General Aviation Aircraft

March 1, 2007

TBM 850 Scorching The Airways With Style

Meet Socata’s answer to the very light jet

Whoa, the simulator at SimCom never accelerated like this! I’ve just advanced the throttle of N850LA, a brand-new EADS Socata TBM 850 with barely 100 hours, and I feel like I’ve floored the gas pedal in a candy-apple red 1969 Chevy Camaro with a big-block V8. Sure, the sound is different, but I’m pinned to my seat all the same.

Proficiency

March 1, 2007

Severe Weather Flying

Dennis Newton’s book reviewed

Severe weather. Who would ever think about flying in it, or around it? Yet a book about severe weather flying has been highly popular and successful for over 20 years, and is now in its third edition.

Aviation Products

March 1, 2007

Mar-Apr 2007 On The Radar

To mark the 75th anniversary of Beechcraft and the 60th anniversary of the Beechcraft Bonanza, Raytheon Aircraft Company is rolling back prices on 2007 Beechcraft Barons and Bonanzas.

Aviation Travel

March 1, 2007

Logbook Love Affair

Confessions of a type hunter

You don’t have to have lived very long to realize that some moments stay with you forever. A few airplanes are like that: As with a first kiss, you replay those flights over and over in the theater of your mind. For instance, it seems as if only 15 minutes—not several decades—have elapsed since my first takeoff in a Grumman F8F Bearcat. I was researching a school article on warbird pilots—the Bearcat wasn’t on the list to be flown. The Vought Corsair that was on the list, however, blew a hydraulic line, so the owner, Jr. Burchinal, proprietor of the wildest flying school in history said, “Come on, fly the Bearcat.”