buy and sell planes - Pilatus Owners and Pilots Association

10 TIPS FOR BETTER LANDINGS!
P I L AT U S O W N E R S A N D P I L O T S A S S O C I AT I O N
•
WINTER 2012
PROFICIENCY
in
EASY
PIECES
5
PLUS
JEPPS ON
YOUR IPAD
EXPLORING
LEASEBACKS
FLYING WITH
FRANK SINATRA
5
BLADE
PROP
IS IT WORTH IT?
HERE COME
SPRING
THUNDERSTORMS
CALCULATING
PERFORMANCE
BUY AND
SELL
PLANES
WITHOUT PAYING TAXES
W I N T E R
2 0 1 2
P OPA
M AG A Z I N E
1
George Antoniadis
IS PROUDLY PT6.
Having exclusively flown PT6-powered aircraft in his PlaneSense® fractional program, founder
and CEO George Antoniadis is proudly PT6. With 68 different models, the PT6 provides versatility
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CONTENTS
PILATUS OWNERS AND PILOTS ASSOCIATION
•
WINTER 2012
•
VOLUME 15, ISSUE 1
8
42
22
38
DEPARTMENTS
6
FROM THE PRESIDENT
8
NEW & NOTABLE
12
ONBOARD LADIES CORNER
42
WEEKENDERS
Travel Hot Spots
46
BOTTOM LINES
Buy and sell airplanes without paying taxes.
BY HARRY DANIELS, CPA, CFP, PFS, CVA
48
VECTORS
The Chinese aviation industry is alive and well.
It could be a great time for American investors.
BY JOHN BREMNER
50
MIPAD
Professional charts for the iPad Jepp TC and FD.
BY JOHN D. RULEY
52
CABIN CUISINE
Celebrity recipes to make and take with you.
BOBBY FLAY
54
TEST YOURSELF
Trivia smackdown
FEATURES
14
PILATUS PILOT PROFICIENCY IN FIVE EASY PIECES
You’re only as good as your next flight.
BY PAUL K. SANCHEZ
18
SPRING THUNDERSTORMS
You might take them on differently than you
would at low altitudes.
BY BILL COX
22
LIFE WITH THE 5-BLADE MT PROP
Is it really worth the extra money?
BY MIKE DENNIS
26
PERFORMANCE PLUS...AND MINUS?
Knowing what your airplane can and can’t do is critical.
BY JOHN MORRIS
30
10 TIPS FOR BETTER LANDINGS
Energy management makes all the difference. Here’s how.
BY SCOTT PERDUE
36
EXPLORING AIRCRAFT LEASE AGREEMENTS
There is no one-size-fits-all document.
BY JONATHAN LEVY
38
BEING FRANK
An aircraft salvage company discovers a remarkable airplane.
BY DAVIN COBURN
56
TRAVEL
Thousands of humpbacks come to the Dominican
Republic and offer you a once-in-a-lifetime
encounter with whales.
BY LYN FREEMAN
From the President
P
Pilatus provides product support 24/7 and has been No. 1 in the Professional Pilot Product Support Survey for the past 10 years. As a testimonial
to this commitment, a POPA board member was AOG in the Bahamas on
Christmas day with a trim malfunction at startup. The service centers were
appropriately taking the day off, yet the Pilatus Technical Service Engineering Team and the top Honeywell field service contact responded immediately. They provided the support needed for the AOG aircraft to be safely
flown back to Connecticut with only a two-hour delay. This commitment is
one of the many reasons Pilatus has remained the turboprop of choice.
The knowledge and economic benefits afforded to
POPA members are significant. The knowledge part is
primarily conveyed at our annual convention and on our
web site postings. Economic benefits are a board priority,
and the list is growing. The cornerstone is a new relationship with UVAir providing a POPA members’ fuel card
with a special fuel discount and no annual fees. Enrollment information is on our web site. The fuel-card savings
alone should exceed the cost of the POPA membership.
As stated in my last letter, these savings should benefit
current members and create incentives for non-member
PC-12 owners to join POPA. Increasing our membership,
which currently represents only a third of the fleet, should
help enhance the safety of the fleet by having the POPA
knowledge base reach a wider Pilatus audience.
On Jan. 20, your board held its quarterly directors’
meeting in Dallas where Flight Safety International
provided a tour of its facility, including flights in a
level-D G150 simulator. This was my first experience
in a level-D full-motion simulator and, as many of you
already know, it is very impressive with a complete
cockpit, lifelike visuals and performance qualifying for
FAA type and currency endorsements. FSI is building
a PC-12/47E level-D simulator which is expected to be
available Nov. 12. FSI’s undertaking will be a significant
addition to the training available to the PC-12 pilot.
Over the past year, an increasing number of FBOs are
no longer supplying Jet A premixed with Prist, as was the
norm in the past. The PC-12 requires Prist, and the lack
of it can be catastrophic as was demonstrated in the 2010
Increasing our
membership,
which
currently
represents only
a third of the
fleet, should
help enhance
the safety of
the fleet by
having the
POPA
knowledge
base reach a
wider Pilatus
audience.
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PC-12 accident in Montana. It is the responsibility of the
PIC to insure that Prist is added during fueling. While your
board had decided to develop a fueling additive requirement decal for the PC-12 this past summer, Pilatus was independently working on the same concept. A free service
bulletin is expected in the next month that will provide two
decals which are to be located next to the fuel caps.
To comply with revised POPA bylaws, the board will
now stand for re-election annually in June. Your board
has added an additional member. Please join me in
welcoming Dan Muller to the POPA Board of Directors.
He is a commercial pilot with 4,400 hours and has SEL,
MEL, IFR, CFI, CFII and L-188 ratings. He has flown
more than 1,000 hours in his PC-12 N489JG and has
2,800 Navy flight hours in T-28s as a formation flight instructor and in P-3s as an aircraft commander patrolling
the North Atlantic and Mediterranean. He is president of
JKL International, Inc., and flies out of KSMQ in Somerset, N.J. With this addition, the board now represents all
three categories of PC-12s: /45, /47 and /47E.
The POPA 2012 Convention is planned for June 8 and
9 at the Sarasota, Fla., Ritz Carlton. The agenda is packed
with many presentations to help member pilots fly more
safely and more efficiently. Your convention should not
be missed, and I look forward to seeing you in Florida.
“POPA … We Elevate the Pilatus Experience”
P I L AT U S O W N E R S A N D P I L O T S A S S O C I AT I O N
WINTER 2012 VOLUME 15/ NUMBER 1
POPA BOARD
EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR
Laura Mason
Phone: 520.299.7485
Fax: 520.844.6161 Cell: 520.907.6976
[email protected]
PRESIDENT
Pete Welles
VICE PRESIDENT
Joe Howley
SECRETARY/TREASURER
Brian Cleary
BOARD MEMBER
Jack Long
BOARD ADVISORS
Ty Carter
Bob MacLean
Dan Muller
Phil Winters
Piotr “Pete” Wolak
AJ PUBLICATIONS STAFF
EDITOR-IN-CHIEF
Lyn Freeman
MANAGING EDITOR
Michelle Carter
SENIOR EDITOR
Bill Cox
ASSOCIATE EDITOR
Hans Lubke
EDITORIAL ASSISTANTS
William Henrys
CONTRIBUTING EDITORS
Nina Harris, Paul Simington, Katrina Bradelaw,
Paul Sanchez, Wayne Rash Jr.
ART DIRECTOR
Robbie Destocki
PHOTOGRAPHY
Paul Bowen, Mary Schwinn,
James Lawrence, Lyn Freeman, Jodi Butler,
Gregory L. Harris
PUBLISHER
Thierry Pouille
ASSOCIATE PUBLISHER
Sophie Pouille
PRODUCTION MANAGER, U.S.
Guillaume Fabry
ADVERTISING SALES
Thierry Pouille, +1 561.452.1225
AD SALES COORDINATOR
Anais Pouille, 1+ 561.841.1551
CORPORATE OFFICES
1935 Commerce Lane, Suite 3
Jupiter, Florida 33458
Telephone: (561) 841-1551 Fax: (954) 252-3935
FOR SUBSCRIPTIONS,
REPRINTS, BACK ISSUES
please log onto www.PilatusOwners.org
CONTACT THE EDITOR:
[email protected]
CONTACT THE PUBLISHER:
[email protected]
©2012 Pilatus Owners and Pilots Magazine is published quarterly.
All rights reserved. Reproduction in any form without written
permission from the publisher is prohibited.
Please send comments to the attention of the publisher.
PRINTED IN THE USA.
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Telex
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A new design in headsets
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the microphone plug or a
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A new kneeboard from ASA makes a happy home
for your iPad in the cockpit. The portfolio-style presentation allows full access to all the buttons, and there’s a hard writing surface on the left, opposite
the face of the iPad. The iPad Kneeboard’s cover slides to make a horizontal or vertical desktop and
works with both iPads 1 and 2. For more, go to ASA2fly.com.
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control yourself.
Isn’t it time you took greater control
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solution. Featuring the state-of-the-art
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situational awareness. Make a call now
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Come fly the PC-12 NG
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You may have tried
photochromic lenses
before, those glasses
that turn darker in
the daylight and get
clear when you come back inside. Fifteen years ago, the experience was not
all that romantic. Seemed like it took forever for the darned things to get
dark and twice that long for them to clear up again. Sheesh. The technology
seemed neat, but on balance, not ready for primetime. Now photochromics
have come of age, and the results could be interesting to almost all pilots.
“This is now the sixth generation of these lenses,” said Brian Hauser,
the general manager at Transitions Optical in the U.S. and Canada, the
leader of the pack for photochromic technologies. “We’re proud of what
these new lenses can do.”
Photochromics work because there’s a comparatively
big, light-sensitive organic molecule sandwiched into
the glass. When struck by UV light (invisible), these
molecules turn dark. After the light is removed, the
process goes the other way. The lenses do not change
in artificial light (indoors) because of the lack of ultraviolet wavelengths. Since older photochromic lenses
only reacted to UV, they didn’t darken very well in
your car or your airplane because the glass windshield
filters out the ultraviolet light. Things have changed.
“This new generation of lenses now activates from
a small amount of visible light,” Hauser said. Bottom line, even though your car and your plane block
the UV light, Transition lenses now work swell in
your cockpit.
Even better, the new Transition lenses can be made
with your eye-correction prescription and can be
placed in almost all the frames available from your optometrist. That also means that your new go-anywhere
glasses are likely covered in any vision care benefits
your insurance might offer. You can be stylish and
practical at the same time, conditions that are sometimes mutually exclusive. Cost of the lenses range between $50 and $150.
This new technology is so good that photochromic motorcycle
helmet visors are now the rage, and it surely only a matter of moments
before aviation headsets offer the feature as well.
We had a chance to fly several pair of the new lenses and have to admit we were impressed. We put them on during the run up and, a short
moment later when we received take off clearance, the lenses were
appropriately dark and comfortable. Climbing through the overcast
and into the bright sunlight, the glasses turned even darker. Back at the
FBO, the lenses immediately began to lighten up.
“Within three minutes, you’ll have more than 50 precent return to clear.
Each generation of technology gets a little bit faster,” Hauser explained.
Transitions sent us three pair of glasses that we tested in the cockpit
and photographed the results:
Above the overcast in bright sun
Below the clouds in diffused light
AN IDEA WHOSE
TIME HAS COME
Indoors after three minutes
Exposed to direct sunlight
Indoors after nine minutes
The new photochromic technology is great and in effect gives you the perfect pair of glasses for virtually any amount of light,
inside or out. Get smarter at Transitions.com or by calling 1-800-533-2081.
