Archive for the ‘Photo of the Day’ Category
Wednesday, October 3rd, 2012
Italy-based manufacturer Tecnam arrived on U.S. shores with Light Sport aircraft offerings the P92 Echo Super (high wing) and the P2002 Sierra (low wing). Its next offering was a bit of a departure: a light twin that flies behind two four-cylinder four-stroke liquid-cooled 98-horsepower Rotax 912S3 engines. AOPA Pilot Editor at Large Tom Horne dubbed it “an economy light, light twin” in his April 2010 pilot report. Horne noticed a similarity between the P2006T and the Partenavia line of high-wing twins, and said that’s because Partenavia designers also conceived the P2006T as well as the Vulcanair.—Jill W. Tallman
Tags: Light Sport Aircraft, P2002 Sierra, P92 Echo Super, Partenavia, Photo of the Day, Rotax, Tecnam P2006T, Vulcanair
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Thursday, September 27th, 2012
The gorgeous Piper Super Cub shown here is in trail on a photo shoot over over the modest hills near the Virginia-Maryland border. Its pilot, Nate Foster, was just 17 at the time of this photo shoot–starting his senior year in high school. And that’s not the most interesting part. Nate had returned just a few weeks prior from a cross-country that took him from Maryland to California in that very same airplane. You can read about Nate’s trip in the January 2011 Flight Training (and see another photo of Nate with the gigantic taped-together sectional chart he used to plan his trip).—Jill W. Tallman
Tags: California, flight training, Maryland, Piper, Super Cub
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Wednesday, September 26th, 2012
This hybrid Experimental combines aspects of the DGA-15 and the famous DGA-6 racer. Its builder, Bruce Dickenson, dubbed it the Dickenson-Howard DGA-21. The 21 comes from 15 plus 6. It lives at Santa Paula Airport in Southern California, where Dickenson put together his project without blueprints. The airplane has wooden wings and are built from a spruce bar, birch ribs, and mahogany covering. Read much more in the March 2011 AOPA Pilot ( http://www.aopa.org/members/files/pilot/2011/march/feature_howard.html ), where you can also view a video of the airplane’s test flight.—Jill W. Tallman
Tags: AOPA Pilot, California, Experimental, Howard DGA-15, Howard DGA-6 racer, Santa Paula
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Tuesday, September 25th, 2012
Put the Mustang II next to an RV7 and you might think the two are from the same company. But there are subtle differences. (Hint: Check the shape of the wing and the canopy.) The Mustang II will soon be able to demonstrate its flying capability against an RV7, as AOPA Pilot editors recently put the two aircraft in a head-to-head competition. Stay tuned!—Jill W. Tallman
Tags: AOPA Pilot, Experimental, Mustang II, RV7, Van's RV
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Monday, September 24th, 2012
Sometimes mistaken at first glance for a Cessna Caravan, the Quest Kodiak was designed specifically for bush flying (something the Caravan can’t claim, since it was intended to carry air freight from one hard surface to another). The Kodiak is quite at home in the backcountry and in remote mountainous areas. Quest Aircraft Co. was founded with the sole purpose to create an aircraft that would allow missionary and humanitarian organizations to safely perform their work around the world. The aircraft are built in Sandpoint, Idaho. As Senior Editor Dave Hirschman found when he flew the Kodiak, you can land the Kodiak gently, or you can land it short–but you can’t land it gently and short. He writes more in the March 2011 AOPA Pilot.—Jill W. Tallman
Tags: bush flying, Cessna Caravan, Idaho, missionary flying, Photo of the Day, Quest Kodiak, short-field landing
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Wednesday, September 19th, 2012
Many of the volunteers who signed on to become military pilots in World War II took primary training in a Stearman Kaydet. The rest were trained in the Fairchild Cornell and the airplane you see above–the Ryan STA-3KR Recruit, aka the PT-22. Pilots who know the PT-22 say it made a better trainer than the Stearman or the Fairchild, because it was more demanding and less forgiving. Barry Schiff flew the PT-22 for the June 2008 AOPA Pilot magazine. Here, Mike Fizer photographed Jay Becker’s 1942 PT-22–an Oshkosh Grand Champion–flying off the coast of Santa Monica.
Tags: Fairchild Cornell, Photo of the Day, Ryan PT-22, Stearman Kaydet, World War II
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Monday, September 17th, 2012
Some airplanes turn heads on the ramp. This one undoubtedly makes all the boaters’ heads swivel–even those who are accustomed to seeing Piper Cubs on floats. The Beriev Be-103 is a light ampibian aircraft that hails from Russia. Some Facebook commenters expressed confusion about the placement of the wings, which are close to the water. Barry Schiff, who flew the airplane for AOPA Pilot magazine, says it performs and handles extraordinarily well on water. Those wings displace water to help keep the airplane float and take maximum advantage of ground effect during takeoff and landing–no flaps needed. Read more in Barry’s pilot report in the October 2004 AOPA Pilot.
Tags: amphibious aircraft, Beriev Be-103, floatplane, Piper Cub, Russia
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Friday, September 14th, 2012
AOPA’s 2010 Fun to Fly Sweepstakes was unlike any other sweepstakes airplane that preceded it. For one thing, it was brand new. For another, it was a Light Sport aircraft. The German-made Remos GX is unique in several other respects. You can remove the doors and fly it without them, exactly as you can in a Piper J-3 Cub. But the Remos can also do something you can’t do with a Cub. Its wings can be folded so that it can share a smaller hangar space or even trailered to an off-airport location, as AOPA did when we put it on display in downtown Frederick, Maryland. (Don’t believe it? Click the link and watch the video.) While AOPA was promoting the Fun to Fly Remos, it participated in a rally to Florida against a SMART car and even flew across the country so that it could go on display at AOPA Summit in Long Beach, Calif. In this shot, Chris Rose photographed Dave Hirschman flying the Remos over the Eastern Shore of Maryland.—Jill W. Tallman
Tags: AOPA Summit, California, Florida, Fun to Fly, Light Sport Aircraft, Piper J-3 Cub, Remos GX, Road and Runway Rally, Smart car, Sun 'n Fun
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