The complexity of the instrument panel has served either to intrigue or intimidate potential pilots. Having been the former kind, I’ve had trouble putting myself in the latter’s point of view.

But with ever-advancing avionics and capabilities, I admit it can be tough even for the seasoned ones among us to keep up. That’s why the fresh approach Cirrus took to its next model in the SR series makes a lot of sense.

And for new pilots—and this pilot who flies Cirrus aircraft sporadically—as opposed to a seasoned owner or dedicated Cirrus instructor, the barrier to entry and re-entry has fallen significantly.

Though it’s not as overtly revolutionary as the Cirrus Airframe Parachute System (CAPS) or Safe Return enabled by Garmin Autoland on Cirrus’ SF50 Vision Jet, the reimagined flight deck in the new SR G7 and other improvements make a more immediate impact—because pilots benefit from them on every flight, from the moment you press the start button.

Wait—what??? There’s a start button?

What’s new here takes us way beyond the panel.

A Beginner’s Mind

When you must approach something from a fresh perspective, it helps to go into a beginner’s mindset.

But how to do so when you’ve known the airplane since its early development years, as I have? In a similar fashion, the engineering and product dev teams at Cirrus had to work to place themselves in that beginner’s mindset.

My first look at the G7 started with a long cross-country. And the fact that I hadn’t flown an SR for a year assisted me in taking in the new generation with as close to a newbie’s view as possible. I met up with Cirrus SR product director Ivy McIver in stealth mode at the Hagerstown Regional Airport (KHGR) in Maryland.

She warned me ahead of time that the airplane wouldn’t appear different from the outside but to expect something truly different inside. So I fired up the GoPro and prepared for her to open the door.

First Approach

From the walk-up you might notice a new paint scheme, new colors—but it’s true you won’t really register a change until you open the pilot’s door.

In fact, McIver had been flying the G7 around in broad daylight, with only a series of foiled sunshades to hide the nature of what awaited inside. This obviously kept the ruse going, and according to McIver, I was officially the first person outside of Cirrus to demo the new model, a real privilege.

• READ MORE: We Fly: Diamond DA62

After giving me a quick preview on the ground, we needed to see the G7 in action to begin to appreciate all that had been accomplished with the redesign. We flew in pursuit of good weather and photo backdrops not browned by the seasons, and headed south—nearly straight south—from Maryland to Florida by way of Hilton Head, South Carolina.

It honestly took the five-plus hours en route (and a fuel stop) to get a sense of it all.

Engine Start

Push the button. Hold it in, monitor a gauge, release. After setting things up, that’s typically all you have to do in a jet. The mag switch has been relocated, made larger to the palm, and incorporates a button to start. It’s an elegant way to make the process similar to the SF50, while still preserving the ability to isolate mags, whether in a before-takeoff check or in-flight issue. There’s no key to insert—just like with today’s automobiles. The logic is, if you can enter the airplane with the key fob, you can start the engine.

Fuel selection has also benefited from “Vision Jet-ification, ” with an automatic fuel switching protocol that alternates tanks by physically moving the fuel selector knob with every 5 gallons burned. You can override the system to manual by lifting a sliding door, but it was honestly completely forgotten within the first half hour of our flight demo. It’s very similar to that found in many single-engine turboprops as well.

Taxiing out reveals more fascinating tools. While we have experienced SafeTaxi and SurfaceWatch from Garmin before, the G7 takes it a step further with automated slewing to the proper PFD perspective during ground operations versus in flight. The functionality is smart, in that it zooms in and out, adding and subtracting info from the display based on your speed and location relative to a runway—whether you are holding in the ramp area or taxiing onto the active for takeoff, for examples.

Cross-Country Lines

The faster an airplane cuts through the air, the more of the country you can string together at one go.

But the engineering behind the G7 didn’t wring a few more knots from the carbon fiber airframe by tweaking fairings or FIKI panels. The team accomplished the most recent speed mods in the last G6 version we flew (“We Fly: Cirrus SR22T 8000,” March 2021).

Instead, the G7 begins saving the pilot time on the ground—during pre-startup, taxi, and before takeoff checks—streamlining what had at times been belt-and-suspenders checklists into the key items retained in a logical flow. A new scroll wheel fell nicely to hand as I ran through the commensurate checks during each stage of preflight, in-flight, and postflight procedures. The checklists come linked to the CAS as well, so that the appropriate ones come to the fore when an alert pops up.

• READ MORE: We Fly: Cessna TTx

Some elements are just left on. Like the nav lights. With long-life LEDs, when would you choose to leave them off? Therefore, not only do the nav lights come on when BATT 1 is turned on—the same goes for the avionics—but the nav light switch has been removed from the electrical system subpanel in front of the PFD as well.

Streamlining has targeted what’s in the PFD too. Menus have popped out of their nesting, leaving layers behind that previous pilots had to wade through. The G1000 gained complexity over the years—expanding in parallel into the G2000, G3000, and Perspective. When you can strip away those unnecessary complications, you save time in normal operations but also during abnormal and emergency procedures.

Where the pilot retains control—such as in setting the power and mixture—Cirrus incorporated aids to make standard adjustments easier. Since the engine monitoring system knows the aircraft altitude, outside air temperature, and internal temps in the Continental IO-550-N (in the case of the normally aspirated SR22 we flew for the report), it updates the green arcs on the power setting and fuel flow gauges on the display. The pilot puts the power setting at the percent power desired then sets the mixture to the top of the green arc for best power. Further leaning for LOP settings—or rich of peak settings—can utilize lean assist.

While these tools have been available in various forms in Garmin-integrated flight deck installations, the protocols underwent refining with the latest edition of the Perspective Touch+ in the SR G7.

In-Flight Maneuvering

So if the shell of the SR22 has remained the same, along with its planform, control surfaces, and powerplant, why would I take the time to fly through a full series of maneuvers—after spending five-plus hours speeding down to Florida and two more as a safety pilot in our photo mission for what you see on the cover and in these pages?

Because one more thing has changed in the G7—and it may not mean much to most pilots who fly the new model, but it impressed me enough to need to take it through its paces. That’s the updated flight control stick. The SR series’ flight control mechanism had iterated only slightly from its origins as a somewhat utilitarian-feeling half-yoke managed by trim on a hat button in the first production SR20 in the late 1990s. The upgrade in ergonomics with the G7 makes a real difference to this size-5-glove wearer.

• READ MORE: We Fly: Garmin Autoland for the Beechcraft King Air 200

Another new jet-like inclusion? A stick shaker. This I definitely had to see in anger, so as part of the standard test profile I conducted, we looked at both power-on (departure) and power-off (approach) stalls. Holding down the autopilot disconnect button allows you to maneuver past the ESP (electronic stability protection), and in this case, pitch up to a deck angle needed to induce preliminary stall buffeting. However, before any break, the stick shaker activated—as if the “danger Will Robinson” graphics on the PFD could be ignored—compelling the release of whatever back pressure I was holding in to induce the stall condition.

Flap overspeed protection makes for one more improvement, preventing the pilot from deploying the flaps above the programmed indicated airspeed relevant to the flap setting selected. It also prevents you from retracting the flaps when airspeed is too low.

Behind the Systems

Cirrus also calls out an intelligent new battery to support the electrical system. How can a battery demonstrate intelligence? Maybe that’s a bit of affectation—but we’re seeing certain levels of system monitoring and responsiveness in electric and hybrid aircraft, and this may be an instance where there is carryover from these innovations in battery management systems that make them seem, well, intelligent, as they optimize cells purportedly for improved performance.

Systems pages on the MFD present the details from the pilot’s operating handbook in a color-coded manner, easing quick interpretation and assessment of status for electrical, ice protection, fuel, and environmental control systems. When used in combination with the checklists, the need to pull out the pilot’s operating handbook in flight goes down—saving more time in tense situations.

The built-in oxygen system comes as an option—I suppose you can save the money and 18 pounds of added weight if you don’t plan to fly high. But at $13,900 to me it’s cheap insurance to have O2 locked and loaded so that you can access it quickly and with less fuss than a portable system. And you don’t need to be flying the turbo model up in the teens to gain from its use—most of us perform better in the airplane if you turn on the juice as low as 7,000 or 10,000 feet, especially at night.

Stacking Up the Options

The specific serial number we flew was an SR22 GTS version of the G7, equipped with air conditioning, Cirrus Global Connect, built-in oxygen, and the Hartzell lightweight three-blade composite propeller upgrade. The blend prices out at $1,136,500 and takes the weight from the standard GTS basic empty weight of 2,359 pounds to 2,419 pounds—the Hartzell prop takes off 12 pounds, while the AC adds 55 and Global Connect 6.

The standard interior has taken a turn to anything but a commonplace look and feel. Not only have the seat designs seen a visual update, but the ergonomics have improved as well. Better placement of the USB-C ports and more robust cup holders—seriously, this is an issue when they are flimsy in a million-dollar-plus aerial conveyance—round out the updates. As with the G6, the baggage door is unlocked with proximity to the key fob, and it opens with the touch of a button to assist when your hands are full. And you can see if it’s left open by CAS message and on the appropriate systems page.

Connectivity includes Garmin’s Flight Stream 510 that the avionics OEM rolled out in 2016, automating the data exchange between the aircraft, pilot, and manufacturer. Jeppesen ChartView, SiriusXM weather and audio, and Garmin Pilot come along for the ride too. The GTS package adds Cirrus Executive (yaw damper, enhanced vision system), Cirrus Awareness (active traffic, eTAWS), Cirrus Advantage (14-inch screens, taxiway routing, Surface Watch), certified flight into known ice (FIKI) protection, the Premium appearance options and GTS badging to identify the series.

For a low-end reference on the evolved series, pricing begins at $634,900 for a base model G7 SR20. All versions come standard with a three-year, 1,000-hour spinner-to-tail warranty that rivals other new piston singles. For $21,900 to $25,900, you can add two years and 1,000 more flight hours to create five-year coverage for the SR G7, depending on the model.

And we can’t help but mention the new colors, in and out, that add to the wide-ranging palette of head-turning options. While you can choose a more restrained look, Cirrus offers more to appeal to those who don’t mind drawing attention on the ramp. New exterior colors include the striking blue on N433CA, while several customer favorites remain, such as the gray on N616SP, which I flew for this piece. And the interior continues the conversation piece, with leather, bolstered seats, and satin silver vents and lights. Pilots can choose from five leather colors and two cabin interiors. The seats can be appointed with black Alcantara inserts or an all-leather design.

The Grand Total

Wrapping it up in a complete package and taking a step back, what has Cirrus Aircraft achieved here? In my estimation, the company had to have felt challenged to build on its success—with the 500th Vision Jet overall delivering in the third week of December and 389 2023 SR models flying out the door by the end of the third quarter of 2023.

Simplifying things is hard, particularly when selling at an ever-increasing price. It’s easy to chase the marketing pundits chorusing “more, more,” adding to the feature set to justify the value.

But to the Cirrus customer, who has typically been sold on the lifestyle offered and enabled by the airplane, the most elusive commodity is time. Other OEMs have thought through time-saving elements—think of the Gulfstream G700, that, when certificated, will allow the pilots to go from opening the door to engine start in less than five minutes. So this is what Cirrus really achieves with the streamlining of the flight experience made possible by the G7.

The G7 hits the mark, giving a pilot for whom technology resonates—but doesn’t wish to piddle around the airplane, tinkering on weekends, and getting things just so—the ability to walk up to the airplane, start up, and go with a streamlined approach, knowing the technology in the background has your back.

Spec Sheet: 2024 Cirrus SR G7

Price, as tested: $1,136,500

Engine: Continental IO-550-N, 310 hp

Propeller: Hartzell lightweight, composite, three-blade

Seats: 5

Length: 26 ft.

Height: 8 ft., 11 in.

Wingspan: 38 ft., 4 in.

Wing Area: 145.16 sq. ft.

Wing Loading: 24.8 lbs./sq. ft.

Power Loading: 11.61 lbs./hp

Cabin Width: 4 ft., 1 in

Cabin Height: 4 ft., 2 in.

Max Takeoff Weight: 3,600 lbs.

Max Zero Fuel Weight: 3,400 lbs.

Standard Empty Weight: 2,272 lbs., base 2024 SR22

Max Baggage: 130 lbs.

Useful Load: 1,328 lbs., base 2024 SR22

Max Usable Fuel: 92 gal.

Service Ceiling: 17,500 ft.

Max Rate of Climb: MTOW, ISA, SL: 1,310 fpm at 50% flaps (takeoff); 1,268 at 0% flaps (en route)

Max Cruise Speed: 186 ktas

Cruise Speed at 75% Power, 8,000 ft. pressure altitude, 3,400 lbs., ISA: 180 ktas

Max Range at 55% Power, 14,000 ft., ISA: 1,169 nm; 11.3 gph

Stall Speed, Flaps Up: 73 kcas

Stall Speed, Full Flaps: 61 kcas (most forward CG)

Takeoff Over 50 Ft. Obs: 1,868 ft. (ISA, sea level)

Landing Over 50 Ft. Obs: 2,535 ft. (ISA, sea level, flaps 100%)

Cockpit at a Glance: 2024 Cirrus SR G7

A. Mimicking the Vision Jet, the SR G7 features a push-button start—though mags and mixture must be properly set for ignition to take place.

B. The new Cirrus Perspective Touch+ by Garmin includes twin 12-inch displays that come standard, with 14-inch PFD and MFD an option. All feature split-screen capability.

C. The two Garmin GTC touchscreen controllers carry over from the jet as well and offer redundancy of functions.

D. The digital, dual-channel automated flight control system (AFCS) incorporates “smart servo”

technology and includes an optional yaw damper that automatically disconnects at 200 feet agl.

E. Updated synoptic pages and streamlined checklists aid in the monitoring of both systems and procedures throughout all phases of flight.

F. The Cirrus IQ app gives the pilot remote viewing and control. Optional Cirrus Global Connect delivers worldwide texting, telephone service, and weather.

This column first appeared in the January-February 2024/Issue 945 of FLYING’s print edition.

The post We Fly: Cirrus SR G7 appeared first on FLYING Magazine.

