to me
that if we could descend another 500 feet, we would be below
the clouds. I reported our flight conditions as instructed.
The controller informed me that there was conflicting
VFR traffic below and to my left, and that he could not
clear me lower until assured that the traffic was not going
to be a factor. I couldn’t see the conflicting traffic because
of the clouds; however, the ADS-B traffic information being
displayed on the iPad depicted the other aircraft’s position
relative to mine.
Moments later, the controller announced “traffic no fac-
tor” and advised that he would vector me for a left downwind
to runway 27 at Cobb County. He directed that I turn right
to a heading of 90 degrees and cleared me to descend and
maintain 3,000 feet with instruction that I “report the field
in sight.” I set the heading bug to 90 degrees, switched the
autopilot from GPS steering to heading mode, reduced power
and deactivated the altitude hold. The Mooney began a turn
to the right and descended below the cloud deck. We were
now in visual conditions.
I immediately spotted the airport approximately 5 miles
away and directly in front of me. Without hesitation, I reported
that I had the field in sight, and the controller cleared me for
the visual approach to runway 27 at Cobb County.
I disengaged the autopilot and continued turning to the
right to enter the left downwind. As I descended to 3,000 feet,
the controller called: “Mooney 48 Victor stop descent.” ATC
radar indicated that I was flying away from the Cobb County
planeandpilotmag.com 31
 airport. The controller requested that I confirm my position.
I glanced at my directional gyro and discovered that I was
flying a 110-degree heading, which was not an appropriate
heading for a left downwind to runway 27.
A quick glance at the iPad revealed that the airport off
my left wing was Dobbins Air Reserve Base, which is located
about 7 miles southeast of Cobb County. The Dobbins runway
numbers are 11 and 29. My 110-degree heading was perfect
for a left downwind to runway 29.
Fortunately, the controller had spotted my error quickly.
Had he not, then I could have discovered it on my own in one
of at least three ways: (1) when I announced my position to
the Cobb County tower only to be told that the tower didn’t
have me in sight; (2) when I turned to final and spotted the
big white “29” painted on the runway; or (3) when I landed
at Dobbins and found myself surrounded by military police
with guns.
You may be thinking, as I was at the time, “How could a
well-trained pilot in a well-equipped airplane have flown
toward the wrong airport in visual conditions?”
The short answer is “pilot error.”
The more descriptive answer, if this were an NTSB report, is
that the pilot failed to appreciate and assess a risk associated
with transitioning from IMC to VMC while being vectored
to an airport.
Despite all the technology available to me in the cockpit,
once I entered visual conditions and spotted an airport I
assumed, without confirming, that it was my destination
B R E A K T H R O U G H !
C UBC R A F TE rS . C OM / B R E A K T H R O U GH
airport. After all, the controller had advised me that he would
vector me for a left downwind to my destination airport. So,
upon entering visual conditions, the airport that I saw at my
12 o’clock was situated about where my brain pictured it to be.
Once in visual conditions, I stopped looking at the heading
on the flight display and concentrated on turning the Mooney
for the left downwind to the airport in view. In retrospect, if
I had not disengaged the autopilot, the Mooney would have
stopped the turn at the 90-degree heading, and I would have
immediately known that something wasn’t right with what I
was seeing out the window. Of course, a quick glance at my
moving map would have also revealed that the airport I was
looking at was not Cobb County.
I corrected course and landed safely at the Cobb County
airport. Apart from the sharp pain in my pride, my piloting
error was “no harm, no foul.” Nevertheless, I learned a very
valuable lesson about transitioning from IMC to VMC when
being vectored to an airport, which is: Don’t assume that
the airport you first see when leaving IMC for VMC is the
airport you are being vectored to, especially when flying in
an area with multiple airports situated in close proximity.
And always verify what you see outside the airplane with the
instruments you have inside the airplane. PP
Alan Furr serves as District Court Judge for St. Clair County, Alabama, and is
a member of the St. Clair County Airport Authority. He is an instrument-rated
private pilot and flies a Mooney M20C, which is based at the St. Clair County
Airport in Pell City, Alabama.
 2017 Planes
Of The Year

Our inaugural recognition of the best

new planes of the last 12 months
FOREWORD BY ROBERT GOYER, EDITOR-IN-CHIEF

Here are the winners of the 2017 Plane & Pilot
Plane of the Year, but before announcing the
winners, a few words about what this is and
how it happened.
Once upon a time, it was easier to assem-
ble of field of contenders, what with the slow
rate of new airplane introduction we’ve seen
these last couple of decades. We hope that
will change, given the smart relaxation of
certification rules.
Now, gauging any aviation achievement
by reference to one particular year is hard. For
starters, there are numerous milestones in a
plane’s journey from concept to certificated
article. Some planes, like the HondaJet, take
decades to come to market, and often the
year its certificated in is more of a regulatory
milestone than anything else. With this in
mind, we’re being broad with our definition
of what constitutes “the previous year.”
That all said, 2017 was a special year, with
a number of all-new models earning certifica-
tion and a few new variants coming aboard as
well. And of the new models that emerged over
the last year-and-change, there were some
truly remarkable new designs. Here they are.

34 OCTOBER 2017 Ç Plane&Pilot

 PLANE OF THE YEAR
LIGHT JET OF THE YEAR
Cirrus SF50 Vision Jet
The unicorn takes flight
The choice of the Cirrus SF50 was an easy call—once we
had the chance to fly the plane, that is. The single-engine,
single-pilot, 4-7-passenger light jet is one of a kind, the
first certified single-engine jet in 60 years and the first
jet ever to be approved with a whole-airplane recovery-
parachute system. While we were skeptical about the
appeal of the product, namely that it would provide TURBOPROP OF THE YEAR
the easiest transition to the turbine world for pilots of
high-performance singles and twins, we had to admit Piper M600
that Cirrus was right about that all along. The plane is a
All Piper did with the M600 was to improve upon
true cabin-class jet, with a strange but strangely effective
the Meridian in every single way
seating configuration of two up front (pilot and copilot),
two in the middle and three in back, with the setup mak- When Piper introduced a newly retooled lineup of pressurized
ing five of those seats very comfortable. The plane is the single-engine business and personal transportation planes, the
slowest jet; some turboprops are faster. But at better than M600 was the one really new plane among the bunch. While the
300 knots true at 28,000 feet at around 65 gallons of Jet-A M500, nee “Meridian,” and M350, formerly the Mirage, were nice
an hour, it’s also really efficient. And when it comes to upgrades of existing planes, the M600 was a reworking of the PA-46.
ease of flying, there’s no other jet that comes close. There In addition to the all-new Garmin G3000 cockpit, the two biggest
are downsides, including a less-than-eye-popping climb changes were the wing and the engine. The wing is bigger, beefier,
rate and its limit to 28,000 feet, but at $2 million a copy, and more aerodynamically efficient while carrying a lot more fuel.
the plane is a bargain compared to anything else with That’s good, because the new PT6A-42A is slightly thirstier and a
comparable specs. Bottom line: The SF50 is for real, and lot more powerful, putting out 100 shp more than the PT6 in the
its 600-plus orders aren’t a stampede of Cirrus fanatics Meridian. The result is an airplane that goes at least 25 knots faster
at all but a reasonable response to a product that offers than the Meridian/M500, has better range and can carry more pas-
a package never before available in GA. In fact, there’s a sengers and bags along the way. In effect, the M600 made good on
good chance that 600 orders are just the beginning for the wish list of more than 15 years of Piper customers who loved
the SF50. Cirrus’ biggest challenge could well be building their Meridians but wanted more. The M600 delivers all of that,
them fast enough. and in high style, too.

