The Angelina County Airport in Lufkin, TX (KLFK) will be hosting the Angelina County Airfest on Saturday, October 10th. The airport will open up at 9am.
Prepare for a day of food, fun, and some great performances. There will be warbirds and many other classic airplanes on display, not too mention a number of aerobatic performances as the day goes on.
To learn more about the Airfest, visit the Angelina County Airfest website. Tickets start at $10 for adults.
The long anticipated certification of the Cirrus Vision Jet finally happened. On October 30th, the FAA awarded certification to Cirrus’ single engine jet. Marketed as the world’s first single engine personal jet, the Cirrus Vision Jet will seat five adults, two children, and cruise around 300 knots.
The Williams FJ33-5A Turbo Fan engine is operated by a FADEC, single handle throttle, similar to the throttle in the piston powered Cirrus family. In fact, the SR series was taken into consideration when designing the Cirrus Vision Jet in order to simplify the upgrade for pilots. Many of the buttons and knobs are in the same places in the Cirrus Vision Jet.
The Cirrus Vision Jet is equipped with the Cirrus Perspective Touch by Garmin that is very similar to the Cirrus Perspective by Garmin in the piston powered line. Equipped also with the Flight Into Known Icing system and the Cirrus Airframe Parachute System (CAPS), both of which are standard.
Unlike the piston powered Cirrus lines, the CAPS system on the Cirrus Vision Jet is actually mounted in the nose. Also, unlike the piston lines, the jet CAPS is integrated with the aircraft avionics to slow the airplane to between 67 and 160 knots when the system is activated. In the jet, the CAPS system was designed to withstand higher weights, higher speeds and higher altitudes.
Cirrus hopes to start deliveries of the Vision Jet by the end of the year, with many more rolling off the line in 2017. All Cirrus Vision Jet pilots will need to be type rated in order to fly the aircraft. Cirrus is doing all the type rating training in house at their new Vision Center in Knoxville, Tennessee.
To read the full press release, click here.
The Cirrus Pilot Proficiency Program is once again returning to Houston, TX the first weekend in November. Henrickson Jet Center at the Houston Executive Airport (KTME) will be the host FBO this year. If you are a Cirrus owner in the South Central US, the Houston CPPP weekend is definitely worth your while.
What is it? The Houston CPPP is a combination ground and flight training weekend. With ground classes ranging from engine management, to loss of control prevention, to avionics best practices, an attendee will not lack a better Cirrus education by the time he or she leaves.
The flight training side of the weekend gives an attendee several options. A Houston CPPP attendee can do 1 or 2 flights with a highly qualified Cirrus Standardized Instructor Pilot (CSIP), one on Saturday and one on Sunday (if the 2 flight option is selected). The Cirrus Owner’s and Pilot’s Association (COPA) brings in exceptional instructors for each of the CPPP events, so the training is top notch. Folks who want to take in more ground school, but still want to fly a little bit have the option of just doing 1 flight, either Saturday or Sunday, in order to increase their Cirrus knowledge.
The Houston CPPP event will be November 2nd, 2018-November 4th, 2018, a Friday through a Sunday. The weekend kicks off with a welcome dinner Friday night, then ground sessions and flying on Saturday and Sunday, plus a dinner on Saturday night.
For those who want to challenge themselves, there are simulator sessions available with a challenging instrument approach that doesn’t quite meet up with the normal, ho-hum type of approach.
The Houston CPPP also provides a Partner in Command course for those right seaters out there wanting to learn more about what to do in an emergency situation.
Hank Gibson of Texas Top Aviation will be at the Houston CPPP as a flight instructor. For more information and to sign up, please click here.
Hope to see you there!
One of the first questions a student pilot asks me when starting the cross country portion of his or her training is, how do I know what altitude is best for my flight? This is a good question, because without taking certain aspects of the flight into account, it’s really just a crap shoot when selecting an altitude. Craps and flying don’t mix, so let’s take a look at a few considerations when selecting an altitude.
Sky coverage has several subcategories when it comes to selecting an altitude. First is how high are the bases? Is it IFR (VFR pilots would be grounded), marginal VFR (1,000 AGL to 3,000 AGL ceiling), or good VFR (above 3,000 AGL ceiling)? If the cloud deck is only 2,500 feet off the ground, then VFR pilots are limited to either 1,000 AGL to 2,000 AGL. This is an excellent segue into why VFR pilots shouldn’t scud run!
