September, 2008 Vol. V, No.
8 |
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Welcome
to the
Over the
Airwaves
aviation journal. This complimentary e-publication
is prepared monthly for pilots and aviation enthusiasts around the
world. Its aim
is to promote
flight safety, encourage students and new pilots, and to build
enthusiasm for aviation in general.
Making it Fun! There is one message that nobody seems to be getting. Not the local flight school, not AOPA, not even the FAA. That message is this . . . six out of every ten primary flight students quit before checkride! Imagine, 60% of all well-intentioned, enthusiastic student pilots encounter sufficient frustration or disappointment in their training process to abandon their dream of flying, forsake whatever investment they made, and hang it all up. Only general aviation accepts this horrific drop-out rate as par for the course. Heads would fall and careers would end in any other industry encountering this level of customer dissatisfaction. Not so in GA. Rather than stemming the flow of departing students, we launch programs to drive new people into the front door . . . hopefully at a rate equal to the number of people leaving out the back door. Let's see, we have EAA's Young Eagles program, AOPA's Be a Pilot program, and a myriad of other initiatives designed to attract new pilots into the system, but we see very little being done to retain the nearly 50,000 student pilots who drop out of training every year.
Even cross-country flights, which should be the icing on the cake of fun flying, follow the same ritualistic routes just long enough to meet the requirements of FAR 61.129. As for the anxiety-producing knowledge and practical tests, we have students take practice tests, either online or in Q&A books repeatedly until they can spew back the "correct" answers just in time for the big test day. Does this sound like fun? This is no way to run an airline!
Curiously, defenders of the current flight training system offer up the same lame excuses as airline managements. "It's all a matter of costs," they shout in unison. Flight training is too expensive to be offering students anything more than the basic essentials needed to pass the test. Well, Virginia, it doesn't have to be this way. It costs us nothing more to make a few fun landings on a funky grass strip, or to conduct necessary ground training over coffee, Coke, and a hamburger in an airport cafe, or to arrange rides for our students in high performance, home-built, or aerobatic airplane hangared at our home or nearby airport. Visits to the tower or radar room are fun . . . but seldom done in traditional flight schools. Ever think of spending a few minutes at a destination aviation museum before departing for home? Why is none of this stuff done? Answer: Because none of this stuff is required in the private pilot PTS. It costs us pennies to hand our students a complimentary bottle of cold water before boarding the aircraft. It only takes just a minute to wipe the bugs off the windscreen and to remove the cockpit debris left from the previous flight before climbing in. Hey, anybody ever thought of washing the training aircraft occasionally? Bring along a student or two to Sun 'n Fun or AirVenture in Oshkosh? Perish the thought! As for the training syllabus, leave it on the ground. Instead, fly to some neat destinations for breakfast (or lunch, or supper). Encourage students to bring along a friend. Make every training flight a new adventure. "Well, duh, how are supposed to cover the required training elements if we're just joy riding around the continent," asks the unimaginative flight school or CFI? Answer: We sneak in a little slow flight, or navigation exercises, a couple of steep turns, diversionary or emergency landings on grass fields, even a stall or two enroute to breakfast. On the way back, we do some hands-free flying to hone trimming skills. We surreptitiously secure a pop-up IFR clearance to enable our students to experience "real" IFR flight instead of snapping an awkward hood over their heads. As for the syllabus we left on the ground . . . check off the elements covered during the flight after the student leaves the building. Nobody likes to sit around while the CFI does his paperwork. Better yet, spend the end of the day in some "hangar talk" with students. Crack open your favorite beverage and simply "unwind" with a few future aviators. Let's not forget that our aim is to have the student learn rather than for us to teach. Learning IS fun; receiving instruction is a drag. Our failure to recognize this difference is why most of the 60% of all primary flight students quit before checkride. In summary, we can find other things to blame for our deplorable new student drop-out rate, but our half-century old primary flight training methods is top on the list. Fix this problem and our pilot numbers will soar! If we don't, the few remaining students that we do have will find other things to do with their discretionary income. When that happens, GA will continue to fade away as a vestige of an earlier era.