SPORT PLANE OF THE YEAR

CubCrafters XCub
A wish list of features in a slick yet rugged outback machine
When CubCrafters launched its XCub, it did so only after it had
its hands on the FAA type certificate for the model, so it could
proudly say, “Here’s our new airplane. It’s FAA-certificated and
available for purchase…today.” When’s the last time that happened?
CubCrafters isn’t new to the Cub game. It owns the “Cub” name,
and founder Jim Richmond has been rebuilding, kitting and build-
ing new models of Cubs and Cub-like birds for decades. The XCub
breaks no particular new ground—it’s a tube-and-rag taildragger
with a fantastically funky old Cub-style door and seating for two in
tandem. Everything about the XCub is better than the original. It’s
lighter, stronger, sleeker, faster (up to 140 knots on our test flight)
and better performing. The engine, the Lycoming O-360-CIG, packs
180 horses while swinging a Hartzell Trailblazer composite prop.
And CubCrafters recently announced the Garmin G3X integrated
cockpit for the XCub for the most advanced Cubbie panel yet,
which goes nicely with the XCub’s outstanding performance. And
CubCrafters did all this while keeping the classic Cub look that
unmistakably says “let’s go flying.”

planeandpilotmag.com 35
 PISTON PLANE OF THE YEAR
Mooney
Acclaim Ultra
With an extra door, brand-new
interior dimensions and all the usual
speed of the M20, the Acclaim
Ultra knocks it out of the park
As much as Mooney customers have
raved about their airplanes over the
years, there are a few things about these
fast and efficient planes that are less
than optimal and that Mooney owners
have always just chalked up to the price
of speed. With the introduction of the
Ultra model, Mooney has eliminated or
greatly mitigated many of those com-
promises while sacrificing not a knot the addition of a composite shell in lower the top of the glareshield a bit.
of airspeed. The Ultra features a new place of the sheet metal covering on the Suddenly, many of the objections to
pilot-side door, bigger, better doors, forward fuselage. This allowed Mooney the Mooney design are history, and
larger, better-placed windows, a more to add a door (after beefing up the left buyers are looking at a super-fast (as
comfortable rear seating section and wing surface to carry the weight of fast as 242 knots, says Mooney), comfy
improved visibility out the front. The people climbing atop it), redesign the and long-range high-flyer that gets you
secret behind the transformation was doors, enlarge the windows and even distant places in a hurry.

NOTEWORTHY ACHIEVEMENT
Diamond DA-62
Diamond Aircraft’s new twin was a revelation. With
more powerful engines, room for six to seven occu-
pants, excellent climb performance, good cruise
speeds and penny-pinching fuel economy on widely
available Jet-A, Diamond’s gem is the world’s first
next-generation twin.
NOTEWORTHY ACHIEVEMENT
Just Aircraft SuperSTOL
Does the world need a little two-seat kit-built taildragger that
has giant tires, locust-like gear legs, takes off in a couple of
wingspans’ distance and lands back again in two hops and a
puff of smoke? Apparently the answer to that is a resounding
“yes,” as Just Aircraft’s phenomenally successful SuperSTOL
continues to rock the sport-flying world. While not techni-
cally a new plane, the phenomenon of the SuperSTOL is still
in full swing. Bear in mind that there’s nothing particularly
high-tech or fancy about the plane. It’s just a bucket full of
short-field fun—and a surprising amount of utility—that’s
raring to find a tiny patch of ground and go fly. PP