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Q&A
By Ted Otto
FALL 2011 QUESTIONS
Question #3: Does the windshield heat have t
o to function for flight?
Question #1: Which system has auto priority?
TAWC or TCAS?
Question #3 Answer: Windshield Heat must operate
on at least on heating zone.
Question #1 Answer: TAWS has auto priority.
Question #4: What trims must function for each flight?
Question #2: When must the oxygen lever be
in the on position?
Question #2 Answer: Oxygen lever must be on anytime
the engine is running.
Question #4 Answer: The Kinds of operation equipment list
shows that all trims must work prior to flight, however in the
limitations section it says normal and alternate stab trim, and
rudder trim must work. No mention of lateral trim system.
WINTER 2012 QUESTIONS
1. What is the proper method of boot de-ice care?
2. Will operation of the rudder trim disengage the autopilot?
3. When is recommended that we use anti-ice additive for fuel?
4. What is the maximum altitude that we may attempt an air restart?
WI N T E R
2012
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OnBoard
LADIES CORNER
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that comes in a multitude of colors.
This is the largest Swiss Army knife in the world,
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HOT APPS Available at your AppStore.
For the Traveler:
Menu in Spanish? No problem.
Point the app at it and watch
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Orange
Gold Logo
Medallion
Belt
M AG A ZINE
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Photoshop Express offers basic
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P I L O T
T A L K
PILATUS
PILOT
PROFICENCY
IN FIVE EASY PIECES
YOU’RE ONLY AS GOOD AS YOUR NEXT FLIGHT. By Paul K. Sanchez
One of the benefits of doing initial/refresher courses in PC-12s is that I see a lot
of common errors on the initials and mis-taughts on the refresher courses. Some
of it is related to avionics software; other times it is a misunderstanding of aerodynamics of the PC-12 aircraft itself. Let’s take a look at a few and see how this
can dramatically change your next refresher and, better still, your next flight.
1
A GOOD PILOT ALWAYS
FOLLOWS THE DIRECTOR.
Most commonly, I see pilots not using the
director on the Honeywell KFC325. They’ll
gladly engage the autopilot (which always has the
flight director programmed) but won’t program the
director before take-off/climb/descents/approach/
landings for suggestions.
In fact, the flight director is probably (and
admittedly) the best Pilatus PC-12 instrument
instructor around. He’s always there in the aircraft
on time and always suggests what bank angle/pitch
angle to use to accomplish what you told him. And,
of course, the Honeywell KFC325 flight director
has got more flight time in PC-12s than any other
instructor that I know. Of course, his only fault (if
I do say so myself) is that he can’t talk, but he does
move his hands left/right/up/down in suggestions very well. So why are we not using this flight
instructor by telling him what we are trying to
accomplish for a given segment of flight?
At the hold-short line, press the FD button on
the KFC325 flight computer, press GA (go-around)
on the power-control lever and, just like that, you
now have the flight director showing you how to
get to wings-level with 8-degree positive pitch. Set
the heading bug on the runway alignment, and the
director will show you how to stay on that heading. Select the altitude you cleared for (“climb and
maintain 4k, expect xxxx in 10 minutes”) and press
ARM on the KAS297, and the director will suggest
how to level off for capture. In fact, when told to
take heading “xxx” and join the transition, press
the NAV button on the KFC325 flight computer,
and the director will show you how to blend in.
Amazing. After takeoff, I would suggest using a Vy
appropriate to your weight for indicated air speed
(IAS) hold mode on the KFC325.
2
ALTITUDE IS YOUR FRIEND;
IT WILL NEVER LET YOU DOWN.
Now comes the issue that many previous
piston drivers have to learn: Altitude control
is the same as fuel/range/speed/endurance control.
WI N T E R
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Pilatus Pilot Proficiency
PILOT TALK
Let’s take a look with our handydandy Pilatus PC-12 iPad application.
A PC-12-47E (10,400 lbs.) at sea level
(ISA=0) does 229 knots true air speed
(36.9 psi torque) at ONLY 614 lbs. per
hour of kerosene. I guarantee you’ll get
a Christmas card from your FBO every
year if low-altitude flight is your preference.
Now let’s say that, because we want
to do about a 270 nm flight, we decide
instead to ask for FL300 (or FL280 if
non-RVSM approved). Our wonderful Pilatus iPad app now says 242 knots true air speed (22.8 psi of
torque) with substantially LESS flow 325 lbs./hour of kerosene. In
fact, this is 7.44 nm/10 lbs. of kerosene rather than 3.72 nm/10 lbs.
of kerosene, about a 99.67 percent INCREASE in fuel efficiency.
Now that really does change your endurance/nm range, etc. So the
quick mantra is simple: Go upstairs and stay upstairs. For every nine
miles of the trip, climb 1,000 feet AGL.
3
I’M STUCK, AND
I CAN’T GET DOWN!
Since our wonderful Swiss-made
Pilatus PC-12 has the highest
wing-loading (37.6 lbs./sq. ft.) of any
single-engine aircraft, I don’t think any
of them have trouble knowing which
way the ground is. In fact, it is usually
learning when to START the descent
that many owners have trouble with.
If only there was a tool on the Garmin
GNS530W that would calculate the vertical speed required (VSR) 5 x second to
get to destination (and elevation)? Ah,
but wait there is such a tool, the under-taught VNAV button.
Vertical navigation (VNAV) can be done on the ground even
before leaving the airport. Have your flight plan complete (at least
with origination and destination), press the VNAV button and enter
the following data.
0’ ABOVE WAYPOINT
0.0 nm BEFORE Kxxx
Target VS -1500 fpm
On the Garmin GNS530W, use the vertical speed required (VSR) in the
lower right corner data field on NAV Pages 1 and 2. Now “5 x second.”
Your trigonometry whiz kid is going to show you what descent rate
you need to get to your destination elevation (current altitude-airport
elevation)/estimated time remaining). When it gets to about -1500 fpm
for VSR, it is time to start negotiating your descent to a lower altitude.
When it gets to -2250 fpm, be insistent.
You’ll find that when your ground speed x 5 = the VSR, that is just
about a 3-degree descent angle. Good enough for government work. As
you descend and your ground speed decreases, vertical speed required
will also decrease. This tool can be used all the way to the ground or just
a crossing restriction per Center’s request.
4
WHAT IS YOUR ANGLE ON THIS?
Not to be critical of anyone here but I swear up and down I
was initially taught that a wing with same flap setting will always stall at the same angle of attack. The calibrated air speed
that the stall occurs is a function of weight. So if our Honeywell
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EFS50 attitude indicator
shows angle of attack
(Vs x 1.3), why are we
not using it? Crossing
the runway threshold
with 105 kcas rather
than 84 kcas (Vref flaps
40 degrees) means a
very long float for 10
seconds as the end of
the runway gets closer
and closer. This is not good. Remember our powerful Pratt & Whitney can’t help us with reverse until the wheels are on the ground. I
would estimate about 1,600 feet of unintended additional runway
before touchdown if the approach speed is 21 knots greater than
Vref. Not good and not fun.
So let’s have a different plan here. We know what our landing
weight will be (±100 lbs.) and thus can determine our Vref for the
flap setting intended. Our iPad app says for 9,900 lbs. Vref flaps 40
degrees is 84 kias. At an extremely low weight of 6,400 lbs., the Vref
flaps 40 degrees is 67 kias. Since 67/84 = 79.7 percent and 6,400
lbs./9,900 lbs. = 64.6 percent, we’ve discovered a great rule of thumb:
2 percent less weight is 1 percent less Vref. Of course, the engineer
in the back would chime in here to say that the square root of landing weight/maximum weight is the percent Vspeed adjustment, but
sometimes rules of thumb don’t get in the way of sound decisions.
So our mantra here is, if not at 100 percent weight, don’t use 100
percent Vspeeds and expect your PC-12 to behave the same.
5
EXTENDING OUTWARD YOUR TRAIN OF THOUGHT.
Now we have to face the fact that not every runway has published RNAV approach with a decision height 250 feet AGL.
Sometimes, because of winds (or FAA budget problems), you
have to do a visual on the runway that does not have a published
procedure. So how do we make one “on the fly”?
My recommendation is that when you are less than 10 nm to your
destination airport, you should have known (or decided) which runway to use. With the flight director in heading mode, press the –D->
button on the Garmin GNS530W, verify that the destination airport is
the active waypoint, use the large right knob to move the cursor to the
CRS box. Use the small
right knob to input
the three-digit value of
runway alignment (093
degrees, for example)
and press ENT twice.
You now have a very
nice magenta line that
matches the runway of
intended landing. Your
VSR will be shown (and
calculated to elevation)
until about 100 feet AGL. In fact, you could even select APR mode on
the KFC325 flight director so you can get suggestions. For vertical suggestions, I advise using indicated air speed hold with the required Vref.
That will put you in the middle of fast/slow indicator (angle of attack).
At about 25 feet AGL, pull the power control lever to idle and
hold 2 degrees positive pitch. You won’t even feel the main wheels
touch. Back to beta and then reverse on the power control lever;
when less than 40 knots ground speed, stop using reverse and just
use beta. Taxi back to the FBO ramp and shut-down.
Your refresher instructor will have to buy you dinner because you
were so well-prepared and proficient.
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SPRING
YOU MIGHT TAKE THEM ON DIFFERENTLY THAN YOU WOULD AT LOW ALTITUDES. By Bill Cox
High altitude cuts both ways. The myth is that flying high positions you above the weather and insulates you from the instability
of bouncing along in turbulence.
Trouble is, some of the most severe weather may be hiding in (and
out of) the clouds above 20,000 feet. Most recently, Air France 447,
an Airbus A330, may have been brought down in 2009 by violent
weather above the South Atlantic off the coast of Brazil. French authorities suspect a combination of computer and weather problems
may have caused the crash, but a finding of probable cause is pending examination of the recently recovered flight data recorder and
cockpit voice recorder.
Meteorologists suggest something like 44,000 thunderstorms
a day are born and die above the Earth. The dreaded CBs are
weather factories that can generate virtually anything that’s evil in
the weather world. A typical, three-mile-wide, Midwestern storm
contains 10 times the power of the Hiroshima atomic bomb, so it’s
not surprising that it can spawn tornadoes, lightning, severe turbulence, microbursts and extreme winds.
That might suggest you should simply park your airplane when
thunderstorms are about. But if you expect to operate a corporate
aircraft on a regular basis, you’ll need to develop strategies for dealing
with thunderstorms.
As a delivery pilot of piston singles and twins, turboprops and
jets for the last 35 years, I’ve been subjected to some of the worst
thunderstorm weather there is. Many of my ferry flights demand
flying across the equator, and that’s an open invitation for problems with thunderstorms.
Fortunately, most of the time, even those of us relegated to the
bottom five miles of sky can climb above most weather. Most. That’s
because half the Earth’s atmosphere lies below 18,000 feet. Clouds
demand moisture in order to form, and that lower half contains
about 80 percent of clouds that can make a pilot’s life miserable.
The other 20 percent can still generate problems, especially if
you’re flying in places without a choice of alternates. Much of the
time on international delivery flights, you either continue to your
destination any way you can, or reverse course and return to your
point of departure.
Two years ago, I was about four hours out of Honolulu bound
for Majuro, Marshall Islands, 2000 nm toward the bottom of the
planet. I was flying a new Cessna Grand Caravan, enjoying a 30-
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knot push from the reliable Trade Winds.
The sky had been CAVU since my 6 a.m. departure from PHNL
on the trip southwest, and the view straight ahead promised
nothing worse than the usual scattered, popcorn cumulus, already
starting to form in the heat of perpetual summer.
