While working on an article about the Epic E1000 in the early summer of 2020, I was introduced to another beachside airport. Epic Aircraft’s CEO, Doug King, recommended a trip to Half Moon Bay Airport (KHAF) to evaluate the single-engine turboprop (see FLYING’s August 2020 issue for the story). I gladly accepted the suggestion. It was a terrific flight, but we didn’t have much time on the ground and, since COVID restrictions were still quite strict, we couldn’t explore the area as much as I would have liked to. A return trip was on my bucket list, and it didn’t disappoint.

Getting There

Located just a hop, skip, and a jump from San Francisco Bay, Half Moon Bay airport is a tranquil escape that offers activities aplenty. As the name implies, the nontowered airport is located a few steps from an arc-shaped bay on the shores of the vast Pacific Ocean. Inside the arc is a beautiful beach covered in golden sand, a marina with a pier, and a quaint community with several restaurants and other activities.

Being right on the coast, the airport elevation of KHAF is only 66 feet msl. The paved, 5,000-by-150-foot-long runway provides plenty of room for most privately owned airplanes, whether piston-, turboprop- or jet-powered. Airplanes with a max gross weight of more than 12,500 pounds are prohibited.

While the Pacific coastline offers beauty and great recreational options, it does spin off a marine layer that can linger through late morning, particularly in the spring and summer. This cloud condition plagues VFR pilots as it can park itself low to the ground for days and sometimes weeks. KHAF offers instrument approaches to both runways 12 and 30 that will allow you to fly in on cloudy days, provided you’re IFR rated and fly an airplane equipped with an IFR-capable GPS navigation system. The RNAV RWY 12 approach allows you to descend to 300 feet agl and RNAV RWY 30, the most commonly used runway, gets you down to 400 feet agl with LPV minimums. Be aware that Runway 12 has IFR takeoff minimums of 2,600 feet and 2 sm because of the trees at the departure end. Night ops are also available. Lights can be activated with the CTAF frequency—122.8.

Photographer Jeff Berlin and I had planned to fly my Mooney M20C from Camarillo (KCMA) in southern California to KHAF on a Tuesday in early April. However, the remnants of the last atmospheric river—the weather phenomenon that presented itself several times this past winter, with really heavy rains and strong winds—prevented us from going. The cloud layer on the day we had planned to go was forecast to linger around 1,000 feet until early afternoon at both airports and the wind gusts were expected to blow around 35 knots in Half Moon Bay—not ideal for either a beach visit or a photo session. Also, my Mooney’s IFR navigation database had expired, so I was limited to VFR conditions.

Fortunately, Jeff and I were able to reschedule a couple of days later. A marine layer was still in the forecast, but it was expected to burn off both at Camarillo (mid-morning) and Half Moon Bay (early afternoon). The winds had also subsided. We decided to meet at KCMA around 10 a.m.—later than we normally would plan a flying rendezvous.

Being one of the first good VFR flying days in a while, there were tons of pilots who were as excited as we were to fly. By the time we were holding short of Runway 26 in Camarillo, there was a never-ending line of approaching airplanes, likely to enjoy brunch at the popular Waypoint Café. We were dumbfounded that the controller kept guiding airplanes to the runway even though there was a growing line ready for departure. We held for about 25 minutes before we were finally cleared for takeoff.

Once we were in the air, it was a spectacular day to fly, with smooth, clear skies, albeit with a slight haze. With all the rain that had fallen on California, the hills along the coast were covered in bright green grass, along with splashes of orange poppies, yellow mustard flowers, and other wildflowers contributing to a spectacular super bloom. Our scenic, mostly coastal flight passed by Santa Barbara, San Luis Obispo, Monterey, and Santa Cruz before cresting the hills south of the stretch of coastline that is crowned by Half Moon Bay.

Arriving VFR from the southeast, as we did, is very straightforward. Simply follow the coastline. Once you crest the mountains past Monterey Bay, you can’t miss the airport at the end of the half-moon-shaped bay. However, you need to be aware of the proximity of the San Francisco International Airport (KSFO), which is merely nine miles northeast of KHAF.

The base of San Francisco’s Class B airspace along the shoreline southeast of KHAF sits at 6,000 feet. Higher up you must be on an IFR flight plan or request a clearance through the Bravo. If you go inland at all, you need to stay below 4,000 feet and if you overfly the hills, you’d better talk to someone because, even if you stay out of Bravo, you have San Carlos’ and Palo Alto’s Class Delta to contend with. The airspace from these three airports, Oakland’s and San Jose’s Class C airspace, and several other Class D airports make up a patchwork of multi-layered blocks that would be nearly impossible, if not reckless, to navigate through without communicating with ATC. So, if you’re arriving from the east or north, a thorough navigation plan and flight following are required.

Since we had cruised from KCMA at 8,500 feet, with flight following, we began our descent early to clear the airspace. Because of our delayed departure, the clouds had completely burned off by the time we arrived at KHAF, which advertised more than 10 miles visibility, clear skies, and winds from 320 at 11 knots—almost straight down Runway 30. Flight time was under two hours with a slight detour west of the towering Sierra Madre Mountains east of Santa Barbara.

We made a low approach and circled around to set up for Runway 30. Wind shifts around the shoreline kept me on my toes on short final. I was happy that there was plenty of runway to play with and, since the crossing taxiways are sparse, I rolled out to the end of the runway.

Being There

On our visit, the main taxiway, which is offset on the right side of Runway 30, was obscured by tall grass and flowers. I had studied the airport diagram so I knew where to go. At around the halfway mark of the airport, there is a terminal building with dozens of parking spots and a self-serve fuel station for 100LL avgas. If you’re flying an airplane powered by jet fuel, you’ll have to gas up elsewhere. The fuel cost on the day we were there was $6.13 per gallon, significantly lower than the airports in the Bay. Parking is free, but if you’re staying the night, there is a $15 fee for light pistons and $25 for larger airplanes, such as twins, turboprops, and jets.

While there are parking spots by the terminal building, the better place to park is at the southeast end of the runway, where plenty of tiedowns are available as well. There are no cars to rent at KHAF. You can easily catch an Uber, but there really is no reason to, since everything you could possibly need is within walking distance.

As you go through the gates on the southeast tip of the airport, you’ll basically walk right into Princeton. This bohemian community offers quaint, coastal-themed buildings housing unique shops and restaurants. If you like seafood, Princeton is the place for you.

On my Epic visit in 2020, pandemic restrictions allowed for takeout only. We picked up some really yummy fish and chips from Barbara’s Fishtrap, which is near the pier, and brought it to the picnic tables at the airport. This time, Jeff and I stopped at Half Moon Bay Brewing Company, which has a really large outside patio overlooking the bay with portable heaters and a gas firepit. While the fish and chips looked amazing, we both opted for the fish tacos. The thick slabs of cod and scrumptious coleslaw did not disappoint.

Airplane geeks as we are, we spent our lunch watch- ing airplanes approaching Runway 30. We spotted several interesting airplanes, such as a Diamond DA42 Twinstar, a Cessna Skycatcher, a Kitfox, and a T-6.

If you’re planning on staying the night, there are sev- eral hotels in Princeton. On the high end, there’s the Oceano Hotel and Spa, or the Inn at Mavericks, which offer stunning accommodations starting at around $300 per night. For about half of that price, you can stay at the Harbor View Inn. There are several other options for both hotels and restaurants located within about half a mile of KHAF’s south parking area.

If you’re on a budget or prefer to sleep under the stars, the airport offers camping by the southeast tiedowns. There are no showers, but there is a permanent restroom. Picnic tables and firepits provide opportunities for cooking and dining. The campground is open year-round and there are no additional fees for camping, other than the overnight fee.

Take a few steps past the restaurants and hotels and you’ll find plenty of opportunities for recreational activities. At the tip of the bay, Pillar Point offers beau- tiful trails across the hills and around the point, and terrific tide pooling in the flat rock areas that mix in with the sandy beach. You can’t miss the prominent radome on top of the hill. The radar equipment along with telemetry and command antennae are part of the Pillar Point Air Force Station, which, by the way, you should avoid overflying, and are used to support space and ballistic missile launches from the Vandenberg Space Force Base.

If you want to get out on the water, Half Moon Bay Kayak Company offers a variety of kayaks and stand-up paddle boards for rent. And if you want to tour the area more quickly than on foot, you can rent bikes there, too. 

Fishing enthusiasts can throw fishing lines off the pier. We saw several people out there testing their luck with rods and lures. But if you’re looking for more of an adventure, Half Moon Bay Sportfishing and Tackle will take you out in a boat to fish for salmon, rockfish, crab, and more. 

Unfortunately, we didn’t have time to get out on the water. By the time we were ready to head back to Camarillo, there was a flock of Cessnas circling the airport. The pilots did a good job with the nontowered operations, and we were able to depart quickly. As we left the airport behind us, I already longed for a return visit to this beautiful place that is so close to a major city, but feels so far away. 

Half Moon Bay Airport Information

Location: 9 nm southwest of San Francisco International Airport

Airport Elevation: 66 feet msl

Airspace: Nontowered, Class E

Airport Hours: Open 24 hours, Attended 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.

Runway: 12-30

Lighted: Yes

Pattern Altitude: 1,066 msl (light)/1,566 msl (turbine/large)

This article first appeared in the June 2023/Issue 938 of FLYING print edition.

The post Destinations: Half Moon Bay appeared first on FLYING Magazine.

Fascination with creating the fastest airplanes has existed since the dawn of aviation. The first air races sprung up as early as 1909 and speed records quickly reached new highs, pushing aerodynamic engineers to reduce drag. As engine technology advanced, aircraft were designed around these new power plants, and over time the introduction of wind tunnels and computer software for aircraft design allowed engineers to more closely study the airflow around the surfaces of the airfoils and fuselage to reduce drag further and make airplanes even faster.

The jet age took speeds to an entirely new level as wings became smaller and engineers figured out new ways to optimize aerodynamic efficiency. For fixed wing airplanes, delta-shaped or swept-back wings produced the greatest speed. Helicopters have, in recent years, been modified to produce thrust in the horizontal plane, producing aircraft that not only are fast but can hover as well.

The best known speed record, though it has been broken since, was set in 1947 by the Bell X-1, piloted by Chuck Yeager. The X-1, powered by an XLR11 rocket motor, pushed beyond the sound barrier in 1947 after being released from a B-29 Superfortress at 23,000 feet.

Since that historic first supersonic flight, supersonic and hypersonic flight has continued to progress, going far beyond what was thought possible in the 1940s. Unmanned aircraft, such as the Hyper-X, which is nibbling on Mach 10, and the Falcon HTV-2, which has achieved controlled flight at Mach 20, display impressive speed advancements, but we’ll limit this discussion to manned aircraft.

Fastest Civilian Jet:

Citation X+

Cessna recently reclaimed the number one spot as the maker of the fastest civilian jet — the Citation X+. Inside the massive cowlings of the plane are two dual-channel, fadec-controlled Rolls-Royce AE3007C2 engines that bring the X+ up to a maximum operating speed of Mach 0.935, a hair past the Gulfstream G650’s Mach 0.925 — a speed that allowed the Savannah, Georgia-based company to steal the top spot from the Citation X for a few years.

