Aviation News Talk podcast

Max talks about what you need to know about aircraft weight and balance theory. Plus a listeners asks whether to buy a 2003 Cessna 182 with a GTN 750, or a 2004 model with the Garmin G1000. We discuss several accidents involving weight and balance issues, and how to calculate a weight and balance. Finally, we talk about how %MAC is used in turboprops and jets to calculate a center of gravity.

Max talks with Mike Busch, author of four books on general aviation piston aircraft maintenance, about essential aircraft ownership tips. Mike talks about how to protect aircraft engines from corrosion if the plane isn’t flown and about post-maintenance test flights and how they should be flown. He also relates horror stories of pilots who tried to save money by buying a cheap airplane.

Max talks about the seven different kinds of minimums used on WAAS-based GPS Approaches. These include LPV, LNAV/VNAV, LNAV, LP, LNAV+V, LP+V, and circling minimums. To measure GPS errors, the FAA has installed GPS receivers at 38 locations in North America. Error information from these sites is uplinked to two new geosynchronous satellites that retransmit it to WAAS-capable receivers.

Max talks with Julian Alarcon about best uses of a flight simulator both at home and at a flight school. We also talk about things for pilots to do while sheltering at home, including studying for a new certificate, such as the Commercial or CFI. Julian also talks about Simtech Aviation, located in New York City, and its G1000 simulator from Precision Flight Controls.

Max talks about NTSB 830 and 3 things to do if you have an accident or incident. The three things you have to do are: 1. Notify the NTSB immediately of an accident or a serious incident. 2) The operator of the aircraft is responsible for preserving all wreckage to the extent possible. 3) The operator is required to file a report about any accident, though that can be up to ten days later.

Max talks about Wind Shear, which is one of the required topics for which student pilots must receive ground instruction in order to get a Private certificate. He talks about what wind shear is, and the accident that led scientists to research wind shear and how they used radar in their research. He also talks about where wind shear is found, how to avoid it, and how to report it.

Max talks with Flying Magazine Sr. Editor Rob Mark about recent strange crashes and stupid criminals committing crimes involving planes and airports and advice for pilots becoming airline pilots. Plus commentary and tips for on the right way to fly an airplane. iPads are a new way for pilots to become distracted, and we talk about a number of crashes and near crashes involving iPads.

Max attended the final fly off for $1,000,000, the largest prize of the GoFly Prize competition, and he talks with GoFly founder and CEO Gwen Lighter and DragonAir’s Mariah Cain. Boeing sponsored the $1,000,000 prize and Pratt& Whitney sponsored the $100,000 Disrupter prize. There were three phases to the competition and 855 teams entered from 103 countries.

Max talks about how Coronavirus, COVID-19, is impacting airlines, charter flights, and flight training. Airlines are reducing schedules, grounding aircraft, and giving employees voluntary time off at reduced pay, and stepping up aircraft cleaning efforts. Oil prices have plummeted, but not enough to offset revenue decline. The charter flight industry is seeing some short term increase in demand.

Pilot examiner Jason Blair gives Max a mock Private checkride and asks him typical checkride questions. This is also a great review for your Flight Review or BFR! Max pretends to have brought a Cessna 172/G1000 to the checkride. They talk about required documents, aircraft systems, rules and regulations, and a cross country trip that Max prepared prior to the checkride.

Max talks about Wake turbulence accidents, what cause it, and how to avoid it. He also talks about a recent encounter that he had with wake turbulence while flying a Cirrus Vision Jet.

Max talks about risks associated with flying Special VFR and offers guidelines who when not to do it and about regulations for Special VFR, for pilots and controllers. He’s also talks about why Kobe Bryant’s helicopter wasn’t flying IFR when it crashed. He also talks about some recent IFR challenges flying a Cirrus Vision Jet on an arrival into Salt Lake and into Hawthorne, CA.

Max flew 75 hours in the Vision Jet in the past five weeks, and he talks about those experiences, including landing at Chicago O’Hare. He also talks about a complicated IFR departure from Brackett Field that felt like it was from the 1950s, and he argues for updating some Obstacle Departure Procedures to make them easier to fly with new modern RNAV capable glass cockpits.

Flying to Mexico in a private plane is not as hard as it seems. Brian Dear has been a pilot for two years and just over 200 hours of flying experience. Over Christmas, he spent two weeks flying around Mexico with his wife and three children in a Cessna 206. He talks about the pleasure of flying in Mexico, the preparation he did, and what it takes to cross the border and fly around in Mexico.

Max talks about several CFIT accidents, including a recent crash of a SR22 near Las Vegas. He also talks about why you might still hit terrain when getting ATC vectors during VFR flight. He also talks about relative terrain tools available in the cockpit and in EFB apps such as ForeFlight and Garmin Pilot, and how they can help keep you safe.