Question: What do space suits and headsets have in common? I bet that few of you can answer that question but the answer is “David Clark.” Yep, this 80-year-old company, which began business in 1935, started not with the ubiquitous green ear cup headsets but with flight suits worn by pilots of some very cutting-edge aircraft and spacecraft.
David Clark Company made full-pressure suits developed for test pilots who flew the X-15 to record speeds and altitudes of Mach 6.70 and 354,200 feet. The East coast company also made Gemini space program suits including the G-4C space suit for Ed White’s first U.S. space walk
Full-pressure suits worn by pilots of various high-altitude aircraft such as the F-4, F-15, U-2, and SR-71 Blackbird and space shuttle crew escape suits were all produced David Clark.
After all that, headsets may seem a bit mundane, although not for those who care about good cockpit communications and protecting their hearing.
Archives for December 2015
Santa Sleigh Flight Operation … Read the Manual!
As we near Christmas time and as children around the globe await the arrival that busy flyer, Santa Claus, did you ever wonder how the big man in the red flight suit manages the effort, specifically how he preflights the sleigh and controls his “engines?”
So far as we know, he only flies the reindeer-powered sleigh once a year. How do you maintain your flying skills with a single flight per year? OK, he probably flies locally around the North Pole doing touch and goes but apparently no one ever sees it happen. A better guess is that, like any good pilot, he reviews his Sleigh Pilot Operating Handbook before getting into his busy season.
You didn’t really think it was some magical occurrence, did you? Come on … you’re a pilot, no doubt a very good one. Would you go fly your airplane — or for that matter, your sleigh, assuming you were some rather chubby but jolly fellow with a snowy white beard — without first giving your sleigh a thorough check?
Pssst! Want a Deal? How About Merlin PSA?
Are you intrigued by an affordable yet well-performing single-seat Personal Sport Aircraft? In a time when so many claim light aircraft have simply become too expensive, one aircraft is coming to challenge that belief. Some rather grudgingly acknowledge that, yes, you can buy a low-cost aircraft but that it won’t satisfy your desires … that it will have an open cockpit, or is too slow, or uses an engine you don’t know, or that it lacks the right instruments, or it will be a weight shift aircraft or a powered parachute … or something that disqualifies it for them.
Well, even our friends at Flying magazine — thanks to popular writer Pia Bergqvist, who also covered such aircraft as Quicksilver‘s wide-open Sport 2 SE — gave recent prominent coverage to what importer/developer Chip Erwin is doing with his Merlin PSA.
Does the name Chip Erwin ring a bell?
6 Questions about Third Class Medical Reform
EAA’s top e-Hotline story last week was, “The Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation on Wednesday passed S. 571, better known as the Pilot’s Bill of Rights 2 (PBOR2), bringing significant third-class medical reform one big step closer to reality.”
This week AOPA reported PBOR2 passed the Senate and is en route to the House.
This represents progress that many EAA and AOPA members sought, so smiles all around at the big member organizations.
PBOR2 must still pass the House and be signed by the president. Note that this is already the second attempt — hence the “2” — as an earlier version met resistance. Concessions had to be made to advance the proposed regulation. Even if it passes the House and is signed, it will take perhaps one year for FAA rulemaking.
It seems like everyone is on board. Why such a long delay?
Organizations like the Airline Pilots Association have come out against this proposed law and will probably continue to speak out against it.
Tecnam — Firing On Multiple Cylinders
After more than a decade of LSA, one airframe manufacturer stands head and shoulders above all other in what I call the “light aircraft space.” That term gets stretched far and wide with this update on Costruzioni Aeronautiche Tecnam … simply “Tecnam” to most folks.
If Tecnam was a person, I’d call him restless and tireless. Does he sleep? I think not. Are any flying machines not possible for this design dynamo? I see no limits to his ambitions. So prolific is this Italian aviation powerhouse that I will blend several news items into one story.
Tecnam is a large team, an entire factory full of hard-working people, and representatives of all sorts scattered across several countries. At the core of this engine of production (33 models and variations) is Luigi Pascale, the 92-year-old patriarch of Team Tecnam with management by nephew, Paolo Pascale. Paolo is the visible face of Tecnam at airshows, standing literally head and shoulders over most of his competitors.
