Cirrus Tow Bar For Sale
In the market for a tow-bar? This one is basically brand new and hasn’t been used all that much. It has the Cirrus connections on it as well.
For more information, contact Texas Top Aviation.
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Diamond DA50 RG
Diamond Aircraft announced in June that the company is going to bring it’s Diamond DA50 RG to market. The company expects European certification in early 2021 and FAA certification toward the end of 2021.
This is not the first iteration of the Diamond DA50, but it is the first with retractable gear. Diamond is known for it’s use of Jet A burning piston engines and you can’t beat the efficiency. The technology in the Continental CD-300 Jet A piston engine is new, but it has been in development for a long time. Diamond advertises 180 knots on only 9 GPH, which is just about as efficient as you can get with a single engine piston.
The addition of the retractable gear from previous iterations of the Diamond DA50 RG is a nice touch. Diamond already had the RG technology from the DA42 Twin Star as well as the more powerful cross country machine, the DA62. Equipping the single engine Diamond DA50 RG with retractable gear just makes sense. It definitely puts the airplane in a class of it’s own.
Diamond’s website shows a nice roomy cabin in the DA50 RG with plenty of space to spread out, plus plenty of baggage. The fuel tanks only hold 50 gallons of Jet A (which still gives a 4 hour + range with an hour reserve at 9 GPH), so the payload, even with full fuel, is an eye popping 897 lbs, though Diamond’s site does not mention if that includes TKS, air conditioning, and oxygen. If it does, then compare that to a fully fueled Cirrus SR22T (which would give an equal speed) at 537 lbs and the Diamond DA50 RG has an argument.
As with all new airplanes these days, the Diamond DA50 RG has the Garmin G1000 NXi complete with keypad and the GFC 700 autopilot with yaw damper. The interior has a 3 person bench seat for the back seat, which, at least to the naked eye, appears that it might actually fit 3 adults, albeit small ones. Diamond’s signature stick in the middle of the seat is still present for the front seats, but the right seat stick in the Diamond DA50 RG is removable for passenger comfort, a nice touch.
The single engine piston market is a hard one to break in to since Cirrus has such a leg up on the competition. However, with a Jet A burning engine, a higher payload, and a roomier cabin, the Diamond DA50 RG might actually be able to make an impact. Look for this bird at Sun N Fun and Osh Kosh in 2021.
Aircraft Purchase: The Logbook & Pre-Purchase Inspections
Your about to make your dream aircraft purchase. The plane has low time on the engine, is reasonably priced, and, according to the seller, has no damage history. You are overjoyed! Your dream of making an aircraft purchase is finally coming true. You prepare your offer for the seller, set up the escrow account, and start all the paperwork.
Two weeks later, the airplane is yours! You start flying it, though, and the engine starts to have some strange vibrations. After several flights, it starts to get worse. You take it to your mechanic to get it looked at and you find out the airplane needs three new cylinders along with some other engine work that is going to total a lot of money. Plus, your airplane is now going to be in the shop for several weeks.
All that excitement you just had? It just went out the window.
Could this have been prevented? Probably so, with a logbook inspection and a pre-purchase inspection.
Aircraft Purchase: Logbook Inspection
Inspecting a logbook can be very daunting when making an aircraft purchase, especially for older airplanes. This is, however, one of the most vital steps in making a new aircraft purchase. You can find out many things from looking at the maintenance logs of an airplane. First, you can check the compression levels of the engine. Typically, you want compression levels in the 70’s, with it still being okay in the high 60’s. Anything below 65 and there could be potential problems.
Second, you can find out if there has been any odd maintenance done pointing to possible unreported damage history. This is rare, as most aircraft owners are honest and up front when talking about damage history. But, if there is an entry detailing a prop overhaul after only 50 hours on that prop, you may start to ask some questions.
