Piston Singles
2005 Electronic Skyhawk
 When Garmin premiered its G1000 do-everything glass-panel avionics system in mid-2003, the package was perceived as an extremely talented collection of electronic wizardry obviously intended for
|
2008 Cirrus SR20-G3: Don’t Call It A Comeback
 Most pilots equate progress in flying with stepping up to bigger, faster and more powerful airplanes. When I earned my private pilot license in a 310 hp Cirrus SR22, it was difficult to imagine enjoying anything with less performance. But as insurance (an |
|
A Lark That Won’t Quit
 Greg Carter—standing by his pristine Cessna 175 Lark, parked amid the 2,000 show planes at the 2003 AirVenture in Oshkosh, Wis.—tries to tell me why he’s so happy to be here. “Well, you know
|
A Really New Skylane
 Cessna naysayers would complain that the company’s line of high-wing singles has changed little since its inception, save a continuing, but sometimes diminutive, evolution of enhancement and refinement. But at a recent gathering the company put on for i |
|
A Sharper Bonanza
 Gnoss Field is one of Northern California’s most idyllic small airports. Nestled on the floodplain of San Francisco Bay, which lies only 30 miles north of the state’s most famous city, the airport |
|
Across The Nile
 The Great Rift Valley is one of the biggest and most remarkable fault zones in the world. It stretches more than 3,500 miles and is recognizable from space. Tectonic movements have created high mountai |
|
American Champion High Country Explorer
 By the time you read this, I will have completed a two-week vacation trip circumnavigating most of Alaska and some of Western Siberia with an Indiana dentist, Dr. Bill Grider. (Hey, it’s a tough job, but...) Alaska is my kind of place, and despite a dozen trips around the state, I’m always eager to return.
|
An Enthusiastic Cherokee
 The very nature of Cherokee 140s wouldn’t seem to lend itself to speed. After all, the airplane made its repu
|
Bad Girl
 There I sat as the consequence of a misunderstanding, watching the ground drop away at a satisfyingly rapid rate. I anticipated a high nose attitude, but still underestimated and had to keep pulling back on the stick—even while setting the throttle and |
|
Blue Angel Tomahawk
 The sun has barely broken the eastern horizon, and the Dixie Chicks are just finishing the song “Wide Open Spaces” on
|
Cessna 195: Getting Down To Business
 There’s no precise way to define taste, but it is possible to define class. Okay, perhaps class can also be difficult to define, but most of us feel it’s easy to recognize. To paraphrase a totally unknown art critic/congressman/pundit, “I can’t de |
|
Cessna Skyhawk: Four-Seat Trainer?
 I have a friend who recently began flight training in a Skyhawk. Pete is one of those future pilots you just know won’t have any problems with the private-pilot course. He knows cars, drives a Porsche, understands things mechanical and doesn’t have an |
|
Cessna's All-New Stationair
 Utility airplanes must answer to a different kind of owner. Unlike most personal-transportation machines that are dedicated to recreation or fun, utility models are most often working airplanes that mu
|
Cessna’s Big 185
 When Cessna makes single-engine airplanes, it makes them with wings on top. It’s a given—that’s just the way things are done at Cessna. There are many advantages of a high-mounted wing: Downward
|
Cherokee 6
 Folks who live in Seattle, Wash., tell strangers about how bad the weather is; it’s a mantra for them. The message is almost subliminal—it’s a gloomy place, the sun never shines, it’s always ra
|
CHiPs In The Sky
 California’s state police have used fixed-wing aircraft to patrol the Golden State’s roads for more than 30 years. The California Highway Patrol (CHP) first used Maule M4s, then transitioned to a d
|
Cirrus SR22-G2
 For those of you who haven’t heard, Cessna was just recently dethroned as one of the top-selling general-aviation companies in the world. For the first two quarters of this year, the total number of |
|
Cirrus SR22-G3: Brazil Or Bust!