36 OCTOBER 2017 Ç Plane&Pilot

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(Un)Natural For plenty of pilots, learning to fly an
airplane doesn’t come naturally
O
n an introductory flight, the
gray-haired man who would
eventually become my CFI,
Paul, coached me through
gentle turns on the western banks of the
Chesapeake Bay and assured me that if he
could learn to fly, anybody could. He was
jovial and enthusiastic about everything
the flying life had to offer. All that stood in
my way was the simple matter of getting
that pilot’s license—a challenging but
well-trodden path. I had always been a
good student. I already had a foundation
in flight as a paraglider pilot. How hard
could it be?
I have since learned of an airplane’s
ability to deliver one’s comeuppance. As
the hours of dual racked up and I pro-
gressed only slowly toward attaining my
certificate, I would come home from my
flight lessons dejected. Many times, I
thought about giving up. For reasons that
I hope to uncover one day with a future
therapist, I persisted and made halting
progress toward my goal. Soon we were
devoting every lesson to pattern work, and
the prospect of my first solo became real.
But every time Paul would say, “Give
me three good landings in a row, and
I’ll get out of the plane,” I’d botch my
approach, flare too high, or forget to
flare entirely. At one point, as I failed to
maintain pattern altitude on downwind,
Paul said, “I’m completely befuddled.” I’d
long known myself to be a master of self-
sabotage, but this was getting ridiculous.
My first solo seemed further away than
ever, but in August of 2012, I still showed
up to my flight lessons at Freeway Airport
(W00) in Bowie, Maryland, wearing an
38 OCTOBER 2017 Ç Plane&Pilot
The
BY JOHN BISHOP
expendable T-shirt—just in case. At that
point, I had logged more than 30 hours
of flight time.
If you hang around a flight school or
GA airport long enough, eventually you’ll
hear some pilot talk about soloing in six
or eight hours, usually in a taildragger
back in some halcyon age when pilots
really knew how to fly small airplanes.
Occasionally, you’ll still hear someone
opine that if a student can’t solo in 15 or
20 hours, then perhaps his or her money
would be better spent on sailing lessons.
But the fact remains that many of us
take longer to acquire the judgment, coor-
dination, and confidence to solo. It can be
devastating to a student pilot’s morale to
see the pre-solo hours build and the bank
account lighten while still having “nothing
to show for it.” But more insidious is the
student’s suspicion that they have already
failed to measure up, that their struggles
are a signal of what they have feared all
along—that they will never be a safe and
competent pilot.
I would never claim to be a model for
any aspiring pilot, but I am proof that even
a student utterly lacking in the right stuff
should not give up on the dream. A change
in perspective and some diligence will
pay off—and you’ll be a better pilot for it.
YOU DON’T NEED
TO WIN THE WAR
Let’s get the obvious out of the way. When
it comes to dollars and cents and flight
training, faster is better. After all, it costs
far less money to take your check ride in
the FAA minimum of 40 hours than the
70 hours that are said to be the national
average. But even students with deep
pockets are still eager to solo and get
their certificate as quickly as possible.
And while no one would think to brag
about getting their driver’s license with
the bare minimum experience required,
pilots seem to believe that less time spent
in training confers greater expertise and
ability. Clearly, there is something spe-
cific about the culture of flight training
that breeds a counterproductive one-
upmanship that is all too familiar in the
peanut gallery at the local FBO.
To understand our fixation on flight
hours, I believe it is instructive to look
back into aviation’s history, and for many
pilots, no era has a greater hold on the
imagination than World War II. In our
collective mythology of the war, men (and
women, it should be noted) walked off the
street, were trained to fly in short order,
and performed heroically in some of the
most iconic aircraft ever built.
And it’s not all mythology. I recently
gained custody of my grandfather’s log-
books from World War II. Robert Milton
Bishop, like so many aviators of that gen-
eration, received his initial training in a
J-3 Cub with a 65-horsepower Franklin
engine. The logbook is a fascinating pri-
mary document and a source of deep
insecurity for me. It reveals that my grand-
father first soloed that J-3 when he had
just shy of eight hours of flight time.
It’s almost impossible to overstate the
effect that the war had on GA and flight
training. According to Alan Meyer, a pro-
fessor at Auburn University and the author
of Weekend Pilots: Technology, Masculinity,
and Private Aviation in Postwar America,
planeandpilotmag.com 39
there were less than 34,000 pilots in the
United States in 1939. By 1951, that number
had skyrocketed to more than 580,000—a
direct result of the war and the GI Bill
that paid for flight training for veterans.
Consequently, the vast majority of pilots
and instructors from that era were trained
by the military or in the military paradigm.
“Military flight training was very much
a pressure cooker environment,” Meyer
told me. “If you couldn’t stand verbal and
physical abuse, how were you going to
stand up to the pressures of combat?”
This all made sense if you were going to
take on the Luftwaffe over Europe, but con-
text is everything. In World War II, there
was a pressing need to train pilots quickly.
The fate of the world actually depended
on it. If a guy couldn’t solo in 10 hours, no
worries, he’d make an excellent waist gun-
ner. And there was a virtually inexhaustible
supply of pilots-in-waiting. The same can
hardly be said about today’s GA industry,
where hand-wringing about the declining
pilot population has become routine.
In today’s world, if you’re learning to
fly for fun, or to grow your business, or to
fulfill a long-held dream, it really makes no
sense to hold yourself to the same standard
as a World War II ace. It would be a case
of applying the right idea in the wrong
context, like wearing a winter coat on the
Fourth of July.
IT’S WHAT HAPPENS
AFTERWARD THAT MATTERS
There’s another reason why it’s increas-
ingly rare for today’s student pilots to
solo in under 10 hours. Their instructors
won’t sign them off. For starters, student
pilots are now expected to have mastered
more skills before solo flight than they
were 20 years ago. But there’s also been a
shift in the mentality of CFIs, according
to Ken Wittekiend, founder of ProMark
Aviation in Burnet, Texas, a Designated
Pilot Examiner (DPE), and a charter
member of the Society of Aviation and
Flight Educators.
Wittekiend, who has more than 8,000
hours of instruction under his belt, said
that CFIs have moved away from an almost
total emphasis on solo in a student’s early
days in the cockpit.
“There was sort of a competition
among instructors to get people soloed
40 OCTOBER 2017 Ç Plane&Pilot
in the minimum number of hours so they
could have bragging rights,” he said. “But
we learned there was no real advantage in
getting someone to solo in the bare mini-
mum number of hours, that it really did
make sense to let them solo a little further
along when they have more competency.”
When he began instructing in the mid-
1970s, pre-solo flight training was almost
exclusively devoted to developing the stick
and rudder skills required to survive a trip
around the pattern in good weather. By
contrast, today’s instructors take a holis-
tic approach to shaping a more rounded
pilot who can handle radio communica-
tions, disruptions in the traffic pattern,
and any number of scenarios and hazards
that might present themselves in solo
flight—all good things. The downside is
that it takes longer to solo and make it to
a check ride.
But more importantly, Wittekiend
doesn’t see a strong correlation between
the number of flight hours and the quality
of the private pilot candidates he encoun-
ters in his capacity as a DPE. The students
who learned to fly in the shortest time are
not necessarily more skilled or prepared
than others. In some cases, the opposite
may be true.
“I’ve seen people who struggled from
the beginning, but because of that struggle,
once they get their license, they are com-
mitted to holding themselves to high stan-
dards. Those people who are at the far end
of the spectrum in terms of hours quite
commonly turn out to be very capable
pilots,” he said.
More broadly, our focus on the hours
required to reach solo or take a check ride
misses the point. Whether it took you 40
hours or 140 hours to get your license,
what happens afterward is infinitely more
important to your development as a pilot.
Who cares if you soloed in record time but
then only fly 10 hours a year when there’s
no wind? It is far better to be a slow learner
who flies at least once a week in varied
conditions, and who adopts a professional
attitude toward flying and safety. I’d fly
with that pilot any day, even if it took him
or her 80 hours to solo.
THE FALLACY IS YOUR FRIEND
So where does that leave the student pilot
with 30, 40 or more pre-solo hours in their
logbook? Learning to fly is such a deeply
personal endeavor, so all I can offer is what
worked for me.
The first thing to do is to embrace the
sunk cost fallacy—in which the amount of
money and time already spent is used as
a justification to throw more money and
time at a presumed negative outcome.
You know, throwing good money after
bad. A rational person should recognize
that they are in the sway of this fallacy, cut
their losses, and move on. The only prob-
lem is that you’re not engaged in rational
behavior. You’re in aviation!
To be honest, I have often wondered
whether I would have gone on to get my
certificate if I had soloed in 10 hours.
Ironically, if the skills had been easier to
acquire, it would have also been easier
to give up and spend my money on other
endeavors. Flying is expensive, and both
of my bathrooms need remodeling. But as
I reached the 30-hour mark without solo,
my resolve hardened. The time for half
measures was long gone. I had spent far
too much money, effort and frustration
 on flying to just give up. I was all in. You
should be, too.
Next, spend some time in honest reflec-
tion about what you can do to make your
training more effective. If there’s a problem
with your instructor, find a new one. If
you’re failing to do the preparation, then
remedy that immediately. Never underes-
timate the power of an evening of reading
or chair flying to improve your landings.
(To learn more, read our full interview with
Ken Wittekiend online.)
But most of all, relax and enjoy yourself.
The process of learning to fly should be
rewarding in its own right. Your instructor
is most likely an interesting person. The
two of you get to spend an hour or two
manipulating the controls of an airplane
a few thousand feet in the air—how many
people in the world have that privilege?
Spend this time under the watchful eye
of your instructor to develop your skills
and build your confidence, because one
day your CFI will leave you alone in that
airplane, and you’d better know how to
handle yourself.
For me, that day arrived on August
19, 2012. I took my CFI, Paul, around the
pattern three times before he told me to
pull the plane off the taxiway while he
endorsed my logbook. He disappeared into
the FBO and I sat in the plane alone. The
idling prop cheerfully shredded the air, but
I could already feel my heart beginning to
race. What business did I have flying that
plane? A real pilot should have soloed at
least 15 hours ago. I was a poser and a dilet-
tante—flaws that were harmless enough
in everyday life, but ones that would surely
spell my demise when I was alone in the
cockpit of a 172.
When Paul returned with my logbook,
he gave me some final words of instruc-
tion. I responded with a thumbs up but
was terrified as I taxied to the hold short
line at runway 36. While going through
my pre-takeoff checklist, I glanced at the
logbook on the right seat and an unex-
pected feeling of calm came over me. I
had logged 37 hours in the cockpit, at least
half of which were takeoffs and landings.
Maybe I wasn’t a natural. But over those
37 hours, I had made almost every single
mistake imaginable—a litany of errors
so comprehensive that against all logic,
I was actually confident that I could take
that airplane up and down safely. After all,
what else could I do wrong?
N400GE leapt off the runway. As
instructed, I extended my departure and
downwind legs, monitored my airspeed
and altitude on final, and finally touched
down. The landing wasn’t going to win any
awards, but I was way beyond caring about
awards. Paul was waiting at the taxiway.
He offered a few words of advice before
telling me to go around the pattern again.
As I taxied to the runway, I was in a state
of calm euphoria. I knew that no matter
what the future held, this was an experi-
ence that could never be taken away from
me. I hadn’t cut any corners. I hadn’t gotten
any special consideration. I had earned it.
I was full of bravado until I heard his
voice over the radio. “Just remember to do
your post-landing checklist,” he said. I was
taxiing with the flaps down, the strobe on,
and the carb heat hot.
Apparently, there’s always more to
learn. PP
John Bishop is a writer and editor who flies out of
Freeway Airport (W00) in Maryland. You can contact
him at johnpatrickbishop.com.

