During the 1920s, airframe manufacturers in Wichita, Kansas, produced a series of airplanes that signaled the gradual demise of open cockpit flying in favor of a comfortable, enclosed cabin. In February 1921, the indefatigable Jacob M. Moellendick announced to the Wichita newspapers that the Wichita Laird Airplane Corporation was planning to launch an air service…
Gogo Business Aviation recently unveiled AVANCE L3, a new inflight connectivity system that delivers the benefits of the Gogo AVANCE platform to passengers and flight departments in a small, lightweight form factor, with affordable pricing options. Gogo’s platform lets users customize their inflight experience based on their unique needs, and can be installed on business…
PWI, the pioneer in airplane interior lighting systems, has announced that they will grant owners an 18 x 24-inch poster of their King Air with the purchase of an LED Retrofit. (Owners will need to provide a high-quality photo for the poster.) PWI’s line of LED cabin lighting retrofits are available for King Air 300,…
Date: January 2018 ATA 23 – Cockpit Voice Recorder (CVR) and Flight Data Recorder (FDR) 90-Day Underwater Locator Beacon (ULB) In 2015, the FAA revised Technical Standard Order (TSO) C121a for ULBs. TSO C121b was released to provide standards for ULBs with a battery capable of lasting for 90 days after activation. At the same…
UW’s King Air 200T is the only atmospheric research aircraft in the National Science Foundation-supported fleet operated by a university The University of Wyoming owns two Beechcraft King Air aircraft – a 1977 King Air 200T and a 1983 King Air B200 – operated by the Department of Atmospheric Science and based at Laramie Regional…
You are looking forward to taking your King Air out for a flight – the weather is clear, and your passengers are just as excited to get in the air as you are. However, during your preflight walkaround, you notice that one of your strobe lights is not working. Uh oh! There’s a possibility you…
Tax Reform Bill Signed into Law Commended for Aviation-related Provisions The new tax overhaul package referred to as the “Tax Cuts and Jobs Act” was signed into law by President Trump on December 22, 2017. Two key provisions that aviation leaders are praising are the immediate expensing of both factory-new and pre-owned (used) aircraft, as…
When readers send a question to me or Kim Blonigen, our editor, I try to respond directly without delay. Some questions concern a specific item that affects so few operators that publishing the reply here in my monthly column would merely be wasting ink. However, some questions lend themselves to a wider audience. This month…
Impressed by the success of Piper’s PA-23 Apache and Cessna’s Model 310, in 1956 Beech Aircraft Corporation entered the emerging light twin-engine market with its Model 95 Travel Air. In postwar America, general aviation’s “Golden Age” was born in the late 1940s and by the early 1950s was maturing rapidly, attracting thousands of would-be aviators…
Garmin announced it has received Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) and European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) approval of additional G5 electronic flight instrument capabilities, including the installation of G5 in place of an existing directional gyro (DG) or horizontal situational indicator (HSI) in select certified fixed-wing general aviation aircraft. When paired with select VHF NAV/COMMs or…