Plane & Pilot

Plane & Pilot is edited for today's active piston-engine pilot. Each issue is packed with pilot reports, tips to help you fly better, and the information you need to get the most from your flying dollar.

Plane & Pilot • planeandpilotmag.com

Beyond Garmin Autoland: What The Future Looks Like • Certificated aircraft that can land themselves are here. The details can be confusing, and that keeps many people from seeing the big picture. So here it is.

Airports, Part II

CROSS CHECK • YOUR AVIATION CROSSWORD

The Day The Music Died • What was the real cause of the crash that claimed the lives of rock 'n' roll stars Buddy Holly. Ritchie Valens and J.P. Richardson Jr. 1959?

News Of Note

ACCIDENT BRIEFS

GEAR

Making Jet Dreams Come True • How one 172 jockey made it happen.

HIGH SIERRA FLY-IN EXPLODES • The 10th edition of the annual backcountry hangout was bigger than ever. Some were concerned that sheer size would ruin the spirit of the event. They couldn’t have been more wrong.

PIPER M600 SLS The First Production Plane That Lands Itself • Equipped with the Garmin Autonomi System, this PA-46 will do what no plane before it has done, and aviation will never be the same.

Piper’s Remarkable M600 SLS • The model features not only Garmin Autonomi but also a host of other upgrades.

The Autoland Activation Sequence • What happens when the emergency landing system is activated? A lot, and here’s how the system communicates it all to the passengers.

Cirrus SF50 With Safe Return • The award-winning Vision Jet gets a second whole-aircraft safety system.

Teaching Autoland To Think Like A Pilot • We met with the engineers behind Garmin’s revolutionary safety feature to better understand how Autoland figures out where to set down.

FLYING BROKEN AIRPLANES • The deferring of maintenance items carries substantial legal and safety risks. Here’s how to think about components that aren’t working as they should, with some simple advice on what to do about them.

NTSB’s Report Of Fiery Charleston Crash Seems To Omit Key Point: Why? • Was the landing mishap that claimed the lives of both pilots of a Shorts cargo hauler bound to happen?

World’s Best Instructor • Learning to fly is a long process with a big price tag, but a great instructor can make all the difference.

The Local Airport Character • Some of them turn out to be guardian angels. Virgil was exactly that.

BD-10 Homebuilt Jet • The sleek homebuilt jet would be the first supersonic homebuilt, or so claimed its designer. Its legacy was something very different.