The best light sport aircraft

I've flown a few different LSA aircraft.  The flight school I used to teach at was a Remos distributor and so I got a fair bit of time in the Remos GX.  The Remos is a nice enough airplane, and fun to fly... it feels like the VW bug of the sky.  It chatters right along at about 100 kts on a good day.  It's fairly loud, and being tall I need to fold myself into it.  The seats are extremely hard and after an hour in the Remos, I'm very much ready to get out.  I couldn't imagine actually flying a cross country in one.  All the light sport airplanes I've flown or sat in at OSH seemed like fun little toys, but not quite anything like a real airplane... until now.

I'm helping my friend teach a light sport student who just bought a brand new Tecnam Astore.

I had seen the Tecnam booth at Oshkosh last year and was impressed with the model. It actually looks like a real airplane.  Today I flew it for the first time and was pretty much blown away by it.  It flies more like a mini Cirrus than your typical light sport.  It's an amazing little aircraft.  The sliding canopy gives a spacious feel, the center stick with a trigger PTT button gives a feeling like you're in a little fighter, the visibility is excellent and it's got plenty of room inside... even for my 6'4" self.  The seats are comfortable and there is a cavernous baggage area behind you that would easily fit a large suitcase.  Turn the key to start it like a car.  The G3X touch screen avionics are better than what you'd find in any modern IFR part 23 aircraft, way overkill for this day VFR cruiser!

Yowza... full synthetic vision, big screen MFD and a Garmin autopilot to rival anything out there.  Sweet.  This one has a turbo charged engine, the Rotax 914S turbo.  The plane easily accelerates to the LSA limit of 120 kts or maybe even a bit more.  The Tecnam flies like it's on rails, light in roll with immediate response and very sporty feeling.  She sticks where you point her and is extremely stable.  Stalls are a non-event... the nose comes down straight ahead and true with just a little bobble.  It does slow flight at 40 kts all day long no problem, although with the AOA indicator beeping at you annoyingly.

For landing she slows right down to 50-55 kts and will stop in a few hundred feet.  Carry a little more speed and she will float down the runway but still land shorter than your average 172.  Not much to do on the checklist for landing, except turn on the landing light.  All in all simple airplane to fly that is just a ton of fun.  I really love this little airplane.  Not sure I'd drop 175k on one but sure is a really an awesome little beast and the first LSA plane I've flown that seemed like more than a toy, this plane will easily outrun a 172.

Typhoon

One thing about flying corporate is that there is a much bigger level of expectation.  As a professional pilot flying turbine aircraft, it has to be really really bad to make the no-go decision.  Last weekend the remnants of a typhoon were battering the left coast, especially western Washington.  Low and behold up comes a trip to Washington.  In the time I've been doing this I really haven't had to face any serious weather.  Mostly it's just been the constant marine layer in Socal and the odd cloud layer, as well as windy and bumpy days.

I awoke to rain and a low overcast and was looking forward to a more challenging flight.  This flight was in the the KingAir, and of course the KingAir has all kinds of excess power to beast through this frontal, non-convective stuff.  Icing at 18k ?  No problem just pop on up to 260.

I spent nearly the whole flight in the clouds which was a big change from the last year or so where most flights have been in severe clear with only a few minutes in cloud.  I let about an 3/4 inch of ice accumulate on the boots, which you can see on the leading edge of the boot above.  Then I popped the boots and most of it flew off.

Here the windshield anti-ice was on but couldn't quite keep up.

The advantage of all that wind was some pretty nice tailwinds on the way up.  Here doing 345 kts!   All in all it was actually a pretty easy, no drama flight... but I was happy to be in a KingAir at 25,000 ft and not my Baron down at 12k !

CaliPilot

Recently I ran into a friend that said he liked reading my blog, why didn't I update it more?  Well because it's pretty well focussed on my trials and tribulations restoring my old piston twin, and all that is mostly water on the bridge.  Now the plane is what I call the Beechcraft G55.  It's reliable, modern and... well, basically fully restored.  He then said that he liked reading the other stuff more in fact.  The adventures in the Pilatus and what not.  So I decided maybe it's time to rename my blog and talk about other aviation topics, since the Baron is pretty much fully restored and there is not much left to do to it at this point.  So the blog has been renamed to CaliPilot!  At least until I move from California some day, haha never! It's all the same for now, just a new name and a mandate to write more broad topics about my adventures in the Baron, Citabria, Pilatus, KingAir C90, various Citation Jets and all the crazy aircraft I instruct in.  So this is now CaliPilot !

Gojo!

The other day someone recommended non-abrasive Gojo hand cleaner for cleaning turbine exhaust stains off of the KingAir and the Pilatus.  It's only about $8 ordered from Amazon.  I thought about using it to clean up those stubborn combustion heater exhaust stains off my belly that come from the old Janitrol, and yesterday I tried it out.