Encouraged by characteristic tailwinds, I’d filed for FL180,
pretty tall for a four-ton, flying pachyderm loaded another ton
over gross with ferry fuel, but I was determined to take maximum advantage of the wind and minimize the fuel cost.
Tiny Johnston Island passed below, the last, irregular, square
mile of land for 1,300 miles until Majuro. Johnston was a topsecret, military, missile-launch site in the ‘60s and ‘70s and a
storage depot for biological and chemical weapons for 25 years
after that. I’d landed there once with a fuel leak on my way back
from Japan in a Mirage, and after the military had determined
my emergency was real, they’d been very friendly but also very
formal, suggesting I needed to fix my problem and leave – immediately. I replaced some cracked tubing to the ferry tank, refiled
my flight plan, lied about my fuel reserve and struggled into
Kauai late that night with nine gallons remaining.
In the Caravan, speed continued to increase to 190 knots,
about 40 knots quicker than normal. I could get used to this, I
thought. Clear skies, sunshine and even a push. Just need to buy a
little oxygen in Guam.
God stopped smiling about an hour southwest of Johnston.
Building cumulus began to muscle the sky, and I could see some
clouds climbing toward the high blue, far above my level. I
couldn’t even guess at the tops, but they were turning from white
to gray to black, already 10,000 feet above me and rapidly spreading from horizon to horizon.
Thunderstorms might seem unlikely over the benign Pacific,
but in this case, the dreaded Intertropical Convergence Zone
(inevitably the ITCZ) was at it again, roiling the atmosphere near
the equator and making life miserable for those few hardy souls/
silly fools flying the Pacific without the benefit of at least two
turbine engines on the wings, stand-up headroom in the cabin, a
sit down potty, a hot meal and a pretty flight attendant to serve it.
The weather ahead was becoming more violent as I approached, with cloud-to-cloud lightning beginning to flash
across the sky, brilliant strobes of light one minute and semi-
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THE PROP SHOP
LIFE
WITH THE
5-BLADE
MT PROP
IS IT REALLY WORTH THE EXTRA MONEY? QBy Mike Dennis
nis
As some readers may
remember, a little over a
year and half ago I wrotee
a piece for our POPA
w
magazine about the new
MT five-blade propeller design available
from Finnoff Aviation (finnoff.com of
Boulder, Colo.). I told
the story of how this superlative
product came to be available for the PC12
and described to you how very impressed I
was with the performance improvements,
the outside noise reduction and the significant noise and vibration reduction inside
the airplane. Many people have since asked
me if I still feel as enthusiastic about the
product and do I have any comments after
flying it for more than 500 hours.
Am I still enthusiastic about the propeller? YES!
Do I have any comments or observations after flying it
this long? Do I have anything to say? Oh boy, that’s a dangerous question! Anyone who has ever been cornered by
me knows I can go on forever if it’s a subject I’m passionate
about; the five-blade propeller for the PC12 qualifies.
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Life with the 5-blade MT prop
I’ll back away from commenting on the hardware for a moment and
use the question to make an observation about the MT Propeller company and its people. I have some experience with running a company,
Oregon Aero Inc., and the need to inspire everyone who works with me
to practice the highest level of product quality and customer support.
A reputation for quality products and service takes decades to earn and
can be destroyed in seconds. The integrity of the company behind a
product is an issue I’m very interested in.
Several months after we installed the propeller, I had the opportunity
to visit with Gerd Muehlbauer, president of MT Propeller, in his booth
at the NBAA convention. He very casually asked me if I still liked the
propeller and did I have any observations or suggestions. In my experience, there are few aircraft/part manufacturers willing to make significant
changes to any product once it has achieved certification. The effort and
cost of changes can be staggering, so the inclination is to try to recover as
much of the initial cost associated with the design by selling as many as
possible before you even consider changing or improving the product. I
know this because we face the same challenge in our company.
In truth, the propeller was such a fantastic improvement in every
parameter that it was difficult to suggest there might be any way to improve it. As we talked, I realized that I did have a couple observations,
nothing I thought needed immediate attention but things I had noticed.
I suggested that there might be a better material than the stainless
steel used on the leading edges as it was a little soft and easily picked
up small dents. I also noted that on the front of the blade surface, at the
tips, behind the area protected by the leading edge, the stainless steel
seemed to be subject to erosion during the use of reverse thrust. The
damage here took the form of small, shallow craters in the surface of the
blade. The MT maintenance manual calls for repairing both the leading
edge dents and the small craters by filling them with five-minute epoxy.
This proved to be a simple and effective fix.
I didn’t suggest how I thought these issues could be improved. I just
noted them as observations.
I should also come clean about an earlier problem unrelated to
workmanship or quality control at MT but something that did cause
them concern. The spinner is made of a tough, lightweight composite
construction. MT had a chrome coating applied to the spinner by a
vendor. Apparently there was a quality control issue at the supplier, and
the coating began to come off in small sheets. When I called to report
this problem, a new painted spinner was sent to me immediately while
they worked out the issues with the supplier. The painted spinner performed perfectly and gave me no trouble at all. Eventually MT sent me
a new chromed spinner which has been a huge improvement over the
original. I still have a problem with getting tiny freckles in the chrome,
probably from insect hits or some type of electrostatic discharge. This
issue hasn’t been an operational problem, and you must get up very
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PROP SHOP
close to the spinner to detect the imperfections. I understand they have a new polished
aluminum spinner that will be a no-cost
warranty replacement for anyone having any
spinner problems.
This is only a microscopic issue compared
to what happened next. I knew from doing
the original certification test flying of the
propeller that the current blade design was
not the original blade design but a second and
improved blade. Muehlbauer
hadn’t been satisfied with
the original design. He never
tried to sell even one of the
original designs to recover
development costs. This sort
of commitment to quality
is almost unheard of. It gets
better.
A little less than six months
after I mentioned to him that
the leading edges were soft
and the front of the blade
could use more protection,
he called me ask me if I’d
like to come to the POPA
convention a few days early
so they could install my new
blades for testing. “What new
blades?” I asked. The new blades with the hardened nickel-alloy leading
edges that sweep out to cover half the width of the blade cord at the tip,
he replied. While they were fooling with the design, they also flushmounted the blade heaters into the surface of the blade to improve the
aerodynamics at the root. I never said I was unhappy with the propeller.
I only answered his questions with my observations. This is a measure
of both the man and his company. None of us is perfect, but I have a
strong sense that doing business with this company will be as satisfying
as the products they make.
This gets us to the original question: Am I still satisfied with the
propeller? In a word, YES! But I should qualify that. I loved the original
so much that after the first test flight that I called Chris Finnoff to give
him the good and bad news about his experimental propeller. The good
news was it was everything MT said it was, smooth as glass, quiet inside
and out, offering a huge improvement in acceleration and climb with
the added bonus of a couple knots of speed. The bad news? He was
never going to get it back, and they could just keep the old propeller!
The newest design maintains all the improvements of the earlier one
with the bonus of no dents or erosion whatsoever after 200 hours of
operating off asphalt, grass and gavel runways. These new blades are
incredibly durable with the added surprise of a solid five- to sevenknot increase in indicated airspeed at altitude. This, I suppose, is from
the significantly improved airfoil cross section at the blade root from
flush mounting the heaters. I’m speculating here as I’m not a propeller
designer but it seems reasonable to assume.
So, I suppose the question is, would I do it again? Would I buy another one of these propellers? The answer to that is an unqualified, YES!
It’s probably the best money I’ve spent on this airplane.
I’m not selling this propeller, merely reporting my experience. If you
see yourself in here somewhere and enjoy your PC12 as I do, I’m pretty
certain you’ll find this improvement a real joy.
Mike Dennis is president/CEO of Oregon Aero, Inc., 34020 Skyway Drive,
Scappoose OR 97056. Tel: 503.543.7399 or 800.888.6910 Fax: 503.543.7199
Email: [email protected] or OregonAero.com
ew es
N ur
at
Fe
Listen.
“The Whisper Prop”
5-Bladed PC-12 Propeller
Key Advantages:
New Nickel Option Includes:
s3IGNIlCANTNOISEREDUCTIONnINSIDEANDOUT
s2EDUCEDGROUNDROLLDISTANCE
s)MPROVEDCLIMBPERFORMANCE
s6IBRATIONFREEPROPnREDUCESFATIGUE
s3CIMITARLIGHTWEIGHTNATURALCOMPOSITEBLADE
s0RECISION'ERMANDESIGNANDENGINEERING
s&!!AND%!3!CERTIlCATION
s.ICKELWIDECORDLEADINGEDGE
s)MPROVEDBOOTSmUSHMOUNTED
PROVIDINGBETTERAIRFOILEFlCIENCY
s"LACKCOLORISSTANDARD
s)MPROVEDCRUISEPERFORMANCE
Newn3PINNERINPOLISHEDALUMINUM
!VAILABLEASNOCOSTOPTION
Contact Chris Finnoff at +1.303.444.0552 or chris@finnoff.com
WWWMTPROPELLERCOMsWWWlNNOFFCOM
American Distributor for the PC-12 MT Propeller
PERFORMANCE
PLUS...
AND
KNOWING WHAT
YOUR AIRPLANE
CAN AND CAN’T DO
IS CRITICAL.
By John Morris
MINUS?
One of the many plus points
of the PC-12 is the ability to travel long distances, at a high gross weight, and then land/takeoff on short
runways. In addition, if it is a sea-level airport, the performance is very hard to beat!
I recently had the opportunity to fly from the east coast of Florida to St. Barthelemy (TFFJ), Guadeloupe. The straight-line distance was approximately 1,100 nm. No problem for the PC-12. Well, almost.
St. Barth’s is internationally known as a Caribbean resort-type destination island with access via boat
or small commercial or General Aviation aircraft. It is uniquely known for its airport, or really for the
standard arrival to the airport over the heads of observing tourists standing at a traffic circle approximately 500 feet from, and 50 feet above, the end of the runway. That doesn’t sound like anything special
except for the surrounding hills and the short, single runway that makes for a very interesting, nonstandard approach angle that can give most pilots minor heart palpitations! This airport is considered
the third or fifth (depending on source) most dangerous commercial airport in the world.
Because of the location and length of this runway, the French Civil Aviation Authority (DGAC) requires a prior checkout, with a DGAC-approved flight instructor familiar with the special operations at
St. Barth’s. I was able to accomplish this in the PC-12 by pre-arranging first to stop in San Juan to pick
up an instructor, who is PC-12 qualified, and then proceed to St. Barth’s where I completed the requisite
training while staying on the island for several days. Note: The checkout can be accomplished in any
aircraft that is suitable for St. Barth’s, but it would be wiser to have the training performed in the aircraft
intended to be operated into this airport.
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Performance plus...and minus?
The runway itself is 650 meters (2,132 feet),
oriented 10/28. Elevation at the end of Runway 10 is 49 feet while at Runway 28 it is four
feet giving the runway a slope of 3 percent.
Since the island is located in Trades, the typical winds are from the east. As a result, the
majority of the landings are to Runway 10.
However, if the winds are light enough or not
too “performance” detrimental for a tailwind
landing, then the preferred landing would be
to Runway 28 because of the upslope.
The airport is operated as Day/VFR only,
with an advisory tower. Unicom is used for
all operations, and the tower will assist with
coordination of arriving and departing traffic. At the height of the season, more than
300 flights per day operate out of this airport!
As you can see on the diagram I have
labeled the East Approach (A), South Approach (C) and the North Approach (B).