Bevirt thought up the premise for an electric vertical takeoff and landing aircraft (eVTOL) as he walked home from the last point a school bus could take him near his home in California’s Santa Cruz Mountains. Today, Joby is a roughly $4 billion-cap enterprise on the cusp of its type certification for-credit testing with the FAA on an evolution of the very vehicle Bevirt envisioned would lift him from that dusty bus stop into the peaceful meadow near his parents’ forest home.

From a flying prototype launched in an empty quarry in 2010 to the first flight of the latest conforming production prototype, the final iteration of this initial commercially viable eVTOL will carry a pilot and up to four passengers as far as a 100 sm range solely using electric motors, bringing with it a new way of managing flight.

However, though the Joby aircraft is piloted, the team is not building an aircraft for pilots. By deliberate choice, the idiosyncrasies that make up the kinesthetic joy of flying are dialed out of the aircraft’s flight control system—they have to be in order to make the Joby fly like it does. You can hand fly it, sure, but like other aircraft aimed at owner operators who are new to the game and not interested in the romance of flight, you’re in a version of autoflight all the time. In fact, an autopilot per se is unnecessary because the foundations of autoflight run continuously—designed to manage the cascade of failures and corners of the envelope we train so hard to avoid and mitigate and respond to.

• READ MORE: We Fly: Diamond DA62

While we can’t yet fly the version slated for the final rounds of type certificate (TC) testing—the production aircraft, in company parlance—we can fly the sim. As one six-month Joby employee at the company’s Washington, D.C., office told me, even they like to fly it—and they’re not into driving themselves anywhere. Being “in control” just doesn’t interest them—quite a change from what we think of as a pilot.

So where is this going? I had to find out for myself. In a series of introductions, I visited Joby’s R&D and production facilities in Santa Clara and Marina, California, last summer and Joby’s offices in D.C. in January, along with an interview with Bevirt at the Paris Air Show in June, which we covered in Issue 940 (“In Depth”).

How It Works

The Joby aircraft consists of a rounded, wide-windowed fuselage to carry passengers with a single pilot seat up front. A wing transects the top at about its midsection, with a V-shaped tail in the back. Six equally sized rotors stand in a roughly hexagonic position: two in front, two at the wingtips, and two aft, on the apex of each V in the tail. They pivot and rotate in such a way as to produce both thrust translating into airspeed and thrust directed for flight control. The aircraft also uses ailerons and ruddervators (akin to those on the Vision Jet or V35 Bonanza). But those are sectioned, with two sets of aileron-style controls on the wings and three sections of ruddervators on the V-shaped tail.

The previous conforming prototype version had flaps, but according to Greg Bowles, head of government affairs for Joby, “they didn’t buy their way onto the production version.” In other words, no need for them. The six motors obtain their juice from a series of battery packs, but these are unlike any created for electric aircraft thus far. They work in pairs for each motor and in isolation from the other pairs so that they are doubly redundant. We learned how Joby arrived at this arrangement—along with other details regarding their makeup—when we walked through the plant at Santa Clara earlier on the day of our visit preparing us for the observation of the remotely piloted demo flight of the preproduction prototype later on.

With an aspect that looks like a helicopter with six rotors instead of main and tail rotors, the quietness of the Joby’s departure struck me immediately. Normally, hearing the main rotor spool up causes you to plug your ears against the sound. But with the powering up and lifting off of the Joby, the high-pitched rpm of the blades barely registered over the wind about 100 feet away.

A New Kind of Motor

The “engine” driving the Joby aircraft is unlike any motor I’ve ever seen. Granted, I’m not versed in much outside of the two- and four-stroke combustion engines that provide thrust for light airplanes and the odd motorbike. But this is essentially a 3D-printed titanium ring. A doughnut of sorts, outlined by a series of copper-and- tan-colored power packs.

A lot of people have asked why Joby didn’t buy motors from another company—with so many electric choices out there on the market. “What we found was that [by] making it fit exactly for purpose, we could do much better in terms of weight and size,” said Jon Wagner—head of batteries, powertrain, and electronics and based at the Santa Clara facility—during our tour. The core starts with a 3D-printed titanium housing in the middle, and the magnetics that drive the rotation are made from copper and steel. “And we buy big rolls of copper and big sheets of steel, and we build this thing up out of the raw materials,” said Wagner. At the D.C. office, Bowles handed me a featherweight bottle opener made from the remnant titanium dust—an elegant example of upcycling waste from the process.

Three pins, and three pins—this is actually two motors, with two sets of three-phase windings. “That’s two different electrical circuits inside this motor that drive the rotation,” said Wagner. “So if you have a failure, you’ve segmented the system and now you have a secondary means of driving the motor.” The electronic brain that’s always on in the background figures out how to redistribute the remaining power, cycling up and down as needed for both thrust and flight control. This requires a new way of managing that control.

Unified in Flight

The world of eVTOL will almost certainly be based on the use of “simplified flight controls”—as outlined in the Modernization of Special Airworthiness Certificates (MOSAIC), which update light sport aircraft (LSA) certification but also set the stage for use of similar regulatory structure in the Special Federal Aviation Regulations (SFARs) covering eVTOLs.

The simplified flight control is simple to the pilot— taking the most basic of inputs and figuring out what the pilot wants to have happen and ensconcing them in a swaddle of envelope protection so they will neither stall nor exceed limit load factors. To do this, those controls are anything but simple under the surface. Joby has patterned these after the unified controls in high-end military hardware, such as the F-35.

The Joby aircraft is flown with a power lever in the left hand and a joystick-style flight control in the right—and you sit in a single seat centered in the cockpit. Though at first it feels familiar, you don’t use the control stick in quite the same way as you do in a traditional airplane—you rarely hold in continuous pressure, for example. So it’s OK that it’s purposefully stiff. You give input, then take it out. The power lever is similarly centering—hold in to speed up in airplane mode, and leave it in place while in TRC (translate, or hover) mode. You twist to yaw about the vertical axis in translate mode, and you bank to either translate or side step while in TRC or bank while flying the wing. But you don’t need to hold back pressure in the bank to maintain a level attitude since the rotors are compensating for the change in lift vector direction.

To illustrate, let’s look at one common failure mode in rotorcraft: One commonality to the Joby is the bearing plate—“but we can get around it,” said Bowles. If there’s a motor failure, the computer picks up load, slows the rotor on the diagonal corner, and speeds up the rest. The aircraft also retains the ability to glide on its wing—so Joby has tested that mode as well—which, as a fixed-wing pilot, I admit helps me wrap my brain around the whole package.

On Speed, On Target

You don’t think of stall speeds and V_NE in the same way either, since the aircraft’s flight computers protect you from those exceedances in most all situations. “It is important to understand that the aircraft has 6 propellers and 10 control surfaces along with a rather advanced fly-by-wire control system,” said Jason Thomas, flight engineering lead for Joby, “and those propellers can tilt as well as change their blade pitch…It creates a situation, unlike a traditional fixed wing aircraft or helicopter, where there is more than one way to trim the aircraft at a given state or maneuver.”

How will pilots transition to Joby? It helps that the controls feel fairly intuitive. In my sim flights at Marina and D.C., it took just a few minutes to understand how to take off, land, and maneuver in the traffic pattern at a normal airport—KOAR and KSEA were programmed into the sim—during a standard flight. The FAA has established an SFAR for existing pilots under the powered-lift category—and the goal is to allow them to transition by taking essentially a type-rating course.

As a foundation for its business model, Joby established a Part 135 operation using a Cirrus SR22 between KSQL, Palo Alto, California, and KOAR. It plans to add the SFAR-covered aircraft to the certificate, with a track record in flight operations, maintenance, and safety management with the local FSDO. Similarly, the company has also set up a Part 141 operation, training internal pilots, to which it will add the Joby aircraft.

And the proof, then, will be flying the actual aircraft—and seeing just how that feels as a pilot.

Cockpit at a Glance

A. The pair of displays can be laid out in many ways for the pilot. The MFD hosts the power and propulsion system schematic in this view.

B. The primary flight display features a familiar Garmin interface, with airspeed and altitude tapes, plus standardized callouts for winged and vertical flight regime modes.

C. A Garmin GTC-style touchscreen controller also feels familiar to many pilots, following on to the similar control unit found in many new piston and turboprop airplanes and rotorcraft.

D. The power lever on the left side of the pilot’s seat is self-centering and allows for acceleration and deceleration control, as opposed to placing it at a given power setting.

E. The flight control stick self centers as well as twists for yaw control and banks to either turn or translate sideways, depending on the flight mode.

Spec Sheet: Joby Aircraft

Price, Projected: Not for sale, operated exclusively by Joby

Propulsion System: 6 electric dual wound motors, 4 on the wings, 2 on the V-tail

Crew: 1

Passenger Seats: 4

Length: 21 ft.

Height: TK

Wingspan: 39 ft.

Maximum Takeoff Weight: 5,300 lbs.

Empty Weight: TK

Useful Load/Payload: 1,000 lbs.

Cabin Width: TK

Cabin Height: TK

Power Capacity: Four lithium-ion battery packs

Endurance: TK

Range: Up to 100 sm (87 nm)

Liftoff Speed: Hover

Top Speed: 170 kt (200 mph)

Landing Speed: Hover

Stall Speed: N/A

Part Two: Building the Childhood Dream

It starts with a specific type of composite.

The sourcing of the raw materials to make the part that goes into the component that tucks into an aircraft in a strategic place—in the post-pandemic global aerospace industry, that perhaps is not so uncommon.

But when Joby Aviation first began coalescing into reality in various warehouses in the Bay Area southeast of San Francisco, most manufacturers didn’t get involved with the creation of the material—let alone purchasing the raw stuff from which to produce minor hardware in house.

That’s exactly what Joby has been up to since those early days—the development of the requirement alongside the technology needed to deliver the performance and capability of a new type of aircraft. By taking control of every aspect of the requirement to the final disposition of a part, it gets more precisely what it wants.

Diving into the Works

We took a walk around the skunk works—well, just one portion of them—in nondescript buildings, feeling like we were walking through a back lot on land adjacent to the San Carlos Regional Airport (KSQL). Leading the way was the perfect guide, Jon Wagner, as noted, Joby’s head of batteries, powertrain, and electronics. If that job title feels a bit cobbled together, it’s not. He’s the juice guy—how to store it and how to deliver it to the motors as well as the avionics and flight control system.

Working with Wagner is Jason Thomas, flight engineering lead. Thomas came to the company in 2021 from a designated engineering representative firm in Florida called EQ Dynamics. Before that, he worked with Aurora Flight Systems and its UAS concepts, and prior to that, at Honda Aircraft Company and Gulfstream Aerospace, in flutter and structural engineering roles. “I am the sole DER for external loads, aeroelasticity (flutter), and ground vibration testing (GVT),” said Thomas of the fascinating confluence of disciplines that by necessity must cover new territory in just about every mode of flight on the airframe.

The prop blades, for example, land under Thomas’ oversight—with their wide chord and downturned tips to dramatically reduce resonance and, thereby, noise.

“We design and make everything inside the airplane here,” said Wagner, as he kicked off our walk-through of the Santa Clara facility. “Six years ago [in 2017], we flew the first full-scale airplane, and coming out of that experience, we realized that, OK, this airplane works, the concept is solid, and we could architect the business. We made a really important decision—it was right around the time I was joining—that we were going to build up an engineering team to design and manufacture all of the electronic equipment in the plane.

“It started with a discussion about batteries and progressed [to] talking about motors, talking about actuators, talking about all the flight computers, things like that.”

Joby’s founding members decided to hire the team—design, manufacturing, and testing engineers— to create each critical component.

“When you buy something from a vendor, you’re gonna get whatever they have, with maybe some small changes to fit what you need,” said Wagner. “And when you design it yourself, you’re going to get exactly what you need.”

That takes enormous investment and engineering bench depth to pull off—that’s why so many OEMs work with vendors for a long parts list in the construction of an airplane. But CEO JoeBen Bevirt planned to vertically integrate Joby to that level from the beginning.

How They Got Here

Though the company boasted more than 1,000 employees around the time of our visit—and keeps growing daily—it still feels like a startup. The origin stories encased in various discarded components and updated blueprints lay around in plain sight. We stop in a showroom that’s between engagements, but it still houses one of the iterations of the fuselage and the cockpit and cabin contained therein. The moves Joby has made to determine the best combinations and materials for the interior and exterior it calls “explorations,” and posters walking back through those imaginings line a wall behind the mock-up. It’s like they’re not quite ready to put these pieces in storage yet, because they may gain use or traction somewhere down the line.

Following that experimental phase, the last seven years have been the more traditional aerospace development path, with requirements-based design “fit for purpose.” From scratch, it builds all of the battery packs for the airplane, the motors, and all of the electronics. “With the exception of the pilot interface—that’s the Garmin, we purchase that from Garmin, the displays—but all the rest of the avionics and electronics we build,” Wagner said.

Cruisin’ Down the Coast

Schedules kept us from hitching a ride with Bonny Simi, now president of air operations for Joby, in the Cirrus SR22 it operates. But we made our way nevertheless to the primary production and assembly and flight test operation in Marina, located on the airport there in a series of massive white Quonset hut-style tent hangars—that echoed in a way reminiscent of the big historic hangar at Moffett Field to the north, when it housed the dirigibles and other experimental aircraft in development. Fitting.

Once there, we were going to meet up with Didier Papadopoulos, head of the aircraft OEM for Joby, and the one responsible for much of what was going on inside those hangars. Instead—because we were there right after Memorial Day, our own scheduling concern, we had the next best thing, Scott Berry, a nine-year veteran of Joby. He’s also, tall, ranging, with a preternatural goodness and health emanating from him that feels like a trademark here. Berry has also built a Lancair Legacy and posts an AirCam on his LinkedIn profile. Taking aviation into an innovative direction feels like a natural fit.

“I had this dream that I always wanted to fly a seaplane into this area [Santa Cruz Wharf] and bring my children in and surfboards, put out an anchor, and then fly away,” Berry said. “I literally did that yesterday [in the AirCam on floats].”

The Joby aircraft will take this concept up another notch.

“I got my job because I had started my own eVTOL company,” Berry continued. “I was working for General Atomics…and I always wanted to develop my own aircraft. I was trying to convince General Atomics to do a version of the Predator drone with electrics…and I couldn’t do it, so I started my own company. I came to try and sell my aircraft to [Bevirt while on a holiday in Santa Cruz], and he convinced me to come work for Joby.”