In addition to its powerful engines, the Citation X+ gets its speed capability from the sharply swept wings and horizontal stabilizer and the aerodynamic fuselage shape, which makes use of what is known as the area rule, which speeds the flow of air over the fuselage with unintuitive shapes like you see in the X+’s distinctive belly bulge. The addition of winglets in this most updated version also helped improve the speed slightly at higher altitudes. The new higher speed of the X+ not only makes it the new speed champ for certificated, civilian airplanes but it also gives the new model a significant boost in range.

Fastest Jet:

SR-71

The SR-71 Blackbird is one of the most intimidating-looking airplanes ever conceived. It is also scary fast. During its early test flights in the 1960s, the Blackbird would set new speed records nearly every time it flew, and it ultimately topped out at Mach 3.5.

Powered by two Pratt & Whitney J58 engines (which were also designated as JT11D-20s), each producing 32,500 pounds of thrust, the SR-71 reached a sweet spot of Mach 3.2. Lockheed realized that at the targeted speeds the airplane would generate a lot of heat on the leading edges, hence the airplane was constructed using titanium alloys. With the thermal expansion and contraction, the SR-71 would leak fuel from its tanks, which carried JP-7 fuel specially made for supersonic aircraft with a higher flash point than regular jet fuel’s. The Blackbird would burn about 36,000 to 44,000 pounds of fuel per flight hour.

The SR-71 broke several city-pair records, including Los Angeles to Washington, D.C., in just over one hour and New York to London in less than two hours.

Fastest Civilian Single-Engine Piston:

Mooney Acclaim Type S

Mooney has always had a reputation as being fast, and, despite being a traditional manufacturer that produces single-engine airplanes constructed mostly of metal in a market that is filling up with composite fliers, Mooney still comes out on top. One feature that the Mooney Acclaim still has that its composite competitors don’t is retractable landing gear, which may be responsible for the 7-knot difference between its 242-knot top speed and that of the second-place competitor — Cessna’s TTx.

Both the Acclaim and its speedy fixed-gear competitor are powered by a Teledyne Continental TSIO-550 engine producing 310 horsepower.

Like many Mooneys in the extensive pedigree, the Acclaim achieved its stellar performance partially thanks to aerodynamic modifications suggested by someone with the last name LoPresti. In the case of the Acclaim, the hero was Curt LoPresti, the son of Roy, who can be credited with leading Mooney to bring the Mooney M20 design to 201 mph on a 280 horsepower engine.

Fastest Rotorcraft:

V-22 Osprey

Who could have ever imagined a few decades ago that an aircraft could travel as fast as 280 knots and still be able to take off and land vertically? The feat was achieved through a collaboration between Bell and Boeing, which created the V-22 Osprey for the United States Department of Defense.

The twin-engine tiltrotor design takes off and lands just like a helicopter, with the engines and main rotor blades in the upright position propelling the aircraft vertically. Once in the air, the engine nacelles for the Rolls-Royce AE1107C turboshaft engines can be rotated forward to produce thrust in the horizontal plane. With each engine producing 6,150 shp of thrust, the massive rotors, now technically propellers, get the V-22 going in a hurry.

Even with its respectable speed capabilities, the Osprey can carry up to 20,000 pounds of internal and 15,000 pounds of external cargo.

The V-22 first flew in 1997 after nearly a decade of flight testing on early prototypes, some of which were designed for vertical flights, others for horizontal.

Fastest Certified Helicopter:

Westland Lynx

In 1986 a modified Westland Lynx shattered the helicopter speed record of the day by 20 mph, reaching 249 mph (216 knots). That record holds strong nearly three decades later.

While several versions of the Lynx have been flown with a variety of engine configurations, the fastest one, with the tail number G-LYNX, was equipped with Rolls-Royce Gem 60 engines spinning rotor blades designed by the British Experimental Rotor Programme.

Westland, which was based in Yeovil, England, designed the helicopter in the late 1960s for multipurpose military missions such as transport, armed ­escort, reconnaissance and evacuation. A civil utility version of the Lynx called the Westland 30 was also produced; however, it was not successful and only a few dozen were delivered for such uses as VIP passenger and cargo transport and offshore missions.

AugustaWestland still manufactures a version of the speedster called the Super Lynx 300, which has a top cruise speed of only 132 knots.

Fastest Experimental Helicopter:

Airbus Helicopters X3

Eurocopter developed the beautiful X3, or X-Cubed, hybrid helicopter demonstrator that broke the previous speed record set by Sikorsky’s X2, which at best flew 253 knots. The X3 topped that in 2013, demonstrating level flight at 255 knots not long after flight testing first began in 2010.

Eurocopter, now rebranded as Airbus Helicopters, based the X3 design on its AS365 Dauphin fuselage and added short wings, each with a tractor propeller that is gear-driven by two Rolls-Royce Turbomeca RTM322 turboshaft engines housed within the fuselage. Each engine produces 2,270 horsepower and also drives the main rotor, which is the same five-blade system installed in the EC155, another fast helicopter with a never exceed speed of 175 knots.

While the X2 was the catalyst for Sikorsky’s S-97 Raider, Airbus Helicopters has not yet determined the final use for the X3 concept. However, with its stellar performance we’re likely to see a variant in the future.

Fastest Piston Twin:

Piper Aerostar Super 700

Piston twin airplanes have nearly become extinct, perhaps because you can get speeds equivalent to most piston twins’ with the cost of operation of only one engine instead of two. While it has been out of production for more than 25 years, the Piper ­Aerostar ­Super 700 was the fastest of the bunch, with full-power cruising speeds as great as 285 knots.

The Aerostar was designed by Ted Smith and built in Van Nuys, California, under the name Ted Smith Aircraft Co. The company was sold several times before Piper took over in the late 1970s. Taking care of a good-size fleet of planes — a total of about 1,000 Aerostars were produced — Aerostar Aircraft Corp. now supports and provides mods for the legacy airplanes.

The fastest of the Aerostars, the Super 700 is powered by two counter-rotating Lycoming TIO-540s producing 350 horsepower. It has an impressive climb rate of 1,875 fpm and can get as high as 30,000 feet, an altitude where the air produces little drag and pressurization comes in handy.

Fastest Airliner:

Tupolev TU-144

While Concorde may be more famous, the Tupolev TU-144 not only became the first commercial supersonic transport (SST) airplane when the Russians flew it in 1968, but also was the fastest. It was first to achieve Mach 2 flight in 1970 and ultimately flew as fast as Mach 2.29. The TU-144 had a highly swept delta wing and retractable canards to provide additional lift at lower speeds. Several engine configurations were used, the fastest of which was the Kuznetsov NK-144 engine. However, the afterburner had to be used to achieve the Mach 2.29 speeds. Later versions of the TU-144 used engines that did not produce the same speeds, but had better range.

With a limitation for supersonic airplane flights over land, imposed due to excessive noise during takeoffs and sonic booms once the airplanes go supersonic, SST service is so restrictive that no commercial service is currently available. While several companies are in the development phase of commercial supersonic aircraft, the last commercial SST flight was conducted with the Concorde more than a decade ago.

Fastest Military Airplane:

North American X-15

NASA (then the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics or NACA) and North American Aviation, along with the U.S. Air Force and Navy, got together in the 1950s to conceive and produce the fastest military jet produced to date — the X-15. The midwing, single-seat monoplane was designed to explore hypersonic (beyond Mach 5) and space flight, and it reached speeds of Mach 6.7.

Famed test pilot Scott Crossfield first flew the X-15 in 1959, and 199 flights were conducted by several test pilots before the program ceased about a decade later. Powered by a Reaction Motors XLR99 rocket engine, the X-15 not only went super fast but also achieved altitudes as high as 354,300 feet. It was launched from a B-52 bomber at approximately 45,000 feet.

The rocket engine, which ­produced 57,000 pounds of thrust and burned about 10,000 pounds of liquid oxygen and anhydrous ammonia per minute, lasted for only a couple of minutes. The remainder of the flights, which lasted from about eight to 12 minutes, were conducted in a glide. To maximize speed, the X-15 didn’t have wheels on the main landing gear. Instead the airplane was designed to land on skids and a retractable nosewheel on a dry lake bed rather than a runway.

Fastest Sailplane:

Schempp-Hirth Nimbus-4

While one could argue that the space shuttle is the fastest glider, reaching 17,500 mph upon re-entry into the atmosphere, we’ll give this title to the Schempp-Hirth Nimbus-4DM, which achieved 190 mph over a 500 km closed course in 2006. At that speed, the glider is a whole lot faster than a very long list of powered airplanes.

Built by Schempp-Hirth Flugzeugbau GmbH, a company based in Kirchheim, Germany, the Nimbus-4DM is a two-seat motorglider designed using various composite materials. Its wingspan is an impressive 87 feet, and the small fuselage between the wings contains a liquid-cooled Bombardier Rotax 535C engine producing 59 horsepower. The engine retracts to minimize drag once the glider reaches the desired altitude.

The wings have very long flaps and four separate ailerons, one of which is attached to the wingtips to minimize adverse yaw. One of many Nimbus-4 models, 4DM was certified in 1995.

Fastest Kitplane:

ViperJet MKII Executive

With its sleek lines, canopy cockpit, jet intakes in front of the wing attachments and swept airfoils, the ViperJet takes the trophy for fastest kitplane, flying at top cruise speeds of 446 knots. Brothers Scott and Dan Hanchette, who started conceiving the airplane in the mid-1980s, were influenced by the T-38 and the F-16 when designing the airplane.

The fully aerobatic two-seat jet is powered by a single General Electric J-85 engine producing 2,700 pounds of thrust. With a max gross weight of 5,500 pounds, the power-to-weight ratio of the ViperJet is outstanding, giving the airplane not only great speeds but also a climb rate as great as 12,000 fpm, impressive numbers for an airplane that can be put together in your own garage.

Fastest Turboprop:

Tupolev TU-95

Used by the Russians as a strategic bomber, missile carrier and airborne surveillance platform, the Tupolev TU-95 Bear is the fastest turboprop airplane ever built. The airplane was built in various configurations, the fastest of which flew at 575 mph.

The TU-95 has highly swept wings, with a 35-degree angle and a slight negative dihedral. Mounted on those wings are four Kuznetsov NK-12 engines, each producing 12,500 shp. The engines each spin two four-blade, contra-rotating propellers. Since the prop tips move faster than the speed of sound at maximum power, the combination of the 32 blades creates a noise footprint as impressive as the airplane’s speed.

Fastest Civilian Turboprop Twin:

Piaggio Avanti

Birthed by Italian design, the Piaggio Avanti is not only a beautiful airplane — though highly unconventional — but also the fastest turbo­prop twin to have hit the market. At 402 knots, the Avanti Evo, which is in development, beats out its turboprop competition by a long shot and instead competes with the light jet category. The Avanti’s speed is pretty much on par with Cessna’s M2, while providing more space and a lower operating cost.

