Flying

flying

SENIOR EDITOR Rob Mark ASSOCIATE EDITOR Julie Boatman EDITOR-AT-LARGE Pia Bergqvist MANAGING EDITOR Jake Lamb ART DIRECTOR Amy Jo Sledge COPY EDITOR Abigail Creel STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER Jon Whittle CONTRIBUTING EDITORS VICE PRESIDENT/MANAGING DIRECTOR Glenn Sandridge / glenn.sandridge@bonniercorp.com PUBLISHER David Carr / david.carr@bonniercorp.com SALES ADMINISTRATION MANAGER Lauren Brown / lauren.brown@bonniercorp.com ADVERTISING SALES OFFICES ASSOCIATE PUBLISHER Lisa DeFrees / ldefrees@earthlink.net NATIONAL ADVERTISING REPRESENTATIVE Ben Greenwood / ben.greenwood@bonniercorp.com DETROIT ACCOUNT DIRECTOR Jeff Roberge MARKETING MANAGER Haley Bischof MARKETPLACE MANAGER Charles Negron / charles.negron@bonniercorp.com BONNIER MEDIA EXECUTIVE VICE PRESIDENT Gregory D. Gatto FINANCIAL DIRECTOR Tara Bisciello EDITORIAL DIRECTOR Shawn Bean DIRECTOR, DIGITAL STRATEGY Mike Staley GROUP MARKETING DIRECTOR Haley Bischof CREATIVE DIRECTOR Dave Weaver EDITORIAL OPERATIONS DIRECTOR Stephanie Pancratz COPY CHIEF Cindy Martin GROUP PRODUCTION DIRECTOR Rina Murray ASSOCIATE PRODUCTION DIRECTOR Kelly Weekley PRODUCTION MANAGER Peter Coffin DIRECTOR, DIGITAL CONTENT PRODUCTION & PRESENTATION Michellina Jones DIGITAL PRODUCER Daniel McSwain BONNER CHAIRMAN Lars Dahmén CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER Eric Zinczenko CHIEF FINANCIAL OFFICER Joachim Jaginder EXECUTIVE VICE PRESIDENT, BONNIER MEDIA Gregory…

las vegas also means safety

If you’ve never attended the National Business Aviation Association’s annual convention, you’re in for a treat. Each year, the event alternates between the Orlando Convention Center in Florida and the Las Vegas Convention Center, where there seems to be just enough room for the 23,000-plus show visitors. This year, it’s Las Vegas’ turn. The size and nature of this show—the largest of the business-aviation shows in the U.S.—brings dozens and dozens of manufacturing exhibitors and visitor aircraft to the region. The NBAA says this past year’s convention drew more than 1,000 exhibitors who brought along more than 100 airplanes for static display. More than 1,000 students also attended. Tens of thousands of people visited the show to see exhibits from companies that support business aviation—such as pilot- and technician-training and-recruitment companies,…

inbox

ALWAYS LOOKING As always, I enjoyed reading this episode of I.L.A.F.F.T. in which a fuel cap came off, and the author almost unknowingly ran that tank dry [“Slow Down,” September]. Some good lessons came from the saga, but a few more occurred to me. Do better flight planning. In any light single, making a three-leg, one-day trip departing at 7:30 a.m. from Denver to Orlando in February guarantees you’ll run out of daylight before the third leg. Not a big deal in and of itself, but that fuel stop should be at a major airport, or after assuring that fuel will be available. Most small airports close up at dark. Don’t assume self-service is available—or lights, for that matter. Know when to quit. The fueler had to come from home: strike one. Then…

drill-powered tug

If you’ve ever found yourself alone in a hangar, yanking on a tiny tow bar as you attempt to pull an airplane—especially one that weighs 2,500 or 3,000 pounds—in or out of the hangar, you can appreciate the need for a little help. Pulling an airplane out of the hangar is usually easier than pushing it back in when it’s a Cirrus SR-20 nearly full of fuel. Trying to make that airplane jump the inch-high lip that usually sits between the ramp and hangar floor can often be enough to make many pilots cry uncle. Obviously a powered tug, or a friend, is the solution, but most of those powered options are not inexpensive whether the tug is operated by battery, electric motor or gas engine. Tugs capable of easily maneuvering…

hangarbot

One of the major advantages of storing your airplane in a common-storage hangar is line-service personnel will usually pull your aircraft in and out in time to your schedule. Common storage often includes a host of additional services for a monthly rental fee, often twice the price of a T hangar. Line-service folks can help make sure the engine is kept warm in winter if the large hangar doesn’t happen to be heated. Now, thanks to HangarBot, pilots can enjoy some of those special services with an electronic butler to keep an eye on a variety of necessary tasks while the aircraft sits comfortably in a much less expensive T hangar. Hangar-Bot’s main inside-the-hangar unit is controlled by an app on the user’s smartphone. The company’s Wi-Fi-enabled assistant can turn on…

powering the next generation of aircraft

Electric The mere mention of lithium-ion batteries reminds some people of the 2013 battery fire aboard a Japan Airlines Boeing 787 shortly after everyone had disembarked at Boston’s Logan Airport. Luckily, no one was hurt. Lithium-ion batteries can be touchy and have also been responsible for hundreds of fires that incinerated laptop computers and phones when the battery cells entered a thermal-runaway stage. Their advantage is their low weight versus the power they produce. George Bye, CEO of Bye Aerospace, knew early on that his dream of an all-electric airplane was going to need a better power source to become a practical machine. That’s why Bye Aerospace partnered with Oxis Energy in the U.K. to create a different type of battery technology, using lithium-sulfur cells for the storage of energy. The cells…