 Wow, now that’s a lot of trees. I’m 9,500 feet over the Amazon rain forest, and the only thing I see from horizon to horizon is a bumpy carpet that’s toned British-racing green. A couple days ago, I set off from the Cirrus plant in Duluth, Minn., fo
|
Clark Kent Of The Sport Class
 If you’re like me and would not consider missing the Reno Air Races every September, you have to have noticed the increasing popularity of the sport class. The Reno Air Races have survived for years with only four classes of competition: sport biplanes, |
|
Columbia 350
 Looking down on the Bend, Ore., airport from 2,000 feet AGL, the ramp at Columbia Aircraft resembled an air show in progress. There were airplanes everywhere. My quick count came up with 63 Columbia |
|
Columbia 400 Gets Certified
 For many of us, speed is the ultimate narcotic. Some pilots even regard it as an aphrodisiac that induces a level of pleasure unavailable from any other source. Well, okay, almost any other source. Trouble is, speed is an elusive and expensive quality. I |
|
Commitment To A Cessna 172B
 There are those seeds, like Jack’s, that explode overnight into giant beanstalks. And there are those, indigenous to certain biospheres, that only germinate when exposed to fire and, so, possibly wait for years to grow.
|
Congratulations, Columbia 400
 Any aircraft manufacturer who is serious about marketing big-bore singles for global application has got to at least consider
|
Crossing The Atlantic In A Single
 High and wide, we cruise above the forbidding white ice cap of Greenland at 28,000 feet and 300 knots groundspeed. I half expect a flight attendant to bring me a glass of pinot grigio and a plate of Ca |
|
Diamond DA40 XL: Polishing The Diamond Star
 Ask anyone who’s tried to wring more speed from an existing aircraft design, and you’ll learn that the task is very difficult. Hot-rodders have long been adding speed on cars and motorcycles by installing progressively more powerful engines, and that
|
Diamond Goes Glass
 No one manufacturer takes the industry by storm these days. Beech did it with the Bonanza in the ’40s and ’50s, Cessna rocked general aviation with the Skyhawk and Skylane in the ’60s, and Moo
|
Diesel Skylane
 If you fly a typical general-aviation airplane, you probably can’t imagine a world without avgas. I fly a Mooney with a four-cylinder, 200 hp Lycoming, and there’s currently no alternative engine available. For me and for thousands of other aircraft owners, the thought of avgas becoming obsolete is simply inconceivable.
|
Dream Decathlon
 For every high-profile air-show act, like Patty Wagstaff or Sean Tucker, there are dozens of pilots scattered around the country |
|
Emerald Goddess
 Tall and dignified, moving with the easy gait of Marcello Mastroianni in a ’60s Frederico Fellini movie, Gerolamo Gavazzi supervises the dock crew. They’re winching down his Caproni seaplane from its lofty perch. Most days, it hangs suspended from the |
|
Flying Into The Future
 Baby boomers can appreciate the urge to have a little work done as a milestone birthday approaches: tone up the body, smooth out a few wrinkles, all to reflect the youthful zest we still feel in our hearts. So when Hawker Beechcraft Corporation (HBC, form |
|
From Lancair 200 To Columbia 400
 There aren’t many folks in the personal aircraft business brave enough (or perhaps foolish enough) to attempt certification on a homebuilt airplane. Curtiss Pitts may have been one of the few to do i |
|
Getting Better All The Time
 When New Piper first took the wraps off its Meridian, they set some rather lofty performance goals for their first single-engine turboprop. They needed to. Their target buyer was someone who would be moving up from either a high-end piston single or twin. |
|
Going Recreational In A Pilatus
 Pilots dream about having more than one airplane. They’d like one that’s comfortable and fast for serious cross-countries and another that’s nimble enough to even play in the dirt for the shee |
|
Kissimmee Cardinal
 How often has your significant other told you, no, ordered you to get out of the house and go flying? After seeing her husband mow the lawn in different directions for the third time in a week, D Frechette figured that flying was just what her husband, Ro |
|
Liberty XL2
 As owner of one or another four-place airplane for the last 40 years, I can count on my fingers and toes the number |
|
Maules Are All That
 It’s true, Maule pilots do it on dirt, sand, gravel, grass or any straight stretch of open area at least 250 feet long. And they have more fun! Probably because of where they like to go or what they |
|
Micco SP26A: Capable Aerobat
 Two-seaters have a special place in general aviation. The most common mission for two-place airplanes is pilot training. Say “two seats,” and most pilots automatically envision models such as the Cessna 150, Diamond DA20, Beech Skipper and Piper Tomah |
|
Mooney's Glass-Paneled Ovation2 GX
 Have you ever driven a Ferrari? A Ferrari is like no other, a bit hard to climb into, but once you’re there, you become part of the car. Acceleration, braking, turning, a Ferrari does everything fast
|
Navion Speedster
 "Follow your heart.” We’ve heard that advice time and time again, but sometimes, life just gets in the way. Such was the case for Richard Buchanan. |
|
New-Generation Trainer