Powered by dual Pratt & Whitney PT6A engines, each producing 850 horsepower, the Avanti can push up to 11 passengers through the skies. While the high speed of the Avanti has come at the cost of high noise in the past, Piaggio claims the scimitar propellers that were introduced with the Evo reduce the noise footprint of the airplane by a staggering 68 percent — a drop of about 5 dba.

Fastest Turboprop Single:

Pilatus PC-21

The single-engine certified turbo­prop market is one segment of ­aviation that could use more competition, and a few major players are vying to enter a new offering. In the civilian arena the clear winner is the TBM 900, which has a top cruise speed of 330 knots. But the top award in the category goes to Swiss single-engine turboprop maker extraordinaire, Pilatus.

However, Pilatus’ speediest turboprop is not the PC-12 but an advanced military trainer called the PC-21. With a top speed of 370 knots it blows both Embraer’s Super Tucano and Beechcraft’s Texan II out of the water. The airplane is capable of sustained low-level flight at speeds exceeding 320 knots.

As would be expected, the PC-21 uses a version of Pratt & Whitney’s stellar PT6A, in this case a 1,600 shp version, which spins a five-blade scimitar Hartzell propeller.

Fastest Reno Racer:

F8F Bearcat Rare Bear

For more than half a century, the National Championship Air Races in Reno, Nevada, has stunned its spectators with airplanes flying at close to 500 mph on a tight pylon course. A crowd favorite in Reno, Rare Bear, a Grumman F8F Bearcat, reached a staggering 528 mph in 1989, still the fastest speed of any piston-powered airplane, at a closed course in Las Vegas, New Mexico.

The F8F’s structure has been highly modified and the radial engine that powers the Bear, the type of which the team wants to keep classified, is said to produce more than 4,000 hp. While Rare Bear has lost its edge in recent years to competitors such as Strega and Voodoo, the F8F still competes at the annual air race in Reno.

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Cessna’s booth was extravagant, with massive TV screens showing video clips of Citation jets flying in front of beautiful backgrounds, highlighted by dramatic music. Then-president and CEO Jack Pelton announced three new airplanes that day, so it was a busy day for the communications team to say the least. One of the airplanes we announced was the Citation CJ4.

Cessna Citation CJ4 Gen 2 at a Glance

With seats for up to 11 people, the Citation CJ4 Gen2 is the largest 525-series jet built to date. The all-metal twinjet shares many features with its siblings, including the external size of the metal tube and Williams FJ-44 turbofan engines. “The CJ4 offers the strongest performance and payload balance yet in the CJ series, with more standard features and passenger comforts than ever before,” Pelton said. While this was the official announcement of the CJ4, Cessna had already accepted 70 orders.

In February of this year—15 years after Pelton announced the CJ4—Textron Aviation certificated[AC1]  the CJ4 Gen2. Cessna, which became a business segment of Textron in 1992, has previously used a simple “plus” for its upgrades. But Jimmy Beeson, technical marketing manager at Textron Aviation, said Gen2 is a new, standardized way to “demonstrate to our customer base that we are listening to their feedback and continue to invest in our legacy products.” And as such, the CJ4 Gen2 delivers.

525 Legacy

The Citation CJ4 Gen2 was born into a storied legacy of airplanes coming out of Cessna’s factories in Wichita and Independence, Kansas. The company’s nearly 94-year history, spearheaded by Clyde Cessna, began with decades of extreme success in the single-engine- and multiengine-piston market, building thousands of training aircraft for civilian and military pilots as well as owner-flown products.

Cessna Aircraft Co. started dabbling in jets in the mid-1950s, and its first bizjet offering was the Fanjet 500, which later became the Citation, named after a thoroughbred racehorse. It was announced in 1968 and achieved FAA certification in 1971. The airplane became an instant success—and Cessna delivered 52 Citation 500s in 1972. Following a long list of successful Citation models, Cessna’s Citation X design team won the Robert J. Collier Trophy in 1996 for developing the first business jet to hit a cruise speed of Mach 0.92.

Until 1989, all Citations were certified to be flown by two pilots. But that year, Cessna announced the CitationJet—later “CJ” for short—to provide options for owners who wanted to fly solo. It developed into a series of CJs under the same single-pilot type certificate—the coveted 525 type. Today, Textron Aviation’s 525-series models in production include the CJ3+, CJ4 Gen2 and M2—a derivative of the CJ1. The initial type-rating training takes about 16 days of ground and flight sessions. While no new type rating is required to swap from one to another, pilots need to go through approximately five days of differences training when moving between models.

Exceptional Utility

With a range that spans the country and speed that gets you there fast, the CJ4 is considered the flagship of the 525 series. Two FJ44-4A fanjets—each producing 3,621 pounds of thrust—propel the jet as high as 45,000 feet and as fast as 451 ktas. With a full-fuel payload of 1,122 pounds and a takeoff field length of 3,410 feet, it is a highly capable machine.

Using long-range cruise power, the CJ4 Gen2 can go up to 2,140 nm, according to the company. That doesn’t quite get you from Los Angeles to New York, but you can go from LA to Atlanta, from San Diego to Orlando, or from New York to Phoenix without having to stop. From Denver—where I conducted the flight test for this report—we could have reached as far south as Costa Rica and as far north as the southern tip of Alaska.

But the CJ4 Gen2 also shows great utility for shorter trips. The owner of the aircraft I flew for the flight test is president and CEO of ADS—a company that provides disaster-response services, such as temporary housing and associated facilities—and he took delivery this summer of his new CJ4 Gen2. While the owner doesn’t fly the airplane up front, he has followed the classic CJ ownership track. He started flying a CJ1 in 2017. He soon upgraded to a CJ2+ and, this year, decided to go for a brand-new CJ4 Gen2. “What happened is that we needed to go further faster,” he said.

“Our work is never planned because that’s what the word ‘disaster’ means,” he continued. After owning the CJ4 Gen2 for three months, he had put 160 hours on the airplane. A few days before our interview, he conducted five meetings in one day in five states: Florida, Virginia, Indiana, Tennessee and Texas. There are times when he gets a contract to set up a 5,000-man camp in 72 hours. “The plane is critical, or the jobs fall behind,” and that can cost the company hundreds of thousands of dollars.

It’s not just the efficiency of travel that has helped the owner realize the return on investment. “We have had Wi-Fi in the last two planes, so literally it looks like a mini office in the back of the plane,” he said. “I can be back on the computer before the plane even takes off.”

Exploring the CJ4 Gen2

On a crisp, clear fall morning, I mounted the new and improved airstairs of the CJ4 Gen2 at Centennial Airport (KAPA) in the southern part of the Denver metropolitan area. Many CJ operators carry a step stool to get to the first step of the airstair. The CJ4 Gen2 adds a step on the bottom and a handrail that folds out from the doorframe. These two additions make it really easy to step into the cabin. Sadly, it was too bright to appreciate the new lights on the stairs and the cool effect from the logo light that would have lit up the tarmac under the first step.

If you continue walking up the airstair, you’ll walk right into the side-facing seats. The airplane I flew had the optional two-seat couch. The backrests fold down, and the backside has a nonslip material and attachment points for a cargo net or straps, allowing the space to be used for additional luggage. However, the armrest between the seats protrudes above the folded backrests, so you can’t put an oversize flat item there. No need for that, however. The aft and forward cargo compartments provide 1,000 pounds between them, with 40 pounds of internal capacity found within the larger closet.

Between the entrance and cockpit is the galley, which has a newly designed countertop that pulls out to provide more space. There are several cabinets, some of which have drawers and stowaway doors that provide easy access to whatever is stored in the compartments. A standard power port in one of the cabinets allows for a regular coffee machine or Keurig/Nespresso unit. These can be replaced quickly and cheaply compared with aircraft-compliant coffee systems, which are not only expensive but can also take time to replace. A high-power port is an option, and hot tanks are standard.

While bleed air provides heat and pressurization, the air conditioning is an electrically operated vapor-cycle machine. Pilots and passengers who are used to getting cooked on the ground because of insufficient air from an underpowered APU will love plugging into a ground power unit and getting terrific airflow. It was 23 degrees Celsius while we were going through the interior details—plenty warm to turn a jet cabin into a sauna. But it was nice and cool inside.

While it wasn’t time to “go,” I headed to the lavatory. The Gen2 has two CoolView skylights that provide a pleasant and open feel in that relatively small space. The new optional vanity features stone countertops and several compartments in which to store bathroom necessities. It’s a nice setup, but the mirror above the vanity appeared somewhat warped—perhaps a function of the shape of the bulkhead. Another useful feature is a handle that folds down from the ceiling for hanging clothes. The lav itself can be serviced from an external port.

While it’s not quite a stand-up cabin for an average human like me, walking through the cabin is easy since the seats and armrests can be pushed right against the cabin walls. The completely redesigned seats are extremely comfortable and swivel to provide optimum positioning. Tray tables fold out from the side walls, and there are plenty of power ports (USB and standard) in the cabin and cockpit. Textron Aviation has its own interiors manufacturing facility in Wichita, so while the CJ4’s seats and six color schemes likely serve most customers’ wants and needs, modifications are possible.

The second row of seats slide way back, providing at least a foot of space between the knees of passengers in the club seats. The seats also recline completely flat, providing a comfortable—and welcoming—place to take a nap.

The potential for a proper nap is maximized by the new window shades, which can be operated from switches in the cabin or an app that also can adjust multiple cabin lights. The lights are dimmable, providing a pleasant ambiance. The shades and lights can also be controlled from a panel in the galley within reach of the pilots. The pleated window shades have two sections: one that provides privacy but allows light to break through and one that provides complete darkness in the cabin.

With the cockpit beckoning, I deferred the nap and headed toward the front.

Flying the CJ4 Gen2

I sat down next to Textron Aviation pilot Don Woodward. Adding to the excitement of the flight was the fact that I had demo’d Woodward in the Cessna TTx about 13 years prior when we were both working for Cessna. Woodward gave me a choice of seats. Generally, I would always prefer the left, but because I have mostly flown jets from the right seat as a first officer, I chose that position.

Garmin and Avidyne have dominated my general aviation flying, but I’ve come to love the Collins Pro Line 21 avionics suite during my past few years of airline flying. While very familiar, the Pro Line 21 version in the CJ4 Gen2 has significantly crisper LCD displays and slightly different buttonology from the model found in the jets I regularly fly.

Going from Garmin to Collins—as a pilot would do if moving up from the Mustang or other CJ models, for example—is quite a transition. The system is operated through hard buttons and menus that are not as intuitive as Garmin’s touchscreen FMS. For those who reject the transition (personally, I like learning new avionics, but it’s not for everyone), Textron Aviation offers the CJ3+. You lose one seat, about 35 knots on the top speed, approximately 125 nm of range and a few features covered in the sidebar (“What Makes the CJ4 Gen2 Different?”), but the CJ3+ is still a capable option for pilots who would rather fly behind the Garmin G3000.

The Pro Line 21 in the CJ4 Gen2 allows the pilot to obtain digital ATIS and pre-departure clearances—notable features for pilots who are used to writing down and reading back that information. Landing elevation is automatically set to schedule the pressurization system for the destination airport in a flight plan. Like most avionics suites these days, Pro Line 21 offers live traffic and weather, as well as full navigation capabilities including departure and arrival procedures. With proper weight-and-balance data, the system delivers the applicable V-speeds for departure to be entered for display on the PFD.