Berry has spent the last nine years developing the design and certification team, running flight tests, and leading the company’s establishment of culture. That’s a critical element when what you’re doing is constantly pushing the human-machine interface—to watch the “human” part of the equation.

Humans and Robots

The production line order was still a bit out of sequence during our visit. At every turn, the interface between man and machine took center stage. We expect the use of robots in a variety of roles in manufacturing—and with Joby, they have been integrated from the beginning. Those integrations resonate in aerospace, but much of what I saw around me has roots in automotive manufacturing. Early on, Toyota invested in the company, and a significant part of its investment lay in the dedication of teams of Toyota colleagues embedded within Joby’s research and development—and that pattern continues as it transitions to production. But wait—it isn’t the same as a traditional transition from R&D and prototyping to building a conforming, deliverable model. Joby has been building the production line as it has developed the string of prototypes, so it would be ready as soon as the final fix was in to start production. That’s what we saw.

First, we toured the composites manufacturing facility, where boxcar-sized automated CNC machines crafted parts and shepherded through components from raw materials to layup.

Then we moved into the next big white tent, through a pass-through, hangar-sized door, on to the assembly and integration facility, where those components would join together into the airframe.

About Lunch

Back to culture now. Douglas Aircraft Company pioneered the concept of providing holistically for its employees, in the supposition that if they were healthy, well fed, and well housed, that security would translate to better job performance, less sick leave, and fewer HR issues. In Joby’s world, that means everyone gets fed, family style, at the Marina complex. But the shared tacos are just an indicator.

“The vibe at Joby is energizing and unprecedented in my career,” said Thomas. “Joby embodies a truly unique and interesting mix of talent, passion, energy, innovation, focus and a can-do attitude that is very pervasive.”

Watching It Fly

During that visit in late May 2023, we had a unique window open to see the conforming prototype fly. The production unit was nearing completion at the apex of the line (also under construction), and though we couldn’t talk about that at the time, we can now.

A small team of specialists hovered around the model, smiles illuminating the obvious pride it felt in being so close to the completion of this next critical stage. Our ability to walk around the unit gave us an opportunity to talk through in more detail how the prototype had evolved into the airframe that would be ready for the final flight-test program of the primary campaign to TC.

In parallel, other teams at Joby are working on the business and operational cases, figuring out how the initial run of aircraft will fit into the national airspace system. “We’re not trying to create segregated airspace,” said Bowles, “but to blend in, working heavily with ATC in key regions that are in the initial target, i.e. [helicopter] routes in New York and LA.”

At the state and local level, the question is, are communities excited and ready? The low-noise profile helps immensely—at 65 dBA at 100 meters away on takeoff (vs. 93 dBA for a traditional helicopter liftoff) and in cruise down to 45 dBA—barely recognizable over the wind noise, as we discovered on the ramp in Marina.

It’s a “very torquey motor” in Bowles’ words, to turn the props slowly enough, with a big chord, so efficient at low rpm; plus a drooped tip lowers the vortex a blade length; plus five blades, with their angle of incidence not common to each other. The arrangement is such that it doesn’t stand up a resonance—so no sine wave and its resulting noise footprint.

As the teams look at every geographic location as a special case—procedures are always local—they assess the existing infrastructure—airports, helipads—and, over time, the development of a vertiport: a 50-foot piece of concrete with electric charging and noise limits.

Joby already can make use of the roughly 5,080 GA airports in the U.S. but adds 5,000 more heliports. That’s a lot of opportunity already in place if we can keep those landing sites open. With most people living an average 16-minute drive from an airport, that future lies in clear sight.

These columns first appeared in the March 2024/Issue 946 of FLYING’s print edition.

The post A First Look at Joby’s eVTOL Future appeared first on FLYING Magazine.

FLYING took the opportunity to see what’s on the horizon in terms of both traditional helicopters and the red-hot powered-lift and eVTOL categories ahead of the Helicopter Association International’s HeliExpo in February at Anaheim, California.

Bell 525

The Bell 525 (at right) proposes to bring the first fully digital, fly-by-wire rotorcraft to the civil market, and Bell Helicopter has been hard at work getting the program to the finish line down at its headquarters in Fort Worth, Texas.

So what does that mean? The FBW design logic on the 525 is different from an aftermarket add-on autoflight system such as the GFC 600H. In this case, Bell’s partnership with Garmin has translated to the G5000H flight deck.

Tim Evans, business development manager on the 525 program, gave FLYING a special update ahead of Heli-Expo.

“Broadly speaking, flight testing is continuing very nicely, with the good relationship we have with the FAA,” said Evans. “Last year, we were able to complete nine TIAs towards certification, and by the end of February, we should have only five events left. Two of them we’re already into, and the other two [should be complete] by midyear.”

• READ MORE: Bell 360 Invictus Prototype Advances with T901 Engine Delivery

At that point, all of the delegated activities that Bell is responsible for will be finished—and the team will turn things over to the FAA. From there, functional and reliability testing is the last milestone to cross, with 150 hours of flying with the FAA, putting the 525 through its operational paces.

As with similar Textron Aviation aircraft programs, Bell engaged its Customer Advisory Board, which gave a clear message.

“The overwhelming response?” said Evans. “It’s automation that will bring a level of safety seen commensurately on the fixed wing side—the redundancy will be game-changing to how the civil market functions.”

According to Bell, the 525 will deliver what the customer feedback told it was needed: “When you pull it into a hover and get to 20 to 30 feet—with no pedals—it will hold that attitude, essentially hands off.”

Pilots can also turn into an angle of bank, with no pedal inputs, and the 525 will do a full 360 at the input bank angle.

“The control laws are able to anticipate and calculate the pilots’ inputs,” said Evans, noting that the 525 also benefits from a level of redundancy not seen before in this class of rotorcraft. “We’re shaping some of the requirements in Part 29, so the FAA required a triple redundancy—three computers, three hydraulic [systems]—so [it’s] a safer aircraft at a foundational level.”

Several markets that Bell shaped the 525 for include offshore, VIP/head of state, and SAR/parapublic/Coast Guard—so Bell built certain provisioning into the airframe itself, though kitting will take care of the details. Bell has multiple launch customers and is in active negotiations, though it can’t say yet who those first deliveries will go to.

In closing our briefing, Evans also wanted to highlight the green side of the design.

“If you compare the 525 to others in the medium space, it’s going to be 30 percent more efficient than a [Sikorsky] S-92. That’s one we’re pretty proud of. We’ve also flown it on SAF fuel, a 30 percent blend, but capable of up to 100 percent.”

Leonardo AW09 and AW609

Two projects from Leonardo Helicopters have also been winding their way through the certification process along the European Union Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) track—the modern-yet-standard AW09 helicopter and the AW609 tiltrotor design.

The single-engine AW09 was originally developed by Kopter Group, a company acquired by Leonardo in 2020. Proposed as a multimission solution for VIP transport, emergency medical services, utility operations, and security teams, the AW09 will carry up to eight passengers.

A five-blade, all-composite rotor system will translate into smooth flight characteristics and a high degree of maneuverability. Up front, the Garmin G3000H flight deck offers pilots next-generation glass. The Safran Arriel 2K powerplant has dual channel FADEC with an auxiliary backup system. Projected retail pricing begins at $3.9 million.

• READ MORE: Leonardo Tests AI-Enabled Visual Awareness System for Rotorcraft

A year ago, on March 16 and 17, Leonardo began familiarization flight testing with EASA on the tiltrotor AW609, following on to FAA testing in February. The company plans dual certification, so it is moving through the process with both agencies concurrently. Leonardo pursues this strategy in hopes of making up for some lost time, as the AW609 began life in the 1990s as a joint project between Bell and Agusta, called the BA609.

That’s probably why it bears some resemblance to the more commonly known Bell V-22 Osprey. The AW609 similarly enters the powered-lift category with its ability to take off vertically and fly at high cruise speeds with props tilted forward—up to twice the speed of normal helicopters, according to the company. The expected service ceiling will be 25,000 feet msl.

Its projected certification timeline remains in the distance, with a proposed retail price beginning at roughly $24 million.

Up Next for Robinson?

Robinson continues to set the pace on the light GA end of the market with its line of piston-powered R22s and R44s, and turbine R66 helicopters.

• READ MORE: Airworthiness Directive Issued for Robinson Helicopters

While the Lycoming O-320-powered R22 is well known in training, the R44—with its O-360 engine—crosses over into the recreational and light transportation markets with the Raven and Raven II variants. The R66 fulfills a variety of roles, with added cruise speed—up to 110 knots—extra passenger capacity, and turbine reliability from its Rolls-Royce RR300 engine.

As of press time, the company indicated news on the horizon that it would be sharing at Heli-Expo—including the updated empennage for the R44—so stay tuned into FLYING’s reporting from the event.

eVTOLs Next?

As we gear up for Heli-Expo, we know that the show floor will host an entire flight line of eVOTLs in various stages toward initial FAA certification. While we covered Joby Aviation’s prospects in detail in our “First Look: Joby’s eVTOL Future” piece in this issue, it is far from the only player in town.

Archer Aviation’s Midnight has recently passed its Phase 1 flight testing program, hot on Joby’s heels. The company announced in late January that it would be ready for the beginning of for-credit flight testing with the FAA later in 2024. The Midnight cuts a similar profile to the Joby aircraft—carrying one pilot plus four passengers—but with six fixed rotors in a forward flight position and six fixed for vertical flight. The test unit has yet to make the transition from vertical to forward flight as of press time, but we expect this to come soon.

Beta Technologies launched its program with a conventional takeoff and landing (CTOL) aircraft

called the Alia to test its electric propulsion system in a more traditional airframe before moving forward into the powered-lift space. As of late January, Beta had conducted multiple flights with the U.S. Air Force and U.S. Department of Defense in both on-base and cross-country ops as part of the Agility Prime program. While it tests the applicability and cost reduction

possible—using electric aircraft in missions including casualty evacuation to go operational in 2025—Beta hopes to take what it learns and produce an eVTOL version by 2026.

Overair’s Butterfly eVTOL is also coming up quickly, as the Southern California-based company signs on several new customers in South Korea as well as Houston-based Bristow Group. Overair is now working through its G-1 Stage III means of compliance documentation with the FAA, with testing of the full-scale, six-seat prototype to begin later this year.

Meanwhile, south of the equator, Eve Air Mobility recently saw Brazilian aviation authority ANAC release the proposed airworthiness criteria for its design, along with bringing a list of key suppliers on board. Eve broke ground on its manufacturing facility in Taubaté, Brazil, earlier this year as well.

Many other players, including Volocopter, Lilium, and Jump Aero continue to chug along—and the race is really heating up as to who will make it to certification first. Oh, wait—that honor already belongs to EHang, which obtained CAAC’s blessing for its EH216-S in China in late 2023—and made the first commercial demonstration flights with it by December.

This feature first appeared in the March 2024/Issue 946 of FLYING’s print edition.

The post Rotor Roundup: What’s on the Horizon for Helicopters and eVTOLs? appeared first on FLYING Magazine.

Since the first of its kind—the Wright Flyer, if you go back all the way—airplane designers have addressed the tension between power and control in a variety of ways. Some with centerline thrust, such as the Cessna 336 and 337 Skymaster, and others with pilot support, such as the Beechcraft King Air’s latest autothrottles—both under supplemental type certificate and standard in new models—taking flight in the one-engine regime into “easy day” territory.

But Diamond quietly achieved the latter in elegant ways with the DA62, starting with its first flight in April 2012. Now, more than 11 years later, the twin has become a darling of private owners as well as a handful in flight training.

Futuristic Lines

I first contemplated the DA62 in detail as I flew off its wing in Diamond’s newest sister ship, the DA50 RG, for a pilot report last spring (see “We Fly: Diamond DA50 RG” in Issue 938). We followed a course from Friedrichshafen, Germany (EDNY), after the AERO 2023 conference, to Diamond’s home in Wiener Neustadt, Austria, south of Vienna. While at first take the DA62 appears to be a stouter version of the DA42 that preceded it (and which sees most of its time on training flight lines in Europe and North America), upon inspection it appears even more robust—less a Captain Proton design than a Porsche Cayenne with wings and a T-tail.

• READ MORE: We Fly: Cessna TTx

I did my initial multi in 1995 in a pair of Cessna 310s—first a J-model belonging to master Twin Cessna instructor Chuck Clemen, and the second a striking P-model with a jaunty red stripe at Longmont Air Services at what is now KLMO in Colorado. I started an airline transport pilot certificate course in a Piper Seminole at one point—and that’s another story—but was less than impressed with it after enjoying the stately, still-modern ramp presence and performance of the 310. But the lack of single-engine climb rate on takeoff in Colorado even in the 310 sobers you up quickly.

That’s where the DA62 demonstrates its difference. With a single-engine service ceiling of 13,000 feet, you might actually be able to climb to the pattern for a landing following an engine failure after takeoff at mile-high elevations—as opposed to closing both throttles and aiming for the softest spot like you were in a single.

While the DA42 came in a couple of versions, one with Lycoming and one with Austro Engine powerplants, the DA62 entered both EASA and FAA certification with the AE-330s, a bespoke jet-A burner based on a Mercedes-Benz automotive diesel engine. Originally having a 1,000-hour TBO, the bar was raised in 2019 to1,800 hours, with estimated overhaul costs still in flux as of press time. But regardless, it’s great news—saving money for engines making it to the later TBO.

FADEC Baseline

The DA62’s genius lies in the way the designers architected the FADEC-enabled engines to leverage that control into a safety net for the pilot to use in the event of a power loss. But the simplification of operation begins on engine start and carries on throughout the flight.

• READ MORE: We Fly: Garmin Autoland for the Beechcraft King Air 200

The before-takeoff checks illuminate how this works. The dance of checking prop, mixture, and mags—involving six levers in most standard light twins—is replaced with the 20-second-long ECU test that runs its automated magic when you press and hold the button on each engine in sequence. The fuel system also follows the simplicity rule, with two tanks centered between the fore and aft spars and within the stout carbon fiber structure to attain the level of crashworthiness for which Diamond airplanes are known. To crossfeed in the event of single-engine operations, or to balance fuel between the wings, you place the fuel on/off lever into that position for the tank, with the red off position guarded with a sliding, red metal gate.