Second, what kind of cloud deck is it? Is it an actual ceiling (broken or overcast), or is it a scattered layer? Few or scattered layers usually allow VFR pilots to find a hole to get higher to some smoother air, making the flight more pleasant. VFR pilots, always make sure to check the destination weather as it could be scattered where you are departing from, but it might be broken or overcast where you are arriving.
Last, how high are the tops of the clouds? Pilots can only get this information in the planning stage from the area forecast or from pilot reports, so most of the time, it’s not very precise information. If the tops are at 10,000 feet and the pilot is flying a 172 on a 30 mile trip, it doesn’t make much sense to get on top of the clouds.
Terrain goes hand in hand with sky coverage. If there are low clouds and high terrain, that doesn’t bode well for trying to stay VFR and not hitting anything. Obstacles need to be taken into account too, as there are some pretty tall radio towers that can stretch up into a 1,500-2,000 AGL deck of clouds.
Once the sky coverage and terrain have been considered, it’s time to look at the winds aloft. Tailwinds are preferred, but, sometimes, a headwind is the only option. After taking the clouds and terrain into account, this narrows down your altitude to a handful of options. The winds aloft will further narrow it down.
Once you have two or three altitudes in mind, taking a look at the performance charts for your airplane will help nail down that final altitude. Pull out the POH, compare fuel burn and cruise speed, and you’ll have your altitude selected.
A lot of my customers ask me which airplane that I train in is my favorite. The Cirrus and the Columbia both are very good airplanes, but if I had my pick, I’d go with a Piper PA46, specifically an ’86-’88 Malibu.
I love the Piper PA46. 6 seat, cabin class, pressurization, air conditioning, great ramp appeal, 17 GPH (in the Continental TSIO 520 or 550; Piper changed to the Lycoming TIO 540 in ’89, which you run rich of peak and burn 22 GPH, decreasing a little bit of the awesomeness). What more can you ask for? The interior is roomy, there is plenty of baggage space in the nose and in the rear of the cabin. They are downright fabulous airplanes. Plus, you can get into a nice one that has had some panel upgrades and a mid time engine for around $300,000. That’s not bad.
Cessna tried to make a pressurized single with the P210, but it just doesn’t match up with the Piper PA46. The Piper has more room, more baggage space, a higher max differential pressure and service ceiling, and better air conditioning to boot!
Don’t know much about the Piper PA46? It’s been called several things. Originally, it was the Malibu, with a Continental engine. Now the TSIO 520 was not one of Continental’s better motors. However, most of the original Malibus have been upgraded to the much better TSIO 550C engine, which is a great product. Cruise around at almost 200 knots at FL200 and burn only 17 GPH. It’s beautiful.
Piper changed to the Lycoming engine in 1989 and changed the name to the Malibu Mirage, later shortened to just Mirage.
Then, in 2016, Piper upgraded a lot of the avionics, cleaned up the panel, and dubbed it the M350.
Piper made the ill fated decision in the mid 2000s to quit making the Saratoga and instead make an unpressurized version of the PA46 called the Matrix. It didn’t last long, only about 10 years or so, and hasn’t been very popular (see: don’t buy one). Piper took the best part about the PA46, the pressurization, and took it away, leaving an airplane that you still have to wear oxygen in to get the advertised high speeds in the upper teens and flight levels. Who wants to be cruising around in a cabin class airplane with oxygen on? Piper needs to bring the Saratoga back to give folks a low level, high performance option.
What would be my dream Piper PA46? As stated above, an ’86-’88 model Malibu (Piper started off with hydraulic flaps in the ’84-’85 models and it wasn’t a very good system. They changed to electric flaps in ’86) with a Continental TSIO 550C upgrade. The Garmin autopilot isn’t out yet, so I’d go with the STEC 3100 Autopilot w/ a Yaw Damper (the airplane originally came with a King KFC 150, which is a really good autopilot, but most of them are getting old and are getting difficult to fix. King’s replacement KFC 325 is still slogging through certification. Garmin’s GFC 600 would be ideal, but that isn’t expected to be certified for the PA46 fleet till late this year). A single Garmin 10.6″ G500 TXi with EIS tied to a Garmin GTN 750 GPS with a Garmin GTR 225 Nav/Comm as the number 2 radio.
