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Aircraft Widgets Sunshades
Aircraft Widget Sunshades are the answer to reducing glare and providing sun protection for the pilot and co-pilot. Made with a smoke-tinted acrylic that reduces light transmission 75%, reduces UV 99% and keeps the cockpit up to 30 degrees cooler. These shades are designed to be left in place during all phases of flight.
Air Widgets
https://factorydirect.com
Each Sunshade piece is curved to match the curve of the window and windshield, providing a great fit. No modifications or custom installation is necessary.
Aircraft Widget Sunshades are available for:
Piper 1984-present, Phenom 100-300, TBM 850-960, Cessna CJ1-CJ3, KingAir 200-300. More coming soon!
www.aircraftwidgets.com 800-211-5084
completion, the signature, certificate number, and kind of certificate held by the person performing the work.”
There are just over a dozen maintenance items that we, as the owner/operator pilot, are allowed to accomplish. The list includes things like changing the oil and filters, changing air filters, cleaning and gapping spark plugs, changing tires, cleaning and greasing wheel bearings and servicing or replacing the aircraft battery. In addition to the maintenance procedures authorized, there are over 90 “checks” on the engine, cabin interior, landing gear, wings, empennage and propeller that we are allowed to accomplish. Basically, these checks are all things that you might perform during an extremely thorough preflight, run-up and test flight.
I invite you to substitute the word airplane for motorcycle in this quote from Zen and The Art of Motorcycle Maintenance: “Precision instruments are designed to achieve an idea, dimensional precision, whose perfection is impossible. There is no perfectly shaped part in a motorcycle and never will be, but when you come as close as these mechanical instruments take you, remarkable things happen, and you go flying across the countryside under a power that would be called magic if it were not so completely rational in every way.”
Way Outside the Box
The EAA conducts its annual gathering of inventors, builders, technicians, authors and aviation enthusiasts later this month in Oshkosh (24th-30th). It’s an inspira- tional gathering in which people are encouraged to think outside the box in the design, manufacture and mainte- nance of aircraft and components -- often, way outside the box. With the advent of 3-D printing, the reality that materials and parts like the aforementioned nut, which have no shape or function except in our minds until we manufacture them, have been placed into the toolbox of dreamers. Any person can now transform a thought into a physical, functional component—even a completely op- erational device. We have only to recognize the potential of nature’s elements in order to create materials with the chosen properties and then “print” a component or mechanism with the desired capabilities.
Perhaps with this type of technology, a Zen-like ap- preciation of materials, and the hands of a hard-working visionary like VanGrunsven, Poberezny or Rutan to shape them, another quantitative leap of discovery awaits. With a newly kindled interest in aircraft maintenance, the visionary could be you.
Fellow Duke owners and pilots: Please check your DFA newslet- ter or email me to register for our Fly-In on September 21st.
Preferred
https://factorydirect.com
Kevin Dingman has been flying for more than 40 years. He’s an ATP typed in the B737, DC9 and CE-650 with 25,000 hours in his logbook. A retired Air Force major, he flew the F-16 and later performed as an USAF Civil Air Patrol Liaison Officer. He flies volunteer missions for the Christian organi- zation Wings of Mercy, is retired from a major airline, flies the Cessna Citation for RAI Jets, and owns and operates a Beechcraft Duke.Contact Kevin at dinger10d@gmail.com.
July 2023 / TWIN & TURBINE • 23