Flight Test

I took the opportunity to fly with Micke Lang, pilot and delivery manager in flight operations for Diamond Aircraft, out of the European factory location at Wiener Neustadt (LOAN). After watching the previous days’ ballet of aerial photography of the DA62, with its steep turns and quick breaks, I couldn’t wait to get my hands on the stick—yes, a twin with a control stick—and feel those maneuvers for myself.

Lang briefed me on the flight ahead prior to getting on board the airplane. Then he walked me through the engine start, flipping the master switch on and pushing the silver button on the left and then right as we cleared both sides visually. Soon we were calling our position on the 1,067-meter (3,501 feet) runway for a normal takeoff, which in our very light configuration—with half tanks and just the two of us on board—took less than half its length.

We cruise-climbed up at 110 knots indicated (V_Y is 89 kias) to a moderate altitude of 4,500 feet msl from which to begin the high work series, starting off with a power-off stall with flaps and a mild relaxation of pressure around 70 knots on the tape. No bad habits as long as both engines are turning in equal measure. In fact, the aerodynamics compared favorably to the single-engine retract DA50 RG I’d just tested, definitely showing the family resemblance.

Single-Engine Operations

We put the DA62 through a full palette of ops on one engine—with Lang shutting down the left engine with a flip of the switch, upon which time it automatically went into feather, prop stopped. I took the controls, and put in 5 degrees of bank into the good engine, but tooling around on one above the Austrian fields felt only nominally different from two-engine maneuvers, handling wise. The left side is the critical engine, but the low power adjustment needed to maintain level flight at that altitude made it feel decidedly not so critical. It makes sense that V_YSE at 87 kias is so close to V_Y in this twin.

After conducting the demonstration of the loss of power, bringing that side back to life was as simple as maintaining the recommended airspeed, 80 knots (76 knots for a stopped prop), allowing the prop to regain forward thrust as I turned the ECU switch back on.

All along the flight, I felt instantly comfortable with the familiar Garmin G1000 NXi up front with two primary flight displays and a central multifunction display. Within its avionics brain, you find the industry standard ESP (enhanced stability protection), an emergency level mode, weather radar via the GWX8000, and Surface Watch ground alerting system. The most recent Phase III software update introduced split-screen functionality, Bluetooth recording of pilot audio, and coupled go-arounds using the GFC 700 autopilot.

Getting Current?

As we returned to base, Micke demonstrated one unique flight regime for the DA62, the accelerated descent. Putting the airspeed tape at the bottom of the yellow arc—at 162 kias and 1,100 fpm down—we smoothly bled off altitude to transition to the charted visual approach back into LOAN. I gave Lang a moment’s pause when I answered his question: How many landings shall we do? Three, I said half in jest, so I can be current.

Yes, in an EASA-registered airplane not logging instruction, that was not really to be the case, but with the ease of operation—and the straightforward approach and touchdown sight pictures for the DA62—it would have been readily accomplished.

Can It Carry Seven?

The target market for the airplane (see “The Owner Experience” below) lies in the coveted six-seater realm, and the DA62 goes one better over standbys such as the Beechcraft Bonanza G36 by allowing for up to seven passengers. To be fair, the rear seats combined are really only workable for a couple of children perhaps, but with seven belts instead of six, that option remains. And with a useful load of up to 1,548 pounds, that choice is real. Front baggage compartments hold up to 66 pounds on each side—and the third row can have an optional fold-down capability to fit in more stuff by volume.

The owner can choose a range of materials and designs based on whether those kids—hypothetical or not—tend to leave a trail of Goldfish crackers and sippy cups behind, or if they’re grown and ready to go looking at college campuses with the pilot on a whirlwind tour.

And while you can make your own paint scheme a reality, the selection of premium colors runs from ruby red to anthracite black. With the leather interior choices on Diamond’s famous crashworthy seats, owners can opt for a variety of options, from highlight stitching to custom panels and carpets.

Market Penetration

Since the DA62 was first delivered in 2015, with two units, Diamond has kept a steady cadence of between 26 to 33 units each year up through 2021.

However, a jump to 53 out the door in 2022 and 30 in the first half of this year signal an uptick in orders. At press time, Diamond had reported a total of 273, according to figures compiled by the General Aviation Manufacturers Association, in the hands of mostly ecstatic private owner-pilots.

The significant fleet speaks to the sweet spot that the DA62 has found in the market—for a true family luxury SUV of the air.

The Owner Experience

With nearly 275 in the field, the Diamond DA62 is making pilots happy with their choice.

In the 40 years since he became a pilot, and 20 in the aviation business, John Armstrong of LifeStyle Aviation has flown his share of light twins. But the Diamond DA62 is the airplane of choice to fly every week.

“It’s my go-to airplane, and I love it,” Armstrong says, because it requires relatively little effort from the pilot compared to others in the piston-twin segment.

That sentiment echoed through the voices of the four DA62 owners FLYING interviewed for this article. From high time pilots, such as Armstrong and Scott Thompson, to brand-new ones, like Brett Swanson and John Chaffetz, everyone agreed that the DA62 ranked among the lowest in pilot workload and commensurately high in capability and capacity for their respective missions.

Bill Craven purchased serial number 177 in January 2022—and he transitioned from the Cessna T182T and T206 that he had used to fly his family from the Seattle area to a vacation home in central Washington. Craven was attracted by the DA62’s flight into known icing (FIKI) approval to make the oft-wintry trek over the Cascades. With a similar useful load to the 206 but with an extra engine, the DA62 has proven to be a reliable mount.

“It’s easy to fly, but also a pilot’s airplane,” Craven says, referring to the airplane’s control stick and direct feedback.

Chaffetz started flying in a DA40 in the Los Angeles Basin, so the transition to the DA62 felt natural to him. It also appealed to his passengers.

“The stability is the thing,” he says. “It’s a little bit heavier than the DA40 but still fun to fly. It’s just so much more comfortable on longer trips.”

With the ability to seat up to seven people, depending on their size, owners have options. Thompson has a few tips regarding the configuration.

“It’s really a four-adult, two-kid, or five-adult, two-kid, or five-adults-and-a lot-of-bags airplane,” he says.

And it sips jet-A, which several owners reported was an advantage because of its widespread availability. Several we spoke with reported economy cruise burns of around 15 to 20 gph total.

But for all of that capability, the mechanics of flying the twin remain straightforward. For Swanson, more than any other thing, the simplicity of operating the DA62 lends him a degree of confidence that he truly appreciates.

“The pilot workload is just lower,” he says, which allows him to use the airplane to visit store franchise locations around the Southeastern U.S., with either his wife or several colleagues on board.

Plus, it passes the all-important test for passenger and pilot—satisfaction.

“When it sets down on the runway, it sticks—that’s part of the confidence,” Swanson says, noting that although his insurance was pretty expensive during the first year, it was worth it.

Cockpit at a Glance

A. The engine-start sequence is enabled by the control inherent in the Austro AE-330 powerplants, using the ECU switches for each engine.

B. The Garmin G1000 NXi offers ESP, emergency level mode—and in the latest update, split-screen functionality and coupled go-arounds with the GFC 700 autopilot.

C. The single lever for each engine helps to reduce workload, and one-engine-out operations are streamlined so that bringing back the power on the failed engine feathers the prop.

D. The fuel system is also simplified, and it follows Diamond’s standards for safety and crashworthiness, plus the ability to crossfeed with the slide of a switch.

E. The control sticks are unique among twins, giving the airplane an immediate responsiveness.

Spec Sheet: 2024 Diamond DA62

Price, standard equipped: $1,471,950

Engine: 2 x Austro Engine AE-330, diesel

Propeller: 2 x MT-Propeller MTV-6-R-C-F/CF, composite, three blade

Horsepower: 180 hp per side (177 hp max power, 169 hp max continuous power)

Seats: Up to seven

Length: 30 ft., 1 in.

Height: 9 ft., 3 in.

Wingspan: 47 ft., 10 in.

Wing Area: 184.1 sq. ft.

Wing Loading: 27.54 lbs./sq. ft.

Power Loading: 14.32 lbs./hp

Cabin Width: 4 ft., 2.8 in

Cabin Height: 4 ft., 2.4 in.

Max Zero Fuel Weight: 4,850 lbs.

Max Takeoff Weight: 5,071 lbs.

Empty Weight: 3,523 lbs., depending on options

Max Nose Baggage: 132 lbs.

Max Rear Baggage: 265 lbs.

Useful Load: 1,548 lbs., depending on options

Max Usable Fuel: 86.4 gal. (main + aux.)

Max Operating Altitude: 20,000 ft.

Single-Engine Service Ceiling (ISA, MTOW): 11,000 ft.

Max Rate of Climb (MTOW, ISA, SL): 1,028 fpm

Cruise Speed at 85% Power: 185 ktas, ISA, 12,000 ft.

Max Cruise Speed: 192 ktas, ISA, 14,000 feet msl, at 4,407 lbs.; 190 ktas at MTOW

Max Range: 1,288 nm with no reserve

Fuel Consumption at 60% power: 11.8 gph, 12,000 ft.

Stall Speed, Flaps Up: 72 kcas MTOW

Stall Speed, Full Flaps: 68 kcas MTOW

V_MC: 76 kias, flaps up

V_YSE: 89 kias (MTOW)

Takeoff Over 50 Ft. Obs: (ISA, sea level, MTOW) 2,732 ft.

Landing Over 50 Ft. Obs: (ISA, sea level, MLW) 2,559 ft.

This column first appeared in the December 2023/Issue 944 of FLYING’s print edition.

The post We Fly: Diamond DA62 appeared first on FLYING Magazine.

The airstrips defended and nurtured by the Recreational Aviation Foundation have triggered an urgent message to keep them safe. They represent some of our most precious resources—places for pilots to touch down and gather—beyond the physical runways they contain.

Whether a manicured landing lawn in Maryland, or a sandy strip hideaway in Florida, or a desert oasis in New Mexico, or a gravel bar by a lake in Oregon, these points on the map string together the lives and hearts of the RAF volunteers who have kept them up over the past 20 years—building friendships along with the fences and branded fire rings they leave behind.

Founded in 2003, when a handful of aviation friends came together with a shared mission around a campfire at Schafer Meadows airstrip (8U2) in Montana, RAF now stands third-largest among nonprofit aviation associations. And its reach embraces all pilots, as it keeps vital airports and backcountry strips in play—assessed, upgraded, and safe to use. RAF chairman

John McKenna was one of those initial pilots around the campfire, and he recalls their consensus: “This really needs doing, we agreed. We didn’t know what ‘this’ was,” he admits, but they soon discovered the “human capital” raised by the group, though hard to measure adequately, was exactly what was needed to save airstrips.

While not a membership organization per se—there are no annual dues, no codified list of benefits, and no chapters—RAF remains without question driven by the collective efforts of a committed group of folks. More so than a lot of membership associations I’ve given time and money to over the years, in fact. You can donate—in cash or through buying its cool clothing, tools, and other gifts via the website—and/or you can volunteer. That’s it. It’s a simple equation that has added up to a large sum of investment and effort over the past two decades. To date, more than 11,000 pilots and aviation enthusiasts have “joined” the RAF in these ways.

The Last Best Places

Most pilots become involved in the RAF because of other pilots—they hear of friends in the aviation family talking about all the fun they had putting up cabins and transporting goods. For me, my connection happened just like this—resonating especially since I spent a lot of my early flying time in Colorado and have been hiking in the Idaho and Montana mountains since I was a kid, barely able to shoulder a pack. To this day, I’m way more comfortable in hiking boots than high heels—as anyone who has seen me try to walk in the latter will attest.

My first flyout with RAF folks came in the height of the pandemic summer of 2020, when I found myself in Wisconsin in July without an “Oshkosh” at which to spend time with my aviation family.

I called up Wisconsin-based FLYING contributor Jason McDowell, and he put me in touch with Cessna 170 guy and photographer Jim Stevenson and Husky owner and RAF social media ambassador Ross Wilke to flit around a few strips they called home in their backyard northwest of Madison. RAF director Jeff Russell wasn’t around in his hangar at Morey Field (C29) to join us, but our paths would cross in July 2023 when I sat in on his presentation at EAA AirVenture on what it takes to join an RAF work party—or launch one at a worthy field.

My next intersection came in October 2020 with RAF director Steve Taylor, recently retired from Boeing Flight Services and a former colleague of mine. Taylor and his son Finley have made a point of participating in a wide range of RAF service projects together, strengthening their already close bond as Fin has earned his pilot certificate. Taylor and I flew around the San Juan Islands in his Cessna “184-and-a-half”—there are few projects in Washington right now, though the folks there stand ready to assist and do so quite a bit in neighboring states, like Idaho and Montana.

Moose Creek

At the heart of RAF lies the work party, and I really needed to get some mud under the tires in order to understand what this was all about. After amassing a number of texts, schedule changes, and other machinations, FLYING photographer Stephen Yeates and I finally made it to Moose Creek U.S. Forest Service airstrip (1U1) in Idaho for an end-of-season, get-it-in-before-the-snow-flies work project led by Bill McGlynn, current RAF president. Because Moose Creek sits at a relatively low elevation of 2,454 feet msl, it stays open later in the fall than other strips in this part of the Rocky Mountains.

The goal of the party was to begin replacing the couple thousand feet of fence surrounding the corrals and cabins of the oldest USFS ranger station still in operation. Because of its location in the heart of the wilderness, the use of motorized vehicles and other equipment is strictly limited or prohibited, therefore all of the materials for construction and operation of the station must be brought in by pack mule or aircraft.

The USFS has used a Short Sherpa to deliver bulky goods and materials, such as the 10-foot-long rails that make up much of the fencing. But with additional airlift a clear need, Daher stepped up this past summer to support the operations within Idaho—the location of its Kodiak manufacturing facility—and its environs with the use of Kodiak 100s and 900s by RAF pilots.

Nicolas Chabbert, CEO of Daher Kodiak in the U.S. and senior vice president of Daher’s aircraft division, said that the donated aircraft time fit perfectly into both the company’s responsibility to the community, as well as leveraging the single-engine turboprop’s capabilities.

