I got to fly a King Air from Bournemouth, England to Texas in May of 2015. I was impressed to see the amount of snow and ice that was present in the polar regions. Take a look at this video from FL240 over the southern tip of Greenland. I flew directly from Keflavik, Iceland to…
You are flying along in the Flight Levels enjoying the cool, smooth air, when all of the sudden a loud report (bang) shakes the peace, the cabin altitude increases uncontrollably, and the temperature plummets. Additionally, you find yourself breathing deeply…very deeply. What should be your response? The answer to that question is, “It depends”. Similar…
The PA-46 windshield has received lots of justifiable negative press lately. It’s super-expensive to replace ($35k+ installed) and many in the fleet have been failing more than most think they should. Most of the time the damage is slow, over time, with sagging amp draws over the years. But, there is sure-fire way to damage…
John Mariani bird-dogged this Oxygen system to me. I think it’s really good and perfect for the PA-46. I’m not a fan of the under-seat oxygen generators found in most PA-46’s, and this is a perfect replacement. I state in the video that Sporty’s has this system, but they do not as of this writing.…
Tom and I arrived for M-Class VRB 2015 earlier than needed, so we did what any other “drinking the Koolaid” aviator would do…we went to the airport to hang out and see what sort of aviation excitement we could drum up. Fortunately, we picked the right day for our adventure since Thursdays are one of…
When PA-46 piston drivers asks me about the operational costs of a turbine PA-46, I tell them the cost associated with a turbine on a comparative-trip-basis are very similar to operating a piston. But, I always include one caveat…turbines are cheap to operate as long as the pilot doesn’t do stupid things. Stupid in a…
Here’s a super idea that was presented to me by Tim (anonymous) to cheaply and accurately identify important circuit breakers in your PA-46. Certain circuit breakers need identification since they are the ones that are critical to flight. Here’s a few that I’d label in a PA-46: HYD PUMP: If you have a landing gear…
Are you one of those guys that thinks windshield heat is not an “airworthy item” on a PA-46? I’m in agreement that 99.9% of the time the windshield heat is not needed, but when that 0.01% flight happens, you want it to work! I had a recent flight which highlighted this need. I owe a…
I recently spent some time at Midwest Malibu, a premier maintenance facility in Hutchinson, KS and had a good conversation with the owner, Tony. When I get to hang around the top-knotch facilities of the PA-46 community (like Midwest Malibu), I usually go into “receive mode”, trying to learn as much as possible. He had a…
As the days become cooler and shorter, every PA-46 pilot must begin to mentally prepare for the inevitable icing potential. The most prolific icing question I receive during training events about icing is. “When would you turn it on?” The answer is…it depends on the airframe, engine type, and which icing switch begin discussed. So,…