The altitude for (A) is 1,500 feet, for (B)
1,000 feet, and for (C) 800 feet. The most interesting is the East Approach (A). In order
to see the entire runway (visual confirmation of aircraft arrival ahead or departing),
we need to be 1,500 feet AGL at 1.5 nm
from the runway. (You don’t have to be at
this altitude but…).
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Logically, by this point, we also have to
be fully configured for landing and start descending on the AOA, power basically at idle
to maintain AOA. The other approaches have
the same basic requirement except you start
at a lower altitude, and you “may” be able to
adjust your power/speed slightly. To me, the
least favorable of the three approaches is (C)
because of the very close proximity to the
hills even though it is the better visual for the
left seat.
Let’s go back to the (A) approach and the
reason for the “Minus” performance. Since
we have an obstacle, we would plan a landing using the Landing – Total W Reverse
chart. Calculating a landing weight of 8,000
lbs., +24º C, 8 kts head wind and 3 percent
down slope, I estimate a landing distance of
1,650 feet.
That’s no problem since there are 2,132
feet available. On second thought, this may
be a problem. A typical landing over an
obstacle puts the aircraft down somewhere
beyond the end of the runway, shortening the
available remaining runway. St. Barth’s has
aim-point marks at 550 feet from each end. I
observed the majority of the aircraft landing
on 10 touching down nearer to the taxiway
(1,000 feet) leaving 1,200 feet
remaining. The runway slope
can deceive pilots causing additional float before touchdown. My initial touchdowns,
while practicing, averaged near
the 1,000-foot point. In order
to better utilize more of the
runway, you have to drop the
nose after the traffic circle to a
“crazier” angle but pitch up
prior to…you know – ouch!
Loco!
Which brings up another
performance point. I was
doing this training with one
other pilot and a light fuel
load. St. Barth’s does not have
Jet A. For the return trip to
Florida, I should be able to
depart off this runway with a
full fuel load, or near, depending on Pax/Bags. So, to refuel,
I
would have to pop over to
another island (two within
22 nm) and then return to
St. Barth’s before my planned
departure.
There may be another
problem. What will my landing
weight be with just one pilot
and more fuel than my initial
landing from Florida? Can I
safely land back at St. Barth’s?
Will the winds allow me to land
on 28 instead of 10? Can you, or should you,
count on winds any way?
Speaking of takeoff, would you takeoff
from St. Barth’s using 15-degree flaps or
30-degree flaps? The pilot I was training with
recommended 15-degree. I chose 30-degree.
The good news is that, for this particular
flight profile (Florida-St. Barth’s), the PC-12
can easily go to one of the other islands
for return fuel, then head for Florida (and
Customs), or fly to San Juan, 45 minutes VFR,
clear Customs and refuel, then proceed to
Florida. Since I was training, I went to one of
the nearby islands for fuel. I would not assume
that I could land the PC-12 at a higher gross
weight at this particular location because of
the unpredictable winds and runway location.
The PC-12 has tremendous performance,
and I believe that at times we, the drivers,
need to be reminded that not all is a plus,
as it may seem. Had you considered from
the takeoff question using the Accel/Stop
charts? Ever thought about runway upslope
versus tailwind?
John Morris was with Simcom Training Centers-Orlando
for 14 years with 1999 being the first year teaching the
PC-12 followed by PC-12 Program Coordinator from 2000
until resigning in 2007 to start ACFT Services (ACFTServices.com). “A safe pilot is always learning.”
FOR BETTER
LANDINGS
ENERGY MANAGEMENT MAKES ALL THE DIFFERENCE. HERE’S HOW. Q By Scott Perdue
Whether you have 10 hours or 20,000 hours, landing is
that one task that puts you, the pilot, in the spotlight more
than any other. You grade yourself on everything you do
when you fly — taxi, takeoff, climb, cruise, descent, approach, flare and land. But landing is the only thing that
everyone else grades you on every time you fly.
Landing is the most humbling thing we as pilots do. After a
string of so-so ones, we finally make some good ones and tell
ourselves, at last I’ve finally got the hang of it. Then out of the
blue, we’re back to our old thumping ways, struggling to find
that greaser touchdown that says we’ve arrived.
So, how do you do it? How do you make a good landing, every time? A good question and one that has fueled
many an hour of hangar talk all over the globe. There is a
simple answer: It’s all about energy management.
A good landing is like a recipe — throw in consistency,
precision, motor skills, eye/hand coordination and leaven
with a thorough understanding of your airplane, weather,
winds, terrain and aerodynamics. Put all that together and
get your brain processing these things in real-time using
your eyes as the primary data-entry device. It gets complicated even at one and a half miles per minute.
Everyone starts processing these things manually. The
art of landing comes when you achieve consistency. Put
yourself in the moment. Landing is challenging, and it’s
fun. Tell yourself that over and over.
Let’s take a closer look at those complicating factors.
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10 Tips For Better Landings
FLY THE AIRPLANE
If you do not fly an airplane consistently, then you have no basis to
make rational changes. When you exercise sloppy speed control,
execute wide patterns and sloppy turns or ignore crosswind inputs, you
cannot begin to work on your landings. The first thing you should do is
be honest with yourself. Do you need dual? How precisely do you fly
the airplane? How much do you let the airplane do what it wants?
Go out and practice holding altitude, heading using ground
references and speed control by glancing at the airspeed indicator. Feel
the airplane. Fly it precisely where you want to fly it. Whatever the
pattern is for your airplane, fly it precisely at the same altitude every
time, precisely the same speed and precisely the same spacing on
downwind. When you can do this without using all your brainpower,
you are ready for the next step — the perch.
THE PERCH
More commonly known as the base turn, the perch is the turn from
downwind to the base leg. You can fly a rectangular pattern or a
curvilinear approach in any airplane, and you’ll find advocates for
either one. The bottom line is that when you fall off the perch, you must
manage your energy and the turn in a dynamic environment. Don’t
forget that winds play a big factor in the final turn.
A perfect final turn is like an ILS and, speaking from an energy
management perspective, a perfectly flown final turn is done without
power. Manage your energy and your turn all the way around to a
smooth touchdown, and you’ve really done something. Project that
glide path around the turn all the way to downwind, and you’ve got
your perch point.
Crosswinds and planning play a big factor in the decision where to
perch. Fly the same spacing from the runway on downwind every
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time and vary the point where you perch, according to the winds. If
the winds are blowing you away from the runway and final, perch early.
If they are blowing you toward the runway, perch late. This way you let
the winds influence the turn instead of using power to correct for the
lack of wind planning.
FALL OFF THE PERCH.
For example, the venerable B-25 falls off the perch with about 20
degrees of bank and a 500 foot-per-minute descent. A good place to
start, but you have to look out the window and judge how the turn
radius is shaping up to a point about 1000 feet prior to the threshold.
You do this by looking at the ground and comparing your perceived
ground track with the projected one in your mind’s eye. Winds will
affect your path through the air. You’ve got to crosscheck the actual path
with the planned path continuously throughout the approach.
The final turn can be a killer. If the winds are pushing you wide of the
runway, then you have to increase your turn rate. It’s an aerodynamic,
physics thing; you don’t have a choice. The turn radius should take you
to the rollout point about 1000 feet short of the threshold, and the
only way to stay on that line is to adjust your turn rate. If the winds
are overshooting and pushing you wide, increase your turn rate by
adding bank angle. Most of the time you do not need to add G forces or
back pressure at all.
What makes overshooting winds a killer is that most pilots have a
natural tendency to pull more G when they want to increase turn rate.
Just adding back pressure changes the turn rate, but more than that, it
slows the airplane toward an accelerated stall and screws up your descent
profile all together. More G force is not the answer — more bank angle
is. Just roll in more bank and hold the same amount of back pressure
next time, and see how much better the turn works out.
WI N T E R
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10 Tips For Better Landings
What do you do if you are undershooting the runway? Simply put,
you roll out of some of the bank. Adjust your turn rate by adjusting
your bank angle. The turn is dynamic and changes from second
to second, especially in high winds. Keep looking out the window,
adjusting your turn rate all the way to the roll-out point.
Don’t forget about energy management. You have to adjust your
descent rate as well. To fly that ILS around the pattern, you have to use
your speed as your energy-management tool. In this area, folks will
argue both sides of the pitch/power equation. But for this discussion,
pitch is for airspeed and power is for glide path. Whatever your basepower setting in the approach, excess power should be used to slow
your descent rate. Power reductions should be used to increase your
descent rate — all done at the same indicated speed.
Let’s use your hand for a moment. Look around and make sure
no one is watching. Now stick your arm out and hold your hand
out flat to the floor. Imagine that your hand is the runway as you
are looking out the window. This picture means you are low on
the glide slope; you’re flat. You must add power while holding the
correct airspeed. Point your fingers up at a 45-degree angle. That
picture means you are high on glide path. Pull power or try a slip
to increase descent rate. Somewhere in between is a good 3-degree
glide path. Get used to looking for it.
Descent rate and turn rate are two different things. They do
influence each other but correct them individually. Always keep in
mind that the situation is dynamic and changes each second. Keep
looking out the window and judging your progress.
flare and touch down. Drive it in.
If you have a crosswind, you have to put the airplane in a wing low
attitude. Few airplanes are happy to land in a crab. Later, when you are
proficient, you can try doing it in the flare, but for now do it before you
cross the threshold. Use your foot to align the nose with the runway, then
add aileron into the wind to stop the drift. This puts the upwind wheel
low, just where you want it on touchdown. Resist the temptation to take
out your crosswind input until after you are done with the rollout.
TERRAIN
FLARE POINT
This isn’t really a step, but you have to remember that the winds will
change from the pattern down to the ground. Whatever correction you
made at altitude will need to be made differently close to the ground.
The flare point is usually no higher than one wingspan from the ground.
You can check your descent here with slight back pressure on the
elevator. One of the most important things you should do is shift your
eyes to the far end of the runway. You don’t actually focus on anything;
you just use your peripheral vision to judge drift and descent rate. This is
very important. Shift your eyes.
This sequence from a Boeing Stearman landing
illustrates how pilots must control the descent
rate with small pressures on the yoke.
THE TOUCHDOWN
ROLLOUT ON FINAL
If you plan to roll out on final with about a 1000
feet to the threshold, you give yourself time to assess
the winds and fix mistakes. Fast jets plan on rolling
out on final at a mile; for slower airplanes, 1000 feet
will give you time. Crab into the wind; line up on the centerline; make
your final adjustments.
Now you have to drive it in to the flare point. A lot of errors are
induced because the pilot is uncomfortable with ground rush. Know
that you’ll begin to see ground rush and fight the temptation to level
off or check your descent too early. It really screws up the end game of
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This is the money shot — what you’ve practiced for and everyone grades
your abilities on. The first thing you must understand here is aerodynamics.
The airplane is slowing down, and the power should be off now. The
airplane is slowing down, and it will increase the descent rate. Your task is
to keep that descent rate slow. You do that by adding back pressure.
Beginning pilots fly mechanically. After
awhile, hopefully, we internalize our lessons,
and we begin to control the airplane with
small pressures. This concept is key to a
smooth landing. You have to add back pressure
smoothly and slowly to compensate for the loss
of lift while the airplane is slowing. Not too
fast — or you hang up the descent for a couple
of seconds just before impact. Not too slow —
or you’ll have a firm landing. Maybe even a
REALLY firm landing. Add just enough back
pressure to compensate for that loss of lift.
The secret is that you actually don’t stop
adding back pressure until the wheels are on
the ground. To do a nice landing you’ve got to
execute this maneuver while holding runway
alignment, drift correction and all that other pilot stuff. Sound like fun?
When you put it this way, it sounds easy. All you have to do is
walk, talk and chew gum at the same time as you pat your head and
rub your stomach. Seriously, now you know the secret. You can go
out and roller.
