Month: May 2006

Keep It Flying

I spent the weekend up in Susanville with some friends.  We departed out of Oxnard Airport on Friday and apparently made the front page of the newspaper as we did so: That’s our Skylane in the background.  According to the newspaper article, the Warrior in the foreground had experienced an engine failure after takeoff and the pilot elected to return… Read more →

The End of the Line

Another nail in the coffin of Southern California’s once rich aviation community.  A friend writes about the end of the line — literally — at Long Beach:  I witnessed the final death blow this morning as the last MD-717 lifted off and departed for delivery to the customer, TransAir. Unless a miracle occurs it will be the last jet airliner ever… Read more →

Jet Powered Volkswagon

Forget that sport pilot stuff.  If I ever lose my medical, I’m building one of these: Even Bubb Rubb wouldn’t be able to handle this thing.  According to the builder: This is a street-legal jet car.  The car has two engines: the production gasoline engine in the front driving the front wheels and the jet engine in the back.  The idea is that… Read more →

Time Machine

With four million people living in Orange County, there are undoubtedly quite a few folks who make the drive from Santa Ana to Carlsbad on a daily basis. I’m not sure how long it takes.  Traffic being what it is, anywhere between 90 minutes and two hours seems like a reasonable estimate. Figure three to four hours for the round trip in a car. I… Read more →

Econo-maniac

Dan writes about fuel economy experiments in his RV-7. It’s interesting that he managed to get 35.4 statute miles per gallon out of his airplane.  With a slight headwind, no less. I’ve never seen more than about 20 mpg out of a Cirrus, even with a tailwind.  That’s on par with far draggier airplanes like the strut-braced Skylane. For such… Read more →

Glass Panel Failures

I recently returned from Duluth, MN, where I had the pleasure of picking up a brand new Cirrus SR22 from the factory.  The experience left me feeling that we’re becoming a bit too complacent about the miracle of glass avionics.  During the obligatory tour of the Cirrus plant, I was surprised to learn that starting with the 2006 models, they no longer manufacture airplanes… Read more →

Avgas Prices

Think it’s expensive to fill up your car?  According to AirNav, aviation fuel is now running as high as $6.79 a gallon. Yes, you read that right.  We’re pushing seven dollars per gallon. Anyone want to take a guess about how high it will go?  Eight dollars?  Ten?  Assuming a fuel flow of 30 gallons per hour on takeoff, an SR22 would… Read more →

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