Airborne 03.19.18: Dynon STC, 'Cora' Flying Taxi, Stolen C-130 Search
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Also: FAA Looking For Controllers, Indian Women Attempt Circumnav, Sheriff Airplane, GE9X Flies The FAA has awarded an initial STC to Dynon Avionics for its flagship SkyView HDX system. The STC’s AML initially covers many Cessna 172 models. The initial STC is for the installation of a full suite of Dynon avionics, allowing pilots to remove the vast majority of their legacy instrumentation, including their vacuum pump. The SkyView HDX system provides complete primary flight instrumentation, including synthetic vision and angle of attack, and complete engine monitoring with CHTs, EGTs, fuel flow, fuel computer, and lean assist. The reality of a VTOL electric flying taxi service may be a little bit closer. Kitty Hawk, backed by Google co-founder and Alphabet CEO Larry Page, has been flight testing a two-place electric VTOL aircraft called Cora in New Zealand. The aircraft is designed to operate between 500 ft to 3000 ft above the ground, with a 36-foot wingspan, and powered by 12 independent lift fans, which enable it to take off and land vertically like a helicopter. Fixed-wing flight is powered by a single pusher propeller. Reality can be stranger than fiction... as this story proves. In May of 1969, military mechanic Sgt. Paul Meyer is reported to have stolen a C-130E transport plane from Mildenhall, Suffolk in an effort to fly home to see his wife. Meyer had been drinking, and the plane went down in the English Channel. Meyer escaped from police custody after a night of heavy drinking, impersonated an officer to have the airplane fueled, and then took off for the US. The police report describes his action as a "highly irrational act", saying he was "under considerable emotional stress." He had been serving in Vietnam, and had been refused leave to go home to see his wife. All this -- and MORE in today's episode of Airborne!!!
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