Scott Perdue is a retired USAF F-15 instructor pilot and now flies for a major airline.
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Business
EXPLORING AIRCRAFT
LEASE AGREEMENTS
L
THERE IS NO ONE-SIZE-FITS-ALL DOCUMENT.
By Jonathan Levy
Leasing out your aircraft can be a great solution for turning your
excess capacity into income. But before handing the keys over to a
seemingly well-meaning stranger at the airport and watching him
cruise off into the sunset in your highly valuable and fragile asset,
you would be well-advised to devote extra attention to the particulars of your lease agreement to make sure you have adequate
protections. Properly drawn aircraft leases reflect a careful balance
of numerous considerations, including FAA compliance, minimization of liability, federal tax consequences and contractual rights
under the Uniform Commercial Code of your state.
FAA AIR CARRIAGE REGULATION: SINGLE
SOURCE/TWO-CHECK RULE
The FAA’s vigilance in preventing unauthorized commercial air carriage is one of the most
frequently raised regulatory concerns in leasing
transactions. Simply put, in any situation where
a single party provides both the aircraft and its
pilot to another party, the FAA will consider
the party making such provision to be providing commercial air carriage. This rule is often
phrased either as the “single source rule” (the
aircraft and pilot cannot come from a single
source) or the “two-check” rule (a non-pilot
lessee must write two checks to separate people,
one for plane and another for pilot).
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The analysis, however, can be somewhat
vague when the lessor and the pilot are not
the same, but are related. For example, a 2000
National Transportation Safety Board case
considered a situation where a pilot owned an
airplane and also flew for a pilot services company. The pilot’s wife also owned an aircraftleasing business. The two companies shared the
same office space and phone number. In that
case, the NTSB ruled that the pilot should, in
effect, be viewed as providing both plane and
pilot and, therefore, he was engaged in unlawful
air carriage. It is unclear how close the nexus
between lessor and pilot needs to be to pose a
problem, but the FAA has indicated that, even
where the paperwork shows a lease without
crew, it may look to the surrounding facts and
circumstances to conclude that unlawful air
carriage has occurred. One key feature is that
the lessee must be free to select the aircraft pilot,
without interference by the lessor, so long as
the pilot selected is qualified and appropriately
certified and trained.
Although the FAA’s air-carriage concern is
usually the most significant one in the leasing
context, it is also important to note that aircraft
greater than 12,500 lbs. gross take-off weight
are subject to special documentary and filing
requirements, and that such aircraft, as well as
fractional planes and smaller multi-engine jets,
are eligible for certain types of limited air-carriage arrangements not discussed in this article.
LIABILITY . . . BUT THE FAA SAID I
WASN’T IN CONTROL!
Despite the FAA’s insistence that the lessor divest
all control over the flights occurring under
the lease, this does not control the question of
whether you, as the lessor, might be liable to
third parties in the case of an accident. In general, accident liability is a question of state law although there also is the potential for federal law
to trump and either remove or impose liability.
From a state perspective, there are three
main theories for owner/lessor liability. The
first is owner negligence. In this case, the
plaintiff would need to prove that you failed in
some way, possibly by inadequately maintaining the aircraft, or by renting the plane to
someone who was not qualified. The second
is strict liability. A number of states have laws
which consider aircraft to be hazardous, which
render the lessor strictly or vicariously liable for
accidents that occur, even without fault. Finally,
some states impose vicarious liability where the
owner will be held responsible for any negligence by the lessee. As to both these exposure
points, you may put in place contractual language to limit the warranties you make to the
lessee regarding safety, but those disclaimers are
unlikely to shield you against claims from other
parties that might be injured.
Federal law provides some protection, but
its scope is unclear. Under the Transportation
Code, the “lessor” (defined as applying to leases
of at least 30 days), “owner” or “secured party”
of aircraft will not be liable for “damage on land
or water” from accidents when the aircraft is
outside their possession. There are a number
of ambiguities in this statute that have not been
well resolved by the courts. A key one is: When
does the injury occur “on land or water”?
Except for rare mid-air collisions, few people
actually get hurt in accidents while the plane is
still in the air. The tragedy happens when they
reach the land or water.
Phrased differently, does this liability protection apply to those onboard the aircraft? If it
does not, then its value is limited. Despite the
headline-capturing nature of collisions with
buildings, the vast majority of injurious aircraft
accidents do harm only to those onboard. Courts
have not been clear on this issue, but it would be
unwise to expect protection against the primary
source of liability, injuries to those onboard.
Often, the best liability protection for an
aircraft lessor will be to form a special-purpose
company to own the plane. This company
should be adequately capitalized and treated in
all ways as separate from its owner; it should
have its own bank account, insurance policy
and set of books. This will generally limit liability exposure to the assets of that entity and,
along with insurance, make up the best method
of protection.
aircraft at any particular time. The lease simply
provides that, if the lessor does allow usage, the
written lease terms will govern.
Such a structure is helpful in two ways. First,
it provides some insulation from the federal
tax concern that the lease will be a “rental”
activity, thus impairing your ability to use any
tax losses from the aircraft to offset your other
income. Second, and more importantly, it gives
the lessor a modicum of control by allowing
him to cut off usage if, for any reason, he grows
concerned about the lessee’s level of care and
competence in operating the valuable aircraft.
Aircraft leasing is quite different from the
leasing of real estate or other forms of equipment. There is no one-size-fits-all solution. This
article is meant only as a basic introduction to
the issues involved. Please seek the advice of an
experience professional before entering into any
aircraft-leasing arrangement.
OTHER ISSUES
Although the FAA does not require written
leases for aircraft less than 12,501 lbs. gross
take-off weight, a written lease is always recommended. It should include provisions such as
when and where the aircraft will be turned over
to the lessee and returned to the owner, the
lessee’s obligation to return it in the condition
he received it, a notification to the lessee that the
lessor is not an aircraft manufacturer or maintenance facility and does not warrant the aircraft
condition or safety, and payment details.
In most cases, a flight-by-flight lease is appropriate. Under such an agreement, the lease
creates an ongoing relationship where the lessor
may or may not approve lessee usage. During
the term of this arrangement, the lessor will
obtain a bank consent to the lease (for financed
planes) and maintain the lessee as an additional
insured on the insurance policy, but the agreement itself does not entitle the lessee to use the
WI N T E R
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HISTORICAL FIND
I
AN AIRCRAFT SALVAGE COMPANY DISCOVERS
A REMARKABLE AIRPLANE. By Davin Coburn
It was mid-May 2005 when Ken Williams arrived
at the San Jose Jet Center, at the southwest corner
of the city’s international airport, and eyed a Learjet
from a bygone era. Williams was the chief operating
officer of Atlanta Air Salvage, a boneyard based at
Griffin Spalding Airport that collected the remains
of planes too damaged or too outdated to be of use
to anyone else.
Williams had flown cross-country at the behest
of Atlanta Air chief executive officer Ronnie Powers, who had recently fielded a bizarre call from an
attorney in a hurry. “A lawyer called one day and
said, ‘We’ve got an old Lear for sale. Will you give
us X’?” The decades-old business jet would likely
be relegated to scrap metal, but Atlanta Air was accustomed to raising planes from lakes and dragging
wreckage out of the woods. At least this recovery
would be easy. Powers paid $45,000 for Learjet Serial
No. 31 and sent Williams to see what it would take
to haul the plane home for its autopsy. “We were just
going to break it down for parts,” the CEO said, “and
I wasn’t even sure it was good for that.”
Out back, behind San Jose’s hangars, Williams
found a rusted relic that had sat for years in the
rain. The plane had been abandoned by its previous
owners until unpaid hangar fees hit nearly $20,000,
The jet center then had simply dragged it out and left
it to the elements. The once-gleaming fuselage had
long since dirtied; the vivid white no longer stood in
stark contrast to the black and gray trim. The single
window along the port side of the aircraft was caked
in grime. Sticks were stuck in the wheels. Inside,
Williams found gray carpeting and gray leather seats
— a rather drab complement to the mess outside.
The logbooks were gone.
As he snapped photos, something didn’t sit right.
The COO had a nose for history. This might not be
an antique biplane discovered in a barn some place,
but the N-number struck him as odd. He called Lear
to run a historical-records search for his boss.
In Atlanta, Powers thumbed through the history
of the dilapidated plane. Before being shipped out
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Once the discovery of N175FS was made
public, the jet was quickly snapped up by a
European collector. Today, unfortunately, it
has gone back into hiding. Until late 2008,
the plane was under the care of Jeff Thomas,
a noted aircraft historian and consultant
who was safeguarding it for the collector.
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Being Frank
HISTORICAL FIND
to California, it had a pair of owners in Illinois. It had been repainted
and re-upholstered multiple times. Oddly, the N number, which had
switched and switched and then switched again, had been changed
back to its original registration, N175FS.
Then, deep in the pile, Powers came across a letter dated Oct. 30,
1964. It was a receipt from Lear Jet Corp., made out to California
Airmotive Corp., which was buying a plane for a client. The receipt
said simply, “Please convey to Mr. Sinatra our congratulations and
our intention to deliver to him the world’s finest business machine.”
Powers looked at that N number again — N175FS. Suddenly, they
weren’t talking about scrap metal.
Delivered six months shy of Sinatra’s 50th birthday, he named
Learjet Serial No. 31 Christina II, after his youngest daughter — and
had it trimmed in orange, his favorite color. Inside the plane, a pair
of leather seats sat at the rear of a 17-foot cabin, and a single seat was
positioned up front, along the port side, by the door. A couch sat
along the opposite side, running
up to the cockpit. The 43-footlong aircraft was equipped with
twin General Electric CJ610-4
engines that generated 2,850
pounds of thrust. The Learjet
could out-climb an F-100 fighter.
“There isn’t a jet produced today
that has the climb performance of
the Lear 23,” said Clay Lacy, who
sold Sinatra the plane — and he
would know. In May 1965, Lacy
and Jack Conroy established three
world speed records in a Learjet
23, flying from Los Angeles to
New York and back in 10 hours, 21
minutes, with two refueling stops.
If ever a plane was destined to play
among the stars, it was this one.
From June 1965 until he sold
it two years later, Sinatra and his
famous friends logged more than
1,500 hours on the jet. It routinely
shuttled the Rat Pack from Los
Angeles to Las Vegas and his home
in Palm Springs. He wooed Mia
Farrow in it and intimidated Michael Caine, then dating daughter
Nancy. Celebrity private-plane
culture was practically invented in
the cabin of N175FS.
On May 1, 1967, Elvis Presley
and Priscilla Beaulieu snuck out the back of Elvis’s estate in Palm
Springs, ducked the paparazzi and drove to the airport. There, they
boarded N175FS, bound for Las Vegas and a justice of the peace. “I was
both exhausted and relieved when we finally returned to Palm Springs
aboard Frank Sinatra’s Learjet,” Priscilla wrote in “Elvis and Me.”
And that was just the tip of the iconic iceberg: Dean Martin borrowed
the Lear to fly to movie sets. Marlon Brando and Sammy Davis Jr. took it
to Mississippi to meet Martin Luther King Jr. for a civil-rights rally. Mia
Farrow, meanwhile, has recounted how her first date with Sinatra — to
a screening of “None But the Brave”— ended with an invitation to fly to
Palm Springs. “That was a whole other city,” she said. “We were in L.A.,
and I didn’t think I could do that — I didn’t have my pajamas or anything.
He said, ‘Well, how about if I send my airplane for you tomorrow?’ ” Farrow described the next day’s flight as “the boldest thing I ever did.”