“Our contribution to the Recreational Aviation Foundation is supported by the fact we are in Idaho,” said Chabbert when we caught up at NBAA-BACE in Las Vegas after the mission. “And we are very interested in preserving and conserving these strips—in Idaho, Wyoming, and Montana. We believe that the best way to help is not to just come with a cash contribution, but [with] the use of a Kodiak 100 or Kodiak 900. [The RAF] needs to load and fly in some very basic stuff. It could be a bear box, so that you won’t have any problem at night if you go and camp under the wing of your airplane.”

He also added the Kodiaks could fly in loads of materials to fence the airports—and the people to make that happen.

Hauling It In

For our flight into Moose Creek, we met up with RAF volunteer pilot J.C. Carroll and one of the Kodiak 100s at Daher’s R&D hangar in Sandpoint (KSZT) on a Friday afternoon in mid-October. We had all of our camping and photography gear—plus suits and other finery for the NBAA-BACE show in Vegas we would fly to the following week. Carroll trusted me with the controls for part of our flight over Lake Pend Oreille and the 143 nm south to Idaho County Airport (KGIC). That’s where we picked up our camp cooks, Fred Hebert and Alex Cravener, and much of the food for the next few days, packed in Styrofoam coolers. It made for quite a load, but we were still off the pavement in about one-third of the 5,000-foot runway at Grangeville.

We tracked the drainage of the Selway River up to its confluence with Moose Creek, where the crossing grass runways of the ranger station perch on a shelf over the tumbling waters on either side. Carroll took us overhead for a survey of the site, then lined up for the “new, long” Runway 19 (4,100 feet). Unloading at the apex of the shorter, original 2,300-foot-long runway—first cleared by the Forest Service starting in 1931—we were soon pitching a blaze-orange, six-person Marmot special and blowing up the air mattress that would guarantee a cozy night. After a campfire around a reburning and efficient Solo Stove and a review of the next day’s plan of attack, McGlynn sent us off to get a solid night of sleep in the quietest spot I have bunked down in many moons. Only the predawn calls of a local owl broke the intense silence.

Coffee went on the wood stove early Saturday morning in the cookhouse, and soon after we sorted into ad hoc groups to tackle the work ahead. First came the demolition, with sledges flying, and then we stacked the rotted beams in a bonfire heap to burn later once enough snow lay on the ground to dampen the very real fire danger. Then came the construction, which we soon put into a rhythm, with many hands making quick work of the setting and hammering of nails. In a day, we put up about 600 feet of new fence—and by the close of the project, the group of about 25 volunteers finished 1,300 feet plus odds and ends. They only stopped work because they ran out of materials.

According to McKenna, the USFS folks were surprised that so much had been accomplished. “They can’t believe all this happened,” he told me in early November. But that’s the beauty of the RAF’s collaborative programs with entities such as the Forest Service, Nature Conservancy, and Bureau of Land Management—a committed team of passionate pilots and enthusiasts can get the job done. In a recent note, McGlynn was already “firing everyone up for next year.” The USFS will coordinate next summer’s loads of fence rail to fly in by Sherpa—and the Moose Creek RAF work parties plan to convene in September to complete the roughly 1,450 feet of fencing remaining for that project.

Truly the Sum of Its Hearts

In a recent online newsletter from the RAF, McKenna encapsulated the past 20 years: “Like a long cross-country flight, the RAF has always had a destination in mind. En route, we have had to adjust. Without taking into account the deviation and changes that take place in our magnetic world—just like in the RAF world—we might lose our way. Like magnetic north, the world continues to move, and so has the RAF.”

In every state of the union, there are opportunities for local RAF volunteers to identify airstrips that need attention and the appropriate state, local, and private agencies to engage and partner with to ensure these efforts continue.

Carroll sums up the experience—and why he continues to volunteer with the organization.

“I’ve been a part of the RAF for about six years. In that time I’ve been as far west as the San Juans and as far east as northeastern Maine, as far north as [Upper Peninsula] Michigan and south to Florida. I live in Indiana. I’ve visited many areas in between. The common thread in all of those travels is not the airstrips or the scenery, it’s the people. These are people I want to spend my time with when I can. Everyone I run into at the RAF are bonded by the selfless culture of the organization. We (the RAF) profess this when we go to the backcountry and ask folks to ‘leave it better than you found it.’

“Well, I have to admit I feel that I’m better off after spending time volunteering with RAF than before the event because of the people. Sweat equity amongst my friends that leaves a lasting impact on the backcountry—how does it get much better than that?”

Truly, it doesn’t. Because the one airstrip that happens to touch your soul can connect all of us to aviation— and around that RAF fire ring with each other.

Moose Creek USFS Airstrip (1U1)

From the RAF Airfield Guide, subject to change

Elevation: 2,412 feet msl

Region: North Pacific

State: Idaho

Near: Kooskia, Idaho

Comm: 122.900

Fuel: None

Lat/Long: 46.12453 / -114.92335 46° 7′ 28.32″ / -114° 55′ 24.06″

Variation: 13E (05-14-2018)

Time Zone: UTC-7 (UTC-8 during standard time)

Contact: Nez Perce Forest Air Officer

Address: 104 Airport Road, Grangeville, Idaho, 83530

Phone: 208-983-9571

The Airfield Guide

Like the pocket tool you reach for when you plan to fly, the RAF’s airfield guide comes in handy every time you turn around, it seems.

Once you acknowledge the necessary disclaimers, reminding of the risks and responsibilities inherent whenever we fly, you can access airstrip information through a U.S. map. Chip Gibbons created the guide, and RAF liaisons compiled data for the airfields listed, according to Kodi Myhre, RAF’s director of marketing.

“They find the strips, evaluate the recreational value, and talk with the owner/manager of the strip,” Myhre said. “Arkansas liaison Dave Powell enters the data into the guide.”

Amanda Levin, RAF liaison to the state of Wisconsin, has pitched in her programming skills to expand the guide’s reach as well. It’s another example in the RAF of how many hands help create a great product.

How to Help the RAF

Even if you don’t consider yourself a carpenter or a camp cook, you can find a way to help the RAF with its mission.

• Fly supplies into a strip for a work project.

• Provide camping gear to a team on a project.

• Make baked goods to help feed the workers.

• Donate your time and skill with back office tasks—just ask what the need is.

• Suggest to friends and family that you’d accept a donation to the RAF in lieu of a present for a birthday or other special occasion.

After all, the work serves all of us who fly, whether we make it into the true backcountry or not.

This column first appeared in the December 2023/Issue 944 of FLYING’s print edition.

The post Recreational Aviation Foundation Remains the Sum of Its Hearts appeared first on FLYING Magazine.

In a boardroom cross-country—literally—from where I sat, former Cessna president and CEO Jack Pelton had closed the deal, yes, buying “certain assets of the Columbia Aircraft Company.” His excitement about the purchase rang through the few lines of text—for the airplanes Textron had just bought as well as the potential for growing Cessna’s foothold in an evolving piston marketplace. And from that moment, my own relationship unfolded with the airplane. What started as the Columbia 400 could have taken the high-performance, piston-single segment by storm, born of the Lancair heritage. It would become the Cessna 400—known briefly by its marketing name, Corvalis TT—and finally, in its most recent edition, the Cessna TTx.

The type designation—Cessna T240—would place it atop the hierarchy of Cessna singles, but it began life as an offshoot of a popular kitplane, the Lancair ES. Lancair formed a new business entity, Columbia, to oversee the development and manufacture of the 300, followed by the 350, then the 400, under Part 23. The company was new to the process of type certification, but not to high-performance aircraft development, and this resulted in a string of airplanes determined to knock a pilot’s socks off with their ability to go fast, maneuver fearlessly, and look nothing short of awesome doing it.

• READ MORE: We Fly: Garmin Autoland for the Beechcraft King Air 200

Columbia upgraded the original 300 (FAA type certificated in 1998) to the 350 with the addition of an optional glass panel—Avidyne’s Entegra primary flight display—in 2003, along with the more powerful, turbocharged 400, right up until the company dissolved in 2007. Columbia achieved the airplane’s stall speed requirement with a multiphase wing, moving the aerodynamic stall inboard and limiting up elevator travel and left rudder pedal range. These changes resulted in an airplane that could be certified under the FAA’s definition of spin resistant—unable to enter a spin even with pro-spin inputs. Recovery would come from normal anti-spin procedures, as opposed to the ballistic recovery parachute system required by its primary competitor, the Cirrus SR20 and SR22.

Westbound

The only visible moisture we touched in 933 nm between Hagerstown, Maryland, and Wichita, Kansas, came during the takeoff roll at KHGR—wisps of mist that had suppressed the visibility below a quarter mile for the hour prior to our departure still wavered across the wide runway. As soon as we lifted off, we left it behind and continued our climb over the first folds of the Appalachian hills, as I revisited the TTx in September.

As we cut a path through the sky westbound above the scattered threads of valley fog, I thought of the last cross-country I made in an SR22T. Yes, the newer avionics of the Cirrus have had the benefit of continuous evolution—the TTx suffers from a paralysis in updating the G2000, such that its capabilities seem encased in amber.

• READ MORE: We Fly: WACO YMF-5

The touchscreen control pad—called by the model designation GTC—went under development with Garmin immediately after the acquisition, as one of the primary components of the G2000—a two-big-screen integrated flight deck driven by softkeys on the display bezels as well as remotely through the GTC. This formed the foundation that Garmin would leverage into the G3000 we now find on single-engine turboprops and on up the food chain. Thus the lack of a Perspective doesn’t hit as keenly—you still feel like you’re in a modern cockpit though the architecture is now 10-plus years old.

Cessna worked in concert with Garmin on the development of the touchscreen and exactly how the pilot actions would activate the controls on the display. Though it appears to be actuated by the heat of a finger—as our smartphones do—early versions introduced crisscrossing beams across the screen that would be interrupted by the presence of the pilot’s finger. But just breaking the beam wouldn’t be enough to activate the “button” on the screen below—a deliberate pause and stroke was required. This action has been refined in subsequent models of the GTCs—but it was intriguing to give my input to the product management team during the testing phase in Cessna’s R&D lab in Wichita in the early 2010s.

The Way-Back Machine

Continuing the flashbacks: Now we’ll move forward a bit to 2014. I’d joined Jeppesen as a senior manager in aviation courseware development—but was ready to strike out on my own. I decided to take back two familiar roles—working on a book and flight instructing. I paired up with a retired race car driver and engineer who had just bought a 2012 TTx on the preowned market through the local Cessna piston sales dealer in the Denver metro area. He needed a bit of transition training as he pursued his instrument rating. But he felt clearly comfortable with the TTx’s speed and nimble coupling, given his background. The TTx fit him and his personality like a glove.

• READ MORE: Today’s Top AircraftForSale.com Pick: Cessna TTx, the ‘Other Cirrus’?

We headed to Independence, Kansas, for the factory-led portion of his TTx training—and my refresher course in the model since I’d left Cessna. In fact, KIDP was the scene where just a couple of years ago I’d seen the TTx fuselages join together from their composite halves on the production line as the company sorted through the best way to replicate the former Columbia Aircraft factory in Bend, Oregon. I’d visited that facility as well—in February 2008, Cessna held a sales meeting in Bend, and members of the team toured the compact production line, with clearly skilled craftsmen attending to each unit. The initial promise to keep production within the hands of this dedicated team boded well—as well as retaining a beautiful location for customer delivery and training—but internal and external economic forces in late 2008 and 2009 conspired against that original business plan.

For the likes of Six Sigma-led Cessna to pick up that work and translate it to a line more like that of its legacy singles, such as the 172, 182, and 206, it would be a feat—but made more so by the nature of the Columbia airplanes’ composite construction. At the time, most composite work for Cessna was completed at the TAM facility in Mexico, but these were nonstructural components like fairings and nose bowls. The entire fuselage required a complex layup process beyond that kind of work. Still, Textron forced the movement of production from Bend to Chihuahua. As it turned out, the need wasn’t properly identified to upgrade all the environmental systems at the Mexico plant to properly address the layup and curing via autoclave of the carbon fiber and Kevlar composites used in the Columbia design—and early serial numbers on the Cessna 400 suffered. Delamination in a handful of wings—discovered in an FAA flight test when an integrated fuel tank in the wing leaked—torpedoed the 400’s reputation in the market.

The move of more production and assembly to Independence, and the rebranding and upgrades to the model to create the TTx, sought to assuage those issues. However, the loss of confidence—however temporary and well addressed—combined with Cirrus Aircraft’s powerful presence and success in the market gave the TTx too far to go to make up lost ground. Though 110 units sold in 2008—the last of the Bend-built Columbias— sales never reached beyond the double digits per quarter, even after the upgrade to the TTx. In the end, Cessna ceased production on the TTx in 2018, with a total of 704 400s and TTxs built.

Pelton offers the perspective of reflection after 15 years have passed since Cessna made the transition from Bend production to Kansas and Mexico: “The economic downturn of 2008 really forced things, making it necessary to move the line away from Oregon where the knowledge base for composite layup was, as well as a great place to have customer deliveries.” That stumble cost dearly, along with a couple of other key delays, one in bringing FIKI certification into play, and the other in failing to market well on the strength of the airplane aerodynamically over its competitors.

Yeah, Baby!

Yes, shunning the TTx as weak in any way would be a serious mistake. In fact, the 400 from which it derived carries a utility category certification, meaning it actually has as a limit load factor of 4.4 positive Gs—and minor aerobatic chops as a result. Legendary airshow pilot

Sean D. Tucker nabbed the Columbia 400 for use in his Tutima Academy of Flight Safety in 2006—and if you search his name and the model on YouTube, you’ll find an inspiring video of the master taking the 400 through a graceful routine. The FAA granted a reclassification of the stock 400 into an experimental airworthiness certificate so that it could be flown in aerobatic and upset prevention and recovery training. And that’s what Tucker used the mount for, as it closely resembles the airplanes many pilots fly for themselves—as opposed to an Extra 330—yet it provided a slightly wider envelope for maneuvers. Though Tucker no longer offers the 400 as part of the academy’s portfolio, the legacy remains meaningful.

So don’t get any ideas about taking a TTx out for a loop and a roll—just know that the model carries this strength forward, along with impressive maneuverability and a real appeal to hand-flying pilots. The Columbia 400s came with carved mahogany flight control sticks mounted on the side panels—left for the pilot, right for the copilot—and they are true sticks, with a natural range of motion and articulation. When I had the chance to put the now leather-wrapped stick in my hand during our flight to Wichita, it was like greeting an old friend who falls into step next to you.

