PropBlast

What, are they kidding? Cessna has confirmed that they  intend to complete the purchase of Columbia Aircraft out of bankruptcy, including warranty service for previously sold aircraft. That is a big win for Columbia owners who otherwise would have been orphaned; a hard pill to swallow after buying a plane that in most configurations would run over half a million dollars. And Cessna got the company for a bargain: $26.9 million dollars.

However, in a move that only a behemoth like Cessna could make, they've decided to relaunch these composite, low-wing aircraft as the Cessna 350 and the Cessna 400. Now I can understand the desire to roll these into your company name (and abandon the old name) but perhaps at the same time they should have put some more thought into the product naming. All of Cessna's existing single engine aircraft (including the turbine-powered Caravan) are know by their product numbers which lie in the 100 and 200 range. Names like Cessna 172, 180, 206, 210 are the stuff of legend.

The numbers in the 300 and 400 range up until recently were exclusively used by their twin engine propeller aircraft. The 310 and 404 come to mind immediately. However, now buyers and other aviators will need to keep in mind these exceptions when bandying and reading about Cessna aircraft.

Seems to me they should have chosen to keep both (much like Toyota markets cars under the Scion and Lexxus banners) leaving them as Columbia 350 and Columbia 400 or they should have renamed the company to Cessna and moved the model numbers into the normal Cessna ranges.

One wonders if they intend to drive innovation into this line as well (pressurization, turbine engines, 6 seats?) or just limp it along, changing the avionics as the market moves forward?

Flying long days has proven to be a killer in more ways than one. Many have argued that this is the primary reason behind duty day and flight hour restrictions for commercial pilots flying part 124 and 135. Fatigue has been shown to cause pilot performance to degrade rapidly.

Recently, a COPA member detailed a recent Florida to California trip he and his wife took in one day, during daylight hours in Cirrus SR22. Total flight time during this trip was 11.21 hours with a total elapsed time of only 13:08 hours. Amazing endurance when you think about it.

In order to prepare and keep himself alert during this flight he took the following precautions:

• Hydrate heavily (to the point your urine is clear and not colored) for days before the trip
• Stop consuming coffee, sugar and mixed foods (milk and meat, cheese and chicken, etc) for days before the flight as well
• During the flight, consume only fresh fruit and vegetables (as much as you can eat) along with grains and beans. Stay away from soft drinks, coffee, sugar, power bars, milk or meat.
• During the flight, every hour review "Plan, Plane, Me and You" to verify all aspects of the flight are safe to continue
• Perform Isometric exercises once an hour
• Use O2 for the second half of the flight even though it was at 8500 (or 8000 for the IFR arrival into Santa Barbara)
• Remain engaged in the flight by performing mental and "whiz wheel" calculations on fuel burn and arrival/enroute estimates, making Pireps, evaluating WX, etc.

Good tips to keep in mind on longer flights...

We've mentioned it here before, but now you can actually place a deposit on a NEW Antilles Super Goose, a modernized version of the venerable Gruman G-21.

These updated amphibians will be using new tooling, construction and engineering to produce an aluminum and carbon-fiber composite airframe that will go into production with either turbine or radial engines.

They are targeting a capacity for 9 passengers plus pilot, state of the art avionics, fuel capacity of up to 586 gallons and extra storage in the nose and tail than the original. The turbine version will have a MGTOW of 12,500 points against an empty weight of 7,000 pounds. This a full fuel load capacity of approximately 800 pounds (those 10 people will have to be the proverbial 80 pound weaklings) so one would image it would be rare that anyone would fill this beast to the gills with fuel before loading up with passengers. They are anticipating a 200 knots cruise with 2,000 fpm climbs for 5+ hours plus IFR reserves.

All this goodness for a cool $2.2 million. I can hardly wait to plunk my money down on this one... Ok, so I would if I could but I don't ever see having that kind of money handy myself. Damn...

Learn more about it at Antilles Seaplanes website.

My good buddy Chris (who flies triple 7s for a living) sent me these great photos. I'm not sure who the photographer is but talk about some might fine flying... That is one big *ss flying ship to be maneuvering so close to the ground. It appears that every inch of Lake Elsinore was needed to scoop up their water and climb out.

Special thanks to the brave pilots and firefighters who all put their lives on the line to help us in southern California during these awful fires.