While he owned the Lear, Sinatra also had access to three others
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through Lacy, who runs Clay Lacy Aviation, the largest distributor
of private jets on the West Coast. Now 79, Lacy’s recollections about
N175FS remain invaluable. Don Lieto, the former chief pilot for
Sinatra Enterprises, died more than 30 years ago, making Lacy one of
the last people able to give firsthand accounts of the plane — such as
his description of one historic day in early June 1966.
Lacy borrowed Christina II because he was scheduled to fly the
camera ship for publicity photographers to capture the Air Force’s
cutting-edge XB-70 Valkyrie above Edwards Air Force Base. (The
cameraman needed a plane capable of chasing a bomber that hit Mach
3; Sinatra’s 518-mph Lear 23 was the fastest civilian aircraft they could
find in Southern California.) As the final photos were taken, an F-104
flying in formation with the Valkyrie collided with it, slicing off its tail
and engulfing the F-104 in a fireball. A photographer in the back of the
Lear captured the disaster on film. The $700 million Valkyrie prototype
rolled onto its back, entered a flat spin and smashed into the desert
floor in an enormous cloud of black
smoke. The fatal crash (only one
of the two Valkyrie pilots ejected
safely; the F-104 pilot also died) is
thought to be the most expensive
collision in aviation history, and the
photographs became a centerfold
in Life magazine. As usual, Frank
Sinatra’s plane was on the scene.
In June 1967, Sinatra traded up
to the improved Gulfstream GII.
The Lear went up for sale. N175FS
began its life after the Rat Pack with
Thomas Friedkin, chairman of Gulf
States Toyota. Next came Bernie
Little, central Florida’s exclusive
Budweiser distributor. Then it
passed through multiple owners
in Illinois — during which it once
spent a year outdoors with birds
nesting in the engines and mud
daubers clogging the fuel lines.
In 1985, Robert Brandis, owner
of Brandis Aircraft in Taylorville,
Ill., made it flight-worthy again,
then sold it to Stanley Furmanski,
a California doctor who, soon after
acquiring the plane and hangaring it at the San Jose Jet Center,
allegedly tried to run down an
FBI agent in a car and was sent to
prison for insurance fraud. The
plane languished there for a decade without identification until 2005,
when Williams pried open the door.
Once the discovery of N175FS was made public, the jet was quickly
snapped up by a European collector. Today, unfortunately, it has gone
back into hiding. Until late 2008, the plane was under the care of Jeff
Thomas, a noted aircraft historian and consultant who was safeguarding it for the collector. “It’s fully restorable — even flyable,” Thomas
said at the time, though no timeline was in place for those efforts. In
December of that year, however, the aircraft was reregistered with new
caretakers who declined to update TBM on its status. We’re assured,
however, that it’s well taken care of.
And according to Thomas, this likely won’t be the last we see of this
plane. “Ownership passed on to a group that sees unique and historical value in this particular jet,” he said. “It’s an iconic centerpiece and
focus of a key moment in history.”
Wit
h th
e ri
ght
pro
tec
tion
THE
THE SKY
LIM IS
IT.
Fly with
confidence.
Wherever life takes you, Chartis
will be at your side. Learn more about
our custom insurance solutions for
successful individuals and families:
www.chartisprivateclient.com/fly
All products are written by insurance company subsidiaries or affiliates of Chartis Inc.
Coverage may not be available in all jurisdictions and is subject to actual policy language.
For additional information, please visit our website at www.chartisinsurance.com.
Photo © Jérôme Zbinden
Hot Spots
TRAVEL
{
G O T T A
G E T
A W A Y
}
FRANKLIN
COUNTY, FLA.
F
ranklin County, Fla., is an
overlooked jewel on the Gulf
of Mexico, a perfect example of
what Florida was like 100 years ago. Not
only is it romantic, relaxing and recreational, it is one of America’s top-secret
destinations for great seafood.
Apalachicola
(pronounced ap-uhLATCH-uh-koh-luh) is
the Franklin County seat
and, in 2008, was placed
on the National Trust
for Historic Preservation with more than 200
historic homes and businesses highlighted. The
area features lighthouses
and fishing boats and
great local restaurants.
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It’s become the stomping grounds for celebs
like Jack Nicholson,
Jimmy Buffet, Tim
McGraw, Kid Rock,
Hank Williams Jr., Julia
Roberts, golfer Jack
Nicklaus and NASCAR
drivers Jimmy Johnson
and Jeff Gordon. Never
heard of it, you say?
That’s exactly what we’re
talk about.
talking
F many visitors,
For
the prime destination
{Continued on page 44}
{Continued
in Franklin County is St.
George IIsland,
barG
l d a llong b
rier island with 22 miles
of unpopulated beaches
and clear, warm waves
that curl across your toes.
Signs ask you to turn off
house lights at night so
they don’t confuse the
nesting sea turtles. And
just off-shore, the fun
begins. Professional and
amateur fishermen alike
are there to catch speckled
trout, flounder, whiting,
red fish, shark and triple
tail. They come because
the ocean is prolific
with sea life. Part of the
area has been declared a
United Nations Biospheree
Reserve and Estuarine
Sanctuary. Everyone
treats the ocean with
the respect required to
maintain the ecosystem,
especially when it comes
to the region’s biggest
celebrity, crassostrea virginica, better known around
here as the oyster.
Pilots in the area can
tell you about seeing float
planes land and coast over
to the oyster beds, some
completely exposed at low
tide. Occupants stepped
out in the lapping shallow
water and harvested a
weight-and-balancing
act of fresh oysters. You
can still harvest them
yourself, or you can just
step into almost any local
restaurant and eat your
fill, often for about half of
what you’d pay anywheree
else in the country.
Trick roper
at
C
M AG A ZINE
A TOWN THE WILD
WEST BUILT, CODY, WYO.
ody, Wy
Wyo., sits as the eastern gateway to Yellowstone National Park
P and was founded by its namesake, William
Frederick Cody, better known as Buffalo Bill. At the turn
of the 20th Century, he was the most famous person on earth.
If Col. William F. “Buffalo Bill” Cody was
anything, he was a showman. More than anyone
else, he made famous the
idea of the Wild West
Show. Cody amassed an
inimitable collection of
cowboys (including Ned
Buntline and Pawnee
Bill), Indians (including
Sitting Bull and 20 of his
braves), sharpshooters
((includingg Annie OakLog cabin used by
Kid Cury
and the Sundance
Kid
ARRIVALS:
Apalachicola
Regional Airport (KAAF),
850.653.2222
POPA
Rodeo
Back bar gifted to Buffa
Buffalo Bill by Queen Elizabeth
WHERE TO STAY:
Coombs House Inn,
Apalachicola,
888.244.8320
44 I
the Stampe
de
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ley), plus hundreds of
head of horses, cattle and
buffalo. Know ultimately
as Buffalo Bill’s Wild
West Show and Congress
of Rough Riders of the
World, the show featured
wagon trains and Indian
attacks and even a reenactment of the Battle
of the Little Bighorn,
aka Custer’s Last Stand
— just about anything
Americans would expect
when visiting the Wild
W If his
West.
sh
shows
were
po
popular in
the U.S., they
we
were doubly
me
mesmerizing
to tthe Europeans
ans, especially
the Brits. Queen Elizabeth so enjoyed Cody’s
traveling Wild West
Show that she gave him
a specially made back
bar, still on display in
the Hotel Irma (named
after one of Buffalo Bill’s
daughters). The remnants of his show, now
augmented by numerous
other western and Native
American artifacts, are
magnificently displayed
at Buffalo Bill Historical
Center.
Another interesting
venue in Cody is the
Old Trail Town, which
features a slew of log
cabins that were once
used by the likes of the
Sundance Kid, Butch
Cassidy and Kid Curry. The
body of Jeremiah Johnson
(played by Robert Redford
in the movie of the same
name) is also buried on the
premises.
But the most fun in town
might very well be the Buffalo Bill Stampede Rodeo,
which proudly operates 364
days of the year. This rodeo
is not a sideshow, but the
real deal. It is one of only
nine stops on the Million
Dollar Gold Tour Series,
insuring participation from
some of the top rodeo
cowboys in the world.
WHERE TO STAY:
Hotel Irma, Cody, 307.587.5915
ARRIVALS:
Yellowstone Regional Airport
(KCOD), 307.527.7511
For over 35 years Skytech has excelled at helping
our customers evaluate, acquire and maintain
high performance aircraft. Whether they fly
an efficient business tool or the ultimate mode
of personal transportation, Skytech customers
recognize that experience, customer service
and commitment to personal relationships
define the Skytech Advantage.
Martin State Airport – Baltimore, MD (MTN)
York County Airport – Rock Hill, SC (UZA)
Carroll County Regional Airport – Westminster, MD (DMW)
The exclusive distributor of the Pilatus PC-12 in OH, PA, MD, WV, KY, TN, VA, NC & SC.
Authorized Pilatus service center.
410.574.4144 www.skytechinc.com
W I N T E R
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Bottom Lines
FINANCE
BUY AND SELL
AIRPLANES WITHOUT
PAYING TAXES
C
THE 1031 EXCHANGE WORKS EQUALLY WELL FOR AIRCRAFT. By Harry Daniels, CPA, CFP, PFS, CVA
Commercial real estate investors have long taken advantage of Section 1031 in the tax code which allows property owners to trade
properties and avoid the current payment of at least a portion of the
income tax that would be due on the transaction. A 2011 tax court
case reminded us that these same provisions that apply to real estate
also apply to the exchange of airplanes. And when you consider the
tax effects of depreciation recapture, the impact of Section 1031 on
your overall tax liability can be nothing short of remarkable.
Consider this example: You buy real
estate for $100X. Over time the value of
your property increases to $150X. You find
another parcel that you want, and the seller
asks $150X for his property. By executing
a property trade under Section 1031, you
can exchange properties and avoid presently
paying the tax on the $50X appreciation of
your property. Later there will be a day of
reconciliation — but not today.
This same principle applies to airplanes
but, with airplanes, the results are usually
larger than you originally thought. This is
because airplanes are depreciable assets, and
their tax basis is reduced every year that you
claim depreciation. Take the same example
from above but this time imagine it is an
airplane, and not real estate. Airplanes have a
tax life of five years. Using author’s privilege,
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the airplane costs $100X and, after four years,
you have depreciated the plane down to $20X.
Now you want another plane. If you sell your
plane outright, then any sale proceeds over
$20X will be taxed. If you trade your plane
under Section 1031, the tax will be deferred
until sometime well into the future when you
truly let go of the plane. This can make a big
difference in your present year tax liability.
Again, I am going to claim author’s
privilege and use some made-up numbers to
illustrate a point that I can almost guarantee
will not be in accordance with the Internal
Revenue Code. Assume in 2007 you paid $1
million for a 2001 used aircraft which you
have used 100 percent for business. Naturally,
you have the required logs to establish the
amount of business use to meet the requirements of Section 274 of the Internal Revenue
Code. In 2010, you are in the fourth year of
ownership of the plane. You paid $1 million
for the plane and you have claimed a total of
$800,000 for depreciation deductions for the
four tax years between 2007 and 2010. Your
original tax basis for the $1 million purchase
price has been reduced by $800,000 for depreciation, leaving your airplane with a tax basis
of $200,000 on Dec. 31, 2010.
Time passes, and it is 2011. You want to
trade up or trade down. You need another
plane for whatever reason since the plane you
purchased in 2007 no longer fills the bill. Your
market research finds that your 2001 plane
that you purchased in 2007 for $1 million has
a market value of $750,000. You decide to sell
the plane and buy another plane. You locate
a buyer, and you both agree that $750,000 is
indeed a fair and market price and you get
ready to close the deal. Then you get wise
and say, “Whoa! Are there any negative tax
ramifications?” Oh, yes!