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OSHKOSH
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Legendary aviation photographer Jim Koepnick photographed the midsummer pag-
eant that is AirVenture for Plane & Pilot, capturing along the way the really big sto-
ries without missing out on all the little details that make the experience so magical.
P HOTOG R APH Y B Y JIM KOEPNICK

With few exceptions, pilots look back at the past year of
AirVenture Oshkosh as being a very special event. There’s
certainly nothing wrong with all of us pilots having a good
time at the world’s biggest fly-in. But our recent memories,
however fond, probably don’t help us put this year’s event
in an historical perspective. I’m as guilty as the next pilot of
this very thing, and because I flew my very own plane into
the show for the first time ever this year, I’m pretty biased.
Still, from any objective standard, the 2017 edition of
AirVenture stands out as a special one. For starters, the
weather was great. And the event set records for attend-
ees and exhibitors. Those very same businesses were
almost to a one ecstatic about the show, meaning, they
were selling stuff, or at least collecting good leads to sell
stuff in the future. From a news perspective, it was busy.
Plane & Pilot covered the news extensively this year, with
five eNews sends during the week and a pair of galleries
by Jim Koepnick, whose photography we present in this
print gallery. There were announcements galore of new,
cheaper and high-value avionics offerings for owners of
certified airplanes, which is a huge deal, and while there
were few new airplanes being unveiled, there were a num-
ber of recently certificated models, including the Cirrus
SF50 Vision Jet and CubCrafters XCub showing off their
new FAA production certificates.
But the biggest event of the year was one about which
there can be little good faith debate. That was the arrival
of the B-29 Doc in its first appearance at AirVenture, where
it flew alongside fellow B-29 FIFI, the only two flying B-29s
in the world. It was a sight to see; pilots stopped dead in
their tracks, turning to follow the two silhouettes as they
motored south to north over the thousands of planes on
Wittman Field below. I was one of those pilots with my neck
craned, my eyes locked on the majesty and history of the
flight. Some very special sights, indeed.
—Robert Goyer

planeandpilotmag.com 43
1: One of the big stars of the show was the U.S. Air Force B-1 bomber that
dominated the view at show center throughout the week. The big Cold War-
1
era bomber signaled the transition from old design to modern.

2: A detail shot of a pretty Ryan PT-22 in the Vintage area.

2
3: Are there two more iconic warbirds in the history of American military
aviation than the P-51D Mustang and the F4-U Corsair? Beautiful, fast and
powerful, these planes helped turn the tide of the war in Europe and the
Pacific, respectively.

4: Aviation happiness at AirVenture. A young flyer returning from an open

cockpit biplane flight with the classic, long-lasting Oshkosh smile.

5: The spectacular Blue Angels air show drew in the crowds and had all
eyes turned skyward. The celebrated team isn’t scheduled to perform again
at AirVenture until 2020.

6: The Blue Origin New Shepard reusable suborbital launch system, winner
of the 2016 Collier Trophy, was on display at Show Center.

7: “FIFI” and “Doc” fly in formation, marking the first time two B-29
Superfortresses have been in the sky together in five decades.

3
 4
5

6
7

planeandpilotmag.com 45
 9

8
8: Wiping the dew off the wings of a J-3 Cub in
preparation for what AirVenture Oshkosh is all
about, a little flying.

9: The view looking south in Vintage parking on an

already busy Day One at AirVenture 2017.

10: This year marked the 80th anniversary of

both Piper Aircraft and the Piper J-3 Cub, two of
the most iconic and important brands in aviation
history.

11: B-29 “FIFI” flies overhead. Until “Doc”

returned to the skies last year, “FIFI” was the
only B-29 still flying. “FIFI” is owned by the

10
Commemorative Air Force and based at the
Vintage Flying Museum in Fort Worth, Texas.

11

46 OCTOBER 2017 Ç Plane&Pilot

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12: The night air show on Wednesday was
a wash, with heavy rain and low clouds
grounding the performers, but the EAA put on
a spectacular fireworks show, and everyone
got to gawk at the thousands of airplanes lit
up by the pyrotechnics.

13: The smallest jet at OSH, the SubSonex,

which, with a top speed of around 210 knots,
is decidedly “subsonic,” as well.

14: Van’s RV aircraft in the Homebuilt area

at KOSH.

15: A mixed group of World War II warbirds

put on a smoking display during the EAA’s
tribute to warbirds from days gone by.
16

17
16: A pretty Tri-Pacer in the fly-in camping area at KOSH as framed
by tall stalks of Wisconsin corn.

17: A Piper Cub taxis into the parking area, as viewed through the
wing struts of another Cubbie.

18: Oshkosh is all

about airplanes, old and
18
new, large and small,
fast and slow, and
even propellers or not.
19
A gaggle of Citations
freshly washed by a
Wisconsin rain shower
await their owners who
are, no doubt, off at
the show taking in a
dozen different kinds
of aviation.

19: Airplanes were

parked as far as
there was room on
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 21
20: Don Voland runs an antique OX-5 engine in the Vintage area.

21: A World War II North American B-25 Mitchell twin-engine bomber

makes an appearance during the Warbird air show.

22: How close do the Blue Angels fly? Close enough that it can be hard
to tell where one ends and the other begins.

23: The rain and cloud cover couldn’t stop the stunning fireworks
display on Wednesday night.

20

22
23

52 OCTOBER 2017 Ç Plane&Pilot

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24: Not just for the boys! Female pilots,
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10th Annual OSH WomenVenture.

25: Folks who aren’t aviation nuts see old

airplanes; pilots see and relish the little
details, like the jug of a Kinner radial engine
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26: A row of float planes at the EAA Seaplane

Base weathervane into the wind in a cove of
Lake Winnebago.

27: The C-47 bomber “That’s All Brother,”

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28: A Lockheed-Martin F-35 pulling major Gs

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54 OCTOBER 2017 Ç Plane&Pilot

