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Featured Pilot - August 2008
Tom McKim , Commercial Pilot, with his 1967 Piper Comanche N9171P
Some pilots are lucky enough to become interested in aviation at an early age. As a small child growing up in western Pennsylvania, Tom McKim would run outside his home to get a look at any airplane droning overhead. Tom’s father encouraged his son’s interest in airplanes by arranging for a ride for Tom at the local airport while he was still in grade school. By the time Tom was in high school, he virtually lived at the airport when he was not in class. He got a job as a line boy at his local airport, and worked up to twelve hours a day on the weekends and during the summer to earn $2.00 per hour towards flight time. At the time, a Beech Musketeer – wet and with an instructor – went for about $24/hour! His hard work paid off when he earned his Private Pilot certificate on his seventeenth birthday.
One month before his eighteenth birthday and his imminent departure for college in Cambridge, MA, Tom passed his Commercial Pilot checkride. During his undergraduate years, Tom served as President of the MIT Flying Club and flew C-172’s and a Piper Arrow with the Tech Aero Club based at Hanscom Field in Bedford, MA. During the summer after he graduated from MIT, Tom completed his Instrument Rating. During law school in Chicago, he flew a Mooney Executive with an FBO at Midway Airport, landing frequently at Meigs Field (which was later destroyed by Chicago mayor Richard M. Daley). While working as a young lawyer in Washington, D.C., Tom flew C-182’s with a flying club based at Dulles Airport, which at the time was “a little used airport with really long runways located out in the middle of nowhere.”
Job and family responsibilities gradually reduced Tom’s time in the cockpit, and by the time he moved to Winston-Salem in the mid-nineties, he was seventeen years out of currency. Fortunately, among his new friends in the Triad area was a student pilot named Dan Taylor. After Dan got his license and Tom got current, they joined up as partners in a 1990 American General Tiger. Later, when Tom needed more seats for his family, he sold out his share of the Tiger to Dan and joined a five member partnership in a 1967 Piper Comanche PA24-260B that was based on the field. Tom describes this arrangement as a “perfect partnership” since the plane was rarely used by two of the partners, but costs were spread evenly over the five partners. Even better, one of the partners was an A&P, so maintenance was completed pretty much for the cost of parts!
Ultimately there came a time when the other four partners wanted to dissolve the partnership due to job and geographic location changes. As a result, Tom ended up with sole ownership of the Comanche. Now was his chance to take a “good VFR and basic IFR” airplane and transform it into a truly sophisticated IFR platform. A series of upgrades unfolded over the next couple of years. An erratic Century III original equipment autopilot was jettisoned in favor of a dual axis STEC 55X autopilot (with altitude preselect), coupled to a new Garmin 530 with GPSS steering. A full panel upgrade was ultimately completed that included a Century NSD-360A HSI, Garmin 340 audio panel, Garmin 330 Mode S Transponder, JPI EDM 800 engine monitoring system and other “goodies.” Tom even added a PS Engineering PXE-7300 Entertainment System, to help keep his family happier enroute. For backup, Tom relies on a yoke mounted Control Vision Anywhere Map PDA based GPS system with XM WX display. Last year’s addition of a Zaon XRX traffic alert system completed the avionics upgrades -- he hopes!
In 2006, Tom completed the last of the major upgrades to his Comanche – a new paint job. After waiting for a year for his “slot” to come up, N9171P was delivered to Dial Eastern States Aircraft Painting, Inc., located in Cadiz, OH (8G6). The folks there were handed an old copy of Comanche Flyer magazine with a picture of a beautiful – mostly red – Comanche 250 on the cover. The general guidance was “I’d like this, except in blue.” A few additional details were discussed and issues resolved and two months later, a totally redone Comanche emerged from the paint shop. In addition to the new paint job, a few speed mods (flap, aileron and rudder gap seals; wing root and wing fillet fairings) and vortex generators (for reduced stall speed and enhanced low speed controllability) were added to the airframe.
The new capabilities of his Comanche have served Tom’s family well. His wife Jane had flown with him often during their courtship and the early marriage years. Today she remains a “reasonably willing” passenger in the Comanche, even though she “doesn’t like bumps.” Jane has even taken some pinch hitter lessons in an effort to find greater enjoyment – and peace of mind – in flying. Tom’s 20-year-old son, Will, is a very willing passenger, even though he does not seem particularly interested in learning how to fly. Polly, his 18-year-old daughter, recently completed a long trip with Tom to AirVenture at Oshkosh – more on that later - and then on to the family vacation home in Bozeman, MT. Tom was really pleased that his daughter decided to accompany him on this trip, since she historically has not been particularly fond of either flying or camping. Tom reports they had a really great time together, which was particularly special since she is “off to college” this year. The youngest member of the family, 11-year-old daughter Carrie, has been flying in the back of the plane since she was a toddler. Recently, Carrie got a chance to go flying alone with Dad and for the first time she got to sit up in the front seat. Carrie liked the improved view and really impressed her Dad with her excellent questions about the gauges and radios.
Tom is very pleased with his Comanche and doesn’t really see a need to get a different kind of aircraft down the road. According to Tom, "The Comanche fulfills just about all of my mission requirements and, as airplanes go, is reasonably economical to operate." Built in 1967, his six place aircraft has a 6 cylinder Lycoming IO-540 D4A5 260 HP engine with GAMI fuel injectors and a Reiff engine preheating system. Tom’s Comanche has a cruising speed of 180 MPH and a useful load of about 1,250 pounds. The Comanche’s 90 gallon fuel capacity, combined with 10.3 gallons per hour fuel consumption at cruise (courtesy of the GAMI injectors and the EDM 800’s information in support of lean of peak operations), gives the plane a range farther than the average person would care to endure. Stall speed is only 67 MPH with full flaps and 75 MPH clean. There are a bunch of pilots based at Smith Reynolds who would love to possess these performance and useful load numbers.
Another dimension of the aircraft ownership experience is the existence of aircraft “type” organizations, where it is possible for owners of similar airplanes to swap information, parts, and stories (otherwise known as lies) with other pilots. Tom is an active member of the International Comanche Society. This year – 2008 – is the 50th anniversary of the first production of the Comanche aircraft. In honor of that event, the ICS organized a mass arrival of Comanches into AirVenture 2008 in Oshkosh, WI. Approximately 60 Comanches, representing every configuration in which the Comanche was ever produced, staged at Watertown, WI and then participated in a spectacular and exciting mass arrival into Oshkosh. This was Tom’s first visit to AirVenture, and it certainly turned out to be an enjoyable and memorable visit. In fact, Tom’s aircraft received a prestigious Bronze Lindy award from the judges at AirVenture! The award was in the category for Contemporary (1956-1970) aircraft and was for the Best Class III Single Engine (231-Up HP) Aircraft.
The WSAA is proud to recognize our member Tom McKim for this award, and we hope that he and his family enjoy many more years of service from N9171P.
[Photos and Story By Andy Dale, CFI]
Click <here> for a link to the June, 2008 story about J.W. Bryant's beautiful 1978 Grumman Cheetah.
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