Common Cause
Do you love your plane? Do you REALLY love your plane? As it is, or could you make it better? Most of us that fly legacy aircraft do our best to keep them up to par, maybe even better than they were when designed and delivered. Over recent years, many devices, gizmos, avionics, displays, and modifications have come available to make your plane faster, safer, more efficient, more beautiful, and more of an investment. That’s why lottery tickets are still popular with pilots.
What should you do first? Improve the appearance and appeal with a new paint job and new interior? Many say this has the highest payoff when it comes to selling, or getting your friends to go for a ride. Or should you go for more safety, with installation of 4-point seat harnesses or inflatable seatbelts, pulsar lights, engine monitor with fuel flow, and hi-intensity strobes? Some would elect to improve performance, with turbocharging, tuned exhausts, vortex generators, and wheelpants for fixed-gear planes. The lottery winners would go for the hi-tech panel upgrades, installing every avionic box and glass panel display available, until they reached max gross weight or their alternator output limits.
Only you can determine what needs to be improved next. Some pilots opt for better reliability by installing backup systems to guard against the possible bad day, with backup electrical alternators and batteries, alternate vacuum sources, backup instruments and displays, or like those of us who fly in a SFRA, backup transponders and encoders. Renter pilots are more at risk when it comes to equipment failures; they have to take what they have rented, and plan accordingly, which explains the popularity of portable GPS units and handheld radios, even PLTs. One has to be self-reliant to survive, thanks to Mr Murphy: something critical will break at the most inconvenient time. And you will be there.
Some cautions are in order: more information is not better information. There is such a thing as too much information. You can be saturated, overloaded, and become confused. Choose wisely the avionics and display upgrades you want; choose those that will actually help you in difficult situations. Here’s a radical idea: try before you buy. Use a simulator with the proposed upgrade equipment and see if you like it first; don’t just drool over the ads, and hand over your wallet. Performance enhancements for your plane, its engine, accessories, and safety are plentiful and wonderful. Prioritize according to your means, ask around, hear from others if something really helped.
Flying ourselves is an emotional experience, and with emotion comes passion, feelings, and excitement. Whether we fly for business or pleasure, own or rent, we love it. Yet when we fly, we must be dispassionate about the planning, the judgements, the weather, and the condition of the aircraft. To do otherwise ignores the inherent risks involved with aviation. No wonder we are willing to spend so much to make our planes better.
Common Cause: Maybe the most valuable upgrade is to make a good pilot better. Lots of training courses are available, as are lots of underemployed CFIs. For those of us that regularly only fly in the middle of the performance box, we forget about what happens at the limits of the plane’s performance envelope. Explore it occasionally with a professional; you might learn something, about the plane, about situations that can happen, and about yourself. To be stronger, you have to stretch your muscles; same with the brain. More knowledge is a good thing. Good judgement is a valuable thing. Being proficient is a safe thing. Got some insights? Let’s hear from you.
Mike Sullivan, COMM, Instri, CFI, SMEL
KHEF, C177pilot@live.com