Banking in an Aerostar

The Aerostar from above in the check-hauling days.

The year was 1993. Seinfeld was the number one TV show, Whitney Houston was at the top of the charts, and a new thing called the internet was beginning to change how we live our lives. Before the days of real-time banking through your mobile phone, an event happened nightly while most normal people slept soundly. In 1993, when you wrote a check, your bank would return your canceled checks to you at the end of the month along with your statement. With this, you would have proof that they cashed your check, and you could then balance your checkbook. Wow, I’m dating myself!

Enter a bright-eyed, ambitious 24-year-old aviator (yours truly) and my new ride, the Piper Aerostar 600. Flying out of Danbury, CT (KDXR), the charter company I worked for assigned me to a new contract flying bank checks in this essential part of the finance industry.

Every weekday night, I would start at around 9:00 PM, flying 5 to 7 legs within a 100-mile radius of New York City. Upon landing at each airport, a van would approach ramp-side delivering clear plastic bags full of canceled checks. These bags were about the size of kitchen trash bags, and as the night went on, I would fill the cabin of my Aerostar from floor to ceiling. Well past midnight, with my pickups made, I would head to the canceled check hub of the New York area – Teterboro (KTEB).

Teterboro is within sight of Manhattan and, by virtue of its proximity to the city, caters to corporate aviation. Saturated with hundreds of corporate jet operations by day, Teterboro would morph into an equally hectic hub for check haulers during the midnight hours. Dozens of us twin-engine piston drivers would converge around the same time with our precious paper cargo. Teterboro would become so busy during these hours that on calm-wind nights, the controllers would use both ends of runway 1/19 for arrivals and departures, staggering the flow to keep things moving along. Waiting on the ramp were MU-2s and Learjets, which would take our checks longer distances so they could eventually wind up back in your mailbox. Those battle-scarred turbine-powered workhorses, crewed by pilots, apex aviators to my young eyes, were the epitome of speed and power. Their pilots quietly stood around, cigarettes and Styrofoam coffee cups in hand, while the bank consolidators would distribute our loads to the appropriate aircraft. The speed demons would then blast off to far-flung destinations like Chicago, Atlanta, Kansas City, Dallas, and Denver. A nocturnal ballet that went on like clockwork, largely unnoticed, every evening.

Having previously flown a gentlemanly and forgiving Piper Navajo, I entered a new world with the Aerostar. She stood tall and lean on her main gear, and looked like she was at Vne while sitting on the ramp. Inside, the cockpit was cozy and purposeful, with a metal instrument panel, sturdy switches, and dials – more sports car-like than the Navajo. The mid-wing design placed the engines at eye level. On hot evenings, I would open the top of the clamshell entry door while taxiing, and the spinning prop would be mere feet from my face. Electric nosewheel steering activated by a panel-mounted rocker switch and some differential braking took some practice getting to the runway. When cleared for takeoff and bringing up the power levers, those Lycoming IO-540s would come alive, and it was off to the races. Although the 600s we operated were normally aspirated and nonpressurized, it was always a fast climb out, and I would quickly settle into a 200-knot cruise speed. Since I was flying in such a small radius, it became an exercise in checklists, navigating, frequency changes, ATIS and preparing for the next arrival and approach. I was doing it all alone in the darkness with a bag of NOS Charts and a kneeboard as my only companions. In the summertime, my workload also included manning the radar and Stormscope while avoiding thunderstorms. Come wintertime; it was keeping the windshield clear with my hot plate while activating the leading edge boots as necessary and flinching every time the heated props would fling ice into the fuselage. Needless to say, I was a busy young man, and as the months went on, I fell into a satisfying high-level routine that became a point of pride.

As I became more proficient, I was able to relax and take in the enjoyment of flying this little speed machine. It was, without a doubt, a pilot’s airplane. When I first started nighttime check hauling, a wise and experienced aviator suggested that to avoid nodding off during the long nights, I should hand fly the airplane – and hand fly I did. The Aerostar was an excellent platform for hand flying, and I can count on one hand the number of times I used the autopilot in the 18 months I flew checks.

When Ted Smith designed the Aerostar in the 1960s, he envisioned the series to become pressurized and eventually powered by wing-mounted turbojet engines. With this forward-looking vision, Mr. Smith designed some very robust systems around a sleek airframe. Rather than using pulleys and cables for the flight controls, Smith used torque tubes, which provided a smooth, jet-like feel and made it one of the best flying airplanes I’ve ever flown. I could consistently grease on my landings, not because of my superior skill but because I had such fine elevator control designed into the aircraft.

Now is a good time to address the myth that the Aerostar is dangerous. The fact is that when flown by the book, it was as safe as any of its competitors. The trick was to be thoroughly knowledgeable of the POH and fly it as certified. Ted Smith designed it to fly in the flight levels leaving contrails, so it had higher wing loading than its contemporaries. This high wing loading made it handle turbulence better, but the downside was that it was less forgiving at slow speeds with a more pronounced stall entry. Being vigilant whenever the aircraft was below 100 knots on takeoff or landing became critical. When there was enough runway, I would delay my liftoff for a couple of seconds to get more speed and conversely, if I could afford the runway, tack on a few extra knots to my approach speed.

I believe that most Aerostar accidents occurred due to a combination of a few factors, including insufficient training, nonstandard execution of engine out procedures and less than proficient airmanship. In some cases, these pilots flew manageable aircraft into disaster. Over the span of my career, I’ve witnessed training become more pronounced and standardized. Insurance companies have taken a greater interest in pilots having formal and practical training, steadily lowering accident rates.

While the internet has made the check-hauling business extinct, the ability to access information and connect has positively impacted aviation safety. I can quickly search and find pages and pages of information on operating Aerostars. I can watch hours of videos on how to preflight, fly and maintain Aerostars. Pilots will always be proud of the aircraft they fly, and the Aerostar community has been described as cultish, but it can be considered cultish in the best ways. Their sense of pride in the Aerostar is profound, and that strong sense of community has made it natural to share tips, tricks, and hard-earned tribal knowledge. The Aerostar Owners Association is a shining example of this information sharing. These groups make all operators smarter and more knowledgeable, leading to greater fleet safety.

Fast forward thirty years and the bright-eyed and ambitious aviator has become a gray-haired Captain in corporate aviation. For the past 17 years, I have had the pleasure of flying the Bombardier Global Express to worldwide destinations and following through on my lifelong dream of being a professional pilot.

Now and then, though, when crossing an ocean on a long leg, I will gaze at the stars and think about my journey in aviation. While my period of flying the Aerostar barely paid my bills, and nighttime flying put a big damper on my social life, I always view it with a warm heart and cannot help smiling. Flying that sexy rocketship at such a high level of proficiency night after night fostered the discipline and confidence that made me the pilot I am today. I will always have a soft spot for the Aerostar – and you can take that to the bank!