Third, you can find out how well the airplane has been maintained. If a lot of maintenance was completed at each annual, even if it was a lot of small things, then the airplane has been maintained by a good mechanic who is very thorough. This also involves a check of the ADs, Mandatory SBs, SBs, and SLs that have been issued for the airplane. If all that has been kept up with, it’s a well maintained airplane.
Finally, it gives you a good idea of how much the airplane has been flown. Sure, the ad online will have the total time and time since overhaul, but you can look at the year by year breakdown of how much the airplane has been flown. It may have been flown a lot earlier in it’s life, but not quite as much recently. That’s not necessarily a bad thing, but airplanes like to be flown.
Aircraft Purchase: Pre-Purchase Inspection
Before making an aircraft purchase, it is extremely vital that whenever you are buying an airplane that you get a pre-purchase inspection done on the airplane. Even better is getting one done by a mechanic who specializes in that type of airplane (eg. Piper Service Center for Pipers, Cirrus Service Centers for Cirrus, Kevin Mead for PA-46s). A pre-purchase inspection can save you a lot of money in the end.
There is always going to be some kind of maintenance issue with an airplane being purchased, whether it is big or small. Once a pre-purchase inspection is completed, you can take the findings to the seller and negotiate for a lower price based on those findings, or just have the seller fix the items before the sale is completed.
I would recommend having the seller fix the problems before the sale is completed. Even though it may take a little longer for the sale to be completed this way, you’ll get to enjoy your airplane right away instead of it being in the shop the next several weeks after you complete the purchase.
There is the circumstance where the pre-purchase inspection reveals some serious airworthiness issues which would cause the deal to be voided. Always put this clause in a purchase agreement, giving you, the buyer, an out if there are serious airworthiness issues.
When it comes to making an aircraft purchase, it is not a process to be rushed. Slow and steady usually gets the best airplane for the money, giving you years of enjoyment in the future.
Looking to make an aircraft purchase? Daunted by all the work that’s involved to find a good, quality airplane? Let Texas Top Aviation do your aircraft search for you! To learn more, visit Texas Top Aviation’s Aircraft Purchase Consultations page.
PopSocket iPad Yoke Mount
I was recently clued in to a really cool (and very cost efficient) iPad yoke mount.
It’s called a PopSocket and you won’t find it on any aviation website (I have to credit Joe Casey of Casey Aviation with this nifty find).
It’s very simple. You take the mount (see right) and stick it to your yoke. Then you pick one of a ton of designs from PopSocket and stick it to the back of your iPad (you can even create your own design! B2 Bomber anyone?).
It’s low profile, doesn’t get in the way of anything, and is easily removable. The PopSocket mounts are $10 apiece (depending on the size of your iPad, you may want to get 2). The PopSocket is $10, so at the most, you’ll be in $40 plus tax and shipping. Most mounts on Sporty’s are upwards of $50 and require a lot of installation, are big and bulky, and usually require lots of juggling to get the iPad in and out of the mount.
Give the PopSocket a try.
Flight Service Station
When is the last time you talked to the Flight Service Station?
Believe it or not, FSS is still in existence. Over the past 10 years, they went from FAA run, the being bought by Lockheed Martin, to now being privately run by a company called Leidos. 1-800-WX Brief will get you connected with a weather briefer, but you’ll hear “Leidos Flight Service Station” now when the briefer picks up.
Since the advent of Foreflight, most pilots these days get their weather briefings digitally on the iPad. Foreflight has come a long way since it’s inception. The briefing part of their Flights page is quite comprehensive, with lots of information, and counts as a legal weather briefing (which pilots are still required to get before a flight).
Why does a pilot even need to call Flight Service? Well, when’s the last time you tried to interpret everything the Briefing on Foreflight told you? As I said before, it’s a lot of information and a lot of it can be confusing. Pilots are not fully trained on interpreting Prog Charts and getting an overall weather picture for a flight. A weather briefer is.