We were only three people on board with 3,800 pounds of fuel, so the demo can’t be considered to represent performance at max takeoff weight. In fact, for the flight, our takeoff weight was 14,000 pounds—more than 3,000 pounds below the max takeoff weight. But it was a way to check on the accuracy of Cessna’s performance app. It told us the time to climb to 40,000 feet from Denver would be 13 minutes. To the service ceiling of 45,000, it would take us 18 minutes, though we chose to stop at FL 400.

Bright blue skies prevented me from evaluating the Collins MultiScan weather-radar system (which pilots apparently love for its automatic tilt capability), the anti-ice system (which is comprised of heated engine cowls and wing leading edges), or the boots on the horizontal stabilizer. The electrically heated windshield has been standard on the CJ4 since 2010, which eliminates any condensation issues, Woodward said.

While unlatched doors or latches will generate a CAS message, the GPU port won’t raise the alarm. So, it’s critical to verify with the ground handler that the GPU is indeed disconnected before starting up. 

The FJ44-4As are fadec-controlled, making the startup almost as simple as that of a car. Just push the start and run buttons, monitor the gauges and CAS messages, and away you go. Speaking of easy, pilots will appreciate the fact that there are fewer memory items for emergency procedures compared with the CJ2 and CJ3 models, Woodward said. Technicians will be happy to know that the panel has an event marker that the pilot can push to highlight any unusual occurrences in flight to make it easier for maintenance personnel to troubleshoot.

The rudder pedals provide up to 20 degrees of turn and differential braking up to 90 degrees on the ground. It was surprisingly easy to taxi, and I pointed the CJ4 Gen2 toward Runway 17L. When cleared for takeoff, I lined up with the centerline and applied the brakes. I held them until we had achieved full power and released them slowly to prevent a big jolt. David Bodlak, our passenger who is also a Textron Aviation pilot, shot a video of the runway edge to see where we lifted off. Even though the elevation at KAPA is 5,400 feet, we lifted off the pavement at around the 2,000-foot mark. It was 23 degrees C—8 degrees above standard—so the hot-and-high performance boast that Textron Aviation gives the CJ4 Gen2 was confirmed.

At 240 knots indicated, we climbed at a steady 2,400 fpm, and going through FL 200, we were still climbing at 2,300 fpm. At FL 290, we transitioned to Mach 0.64, up to 40,000 feet. With Denver’s busy airspace, we weren’t able to make an uninterrupted climb, but we still made it to FL 400 in about 17 minutes—4 minutes above the app estimate for a straight climb.

At 40,000 feet with max cruise power, we were showing 438 ktas. At that altitude, the FMS told us we could get to either Chicago or Los Angeles in about one hour and 40 minutes—less than two hours total, including the climb. But the best speed is realized at 33,000 feet, so we descended and found a steady 451 ktas, burning a bit more than 1,400 pounds of fuel per side. Again, we were a bit on the light side, but it’s nice to be able to see the promised numbers in real life, and at ISA+2, the flight conditions were not helping the jet.

The Pro Line 21 tracked the DUNNN3 arrival beautifully. All we had to do was manage the altitudes and speeds. The speed brakes are a clean-sheet design for the Gen2. Unlike most speed brakes, which are either on or off—or have multiple stops—you can slide the lever to select the exact amount that you need. The speed brakes can be applied at any speed but need to be stowed before you reach 50 feet agl. There is an exception that allows for landings with the speed brakes on at airports with steep approaches and short runways, Woodward said.

I could tell that the airplane was designed with the pilot in mind. It’s simply a joy to hand-fly, with a balanced control feel. Coming in on final, I got an unintentional demo of the TCAS II system. We were lined up for 17L, and another airplane was approaching Runway 17R, prompting the system to tell us to climb. Because Woodward didn’t see the offending airplane, he immediately took the controls and went around. I was happy to fly another lap around the patch.

Our second attempt was clear of alerts, and once again, I lined up with 17L. The airplane felt totally stable on short final at around 115 kias, and the trailing-link gear helped me make a smooth landing. I felt no reason to stress the brakes or wheels to attempt a max performance landing, so we simply rolled down to taxiway A16 and taxied back to the FBO.

The CJ4 Gen2 still exhibits the terrific performance that the model was intended to from the start. With the latest upgrades, Textron Aviation has a lot to be proud of at the top of the CJ series.

What Makes the CJ4 Different?

With seats for up to 11 occupants, the Citation CJ4 Gen2 is definitely on the top edge of the single-pilot spectrum. And size isn’t the only thing that makes the Gen2 stand out from its 525-type brethren.

The CJ4 Gen2 has a closed-center hydraulic system, which operates at 3,000 psi versus 1,500 psi in the other CJs. This system enables the modular feature of the speed brakes and allows for the use of multiple hydraulic functions simultaneously. The open center system of the other CJs only allows for one function at a time.

The CJ4 was also the first in the 525 series with a single-point refueling system and an electrically heated windshield, enabled through the airplane’s electrical system which has two alternators.

But the main difference is in the wing. All of the other CJs have straight wings of various lengths based on size, but the CJ4 Gen2’s has a 12.5-degree sweep. In fact, the wing design is closer to that of the Citation Sovereign. Boundary-layer energizers at the leading edges help maintain laminar flow over the wing, and two stall strips at the wing root help reduce the stall speed by causing the root of the wing stall first.

Like the Sovereign, the CJ4 Gen2 has three speed-brake panels on each side. The design team also incorporated other features from the Citation Sovereign’s wing that allow for slower approach speeds. So, even though the CJ4 Gen2 is a bigger, heavier airplane, the VREF speeds are comparable to or slower than the other CJs.

The post We Fly: Cessna Citation CJ4 Gen 2 appeared first on FLYING Magazine.

The roots of Pilatus Business Aircraft, also known as PilBAL, sprouted with the help of Chris Finnoff, alongtime turboprop sales guru who founded Turbo West Aviation, and sold various types of aircraft before turning his focus on the Pilatus PC-12. The first PC-12 was brought to the U.S. in 1994—the same year it achieved both Swiss and FAA certification—and the Broomfield facility opened in 1996 as a parts and distribution source for North American dealers.

By 1997, PilBAL started interior installations, and in 2001, avionics options were installed in Broomfield.The capability allowed customers to make their final avionics selections later in the purchasing process, and, in those days, there was a wide variety of choices through field approvals.

When I first stepped foot in PilBAL’s facilities in 2017, the administrative offices were located in the airport terminal, while the avionics, parts inventory, flight operations, and interior fabrication and installation were spread across 14 hangars. Pilatus Business Aircraft clearly needed a new home. While the company considered other cities, the management settled on a piece of land across the runway, and the new facility opened its doors in 2018.

“A lot of us felt like fish out of water for a while having such a nice facility to work in,” said Mike Rector,vice president of production. “I worked on about six iterations of this building over a period of 15 to 16 years before we finally got the board convinced to build it herein this final configuration.”

When the PC-12 was first introduced, Pilatus expected a total production run of about 300 units. Finnoff’s vision and the continuous expansion in Broomfield have certainly contributed to Pilatus’ success in business aviation. The company will soon celebrate its 2,000th PC-12 and 200th PC-24 delivery.

The Main Event

Stepping through the entrance of the 118,000-square-foot main building, you’ll find offices for marketing, customer support, technical support, warranty administration, parts sales, engineering, and quality management. The office areas have a clean European feel, with a dominance of light wood and aluminum materials. Most exterior walls have large windows, bringing in natural light and providing stellar views of the rugged mountains to the west and the Colorado plains to the east. Around the open office spaces are several tall tables where impromptu meetings often lead to good ideas and solutions to problems.

While the main aircraft production is in Stans, Switzerland, all airplanes for North and South American customers are completed in Broomfield. The airplanes are ferried with bare cabins, so a lot of ballast is needed to keep them within their weight and balance envelopes. It’s a great opportunity for transporting equipment between the two headquarters, but other ballast is often used, as I’ll learn later in our visit.

Once in the U.S., the final avionics configuration is completed, with a lot of options for processing cards, software loads, entertainment and communications systems, and hardware. The airplanes then move on to the paint facility before the interior is installed.

An outside vendor produces seat frames and foam. Seat coverings for the worldwide fleet of PC-24s are completed at the Broomfield facility, while those of the PC-12 are outsourced. PC-12 and PC-24 customers have six design lines to choose from, with a mixture of neutral earth tones. Customers can choose a scheme, mix and match, or put their own stamp on the interior design, which can extend a project several months as materials have to meet regulatory requirements, said Marie Marschner, the director of sales administration, who is also a flight instructor. Also, the lines on the seats and sidewalls must remain consistent.

There are other restrictions as well. For example, the lower sidewalls in the cabin in the PC-12 can be covered with leather; however, the PC-24’s can’t. “The cows aren’t big enough,” said Marschner. Attention to detail with the leather materials is extremely high. Every square inch of a hide is carefully examined before putting it into the Zund cutting machine—another Swiss piece of perfection that maximizes the use of each hide. Then the pieces are meticulously fitted around the seats.

Despite the diligence that goes into each stage of the process, several inspections are conducted before the customer is brought in for the official delivery, accounting for why most airplanes have zero squawks.

Continuing the European theme, there is a large focus on sustainability. Tom Aniello, vice president of marketing at Pilatus Business Aircraft, said there are plans to power the buildings completely with solar. The cabinetry is transported from a company in Austria in large wooden containers specifically designed to minimize damage. Those containers are shipped back and reused. Leftover aluminum from production in Stans is used as ballast and then sold to recycling companies. “It pays for our company holiday party,” said Aniello.

Paint Facility

The newest phase of PilBAL is the paint hangar, which opened last year, with the first painted airplane rolling out at the end of October. PilBAL previously outsourced the paint projects to two shops. While the company was happy with the finished product, the outsourcing required additional project managers and pilots to fly the airplanes back and forth. So, bringing the process in house made sense.

The base coat is painted on prior to the transatlantic ferry flight. It is generally white, but it doesn’t have to be. Stripping down and repainting the base can take five to six weeks, said Marschner, so it’s best if the preferred base color is applied in Switzerland.

The final design is completed using CAD software. The 3D design is applied to each side of the airplane with a laser system, ensuring perfect symmetry. Paint technicians tape each line before applying the paint. “Even with the laser, there is still a fair amount of artistry that comes into bending tape,” said Marschner. For example, lines might have to be modified where there are interruptions in the fuselage, such as air vents.

The paint that covers the walls in the three paint bays can be peeled off as dirt is introduced. Every six months, the paint on the walls is replaced to ensure total cleanliness. Filtration systems also keep dust out. A mixing room will soon be available for mixing colors on-site rather than buying each particular color.

Just as with the interior completion, attention to detail is high. Any blemishes are sanded down and fixed. “We’ve had a very high expectation, setting the bar for what Pilatus aircraft look like when they come out of the paint shop,” Marschner said. “It’s a completely different standard than some of our competitors. So, with the new paint shop, we’re trying to achieve close to perfection with a very new shop, a new team, and new procedures. They’re doing a really outstanding job.”