Cruise Control

For our two-leg mission to Wichita, we planned a stop at Spirit of St. Louis Airport (KSUS) on the north side of the metro area on the western banks of the Mississippi River near where the Missouri River joins it. At 8,000 feet, we kept 150 kias and 175 ktas most of the way, with a little more or less in spots. The weather gods not only blessed us with clear skies but also a mere breath of a headwind, which translated into a crosswind somewhere over Illinois.

A quick fuel-up and turn at Signature Flight Support at KSUS—and chicken tenders and waffle fries for the road—had us off again for a two-hour jaunt across Missouri and into Kansas for the slide into the bumps below the LCL and Eisenhower National Airport (KICT). We arrived in comfort and style, as we weaved through the obstacle course of construction to the ramp at Yingling Aviation.

For our troubles, we averaged about 15.8 gph on both legs, taking a total of roughly 100 gallons of 100LL to make the journey halfway across the country in about six hours. Try getting from door to door, Maryland to Wichita, in less than that on the airlines. I dare you.

Any Gotchas?

The twin turbochargers on the Continental TSIO-550 respond well to careful management—and replacing them is not cheap. Nor is making up for any damage they might do if pressed to failure, so they’re worth treating nicely.

When you do, however, you’re rewarded with great performance figures across the board. The TTx can get off the ground in a relatively short distance: a 1,300-foot ground roll, with 1,900 feet to over a hypothetical 50-foot obstacle in sea-level standard conditions, as shown in the book values and as I witnessed many times in practice. It will land just as short, as far as ground roll is concerned—1,250 feet—but you need to budget a bit more space for the whole trees-at-the-end approach at around 2,700 feet.

Just as with the SR series, speed control on final rewards the pilot and helps to avoid the dreaded runway overrun that plagues high-performance singles. One area in this regard where the SRs have an edge? The approach flap speed has been raised to 150 kias on SR22s—while the TTx’s remains at a painfully slow 127 kias. Fortunately, the TTx has speed brakes to help you slow down and get down at the same time. You will use them all the time—there’s no speed restriction on them (apart from VN_E)—just have them tucked in before you touch down.

The Columbia 400 originally came with an optional E-Vade anti-ice system on the wings, which used heat-conducting panels to shed the ice. However, it didn’t come certificated for flight into known ice (FIKI). Whether to add the option was debated within Cessna ranks until finally the TKS “weeping wing” de-icing system was introduced in March 2012, with full FIKI certification coming in June 2014. The TKS Ice Protection system offers up to 2.5 hours of icing protection—but that translates into 10.15 gallons at a hefty 9 pounds per gallon weight for a total of 91.4 pounds fluid weight—137 pounds for the system.

On the Market

You’ll want to search for the Columbia 400, Cessna 400, Corvalis, and TTx in order to capture all of the possible models existing on the market. At press time, I found roughly 20 TTxs available, mostly in the U.S. but a few overseas. The original 400 gained FAA type certification in April 2004 under Lancair’s direction, and European Union Aviation Safety Agency approval followed in 2009.

Pricing runs the gamut—from the mid-$300,000s to just north of $700,000—depending on equipment, total time, and location. But most appear to have between 900 and 2,000 hours, reflecting flight time of 100 to 200 hours per year since new. With the TBO at 2,000 hours, the cost of a new big-bore Continental or its overhaul may need to be factored into your purchase price.

Still, with the SR22Ts of the same vintage asking an average from $699,000 and up in Aircraft For Sale, the TTx looks mighty attractive on the spreadsheet. But the numbers tell only a small part of the story. As with all airplanes for which we harbor grand affections, the real joy comes in the flying.

Accelerated Bliss: Flying the Cessna 400 Series Was a True Pleasure

By Pia Bergqvist

In my 24-plus years of flying, I have been fortunate to take the controls of many different types of airplanes. Like adopted children, the two airplanes I have owned—Peppermint Patty, the Cessna 170, and Manny, the Mooney—occupy the softest part of my pilot heart. But the airplane that brought me the most enjoyable personal flying experience was one that, like some favorite children, bears many names. It started out as the Columbia 400, became the Cessna 400 when I first flew it, and was later renamed Corvalis TT and TTx.

I was one of four Cessna 350/400 product specialists (the 350 being the non-turbocharged version) spread around the country when the company took over and started marketing the aircraft type in 2008. Emily Waters covered the West Coast, Doug Walker the Northeast, and Kel Jones the Southeast—all three were previous Columbia pilots. I was new to the airplane, and my territory spanned from New Mexico to Tennessee and South Dakota to Texas. It might appear to be a large area for a single-engine piston four-seater. But covering the region in this sports car with wings was no trouble at all.

I will never forget traveling to Bend, Oregon, where the factory was located at the time, to pick up my first demo airplane. The terrific team of employees there gave me first-class treatment, as if I was a customer. There was a sign bearing my name standing in front of a factory-new Cessna 400—a black, silver, and white beauty—N86DE. The production quality was stellar, with flawless composite production, paint finishing, and interior and avionics installation. It was easy to proudly represent the airplane for the Wichita, Kansas-based company.

In no other airplane have I been able to sit as comfortably, with my left hand on the sidestick and the right hand on the keypad that manipulated most functions on the G1000 MFD—the flight deck installed in the 400 before the TTx moved up to the G2000. I had many long days in that seat, without even a hint of discomfort. While the Cessna 350/400 was equipped with the terrific GFC 700 autopilot, I hand-flew the airplane on most legs. It was simply a really fun airplane to fly, with enough maneuverability to satisfy one of the best aerobatic airshow performers of all time—Sean D. Tucker (yes, there are YouTube videos to prove it). In fact, the airplane earned well its certification in the utility category.

And the Cessna 400 got me where I needed to go quickly. I could count on around 200 ktas at 10,000 feet, but if I wanted to go faster, I simply hooked on to the built-in oxygen system and climbed higher. On one flight from Independence, Kansas, to Memphis, Tennessee, I reached 306 knots ground speed. Walker was kind enough to send me a patch, inaugurating me into the 300-knot club of Columbia pilots.

In the nearly 600 hours I was fortunate enough to fly the Cessna 400 and 350, I flew from coast to coast to dealers and airshows, and I took countless friends and strangers for rides. Many fond memories were forged in that airplane, and I hope, one day, I will return to that blissful seat.

Controls/Instruments at a Glance

A. The TTx featured the first—and perhaps only— Garmin G2000 integrated flight deck in a piston single. It works quite well, but the upgrade path is uncertain at this point.

B. The first of the GTC touchscreen controllers—a single one—came with the introduction of the Corvalis model.

C. The Continental TSIO-550 up front requires management of the twin turbos, but a robust engine information system display aids with keeping everything in the green.

D. The beautiful, wood sidestick flight control in the Columbia 400 transitioned to a leather-wrapped model, but it still falls comfortably to hand and maneuvers with ease throughout the significant flight envelope.

E. The GFC 700 takes FMS input for smooth climbs and descents tracking a flight plan.

2013 Cessna TTx Specs

Price New, Avg. Equipment: $810,000

Price, 2023: $450,000 to $700,000

Engine: Continental TSIO-550-C (310 hp) TBO: 2,000 hours

Propeller: McCauley, three-blade, constant speed

Seats: 4

Wingspan: 36 ft.

Wing Area: 141.2 sq. ft.

Wing Loading: 25.5 lbs./sq. ft.

Length: 25 ft., 2 in.

Height: 9 ft.

Baggage Weight: 120 lbs.

Standard Empty Weight: 2,520 lbs.

Max Takeoff Weight: 3,600 lbs.

Max Landing Weight: 3,420 lbs.

Max Useful Load: 1,070 lbs.

Fuel: 106 gal./102 gal. usable

Max Rate of Climb: 1,400 fpm

Service Ceiling: 25,000 ft.

Stall Speed (landing config.): 60 kias

Max Cruise Speed: 235 ktas

Max Range: 1,250 nm

Normal Range: 502 nm with 3 passengers (Conklin & deDecker/JSSI)

Takeoff Distance, Sea Level (over a 50 ft. obs.): 1,900 ft.

Landing Distance, Sea Level (over a 50 ft. obs.): 2,700 ft.

This column first appeared in the November 2023/Issue 943 of FLYING’s print edition.

The post We Fly: Cessna TTx appeared first on FLYING Magazine.

The technology has been around since before World War II in military airplanes (see “How Can It Land Itself?” below) and from the mid-1960s in transport category jets. But if necessity is the mother of invention, then market demand is its directional guidance. When Garmin Aviation unveiled its Autoland emergency landing system in 2019, we saw the intersection of relatively inexpensive and precise GPS navigation, digital autopilots, and the FADEC-enabled turbine and turboprop powerplants capable of responding elegantly to an autothrottle.

Garmin debuted Autoland in the Piper M600/SLS—with an emergency-only autothrottle at first. Daher was first to certify a standalone Garmin autothrottle, in the TBM 940, followed by Cirrus in the SF50 Vision Jet, then the two OEMs added Autoland functionality in sequence in 2020. For the safety breakthrough, Garmin secured the Robert J. Collier Trophy—and FLYING’s 2021 Innovation Award.

In the case of Garmin’s Autoland, the fact that someone has yet to push the big red button spells a certain success. Or does it? Have you read of an accident in which the aircraft’s ability to land itself might have saved the day? And would you use the system if the situation warranted?

The Next Versions of Autoland

No one seems to mind that we haven’t seen Autoland used in anger yet. The applications just keep coming. Adding to new certs in the TBM 960 and Daher retrofits, the recently announced HondaJet Elite II program on its model HA-420, and the inclusion of the system on the upcoming Beechcraft Denali single-engine turboprop, Garmin has been working on its own supplemental type certificate for the Beechcraft King Air 200, to be followed by the 300 series—on an up-to-50-year-old design with many configurations.

For the King Air 200 series STC, you need a 200/B200 model—and several key components, including the Pratt & Whitney PT6A-42, -52, or -61 engines paired with four-blade props. Your King Air also requires hydraulic landing gear for Autoland. You’ll need the latest configuration Garmin G1000 NXi flight deck for either autothrottle alone or paired with Autoland. You can start with an analog panel or the basic G1000—you just have to get the updated NXi first.

• READ MORE: Elliott Aviation Delivers First Garmin Autoland Upgrade in King Air B200

Four years ago, I had a sneak peek of the very first installation at Olathe, Kansas, at New Century AirCenter (KIXD). On August 19, I climbed on board with Eric Sargent, engineer and flight-test pilot, into N60HL, which Piper had delegated to the project just a day before the company had to take it out of market survey for the final push to certification. I didn’t know what to expect—and we flew a slightly modified version of the protocol since the whole project remained under a cloak of secrecy at the time.

Still, I had to draw upon all my years of sitting there in the right seat watching students work out how to land without my touching the yoke, in order to keep my hands from grabbing for the horns as the M600 made a competent—if a bit solid—touchdown.

Going Flying—Hands Off

During that initial dance with Autoland, Jessica Koss, then aviation media relations specialist and now demo pilot for Garmin, led my introduction to the project. So it was only fitting that she would take the left seat in the King Air for the next demo I’d have—this time out of the Appleton Regional Airport (KATW) in Wisconsin during the week of EAA AirVenture in late July. Garmin announced the STC in progress the week prior, so our moves weren’t top secret this time, but it still felt like we would tap into talents on board the twin turboprop that the bigger iron we taxied past—a Falcon 900, a Citation Latitude—could only dream of having in the panel. With two rated pilots up front, midsize to long-range business jets don’t need “George the autopilot” to do any more than it already does, perhaps. But the King Air—so often flown single pilot—does.

This King Air B200—N288KM, Garmin’s workhorse test bed for new toys—had two critical building blocks installed to make the Autoland system work. First, it needed the upgrade to the G1000 NXi, the integrated flight deck now available by STC or as original OEM equipment in a multitude of light singles and twins. That STC for the King Air 200 series debuted in 2011—and across the King Air C90, 200/B200 and 300/350 series, Garmin estimates roughly 841 aircraft have had the STC installed, with 562 already equipped with the upgraded G1000 NXi.

Second, the King Air needed an autothrottle. While another autothrottle option exists for the model—the Innovative Solutions & Support installation, which debuted in 2019 and won FLYING’s Editors Choice Award that year—the Autoland suite requires the Garmin solution. That didn’t exist until recently, and it’s part of the package Garmin introduced at AirVenture. We would get to test both the autothrottle in its stand-alone modes and Autoland with the AT pulling the power levers, literally.

Before we launched, we’d had a briefing on the suite and the procedures. Around the table at the Appleton Flight Center—a hive aswarm with pilots to-ing and fro-ing during the show—Koss, Will Johnson (flight-test engineer), Aaron Newman (flight-test pilot), and Scott Frye (program manager) walked us through the architecture of the system and what to expect.

• WATCH: We Fly Garmin Autoland King Air 200

About That Autothrottle

We followed the plan to go through a takeoff using the autothrottle and climb above the bumps around 5,500 feet msl. The autothrottle itself brings significant safety benefits through its series of modes paired with the phase of flight. One key “pilot surprise” it prevents is throttle rollback when engaged—which has been blamed for several accidents over the course of the twin’s history. It also provides torque adjustment in the case of an over-temperature or overtorque condition.

Takeoff, climb, and descent/approach modes have standard settings or can be user-configurable.

But the phase of flight where the AT shines is if you lose power on one side. Then, it kicks into OEI (one-engine inoperative) mode and supports the pilot, working in parallel with the King Air’s native rudder boost. Autothrottle OEI is separate from rudder boost-triggered OEI ESP, and it is functionally equivalent to normal AT, except it parks the failed side throttle lever in its present position once the failure is detected.

About 20 nm out from KATW, Koss called Appleton Tower and by their prearranged agreement announced the request to initiate the Autoland sequence. As expected, the tower was able to accommodate the demo and told us to expect Runway 21. With the way clear, Koss had me engage the guarded, red-rimmed “Emergency Autoland” button—found in the King Air application on the lower console between the pilot and copilot seats. That keeps it within reach of both cockpit denizens but also the folks in the back.

