plane & pilot

Editor-in-Chief Isabel Goyer Associate Editor J. Ana F. Beckett Senior Editors Bill Cox, Lou Churchville, Jeremy King Contributing Editors Peter Katz, Jason Blair, Jeff Van West, Bethany Whitfield ART & PRODUCTION Art Director Carolyn V. Marsden Senior Designer Nate Silva SALES & MARKETING Vice President, Media Solutions Stuart Crystal Media Solutions Manager Michael Echevarria 617-279-0216 | mechevarria@madavor.com Client Services clientservices@madavor.com Audience Development Analyst Ryan Gillis Social Media and Marketing Manager Tim Doolan Marketing Associates Shawn Daniel, Tommy Goodale Content Marketing Supervisor Anthony Buzzeo Content Marketing Associate Sarah MacDougall OPERATIONS VP, Circulation Strategy Jason Pomerantz Operations Supervisor Andrea Palli Operations Coordinator Toni Eunice Human Resources Manager Alicia Roach Client Services Supervisor Cheyenne Corliss Senior Client Services Associate Tou Zong Her Client Services Aubrie Britto, Darren Cormier Accounting Director Amanda Joyce Accounts Payable Associate Tina McDermott Accounts Receivable Associate Wayne Tuggle DIGITAL OPERATIONS Digital Ad Operations Director Leza Olmer WordPress Developer David Glassman Senior Digital Designer Mike Decker EXECUTIVE Chairman & Chief Executive Officer…

beyond garmin autoland: what the future looks like

When Garmin released its incredible new safety utility, Autoland, and two aircraft manufacturers, Piper and Cirrus, announced its imminent certification in their flagship planes, the M600 SLS and the SF50 Vision Jet, respectively, it was a big deal. By my reading, it was the No. 1 topic of conversation in aviation chat groups across the segments. Airline pilots, bush pilots, homebuilders and the private Jet A crowd were all talking about Autoland. And, well, they should be. The introduction is absolutely revolutionary. In the near term, it’s an automatic autoland feature that, when a critical emergency calls, will pick an airport to land your plane at, configure the flaps, gear and power correctly throughout the landing sequence, bring your plane down on the centerline, stop it and shut off the engine,…

airports, part ii

Public-use airports in the U.S.: 5,173 Towered: 550 (9.4%) Percent lighted: 77% Unpaved: 25% State with the most: Texas, 394 Fewest: Rhode Island, 8 World’s oldest continuously operating: College Park (KCGS), Maryland Established by: Wilbur Wright, 1909 Nickname: “Cradle of Aviation” Runway dimensions: 2,600 ft. x 60 ft. Flights/week: 62 Top destination airport: Orlando (MCO), Florida Probable cause: Disney World Busiest non-commercial airport: Van Nuys (VNY), California Size: 730 acres FBOs: 4 Takeoffs & landings/year: ~230,000 Compared with Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta (ATL): ~900,000/yr Height of control tower at ATL: 398 ft. Ranking: Third highest in the world Elevation of highest public-use airport (KLXV): 9,927 ft. Home of: RAVCO, the world’s highest helicopter flight school Runway dimensions: 6,400 ft. x 75 ft. Longest runway: 16,000 ft.; Denver International (DEN) Most ominous name: Eek Airport (EEK) Cheekiest airport code: BUM (Butler Memorial Airport) Airport with six concert stages: Nashville International (BNA) Musical performances/year: >1,500 Cowboy hats required: 0 Airport with runway gradient…

cross check

ACROSS 1 High Sierra Fly-In mainstays 8 Chopper blade 9 Generic term for a plane’s heat engine 10 New landing light 12 ____ Prentice plane 14 Time just before an event 16 John Wayne’s plane? 17 Related to light 21 Naval rank, for short 22 Sporty’s training courses, for example 25 2,000 lbs. 26 Word after flight and before pilot 27 ____ VK-30 29 You can’t be this at its namesake (ID) airport 30 ____rotor 32 Kerfuffle 34 Catalina and San Juan, for example 35 Under a bridge, maybe. Though one of these? Never. DOWN 1 Twisting force 2 It captures air for use in an internal combustion engine 3 Board member, abbr. 4 Cubs have a lot of this, 2 words 5 Rare find 6 What an SR22’s gear doesn’t do 7 DME ___ 10 Primo trim level letters 11 Donald’s company’s letters 12 Pyrenees city 13 A couple of LSA spin-resistant seaplanes 15 WX code after Mount St. Helens…

the day the music died

Rock ‘n’ roll was here to stay and the “Winter Dance Party,” a tour featuring Buddy Holly, Waylon Jennings, Frankie Sardo, Tommy Allsup, Carl Bunch, Ritchie Valens, Dion DiMucci and “The Big Bopper,” J.P. Richardson Jr., was heating up across the snowy Midwest. Things weren’t going so hot behind the scenes, however. The musicians’ route had been poorly designed, zigzagging them hundreds of miles a day in an exhausting effort to play 24 shows in as many days. Less than a week into the tour, the heating system on the bus broke, leaving Bunch hospitalized with frostbite. Richardson and Valens began coming down with flu-like symptoms, and the artists, whose moods had grown dark, dubbed the trip “The Tour from Hell.” Little did they know just how much worse the tour…

news of note

GARMIN UNVEILS GAME-CHANGING AUTOLAND Garmin, Piper and Cirrus recently introduced a new emergency autoland system, which brings unprecedented new capabilities to the modern cockpit. The technology, which will be available on select Garmin G3000 aircraft, is the first of its kind in the GA world, but it also surpasses the capabilities available even in today’s most advanced airliners. Autoland is intended for use in emergencies only. It can be activated manually by those in the aircraft or automatically if the system detects pilot incapacitation. Once initiated, the technology not only declares an emergency to ATC but also selects the best airport for landing, configures the airplane appropriately and puts it down safely on the runway. During each step of the process, the system takes into account a breathtaking number of factors necessary…