This article was originally published in the March 2023 Issue 935 of  FLYING.

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Owners of the recently certified Daher TBM 930 can now benefit from simulator training after Simcom achieved FAA approval for a high-fidelity flight training device (FTD) for the single-engine turboprop. While it is not a full level-D simulator, the Frasca FTD provides a highly realistic flight training environment and qualifies for insurance requirements.

Daher provided a TBM 930 cockpit for the sim with a fully functional Garmin G3000 touchscreen avionics suite, which is incorporated with a 220-degree external field of view provided by RSI Visual Systems’ XT4 Image Generation display system, the same system used in level-D simulators. The TBM 930 training program will begin in June at Simcom’s Lee Vista Training Center in Orlando, Florida.

The TBM 930 and 910, which is equipped with Garmin’s G1000 suite, are the fastest certified single-engine turboprop airplane models available on the market today with a top cruise speed of 330 knots.

“Lifelike training is very important for high-performance aircraft, and we are pleased that the continued partnership with Simcom will make TBM 930 transition training available for our customers,” said Nicolas Chabbert, senior vice president of the Daher Airplane Business Unit.

Simcom’s facility in Orlando also offers training for the TBM 700, 850 and 900 series of airplanes and the company has been the exclusive training provider for TBM-series airplanes since 1999. In addition, Simcom offers training for a long list of other aircraft as well as other types of training, such as upset recovery and prevention, RVSM, high altitude, instrument refresher courses and more.

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I departed Fond du Lac, Wisconsin (KFLD), in the early morning, taking a quick break in Huron, South Dakota (KHON), for lunch. There were some scattered clouds over the Great Plains, so I chose to fly IFR and shoot the ILS to Runway 12. However, I was able to depart KHON VFR and stay clear of the localized thunderstorms to the west. The total flight time was nearly eight hours, so I was thankful for the extended daylight of summer.

Approaching Jackson, Wyoming, I flew through a valley near Dubois, just east of Jackson. But I had to fly at 10,500 feet to clear the lower ridges of the Gros Ventre Range. As the sun started to descend behind the Teton Range, the scattered thunderstorms sent flashes of lightning both south and north of my route, providing a spectacular pathway toward the rugged ridges. I got a taste of the area’s beauty before landing on Runway 19.

I was guided to park at the local FBO at the time. From my parking spot, I had to walk along the full length of the building—on the runway side—to access its entrance. As I walked, a business jet taxied in. Revving the engines, the pilot swung the airplane around, blasting me hard enough to blow the sunglasses right off my head.

Fast forward 20 years, and the airport has undergone a massive construction project focused squarely on commercial and bizjet traffic. The thriving GA community was forced out a few years ago—and the last time I flew into KJAC was in an Embraer E175.

Things To Do

The town of Jackson, situated about 10 miles south of the airport, is a quaint place—the best of the Wild West—with a Main street straight out of a western movie. The Snow King Resort, located in Jackson properand within walking distance of several hotels, was the first ski resort to open in Wyoming in 1939. If you don’t want to ski or snowboard, you can blow by everyone on the Cowboy Coaster track, which operates year-round.

If you’re looking for more extreme skiing, Jackson Hole Mountain Resort is the place to be. It features a whopping 4,139 feet of vertical terrain with more than13 ski lifts—and more than 130 trails. This resort is located in Teton Village. While it’s just across the river from the airport, you have to drive through Jackson to get there—about a 35-minute drive. In addition to downhill skiing, there are plenty of other activities, such as cross-country skiing, ice skating, snowshoeing, paragliding, and much more.

Summer activities in the area include hiking, mountain biking, rafting, kayaking, golf, or whatever else your outdoorsy heart desires. The Snake River, which runs through the valley, provides excellent fly fishing. If you’d rather catch your fish up in the mountains, plenty of creeks offer beautiful trout in the backcountry.

The Airport

The Jackson Hole Airport was built in the 1930s. Located within Grand Teton National Park, it is the only commercial airport in the country found within a national park, according to the airport’s website.

Commercial air traffic started as early as 1941 with a log cabin-like terminal to make it blend with the mountain vistas. Through the years, the airport has grown significantly to support the increased number of people who want to visit or live near the northern Rocky Mountains. The airport has undergone a massive construction project over the past few years. There is now a large, modern terminal with a restaurant, a convenience store, a gift shop, and a long list of car rental options. An additional restaurant is in the works. There is even a kiosk where you can rent bear spray in the summer.

As far as operational services, the airport added deicing pads with a glycol recovery system in 2012. The same year, a runway centerline lighting system was added, providing additional situational awareness for pilots. A paved safety area was also added at the departure end of Runway 19. In the summer of 2022, the runway was closed for about two and a half months for a complete reconstruction.

The new airport terminal has kept some of the western charm, with mostly wood construction and a large archway entirely made from elk antlers. The elk shed their antlers each spring, so there are plenty to go around, and similar antler arches are found in Jackson’s Town Square. Although the area gets a significant amount of snow in the winter, the airport is open year-round from 7 a.m. to 9:30 p.m. While not mandatory, pilots are asked only to take off or land for emergency purposes during the voluntary curfew from 9:30 p.m. to 7 a.m.

Sadly, airport improvements have been focused on jet traffic. Light GA aircraft owners, some of whom had hangars at KJAC for years, were forced out. One of them was Greg Herrick, Jackson resident and avid aviator, who had a T-hangar there from 1995 until March 2017.

“They kicked all the GA people out basically,” Herrick said. The hangar he used was leased by the FBO but owned by the airport. The airport authority called him one day to say that the T-hangars were being torn down and replaced by jet hangars. “And they said, ‘We don’t care where you go, but you can’t stay here.’” They offered Herrick a space at the back of the new large hangar once it was built, but he didn’t want his Aviat Husky hidden behind a bunch of jets.

Getting There

Flying into KJAC directly from the west is futile because of the towering Tetons, the peaks of which reach nearly 14,000 feet. Essentially, the granite faces climb up to 7,000 feet straight up from the valley floor less than 10 nm from the airport. You’re best off approaching from the north or south through “the hole”—the valley that inspired the name Jackson Hole, along with a trapper named David “Davey” Jackson who explored the area in the late 1820s. You can enter “The Hole” by scooting through scenic State Highway 22, where the Teton pass sits at nearly 8,500 feet. North of the highest peaks of the Teton Range, the terrain lies between 8,000 and 10,000 feet, and there are some lakes you can follow including Jackson Lake, which is about 12 miles north of the airport and is a good landmark for lining up with Runway 19, which the winds and terrain generally favor.

There are several noise abatement procedures on the KJAC website that pilots should review. Pilots flying VFR are requested not to overfly Grand Teton National Park and flight is prohibited below 3,000 feet agl above the park. Pilots are also encouraged to fly east of the Snake River and Highway 89. Hence, you would fly a left downwind for Runway 19 and a right downwind for Runway 1. For VFR departures on 19, a 45-degree left turn is recommended and for 1, a right turn as soon as practical to avoid the national park and residential areas.

For airplanes coming in IFR, the preferred arrival is via the Dunoir (DNW) VOR, from which a pilot can initiate several approaches over a lower-elevation valley. Because of the airport’s special conditions, the regional airline I fly for publishes a complete briefing guide that needs to be reviewed before flying in there.

At 6,300 feet, the runway is quite short for some jets flying in. Slippery runway conditions in the winter and density altitude in the summer can significantly extend takeoff and landing distances and affect climb performance. Thorough preflight planning and performance calculations are crucial, and it’s worth triple-checking weight and balance, winds, pressure, and runway conditions.

With winds coming predominantly from the west, the Grand Tetons can produce dramatic rotors that lead to challenges on the approach. Crosswinds, moderate to severe turbulence, and wind shear are not unusual. When flying in the mountains, always plan to bring enough fuel for a suitable diversion.

While many of the GA residents have been forced out, you can fly in and park at the Jackson Hole Aviation FBO as a visitor. There is a handling fee of $20 and a $15 overnight fee for light GA aircraft. Check with the FBO for additional fees depending on your type. There are limited parking spaces at Jackson Hole Aviation, so it’s recommended to call early to book a spot. Because of the lack of space, the website recommends dropping passengers off and departing the airport, which for me conjures up the jet blowing my glasses off in 2004. So, unless you choose to fly in on a commercial airline, you might want to find other options—and, whether you’re flying a bizjet or a piston airplane, there are some good ones nearby—and we give you a few of them below.

Alternate Grand Teton National Park Airports

There are some terrific alternate airports to Jackson Hole, should you need one, and you might want to choose one of them as your gateway to the Tetons.

For Herrick and his friends who left KJAC, “The GA airport of choice is Driggs and that’s turning into a great place.” The Driggs-Reed Memorial Airport (KDIJ) in Idaho is located only 18 nm west of KJAC. Driggs is a GA heaven with a campground next to the 7,300-foot runway, courtesy of the Recreational Aviation Foundation (RAF). The airport elevation is 6,300 feet msl and is nontowered; it offers full services and is open year-round, however. “Usually after big storms we have the runway and taxiway open in a few hours,” said Don Moseley, chairman of the Driggs-Reed Airport Board. “We do have flights usually every day in the winter.”

From Driggs, you can access the town of Jackson, about a 50-minute drive on Highway 22. But if your goal is to get out in the wilderness, there are lots of spectacular places to explore nearby. 

If you’re flying a jet airplane and need a longer runway at lower elevation, your best bet is Idaho Falls, Idaho (KIDA). At a straight-line distance of 58 nm from KJAC, KIDA sits at 4,744 feet msl. It’s located west of the mountain range, and serves as a terrific alternate to Jackson when the weather gets intense. There are two runways,with the longest one being just over 9,000 feet.

Alpine, Wyoming, located a straight distance of 29 nm from Jackson Hole Airport, is another great option, particularly if you’re looking for a more permanent place for yourself and your airplane. The airport is a fly-in community with a 5,637-foot runway and beautiful hangar homes.

If you want to add a visit to the Aviat Aircraft factory in Afton,Wyoming, to your adventure, this airport is only 55 nm south of KJAC and a one-hour, 25-minute drive from Jackson. The airport offers a 7,025-foot runway and full services. Call ahead to arrange any visit with Aviat directly.

This article was originally published in the February 2023 Issue 934 of FLYING.

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Since the day Kenny G wowed a large gathering of ­people with his mastery of the soprano sax at the certification ceremony at the factory in December 2016, the HondaJet has seen great success, becoming the most delivered airplane in its class in 2018, according to numbers from the General Aviation Manufacturers Association. It also became one of FLYING‘s Editors’ Choice Award winners for 2016 and went on to win the inaugural FLYING Innovation Award, which then-Editor-in-Chief Stephen Pope handed over at EAA’s AirVenture in Oshkosh, Wisconsin, in 2017.

