Search Results for : Texas aircraft

Cool It! — Scott Severen of US Aviation — the central Texas general aviation dynamo — is a man on a mission. He showed an AMT FlyCool installation (video) on a Flight Design CTLS at Sun ‘n Fun that was a surprisingly clean installation considering he brought all the air conditioning parts in his airline luggage. By AOPA’s fall Summit, he had refined it considerably (photo). Now the installation features a handsome louvered right side baggage door that brings fresh air in and exhausts warmer air. The panel switches are permanent and in the warm Texas sunshine, the system had great appeal. It adds surprisingly little weight (22 pounds); cost varies by installation but is much less expensive than old style air conditioning systems for airplanes. One downside is a loss of some luggage capacity but for example, a flight school wouldn’t care. Their students could chill instead of sweating through their flying lesson.

Like many deeply involved with aviation I have long marveled that all the best airshows in America seem to be in the Eastern half of the country. Except for the delightful Arlington Fly-in in Washington state and a worthy effort at Golden West plus some other small regional events, the action appears to be “back East.” Given that California has more pilots and airplanes than any other state, how can this be? Especially now that AOPA announced this year’s Summit in Dallas, Texas (October 10-11-12) will be their last one ever, we won’t any more be trekking to Palm Springs, California for what has been the big member organization’s favorite destination. Fortunately, we have the Copperstate Fly-in and Aviation Expo.
On two occasions I’ve attended this event. It isn’t huge like Sun ‘n Fun or AirVenture, and it isn’t in California where more might attend. However, Copperstate is a credible, well established event that serves the southwestern USA.

Although Rotax Aircraft Engines successfully power approximately four out of five Light-Sport Aircraft, some in legacy general aviation companies still derisively refer to the liquid-cooled, high-revving, smaller-displacement engines as “just one of those snow mobile engines.” I believe they are woefully under informed but old habits can be hard to break. Many mechanics are expert in working on Lycoming or Continental engines — the powerplants of American aircraft for many decades. However, some of these technicians are not expert on the new technology of a Rotax engine and to divert attention from their lack of expertise some dismiss what they do not know. That is shortsighted as they could be working on and earning an income from servicing Rotax as well. Fortunately, a growing number of mechanics have taken Rotax training (for example, Texas powerhouse US Aviation has six such mechanics). Yet too many GA mechanics still deploy the snowmobile engine pejorative.

Recently, our good friends over at General Aviation News reported on the Bearhawk LSA. If you don’t receive GA News’ “The Pulse of Aviation,” I urge you to sign up for it right now (it’s free). Aviators are lucky to have several online news outlets — AVweb, ePilot, eBrief, and eHotline, plus some excellent news websites — but I always anticipate “The Pulse” as I’ve come to admire their speed and rely on their professional journalism. That said, in their recent article they used the phrase “Bearhawk LSA,” no doubt as that’s the way the Austin, Texas company described their model. This is a common error and is worth a short review. An aircraft is only a “LSA” if it has met all ASTM standards and been accepted by the FAA. An aircraft that meets all the parameters of an LSA (weight, speed, etc.) can be flown by someone with a Sport Pilot certificate, making it “Sport Pilot eligible,” to use a phrase coined by EAA’s Ron Wagner.

Update 3/22/13 … CHICAGO / Associated Press announced that the FAA put the final list of air traffic control tower closures at 149. The process of shutdown will start early in April. One key point: closures will not force the airports themselves to shut down, but all pilots will use unicom frequencies to communicate their position and intentions to other pilots in the vicinity. “We will work with the airports and the operators to ensure the procedures are in place to maintain the high level of safety at non-towered airports,” FAA Administrator Michael Huerta said in a statement.
In what could be a major impact on smaller regional airports such as Salinas Municipal in California, Lakeland Linder Regional in Florida (home of the Sun ‘n Fun show next month), and Wittman Regional in Wisconsin (home of Oshkosh Airventure), airlines have yet to say whether they will continue offering service to airports that lose tower staff.