April 2009
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Aircraft
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1953 Piper PA20 Pacer
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2009 Diamond DA40 XLS
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DA 40 XLS: The Innovator Keeps Getting Better
With the addition of Garmin’s Synthetic Vision Technology and other improvements, the popular composite four-seater reaches a wider audience
The day was a dappled gray when I arrived at Long Beach Airport in California for my chance to fly the brand-new Diamond DA40 XLS. Rain had been forecast for the afternoon, but the thin overcast had given way to broken clouds with a deep blue sky peering from behind them.
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Improbable Pacer
A rebuilt classic in a class by itself
 There are few aircraft type organizations in general aviation more enthusiastic than the Short Wing Piper Club. That’s, perhaps, ironic in view of the inexpensive prices of most short-wing Pipers. The compact, little two- to four-seaters are among the cheapest entry-level airplanes available. Many sell for less than $25,000, especially the minimalist Vagabond, Clipper and Colt. As the last of the non-Cub Piper taildraggers, the Pacer enjoys a similar price advantage. Even the last of the Pacers, the 1954 model, sells today (in stock configuration) for well under $20,000. The PA20 was introduced in 1950 as a follow-on to the Piper Clipper after Pan American World Airways claimed it owned the name “Clipper” (apparently ignoring the fact that hundreds of sailing ships in the 19th century were called “clippers”).
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LSA Flight Report: Cruiser In School Clothing
Mix all-aluminum construction, deep aviation manufacturing background and the desire to build a robust training aircraft, and what have you got? Eaglet!
 The truly wonderful thing about events like the recent Sebring U.S. Sport Aviation Expo is that you have the fun, and the scheduling challenges, of flying many different types of aircraft at one sitting. “Sitting” is a key word. I came to regard it as an aviation smorgasbord—for my tush. Of course, such an avian feast feeds other visceral, spiritual and intellectual appetites too, but sitting comfort in an airplane is also important, yes? You betcha.
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TECNAM P92 EAGLE
Proficiency
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Cell Phone To The Rescue
In the air or on the ground, it could save your life
by Valerie Salven
 I was doing my first solo out to the practice area north of the airport. I was doing some ground reference maneuvers and noticed that the GPS and NAV lights were on. I thought that was strange, then noticed the annunciator flash, “low fuel.” I knew the fuel tanks were full because I checked them during preflight. |
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Controlling Control Pressure
On becoming one of the “smooth ones”
by Budd Davisson
 We’ve all seen super-pilots, such as Patty Wagstaff and Sean Tucker, who seem so in control of their airplanes that they’re never where they’re not supposed to be. Their airplanes flow from one position to another in a seamless rendition of flight that we know, for a fact, we can’t come close to duplicating. Or can we?
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Sport Pilot Daze
What’s up with the light-sport ticket, and what/where/when can I fly with it?
by James Lawrence
 Behold the rapidly beating heart of light-sport aviation: A YouTube video chronicles a pilot’s dead-stick takeoff. Not landing...takeoff. He points his engine-off LSA down a 35-degree mountain slope, rolls into a hang glider–style launch and lands—still dead stick—on a sandbar 1,500 feet below and two miles away.
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Ticket To Ride
Earning a sport pilot license: Part I
 Enough trash already. This endless washboard-road turbulence promises to reintroduce me to the hot dog and greasy fries I just ate. Note to self: Next time, have an avocado salad. |
Products
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April 2009 Readback
Surfing The Skies!
by The Editors
 On January 25, the extreme worlds of aerobatics and surfing were united in the skies over the break at Morro Bay, Calif. Kevin Eldredge, owner of SLO Air, the exclusive distributor of the new Sbach 300 and 342 Xtreme aerobatic aircraft from Germany, flew loops, rolls and hammerheads with world-class surfers Chris Ward and Gavin Sutherland. Also participating was Tutima Academy, going inverted with Ben Freelove in a Pitts S-2B. The first-of-its-kind event was sponsored by VedaloHD Performance Sunglasses, Azhiaziam American Aerial Wear and S.O. Productions to commemorate the launch of the new WardoHD signature line of sunglasses. |
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Honeywell Bendix/King AV8OR
GPS and weather in your hands
by Bill Stein
By now, almost every pilot has had some experience with a portable GPS unit, and the AV8OR does everything that you’ve come to expect from these devices, and more. Bendix/King’s new MFD integrates GPS, navigation database, graphical terrain and XM weather into a single portable device. The affordable unit’s list price is $799, and the XM WxWorx weather receiver add-on is available for an additional $523 (though, through the end of 2009, the AV8OR includes a $200 rebate coupon for the receiver). The AV8OR has a beautiful, bright 4.3-inch diagonal display with 480x272-pixel resolution. The touch-screen interface is easy to use and provides excellent tap and double-tap access to information.