Trim stall - BEWARE!
Such was the case last September when an experienced instructor and a student were practicing touch and goes in a Cessna 210 at the Moriarty Airport (OE0) in Moriarty, NM. According to witnesses, the airplane appeared to flare approximately 10 to 12 feet above ground level (agl) and then drop onto the runway. They said the airplane then bounced and became airborne with the wings in a straight and level position. It then drifted to the right of runway centerline just as they heard the "engine power come up."
The airplane suddenly pitched
up and at approximately 30 to 40 feet then stalled.
The nose dropped and the airplane struck the runway and was immediately engulfed with flames. The student
was killed and the instructor was seriously injured.
Trim stall, bounces, and ballooned landings Whether caused by an excessive trim setting, by a gust of wind, or bouncing off the nose wheel, the immediate result is nearly always the same. The airplane suddenly finds itself in a nose high pitch attitude and on the verge of stall. What the pilot does in the next two seconds will spell the difference between a simple bad landing recovery or disaster! What should he do? Add power - pitch forward! Swiftly adding power and pitching the nose forward to a level flight attitude will remove the possibility of a stall and return the aircraft to a flying condition. The important thing is . . . act immediately! Seconds count here. Next, assess the length of remaining runway. If sufficient runway remains, reduce power and land. If there is any doubt regarding runway remaining, go around!
Getting Comfortable with Stalls
Some of the new pilot's anxiety comes from
seeing his airplane at an unusually high pitch angle.
Most, however, comes from a fear of the unknown. The
pilot simply does not understand what is happening.
Almost instantly, a wing rolls left or
right. Images of the ground suddenly fill the forward
outside view as the aircraft begins to revolve around its
longitudinal access. Sadly, this event occurs for real in the
United States about once a week (52 times year) with fatal
consequences . . . all because far too many pilots, both new
and veteran, simply do not understand the aerodynamics of a
stall. Cross-section of a stalling wing . . . The following four images were produced as
part of a study underwritten by the
Air Force Office of
Scientific Research. They illustrate the airflow
around a wing at increasing angles of attack (pitch angles).
The above image illustrates a wing in level flight. The black and white dots represent tiny boundary layer vortices. Note how they remain close to the wing until they are washed downstream.
Above, we see the wing in a typical climb. Note how the boundary layer vortices continue to remain close to the wing surface.
The above wing, while in an steep angle of attack is still developing significant lift. It is about here where we hear the stall warning horn begin to chirp.
The above wing is in a very steep pitch-up angle of attack. Note that boundary vortices have begun to separate from the wing surface. This wing is still developing lift because the vortices remain above the wing's surface. The disrupted air flow moves rearward around the stabilizer and elevator. The aircraft begins to buffet.
Here, we see the fully stalled wing. The boundary vortices have moved rearward to the trailing edge and beyond. A similar image would likely be produced by a brick falling to the ground! Recovering from a stall Curiously, in most properly loaded aircraft, stall recovery is automatic. When the wing ceases to produce lift, the nose falls downward and the wings again begin to produce lift.
There are two sure-fire ways to prevent an unintentional stall and possible spin. The first is to understand the aerodynamics of a stall as illustrated above. The second is to include stall practice in every flight. Yep . . . every flight! As you cruise along, drop the power to idle, pitch up without gaining or losing altitude. Experience a full stall break, observe the nose drop down through the horizon, maintain heading with rudder, then restore power. Before long, the dreaded stall will no longer be an anxiety producing event. You will, in fact, enjoy this most simple of all quasi-aerobatic events! For more information on stalls and spins, take AOPA's Air Safety Foundation latest interactive course by clicking HERE. Above images produced by Shih, C., Lourenco, L., Van Dommelen, L. & Krothapalli, A. (1992) Unsteady flow past an airfoil pitching at a constant rate. AIAA Journal 30 1153-1161. Those funny little tabs on the top of the wings????