I have over 5,000 hours and I still call a weather briefer before almost every flight. On the way to the airport is a great opportunity to get a weather briefing. I get a great picture of what’s going on in my area or over my route, frontal movement, bad weather areas, and whether or not it’s a good idea to even take off. Calling in the car alleviates the main complaint I hear about calling the Flight Service Station, which is it’s inconvenient and causes a delay since you have to call them on the phone.
I don’t do much private pilot training anymore, but when I do, I always teach my students how to get a weather briefing from the Flight Service Station. I’ll show them how to get the briefing on Foreflight too, but usually their eyes bug out of their heads when they start trying to read everything. A breathe of relief is released when I tell them there is a trained professional just a phone call away who can clear everything up.
The other thing that the Flight Service Station provides that is important to a lot of folks are PIREPs. It’s vital in sketchy weather areas for the FSS to get a report of what’s actually going on in the air. This helps other pilots out greatly as they are getting information about icing, cloud bases and tops, turbulence and a myriad of other things from airplanes who are actually in the conditions.
Finally, the most used portion of the Flight Service Station is the Clearance Delivery line (888-766-8267). At airports without a tower or a clearance delivery frequency, with IFR conditions present, the only way to get your IFR clearance is to call Clearance Delivery. Yes, it can take a little time sometimes, but you will get a clearance every time, unlike taking off and trying to dodge the clouds without hitting anything, while trying to call Center on the radio (which isn’t safe or legal).
Been a while since you’ve talked to the Flight Service Station? Give them a call, either on the phone or on the radio. Odds are, they are bored and just wanting someone to talk to, just like you are on that long cross country flight!
Checkout 1800WXBrief.com to see all the cool stuff the Flight Service Station does.
Casey Aviation Makes Piper PA46 Systems Videos Free
The safest pilots are the ones who attempt to gain as much knowledge and learning about their airplane and environment as possible. These pilots are the ones who enjoy learning, going to seminars and conventions, and soak up all the MMOPA magazine articles in each issue. These pilots are the ones who get as much training as they can, above and beyond what the minimum requirements are.
If you are one of these pilots and you own a Piper PA46, then this blog is for you.
Casey Aviation, one of the best Piper PA46 training companies out there, recently released all of their Malibu, Mirage, Matrix, Meridian, and JetProp systems training videos for free. These are some fantastic videos that Casey Aviation created which go much more in depth than any power point presentation could.
The great thing about the videos is they give the viewer an all access “inside look” to the specific airplane. Joe Casey, owner of Casey Aviation, takes off cowlings, crawls under the nose gear compartment, and even shows an airplane with the interior out so all the flap cables and environmental systems can be seen.
I have started referring all of my PA46 customers to the Casey Aviation videos as part of the prep work for our training sessions.
To access the videos, check out the Casey Aviation website.
The Aviation Insurance Landscape
This is a re-post from Assured Partners Aerospace’s 2nd quarter Newsletter. The full newsletter can be found on Assured Partners website.
Until the war in Ukraine, the aviation insurance market could be described as “stabilizing” after a couple years of volatility with higher premiums and tighter underwriting. However, and hopefully perhaps only for the short-term, the Ukrainian war immediately brought uncertainty back into the worldwide aviation insurance market.
According to Business Insurance, “the impact of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine represents the biggest potential loss to the aviation war market since 9/11.” One leasing firm alone has reportedly already filed a claim of approximately $3.5B for aircraft and engines they say have effectively been seized by Russia. And, because the aviation insurance arena is so small, what happens around the world at this magnitude can have cascading, detrimental effects on the US aviation insurance market.
In addition, the well-publicized spike in fuel prices could have another cooling effect on aviation operations. Generally, less air activity combined with higher operating costs equates to more frequent requests for reduced coverage, taking premium dollars away from an already-small market.
Aviation insurance buyers should therefore remain on the alert throughout 2022 for potentially quick changes to the aviation insurance marketplace that might affect either their current insurance program or their next renewal.
See our recommended insurance agencies on our Aircraft Acquisitions page.