From there on, Autoland took the reins, and frankly, it got pretty boring—if not still a bit surreal to watch the airplane fly itself. Keep in mind the King Air weighs almost twice as much as any other certificated application thus far—so much needed to be accounted for in the landing portion in terms of ensuring the stabilization of that mass prior to touchdown.

The screens turned to “calm-the-passengers” mode, and a series of gentle maneuvers linked us to the final approach course and a solid touchdown. I joked with Koss that she could surely land better than that—and it’s true. Autoland is not set up to caress the runway with the grace of a skilled—or lucky—pilot. It’s set to land firmly but safely, as if the runway were always slicked with a quarter-inch of rain.

A. The G1000 NXi installation comes first, bringing the latest software into the flight deck if not already installed.     

B. The autothrottle utilizes mechanical linkages as well as electrical components to set power for the phase of flight—or balance power between the engines.

C. Sensors and autopilot servos work behind the scenes to monitor flap and gear positions, and move flight control surfaces in response to Autoland requirements.

D. Garmin’s electronic stability and protection enters a new protocol during engine-out operations.

E. Autoland changes the displays to a passenger-centric presentation that walks the people on board through the steps of the approach and onto the landing.

How it Works

For those who didn’t read FLYING’s complete report in the January/February 2020 issue, or you want a review of what’s going on behind the scenes, here you go. The pieces of Autoland in the King Air B200 emulate those of the original installation—with a few more moving parts (and algorithms inside) to attend to the fact this is a turboprop twin we’re working with and not a single-engine turboprop or jet. In fact, the STC will mark the first certification of a two-engined aircraft, with the initial approval in the twin-engined HondaJet still in the works at press time.

First, there’s Garmin’s electronic stability and protection (ESP). The advanced aircraft recovery functionality has been built into Garmin flight decks since 2010. ESP works in the background when the pilot hand-flies the airplane. It’s independent of the autopilot but is activated using the AP’s servos. If the pilot exceeds a 45-degree bank, and ESP is active, then it will engage and nudge the flight controls to a more level attitude—and encourage the pilot to reduce the bank angle a bit. It works in a similar way with nose-up and nose-down pitch attitudes. If ESP activates for a prolonged period, the autopilot will engage in level mode.

The ESP takes on a new level in OEI management—what old school called “engine-out ops” or “single-engine ops.” Normally, the loss of power on one side triggers a bank excursion unless the pilot captures the change with appropriate rudder and aileron input—remember “dead foot, dead engine” and banking 5 degrees into the good powerplant? Well, upon the power loss, the ESP’s normal limits of 45 degrees change to 10 degrees into the failed engine and 40 degrees into the good engine, and pitch limits tighten from 20 degrees to 10 degrees pitch up and from 17 degrees to just 5 degrees nose down. Low airspeed protection kicks in at V_MCA plus 15 kias.

Second, there’s emergency descent management (EDM). EDM monitors pressurization and, in the event of a pressurization loss, maneuvers the airplane down to 15,000 feet msl or lower, unless the pilot responds.

Third, the autothrottle kicks in. The AT controls power typically by maintaining an airspeed, or a climb or descent rate, as selected by the pilot through the autopilot. In the case of Autoland, the AT continues to manage power during the descent, approach, and landing, based on target speeds, altitudes, and climb or descent rates, as called for by the system. For the King Air application, the autothrottle also balances power between the left and right engines, and monitors both to respond in the event of a power loss.

Fourth, sensors and “smart” autopilot servos work in the background. A barrage of specialized sensors monitor flap and gear positions, as well as braking sensors once the airplane is on the runway. The autopilot also features advanced servos with the functionality to be driven in very fine increments. This allows them to manage the precise vertical/descent rate and touchdown protocol required for a reasonably smooth landing.

Finally, there is a radar altimeter, already installed on the King Air. This advanced altimetry system uses the timing of radio waves to determine the airplane’s height above the ground with pinpoint accuracy. Initial testing of Autoland on previous singles attempted to manage altitude just by reference to the GPS—but the nuances of the roundout managing final feet above the runway required the precision of a radar altimeter to execute the landing properly. Perhaps future iterations of Autoland could use increasingly precise GPS for this component, but we’re not there yet.

So, back to the question posed as we sit here four years into a real, fielded automatic landing system for GA. We probably still need more time flying with the system ready in the background before we’ve contemplated all the ways it might save the day. And future versions are likely to assist us in abnormal situations rather than emergency ones—like using it to fly the airplane (without the ATC warnings) while we care for a sick passenger or upon entering weather we’re not prepared to exit properly.

One thing is for certain: Like a parachute, it’s a tool which, well deployed, can expand our reach as pilots—safely.

What’s it Going to Cost You?

Autothrottle: Starting at $44,995 (plus installation)

Autoland (assuming the G1000 NXi and autothrottle installed): Starting at $32,995 (plus installation)

Upgrading G1000 NXi to Phase II (to support AL/AT): $74,995 when purchased with the AT package

Upgrading the G1000 to the G1000 NXi: $52,995 (plus installation)

Adding G1000 NXi from scratch: $410,000 to $450,000 (depending on facility and options)

Labor estimates:
Autothrottle: 80 to 100 hours

Autoland: 200 to 240 hours

How Can it Land Itself?

With all the tech on the flight deck today, it’s no wonder that a modern airplane can perform a middling-to-decent landing on its own. But if asked when the first automated landing took place, you might be surprised to hear it: August 23, 1937.

That’s when Army Captain Carl Cranetested out his invention—an automatic landing system constructed of airborne receivers installed in a Fokker C-14B paired with a network of five radio beacons surrounding Patterson Field (now KFFO) near Dayton, Ohio.

Crane, director of the Instrument and Navigation Laboratory, and his fellow engineers put their minds to the proposal in 1935. First, in determining the system’s architecture, the group tested the electrical and mechanical components on aircraft in flight—much like a modern autopilot in cruise at first then through approach and landing. From a report filed following the successful attempt and reproduced on Fokker’s website, the process followed a similar structure to modern automatic landings:

First, a Sperry gyro pilot maintained the airplane’s directional control—which had been proven in long-distance flights from Ohio to Texas, New York, and Virginia. Regardless of the airplane’s actual heading when the pilot let go of the controls, the system captured a radio beacon signal from those transmitters that functioned much like marker beacons on an modern ILS.

Using the sensitive altimeter to fix the proper altitude, the airplane tracked inbound to the first of the string of stations, growing ever closer to the field.

For the first complete landing, Crane and engineers George Holloman and Raymond Stout took off from Wright Field (which was KDWF, near Riverside, Ohio, and now closed). As they leveled off and turned on the equipment, the Fokker traversed the roughly 5 sm over to the Patterson landing site.

The Fokker maintained altitude through a throttle “engine”—a rudimentary autothrottle interconnected with the altitude control to adjust the power setting if the minimum altitude was reached prior to Radio Station 1—the closest one to the field. After station passage, the throttle actuated again to set up a power-on glide and descent at a moderate rate until the touchdown was made at Patterson Field. At that point, switches on the landing gear actuated the throttle again, reducing power to idle. The landings were made in winds up to 11 mph and about half in “rough air.”

The C14B had certain advantages in making these trials a success. With a wingspan of 59 feet and a 525 hp Pratt & Whitney R-1690-5 Hornet radial engine, the C14B was relatively powerful when loaded to only half its normal payload—normal max gross weight was 7,341 pounds. Yet it was slow, stable, and ponderous enough in its handling to presume it would land predictably as well, mitigating tendencies to ground loop—which the report excerpt makes no note of, by the way.

Postwar Commercial Autoland

Development on an automatic landing system resumed following World War II, as the Royal Air Force formed its Blind Landing Experimental Unit (BLEU) at two military airfields in Suffolk, England—RAF Martlesham Heath and RAF Woodbridge. Using an increasingly more sophisticated autopilot to track the newly launched ILS for course and vertical guidance, rather than the beacons alone, introduced far more precision into the process. However, though the ILS’ lateral guidance could be used throughout the landing because of the way the transmitter is set up and emits, glideslope guidance ends once the airplane is over the runway threshold, leaving that last 10 feet up in the air, so to speak. Therefore, any autoland system had to begin ignoring the glideslope information once it became unreliable and transition to the radio altimeter.

From this basic truth comes the basis for the Category I instrument approach having a standard minimum altitude of 200 feet agl. Further reductions in those minimums, down to a full “zero-zero” landing, is classified as Category IIIc and requires not only the special onboard equipment and aircraft certification but also pilot training and qualification, and runway certification.

These early systems were tested on the military Vickers Varsity and Avro Vulcan, followed by the first installations on civilian aircraft, the Hawker Siddeley (originally de Havilland) HS.121 Trident, in cooperation with British European Airways. BEA had partnered with the RAF throughout the post-WWII development and made the first automatic landing in commercial revenue service on June 10, 1965, on G-ARPR, from Paris-Le Bourget (LFPB) to London Heathrow (EGLL). From there, the system was installed in the Sud Aviation Caravelle and throughout the turbojet fleets of other airlines.

The U.K. remained pioneers of sorts in utilizing automatic landing systems—driven by the poor weather and persistent low visibility experienced in the British Isles. North American airlines were relatively slow to pick up the new technology. In fact, when BEA went to scrap its Tridents and replace them with the Boeing 757, it was horrified to discover the 757 had no provision for the automatic landing system. While a dozen runways in the U.K. were certified to Cat. IIIc approaches then, only two were in the U.S., and the automatic landing system was deemed unnecessary for operations.

This feature first appeared in the October 2023/Issue 942 of FLYING’s print edition.

The post We Fly: Garmin Autoland for the Beechcraft King Air 200 appeared first on FLYING Magazine.

But as a sign of evolving times, the General Aviation Manufacturers Association (GAMA) aircraft shipment reports now collect electric aircraft under the single-engine piston heading. And in 2022, GAMA recorded a total of 1,366 singles delivered—piston and electric, with 17 of those the Pipistrel Velis Electro, under European Union Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) approval as it awaits FAA validation. That’s better than last year’s 1,261 and 2020’s 1,164. Just 158 twins left the hangar in 2022—but that’s up from 148 in 2021 and even with the 157 delivered in 2020.

Sporty Singles

Diamond’s certification of the DA50 RG under FAA approval announced at EAA AirVenture on July 25 takes the lead on news for the sector. The DA50 RG, reviewed in the June 2023/Issue 938 edition of FLYING, steps into the spot once held by the Beechcraft Bonanza. It’s a speedy, high-performing retract with an advanced Continental engine design—this time the diesel CD-300 rather than the IO-550. And it can haul a lot of people and gear with relative comfort felt in the backseats—though the total seats number five instead of the Bo’s six. The modern powerplant can run on sustainable aviation fuel, and it retains the inherent slow-speed handling characteristics for which the Diamonds stay famous.

• READ MORE: We Fly: Diamond DA50 RG, the High-Performance Retract That Shines

That Bonanza remains in production—more than 75years later—though Textron Aviation saw just three of the G36 models delivered in 2022. Strength for the Wichita, Kansas-based OEM remains with its Cessna singles, the 172S Skyhawk, the 182T Skylane, and the Turbo 206 HD Stationair. Textron Aviation leveraged its position with flight school and aviation universities with 151 deliveries of the 172 to complement the 48 182s and 42 Stationairs.

• READ MORE: We Fly: Cessna 206

Expect an enthusiastic response through the end of 2023 from Cirrus Aircraft to step up its bid to retain the top spot in overall piston delivery numbers. The Duluth, Minnesota-based OEM sent 100 SR20s, 159 SR22s, and 280 SR22Ts home with lucky pilots in 2022 for a total of 539 singles—in addition to the 90 SF50 Vision Jets it delivered. Cirrus has made incremental changes to the SR series for this year, including a bespoke model run celebrating its 9,000th SR delivery midyear. The real news will come as it continues to test a 100LL replacement in its big-bore Continentals. The OEM is working with General Aviation Modifications Inc. (GAMI) on its G100UL fuel in pursuit of a solution for the fleet as it faces the sunsetting of leaded fuel in the next several years. Every OEM running 200 hp or higher engines in its piston aircraft is in a similar position.

• READ MORE: The Big Reveal: Cirrus Shows Off the SR G7

Tecnam introduced its P2010 Gran Lusso single in 2022, aimed at the luxury four-seat market. It has resonated, as the company delivered 46 of the P2010 series last year. Other interesting piston singles run the gamut of missions—from aerobatics with the Extra NG and Gamebird GB1 (rumors of the GB2 remain unanswered) to backcountry utility with the CubCrafters XCub and NXCub and just plain nostalgic fun with the WACO YMF-5, profiled in our August 2023/Issue 940 of FLYING.

• READ MORE: We Fly: WACO YMF-5

Piper also continues strong sales, particularly of its PA-28 series and PA-44 Seminole into training fleets worldwide. With 146 of the Pilot 100i and Archer III sold in 2022, Piper has also recently signed deals for its diesel version of the Archer, the DX, to flight schools in India, where 100LL is scarce and expensive. Ron Gunnarson, vice president of sales and marketing for Piper Aircraft, said, “In 2022 we delivered 232 aircraft, 14 percent higher than what we did in 2021. That increase was realized in both primary segments—the trainer class and the M class.” Piper is “comfortable” delivering 180 to 200 training aircraft, Gunnarson said.

• READ MORE: Piper Lifts the Veil on the M700 Fury, Its Fastest Single Yet

Stepping Up to Twins

Also moving strongly into the training sector is Tecnam, which debuted its P-Mentor two-seat, single-engine trainer at EAA AirVenture in Oshkosh this summer—and which we reviewed in FLYING’s July 2023/Issue 939 edition. While it awaits certification under the FAA, Tecnam continues to see success with its two piston twins—the Rotax-powered P2006T for flight schools and the Lycoming-powered P2012 Traveller for regional operators.

Piper’s Seminole meets the P2006T in the flight training world, with 21 of the light T-tail twins sent to training programs last year. But big questions remain for the future of Piper’s Seneca V and the Beech-craft G58 Baron—neither of which saw any deliveries in 2022.

What’s certain, though, is that you will see more of Diamond’s futuristic-looking twins, the DA42-IV and the DA62, whether you’re flying in North America or Europe. The DA42, which some organizations use for training, sold 45 units, while the more powerful cross-country DA62 delivered 53 units worldwide.