Vortex generators (VGs) are simply small rectangular plates that stick up above the wing surface. As air moves past them, vortices are created off the tips of the VGs. These vortices interact with the rest of the air moving over the wing to speed it up and help to delay air flow separation from the top of the wing. As we know, when the wings' angle of attack increases, such as when flying slow, the smooth flow of air over the top of wings "detaches" and a loss of lift results. In essence, there isn't enough energy in the flow to keep it moving. Since vortices created by VGs are energetic, they can be used to put energy back into the flow to keep it moving in the desired direction, thus enabling slower flight by increasing the wing's critical angle of attack.
Understanding the aerodynamics of lift and how devices such as VGs improve lift is one key in becoming proficient pilots. Equally important, understanding how contaminants such as frost or ice on the wing destroys lift is a key to avoiding mishaps.
Know before you land!
You're not going to make it! In this scenario, if you power-up for the go-around, you'll likely not clear the trees. You pause, wondering what to do. Then you decide to chop the power and hopefully bring things to a stop. Instead, your airplane slides across the wet grass like a hockey puck on ice. Bang, boom, crash. You slide past the end of the runway and come to a rest in a ravine, with a collapsed nose gear and a wrinkled firewall. Sad to say, this accident really did happen earlier this year in Skykomish (S88), WA. Fortunately, nobody was hurt. NTSB Report What happened? Lots of things could have contributed to this needless wreck. While 2,000' offers plenty of room to land a C-172, even over obstacles, but we can't do it unless:
Sadly, this hapless pilot did not satisfy any of the above 3 conditions and, as a result, wound up sitting on the grass beside a seriously damaged aircraft. Our pilot landed long and fast, not touching down until some 800 feet beyond the approach end of the runway. Rather than applying full power for the go-around, he apparently paused, contemplated his condition, then elected to use hard braking on wet grass to solve the problem. Didn't work! An ounce of prevention . . . Unfortunately, many (perhaps most) CFIs and flight schools provide no grass field training to their student pilots. Hence, few of us recognize the risks associated with wet grass. Those who have had this training know that braking on wet grass is poor to nil. Similarly, the last time many of us practiced short-field operations, even on pavement, was on our private pilot checkride . . . . many, many months and oftentimes years ago. Then, when a REAL short field, with obstacles on both ends comes along, we're totally "out-to-lunch" when it comes to landing safely in these challenging fields. What's the solution? Easy, find a short field and practice a few landings. Learn consummate speed control; identify a point no further than 200 feet from the approach end of the runway to serve as a guide post. If you're not firmly on the ground when reaching that guide post, go-around without delay! Accidents happen for lots of reasons. Our aim as pilots is to identify and prevent each of those reasons from ever occurring!
Explosive Growth at the Buffalo-Lancaster Regional Airport!
Such is the case at Western New York's rapidly growing Buffalo-Lancaster Airport (KBQR), located just six miles southeast of the Buffalo-Niagara International Airport. Founded over 60 years ago and allowed to malinger as a sign of the times, BQR is quickly re-inventing itself as the Buffalo area's premier GA airport. Here's why:
Historically, Western New York played a vital role in the development of commercial and military aviation throughout the 20th century. Today it is home to some of the best GA resources around. Nearby GA-friendly airports located in Dunkirk (KDKK), Jamestown (KJHW), Akron (9G3), Niagara Falls (KIAG), Hamburg (4G2), Clarence (D51), Buffalo-Lancaster Regional (KBQR), and Batavia (KGVQ) have done much to promote general aviation. Each in its own way has done much to keep GA alive in WNY. I am proud to call Buffalo-Lancaster Regional Airport as my aviation home and invite all OTA readers to stop by and say "hello."
The Matter of Expired Charts in Your Aircraft . . . Aviation is filled with OWTs (Old Wives' Tales) that have been handed down through generations of pilots. Left unchallenged, these OWTs often become the rule of the land.