Then I just put gas in it and go. That would be my kind of airplane.
A couple weeks ago, my employer informed me that he wanted to take a group to Nassau, The Bahamas. I thought, no big deal, this should be an easy trip. The more I started to read, though, the more I realized it wasn’t going to be just a “normal” trip.
If you aren’t a member of AOPA, I would highly recommend joining. AOPA’s website was where I started researching. They actually have a checklist to help you along the way.
The first step is getting the paperwork started. All souls on board are going to need a valid passport. In our case, a couple of passengers need to get theirs. Since it was a little shorter notice, we had to go through the expedited process. It’s fairly simple. A quick internet search gave me a couple of people that helped the process along.
Next was making sure the aircraft had all it’s paperwork. The airworthiness certificate was easy as it’s always in the plane (or should be).
The registration certificate was next to check. We recently upgraded to the King Air 350 so we had to make sure we had the original issuance registration certificate. The Bahamas supposedly doesn’t allow Temporary Certificates and I really didn’t want to test that policy. Thankfully after a couple of calls between owner and the FAA we got the original.
The aircraft and pilot are both also required to have an FCC Radio License. This is only for international flying, but not an everyday thing pilots think about.
After that was flight planning. I use FltPlan.com. The actual filing of the flight plan was very easy. I use the prescribed routes from the website. In the remarks section of the flight plan put ADCUS (Advise Customs). This advices ATC to let customs know of your arrival. It’s basically an added safety net in case you forget to call ahead or your flight times end up being way off.
The other item when dealing with flight planning is dealing with eApis. There are numerous companies who will provide this service for you. I elected not to use one of those. If you go to the CBP website, you can set up an account and do all of it yourself. Take your time and really plan the flight out well to make sure your arrival times are as close to real time as possible. If you’re way off, this will make any customs agent very frustrated and that is not something you want to be dealing with.
Approach charts and en route charts are another hurdle. Thankfully Foreflight has you covered. With my subscription, I already had en route charts. The approach charts were the real issue. In the Bahamas, the only places that have approved instrument approaches is Nassau and Freeport. Fortunately, we were going to Nassau. Foreflight does charge almost $400 for the Caribbean and Bahamas charts. Emailing the FBO is a good option as they can usually supply approach plates for international flights.
You’ll also need a CBP sticker. This goes on the outside of the aircraft showing customs you’re in the system. This can be found on the CBP website as well. It takes a little bit to get the
sticker in the mail. However, once you pay for the sticker, the receipt can be used in place of the sticker.
The final thing I focused on was picking an FBO. I chose Jet Aviation. They had CAA which gave us a Jet fuel discount. Their facility was excellent and staff was very friendly. The thing that put it over the top for me was how they handled customs. I emailed Jet Aviation all the information for myself and passengers and they pre-filled all the customs forms for me. When we arrived, customs took all of five minutes and then my passengers were out the door.
While in Nassau, I stayed at Breezes Resort. It’s all inclusive so that helps keep the costs down for your owners if you’re a corporate pilot. It’s next to some of the other bigger resorts so there were shuttles available to get to other amenities. The only complaint I might have was the power kept cycling on and off and the internet wasn’t reliable. This proved challenging when trying to plan for the return trip.
The return trip required a lot of the same preparation. Again it was nice to have a good FBO to help prepare the paperwork required to clear customs. Jet Aviation handled the General Declarations for me and my passengers. All I was required to do was file the flight plan and file eApis, which was actually challenging while my internet at the resort was on the fritz.
Don’t forget to call US Customs at your Port of Entry! As this was Ft. Lauderdale for us, I called them twenty four hours in advance as prescribed. The customs agent was friendly and helpful with any questions I had. I think the best advice I can give throughout this whole experience is call ahead and ask lots of questions! Did I say that already?
The morning of the return trip went off with no hitches. Again, Jet Aviation had set up a driver to pick me up and he was on time. Jet Aviation had all the General Declarations paperwork pre-filled out for myself and passengers. Again, I use FltPlan.com to file my flight plans. Their service performed flawlessly even though I had heard rumors of flight plans not going through. To curb my bet, I talked with the staff at Jet Aviation and they made a call to tower for me to verify that the flight plan had gone through; of course, it had.
