Late spring weather in Texas makes the long summers worth the often unbearable heat. This spring, I decided to join a new flying club with a great-looking Beech F33A Bonanza. It has been a few years since I last flew Bonanzas, and those were of the A36 variety. Although quite similar, it has been fun learning a new airplane and, more importantly, new avionics. These new avionics are actually old, just new to me. The plane has its original attitude indicator and flight director, along with the old-timey HSI. Driving the HSI, though, is a Garmin GNS 530W. The autopilot is a King 200 model, and the NAV2 is an oldy-but-goody King circa 1979.
The fun part is wrapping my head around the relatively new (not really, I know) GNS 530W and how to tie my workflow into using it with the old-world instruments. Put a dual-display G1000 NXi in front of me, and I’ll feel right at home. I became a spoiled brat flying new Mooneys with NXi setups all over the country for a couple of years between 2017 and 2019. G1000 NXi and GNS 530W systems are different beasts requiring different philosophies, and I’m in the thick of discovering the little nuances and gotchas that come from using different avionics suites. Thank goodness we have two decades or more of really great tutorials on the system hosted on YouTube. The value of all that free content can’t be overstated.
I’ll see you all in the air soon.
In this issue, Dianne White tells us about the go-go years, that time of life when you have the time and resources to go, go, go. Later, Rich Pickett describes what he has learned about the follow-on to Honda’s HA-420. The new HondaJet Echelon has a compelling mix of attributes, and Rich shows how it compares to its light jet competitors and when we might expect it to become available.
Banyan Air Service has been serving the needs of aviators in South Florida for more than four decades. Throughout that whole time, Banyan has been strategically and successfully located at Ft. Lauderdale’s Executive Airport, KFXE. Until now. The leadership team at our gateway to the southeast has opted to expand Banyan’s footprint.
David Gilmour, Steve Miller, Bruce Dickinson, Kris Kristofferson, and Tim McGraw – are all musician aviators. However, none rock out in the punk genre. We get to meet Dexter Holland this month. He’s rocks out fronting The Offspring. But Dexter is much more than just a pilot or a musician. We find out about Dexter’s pursuits and where his comfort level in personal jets lies.
We close out June with another Editor’s Pic featuring one of my all-time favorites, the Beech Starship. Then David Miller takes us through the process of choosing the right approach amid descending ceilings.
Thank you for reading Twin & Turbine.
