Now this. The NTSB has issued a letter strongly urging the FAA to "prohibit further flights" of the Zodiac CH-601XL aircraft, due to six structural failure accidents causing a total of ten fatalities. Any guesses what *exact* type of aircraft I have been flying? Yep, Ch-601XL.
The FAA has not acted on this recommendation (they often ignore NTSB recommendations), but it has been an industry-wide confidence shaker. My school, for example, has decided to forego the liability issues, and voluntarily grounded the newly-repaired N130AW. So now I'm without a plane to train in again, and there are not really any other flight schools with suitable aircraft in the area that I want to train in. So where does that leave me?
Spending money, of course! I'm taking a week off of work and heading down to Lockwood Aviation in Sebring, Florida. There I'll fly several hours every day for a full week. That should be enough time to familiarize myself with the Tecnam P-92 Echo Super aircraft I'll be flying, get my solo flying time in, and take my checkride (the Lockwood senior flight instructor is an FAA examiner and will adminser my checkride oral and flight test). Here's the P-92:
Clearly a little different plane from the Zodiac. It's a high wing design, like the classic Cessnas. It also uses a Rotax engine, which is lighter weight that the Zodiac's TCM 0-200 engine and runs at a much higher RPM (5200 vs 2500) but produces the same 100 horsepower. Otherwise, performance between the planes is similar. I like how the Zodiac flies, but I'm looking forward to trying a new plane.
I'm planning to make daily updates to this blog when I'm in Florida, so look for them the week of May 30 to June 6!
