Explore the world of general aviation aircraft with our reviews. Written from a pilot’s perspective, these reviews provide fantastic insight into what these general aviation planes are really like.
Powerplant: 115 hp Rotax 914 UL Turbo Propeller: Three-blade Airmaster 72” composite Fuel capacity: 46 gal. Fuel burn: 6 gph Range @ 75% power with 45 min. reserves: 780 nm Max gross weight: 2,024 lbs. Standard empty weight: 1,036 lbs. Maximum useful load: 992 lbs. Wingspan: 32 ft. 8 in. Length: 25 ft. 3 in. more »
Specifications The airplane we flew for this report is a full-production DA62 with all the bells and whistles, including TKS, built-in oxygen, Garmin G1000 with ADS-B In and Out, GFC 700 autopilot, Garmin Charts, including SafeTaxi, ESP envelope protection and more. Price as flown: $1.3 million Seats: 7 Engines: 2 Austro AE-330 turbocharged common-rail-injected with more »
It wasn’t the worst weather for a test flight I’d ever seen, but by late afternoon, the North Carolina air was bumpy, and I’d already had a long day, which started at seven with a training session in the HondaJet sim. The bumps, I soon realized, were a great test. Anybody can fly an airplane more »
Signs of troubles with ICON Aircraft proved telling, as the Vacaville, California-based company announced on Wednesday that it would delay the program by about a year. ICON president Kirk Hawkins said the issues were due to “manufacturability” problems with the design. He said the delay would allow the company to solve those manufacturing issues and more »
If you’ve been around aviation for any length of time, you know a few stories about so-called revolutionary aircraft that sounded too good to be true. Turns out, most of the time, they are. So, stop me if you’ve heard the one about the airliner that cruises at 600 mph, but lands on a 3,000-foot runway. more »
Late last year at the NBAA Convention in Las Vegas, GE introduced its new turboprop, simply called (in GE’s current preference for brands over numerical designations) the Advanced Turboprop, and it did so with an air of understatement admirable in this age of the hype machine. Brad Mottier, the head of GE’s remarkably successful and more »
The term “hybrid” gets used a lot these days, even when it doesn’t really fit. Of course, most people hear the term and think of a car with a combination drive system: an electric motor assisted by a small gasoline engine to take up the slack and charge the batteries if need be. In aviation, more »
With many of the big decisions in life, and buying an airplane is definitely one of them, it takes a bit of discipline to make decisions that balance practicality and emotion. That’s understandable, as those kinds of decisions, from buying a house to deciding on a new job, revolve around some of our most important more »
When a veritable parade of avionics manufacturers, including the biggest names in the business, all decide to create retrofit flat-panel avionics systems for one family of airplanes, you can guess that there’s some real opportunity there, and you’d be right. The airframe in question is the Beechcraft King Air and the companies looking to put more »
A decade after light-sport aircraft burst on the aviation scene, the array of brands, models and configurations is simply amazing.
If you’re determined to fly fast in today’s market, you have a number of options to consider.
One of the most common questions I hear from readers at shows such as Sun ‘n Fun, AirVenture and the old AOPA conventions has long been, “Why won’t my airplane perform to book specs?” The majority of folks seem to feel the manufacturers are simply exaggerating their products’ performance, in some cases, wildly so. Perhaps more »
Interest in bush flying and STOL aircraft is trending.
The airplane we flew for this report was a full production-conforming HondaJet outfitted with the Garmin G3000 integrated flat-panel avionics suite with two touch-screen controllers. Features include a three-screen panel, digital color weather radar, ADS-B Out and ADS-B In (an option), standby digital multifunction primary display, dual digital flight control with envelope protection, speed control more »
The 2016 Mooney Acclaim Ultra we flew for this report is the first Acclaim Ultra off the production line. It’s equipped with the Garmin G1000 integrated flight deck with dual redundant 10.4-inch displays, dual digital ADAHRS, ADS-B, GFC 700 flight control system and the Mid-Continent self-powered standby instrument. Price as flown: $689,000 Engine: Continental TSIO-550-G more »
“Four seats, 200 knots and 1,000 nm.” These were the magic numbers CEO Ivo Boscarol set as a challenge for the collective minds of Pipistrel’s research department one morning in 2007. Faster, farther and−yes−cheaper: a huge challenge for an ultralight manufacturer. It was left to the brilliant Tine Tomazic, a young engineer who was just more »
While GPS navigation transformed general aviation in 1995, all eyes are now on the federal ADS-B mandate that will go into effect January 1, 2020. “ADS-B” is the acronym for Automatic Dependent Surveillance-Broadcast, which is a whole new way of tracking and controlling aircraft using satellites instead of ground-based RADAR. ADS-B is a key component more »
For the three-dimensional adventure seeker in need of a shiny new machine to take him where he has never gone, there are plenty of options available.