1. "Running lean of peak will harm your engine;" 2. "All engine run-ups should be done only while facing the wind;" 3. "Running over square (high manifold pressure/low RPM) should never be done;" 4. "Straight-in approaches to the pattern are illegal;" etc., etc., etc.
Here's another popular OWT! "Having out-of-date charts in your airplane can get you busted by the FAA." Corollary: "It is better to have no charts in your airplane than to have out-of-date charts aboard."
Answer: Yes, however as in all things aviation, there are exceptions. Under FAR Part 91, with the exception of Part 91.503 that requires the pilot in command of large and multiengine airplanes to have current charts, there is no regulation that prohibits our use of expired charts in the airplane in smaller GA aircraft.
The same exception
applies to Part 121
(airlines) and Part 135 (air taxi) operators. These operators
also require current charts
in the airplane.
Okay . . . so we can have and use expired charts in our airplane, what about FAR 91.103 that requires us to have ALL available information prior to departure? Technically, we could satisfy this regulation by having an expired chart and all relevant updates in NOTAM form. But we're not talking about having all available information here. Instead, we're simply talking about the presence and use of expired charts in the airplane. No foul here! Hmmmm . . . what if we hit a tower, survive the event, and the FAA discovers the presence of only expired charts in our airplane (or no charts at all)? Well, that's a different story. Here, we need to be thinking about FAR 91.13 (careless and reckless operation). Could happen! In summary . . . Either having no charts or expired charts in the airplane, with the exceptions noted above, does not violate any specific regulation, but neither does departing in zero-zero conditions or launching into Class G airspace in IMC without a flight plan or clearance. Legal? Yes. Wise, certainly not! We owe it to ourselves, to our passengers, and to people on the ground to have onboard the latest information concerning our intended flight. As for the charts themselves, requiring to have them aboard, with the exceptions noted above, is an Old Wives' Tale!
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Over the
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and for pilots all over the globe. North to Alaska!
We all have our own reasons for learning to
fly. For some, it is to fly lazy circles in the sky on
a sunny afternoon. For others like the Porebski family of
Buffalo, NY, it is to go to distant fascinating places fast,
without the inane inconveniences of airline travel. And what more fascinating place is
there for folks in the "lower 48" to go than to
Alaska! That's just what the Porebski family did . . .
earlier this month. Not for experienced pilots only! To some, the thought of crossing the
Continental Divide and braving the snow-capped mountainous
terrain of Alaska in a privately owned aircraft is something
that only very experienced pilots do. Not so for
father and son piloting team, Jim and Dennis Porebski and
wife/mother, Phyllis. Jim and Dennis received their piloting
credentials just a couple of years ago and the ink is still
wet on the Porebski's instrument rating! But what they
lacked in experience, they more than made up for in quality
training and proper pre-planning! Click
HERE to read their personal
account of this remarkable flying adventure! AirVenture 2008 in Oshkosh!! It is the singular most spectacular
aviation event on the globe. Nothing comes close to
greatness of this annual seven-day July event - no, nothing, nada,
nowhere! Below are some photo highlights of this
year's show. F22 - Raptor DC-3 Strolling the grounds. KidVenture
Aircraft camping Cirrus Jet AeroShell Square John Travolta arriving in his personal B-707. Harrison Ford shares a moment with a wide-eyed child!
Above group photo is of our Buffalo, NY contingent (EAA
46) at our camping site at AirVenture '08. Photo taken
by James Cavanaugh. Aero-News.Net Features OTA in Podcasts
"Making the most of your BFR" is the latest in a series of podcasts Bob Miller has been doing with Aero-News.Net's Paul Plack. You can hear, or download for later listening, these 15 minute interviews and any of the previously conducted podcasts by clicking on the titles below: Podcast Titles[Click on desired titles - several minutes may be required to download.] Titles in RED are new since the last OTA. By the way, Aero-News.Net is a FREE daily online publication that is packed with aviation related news. It is the first thing I read every morning. You can log on to Aero-News.Net and subscribe for your free subscription by clicking HERE. Night Operations - Know what to look at!
