Fred is a senior editor and chief pilot with Business & Commercial Aviation and Aviation Week's chief aircraft evaluation pilot. He has flown left seat in virtually every turbine-powered business jet produced in the past three decades.
He has flown more than 195 makes, models and variants, ranging from the Piper J-3 Cub through the latest Boeing and Airbus large twins, logging more than 7,000 hours of flight time. He has earned an Airline Transport Pilot certificate and six jet aircraft type ratings, and he remains an active pilot. Fred also specializes in avionics, aircraft systems and pilot technique reports.
Fred was the first aviation journalist to fly the Boeing 787, Airbus A350 and Gulfstream G650, among other new turbofan aircraft. He’s also flown the Airbus A400M, Howard 500, Airship 600, Dassault Rafale, Grumman HU-16 Albatross and Lockheed Constellation.
Prior to joining Aviation Week, he was an FAA designated pilot examiner [CE-500], instrument flight instructor and jet charter pilot and former U.S. Naval Aviator who made three cruises to the western Pacific while flying the McDonnell-Douglas F-4J Phantom II.
Fred has won numerous aviation journalism awards, including NBAA’s David W. Ewald Platinum Wing Lifetime Achievement Award.
The flight deck has an impressive avionics suite, including three, eight-by-ten inch, portrait configuration AMLCD adaptive flight displays, dual solid-state AHRS, dual digital air data computers, full-function, multi-sensor FMS-3000 with GPS receiver, dual 4000-series Pro Line 21 comm/nav/surveillance radios with Mode S diversity antennae, standard TWR-850 Doppler turbulence detection radar, L3 Skywatch HP TCAS I, ACSS Class A TAWS and a solid-state Meggitt secondary flight display system [emergency standby instrument system].
Now in its sixth year of production, Gulfstream's G450 is one of the few large-cabin aircraft capable of flying eight passengers 4,300 nm at Mach 0.80 and land with 200-nm NBAA IFR reserves. It has nearly 200 nm more range than the first- or second-generation GIV or GIV-SP aircraft, an increase made possible by subtle drag reduction improvements and upgraded Rolls Royce Tay Mk 611-8C turbofans. The G450 also has a larger capacity APU and revised intake and exhaust ducting that greatly reduces external noise.
False Replies Unsynchronized with Interrogator Transmission (FRUIT), a by-product of 1090 MHz frequency congestion, now is a small problem, but in the next decade ADS-B will increase potential FRUIT by several orders of magnitude because of its heavy reliance on 1090ES Mode S data links. One of the prime causes is the growing number of aircraft equipped with TCAS, a system that shares the same frequency as transponders and SSRs. Some TSO-C74c Mode A/C transponders also contribute to the problem because of detuned sensitivity.
