Plane & Pilot August 2021

With Oshkosh 2021 looming large, I’m spending this time focusing not on the inconceivably treacherous road we traveled these past 16 months to get here but instead reflecting on the good because my eyes have been opened to a number of truths about flying. Granted, some of these are things I long suspected but wasn’t entirely sure about. Others, however, are realizations that have shaken my core understandings about the nature of aviation. And, before you get worried, this is a politics-free zone. This is all about flying. Here goes! 1. IT’S A GREAT TIME TO BECOME AN AIRLINE PILOT. We all figured that airline flying would come back…eventually, but that timetable was anybody’s guess. As it turned out, people don’t just want to fly again; they want to fly more than…

Pilots know what the Civil Air Patrol is, but very few of us understand the scope and scale of the work it does. Since the 1940s, it has done its part to keep American citizens safe, though that role has changed a good deal over the years. These days, the mission is predominantly search and rescue, but there are numerous other mission types you probably didn’t know about—it has hot air balloons, you know! Check out these remarkable facts about this remarkable organization. We’re betting you’ll be as surprised by many of them as we were! Founded: 1941 Original Name: Civil Air Defense Service (CADS) Motto: “Semper Vigilans” (Always Vigilant) Headquarters: Maxwell AFB, Alabama Purpose: Mobilize civilian pilots for national defense Became Civilian Auxiliary Of The U.S. Air Force: 1948 Primary WWII Duties: Coastal patrol Members Awarded Congressional…

CATCH THE PNP MEMBER-EXCLUSIVE WEBINAR WITH GARMIN Garmin’s two revolutionary displays have changed the very value proposition of tens of thousands of small planes. The G5, introduced a few years ago now, hasn’t lost any of its glow. This small, bright and lightweight display has a lot of capability for a small investment, one that rivals that of replacement electromechanical instruments that look so last century in comparison. But with the introduction of the GI 275, Garmin added an even more revolutionary instrument, one that is more powerful and more flexible than the G5, by a lot. That said, there are still compelling reasons to go with the G5. Garmin’s Pat Coleman, manager of aviation aftermarket sales for the Americas and the go-to guy for retrofit display wisdom, explained all the…

ACROSS 1 Dentist who produced one of the first composite aircraft 6 Lear, for one 8 Compete with 9 It’s closely related to the ADI 10 Parallel and opposing force to an aircraft’s motion through the air 12 Begins “of climb” and “end” 13 Chooses 16 What zoom climbs tend to be 20 Jet pilot who started the engine did this to the fire 21 “Every takeoff is optional. Every landing is mandatory” is one 22 North American business jet 27 Bomber plane org. from 1946 to 1992 29 Elevates 32 Company that holds an annual Migration Flight Training Conference 35 State with the highest airport in the Lower 48, abbr. 36 Late test pilot whose dad was Daedalus 38 Dreaded yearly event 40 Approaches 41 Nickname for the autopilot system 42 ___ up (got nervous) DOWN 1 Essential plane features 2 Small part 3 Approximate departure time, abbr. 4 ___S, one of many kinds…

MYSTERY A mysterious man fell thousands of feet from a Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner into an upscale London neighborhood in 2019. His identity is still unknown. THE INCIDENT Sunbathing on a nice, hot summer evening on June 30, 2019, a south London man received quite the shock when a dead body came barreling down from the sky above, landing a mere 3 feet away from him. The mysterious victim had fallen approximately 4,000 feet from the wheel well of a Kenya Airways Boeing 787 Dreamliner as it was on its final descent into Heathrow Airport from Jomo Kenyatta International. The body struck the earth with such intense force that it indented the surface and crushed a large slate of asphalt. Thankfully, or perhaps more tragically, it appeared the man had died long before impact,…

General Aviation pilots have the sole responsibility to determine if they are rested and ready for flight. Tools like the I’M SAFE checklist are available to help with these important decisions, but gray areas abound. In both the airline and military worlds, two essential concepts guide these professionals in these critical areas, crew rest and crew duty day. These terms define the period before and during the flight day that a pilot or crew member is officially available and able to fly. These procedural guardrails protect the traveling public as well as the aviators who take them on their journeys. Maybe as private pilots, we can learn something from these folks and decide what our personal minimums are for preflight readiness and in-flight decision-making. Nearly every one of us has had…