You are departing at night from an unfamiliar rural airport. There is no moon, no stars, and no lights on the ground. As you climb into the black muck, you look at your instrument gauges. One particular gauge should capture your primary attention. Which is it? Yep . . . the gauge on the upper left side of your display - the airspeed indicator! The airspeed indicator is the primary instrument for climb, whether day or night, VFR or IFR. It it reads too slow, you're climbing too steeply. If it reads too fast, you're climbing too slowly. Keeping these facts in mind could save your life! Learning to fly on the gauges is not for instrument rated pilots only. VFR pilots, too, require an effective instrument scan as well. Referrals to BMFT, Inc.
Here's how some of these calls go:
Curiously, this is not a local phenomenon. We hear from pilots all over the United States seeking realistic flight training. In nearly every case, the pilot says, "My flight school will not fly whenever the weather is threatening. They will not fly in crosswinds; they will not fly in low ceilings or limited visibility; they will not fly unless the weather is near perfect." The end result . . . accidents! What the traditional flight school may regard as "prudent" training is, in fact, incomplete training. Graduates of these flight schools have passed their private pilot check rides, but that's it! Sadly, their first encounter with a 17 knot crosswind or in declining visibility occurs when they are flying solo . . . and that's when accidents happen. It's commonly known that the number one weather related killer of pilots and their passengers is "continued VFR flight into IMC conditions." Again, this typically occurs to pilots who never experienced marginal VFR conditions during their training. What may appear to them to be 3 miles of visibility is really 5 miles declining to 1/2 mile! At this point a seemingly routine VFR flight turns into tragedy in about 9 seconds. Traditional flight schools as well as AOPA's Air Safety Foundation preaching the importance of establishing "personal minimums" so that encounters with crosswinds and declining visibility never happen. This is fine in theory. No one should quibble with that, but that's a far from realistic solution. Take the following scenario, for example. A freshly minted pilot from a traditional flight school departs upstate New York for a flight to East Hampton, Long Island. Weather along the entire route of flight is forecast to be clear and a million miles visibility.
Rather than climbing to clear air above as a person who has experienced these conditions before with his instructor on board would do, he continues his descent into conditions that far surpass his "personal minimums." He struggles to remain in level flight. Tragically, he soon succumbs to circumstances that ultimately take his life. So much for "personal minimums." Real scenarios such as this occur multiple times every day. Fortunately, most of them work out without incident. But, as the fatal accident data reveal, over 300 of them (or about 1 a day) end with fatalities. In summary, establishing "personal minimums" is fine as long as they are based upon solid training that brings us near to the edge of our airplane's operating envelope. This will ensure that we have a realistic basis for knowing where to set these "personal minimums." More importantly, such training will give us the tools to handle situations where, through no fault in our pre-flight planning, these "personal minimums" are exceeded. The Most Preventable Accident !!
