AOPA Pilot Editor at Large Dave Hirschman joined AOPA in 2008. He has an airline transport pilot certificate and instrument and multiengine flight instructor certificates. Dave flies vintage, historical, and Experimental airplanes and specializes in tailwheel and aerobatic instruction.
The immaculately restored Piper PA–18 Super Cub was a gorgeous, gleaming paperweight. It had just about every conceivable modification including a bigger engine, constant-speed propeller, digital avionics, and long-range fuel tanks for better comfort and performance.
Although it’s gone by many different names, the Piper PA–46 has only had one continuous purpose: It’s a long-range, high-altitude, single with efficient high-aspect-ratio wings that can carry up to six people more than 1,000 nautical miles.
Pilots performing preflight inspections too often overlook the potentially crucial things their avionics may be trying to tell them. Most GPS navigators, for example, come to life with a color-coded database page that shows whether flight, navigation, terrain, and obstacle information they contain is current.