Have you heard of depreciation recapture?
Believe me, Congress and the IRS have. It
works like this: Tax law has allowed you to
depreciate your $1 million airplane down to
$200,000 over a four-year period. Tax law
has allowed you to depreciate the airplane far
more than its true loss in economic value of
$250,000. Therefore, the government wants
you to return the tax savings you received by
claiming depreciation in excess of the true
economic loss in value.
The IRS wants to recapture those deductions. They do that by saying that you
have made $550,000 of profit on the sale of
the plane. That’s impossible, you say. You
paid $1 million, and you sold the plane for
$750,000. Therefore, in your eyes, you lost
$250,000. Nice try, says the IRS. The IRS gave
you $800,000 worth of depreciation deductions when they should have given you only
$250,000. The IRS wants the tax back on those
$550,000 worth of deductions.
So you get out your calculator and compute
that $550,000 of phantom income (depreciation recapture) at a 35 percent tax bracket
is going to cost you $192,500 in taxes. After
paying tax, you will have just a little more than
$550,000 left to go toward your replacement
airplane. Not a good day!
Along comes the like-kind-exchange provision of Code Section 1031. A tax court judge
once said that it is not only your privilege to
do everything legally possible to minimize
your tax obligations, but it is your financial
obligation to do so. Bottom line, according
to Section 1031, an exchange is not a sale,
and there is no taxable gain or loss on an exchange. If you sell the plane outright, you end
up with the $192,500 tax problem from above.
However, if you trade the plane, the $192,500
tax problem goes away.
In the eyes of the IRS a trade is not a
terminating event. You have only substituted
one piece of equipment for another piece. In
a sale, you have bought, and then you have
disposed. In a trade, you buy, and then you
substitute. Sometimes you get lucky, and you
swap planes with another owner. Sometimes an aircraft dealer will work a trade-in
with you towards the purchase of your next
aircraft. Many times, neither of these options
will work out in the right time and place.
Then what do you do?
You turn to the Starker case provisions of
Section 1031. If you can meet the technical
requirements of the 1031 Starker provisions,
you can have a grace period of up to 180
days in order to complete the deal. These
provisions are specific and must be explicitly
followed. In the 2011 tax case, the judge ruled
against the IRS and in favor of the taxpayer
that the Starker provisions were substantially
complied with due to the way the taxpayer’s
agreement with the qualified intermediary was worded. This just goes to show how
investing a few dollars to make sure you do it
right can really save your day.
contract and the qualified intermediary really saved the deal for the taxpayer.
Even though you take advantage of the favorable provisions of Section 1031, it is very
rare that the value of the property given up
will exactly match the value of the property
received. As such, cash becomes the equalizer. The IRS says that cash is king, and as
such, if cash is involved, then regardless of
everything else, the cash part of the deal will
be treated as taxable income. When cash is
involved, the amount of taxable gain is the
lesser of (1) the amount of net cash received
or (2) the amount of taxable gain as if Section 1031 was not a part of the deal. And for
the record, debt assumed and debt given is
treated as an addition and/or a subtraction
to the total cash of the deal.
Section 1031 has many technical provisions that must be complied with, so seek legal and tax-preparer assistance. Section 1031
is optional, and its use is imposed on the IRS
by the taxpayer. Therefore, the IRS will insist
that all of the provisions of Section 1031 be
explicitly followed. By implementing the
provisions of Section 1031, the monetary
rewards can be fantastic.
O. H. “Harry” Daniels, Jr. is a CPA, a CFP licensee, a
certified valuation analyst and a pilot. He is a partner
with the firm of Duggan, Joiner & Co., Certified Public
Accountants, and can be reached at 352-732-0171 or
at [email protected].
A FEW OF THE KEY TECHNICAL
PROVISIONS OF SECTION 1031 ARE:
Q The exchange must involve business property
and not property used for personal purposes,
and the exchanged property must be of like class
and fall within the same general asset class.
Q Exchanges between related persons have a
two-year look back period. If the exchanged
property is disposed of within two years after
the exchange, the transaction is rescinded as if
the exchange never existed and was a sale on
the date of the exchange unless you come under
one of the exceptions of non-avoidance of tax,
death or involuntary conversion. Even using a
qualified intermediary will not avoid the twoyear look back rule.
Q Replacement property must be unquestionably identified (make, model, year, tail number)
before the end of the 45-day identification period
that begins on the day the property given up is
transferred. Up to three replacement properties,
or an unlimited number of replacement properties that are in the cumulative less than twice the
value of what was given up, must be identified
within the 45-day identification period.
Q The replacement property must be received
within 180 days. In order to get the full 180-day
window, you may have to file an extension on
your tax return.
A cardinal rule mandates that any money involved with the deal cannot be touched until
the deal closes out. This is where the 2011
tax case saved the taxpayer, due to a technical error on the flow of money to the aircraft
owner and the qualified intermediary. The
WI N T E R
2012
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Vectors
INVESTING
Brands matter
in China.
Strategic
technology that
isn’t easily
transferable
and brand
equity are the
key factors to
consider and
are unfortunately often
overlooked in
favor of flashy
(and all-too-often disingenuous) financial
statements.
T
CHINA SKIES
THE CHINESE AVIATION INDUSTRY IS ALIVE
AND WELL. IT COULD BE A GREAT TIME FOR
AMERICAN INVESTORS. By John Bremner
The 60th anniversary of the establishment of China’s aviation industry was
celebrated this past April in Beijing.
Since its inception, the industry has
produced more than 16,000 aircraft
and helicopters and more than 60,000
engines — and things are just getting
started. The Chinese aviation industry,
the world’s fastest growing, is poised to
be the largest — though not without a
few requisite growing pains.
In recent years, China’s aviation industry has
diligently focused on dispelling its previous reputation for sub-par workmanship and a lack of innovative achievements. It has industriously worked toward
meeting world aviation standards. It has slowly formed
a high-tech industrial system represented by aircraft
and helicopters with complete supporting aero-engine
airborne systems, aviation weapons and a relatively
complete technical basis with strong army and civilian
integration. State-owned Aviation Industry Corp. of
China has stakes in more than 200 factories in places
you’ve never heard of, 60 offices in 29 countries around
the world, and is a Fortune Global 500 company the
same size as Google ($21 billion in revenues).
China is in the game for the long haul and is no longer
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satisfied with just being a supplier. They’ve recently built
the ARJ-21 Soaring Phoenix, the first passenger jet to be
developed and indigenously produced by China. Seating
78-105 passengers, depending on configuration, the ARJ21 will compete head-to-head with regional jets made by
dominant players Boeing and Airbus, as well as offerings
from Brazil’s Embraer, Bombardier from Canada and
Russia’s Sukhoi. Deliveries are scheduled to begin at the
end of this year with nearly 250 orders in the pipeline.
While the program itself represents a hodge-podge
of 19 foreign suppliers and subcontractors like General
Electric (engines), Rockwell Collins (avionics), Honeywell (fly-by-wire system) and Parker Aerospace (flight
controls), China’s next big thing, the home-grown C919,
promises to be 100 percent made in China. The C919 will
be a 168-190 seat narrow-body airliner, and Beijing plans
on selling 2,000 of them over the next 20 years.
Things are buzzing on the private front, too, with tales
of China being the new Ground Zero for fast and furious
business aircraft sales. Bombardier, Embraer, France’s
Dassault Aviation and U.S. manufacturers Gulfstream
Aerospace Corp., Cessna Aircraft Co. and Hawker
Beechcraft, are all clamoring to win the business of the
rapidly expanding Chinese elite. Although only about
150 private jets are registered in a country with a humming economy and more than 1.3 billion inhabitants, the
growth of the market is outstanding. With the construction of 15 new airports a year and delivery of 75 business
aircraft this year alone, it’s no wonder Boeing’s 2011 Pilot
and Technician Outlook predicts China will need 72,700
new commercial airline pilots by the year 2030.
A challenge for original equipment manufacturers
will be the inevitable need to set up production in China, especially for large-cabin aircraft like Bombardier’s
Global line and Gulfstream’s G650. That challenge cuts
to the core of old issues with China’s aviation industry:
Manufacturers are hesitant to set up branch plants and
disseminate technological know-how and intellectual
property they are fearful will only serve as foundations
for China’s own industry.
But perhaps the protectionism is already a moot issue,
as China’s recent moves point to long-term strategic
goals and even greater ambitions. After the recent Chinese purchase of legendary U.S. Cirrus Aircraft, rumors
that Chinese interests are poised to swallow venerable
and iconic (but struggling) U.S. Cessna Aircraft have
shifted into overdrive.
With such unparalleled growth in all sectors, these are
exciting times for aviation in China and for investors who
want to benefit from this immense growth. Investing in
branded technology is the one of the easiest and most reliable ways to benefit from China’s growth. Brands matter
in China. Strategic technology that isn’t easily transferable
and brand equity are the key factors to consider and are
unfortunately often overlooked in favor of flashy (and
all-too-often disingenuous) financial statements. Investing in a well-known brand name might not be as
glamorous and thrilling as investing in small-cap Chinese
names that could double or triple in a matter of weeks, but
investing in branded companies which are leaders in their
respective industries, including Chinese and stateside ones
operating in China, is your surest and safest way to benefit
from the world’s fastest growing market. MiPad
ELECTRONICS
Jepp FD
E
THE BEST IPAD APPS
PROFESSIONAL CHARTS FOR THE IPAD JEPP TC AND FD
By John D. Ruley
Ever noticed the square black cases airline pilots carry?
Open any of those cases and I guarantee that you’ll find at
least one Jeppesen airway manual: A loose-leaf binder with
text, terminal arrival/approach/departure plates and airport
diagrams on very thin paper, and pockets for en-route charts.
While FAA AeroNav (formerly NACO) charts are common
among private pilots, when you get to the big leagues,
Jeppesen (a division of Boeing) is the world standard.
That said, FAA charts are what you’ll find on most electronic chart viewing apps –
largely because, as government documents, they’re available without paying a license
fee. Until 2009, the only way to get electronic Jeppesen charts was an application
called JeppView for Notebook and Tablet PCs. There was no way to get Jeppesen
instrument charts (particularly approach plates) on other portable devices.
Two years ago, Jeppesen began offering approach plates and airport diagrams
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on an e-book viewer, and last year the same capability
arrived on the iPad through Jepp TC. This quickly
caught on because it saves a lot of weight – paper IFR
charts for the lower 48 states weigh a whopping 22
pounds, not counting the binders! Jepp TC also greatly
simplifies revisions. Traditionally, Jeppesen subscribers
got individual pages with changes every 28 days
and spent time replacing old pages in their binders.
Electronic revisions are much faster. And electronic
subscriptions are cheaper than getting all those pages
in the mail – a full year of electronic coverage for the
lower 48 costs $787 vs. $1,241 for paper.
Needless to say, given all those advantages – and
the runaway popularity of the iPad among pilots
– Jepp TC quickly became a hit, and that brought
recognition by none other than the FAA. The
combination of an iPad and Jepp TC was the first offthe-shelf commercially available electronic charting
solution authorized as a complete replacement for
paper approach plates for airline use — after the iPad
passed a rapid decompression test.
However, Jepp TC didn’t quite replace the paper
airway manual – it did not provide en-route and
area charts. Those still came on paper. This year, that
changed: A new app, Jepp FD, provides a complete
replacement for all the paper in a Jeppesen Airway
manual: Plates, diagrams, charts and even the airway
manual text (which is provided in PDF format for
viewing in iBooks).