HondaJet Elite at a Glance

With a quest for continuous improvement, Honda Aircraft set out almost immediately to tweak the design to make its customers ever happier with their airplanes. The changes started with serial number 11, which ended up ­serving as the test platform for a new model—the HondaJet Elite. The first true Elite is serial number 126, and the ­airplanes that came before can be upgraded with what has been named the Advanced Performance Modification Group, APMG for short, which adds all the key Elite changes for $250,000. Before the end of 2018, Honda Aircraft delivered the first HondaJet Elite to a customer in Japan. The Japan Civil Aviation Bureau approved the certification on December 7, and it has also been signed off by authorities in a long list of other countries, including our FAA.

Reaching this level of success was neither easy nor quick. The first trace of the HondaJet emerged in the early 1990s, when Honda Aircraft’s president and CEO, Michimasa Fujino, started drawing up the design. The road from that day to the cold ­winter evening in December 2016 when he received the ­certification documents from the FAA required enough dedication that Fujino has referred to the airplane as his third daughter.

The HondaJet is easily recognizable for its over-the-wing mounting of two GE Honda Aero Engines’ HF120s. Fujino claimed that one of the benefits of the unusual design is a quieter cabin. As someone who has flown the airplane a few times now, I can attest that the claim is no hogwash. On the ground, you can’t hear the engines at all up front even ­without a headset on, and in the air there’s just a quiet buzz.

The general dimensions of the HondaJet Elite are ­identical to the original’s, with the exception of the tail. The ­horizontal section has been stretched, resulting in reduced rotation forces that are easier to control, Johansson says. This allows for rotation at slower speeds, which in turn makes the airplane capable of taking off from runways 500 feet shorter than before, bringing the shortest takeoff distance to 3,491 feet.

With only one flight in the airplane after more than two years, it was hard for me to really feel the differences. However, while in Greensboro I had a chance to go through FlightSafety’s recurrent course. Unfortunately, the simulator had not been updated to Elite status, so I couldn’t experience the differences. I did, however, have a chance to talk to experienced HondaJet operators about their experiences.

One pilot who had just flown an original HondaJet from Europe to replace it with an Elite version walked into the classroom wide-eyed with excitement after testing out the new version for the first time. He was particularly excited about the changes that have been made to the brakes. With the original system, the hydraulics would grab the brakes, making it challenging to control the airplane on the ground. But with a few tweaks, the brakes are now smoother, and the British pilot felt they were more effective too. However, Johansson says the modification had no effect on braking power.

Mark Leavitt, who took delivery of the very first customer airplane, didn’t experience a dramatic difference when his system was upgraded. “Some ­people have come out and said it’s remarkably different,” Leavitt says. “Our brakes were a real problem when we first got the airplane, but then they balanced them so well that I wonder if ours were so well balanced that the change was not as dramatic as it would have been for others.”

HondaJet Elite versions are ­easily ­distinguished from the original airplanes. While Honda Aircraft only offered base colors—green, yellow, blue, red and silver—the new models come in Ruby Red, Ice Blue and Monarch Orange.

When digging beneath the ­surface, other differences can be observed even before the preflight inspection. A gross-weight increase, along with some weight reductions, have resulted in a total increase in the useful load of 226 pounds. Most weights for the airplane (max ramp, max takeoff, max landing, max zero-fuel weight, for example) have been increased by 100 pounds. The total baggage capacity has also increased by 100 pounds. The aft baggage compartment is still limited to 400 pounds, so all the extra weight must be added to the nose compartment, which is a good thing because the space between the engine and aft ­compartment is not huge, so it’s easier to load things up front. However, really bulky items won’t fit. Adding more weight up front also helps keep the airplane inside the CG envelope, which could be an issue with too much gear in the back.

During our walkaround, I noticed that the airplane is aerodynamically a lot cleaner than I remembered. While pilots were previously forced to count dozens of vortex generators, T-strips and triangles on the bottom of the horizontal stabilizer, winglets and upper surfaces of the wings, most of these are now gone. One of the stall fences on each wing was also eliminated. The cleaner surfaces reduced drag and resulted in a slight range increase.

However, the bulk of the range increase is due to the increased fuel capacity. The capacity was upped by more than 100 pounds by adding a tank in the fuselage, stretching the legs of the jet by more than 200 nm to 1,437 nm. There is no additional work for the pilot to worry about as far as fuel management goes.

Some ramp workers have not been thrilled with the HondaJet. While there is only one fuel port to fill the tanks, which makes it quick and efficient to fill the ­airplane, there was a tendency for an air bubble to form, causing fuel to rush out of the port onto the person servicing the airplane. Ramp workers will be happy to know that Honda Aircraft has added a switch-light button that annunciates “fuel slowly” when the tank is near capacity to prevent a jet-A shower. The fuel port was also moved higher up on the ­fuselage due to the additional tank.

The flight-plan display on the MFD shows the ­destination including the amount of fuel that will remain when you arrive, based on conditions within the system and entered figures. We decided to see if we could get to Denver. The FOD feature—not foreign object debris, but Fuel Over Destination—in the G3000 has been modified to take entered data into consideration as well as current conditions. This is extremely useful since you can play around with values at different altitudes. You also have the ability to add a standby flight plan as an initial planning tool or to check different scenarios in flight if you need to divert. Another fabulous change is that the flight plan doesn’t get purged when the master switch is shut off.

Our Denver plan proved slightly overambitious. With our conditions, we saw that we would have needed full tanks and a decent tailwind to make the trip. Regardless, a ­cross-country trip with one stop is certainly possible in the HondaJet Elite on most days. A two-leg coast-to-coast trip would have been more difficult with the original HondaJet.

Pushing the thrust levers forward, the GE Honda engines spooled up to give us more than 4,000 pounds of thrust. I felt a noticeable push in the backside and saw a consistent climb rate of well over 3,000 fpm through 28,000 feet. We climbed all the way up to the service ceiling—FL 430—in about 23 minutes, not including a forced level off. While the HondaJet gets the best range at its 43,000-foot ­service ceiling, the best speed can be found at around 31,000 feet.

Though our flight was only a bit more than an hour, I had reason to visit the lavatory in flight. I was happy to see that the Elite version kept the skylights in the bathroom. The lav now also has as an option for a belted seat. To get this option, the cabin had to be configured with galley rather than the ­side-facing seat initially, but now owners can choose to add both belted seat options.

While most Elite upgrades are pretty well-hidden, others are quite evident. The cabin got not only a face-lift but also an improved sound system. While Stefan and I were playing with the toys in the cockpit, Jessica Ketner, Honda’s ­corporate communications lead, and photographer Chris Carter rocked out in the back. It’s no wonder I thought the system was named after the infamous rocker Jon Bon Jovi. It is actually designed by the Bongiovi Acoustics Lab. A number of powerful transducers are incorporated into the sidewalls of the cabin, creating a smooth, sophisticated look.

Like many electronics these days, the sound system can be managed through an app that also gives passengers the ability to darken the cabin through electronically dimmable windows, and to change the lights and temperature. You can manage SiriusXM channels on the tablet too.

Passengers will also enjoy new seats with dual-toned leather. New storage compartments and coat hooks come standard. I have only experienced the cabin in cruise, and I find it very quiet; however, some passengers were bothered by a high-pitched sound during the climb phase. This has been addressed by adding an acoustic engine inlet liner.

USB power outlets, something that customers have come to expect during all forms of traveling, have become standard both in the cockpit and the cabin so that pilots and passengers can satisfy their addictions to screens. Previously only the pilot had power, and only through a standard power outlet.

Satellite connectivity is available through Iridium and Gogo Business Aviation’s Gogo Biz, providing internet service, the ability to make phone calls, and send and receive text messages within the Continental U.S. and some portions of Canada and Alaska. These services require additional equipment and a subscription plan.

It’s not just the passengers who will experience more tech while flying the Elite-upgraded HondaJet. Several improvements have been made to the Garmin G3000 flight deck, in addition to those already mentioned. Just like the new NXi version of G1000, the graphics processor is crisper and a lot quicker than its previous version. For preflight purposes, the weight-and-balance page now includes a graph that gives a quick indication of whether the airplane will be within the safe CG envelope. It also projects a CG curve for the entire flight, so you can see whether the weight and balance will remain inside the envelope for landing. The weight changes with the Elite also expanded the CG envelope by a full 1.5 percent MAC, and the ability to put an extra 100 pounds up front has made it easier to stay in the envelope too, Johansson says.

There are a host of standard features for the G3000 suite that were not even optional in the original HondaJet, such as plain-language TAFs and metars; takeoff- and landing-distance management; VNAV during the climb, cruise and descent; CCD VNAV on the vertical situation display; visual approaches; ADS-B In and the enhanced HSI map that Garmin users have grown to love.

Unlike most systems, ADS-B In in the HondaJet Elite does not provide subscription-free weather. It only provides the additional benefits of trend vectors to the traffic targets. For the G3000, weather will still have to come from SiriusXM.

However, you get the full benefits of ADS-B In on the iPad. Garmin’s Flightstream 510 enables wireless communication between the panel- mounted screens and an iPad through Garmin’s Pilot app. ADS-B traffic targets and weather can be shown on the moving map, and flight planning can be done on the iPad app and streamed directly into the panel-mounted ­system along with database updates.

Part of my HondaJet type rating ­training included learning the painstaking process of determining the V speeds for takeoff and landing by using paper booklets. Elite streamlines the process by calculating the takeoff-and-landing-data numbers for you, including distances and climb gradients, based on ­database ­information and pilot inputs on the touchscreen controllers.

During the descent, Johansson and I played around with the edge of the envelope. Stalls are a nonevent in the HondaJet. But what’s new with the Elite version is an angle of attack indicator that pops up beneath the speed tape of the PFD if the airplane gets near a stalled condition, serving as a reminder to reduce the angle of attack. The approach to stall, where the stick shaker activates, is indicated by a red-and-white barber pole, and the stall pusher activates at the red line.

Pilots who prefer to have the AOA gauge on all the time can select the feature in the PFD settings on the bottom of the PFD. Additionally, at the top of the PFD, there is a new icon that looks like a comb that has been bent at an angle. It is called the pitch-limit indicator, and it shows the pitch angle for which the stall shaker will engage in the current configuration. Johansson says it is also helpful to use as a guide for the pitch attitude in case you get into wind shear.

Another helpful new feature is the automatic speed-bug feature. The speed bug is at the top of the speed tape and can be manually set as well. The auto-speed bugs are driven by the speed schedule in the performance section, including the climb, cruise and descent schedule, waypoint speed constraints, and aircraft configuration. There is an aural alert when the speed target changes, unless it is a direct result of a pilot action, such as putting the gear or flaps down.

A. An AOA gauge will pop up at the bottom of the speed tape when the airplane starts getting too slow. B. The weight-and-balance page has been revamped to include a CG graph that shows the CG for the entire flight. All you have to do is to fill out the weights for each station. C. Rather than determine V speeds from paper documents, the system calculates them for you based on data entered in the touchscreen controllers. D. Like all of Garmin’s ­latest flight decks, the HondaJet Elite’s updated G3000 system has crisper screens and faster processors. E. Garmin’s Flight Stream 510 can be added to connect the system with an iPad, ­allowing for flight-plan transfers, ­wireless database updates and more.