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AFTER THE ACCIDENT
By Peter Katz
Were These Two
Pilots Really
Incapacitated?
Previous medical conditions
suggest possible explanations but
solid proof is hard to come by
T
he reports prepared by the NTSB on light sport and
experimental category accidents usually don’t con-
sume a significant amount of the agency’s resources.
The airplanes are too light and carry too little fuel to cause
mass destruction and, when there are fatalities, the number
of deceased almost invariably is limited to one or two. It’s my
observation that the Safety Board tends not to use too much
manpower, paper or bytes on its computers when dealing
with these accidents. Perhaps not too coincidentally, they
tend to attract comparatively little attention both in the
aviation community and news media. Recently, however,
the reports on two of these accidents attracted a good deal
of attention when their probable causes caused AOPA to
do a double-take. Controversy flourished just as the avia-
tion community was getting ready to move into the era
of BasicMed, in which tens of thousands of pilots will no
longer be handcuffed to the third-class medical certificate.
The first accident, which occurred on April 11, 2015,
involved an Experimental Quad City Challenger II ultra-
light-style homebuilt, which crashed while on downwind
at the Rosenbaum Field Airport near Chippewa Falls,
Wisconsin. The pilot was killed and the airplane received
substantial damage. He was the only one onboard. The sec-
ond accident occurred on June 26, 2015, near Beloit, Ohio.
The airplane was a homebuilt Europa XL two-seater. That
solo pilot also was killed, and the airplane also received
substantial damage.
The NTSB determined that both accidents were caused
by “the pilot’s incapacitation due to a cardiovascular event.”
In the case of the Challenger II, the agency added that the
cardiovascular event “...resulted in a loss of control and
subsequent impact with terrain.”
What caused AOPA to react was that, when it exam-
ined what the NTSB had compiled in the investigations, it
56 OCTOBER 2017 Ç Plane&Pilot
could find no evidence demonstrating that there had been
cardiovascular events. AOPA wondered whether someone
at the agency had a hidden agenda having something to
do with the fact that both pilots were flying under the
sport pilot regulations and did not need to have an FAA
medical certificate.
The Quad City Challenger II is a two-seat, high-wing,
tricycle gear, light sport aircraft powered by a Rotax 503
engine in a pusher configuration. According to FAA records,
the accident aircraft was manufactured by the pilot and
received an FAA special airworthiness certificate in May
of 2002. The aircraft was designed to cruise at 85 mph,
stall at 28 mph, and had a maximum takeoff weight of 960
pounds. The aircraft was registered with the FAA and had
an N-number assigned.
The airplane was at about the midfield position on
downwind at Rosenbaum Field Airport near Chippewa
Falls, Wisconsin, when it started to make a turn, accord-
ing to several witnesses mentioned in the NTSB’s report.
However, the NTSB did not send an investigator to the
scene, and the backup material did not contain a record
of the witness interviews. So, we cannot tell from what
the Safety Board has made public who the witnesses were,
what they said or to whom they said it. It’s possible that
they were interviewed on-scene by an FAA inspector, but
the report doesn’t tell us that. Nonetheless, the report
says the airplane subsequently entered a steep dive that
it maintained until ground impact. A fire then erupted.
Impact was in an open field about one-half mile east of the
runway. The crater created by impact was about 2 feet deep.
The weather reported at the time at an airport 9 miles
away from the accident site showed that the wind was from
25 degrees at 11 knots, with gusts to 17 knots. Visibility
was 10 miles, and it was clear.
The 77-year-old pilot held a recreational pilot certificate
with a rating for single-engine land airplanes. He also held
a repairman experimental aircraft builder certificate.
The last time he applied for an FAA third-class medical
certificate was on May 10, 2004. Nothing unusual turned
up, and the examiner issued a certificate good for two
years that required that the pilot “must wear lenses for
distant—possess glasses for near vision.”
A current logbook was not made available to investiga-
tors, but one they did examine showed that he had flown
416 total hours as of May 5, 2006. Nearly all of that time was
in the accident airplane. His widow reported that he had
flown a few times during the year leading up to the accident.
The NTSB’s file on this accident contained something
I’m not used to seeing in its files on general aviation acci-
dents: a four-page “Medical Factual Report.” Prepared by
the NTSB’s medical officer, Nicholas Webster, M.D., the
report looked at the pilot’s personal medical records,
PORTRAIT: LARA TOMLIN
records of the autopsy performed after the accident, and
the FAA’s toxicology study.
The FAA detected use of the drugs atorvastatin, fluox-
etine and atenolol. Atorvastatin is a statin drug used to
treat high cholesterol. Fluoxetine is used to treat depression
or obsessive-compulsive disorder. Atenolol is used to treat
high blood pressure.
According to the pilot’s personal medical records, his
medications also included lisinopril for high blood pressure,
the thyroid replacement drug levothyroxine, tamsulosin
for prostate enlargement, naproxen to control pain and
swelling, and aspirin.
Medical records from January 2012 until April 2015
revealed a history of coronary artery disease, multi-vessel
bypass surgery, high blood pressure, elevated cholesterol
and hypothyroidism. He also had type 2 diabetes, which
was controlled by diet. But the diabetes resulted in nerve
damage, causing difficulty with balance and walking.
The record of a cardiologist’s evaluation on October
6, 2014, showed that the pilot was stable and showed no
symptoms of heart trouble. However, the cardiologist wrote
that the pilot was not following a proper cardiac diet.
The pilot had an examination by his primary care phy-
sician just two days before the accident. His height was
measured as being 70 inches and his weight was
251 pounds. The primary care physician wrote ❯❯ “While a cardiac
that the pilot had no chest pain or discomfort event that led to the
and no shortness of breath, and his high blood crash may have been that there were no preimpact problems with
pressure was “well controlled.”
The post-accident autopsy was performed
a most likely scenario,
on the pilot by the Sacred Heart Hospital in Eau it was not established ratings for single-engine and multi-engine land
Claire, Wisconsin. The autopsy showed sev- by the autopsy as
eral abnormalities related to the heart. These being a fact.”
included enlargement, severe coronary artery
disease with greater than 80 percent blockage of the vessels,
evidence of an old heart attack, and active inflammation of
some muscle of the heart’s left ventricle with microscopic
evidence of myocarditis. Myocarditis is an inflammatory
disease that can result in irregular heartbeat, difficulty
breathing and even sudden death. While the finding of the
Chippewa County Coroner was that the cause of death was
blunt force trauma in an accident, the examining patholo-
gist reported that “the most likely scenario to explain [the
pilot’s] death is that he suffered an arrhythmia [irregular
heartbeat] secondary to myocarditis.” The autopsy report,
however, did not show evidence of a fresh heart attack or
irregular functioning before the crash. While a cardiac event
that led to the crash may have been a most likely scenario,
it was not established by the autopsy as being a fact.