 Traditional wisdom in the aircraft business has always been that if you could build the perfect trainer, the world would beat a path to your door. No airplane is perfect, but Diamond Aircraft may have come as close to that ideal as anyone with the Diamond |
|
Origin Of The Skyhawk
 Can it really be almost 50 years since Cessna introduced the first C-172? In a word, yes. Next year, the Wichita, Kan., company will celebrate the 50th anniversary of the C-172’s introduction, and th
|
Ovation3: Reaching For 200
 On the face of it, retractable gear seems almost an ideal solution to the problem of making an airplane fly faster. The whole idea is to reduce drag and increase cruise; cleaning up the underwing accomplishes that mission, though with varying levels of su |
|
Piper 6x
 Piper recertified the 6X and 6XT last summer, and the company quickly cranked out 25 airplanes to fill the domestic and international pipeline. The basic PA-32 always has been a popular model overseas
|
Piper Clipper
 If you’re considering a bare-minimum, entry-level airplane, it’s tough to beat the high-wing Pipers of the late ‘40s. It seems everyone and his brother was offering a minimum, entry-level
|
Piper Matrix: The Pressure Is Off
 Marathon Key gleams in the late-afternoon sunshine. It’s like an emerald in Florida’s highway of island pearls, which dot Route 1 from Miami to Key West. Marshmallow cumulus graze on the rainbow of color beneath us. The Caribbean waters translate from |
|
Piper Mirage: Pistons, Pressure and Class
 Just as the Mooney 201 rescued its namesake company from oblivion in 1976, in the mid ’80s, the Malibu offered Piper Aircraft the only light at the end of the tunnel that wasn’t a train. After the whirlwind uphill ride of the ’70s, general aviation sales were tumbling all across the board, but the Malibu was an instant success.
|
Piper Pathfinder
 Cherokees have always had a deserved reputation as the most docile singles in the sky. Flown to the bottom of their speed envelope, they have practically no stall at all. Systems are so simple, even magazine writers can manage them, and control response i |
|
Piper's Archer II
 Suppose you know a guy who’s a graduate of the Lockheed Skunk Works. I’m sure you have one of these guys at your local airport. One of those guys who spent most of his life building the world’s fastest, highest-flying, nearly invisible airplanes. Th |
|
Piper’s First Retractable Single
 The Comanche was conceived in the late ’50s when Piper and the rest of the industry was playing catch-up with the premier four-seat retractable, the Beech Bonanza. Piper’s Comanche was introduced a
|
Project 182, Part I
 Here at Plane & Pilot, we seem to enjoy lavishing full rebuilds on old Skylanes. Back in the late ’70s, I found and negotiated the purchase of a 1963 Skylane for the magazine as a reader project airplane. A few years ago, ex-editor Lyn Freeman purchased |
|
Rediscovering The Diamond DA40
 Some people feel that the Japanese and Germans produce better cars, TVs, computers and cameras than the Americans, but there’s never been any question about the world domination of Americ |
|
Redressing A Skylane: Project 182, Part II
 Someone in the aircraft refurbishment business once said (or should have said), “The paint may be what you see, but the interior is where you live.” So it is with Plane & Pilot’s Project Skylane. Since buying the 1981 Cessna 182 on the East Coast th |
|
Resurrecting A Dream
 Bill Morrison, a pilot with now-defunct Western Airlines, was perusing the classified ads in the Los Angeles Times, back in 1974, when he erupted in a shout. “Oh my God, there’s a Staggerwing for sale!” his sons heard him exclaim.
Mark, then 17, and |
|
SIAI-Marchetti SF.260: Bellisimo In Tre Dimensioni
 Just as I’m about to squeeze the trigger, the airplane ahead jinks into a tight, descending right turn, wings nearly perpendicular to the ground, pulling hard. I’m caught a little off guard and wrap my airplane over, slightly past vertical, trying to |
|
Socata Trinidad GT
 By any measure, the sky around us is an aviation mecca. For one week each spring, the weeklong Sun ’n Fun Fl |
|
Speed Is Life
 Flying is a compromise. You can have cheap, and you can have fun, but you won’t necessarily travel fast. You can have fast, for sure, but it will not be cheap, and fun depends on your definition of the word. Several new single-engine airplanes are as fa
|
Symphony 160
 The Symphony 160 was introduced five years ago by OMF Aircraft of Neubrandenburg, Germany, which established a Canadian manufacturing subsidiary, OMF Canada, in 2003, located in Three Rivers, Que |
|
The 2004 Skylane Goes Glass
 In October of last year, Cessna rolled out the 2004 Skylane for dealers to see. The newest 182 featured new paint on the outside, but something truly remarkable on the inside: an all-glass cockpit v |
|
The Archer Goes Glass
 For most pilots, the quintessential Cherokee always has been the Archer. Yes, there’s still the Warrior, and there were the 140, 150, 160 and Cadet before that, but the Archer always has represented
|
The Author's JetPROP
 Ah yes, the first novel. It’s every writer’s dream to someday pen a novel. No matter what their medium—motion pictures, television shows, advertising, technical manuals or even magazines—nearly |
|
The Bonanza Hits 60 Strong and Fast!