On startup, Jepp FD defaults to a page that includes an
en-route chart and allows you to enter your origin and
destination airports and specify a route using waypoints.
Pressing an “apply” tab will generate the route and scale
the chart to show it. You can then zoom in on any route
segment. An on-screen button, shaped like an airplane,
lists airports on the route. Tap on one and you’ll get a
list of available terminal charts. Tap on a chart and it will
come up. By default it’s scaled to fit on the screen, but
there is an option to have it fit to the width of the screen
instead. If you have an iPad2 or external GPS, your
airplane position can optionally be shown on airport
diagrams. Tapping an on-screen route button takes
you back to the en-route chart.
While all the information from paper en-route
charts is available in Jepp FD, it’s not always
immediately obvious. Some details (waypoints and
airway numbers, for example) only show up when
you zoom in. Other details are available only by
request. For example, tap-and-hold on an airport
icon, and a pop-up window will appear offering
runway and communications information.
With a GPS and ship’s position enabled (using
an on-screen button that looks like a stylized
arrowhead), you can choose “north-up” or “track-up”
orientation. The latter is the closest thing I’ve seen to
a moving-map display on the iPad, with labels always
oriented properly, in contrast to ForeFlight and other
apps that display scanned charts, which often have
the text upside-down or sideways depending on what
direction you’re flying.
I tested Jepp FD on a four-hour leg flying home
to California from a vacation in Jackson Hole and
Yellowstone earlier this year. I had generally good results
Jepp FD
once I got used to the app, though I quickly
realized that it’s not a true moving map – even
in “track-up” mode. If you make a turn, the
on-screen airplane symbol will start moving off
at an angle. An easy work-around is to switch
momentarily to “north-up” mode and then
back to “track-up” mode. And I didn’t figure
I tested Jepp FD on
a four-hour leg flying
home to California
from a vacation in
Jackson Hole and
Yellowstone earlier this
year. I had generally
good results once I
got used to the app,
though I quickly
realized that it’s not a
true moving map – even
in “track-up” mode.
out how to look up Center frequencies until
after I got home. Turns out, it’s in the comms
section of the pop-up page for any airport.
Jepp FD isn’t perfect. At this point,
it’s just a chart viewing and GPS mapping
application, without the advanced flight
planning, weather and other features offered by
JeppView. But over time that’s going to change.
Jeff Buhl, senior product manager for mobile
solutions, told me that on-screen “rubber
band” flight-plan editing is due in the next
major release, and other features, including
weather, are planned beginning next year.
Once or twice a year, I fly on a charity
mission to Mexico with a group called
Liga International (The Flying Doctors of
Mercy). Until now, that always involved
getting a Mexico trip kit so that I’d have
en-route charts and approach plates for my
route south of the border. The next time I
make one of those flights, my trip kit will be
electronic, downloaded to Jepp FD on my
iPad. It will save weight, money and time!
For more information, browse ww1.
Jeppesen.com/index.jsp.
John D. Ruley is an instrument-rated pilot, freelance writer
and recent graduate of the University of North Dakota
Space Studies graduate program (Space.edu). He is also
a volunteer pilot with LigaInternational.org, and a member
of the board of directors of Mission Doctors Association
(MissionDoctors.org). You can reach him by email to
[email protected].
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WI N T E R
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Cabin Cuisine
RECIPES
WILD MUSHROOM
CHEDDAR BURGER
CELEBRITY RECIPES TO MAKE AND TAKE WITH YOU Bobby Flay
“During my travels for the old Food Network show Food Nation, I had the opportunity to go
foraging for mushrooms with an expert in Washington State. I can’t think of mushrooms without
remembering that trip. I do NOT recommend hunting out your own mushrooms – let’s leave
that to the experts – but I do recommend using a variety of what your supermarket has to offer.
They may not be technically ‘wild,’ but a blend from your market will be still be delicious and,
more importantly, not deadly! I think that any cheddar would pair well with the mushrooms, but
if you can find a sharp Tillamook cheddar from Oregon, it would be all the better!”
Bobby Flay is the owner and executive chef of seven restaurants: Mesa
Grill and Bar Americain in New York City, Mesa Grill in Las Vegas, Mesa
Grill in the Bahamas, Bobby Flay Steak in Atlantic City, N.J., and Bobby’s
Burger Palaces in Lake Grove, N.Y., Paramus, N.J., and Eatontown, N.J.
Flay has hosted seven Food Network Television programs and appeared
regularly on an eighth. He has also appeared as a guest on other Food
Network shows and hosted a number of other television specials. We asked
Flay to share his thoughts on making a great sandwich to take with you on
your next cross-country!
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WILD MUSHROOM
CHEDDAR BURGER
Ingredients
• Sautéed mushrooms
• 2 tbsp. olive oil
• 1 tbsp. unsalted butter
• 3/4 lb. assorted mushrooms (cremini, lobster,
chanterelle, shiitake) coarsely chopped
• 1 shallot, finely diced
• Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
• 1 tbsp. chopped fresh thyme
• 3 tbsp. chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley
• 4 hamburgers
• 4 slices sharp cheddar cheese
Preparation
1. Heat the oil and butter in a large sauté pan
over high heat until almost smoking. Add the
mushrooms and cook, stirring occasionally, until
soft, about five minutes. Add the shallot, salt
and pepper and cook until the mushrooms are
golden brown, about five minutes longer. Stir in
the thyme and parsley and transfer to a bowl.
2. Top four burgers with a slice of cheese and a
few large spoonfuls of mushrooms.
Test Yourself
TRIVIA SMACKDOWN
4. The prototype for the famous
Northrop Flying Wing, the YB-49,
actually appeared in which Hollywood
movie?
8. “Lawn Chair Larry” refers to a gentleman who tied helium balloons to a beach
chair and made a 45-minute flight over
Los Angeles. His accomplishment won him:
a.
b.
c.
d.
a. An appearance on the David Letterman Show
b. A $4,000 fine from the FAA
c. First prize from the Bonehead Club and a
Darwin Award
d. All the above
12 O’clock High
War of the Worlds
From Here to Eternity
Destination Moon
5. Virgin Atlantic Air Lines sponsored
an annual contest for works of art to be
applied to the company’s air-sickness
bags. The competition was titled:
TEST YOURSELF AS A REPOSITORY
OF RIDICULOUS, WORTHLESS FACTS
1. The windows in airport control towers
are tilted exactly 15 degrees. Why?
a. To deflect wind gusts
b. To deflect direct UV light
c. To allow better visibility at sunrise
and sunset
d. To minimize reflections inside the tower
2. The first airplane fatality occurred in
1908. The pilot was:
a. Wilbur Wright
b. Emmet Rickenbacker
c. T. T. ”Red” Harloggen
d. Guillaume Fabry
a.
b.
c.
d.
Blown Opportunities
Déjà vu
Design for Chunks
Chunder Road
6. To test theories on learning “fog
flying,” aviator Jimmie Doolittle covered every window in his airplane, and
then proceeded to practice take off
and landings with no visual reference
to the outside.
a. True
b. False
9. Lawrence Sperry, the namesake for the
company which would go on to be an aerospace giant, crashed a Curtiss Flying Boat
in 1916 outside of Babylon, N.Y. Sperry and
his female passenger were found naked in
the wreckage and ultimately honored as
the first members of the Mile High Club.
The crash helped motivate Sperry toward
one of his most famous inventions:
a.
b.
c.
d.
The auto pilot
The gyroscope
The wing leveler
The reclining seat
10. Famous air racer and Indianapolis
500 driver Mickey Rupp said:
a. “I must place on record my regret that
the human race ever learned to fly.”
3. The first twin-engine aircraft flew in:
7. In which twin-engine airplane listed
below can you earn a multi-engine rating but not be allowed to fly the others
listed below?
a. France
b. England
c. Russia
d. United States
a.
b.
c.
d.
Piper Seminole
Diamond TwinStar
Beechcraft Duchess
Cessna Skymaster
b. “If helicopters are so safe, how come
there are no vintage/classic helicopter
fly-ins?”
c. “After about 30 minutes, I puked all over
my airplane. I said to myself, ‘Man, you
made a big mistake’.”
d. “Air racing may not be better than your
wedding night, but it’s better than the
second night.”
Answers: 1. d, 2. a, 3. c, 4. b, 5. c, 6. a, 7. d, 8. d, 9. a, 10. d (Editors’ Note: Question 10a. was said by Winston Churchill, 10b is anonymous, and 10c from Chuck Yeager.)
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54 I
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TRAVEL I DOMINICAN REPUBLIC
SWIM WITH SOME OF THE
LARGEST
MAMMALS
ON EARTH
THOUSANDS OF HUMPBACKS COME TO THE DOMINICAN REPUBLIC AND OFFER YOU A
ONCE-IN-A-LIFETIME ENCOUNTER WITH WHALES.
The motor vessel
essel Su
Sun Dancer II quietly glides to its mooring in Silver Bank Marine
Sanctuary in the Do
Dominican Republic where it will sit for almost a week. She’s one of only
ted to enter the area. Eager passengers, many of whom have come half
three boats permitted
way around the world for this unique experience, wait to board the smaller dive tender
boats for a short ride to be face-to-face with whales that range up to 50 feet in length
Humpbacks, like other species of large whales, were nearly hunted to extinction before
a whaling moratorium was established in 1966. These whales spend their lives migrating
from polar waters, where they feed on krill and other small fish, all the way to tropical
or subtropical waters to mate and give birth to their young. It is estimated that currently
about 80,000 humpback whales are spread across the planet.
W I N T E R
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Travel
DOMINICAN REPUBLIC
Because the whales are
protected, it is illegal to
approach them. Instead,
customers put on their
diving masks, fins and
snorkels, slide into the
water and wait for the
whales to approach them.
Gene Flipse, Sun Dancer II’s captain, briefs the
passengers on procedures they’ll use to get in
the water with the whales. Because the whales
are protected, it is illegal to approach them.
Instead, customers put on their diving masks,
fins and snorkels, slide into the water and wait
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for the whales to approach them. Scuba and
rebreathers are not allowed. While many people
would refer to this experience as “swimming
with whales,” there is very little actual swimming
required. Guests float on the surface in their
wetsuits and watch.
Whales typically arrive in the Dominican
Republic in December and January and stay
through March or April. This is the time of year
to see the male humpbacks wooing the females
and mothers swimming side-by-side with
newborn calves. Capt. Flipse encourages the
boat’s guests not only to look but listen as well.
Male humpbacks serenade females with the
longest and most complex songs in the animal
kingdom. The clear water in the Dominican
Republic is also home to sperm whales, pygmy
sperm whales, pilots, false killers and a variety
of dolphin species including bottlenose, Risso’s,
Fraser’s, spotted and spinner.
The Sun Dancer II’s four decks are spacious, comfortable and well appointed, with
air conditioning in all interior areas. She can
sleep a maximum of 18 guests, with two master
staterooms and seven deluxe staterooms. Each
features individual climate controls, picture
windows and a flat-screen TV with DVD player.
The spacious dive deck features two freshwater
showers, warm fresh towels, a water fountain
and separate rinse tanks for cameras and snorkel
gear. For the photographer, there are two large
camera tables, and all guests have their own
dedicated gear station.
But the real show is taking place all around
the boat where a non-stop ballet is under way
and underwater. Passengers regularly report
that being in the water with these magnificent
creatures is one of the highlights of their lives.
Local regulations strictly limit the number of
people who can get in the water with the whales.
Sign up early to guarantee your adventure.
For more information, log onto IncredibleAdventures.com or call 800.644.7382. Airport:
Aeropuerto de las Américas (SDQ).
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