In the Beloit, Ohio, accident, the aircraft was a Europa
XL. The aircraft was developed in England as a kit. It could
be configured as a motorglider with extended wings or
a traditional, aerobatics-capable airplane, like the one
involved in the accident. It was built by the pilot and certi-
fied in the experimental amateur-built category on May 19,
2005. It used a Rotax 912S engine driving a full-feathering,
constant-speed propeller.
A witness at the Tri-City Airport (3G6) in Sebring, Ohio,
told a police officer that he saw the pilot taxiing the airplane
toward the north, then back south with the canopy open.
He saw that only the pilot was inside. He said that he had
seen the pilot taxi the airplane around the airport many
times but never saw it take off. He said the airplane had its
annual inspection in the week before the accident.
Another witness told the same police officer that he was
checking on soybean crops when he noticed the airplane
wreckage about 300 feet from the edge of a field. He ran
over to see if the pilot was inside and okay. When he found
that the pilot was in the wreckage and deceased, he called
911, gave the location and directions on how to get there,
and then felt the engine block to see if it was still warm to
provide a clue as to when the crash had taken place. The
witness reported that the engine’s temperature was about
120 degrees.
The NTSB sent an investigator to the scene. The wreck-
age and ground scars were consistent with an inverted,
near-vertical impact. There was no post-impact fire, but
the witness and first responders reported the smell of fuel.
The wreckage was moved to a hangar for further examina-
tion. Some contaminants were found in the filters, which
were installed in the fuel lines. No water was
detected when the fuel was tested with water
detection paste. The examination concluded
the engine or aircraft.
The pilot held a private pilot certificate with
airplane, and instrument and glider ratings.
His third-class special issue medical certificate
expired on June 30, 2013. It required that he
“must have available glasses for near vision.” But by then,
the pilot was flying under the light sport rules, and the
FAA medical certificate was something for his scrapbook.
The pilot’s recent flight experience could not be deter-
mined. On his last medical certificate application in 2011,
he reported 1,820 total flight hours. He was 72 years old
and weighed 193 pounds at the time.
The NTSB medical officer, Dr. Webster, examined this
pilot’s medical records and prepared a four-page report.
The pilot had a history of coronary artery disease treated
with bypass surgery, stents and medication. He also had
elevated cholesterol and high blood pressure treated with
medications. The Mahoning County Coroner prepared the
autopsy report that determined the cause of death was blunt
force injuries from an accident. It said a contributing fac-
tor to the cause of death was coronary artery disease and
high blood pressure. It described enlarged heart muscle
cells and some scarring, but did not determine that the
pilot had a heart attack nor another type of cardiac event
before the accident.
In a March 24, 2017, letter to Bella Dinh-Zarr, who was the
acting chairman of the NTSB at that time, AOPA Senior Vice
President James Coon expressed concern that “longstand-
ing data driven, facts based standards continue to erode
at the NTSB.” He alleged that the probable causes of these
accidents were made without supporting evidence and
planeandpilotmag.com 57
“demonstrates to us a profound move
away from the longstanding professional
and detailed investigations that have
been conducted and produced over the
years.” He called for an internal review to
“...help ensure that personal agendas in
the medical office are not being incorpo-
rated into the Board’s reports.” Coon did
not specify what he meant by “personal
agendas,” but it’s easy to infer that he was
concerned about undermining upcom-
ing medical certification reforms.
On April 21, then Acting NTSB
Chairman Robert L. Sumwalt, Member
Earl F. Weener, Office of Aviation
Safety Director John DeLisi and Senior
Aviation Investigator Tim LeBaron vis-
ited with AOPA President Mark Baker
and AOPA staffers at the organization’s
headquarters in Frederick, Maryland.
They discussed AOPA’s concerns about
speculation in probable cause state-
ments and the NTSB’s emphasis on
data-driven investigations.
On April 25, 2017, Sumwalt wrote
to Baker saying that the meeting was
constructive and the dialogue benefi-
cial. However, he went on the offensive
about the disputed probable causes by
telling Baker that the evidence in both
cases “...supports the NTSB’s finding
that the accident sequence was likely
initiated by his [the pilot’s] incapacita-
tion due to a cardiovascular event.” He
Minutes from Cincinnati
s'ATEDFLY
INCOMMUNITYPERFECTFORFLYINGPROFESSIONALS
said any interested party who disagrees
or has new evidence can always peti-
tion the NTSB to reopen its investiga-
tion. Sumwalt also pointed out that
the General Aviation Joint Steering
Committee identified incapacitating
medical conditions as a contributor to
in-flight loss of control accidents.
During this back and forth, they
didn’t address whether having an FAA
medical certificate makes it safer for
pilot, passengers and the public. I looked
for more information and found three
accidents reasonably close to the time
of the accidents in question. Based on
my layman’s reading of those reports,
the backup medical material seemed
to clearly support the NTSB’s conclu-
sion that the pilot had suffered an inca-
pacitating cardiac event, which was not
the case for either of the reports AOPA
brought to the Board’s attention.
First, on September 2, 2015, an RV-6A
crashed near Bon Aqua, Tennessee, kill-
ing the commercial-rated pilot. Probable
cause: “The pilot’s incapacitation from
complications of a recent heart attack,
which resulted in a loss of control during
cruise flight.” This pilot held a current
FAA second-class medical certificate.
Second, on August 15, 2014, at Bowie,
Texas, a Cessna 414 was on left base for
landing when it suddenly nosed down
and crashed, killing both occupants.
s"UILDINGSITESSTILLAVAILABLE
Probable cause: “The pilot’s incapaci-
tation in flight as the result of an acute
cardiac event, which resulted in a loss
of control and collision with terrain.”
This pilot held a current FAA third-class
medical certificate.
Third, on August 27, 2015, at Llano,
California, a Piper PA-25-260 crashed
while approaching Crystal Airport
for landing. The ATP-rated pilot was
killed. Probable cause: “The pilot’s loss
of airplane control during the landing
approach due to an incapacitating medi-
cal event.” The pilot’s FAA second-class
medical certificate had been renewed
just six days before the accident.
It’s tempting, if a bit flip, to argue
that these five accidents prove you’re
more likely to suffer in-flight incapacita-
tion from a cardiac event with an FAA
medical certificate than without one.
As for me, I’ll argue that there needs
to be more attention paid to medical
aspects in NTSB investigations so only
the most accurate and complete data
will be used when determining not only
the probable cause of the accident but
also the future of pilot medical certifica-
tion regulations. PP
Peter Katz is editor and publisher of NTSB Reporter,
an independent monthly update on aircraft accident
investigations and other news concerning the
National Transportation Safety Board. To subscribe,
visit www.ntsbreporter.us or write to: NTSB
Reporter, Subscription Dept., P.O. Box 831, White
Plains, NY 10602-0831.
s0AVEDLIGHTEDRUNWAYWITHINSTRUMENTAPPROACHES s!LLUNDERGROUNDPUBLICUTILITIES
s.OPROPERTYTAXONAIRCRAFTBASEDIN/HIO s#OMPLETEAIRCRAFTSERVICES
s-UNICIPAL7ATERAND3EWER s(OMESWITHHANGARSAVAILABLE

