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Magnetic Compass Requirement Dropped from Private Pilot Task
By Dan Namowitz (AOPA)
The FAA has reworded a navigation task in the Private Pilot Practical Test Standards (PTS) for Airplanes (FAA-S-8081-14B) to allow applicants to train and take their flight tests in aircraft equipped with magnetic direction sensing systems other than a magnetic compass.
The action, explained in a note added May 30 to the current version of the PTS, will spare some flight-training operators thousands of dollars in added costs to install compasses in training aircraft.
The problem arose after an element of the pilotage and dead reckoning task was changed in the current version of the PTS — without explanation — specifying that a magnetic compass be used to demonstrate turns to a heading.
Light Sport Flying With In Flight USA - June 2011
Re-Tread
By Ed Downs
No, not old tires, although many of us “re-treads” appearing in this month’s sonnet do have some “spare tire” issues. The re-treads being referred to are former pilots who have decided to give flying another go. Sport Pilot has opened doors that some may have thought were closed. This writer was reminded of the “re-tread” market, just the other day, while teaching a class at Yingling Aviation, an historic Cessna dealer located in Wichita, Kansas. During our lunch break, I wandered over to the Cessna Skycatcher final assembly hangar to look at new planes on the assembly line. While looking through a viewing window and talking with one of my students, a young line attendant approached us and asked if we would like to join a retired couple (in tow by the line attendant) and go into the hangar for a closer look. Of course, we joined them. It turns out, no sales personnel were available and the line attendant was doing his best to talk about the C-162. My offer to help promote the plane (very familiar to me) was readily accepted. Joe, the retired guest, was considering reentering aviation after a 40-year hiatus, but knew nothing about Sport Pilot or LSAs. Skycatcher pricing, performance and simplicity left Joe quite impressed, especially after we discussed just what he would have to do to re-enter flying. Of primary importance was the ability to get back into flying without the need to participate in the FAA medical bureaucracy.
Cessna Skycatcher
(Photo courtesy of Cessna Aircraft)Exclusive Pilot Report
By Ed Downs
Sometimes you are asked a question that has an answer so obvious that you wonder why it was even asked. You know, kind of like, “would you like to win the lottery?” This writer got one of those questions a short time ago.
As a member of the team that developed the ASTM certification process and Sport Pilot infrastructure, this writer was very pleased to see Cessna enter the S-LSA business. Cessna is truly the 800 lb gorilla in a room full of S-LSA manufacturers and has the dealer/flight training network in place to launch Sport Pilot in a big way. The Cessna 162 Skycatcher immediately caught my attention, and thus began a two year effort to conduct interviews with Cessna staff and management for the purpose of writing an article concerning what Cessna thought about the ASTM process versus the wonders of FAR 23. Recent conversations with the ever courteous Cessna PR folks resulted in the question referenced above. “Ed,” asked Angela Baldwin, Manager of Media Relations, “would you like to meet with Kirby Ortega, Cessna’s Chief Pilot of Piston Engine Flight Operations, and undertake an evaluation flight in the Cessna Skycatcher?” This writer, waiting a cool nanosecond so as not to seem overly anxious, calmly replied, “YES!”