Redbird Skyport Fly-In Rescheduled

Mooney’s Now Come With Two Doors

ByHank Gibson February 19, 2016February 16, 2016

Mooney announced last week the redesign of their current Ovation and Acclaim models.  The biggest change that Mooney pilots will love is the addition of a pilot’s door, allowing the pilot to enter on the left side instead of having to crawl over the passenger seat.

Other upgrades include a keypad for easier data entry on the G1000 and an all in one, digital standby instrument that includes attitude, airspeed, and altitude.

This raises the question, will Piper and Beechcraft follow suit?

Cessna TTx Production Ceases

ByHank Gibson March 21, 2018May 1, 2018

Sadly, in January, a pretty great airplane was put out to pasture.  Textron (the conglomerate that now owns Cessna, Beechcraft, Hawker, and Lycoming) announced it was ceasing production of the Cessna TTx.  With the end of the Cessna TTx production, an airplane that was the main “competitor” to Cirrus (if you can call it competition; Cirrus consistently outsold the Cessna TTx by a wide margin each year), it leaves the SR series to stand alone atop the High Performance piston single market.

I got to go through Cessna’s FITS Accepted Instructor (CFAI) course back in 2012 and have flown in the Cessna 350 and 400 (which is what they were known as at the time; the Cessna TTx name came around in 2011) for about 120 hours.  I really like the airplanes.  I’m partial to the Cirrus, but the Cessna 350 & 400 are fast airplanes and great for 1-2 people.  I flew a 350 (the non-turbo charged version) from New York to San Antonio last fall and routinely saw 170 knots at 12 GPH.

Columbia started out making the 350 & 400 (the turbo-charged version) in the early 2000s, but went bankrupt in 2007.  Lancair started Columbia to make a certified version of their popular kit planes.  If you see a Lancair ES floating around, you would swear it’s a Columbia with only 1 door.  Cessna bought the design from Columbia in 2007 to begin manufacturing the airplanes themselves.

Cessna then made a huge mistake as they moved the production facility from Bend, Oregon to Mexico. Production completely halted in 2009 as the planes coming out of Mexico were found to have defective composite work.  The sales never really recovered, even though Cessna put the Garmin G2000 panel in the Cessna TTx, complete with a touchscreen key pad.  A FIKI system was added as an option in 2012.

A prospective buyer can still get a great value on a used 350, 400, or TTx, as they are valued a little lower than a Cirrus.  The 350, 400 or TTx all make excellent single pilot or two person speedsters with very comfortable amenities.

Information for this article was taken from Flying Magazine’s website.

King Schools Updates Check Ride Guidance

ByHank Gibson August 1, 2016August 17, 2016

Most in the aviation industry are familiar with John and Martha King, the faces of the myriad of Kings Schools aviation training courses.  Thousands of pilots have gone through their ground school courses for a variety of certificates or ratings, taking in the videos on original VHS, DVD, or streaming online depending on what the current technology is.

With the advent of the Airmen Certification Standards (ACS) replacing the Practical Test Standards (PTS) for the private and instrument certificates, King Schools didn’t take long to update their material.

To help private students prepping for their check ride (and their instructors who aren’t familiar with an ACS check ride yet), John King plays the student pilot in the latest King Schools prep video.  The streaming online video is about 5 hours long, includes the oral portion and the flight portion of the check ride, and runs $139 (you can still get the DVD, too!).

I have recommended King Schools and their courses to all of my customers.  They have always put out a great product as they reduce the fear felt for a check ride applicant.  If you are prepping for your private pilot check ride, checkout the King Schools video today.

Aviation News: The Formation of ONE Aviation

ByHank Gibson April 30, 2015May 1, 2015

Earlier this month, Eclipse Aerospace and Kestrel Aircraft merged to form ONE Aviation.  Most pilots are familiar with Eclipse, who makes the Eclipse 550 jet, but not many have heard of Kestrel Aircraft.

Kestrel Aircraft is run by Alan Klapmeier, co-founder of Cirrus Aircraft and brother to Dale Klapmeier, who still runs Cirrus.  Klapmeier joined Kestrel in 2010 and brought innovation to the K350 Turboprop design that Kestrel was developing.  Kestrel has been lacking in investors to further their project, but the merger will help a lot in getting more funding.  Klapmeier assumed the CEO role for ONE Aviation.

The merger will also help bring more innovations to the Eclipse 550.  The original Eclipse Jet was a miserable failure and the company went into bankruptcy in 2009. The Eclipse Jet came back to market in 2013 as the Eclipse 550 with many much needed improvements, including making GPS a standard amenity.

Klapmeier and his genius will lead ONE Aviation in good directions.  The K350 will come to market a lot sooner as more investors will be drawn to the company, while the Eclipse 550 will continue to see new and innovative developments.