SANDY’S AIRPARK   sWWWSANDYSAIRPARKCOM

@ SPORTY’S

58 OCTOBER 2017 Ç Plane&Pilot


LET IT ROLL
By Patty Wagstaff
Fear Of Flying
How to get reluctant friends and family
up in the air (and enjoying it, too)
W
hen I landed at Valparaiso, Indiana, KVPZ, my
traditional fuel stop en route to Oshkosh (the FBO
gives fuel discounts to #OSH-bound airplanes, too),
I started chatting with a friendly elderly man. I mentioned
something about his wife, and he said, “No! I’ve never gotten
married because I didn’t want to lose my freedom to fly!”
Then he looked at the horizon and said, “When I take off
from the grass strip on my farm at sunset, I’m really at peace,
and I wouldn’t want to lose that.” My mind raced. Would I
be as avid a flier today if I had not been encouraged by my
family? Maybe not. Some wives forbid their husbands to fly
a small airplane, much less ever fly with them. I’m enough
of a rebel that I would have no choice but to prove a point if
someone forbid me to do something, but more often than
not people just want to keep the peace. In my travels, I’ve
talked to a number of men and some women who say their
spouses, parents or kids won’t fly with them, and I often
sense they are wistfully sad about it. One woman I know
said she had tried to get her mother to fly with her but was
unsuccessful in convincing her. I’ve taken my mother fly-
ing, and it meant a lot to me. Is there a way to win friends
and influence people, especially those closest to us, when
it comes to flying?
Fear of flying might be No. 1 when it comes to excuses for
people not to fly (and fear of heights and claustrophobia).
I may not be the best person to talk about fear of flying. I
have a healthy respect for its unforgiving nature, and frankly
fear is an emotion I can’t afford. I remember quite well the
feeling I had at 6 years old the first time I stepped into the
aluminum tube of my dad’s DC-6. I told my mom I had
butterflies in my stomach, and she scolded me, “What are
you talking about? It’s just an airplane. Nothing to be afraid
of !” What she said to me that day changed my emotional
connection to flying, and perhaps if she hadn’t said that
and had instead encouraged my fear, my attitude could be
completely different today.
To pilots, flying is amazing, and we want to share, but
since not everyone feels that way, it’s important to under-
stand a person’s emotional connection with airplanes.
Fear of flying stems from a lot of different things—parental
attitudes when we are growing up, societal attitudes (“You
60 OCTOBER 2017 Ç Plane&Pilot
fly?! Aren’t you scared?” a question I get a lot), fear of not
being in control, or perhaps losing a friend in an accident.
It’s easy to understand, because when an airplane crashes,
it gets spectacular press compared to a car crash, which
is usually no more than a byline. The fear I felt as a 6-year-
old probably stemmed from the new and unknown, but
because of the way my mother handled it, I never associated
airplanes with negative emotions again.
I have a small oil painting that I love. When the light
changes during the day, the colors in the painting reflect
the light and bring out different qualities. The problem with
it is that it was given to me by someone who turned out to
be duplicitous and untrustworthy, so part of me wants to
give it away because it’s a constant reminder of this awful
person, but as a painting it’s really superb. I could show it
to anybody, and they would just see a painting, but since I
have a skewed emotional relationship with it, I have a hard
time separating emotion from logic. This analogy helps me
understand that some people don’t just see the beautiful
lines of a DC-3, for example. Where I see something fun and
classic, others might see danger and discomfort. We have
to understand the underlying issues in order to change
someone’s perception.
Is fear of flying irrational? Statistics prove that commer-
cial aviation is very safe. Your chance of getting killed on
a commercial airliner, especially one that is not on the EU
“Blacklist,” an airline you probably would never fly anyway,
is less than one in 11 million. Pretty great odds by any stan-
dard, especially when you consider that over 35,000 people
die in car accidents and nearly 5,000 people die from work
injuries in the U.S. each year. To be honest, general aviation
is slightly riskier than commercial aviation, but it would
take a lot more than the scope of this article to discuss the
reasons for this, including taking into account some of the
uses of general aviation such as low-level work including
agricultural, pipeline patrol, fire-fighting, etc. Most pilots
believe, correctly so, that with a well-trained pilot and
good equipment, general aviation is as safe as we make it.
If someone needs convincing, quote the February 2017
Wall Street Journal article by Eugenie Cheng, a mathemati-
cian who talks about her fear of flying and how breaking
it down into mathematical probabilities has made her a
less-fearful flier. Based on conditional probability, expected
values, expected loss and rate of change, she found she
needed to focus on the absolute probability of an accident
(which is low) and ignore the rate of change. I quote: “The
absolute probability of dying in a plane crash is lower than
that of dying while going about my normal earthbound
existence.” And, “I find it more productive to look harder
for the logical basis for the fear, instead of pitting emotions
against logic in a battle that logic can’t win.”
You might say, gosh, all I want is some company when I
go flying. Do I have to be an armchair therapist? Well, maybe
PORTRAIT: LARA TOMLIN
a little. Be sympathetic, at least, but dig deeper if you can.
Emotions are never wrong. If you feel your partner has an
emotional block about flying with you, discuss it and try
to get to the heart of the matter. With any luck, it will be
the first step in overcoming their resistance.
 But it’s not all about fear. People don’t want to fly for
other reasons as well, like feeling that flying is boring
and uncomfortable, and, you have to admit, it probably
is at times. When you have succeeded in convincing your
partner to fly with you, make it as pleasant an experience
as possible. Try to think like a corporate pilot. Pre-flight
the airplane early so they don’t have to stand around and
possibly worry; wash and wax the airplane so it shines, and
clean it up! Pick up any loose debris on the floor, straighten
out the seatbelts. For some reason, people think small
airplanes are uncomfortable. Say what? Just because your
airplane might look like a tin can with only one door, has
no air conditioning and a hard-as-concrete seat? Why
not give them an Oregon aero seat cushion to sit on and a
noise-canceling Bose headset; then try to fly when it’s cool
and not during the hottest and bumpiest part of the day.
If reason and logic fail, and you can’t convince the per-
son you love to fly with you, then try bribery. Your partner
might not appreciate the flying, but they’ll appreciate a
nice lunch, a shopping trip, maybe a vacay to a resort with
a runway: Jekyll Island Club Resort, Jekyll Island, Georgia;
Grand Geneva Resort & Spa, Lake Geneva, Wisconsin;
Roche Harbor Resort, San Juan Islands, Washington; Cibolo
Creek Ranch, Marfa, Texas; The Inn at Furnace Creek, Death
Valley, California (but only in the winter), and other great
places. If a spa vacation isn’t inducement enough, you can
always try cash! Seriously, break the ice in a fun way, and
your person might want to go flying again.
Having a reason to fly makes a big difference for most
people. Not everyone wants to just bore holes in the sky. I
know I don’t. When I put this topic out there on my Facebook
page, several people responded that getting their spouse
involved with the local flying community—making friends
at their local pilots’ association or club, fly-in breakfasts,
volunteering at Young Eagle days—made all the difference
to their spouses’ attitudes. They made friends at the airport
and found a community in what was an otherwise boring
thing for them to do. There are a lot of other things you can do
together; for example, I know several couples who volunteer
for Pilots N Paws, rescuing animals and flying them to no-kill
shelters and foster homes. Having a mission can take your
mind off the mechanics of flying and any discomfort, and
focus it on doing something useful and rewarding.
My friend Bobsie Bostic asked me what I was writing
about, and I told her I kept running into men whose wives
won’t fly with them, and occasionally women with the same
problem with their spouses, and she said, “I know! I feel so
badly for them. I tell the guys at my airport that I’ll go with
them for lunch if their wives won’t!” Sometimes we want to
get in our airplane and just fly to clear our mind and to get
away. It’s an awesome feeling to fly solo at sunset, like the
gentleman I talked to at KVPZ said. But having someone
with you who appreciates the flying like you do can make
flying really sweet. PP
Patty Wagstaff is a three-time U.S. National Aerobatic champion, and one of the
world’s top airshow pilots. Visit pattywagstaff.com/school.html or reach Patty
via email through pattyaerobatics@gmail.com.
planeandpilotmag.com 61