The pilot instructed the fuel vendor at Bellingham to top off his tanks (90 gallons). He then boarded the airplane, apparently without visually inspecting the fuel load, took off and winged his way over, arguably the roughest terrain on the globe to his destination along the Alaskan panhandle shoreline. You guessed it. After his second attempt at intercepting the localizer at the Ketchikan Airport, the pilot reported that he was low on fuel. Moments later, the engine quit. Total flight time was 4.25 hours. The pilot found a hole in the clouds and descended down to the ocean below. Aside from a case of hypothermia, the pilot and his passenger survived the ordeal. His T-210 was, of course, destroyed and every aircraft owners' insurance rates just went up another few dollars. What happened? When talking with the NTSB, the wayward pilot had lots of possible explanations, blaming everybody but his apparent poor planning. Perhaps the fueler didn't REALLY top the tanks as he requested. The headwinds were greater than advertised. The autopilot failed to capture the localizer thus extending the length of his flight. Blah, blah, blah. We pilots are good at explaining away our own misdeeds. Yes, me included! But the reality of this ill-fated flight is simply this. Like all other fuel-mismanagement events, it could have easily been prevented. A Cessna 210 holds 90 (88 usable) gallons of fuel. Climbing to 12,000 feet at 800 feet per minute for 15 minutes, it will burn 7 gallons before leveling off. This leaves 81 gallons for the balance of the flight. At 17gph, this would give him 4.76 hours of remaining flight time. Excuses don't matter! Try as this pilot might like, there is simply no way to blame anybody else other than himself for this tragic waste of aircraft (and near loss of life). The best flight planning in the world would make this particular flight a definite "no go" decision with this aircraft on this day without an enroute fuel stop. No way! But he did so. And so do others of us at the rate of about 4 per week in the United States, with nasty consequences. Okay, many of us, me included, have cut our fuel margins a bit close at least once in our lives. With luck, things worked out, but depending upon luck is a sure way to a short life or a seriously bent airplane. With today's weather forecasting capability, aircraft performance charts, and hand-held calculators, accurate fuel planning is a snap. Couple those resources with an iron-clad rule of NEVER landing with less than one hour of remaining fuel in our tanks, we'll never have a fuel mis-management accident! Helpful Sponsor Please support OTA's helpful sponsors by clicking on the image below where you will find ordering information. This is is a first-class publication that can help the proficient pilot become even better!
Note: If you have an aviation-related product or service you would like to promote and help underwrite the continued publication of Over the Airwaves, please send an email to rjma@rjma.com.
Ask most new flight students what their primary aviation goal is and they will tell you it is either (1) learning to land, (2) flying solo, (3) passing the checkride, or (4) obtaining their pilot certificate. Ask the same question of veteran aviators and they will offer up things like obtaining the next rating, upgrading their aircraft panel, or acquiring a new airplane. Each of these goals are worthwhile in themselves but they lack the essence of what aviation is really about. They fail to offer sufficient incentive to make them happen on a predictable basis. In other words, many of us pilots reach a point in our aviation career where nothing more happens. That illusive instrument rating slips through our finger tips; our dream of owning an airplane fades away; we give up on becoming a corporate or airline pilot. So what is the solution? How do we prevent this short-circuiting of our aviation goals? The answer is simple. We need to take our mind off our goals and, instead, focus on the end-game. This end-game is where we hope to be several years down the road. For some, this end-game is winging their family to the Jersey shore for a week on the beach. For others, it is attending important business meetings in three states on the same day without ever having to walk through a security checkpoint. For young pilots, the end-game may be taking command of a large airliner, Gulfstream V, or the space shuttle. My aviation end-game has always been to set my own schedule, report to no one, fly when I want, in the latest model aircraft and be paid for it, and to help others achieve their own end-game in aviation. It worked for me and it can work for you, too. Here's how . . . Determine your own aviation end-game. What is it that you would ultimately like to accomplish? Walk on the moon? Become an Alaskan bush pilot? Fly yourself coast-to-coast, in the clouds? Hop from state to state closing multiple business deals on the same day? Operate a successful (profitable) flight school? Become the chief pilot for Northwest (sorry, I meant Delta) Airlines? Sky is the limit . . . you decide. Next, keep your eyes focused on the end-game while you pass through the stepping stones along your way. If you slip off of a required stepping stone, get up, brush yourself off, and get back on. Continue keeping your eyes focused on the end-game and not the stepping stones.
The call turned out to be very, very long distance. It was coming from Eileen Collins, the first woman to command the space shuttle. She was in orbit over Australia. On the call, she told the audience that her father had taken her to Oshkosh AirVenture when she was just a child. That's when she identified her end-game! For most of us, our aviation end-game is the freedom to fly when and where we want, but it needs to be more than that. We need to picture ourselves in an airplane of choice five years from now. What is it going to take to get there? What stepping stones must I traverse? If we do this, then permit ourselves a few miss-steps along the way, we WILL achieve our end-game. Bob Miller, CFII, ATP
Goings On About Town . . .