Because there are no autothrottles in the HondaJet, there is a possibility of under-speeding the airplane if you forget to apply power when leveling off during a descent. The software in the Elite eliminates the chances of a stall by announcing an audible “airspeed” alert and showing a yellow “MINSPD” ­caution in the speed-bug box and nudges the nose down to a safer speed. This Under-Speed Protection mode activates at the pitch limit indicator and only if the flight director or autopilot is engaged; USP is an optional feature.

Another feature that reduces the chances of loss of control is CCD VNAV, which calculates a smooth path for climbs and descents that require multiple level offs. Rather than making stepdowns during a descent, the G3000 calculates a smooth path that the automatic flight control system can follow, taking all altitude constraints into consideration. This can be particularly useful in busy environments where STARs and approaches can command multiple stepdowns and altitude restrictions.

There is also a new visual-approach feature, which provides vertical and horizontal guidance. The visual approaches behave identically to an RNAV instrument approach as far as guidance on the PFD and MFD, and they will couple to the AFCS.

I also had a chance to test out the Electronic Stability and Protection system, which automatically nudges the nose down without the AFCS system engaged when the airplane gets slow and rolls the wings back toward level when exceeding 45 degrees. Two solid-white lines, which are normally at the 45-degree line, move to the 30-degree mark when the system engages and roll mode disengages automatically below 30 degrees of bank.

The roll mode can be disengaged by pushing and holding the red autopilot/trim disconnect button and, while it took a little force, I was able to overpower it without disabling it—which is the way the system is intended to work. Unless disengaged, the roll force required to remain in a steep bank get stronger the steeper the bank gets.

The HondaJet Elite is a speedy airplane with a clean ­airframe, and the speed brake comes in very handy during descents. However, it remains an option. If you can’t quite afford to take all of the options you desire, this is not one you should skimp out on.

The last new optional feature in the G3000 that I had a chance to check out in the airplane is the coupled takeoff/go-around feature. This means that I no longer had to hand-fly the airplane during our simulated missed approach. Instead, I pushed the TOGA button, and the autopilot ­automatically pitched for the flight director. All I had to do was to push the throttles forward, come around the pattern and bring the airplane back to land, easy as can be.

The post We Fly: HondaJet Elite appeared first on FLYING Magazine.

The flames of the Woolsey Fire flared up in the area of Simi Valley and sped all the way down to the beaches of Point Dume and Malibu — a distance as an airplane flies of about 20 miles. I’m sure the last thing the owners of the multimillion-dollar homes along the beaches expected was for their houses to burn as a result of a wildfire.

The cloud of smoke and debris above the Santa Monica mountains on Friday morning looked like a massive Florida thunderstorm. Being evacuated from my home, I watched from the streets of San Fernando Valley as the brave firefighters from CalFire pointed their airplanes and helicopters toward the hills to attack the flames from the air. Drop by drop, they worked to minimize the devastation and make the work for the ground teams easier.

Organized firefighting efforts have existed since the days of ancient Rome, but aerial firefighting is, naturally, a more recent phenomenon.

Like most new endeavors, aerial firefighting had modest beginnings. According to the U.S. Centennial of Flight Commission, water or fire retardant would be dumped out of beer kegs or sprayed with common garden hoses carried in single-engine piston airplanes. In the early 1950s, military biplanes were modified to serve as air tankers.

Today, many firefighting aircraft are helicopters and older twin-engine airplanes that are expensive to operate and maintain and, in some cases, have long turnaround times. During the Woolsey Fire, I saw massive DC-10 air tankers, which can release an astounding 12,000 gallons in only eight seconds; smaller twin-turbine North American-Rockwell OV-10As; and Erickson Aircranes—helicopters that look like huge, otherworldly creatures sucking up water from nearby lakes and waterways to drop on the fire.

With only one engine to maintain and feed, and the ability to land on shorter strips, Single-Engine Air Tankers (SEAT) can serve a great purpose for aerial firefighting. The Antonov A-2 was an early SEAT option, first used as such in the 1950s.

In the early 1990s, Air Tractor introduced the AT-802, an agricultural airplane with an 800-gallon hopper that was also turned into a firefighting version.

Air Tractor happens to be intimately related to Albany, Georgia-based Thrush Aircraft, which certified its SEAT airplane — the 510G Switchback — in October of 2018. The 510G has a 510-gallon hopper capacity and an 800 shp GE H80 engine. Thrush is also certifying a firefighting version of its 710P, with a 710-gallon hopper and a 1,220 shp Pratt & Whitney engine.

What truly sets the Switchback apart from other firefighting aircraft is its ability to quickly switch to agricultural spraying operations. The fire gate is removed and the ag gate installed, a process that takes just a few minutes. The airplane is available with one or two seats, allowing another person to fly along for training or observation purposes.

Thrush offers an in-house training program that combines ground school, simulator and in-aircraft instruction to help pilots who might not possess much of the necessary and unusual combination of experience — tailwheel and turbine — learn to successfully fly the Thrush.

At the typical takeoff weight of 10,500 pounds, a highly skilled pilot can take off in about 1,500 feet in a 510G. Once the load is dropped and the airplane is lighter, the landing distance can be as short as 350 feet using the beta thrust. This allows firefighters to drop in on grass strips near the site of a wildfire.

Thrush Aircraft was founded in 2003 when Payne Hughes bought the then-defunct Ayres Corporation.

The company has roots in Snow Aeronautics, which was founded in the 1950s by legendary ag aircraft designer, Leland Snow.

“Leland Snow was the godfather of our industry,” said Eric Rojek, vice president of sales at Thrush. “He birthed the agricultural aircraft and then Rockwell purchased his company from him. Leland left and started Air Tractor.” And there lies the connection. But despite being competitors, the companies work together. “At Oshkosh we’re both in the NAAA [National Agricultural Aviation Association] booth promoting the industry,” Rojek said.

The name Thrush had nothing to do with someone contracting an oral infection. Rojek said Rockwell had a history of naming airplanes after birds. The Thrush is a pretty, cinnamon-brown songbird with a spotted chest, native to the region. The airplane factory has been at Albany’s Southwest Georgia Regional Airport (KALB) since 1965.

Rojek said two things have significantly changed the ag industry in the past 30 years. The first is the domination of turbine-powered engines, which resulted in increased reliability and bigger hopper capacities. The second is GPS for application flow control, which produced many benefits: the ability to automatically turn the flow on and off at precise boundaries; have variable rate applications; and very precise invoicing with dates, times, and application rates. The GPS system will even adjust the flow as the ground speed changes on upwind and downwind passes over a field to maintain an even application. “So now the pilot can concentrate more on just flying the airplane,” said Terry Humphrey, who heads up flight tests and pilot training.

Standard on every Thrush is the MVP-50T electronic engine monitor from Electronics International with about 50 different functions, including an active G-meter, onboard data recording and many ag-specific features. Precision agricultural application is enabled by a Differential GPS navigation system.

“It’s a very accurate GPS system,” Humphrey said. “Basically, you’re just shooting one extremely precise localizer approach after another.” The desired spray path is entered into the system. At the top of the instrument panel is a light bar with dots that tell you when you are on the center line of the intended path. Several DGPS systems are available for the Thrush.

Fire operations also use an electronic system that allows the operator to program a full-salvo dump, 510 gallons in two seconds, a lengthened release, or multiple partial releases of the material in the hopper.

The Thrush also can be flown with night-vision goggles, which allows agricultural operators to spray at night when winds are calm and the fields are free of workers and full of bugs. An infrared system is also available to enhance forward visibility in poor conditions, such as smoky areas during firefighting operations. “It’s a simple little ag airplane but the technology is really cool. The industry is healthy, so everyone is investing more and more in using new technologies to do a better job,” Rojek said.

Because the 510G has the ability to quickly switch from an agricultural to a firefighting airplane, Thrush is starting a program called Ag SEATs. A firefighting pilot needs what is referred to as a SEAT card issued by the U.S. Department of the Interior’s Office of Aviation Services. So, Thrush is setting out to encourage ag pilots to go through the required accreditation. That way, ag pilots can use their Switchbacks for community firefighting operations.

Conversely, Switchbacks that are dedicated for fire ops can be used for other purposes. “Georgia Forestry, for example, while their main mission is fire, now they can fertilize and seed, and if there is any type of breakout they can apply fungicide,” Rojek said. “So, the ag-guys can do fire and the fire guys can do other work, also.” This allows the airplanes to generate revenue in other types of applications rather than being idle during the off season.

The biggest difference for a pilot flying ag versus fire is communication. In the Switchback, there are several radios that allow the pilot to communicate with ATC, ground crew, the local sheriff, the fire boss, etc. During agricultural spraying, however, there is rarely a need to communicate with anyone.

Whether used for ag or fire, the rough environment requires that the airplanes be built tough. The Switchback has an all-metal roll cage and a main spar that the FAA has approved for a 60,000-hour life limit. The spar is the only life-limited component in the airplane. All other parts are replaced on condition.

Inside the factory, Rojek pointed out various processes that make the metal pieces stronger and more corrosion resistant. It would be hard to bend this airplane if you tried. “The cool thing about Thrush is we take the raw material in one door, load it, fabricate it and do pretty much the entire Thrush manufacturing process all in house,” he said.

One big testament to the design and manufacturing processes is the complete lack of Airworthiness Directives against any Thrush airplanes built after 2003. As any airplane owner knows, the lack of ADs means less maintenance, less downtime and lower costs.

With the low-level flying demanded by agricultural and firefighting operations, power lines and other cables can get in the way. Thrush incorporates a wire-strike protection system, with wire cutting blades on the main landing gear legs, wire cutters and deflectors in front of the cockpit, and a wire deflector cable from the cockpit to the vertical fin. The environment also exposes the valuable turbine engine to dust and smoke.

A K&N filter, first used for off-road racing, is installed in the air intake and Rojek said it is 99 percent efficient for FOD prevention.

Thrush focused its design on ease of maintenance, so many inspection panels can be removed quickly with camlocs. There are 37 removable panels on the wings alone to ease inspections.

• The 510G is equipped with an MVP-50T engine-monitoring system, which includes about 50 functions, some of which are specific to agricultural operations.

• Several different systems can be installed for firefighting purposes.

• While many airplanes leave the factory with electronic quantity indicators, lines on the composite walls of the hopper also help the pilot know how much is left.

• The stick is linked to the ailerons through pushrods, helping create terrific maneuverability.

• Several DGPS options are available that help agricultural and firefighting pilots make highly accurate applications.

• On the outside, the Thrush might appear to be a basic airplane. But there is a lot of advanced technology inside, prompting the need for a large circuit-breaker panel.

• Being a turbine-powered taildragger, the Thrush requires the pilot to have strong stick and rudder skills.

What does it take to be an AG/firefighting pilot?

Fighting fires in a Single Engine Air Tanker is one of the coolest jobs a pilot can have. You fly fast at a low level, drop stuff out of the airplane and get the satisfaction of doing something that can help other people and/or the environment. But SEAT firefighting requires a somewhat odd combination of piloting experience: tailwheel and turbine.