 Any good design has a timelessness that transcends fashion. Whether you consider a toaster or a car or an airplane, a successful design starts with a good robust understanding of the balance betweenperformance, looks and customer requirements.
|
The Cessna G1000 Skyhawk
 Since the demise of the Cessna 152 in 1986, the Skyhawk has emerged as perhaps the preeminent general aviation trainer on the market. It may be ideal for that role, because it’s one of the world’s most forgiving airplanes, but until recently, no one considered it a technologically sophisticated airplane.
|
The Cirrus SR22-G2
 The Navajo Indians believe that everything has its own rhythm, its own beat, its own time to birth, to flourish
|
The Complete Corkscrew Pilot
 “I imagine that it’s something like taking drugs,” says Bill Finagin, Pitts Special Pilote Incroyable. The affable, energetic 68-year-old (who looks and acts 15 years younger) is talking |
|
The Huskier Husky
 The first flight in a new airplane is exciting, even when it’s an old friend with a bigger engine. I had flown Huskies many times, but never the new 200 hp Aviat Husky A-1B-200, and as I started to throttle up, I was watching the edge of the runway for |
|
The Inimitable Cessna 195
 In 1947, enthusiasm reigned supreme in the general aircraft industry. With the release of the bold new Cessna 195, the Wichita, Kan., aircraft maker gleefully announced the introduction of a “completely practical, personal and company airliner.” Other
|
The Malibu Turns 21
 You start to feel your age a little when you can clearly remember the introduction of an airplane that’s now 21 years old. The new model party for the 1984 Piper Malibu was a major e
|
The New & Improved Liberty XL2
 What would you do with a successful two-seat, kit-built airplane? Some folks would be happy to just bask in the glory of it. Others would think about a new model at some point, or a different engine, o
|
The NEW Cirrus SRV
 Downscaling an existing model isn’t a new trick. Piper has done it a number of times with the Cherokee 140 and Warrior. Maule offered a less powerful, nosewheel trainer version of its M7 bush bird taildragger. SOCATA continues to produce an entry-level |
|
The New Mooney Acclaim
 Adapt, overcome and have fun—Mooney has done it again! Whether it’s staving off financial troubles, or innovating new products, Mooney has experienced some ups and downs in |
|
The New Super Decathlon
 Rich, I know you can’t see the ball from the back seat, but if you could, you’d be rolling with laughter,” I said. I was flying Rich Manor’s new Super Decathlon in left-echelon formation 20 feet from our old friend Saratoga SP photo ship, and my l |
|
The Ultimate Bonanza: Glass And Fast
 Most new pilots build time in low-performance airplanes before moving up to faster, more complex airplanes. Not Dee Winston—he cuts straight to the chase. A brand-new glass-paneled Bonanza |
|
The Ultimate V-Tail
 Pilots don’t agree on much. We argue about virtually everything: Continental versus Lycoming; high wing versus low wing; fixed gear or retractable; the relative merits of turbocharging; and a hundre
|
The Very First Aeronca Sedan
 In 1947, the Aeronca Company was in trouble. A successful series of two-seater aircraft didn’t distinguish it in the slumping post-World War II aircraft market. Many manufacturers with new airplanes
|
Tiger With G1000: Window On The Wild
 If you haven’t yet flown a Tiger, you’ve missed out on one of general aviation’s real treats. As far as I’m concerned, the world has become a better place since the Tiger was reintroduced a few y |
|
Tonry’s Tiger
 Every pilot loves the Tiger. It’s hard not to. The airplane is one of the ultimate concessions to fun flying, a sporty, eager, little single with just enough practical application to justify it |
|
Ultimate Showdown
 Contrary to what many people think, there’s little to support the idea that general aviation’s glass is half empty. Examine the last dozen or so years of aircraft development. In that time, at least six single-engine, four-seat airplanes—all capable of cruising near or even well above the magic 200 knots—have emerged.
|
Water Stinson
 Lake Winnebago isn’t agreeable today, as we splash out from the Oshkosh Seaplane Base. The wind blows us sideways as we leave the shelter of the harbor and head out onto the lake. For one weekend every July, this small boat harbor, five miles southeast |
|
|
|