Some might ask why on earth did I paint my belly white?  Well, for one I like the look of the white bottom, and for another I don't really want to hide things like oil, dirt and grime that might collect on the bottom.  I like to see that stuff so I can clean it and track where it came from.  I just needed an easy way to clean it off.  I generally use MeGuiars quick detail mist to dry wash the plane, but man that soot above is stubborn stuff.

Let's try the Gojo!  I took a dry wash towel and put on a light coat.

I was totally amazed, it just wiped it right off.

Clean as a whistle!  It's supposed to be aluminum safe but afterwards I wiped it down again with a wet towel and cleaned off any residue just to be safe.

Oh yeah...  I also removed my unfeathering accumulators.  The plane is not a trainer so I never really use them.  When I practice shutdowns I can easily restart by hitting the starter.  Also, these suckers together weigh 16 pounds.  I figured I'd just save the weight.

Holding short for Virgin Galactic

Had a trip to Mojave (MHV) and tower says "Hold short for low pass traffic". When I realized what it was I had just enough time to fish out my camera. Bad ass!!  

Astute readers will note I wasn't in my Baron but the Pilatus PC12-NG that I fly for the corporation that owns it.  I've got over 100 hrs of turbine time now between flying the Pilatus and the KingAir C90.  Love them both!

Back in piston world...  I took off in my Baron the other day and shortly after takeoff I lost 800 rpm on the left prop... of course the critical engine.  Say what?  I got a big yaw moment and thought I lost the engine but looked down at the JPI and all engine params were good.  It was like someone just yanked the left prop lever back.  I flew it straight to my shop at LVK and they pulled off the left governor and sent it to the guys at Stockton Propellor.  Turns out the governor ate one of it's fly weights.   Shop said they haven't seen anything like that in a long time.  Oh well...  $2800 later I've got a freshly overhauled prop governor.  I wonder if something about the Colemill P600 STC caused it because I push close to red line on the props when generating all 300 HP.  I'm going to start pulling the props back below redline on takeoff.

While all this was going on the shop said my right accumulator was leaking oil and it would be $750 to overhaul it.  Hmm... accumulators...  I never really use them, it's not a trainer.  How much do they weigh?  about 8 lbs each.  Ditch them!  When I practice engine outs I can always restart with the starter.  Seems like an easy way to regain 16 lbs of useful load, not to mention save $750.  So now my plane is sans accumulators and I'm fine with that.

FlightStream 210

Just when I think I've got every Garmin gadget imaginable they come out with another one.  I bought a FlightStream 210 which is a little bluetooth device that physically sits on top of my GTN 750 below the glare shield and wirelessly transmits data to my iPhone and iPad.  The new transponder I bought also has bluetooth, but inexplicably Garmin doesn't allow data to be uploaded through it, only sent out.  So while I could get ADS-B data on my iPad with my new GTX345, I couldn't upload flight plans or control my XM audio.  Now I can do both.  Also the FS210 has a backup AHRS and sends that data to my iPad as well.  Pretty cool little device.  The main reason I bought it is that Dina usually sits in the back and now she can DJ the music from her phone.  Cool!

An SR22 ride at last

I've been dropping hints for years to various Cirrus drivers that I'd love to take a ride in an SR22, but none was ever forthcoming.  I did fly an old SR20 years ago, and I wasn't particularly impressed.  It seemed underpowered and a little twitchy.  This was a Gen1 plane though,  seemed to always be in the shop and I was well aware that Cirrus has made a ton of improvements to the plane.  Everyone I spoke with about the Cirrus let me know the SR22 was a different animal.  I also had some preconceived notions about the plane.  Not necessarily negative ones, I just wasn't particularly enamored with the airplane because they all seem exactly the same... completely interchangeable.   Seen one, seen them all, or so I thought.  Those notions were blown away as I finally got to fly my friend Alex Disessi's beautiful and totally custom Cirrus SR22 G3 with the Tornado Alley turbo normalizing system.

This plane has a totally custom paint job... not the standard white pill bottle of all the rest.  It's in a Nascar inspired theme with gorgeous lines.  The interior is also completely custom designed, with black leather.  It's just gorgeous and spacious to sit in, with comfortable leather seats and plenty of room for 4 passengers, the doors latch smoothly.

The avionics is the Avidyne R9 system which is very much like the fully integrated G1000 but better in many respects.  Everything is totally integrated, with an FMS style interface reminiscent of the Honeywell Apex but much easier to use.  Large screens and synthetic vision as well as a fully integrated autopilot.  Nice.

The plane was quiet, smooth and handled beautifully.  The side stick felt nice and solid and not at all twitchy.  The plane is fast and efficient.  I was very impressed.  Overall I really loved this Cirrus.