Piper Aircraft Archives - Golf Hotel Whiskey

Aircraft like the Cub: When simple is simply better

John Zimmerman has written a great essay for the Air Facts Journal about how much there is to love about the simplicity of the Piper J-3 Cub where he began by writing:

The Cub seemed old fashioned, small, slow, drafty and hard to fly. What’s to love?

Plenty as John then wrote about how his father (also a pilot) had taken him to a grass strip before he had soloed for an introduction to “real flying.” However, it wasn’t just any grass strip as John’s father took him to Red Stewart Field in Waynesville, Ohio – an airport founded right after World War II by a barnstormer with the same name. He built the airport using a box of dynamite and a bulldozer after he quit his job at Frigidaire when the plant manager told him to stop landing his airplane in the parking lot. Later, Red bought a new Cub and his most famous trick was to throw the control stick out the window and land with just power and trim.

Ironically, flying a Cub is not much different than Red’s barnstorming trick as John mentioned the uncomfortable feeling of approaching the aircraft with empty hands (as in no flight bag, headset or charts) and the fact that its instrument panel had only four gauges. Nevertheless, the next 45 minutes were the best in John’s logbook as he learned how to hand-prop an aircraft, communicate without a fancy headset and taxi when you can’t see anything. And once he was airborne, he discovered “runways” that he never knew existed where a Cessna would never be able to safely land. In other words, flying a Cub is flying at its best.

That’s probably why the Cub remains one of the most popular and best selling light sport aircraft today and no doubt will remain so for a long time to come. So the next time you want to do some “real flying,” leave the expensive pair of headsets, the GPS device and the iPad electronic flight bag at home and take a spin up in a Cub as no doubt you will enjoy the simplicity of it all!

Oops! Wrong handle…

General Aviation News will often reprint accident reports produced by the US’s National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB), including this March 2010 report about an accident involving a Piper Twin Comanche in Baltimore (Maryland) that resulted in no injuries but substantial aircraft damage.

According to the report, the pilot had 26 hours of flight time in a Piper Twin Comanche but this flight time was gained two years before the accident and he had not flown the aircraft since then. A week before the accident, the pilot had also obtained a multi-engine rating in a different make and model. He also stated that the purpose of his flight in the Piper was to perform full-stop landings in order to familiarize himself with the aircraft.

When the pilot was on the downwind leg of the traffic pattern for his first landing, he was cleared for a touch-and-go. However and after the aircraft touched down, the pilot applied full power and then he intended to retract the wing flaps but instead he retracted the landing gear – causing it to collapse. The Piper Twin Comanche then slid to a stop on its underside which caused substantially damage to its wings.

Hence, the probable cause of the accident was ruled the pilot’s inadvertent retraction of the landing gear while performing a touch-and-go landing while a contributing factor was the pilot’s lack of recent flying experience in the aircraft. In other words, its probably a good idea to spend more time to familiarize yourself with the controls of an aircraft you have not flown in awhile – especially if the landing gear is retractable.

Misconfigured Piper Arrow has a fatal crash taking off from a short grassy runway

General Aviation News recently posted an excerpt from a June 2009 National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) about a fatal crash involving a misconfigured Piper Arrow in Scotia New York that resulted in three fatalities.

According to the accident report, a flight instructor and student pilot with a passenger in the backseat were attempting to take off from a 1,840 foot long grass runway that was also next to a river. However:

The manufacturer’s performance charts based on the weather conditions at the accident site revealed the ground run required for takeoff on a hard surface, without flaps extended, is about 1,350 feet. Takeoff from a grassy surface would require a significantly longer distance.

Moreover, instructor and the student pilot did not extend the Piper’s flaps to 25° which the Owner’s Handbook says is a requirement for takeoff from any soft surface runway.

According to eyewitness accounts, the Piper became airborne twice on the takeoff roll but ended up in the river where it sank – causing all three onboard to drown. The ensuing investigation revealed no evidence of any type of mechanical failure or a malfunction of any kind.

Hence, it was ruled that the probable cause of the fatal crash was the flight instructor’s failure to properly configure the aircraft for a short-field takeoff from a grassy runway plus his decision to not abort the takeoff.

In other words and should you be taking off from a runway such as a grassy field, be sure to read your Owner’s Handbook first to ensure that you have your aircraft properly configured.

One pilot’s farewell letter to her aircraft

Sylvia, the blogger behind the Fear of Landing blog, has written a wonderful goodbye letter to her November 666 Echo X-ray – which she sold to a Dutch pilot who was looking for a cruiser and loves Pipers. Why did she sell her beloved aircraft? Simply put, for the same reason many other pilots end up selling their aircraft or give up flying:

This past year has not been good for flying, for either of us. If I’m honest, the past two years have been pretty grim. Keeping up-to-date and flying takes a lot of time and both Cliff and I have been so busy, it’s difficult to make time for you. And then when I’ve wanted to fly, you’ve invariably been in the wrong place: sunning yourself at Málaga airport when we had a weekend free in Scotland, passing the time at North Weald when we were sitting in Málaga and so on and so forth. I’m not trying to put the blame on you, but from a logistical point of view, it’s been a bit of a nightmare.

Sylvia then added that she actually has not flown at all during 2010 and that her aircraft “started to act starved for attention, insisting on regular maintenance even though we weren’t flying – or even wanting extra maintenance because we weren’t flying.” She ended her post by saying that she will explore different options that would allow her to spend more time flying and less time worrying about paperwork and maintenance.

We wish Sylvia the best of luck and we hope that (one way or the other) she gets back into the pilot seat soon.

Piper Aircraft sold to Asia-based group

Piper Aircraft Logo Piper Aircraft, the Florida based makers of a variety of general aviation aircraft (such as the Warrior III, Arrow, Seminole, Seneca V, Matrix, Mirage and Meridian) that was founded in 1927, has reportedly been sold to Imprimis, an Asian based investment firm. Like other makers of general aviation aircraft, Piper has taken a substantial hit from the current economic downturn and has been forced to downsize its workforce and reduce the work week of remaining workers. However, Imprimis sees Asia as a long term growth market for Piper but reportedly still plans to keep its production facilities and headquarters in Florida.

Nevertheless, a blog entry on CaliforniaFlightSchool.com is already asking:

How long do you think until the new owner closes many of the under-performing product lines? Get out of Vero Beach in a hurry? Start making planes in China?

No doubt soon, if current economic conditions persists. However, at least Piper has been given a reprieve (at least for now) to continue making aircraft.