Plane and Pilot

APRIL 1, 2025

Feet on rudder pedals. I felt I was strapped into a runaway jet. Combining that with the higher gross weight, I had trained in an airplane that rendered a very different experience, not preparing me for the first flight in a much faster airplane. Throttle all the way in. In all my dreams, I had not felt this strength.

Runway

Plane and Pilot

MAY 3, 2025

The rich can dream of jets and warbirds. Depressions in the vertical stabilizer and rudder, as well as stabilator skins and ailerons, all help increase panel stiffness while allowing less under-skin structure. There were only five stall-related accidents, most on high density altitude takeoffs at or near gross weight.

Approach

AV Web

JULY 1, 2025

Before anything else, these are single-engine, unpressurized two-seat lightweights with a max gross weight of 1320 pounds. Check that against the max gross of a Piper Malibu at roughly 4300 pounds, or a Beech A36 Bonanza at around 3650 pounds or a Cessna 150 at 1600 pounds gross. Same for gliders.

Gross Weight

Flying Magazine

MAY 29, 2025

The Aerostar is the product of famed aircraft designer Ted Smith, whose name is attached to such classics as the A-20 twin-engine bomber and the Twin and Jet Commander lines. But when it all comes together, its an impressively capable go-places machine with a flying experience more like a small jet than a light piston twin.

Knot

Plane and Pilot

OCTOBER 3, 2024

But I have maintained 5000 feet at 6000 pounds gross weight,” notes Ross. An elegantly simple rope system inside the fuselage raises and lowers the Gweduck’s water rudder mounted inside the base of the main rudder (right). Precisely what the single-engine ceiling is, the team can’t say. “We lb/sq ft Power loading 10.32

Airplanes