Pilot Talk
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53 Years Later
Pitfalls over the Rockies
I’m 77 and hold a commercial pilot license and an instrument rating. I’ve filled four logbooks. As a child, I made balsa-wood and tissue-paper airplanes. As a teen, I made gas U-Control model airplanes, and I used to ride my bike to the airport regularly. During the Korean War, I served in the Air Force. All in all, I guess that I’m an aviation enthusiast.
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From the Editor: A Diamond For A Pilot’s Pilot
by Jessica Ambats
 There were more than a few cheers at this year’s U.S. Sport Aviation Expo in Sebring, Fla., which drew a record crowd of up to 11,500 attendees and held its own in spite of the current economic woes. With more than 165 exhibitors and sales of at least 20 airplanes, it’s evident that the LSA industry has come a long way since the sport pilot rule was created four years ago.
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Personal Aviation At A Crossroads
Looking back and moving forward
Five years ago, the first special light-sport aircraft (S-LSA) received its airworthiness certificate, opening up a new chapter in the regulation of simple personal flight. More than 1,000 of these factory-built aircraft and more than 8,000 former ultralights (experimental light-sport aircraft, E-LSA) are now flying under the sport pilot and LSA category.
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Profiles In Vision: Tom Peghiny
The #1 LSA distributor in America climbs for the blue on how to survive “The Econogeddon”
by James Lawrence
 I like employing people and making things,” Tom Peghiny, president and founder of Flight Design USA, told me on a snowy winter day last January. |
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Return To Goose Bay
There’s nothing so constant as change. Trouble is, change is hard to come by in the far north.
by Bill Cox
 When I returned to Goose Bay, Labrador, Canada, in early December to complete the delivery of the world’s brightest Marchetti (yellow and red with blue stars, formerly owned by an air show pilot), I was hoping it was cold enough that ice season was pretty much over. It was, but not without a few dying gasps.
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Survivable Ditchings
US Airways Flight 1549 is reminiscent of other successful ditchings
by Peter Katz
 Without diminishing in any way the heroic actions of the pilots, flight attendants and passengers on US Airways Flight 1549, which was successfully ditched in the Hudson River after a bird strike on January 15, it’s important to note that most ditchings actually have a high survival rate. |
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The Solitary Goose
Not everyone wants to fly solo
by Budd Davisson
 The morning sun had yet to break over the horizon, and as I speed-walked my usual early morning, let’s-get-the-blood-flowing-and-the-joints-loose route, I could actually see my breath. Light frost crusted the yards—a rare but not unknown happening here in the desert. Then I heard a single honk overhead and glanced up: Instantly, I felt just a little melancholy.
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Travel
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Blimpin’
 As I drive down the 405 freeway toward the Goodyear Blimp Base in Gardena, Calif., I can’t help but think that, in 20 minutes, I'll be in an aircraft flying at half my driving speed. Not only that, I'll be in one of the world’s most recognizable aircraft with one of aviation’s most recognizable heroes, Mike Melvill, pilot/astronaut of Scaled Composites’ X Prize–winning SpaceShipOne.
News
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April 2009 NOTAMS
Plane & Pilot’s Guide To Aviation's Most Current Promotional Deals
by Staff
From free training to discounts and rebates, this is the place to find great promotional deals from the aviation industry’s leading companies. Be sure to check this page every month for the latest offers.
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Economic Stimulus Bill – Accelerated Depreciation on Aircraft
Economic Stimulus Bill – Accelerated Depreciation on Aircraft
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