Spending a week at the annual EAA AirVenture Oshkosh show never fails to exhilarate and inspire, but at the same time it can frustrate. The good news is that we U.S. citizens are extraordinarily lucky to live in a country where the federal authorities have decided that it's OK to allow us the freedom to design, build and fly an aeronautical device of our own creation, with few restrictions. We can also insert all manner of sophisticated yet uncertified avionics into the instrument panels of these flying machines (although we can't fly IFR without uncertified avionics).
The technological advancements made by the experimental aviation community never cease to amaze me. For example, I flew a Remos GX Light Sport Aircraft in Oshkosh, equipped with full glass cockpit, altitude-hold and nav-tracking autopilot and synthetic vision. The entire composite two-seat airplane, complete with its avionics, sells for half the retail price for just the synthetic vision upgrade for a Falcon 900. Of course, the synvis in the Falcon is FAA-certified and the Remos synvis by Dynon Avionics remains uncertified. But that price discrepancy raises some important questions: is certification really necessary and why does it cost so much?
Matt Thurber, editor-in-chief at AIN Media Group, has been flying since 1975 and writing about aviation since 1978 and now has the best job in the world, running editorial operations for Aviation International News, Business Jet Traveler, and FutureFlight.aero. In addition to working as an A&P mechanic on everything from Piper Cubs to turboprops, Matt taught flying at his father’s flight school in Plymouth, Mass., in the early 1980s, flew for an aircraft owner/pilot, and for two summer seasons hunted swordfish near the George’s Banks off the East Coast from a Piper Super Cub. An ATP certificated fixed-wing pilot and CFII and commercial helicopter pilot, Matt is type-rated in the Citation 500 and Gulfstream V/550. Based in the Pacific Northwest, Matt and his team cover the entire aviation scene including business aircraft, helicopters, avionics, safety, manufacturing, charter, fractionals, technology, air transport, advanced air mobility, defense, and other subjects of interest to AIN, BJT, and FutureFlight readers.