Garmin 530/430 Missed Approaches

ByHank Gibson May 25, 2016May 29, 2016

Flying a missed approach can be stressful enough.  When you haven’t done one in a while and your GPS isn’t showing you how to get to the missed approach point and you can’t remember which button to press, that adds a lot more stress.  Recipe for disaster?  Quite possibly!

No need to fear, we are here to help.  The procedure for getting a Garmin 530 or 430 to give you missed approach guidance is actually simple and straightforward, if you know what to do!

Note: Because of the variety of different autopilot configurations in different airplanes, this article will focus solely on the GPS.

What the GPS is Thinking

The way Garmin designed the Garmin 530 and Garmin 430 is to be as helpful to pilots as possible.  Their thinking was, 95% of the time, a pilot will make a landing on an instrument approach.  This is pretty accurate as most of the time, this is what happens.  Most general aviation pilots don’t fly approaches to minimums all that often, thus negating the need for a missed approach.

Garmin designed their software with this in mind.  When an airplane crosses the missed approach point, the GPS will go into what’s called suspend mode (a SUSP annunciation appears above the OBS key).  It will keep the missed approach point as the active waypoint because it assumes the pilot is going to land.

This can be confusing to pilots.  This is what happens when software engineers and pilots come together. Engineers often believe they are smarter than pilots! (See the Airbus fly by wire roll out)

The Procedure

In the case of a missed approach, the button pushing on the GPS is actually relatively simple.  There is no SUSP key to take the GPS out of SUSP mode (thanks Garmin!).  Instead, you press the OBS key.  This will take the GPS out of SUSP mode, making the first waypoint on the missed approach procedure the active waypoint.  Your GPS will now give you guidance on the missed approach procedure.

If you are going missed off an ILS, LOC, or VOR approach, then there is one more key you’ll have to press. Your CDI needle (whether it is digital or analog, an HSI or just a CDI gauge) will be reading off the NAV radio and your CDI indication on the GPS will be VLOC.  After you press the OBS key, press the CDI key on the GPS so you will start getting course guidance from the GPS again.

That’s it.  Button pressing on the different autopilots will vary, but if you are familiar with yours, you’ll be able to tell it to follow the GPS and climb to the proper altitude.

Garmin GTN 750 Tips & Tricks

ByHank Gibson June 8, 2018June 19, 2018

The Garmin GTN 750 is an awesome piece of equipment.  Garmin tried to make the user interface with the touch screen as simple as possible (though there still is a bit of a learning curve when moving up from a Garmin 530W).  Garmin also integrated several key features that the 530W did not have that makes flying with a Garmin GTN 750 in IFR all that much better.

The two features of the Garmin GTN 750 I want to focus on today are the “Load Airway” feature and the “Hold at Waypoint” feature.  If a pilot isn’t looking for these specifically, they can actually be a bit hard to find.  The “Load Airway” feature is especially handy when flying IFR long distances with several airways as part of the clearance.  Here’s how to utilize both.

Load Airway

1. On your flight plan page, insert the waypoint that you will be joining the airway, or, if your clearance was radar vectors to join an airway, then insert the waypoint on the airway that begins the leg you will be joining on.
2. Tap the waypoint you just inserted.
3. A menu will pop up.  Tap Load Airway.
4. Select the Airway you want from the next menu that pops up.
5. Then, a list of waypoints will display to exit the airway.  Select the waypoint where you will be exiting the airway.
   1. Note:  Garmin defaults to listing these waypoints alphabetically.  If you unselect the “Sort Alpha” option, it will sort the waypoints by direction and distance from the entry waypoint.  This is a little more practical, easier to work with, and how I recommend doing it.  This way you can either scroll up or down depending on the direction of travel on the airway and find your exit waypoint.
6. Tap Load.
7. The Airway and all the waypoints in between your entry and exit waypoints appear in your flight plan.
8. If you are getting vectors to join the airway, you’ll need to use the Activate Leg function to activate the leg you will be joining the airway on.
   1. On the Flight Plan page, tap the waypoint that ends the leg you want to activate.
   2. On the menu that pops up, tap Activate Leg.

Hold At Waypoint

The Garmin GTN 750 allows pilots to place a holding pattern at any waypoint that is in the Nav Database (or any user created waypoint).  Here’s how to do it.

1. On the Flight Plan page, tap the Waypoint that you want to hold at.
2. On the menu that pops up, tap Hold At Waypoint
3. On the next menu that pops up, input either the inbound or outbound course, right or left turns, leg time or distance, and the EFC time, then tap Load.
4. You will see the hold now as a Waypoint in your flight plan.

Once the hold is entered, the GPS will go into Suspend mode, suspending the Flight Plan Waypoint Sequencing.  Once you are ready to depart the hold, you will have to tap Unsuspend before crossing the holding point on the inbound leg, then the GPS will resume normal waypoint sequencing.

These are 2 of the really cool, gee-wiz features of the Garmin GTN 750.  Following the above steps will make IFR flying much easier for the pilot, as well as much more enjoyable!