The actual flight out of Nassau was pretty uneventful. The last real hurdle I had was dealing with customs in Ft. Lauderdale, and hurdle it was. When we landed at FLL, ground instructed me over to customs ramp. There was no one to tell us where to park on the ramp. This was extremely frustrating.
A Learjet taxied in prior to us and had taken up most of the ramp but, we found a spot and shutdown. Once we shut down, no one came out to our aircraft. I walked in to talk to someone and was greeted by a Boarder agent who was less than helpful. Since the Learjet had parked first, they got to go through first. Evidently, we were not allowed in the building until they were done. This didn’t make my owner too happy!
Be prepared, though, if another airplane is on the Customs ramp before you arrive. You are not supposed to get out of the airplane until a Customs agent comes and meets you, even to go to the bathroom. This can result in large fines.
Once we were allowed in, the process went smoothly. We had to put all of our bags through the x-ray machine. Beyond the x-ray machine, CPB didn’t require any other security measures. On other crossings I’ve done, CPB had opened up bags and sifted through clothes, so just doing the conveyor belt was a surprise. The rest of the trip was fairly commonplace. We stopped in Destin FL for dinner before making our final leg into Dallas. All in all, it was an excellent trip and I’m excited to do another one.
Ryne Bergren works for a Part 91 operation in Dallas flying a King Air 350. Being a Part 91 outfit, he doesn’t get to rely on a “dispatch” or “company” to help with any international flight planning. This was a learning experience for him. Hopefully this will be a help to anyone for future trips.
Sometimes, it’s hard to find a good shop that does quality work and communicates well without charging a fortune. Luckily for the PA46 owner, there are lots of good options. Here are the Texas Top Aviation recommended Piper PA46 maintenance shops.
Lubbock Aero (KLBB)/Abilene Aero (KABI)-Texas
Lubbock Aero and Abilene Aero are owned by the same company. Both are Piper service centers. I have had some Piper PA46 maintenance interactions with Chad at Lubbock Aero over the last year and have been impressed.
The folks at Lubbock Aero are friendly, knowledgeable, and keep the customer abreast of what’s going on with their airplane. I haven’t been to Abilene Aero, but I suspect that the same quality of service exists there as well.
Chuck’s Aircraft (KEDC)-Austin, TX
Chuck’s Aircraft has been a Cirrus Service Center for a number of years. Recently, Chuck’s put several mechanics through Kevin Mead’s M-Class which educates mechanics on the ins and outs of Piper PA46 maintenance. Chuck’s is a great, convenient spot to get your PA46 worked on.
First Line Aero (KJSO)-Jacksonville, TX
Located on the same airport as Casey Aviation, First Line Aero specializes in Piper PA46 maintenance. Walking up to their hangar, it’s loaded with Malibus, Mirages, JetProps, and Meridians. Charles Crossman, the owner, has been turning wrenches for a lot of years. Anyone recommended by Joe Casey has a stamp of approval in my book.
Midwest Malibu (KHUT)-Hutchinson, KS
One of 2 nationally renowned PA46 shops, owners bring their PA46s from all over the country to Midwest Malibu. Owner Tony Beauchamp has personally assisted multiple of my customers when they have gotten in AOG situations with their PA46s.
Des Moines Flying Service (KDSM)-Des Moines, IA
I have not had any direct interaction with Des Moines Flying Service, but I have several customers who have. The reviews have all indicated knowledgeable mechanics, good work, and good communication.
Malibu Aerospace (KANE)-Blaine, MN
Malibu Aerospace (the second nationally renowned Piper PA46 maintenance shop) has done many great things for the PA46 line of aircraft. From the M1 Cooling Mod that alters the lower cowl and add baffles for cooling air getting to where it needs to go, to the M5 TSIO 550C upgrade for the original PA46-310P, the Malibu Aerospace guys know what they are doing with the PA46.
Hetrick Aviation (KTOP)-Topeka, KS
I recently learned about Hetrick Aviation in Topeka. I met a customer there to pick up his plane where it was having a pre-buy and annual done. Keith Hetrick, the owner, has worked on a lot of PA46 airplanes and was very knowledgeable in my discussions with him. He is also a pilot, so he flies each airplane after maintenance is done to make sure no bugs are present when an owner picks it up.
Those are the Texas Top Aviation recommended PA46 shops. Have another one to add? Post in the comments below and we’ll get it added to the list.
