Kneeboard Notes

We paid a visit to Precision Airmotive in Arlington, WA today to check out their facility. Located on the southwest corner of the Arlington...

This year's west coast winter is challenging for non-flight-into-known-icing aircraft, even those with full IFR capabilities! Storm after storm keeps coming onshore, and flying...

When I was a young pilot growing up in Minnesota, winter never stopped us from flying - at least not for long once we'd shoveled the snow out of the way of the hangar doors.

No, I'm not being nasty - I'm just finishing up studying the material for the FAA's A&P Powerplant knowledge exam, and finding out all sorts of interesting things that the FAA wants me to know about propellers.

We're all craftspeople, right? When building airplanes, we work to tolerances of a 64th of an inch, we don't accept dents or nick, and scratches are anathema - so naturally, we all like to have workshops that are spotless and tools that are organized - and of the highest quality.

Yes, I've been wrenching on airplanes for nigh on 45 years now, so you'd think I'd know all of this stuff - but as anyone who has ever taken an FAA knowledge exam (of any kind) knows that what you learn and use in the real world has no bearing on what you will find on the test.

For the first time in many years, I find myself studying for some FAA written exams - sure, I've done license upgrades and type...

One of the things we all have to do when fight testing an airplane is to fly it across the entire CG range - from full forward to full aft. In the case of a side-by-side two-seater, this generally isn’t too hard, because the CG range is actually fairly short. With a large four-seater (plus baggage), it can take a little more creativity to safely hold enough weight to get to the aft limit.

Cockpit ergonomics are a big deal to me - and they are a slippery problem. I spent much of a career helping designers refine designs for man-machine interfaces, and part of the problem we had is that everyone had different opinions of what was "good."

The Monday after Christmas dawned clear, calm , and cold here in the foothills of the Sierra Nevada mountains of Nevada - perfect for flight testing (assuming you have thermal underwear and gloves)! It was time to get our Dream Tundra back in the air after significant belly skin upgrades.