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Linux, Avionics, and spins



I'm an instrument rated pilot with 700 hours time.  I also worked for the Volpe
center for 25 years, about 8 years of FAA projects.  I once was told by a Cessna
employee that Cessna stopped making the Skyhawk and the 152 was that they had to pay
their insurance company $20,000 for each new plane they sold.  The liability
premium.  Yes, the FAA is a lumbering dinosaur.  There has not been a new piston
engine certified for general aviation in the last 50 years!  The reason is that it is
harder to sue old designs than new designs.  Therefore, keep the old technology.
Would you buy an automobile with a 40's design engine that needed new rings and a
valve job in 60,000 miles of 30-50 mph driving?

There is no doubt in my mind, or that of most any pilot with an instrument rating in
single engine, fixed wing, GA aircraft, that JFK was over his head.  Way over his
head.  He probably trained in a Skyhawk because it is a forgiving plane, hard to
spin, and has a nice breaking stall for instructional purposes.  The first the plane
he owned was a Skylane, the Skyhawk's  larger, faster big brother.  A logical
progression.  Then, with 100 hours experience, he buys the Saratoga.  This is a hot
airplane.  Big engine, hydraulic prop, retractable gear, fast, and what some pilots
call 'slippery' (low aerodynamic drag).  If you lose control, even for a short time,
the airspeed builds up fast.  And very quickly, particularly at low altitude (2,500
feet), you have entered an unrecoverable situation.  I would guess, since he bought
this plane only 4 weeks before the crash, he had less than 10 hours experience in the
Saratoga.  Probably none of these hours were 'under the hood' (IMC training).

What good would automatic GPS tracking done?  It might have shortened the search time
for the wreckage by a day, but I doubt it.  The FAA knew where to look from the radar
tapes.  JFK has been criticized for not filing a flight plan.  An indication of a
casual attitude, particularly considering the flight over water.  But not required.
Would a flight plan saved him and his passengers?  No.  Technology can't protect us
from bad judgment.  His first bad judgment was buying the Saratoga.  His subsequent
errors have been cataloged by the media.

Sorry about the rant.  This whole episode was such a waste.

Karl

BTW, many foreign countries require an instrument rating for night flying.  I don't
necessarily recommend it, but it is worth considering.  Some of these same countries
will not register GA aircraft with more than 5,000 hrs. total flying time, regardless
of the aircraft's condition.  Can you legislate good judgment?

Jerry Feldman {75562} wrote:

> Rich Braun wrote:
>
> > The interesting jobs are in avionics.  Fifteen years ago, I was developing
> > Intel 8088 and 8051 code for flight-instrumention systems; the underlying
> > technology was a few years old at the time.  The equivalent today would be
> > building systems around something like a P100--FAA regulations require
> > a few years of field experience for all the various components.
> >
> > It's very costly and tedious to get a product through all the hoops that
> > the FAA imposes.  But it wasn't that aspect which killed off most technology
> > development in general aviation:  it was lawsuits.  JFK Jr.'s plane was
> > a rarity, a g.a. plane less than 15 years old.  The reason 95% of all g.a.
> > planes today are that old is a set of legislative and judicial setbacks for
> > manufacturers who faced unlimited liability after some court decisions sometime
> > in the 1970s (maybe it was the 1980s).  Rather than accept liability for
> > the entire life of a plane, they shut down their production lines.
> This is very true. Cessna was the leader in GA aircraft with their single
> and multi-engine high wing designs. Nearly the entire Cessna high-wing
> aircraft are based on FAA type certificates going back well over 40 years.
> While JFK Jr. purchased his aircraft used, it was a relatively new aircraft.
> But still has the older instrumentation with needles. That does mean that
> they may be able to determine airspeed and other information showing on the
> instruments if the salt water did not erase the traces. Being an aviator
> from the old school, I would prefer to have a pressure airspeed indicator,
> an alcohol inclined plane ball (eg needle and ball), a pure barometric
> altimiter, and a barometric rate of descent indicator. While these
> instruments often lie, they are reliable and predictable. And, not to
> forget, a real magnetic compass. I have experienced a complete in-flight
> electrical failure (at night over water). Fortunately, I had a knee pad with
> a light I could use as a flashlight. (Also, sparkplugs in a light plane are
> powered by 2 independent magnetos which are totally independent of the
> aircraft's electrical system). Light planes do not normally have a dual set
> of instruments, so the older mechanical instruments are better. The newer
> digital instruments, while much more accurate, can fail.
> --
> Jerry Feldman (HP On-Site Consultant) http://gbrweb.msd.ray.com/~gzf/
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