• READ MORE: We Fly: Diamond DA62

The post Piston Performers appeared first on FLYING Magazine.

In 2022, a total of 505 single-engine turboprops (SETs) were delivered, according to the General Aviation Manufacturers Association (GAMA), besting the 2021 and 2020 totals of 455 and 381, respectively. That’s a healthy market that should continue, even as pressure from the war in Ukraine continues in Europe with aftershocks globally. On the multiengine side, a total of 77 units went out the door in 2022, up from 72 in 2021, and 62 in 2020.

Single-Engine

FLYING Editors’ Choice Award winner for Aircraft in 2023, Daher’s Kodiak 900, leads the group in combining utility with efficiency. Though FAA certification was announced in summer 2022—and European Union Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) approval in April—deliveries were just beginning in earnest as we went to press. “The difficulty that our aviation industry [is] having these days is to manage the supply chain,” said Nicolas Chabbert, senior vice president of Daher’s aircraft division, at EAA AirVenture this summer. “We are working with great partners…but all the suppliers are needed to complete an aircraft, and this is still a problem. So the Kodiak 900 deliveries have just started, and we intend to have eight deliveries of the Kodiak 900 this year, and next year, it’s going to be 50 percent of the output, so 15 aircraft.”

• READ MORE: We Fly: Daher Kodiak 900

Daher fielded not one but two new turboprops in 2022—and while the Kodiak 900 looks very different on the outside from its predecessor (the 100 Series III), the other, the TBM 960, shows its significant evolution on the inside. The business end of it, the Pratt & Whitney PT6E-66XT turboprop, is on full display, but the brains, the Garmin GDL 60, only gained full signoff in July, though it had been in place on the 960 since its debut in March last year. Daher also continues to expand roles for its Kodiak 100 Series III—on tricycle gear or floats—in multimission and public service roles.

• READ MORE: We Fly: Daher TBM 960

The Piper M Class continues to perform well in the market, according to Ron Gunnarson, vice president of sales and marketing for Piper Aircraft. Gunnarson noted strong continued sales of the M500 and M600/SLS Halo introduced in late 2019 with Garmin’s Autoland on board—though he too called out the ongoing supply chain issues. “We remain in a ‘pull’ market—probably the strongest market that any of us have ever seen, including those who have been here for 30 or more years,” said Gunnarson at AirVenture. “It’s not pulling as hard as it was a year ago, but it was unsustainable. It was collapsing our traditional supply chain. It was pulling on the resources of every OEM and every major supplier.”

• READ MORE: We Fly: Piper M600/SLS Halo

Still, the push to get aircraft into customers’ hands continues. Epic Aircraft fielded the update to its certified SET, the E1000 GX, in fall 2021, and in 2022 it delivered 16 of the fast turboprop to customers. So far in the first quarter of 2023, it only shipped two units, hampered by those same supply chain constraints. Pilatus Aircraft also remains sold out into 2025 on its longevous PC-12 NGX.

• READ MORE: We Fly: Epic Aircraft E1000 GX

Sustainable aviation fuel plays a critical part in the strength of the single-engine turboprop (SET) market, as it identifies a near-term path toward net-zero emissions for these airframes, though it is hardly as easy to implement as it seems on paper. Nicholas Kanellias, vice president of general aviation for Pratt& Whitney Canada, said in a press conference at AirVenture: “We’re focusing on the future. We realize that we need to be able to optimize the engine, but [SAF] has to also be accessible for the customer base that we’ve got.”

Greater operational efficiency is also made possible by advancements in the turboprop engine that powers most SETs, the Pratt & Whitney PT6 series. Now in its “E” versions—as in the PT6E-67XP on the PC-12NGX—the powerplant is integrated with the airframe through the engine and propeller electronic control system, which streams data usable by both the pilot, Pratt & Whitney, and the airframe OEM. “[Pilots] can monitor whatever parameters they need to in order to fly the aircraft, while we monitor over 100 parameters for the engine,” said Kanellias. That greater data transparency is likely to advance turboprops toward reducing emissions as much as the net gain currently seen in using 30 percent SAF from varying sources—and in distribution worldwide that is uneven at best until better standards have been set.

Multiengine

Textron Aviation advanced the multiengine turboprop (MET) game on its own in 2021 and 2022 with the debuts of the next generation Beechcraft King Air 260 and 360/360ER to replace the 200 and 350, respectively, as well as the short-haul mount, the Cessna SkyCourier.

• READ MORE: We Fly: Beechcraft King Air 360

The King Air 260 marked a total of 35 deliveries in 2022 to best slightly the 360/ER’s total of 34 units. The SkyCourier saw six deliveries to launch customer FedEx, beginning in May 2022—but it also notched its first airline customer, Aerus, a new regional airline in Mexico, which will operate the company’s Cessna Grand Caravan EX as well.

The post Turboprops: Power Up appeared first on FLYING Magazine.

Daher’s position demonstrates well the state of the global aerospace market.

“We are in a paradox situation—some are happy; some are not happy,” said Patrick Daher, board chair for the Daher group, in kicking off the company’s performance review for 2023 in Paris on February 7. “We are feeling the impact of the international situation, and then we are still recovering from COVID, but the COVID crisis is over for us…But some international threats—for example the war in Ukraine and the Middle East, the future elections, the situation in China—all these events have created a political instability that is really worrying for the future.”

Yet industry events such as the 2023 Paris Air Show indicate where the future lies—with caution as to the expense of making change. “As chairman [of] the Salon de Bourget in 2023 and chairman of Daher…I have the chance to see that energy transition is coming with a really high price,” said Daher. “Speaking about industry, we have really good news in terms of an increase in production.”

In 2023, Daher recorded strong deliveries of both its TBM and Kodiak series turboprops, with a total of 56 TBMs and 18 Kodiaks, for a total of 76 units. In addition, it counts more than 100 turboprops in its order book, taking it well into 2025.

READ MORE: Daher Delivers 100th TBM 960

An Industry Overview

At the same time, major Daher client and partner Airbus has never manufactured so many aircraft—a record number went out the door in December, as Daher noted in the report. That is in spite of the constant pressures brought on by inflation, provisioning difficulties, recruitment challenges, rise in wages, and lowering margins. Collectively these have led to soft pricing models that have persisted through the past couple of years.

“We have forgotten how to deal with such problems of inflation that we experienced 20 years ago,” said Daher. “It was really hard to find raw materials, and this was linked to geopolitical problems, [such] as the war in Ukraine. We were missing material. This lack of raw materials is linked to the mismanagement of the supply chain—the suppliers failed to ship what we needed to manufacture our aircraft—and to produce what our clients asked us to do.”

Another problem Daher noted has been the lack of employee candidates. “It is not easy to recruit the right profiles…The COVID crisis changed behaviors in terms of wages and employees, so it is really hard for us to hire and find talents.” This has driven companies like Daher to invest heavily in training—because like never before they have had to recruit from outside the aviation industry.

“All these factors in 2023—after COVID, we were expecting 2021 and 2022 to be difficult—but these problems arrived in 2023,” Daher said. “All of these factors resulted in our weakened profitability. We need to consider the energy transition and the decrease in carbon intensity…2023 highlighted the emergency but also the [convergence], vis-à-vis the problem of decarbonization.”

The Daher group considers government support crucial—specifically CORAC, the French council for civil aviation research—and 300 million euros per year have been earmarked by CORAC to help fund the energy transition. “Aviation industry, all research efforts, have converged, because in the past each company focused on a specific research field, but right now there is a really clear target: low-carbon, low-emission aircraft,” Daher said.

Eco-Pulse Update

For the French OEM, the convergence flies today via its hybrid-electric Eco-Pulse technology demonstrator, which uses a TBM airframe, electric motors and powertrain components form Saran, and electric power storage by Airbus in a distributed lift model (simply put) to test various components and how they interact in actual flight operations. The Eco-Pulse retains a Pratt & Whitney PT6A turboprop engine, but in December made its first flight segments completely powered by the six electric motors.

“It is a major step towards decarbonization,” said Daher. “Because high voltage electricity can be a good solution…we are continuing with some hybrid tests. This is the first step…People thought I was crazy [last year] when I spoke about this target [to have a marketable product by 2027], but we are headed in that direction.” It will be a TBM or Kodiak because those are the models Daher has in its portfolio, but the company has yet to determine which will be chosen and exactly what that will look like.

FLYING asked if the OEM could share any feedback—including any performance data, if possible—from those first flights. Christophe Robin, vice president of engineering for Daher’s aircraft division, provided this insight: “EcoPulse is a technology demonstrator, therefore, aircraft performance is not the goal. The EcoPulse configuration has been chosen with the strategy of increasing the level of complexity in hybridization to develop a ‘maturity picture’ for all of the technologies involved—including examining side effects such as weight penalties, as well as issues induced by HIRF (high-intensity radiated field) and lightning.”

READ MORE: We Fly: Daher TBM 960

Log’in, Shap’in, Fly’in

To support innovation efforts, Daher launched its second tech center, Log’in, in Toulouse, also geared toward decarbonization. “Out of 7 million tonnes [of carbon emissions] we realized that a big quantity is related to our clients, and we want to work on these figures [as well] in order to work on decarbonization,” said Daher.

Fly’in will be the third tech center Daher launches, in Tarbes, focused on aircraft development, “stepping up” in both technology and the drive towards net-zero emissions.

FLYING also asked Daher to expand on the current projects that have already been realized from the new technology centers and Eco-Pulse. Robin shared a portion of what the group has learned thus far, and what it expects to benefit from. 

“In addition to the aspects of EcoPulse that are linked to aircraft hybridization, another important focus is demonstrating the application of advanced composites on aircraft,” said Robin. “Under the guidance of Daher’s research and technology teams, EcoPulse is using composites for the aircraft’s winglets, engine pylons, Karman and battery fairings, as well as the air inlet—which were produced primarily with an infusion-based carbon/cork micro-sandwich. A goal of EcoPulse is to make it possible to evolve the performance and feasibility of integrating these technologies on secondary parts/components of Daher-built aircraft, while developing rapid prototyping skills used within the aviation framework.”

This is complementary to other developments underway at Daher—including projects in cooperation with partners such as CORAC (the French Council for Civil Aeronautical Research).

Pascal Laguerre, chief technology officer for Daher, provided significant insight beyond the Eco-Pulse demonstrator. “Taking a wider view for activities outside the framework of EcoPulse, Daher devotes a significant part of its overall R&D budget to thermoplastics,” said Laguerre. “This material is particularly promising in the world of aerostructures for future applications on production aircraft. It lends itself more easily to the automation of production (issue of throughput), and it is recyclable, repairable and weldable. Its mechanical properties make it possible to use less material and, overall, make structures lighter—all of which are key qualities with a view toward reducing carbon emissions. This is focused on accelerating the development of real applications in the future for the benefit of its customers, including [several more widely focused] projects.”

For example, as part of CORAC, Daher leads the largest French research project on thermoplastics in current execution, called TRAMPOLINE 2 (TheRmoplAstic coMPosites for hOrizontaL tail plaNE), as well as utilizing induction welding instead of riveting—with a weight savings of 15 percent.

Also, the investment has already borne fruit in components that will be found on the company’s current TBM product lines.

“After more than three years of R&D work, Daher succeeded in manufacturing rudder pedals in recycled high-performance thermoplastic composites from production scraps to equip the TBM, which have been certified for flight on production TBMs,” said Laguerre. “In addition to being lightweight, thermoplastics have low thermal conduction, as well as equal or better physicochemical and mechanical properties: It’s a win-win for Daher customers. And beyond the environmental benefits, the cost of these parts is significantly reduced compared to metal machining.

“In addition, Daher has obtained the first results of an R&D project called CARAC TP, carried out in collaboration with a set of academic laboratories competent in composite materials. The objective [is] to identify and characterize the thermoplastic composites best suited to aeronautical applications and compare them to thermoset materials. The project makes it possible to study materials in depth through multiple tests that go beyond the scope of qualification programs carried out in the industry: impact resistance, fire resistance, environmental aging (ozone, UV, fluids), impact of manufacturing processes on physicochemical properties, material performance, etc.”

Daher looks also outside its walls to new small businesses to help drive this innovation charge. Encouragingly, more than 300 aerospace-relevant startups took part in the Paris Air Show.

“We had 25 of these startups at the Daher stand at Le Bourget,” said Daher, noting that the company looks forward to engaging with these innovators, perhaps through acquisition or collaboration, on various projects.

WATCH: We Fly the Kodiak 900, Ready for Grand Adventures

The Takeoff 2027 Strategy

Daher reported a strengthening bottom line but noted there is room for improvement. At the press conference, Daher CEO Didier Kayat indicated the belief that Daher would become profitable based on its strategic realignment to better serve four sectors: aircraft, industry, industrial services, and logistics. The company also plans a transformation of the organizational structure by 2025, to help align and draw down any existing silos between the business functions.

To this end, Daher made a quartet of additions to its executive committee in the later part of 2023. On October 1, Alain-Jory Barthe joined Daher’s Industry division as senior vice president. Then, on January 1, Cédric Eloy became the head of the Industrial Services division as senior vice president of manufacturing services, and Julie de Cevins became the group’s chief sustainability officer—a key appointment, given the group’s charge to attain net-zero goals by 2050. Finally, on February 1, Aymeric Daher became senior vice president of the Logistics division.

Daher is adapting its organization to support the four business units, with the following actions:

• To create a managerial culture that is based in what it calls the “Daher Leadership Model”—effectively empowering a cadre of 1,500 leaders within the company to act with an entrepreneurial spirit
• To anticipate challenges and innovate toward decarbonisation solutions, with Eco-Pulse among other projects
• To support the acquisitions needed for growth across the four sectors.

Acquisitions have already borne fruit for the company, including the Stuart, Florida, facility.

“The acquisition of AAA strengthened the Industrial Services division, for example,” Daher said. “We are now the leader of industrial services…We can support aircraft manufacturers in peak periods.”

If Daher can make its way through the concurrent challenges of acquisition-driven growth, corporate restructuring, price pressures, and order fulfillment, its plan for the years ahead puts it on track to form part of the global solution to decarbonization—as well as providing the aircraft the customer demands for the future.

The post Daher’s Decarbonization Plans Drive Towards Hybrid-Electric Aircraft, Composites appeared first on FLYING Magazine.