Aspiring aerial firefighters in Georgia have a path to get there. The Georgia Forestry Commission requires at least a Commercial Pilot Certificate, an Instrument rating and 500 hours. Pilots must fly wildfire patrol in a Cessna 182 for at least one year and become certified wildland firefighters before moving on to actual firefighting. The pilots also do a lot of tailwheel training in a Decathlon before moving into the Thrush. “We try to get them signed off and get at least 150 hours of tailwheel before they can even start flying the Switchback, because it can be a handful when heavily loaded,” said Clay Chatham, GFC air operations supervisor.

In order to fly firefighting operations in the Thrush, pilots must have accumulated 1,500 hours of total flight time and take factory training and turbine-transition training. GFC bought two two-seat airplanes to train their own pilots. The Thrush training program is followed by an additional 50 hours of dual flight instruction by an in-house instructor and a check ride before they are considered “mission ready,” Chatham said. The pilots also have to attend a course at the National Aerial Firefighting Academy, though there is no “carding” requirement for Georgia’s pilots as there is for federal firefighting pilots. Each state has its own requirements, but several regulations apply to all firefighting pilots, including strict dress codes, duty times and communications rules.

Chatham said he employs 25 part-time pilots for patrol missions only. Often they build some flight time and move on to the airlines. But the full-time pilots stay. “Once they get on, they don’t leave,” he said. While the pay is nothing to write home about, with a full-time starting salary of $36,000 and average salary after several years in the high 40s, the work-life balance is simply too good. “It’s good old-fashioned flying,” Chatham said. “You’re on your own, VFR, and we don’t fly after dark, so we can have a good family life. You have a lot of discretion to go out and do what needs to be done, so you’re not micromanaged at all, and you’re doing something good for the state. It is a service job just like the police and structural firefighting, which we are very proud to be a part of.”

Playing with Fire

Wildfires were far from my mind as I entered the Thrush campus at KALB on a bone-chilling, gray day in January. But inside, the atmosphere was warm with the Georgia Forestry Commission’s firefighting team gathered in the training facility. While counter intuitive, winter is Georgia’s fire season because this is when the brush dies and burns. There were no fires to fight the day I was there, but the pilots and ground-support crew were in training mode.

GFC uses a mobile fueling station, which was parked outside the Thrush factory along with two two-seat Switchbacks. Clay Chatham, GFC’s air operations supervisor, said they also use a Decathlon for tailwheel training along with a Bell 407 helicopter for water drops and 16 182s for patrol, which is the organization’s primary mission. Nine full-time pilots support the entire state of Georgia. They patrol every day there is potential for fire. The team’s headquarters are in Macon, Georgia, but it has seven hangars around the state. “In theory we’ve placed them strategically so we have less than an hour’s response to any location in the state,” Chatham said. “We find the fires early and get them out quickly.”

He said the lower acquisition and operating cost of the Thrush versus the Air Tractor were big sellers as his budget required an economical airplane. “The maintenance cycles are really good on the Thrush,” Chatham said. “And we have really good support from the company.” The price of a Switchback is just beyond $1 million. The higher-capacity Air Tractor costs about twice as much.

The primary mission for GFC is wildfire patrol. The Bell 407 was the only aircraft it used for suppression and the helicopter is a vital tool. The Switchback SEATs are economical additions to the fleet. “The Thrush is a lot more economical to operate.” Having had the Thrushes for less than a year, Chatham hasn’t had a chance to calculate numbers; but he expects the cost of operation for the Thrush to be about half that of the Bell.

I had a chance to hop in the Bell and see how it scooped up water from a small pond at the airport. The pilot observes the Bambi bucket through a small rear-view mirror mounted below the rudder pedals under the clear floor. The bucket filled up in seconds and we flew over to a spot that acted as a pretend fire to drop the load. The turnaround was extremely fast, but this type of firefighting requires a nearby water source.

While not quite as efficient, the Switchback’s 510-gallon hopper can be refilled in just a few minutes with the mobile ground station that the GFC team built. A 3-inch wide port on the Switchback’s fuselage makes this possible, and the pilot can leave the engine running during the reloading process. With many ag strips around Georgia that pilots fly Thrushes into, Chatham’s team can park its ground station near potential fires or get support from local fire departments.

The hopper can carry either dry applications (seeding or fertilizer for agricultural operations) or liquid (plain water or a powder mixture). The upper sides of the hopper have see-through composite panels with lines that indicate how much material is inside. A similar small panel is visible under the instrument panel and there is a digital readout too. There is no mistaking the quantity inside.

If you haven’t figured it out already, the 510-gallon capacity gave rise to the numerical name. The G comes from the engine — a 800 shp GE H80 spinning a four-blade, reversible, 102-inch Hartzell propeller. The fuel burn is about 50 gph during fire work, Chatham said, so the 228-gallon fuel capacity allows for four hours of solid work. However, a trained crew can fuel and fill the airplane with the engine running. “Literally they can crank it up and not turn it off until the end of the day,” Rojek said.

Before I sat in a firefighting airplane I had the impression that the release of the load would be a violent affair. After all, the airplane relieves itself of more than 4,000 pounds of weight in a matter of seconds. But riding along in the back of the Switchback as Chatham dropped a load over the imaginary fire, the process felt completely smooth.

To get a feel for how the Switchback flies, I jumped into Thrush’s Redbird simulator, which Rojek claims is the first sim to be configured for agricultural operations. We started with a little bit of familiarization, then moved on to stall-spin awareness.

In the simulator, I got the stall indication at around 60 mph, an impressive number for an airplane that can carry such a heavy load. I had a chance to take off with a light load followed by a heavy load. While I have theoretically seen the effect of weight changes before, I had not experienced the extremes of a change of thousands of pounds in a matter of minutes. The comparative sluggishness of the controls and increased takeoff distance with max gross weight was striking. The airplane can take off with 10,500 pounds, giving it a remarkable useful load of 5,700 pounds.

While flying a pretend agricultural sweep over a field in the Redbird, I was suddenly surprised when Humphrey gave me a catastrophic engine failure. There was no time to react before I was on the ground — a stark demonstration of the extraordinary skills required by a successful ag pilot. The Redbird training will help Thrush pilots be prepared when something catastrophic happens, such as an engine failure, loss of aileron control or flight into IFR conditions. (The Switchback is VFR only).

During Thrush’s training program, “the goal for the day in the sim is to scare you,” Rojek said.

Thrush 510G Switchback: By the Numbers

Flying the Thrush

Ag has a double meaning when it comes to the Thrush. Not only is it made for agricultural work — the pilot needs agility in order to fly it. Checking the oil requires some climbing moves to get to the oil door in front of the hopper. There is a footstep on the left side of the nose to stand on. Humphrey also showed me how to tiptoe onto the edge of the window before stepping down into the pilot’s seat.

With the large windows surrounding the cockpit, the visibility in the 510G is spectacular. Even on the ground the forward visibility is decent in the front seat, despite the tailwheel configuration; however, I had to lean a little to the side and occasionally make a slight turn on the ground to get a good view of the taxiway line. Taxiing was different than I am used to in a tailwheel airplane. Holding the stick back locks the tailwheel straight, so I had to hold neutral or slight forward pressure to release the wheel in turns. Turns are made with differential braking, which I had no problem with.

With the big turboprop up front it was no surprise that the takeoff required much more rudder work than that of the piston taildraggers I’ve flown and certainly a ton more than my Mooney. It was a wakeup call that I need to get back in a tailwheel airplane more often. I miss the challenge. The barndoor-size rudder also requires a lot more attention in the air. Humphrey had to remind me several times to keep the ball in the center.

Because the operations of the Thrush require good maneuverability, the airplane was built to turn — not to cruise. You can’t just let go of it and there is no autopilot.

Chatham, whose background includes all kinds of backcountry flying, described the Switchback as a handful, and I would agree. But that’s the kind of flying I enjoy.

In bank, control response is terrific thanks to the pushrod controls for the ailerons. The rudder, however, is controlled through cables.

We set off to do some mock aerial application on an open field. Sweeping back and forth, Humphrey showed me how to make passes below the tree tops that fenced in the field, then pull up to get above the line of trees at the end of the field before making a teardrop turn back to the line. Unlike the Air Tractor, the Thrush does not require flaps to make sharp turns, though there are 15 degrees of flaps available. Thrush also offers a smoke system to help pilots check for wind drift.

This is the most fun type of flying there is, in my opinion, but it naturally comes with more risk than flying on an IFR flight plan at 23,000 feet. I was happy to know that I was safely secured in the seat with the Hooker harness, which also includes AmSafe’s seatbelt/airbag system.

Now here is a stat that we don’t generally report when evaluating airplanes. With the Thrush, “you’ve got an average 70-foot swath at 150 mph. This thing’s rocking out 20 to 25 acres per minute,” Rojek said. As a firefighting airplane, the Switchback’s gatebox can drop its 510-gallon load in two seconds.

My one landing in the Switchback was far more exciting than I had hoped. It’s a great thing that the airplane is built tough with 29-inch high flotation tires, and that I had Humphrey in the back to help. But it made me want to go out again and again to learn to master this monster.

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Answer: The best way to prevent disastrous aviation events is to plan for anticipated threats. 

It all starts with a thorough preflight. Then, before you taxi out to the runway, mentally brief the takeoff and climb. If you’re flying VFR, make sure to stay out of airspace or communicate with ATC. If you’re on an IFR flight plan, verify each fix in the flight management system or GPS. An erroneous route could lead to a violation, which probably won’t kill you, but could jeopardize your certificate. 

• READ MORE: Are There Any Amendment Criteria for a TAF?

Visualize each step of the flight and think through possible threats. What’s your plan for weather events, engine trouble, busy traffic patterns, terrain, etc.? If you only have one engine, where is the best place for an emergency landing? What’s the minimum altitude for returning to the field? What are the odds of a diversion? Do you have enough fuel for a hold or lengthy reroute? Finally, always plan for a go-around or missed approach. 

• READ MORE: How to Fly Into a Big Airshow With Confidence

Do you have a question about aviation that’s been bugging you? Ask us anything you’ve ever wanted to know about aviation. Our experts in general aviation, flight training, aircraft, avionics, and more may attempt to answer your question in a future article.

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Daher announced at the Sun ‘n Fun International Fly-In and Expo that it has made further enhancements to its TBM 930. The French single-engine turboprop received the latest upgrade to the Garmin G3000 system, adding the SurfaceWatch alerting system for the runway environment; Baro VNAV, which allows pilots to fly precision approaches based on barometric pressure when the SBAS that is required for WAAS is unavailable; and visual approach capabilities, which provides lateral and vertical guidance based on a three-degree glideslope, to the already highly capable system. The symbology has also been improved.

Pilots and passengers of both the TBM 910, which has the G1000 with the NXi upgrade, and the 930 will also appreciate the addition of heated seats, which can be individually adjusted by each occupant.

Backlighting has been added to the central column for improved visibility at night of such things as the manual trim, power lever, flaps lever and override controls. Pilots will notice a difference in the communication when the oxygen mask is required, as a high-fidelity microphone has been incorporated into the mask.

Finally, the 2018 models will include the TBM Elite Package, which includes the Total Care Program for maintenance; and subscriptions to the Jeppesen Pilot Pak, Sirius XM weather and radio, and the Garmin Pilot app, which can share data with panel mounted avionics through the FlightStream 510, if installed.

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