Please join with our hosts, Joe and Dian DeMarco, in one of the most worthwhile events in Western NY aviation. All proceeds will go to support Angel Flights - Northeast. There will be live bands, raffles, Chinese auctions, lots of food and drink. This annual event raises over $100,000 for Angel Flights - Northeast. We all need to get out and support this wonderful event!
Past Issues of Click
HERE
to open any previous issue(s) of Technical Assistance
I would like to thank the following technical assistance
contributors for their valuable help in producing OTA every
month: Cameron Dunlop, Corning, NY;
Dan Maloney, Clarence, NY; Barry McCollom, Kerrville, TX; Thom
Riddle, Buffalo, NY; and
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Instead,
we cling to our 60 year old training syllabi. We
send student pilots and their hapless instructors out to
the traditional practice areas for an hour to conduct basic drills
faster than our presidential candidates flash their
smiles before TV cameras. We resort to the
classroom or simulator anytime the winds kick up above
12 knots. As Valley girls say, "Gag me with a
spoon!"
Sorry
to say this but much of our traditional flight training
has gone the way of today's airlines. That is,
pack them in, sit them down, shut the door, hold them
captive, land them late, lose their bags, and hope
they'll come back for another flight. Yeah, right!
High performance
singles like the Cessna 210 require firm back-pressure on
the yoke to keep the nose up during the landing
flare. Dialing in a bit of up-trim helps to mitigate
the need for this back-pressure, but beware of what could
happen should a go-around be required.
Most
primary flight instruction goes along quite well until the
emerging pilot experiences his first demonstrated stall.
The nose slowly pitches up, the stall horn sounds, the
airplane begins to shake, and the student suddenly wishes he
were someplace else!
This
form of fear can become debilitating if not satisfactorily
resolved. When it does occur, the hapless pilot allows
the aircraft to yaw as he wrestles with the stick or yoke in
a vain effort to restore the aircraft to level flight. 
The
only major complicating factor is the left turning forces
produced by the engine and propeller as power is restored.
With inadequate rudder input, a yaw or turning motion
results that could instantly result in a spin.
Ever
wonder what those funny little tabs were at the top of the
wings on everything from Cessna 172s, to jet fighters, to
airliners?
Picture
the following scenario. You are dropping below the
tree line with the intention of landing your Cessna 172 on a
2,050' wet, grass runway. As you pitch up for the
flare, your airplane begins to float down the runway.
Trees loom on the opposite end.
In this day of struggling airport,
airline, and GA operations, it is refreshing to witness the
emergence of a thriving airport, where the ramp is full,
where airplanes wait patiently for their turn at the pump,
and where numerous flight students mix it up with veteran
aviators on a daily basis.
Examples of OWTs include:
Well,
the simple fact of the matter is that we CAN have expired
charts in our airplane . . . and we can use them for
navigation! Is there a regulation that prohibits this?
Ordinarily, any
flight school would welcome telephone calls from prospective
students, but for us at Bob Miller Flight Training, Inc. many of these calls are
evidence of something horribly wrong within the traditional
flight training community.
He
arrives over East Hampton just as the sun is setting to the
west. A haze layer develops along the Atlantic coast
which, when combined with the glare of the setting sun turns
everything out the windshield into an opaque field of yellow
mush. He looks out the side windows hoping to catch a
glimpse of the terrain below, but the ocean below reveals no
contours. His horizon is lost. He's locked into
a commonly occurring meteorological paradox known as IMC
flight in VFR conditions.
Earlier
this past month, a Cessna T-210 departed on an early morning
flight from
Bellingham, Washington to
Ketchikan, Alaska. The planned flight time was a
little over 4 hours.
![[Eileen Collins]](collins.gif)
Saturday,
September 13th - Angel Flight Fundraiser!