CROSS-COUNTRY LOG
By Bill Cox
Then And Now:
Spiral Instability
Technology and training have changed
in the last 50 years, thank goodness
L
ike many of you, I took my initial flight training in
extremely basic airplanes—read, “cheap.” The first
was a re-engined, 85 hp Piper J-3 Cub on skis, but the
second was even more basic, if that’s possible. It was, in
fact, several steps below a Cessna 150.
That airplane was a Champion Tri-Traveler, one of
the first planes Champion Aircraft built after it acquired
Aeronca in 1956. The Tri-Traveler was essentially an Aeronca
Champ fitted with a nosegear and a 90 hp engine.
That was quite a few years ago, when nosewheels were
still something of a novelty for general aviation. The Tri-
Traveler proved that Champion Aircraft didn’t know quite
what to do with them.
I wasn’t wild about the Tri-Traveler, but it was the cheap-
est thing on the flight line at the time, and money was a
major constraint. At the same time, I have to admit that
the Tri-Traveler was one of the most docile and forgiving
airplanes I’ve flown. (I later got my license in a Piper Colt,
another minimum machine.)
I hope this doesn’t generate hate mail in this age of $120/
hour Cessna 152s, but I seem to recall that the Tri-Champ
(as it came to be known) rented for $6/hour (wet) and the
instructor charged $3/hour. If memory serves, the Private
Pilot flight test cost $25.
Even if you were a slow learner (me) and demanded
58 hours to earn the private (me, again), you could spend
about $600 and walk away with a license to fly, or, at least,
learn to fly. Even given inflation, that’s still quite a deal.
I bring it up because the Tri-Champ was, above all,
ridiculously stable, and that helped to reinforce one of the
great private pilot myths of all time.
Tell me you’ve never heard this advice or something
resembling it from the instructor’s seat. “OK, now you’re
over-controlling. This is an easy airplane to fly. It doesn’t
require heavy control inputs in any axis. In fact, it has
positive stability. It will fly better than you will. If you trim
62 OCTOBER 2017 Ç Plane&Pilot
PHOTO: “N79849” BY WILTSHIRESPOTTER – CC BY-SA 2.0/FLICKR
it properly in a bank or dive and let go of the stick, it will
eventually recover to straight-and-level flight all by itself.”
The derivation of this particular brand of nonsense was
Civil Aviation Authority Bulletin 32, and instructors took
that advice as gospel. After all, it came from the Federal
government, so how could it possibly be wrong?
Apparently, not many instructors took the time to test
the premise, or they would have discovered in one test that
most aircraft of the time were not that stable.
In fact, hardly any aircraft (if any at all) have the kind of
positive stability necessary to fly themselves out of a date
with disaster. Most of the time, the CG is constantly chang-
ing in flight as the aircraft burns off fuel, and lateral stability
is especially susceptible to even a moderate wind gust.
The myth was exploded early on when the prestigious
Cornell Aeronautical Laboratory of Ithaca, New York,
suggested that lack of spiral stability in “the majority of
general aviation airplanes…means that the tendency for
the airplane to maintain a constant wings-level attitude,
if left unattended, is at best marginal.” The Cornell study
suggested “the aircraft will enter a turn in which the angle
of attack slowly increases and the nose slowly drops with
a resultant increase in airspeed…Once the spiral develops
(unattended), the airplane will eventually fly into the ground
in a spiral dive….”
The military discovered the truth of the stability argu-
ment in the 1920s, determining that not only were airplanes
inherently unstable but also that pilots were similarly
challenged. The Army experimented with both pilots and
pigeons to see if either had any inherent stability sense
when flying blind.
The pigeons, fitted with tiny blindfolds, one assumes, did
stalls and spiral dives trying to gain control. “Finally, holding
their wings in a high dihedral (attitude), they descended
to the ground in much the same manner as a parachute.”
Predictably, pilots did even worse. They were blindfolded
and tested in cars and boats on the ground and in water,
and the inevitable result was a circuitous course and then
loss of control.
Today, the inherent inability of light planes to recover
from a loss of control remains the biggest risk factor. The
FAA has been fighting this battle for years, investigating
accidents in which pilots either cheat and attempt to oper-
ate IFR without proper training or do so without bother-
ing to earn the rating in the first place. The result of such
attempts is nearly always predictable and usually earns a
place in the local newspaper the following day.
In fairness, accident statistics suggest that many pilots
stumble into IFR weather accidently, get trapped on top, fail
to make the critical 180-degree turn when the weather goes
down, become disoriented at night or make a combination
of other mistakes that expose them to unnecessary risk.
The FAA studied all IFR accidents between 1983 and
PORTRAIT: LARA TOMLIN
2013 and discovered that, in 533 cases, non-instrument-
rated pilots were at the controls. These accidents resulted
in 955 fatalities.
For their part, aircraft manufacturers have been trying
for years to develop automatic systems to guard against
neutral or negative stability and spatial disorientation.
Back in the mid-1960s, Mooney was the first manu-
facturer to offer a safety margin for pilots operating in
accidental IFR. The company began installing Brittain
wing levelers as standard equipment in all of its airplanes.
The Mooney/Brittain system, known as Positive Control
(inevitably, PC), was different from most autopilots in that
it worked in reverse. It was on full-time unless you disabled
it. It had only one function—level the wings.
There was a pressure-sensitive switch on top of the yoke’s
left ram’s horn that disabled the wing leveler; otherwise,
the system would stubbornly maintain level flight continu-
ously. (For better or worse, PC didn’t offer any automatic
pitch control.)
My current Mooney had the PC system installed when I
bought it, and like so many other IFR-rated Mooney owners,
I disliked it. In order to maneuver, you needed to press the
button and hold it, not exactly my idea of fun flying. You
could overpower the servos, but it required considerable
yoke pressure.
Accordingly, I taped the button down to disable the
system completely on the premise that if I needed half an
autopilot, I could simply remove the tape. At one Mooney
fly-in with 32 airplanes in attendance, I counted 17 older
Mooneys (pre-1976) with PC installed on the ramp, and 15
of them had the override button taped down.
More recently, I flew a new Cessna TTx in Wichita, and
Cessna had its own, less-obtrusive and considerably more
sophisticated stability augmentation system installed. Part
of the Garmin G2000 system in the TTx, the cleverly named
Electronic Stability Protection (ESP) keeps the airplane out
of trouble whether the autopilot is on or not. ESP is far more
friendly and permissive than Mooney’s PC system—Mooney
today has ESP in its airplanes, too.
With ESP monitoring your every move, roll and pitch
limits are more restricted than the airplane’s certification
parameters but don’t constrain normal maneuvering. If
you exceed 17 degrees of pitch up or 19 degrees of pitch
down, ESP will gently counter by recovering to within its
prescribed tolerances.
Similarly, try to roll past 45 degrees of bank, and ESP
will correct the bank angle back to 30 degrees, though, as
with the Mooney, you can overpower the autopilot, though
it takes some force to do so.
Before you object and insist this full-time protection is
something George Orwell might have envisioned, consider
how many pilots this could save each year who accidentally
stray into IFR conditions.
The Cirrus SR-20 and SR-22 (which today boast ESP as
well) are the world’s most popular singles. They employ an
innovation that’s the simplest of all the current stability
augmentation devices. Aeronautical engineer Jim Griswold,
perhaps most famous for leading the team that designed the
world-beater Piper Malibu in 1983 and, later, the Questair
Venture, designed the Cirrus control system with a simple
feature to improve stability and recovery.
Everybody loves the Cirrus, and it’s not hard to under-
stand why. Like the Cessna TTx, Cirrus mounts a side stick
on the left arm rest, but apparently the company recognized
that left hands may not be as strong or adept as right hands.
Perhaps to that end, Griswold fitted the Cirrus side
stick control with a break-out force, a simple mechanism
that’s spring-loaded to return to neutral if the pilot merely
releases pressure. This operates in both pitch and roll, and
it’s, once again, a passive system.
By themselves, clever design features such as those on
the older Mooney, Cessna TTx and Cirrus models won’t
eliminate loss of control when pilots stumble from VFR
into IMC. That won’t happen until pilots fully appreciate
that instrument flight is a skill totally separate from VFR
operation. PP
As of January 1, 2016, Senior Editor Bill Cox has logged 15,100 flight hours
in 321 types of aircraft. He also holds 28 world city-to-city speed records, has
made 211 international delivery flights, and owns and flies a LoPresti Mooney.
You can email Bill at flybillcox@aol.com.
planeandpilotmag.com 63
 CONTRAILS
By Robert Goyer
The Greatest
Plane In
Oshkosh History
I’ve been to a lot of EAA air shows
in Oshkosh, but this one was
special for me in one big way.
F
or the past couple of decades and change, I’ve been
happily trekking to Oshkosh in late July come rain or
come shine. Lord knows the show itself is special. I
remember meeting for the first time some really extraor-
dinary airplanes there: jets by Eclipse and Cirrus and
Honda and Embraer, weird and cool creations by Burt
Rutan (again and again), remarkable commercial airliners,
old and new, including the Airbus A380, the Boeing 787
and…my favorite, Concorde. I’ve seen innumerable clas-
sics, fantastic amateur-built creations, mean and mighty
warbirds, and everything else, from powered parachutes
to rocket-powered homebuilts.
But the most important plane I’ve seen there in all my
time is my own, a 1964 Skylane, an aircraft that’s long on
capability and short on modern amenities.
I’ve been to 26 AirVentures in a row now, and I’ve arrived
there in a crazy number of different planes along the way. In
airplanes I leased, airplanes I rented, airplanes I bummed
64 OCTOBER 2017 Ç Plane&Pilot
rides on and one airplane of which I owned a small slice.
These great planes—Cherokee Sixes, Socata Trinidads, Piper
Archers, Citation CJs and lots of Cirrus SR22s—all meant a
lot to me, because airplanes are just remarkable machines
no matter whose name is on the pink slip.
But this year was the first year I flew in my very own
airplane. (Okay, it’s really mine and the bank’s…but they
never get to fly it.) It felt right. When I landed and hammered
the tiedown anchors in the soft Wisconsin soil, I was like
the thousands of other airplane owners out in the North
40, staking out a piece of Oshkosh of my very own. I put up
my little tent, crashed early and hard that first night, then
woke up, brewed up a cup of black coffee and watched the
planes fire up and head off, P-51s singing their glorious
12-cylinder song to the day, A36 Bonanzas, doors off, on
their way to photograph other planes in the magic hour
of morning, and even a couple of bizjets I imagined had
dropped off passengers the night before and now had to
return to base…I felt sorry for those poor corporate pilots.
After all, they were heading in the wrong direction! OSH is
where all the action would be.
It was a spectacular week for all the spectacular reasons
we’ve written about at length here and on PlaneandPilotMag.
com, but when the week was over, I was ready to head home.
It was seven hours and change down to San Marcos, Texas,
where my airplane lives, dodging buildups going VFR, me
and my old bird, winging across the wide Texas skies, new
friends in a way, but in another very real way, maybe a more
real way, friends from before this all began, a pilot seeking
the sky and the places on the other side of the horizon, and
a rough, rugged, winged pal who is just as raring to go as
I am, even these 50 amazing years down the road that we
both have traveled.
That, ladies and gentlemen, is why we fly. And why we
won’t be stopping anytime soon. Either one of us. PP
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