American Exports: LSA Like Just’s SuperSTOL
If you’ve read a newspaper or watched TV in the last couple decades, you might think America only imports stuff, mostly from China. Of course, that is ridiculously simplistic and just plain wrong but constant repetition of incorrect news may eventually convince people that it is the truth.
At one time, it seemed all Light-Sport Aircraft also came from overseas. Indeed, in the earliest days of Light-Sport Aircraft, rules in Europe allowed fully-built aircraft that were very similar so those producers could more quickly enter the new sector. In 2005 and 2006, more than two-thirds of all LSA were imported. While imports remain a strong and important supply of worthy aircraft, an increasing number are now produced in the USA.
American companies have caught up and are now arguably pulling ahead. This is true in the innovation of design, in production of ready-to-fly SLSA and in the kit market where American companies were always the strongest and have remained so.
Lightplane Flying Over North Korea
Here’s something you simply never hear about … lightplanes in North Korea and flying one above the country. My LAMA Europe associate and friend Jan Fridrich alerted me to the existence of a handsome light aircraft allegedly developed and built in that isolated country.
I don’t know what your thoughts are about North Korea. Our government officials, media, and other critics have related stories of terrible human abuse by the ruling elite. I have no doubt this is indeed a repressive regime and I certainly don’t condone coercion. However, neither do I have any first-hand information about the country; I only know what I can see and read elsewhere.
Yet like most of you, I love airplanes and I enjoy viewing especially attractive airplanes. The one in the nearby images qualifies and according to those who have visited — and evidently gone aloft in it — this is a North Korean-designed aircraft.
Glowfly Update; Clever Name—Clever Project
What’s in a name? I like Glowfly, as a sort of double entendre. It could suggest “Go fly,” or it might refer to glow as in the spark employed to start a turbine engine. Yup, in case you didn’t see our earlier article by Dave Unwin, the newly renamed Glowfly is a jet-powered sailplane that uses electric-powered main wheel propulsion to assist. How’s that for — as my favorite British comedy troupe, Monty Python, used to say — “something completely different?”
Formerly called GloW (which nearly everyone was sure to misspell; certainly your smarty-pants smartphone would never get the capitalization right), Glowfly is moving along smartly. Here’s an update the folks at ProAirport sent along.
“The first public reveal — Project Glow becomes Glowfly,” glowed the ProAirport team.
In the last weekend of November at the Flyer Live show, ProAirport said, “We were overwhelmed by the number of visitors to the ProAirsport stand. It was truly fantastic to meet and talk to all these extremely interested people who had made a beeline for us after hearing and reading all about Project Glow [the project’s earlier name].” They reported that many interested pilots specifically came to see Glowfly live, as the show name suggests.
What Will 15 Days and $15,000 Get You?
This website focuses on the affordable end of aviation. However, “affordable” is a relative term. I’ve written about Icon’s A5, which may set the bar highest among Light-Sport Aircraft at around $247,000 for a well-equipped LSA seaplane. (See our Video Pilot Report.) If you had the money would you buy an A5 or a Cessna 172 Skyhawk for around $400,000. You probably have a response but then, the question is rhetorical because most readers likely don’t have a quarter-million to do drop on a LSA, no matter how magnificent it may be.
I’ve also written about the $16,000 (or so) fully-built Aerolite 103. Some think that’s a wonderful deal on a very nice single seat airplane. Yet at least one person wrote on my Dan Johnson Media / Affordable Aviation Facebook page that even Aerolite is too expensive. Fair enough. We all have different budgets.
Lightweight Autopilot from TruTrak & Levil
In 2004, when the SP/LSA regulation was announced, who would have forecast that on light aircraft, autopilots would be a common feature. Such gear seemed fanciful as autopilots were costly, rather heavy, a maintenance hassle … and besides, weren’t you supposed to “hand fly” a light aircraft so you could truly enjoy flight? Is punching a button to take over the flying chores what we wanted to do?
In nearly a dozen years since FAA’s reg established aviation’s newest and fastest-growing sector, autopilots have become common. Much as I love hand flying, winging about the sky, if I am traveling somewhere and especially if I really need to pay sharp attention to radio work and staying precisely on course — for example, to avoid hot MOAs or Class B airspace — an autopilot can be a mighty handy feature. What used to be way expensive and heavy has changed dramatically and one company had a lot to do with that change: TruTrak.