Letters

Commuting camaraderie

I could not help but be drawn to " Commuter Pilots" by Lane E. Wallace (March Pilot). I fly my Piper Archer to work every day across the L.A. basin from John Wayne Airport in Santa Ana, California, to El Monte. I got one of my old logbooks out of the file to find when I started. It was June 25, 1989, and the remarks read, "Flew to work for the first time. Took longer than driving. VOR approach to EMT." VFR, it is a dead heat.

I drove to work for 3 1/2 years before I worked out the logistics to make that first flight. It still doesn't save me any time, but what a difference it makes in my life. I don't fly to work because of weather only two or three times a year. I fly alone and I wouldn't want it any other way.

Bob Axsom AOPA 783915
Laguna Hills, California

Living 34 miles west of Milwaukee isn't the same problem as 34 miles in Los Angeles, but my commute by car takes 50 to 65 minutes. Fortunately, my home at one of Wisconsin's beautifully clear inland lakes had enough room to erect a small hangar, and the parking lot at my shop had enough room also, so I commute too...in a helicopter. Door to door.

Thirty-four crooked highway miles equates to 22.6 nautical miles as I fly. At a cruise of about 75 knots, that's about 19 minutes in the air.

All that the Los Angeles commuters say is true with me, too; commuting partially satisfies my desire to fly, but I do enjoy other trips and taking friends for their first helicopter ride. The views are spectacular from my Hughes 269. Being a time-proven design, it has few glitches; mine was completely rebuilt at purchase, so it has been an absolute joy to own and fly the last three years.

Dave Hoffman AOPA 988175
Milwaukee, Wisconsin

Your recent article on commuting brought back lots of memories, particularly of the many logistical considerations to successful commuting by air. But most of all, I recalled the great joy of flying in the early morning and late at night.

For more than 10 years, I commuted in a Cessna 140 to the Martin Company in Middle River, Maryland. In the mid-1960s it became Martin- Marietta. I was very fortunate in that only two of us employees were ever allowed to use the Martin Airport, which is now the Martin State Airport.

John C. Shreve AOPA 596824
Wellsville, Pennsylvania

You mentioned that someone commutes into Hawthorne from as "far away" as San Diego. I must not have been around when you did research. I have been commuting into Hawthorne from Selma (17 miles southeast of Fresno) for the past 7 1/2 years. I use a 1987 Mooney 205...and must say how pleasurable my flights have been into Hawthorne. I can make the trip in one hour, eight minutes (no wind). Naturally, I have an airport car located at Hawthorne's convenient "in-airport" parking lot.

Hats off to the staff at the Hawthorne Airport for being so commuter-minded all these years. Their willingness to provide a secure ramp for our airplanes and automobiles is much appreciated.

Alan A. Memley AOPA 250188
Reedley, California

Air base conversion applauded

I am happy to learn that the old Chanute Air Force Base is alive and well (" Bye-Bye, G.I.; Hello, GA," March Pilot). In the early 1980s, while I was flying my Stearman from Chicago to Mattoon, Illinois, Chanute Air Force Base appeared in my windscreen. Knowing that the field had been closed years before and thinking that no military aircraft had graced its runways in a long while, I decided that my ex-military airplane would do a touch and go in salute to its past.

After touching down and rolling about 500 feet, I climbed to 100 feet agl to fly the remainder of the mile-long runway. Looking over into the open bay of one of the huge hangars, I saw it was chock full of retired military aircraft, including the Thunderbird T-38s used in the 1970s. Chanute had a gold mine of old military aircraft, some of which I suppose are now in their museum.

Bravo to the people of Rantoul. The next time I'm in the area, I'll stay a bit longer.

Chuck Buckley AOPA 313670
San Diego, California

Your articles on the Chanute Air Force Base conversion were well done. The Rantoul community deserves accolades from aviators and industry alike for providing an exceptional example for base closure committees elsewhere that may be entering this foggy transition period. My little brother (who, incidentally, soloed as a teenager at University of Illinois-Willard Airport in nearby Champaign/Urbana) regularly interacts with many of these new Rantoul employers.

Juanita A. Bilbruck AOPA 1168305
Fort Worth, Texas

Project Pilot accolade

I am an AOPA member of long standing, but this is my first time to share a personal experience. It was " AOPA Project Pilot" in March Pilot that finally moved me to the word processor.

Last summer, a dear friend of mine began flight instruction. He had longed to fly for many years but had respected his wife's wishes to abstain until their children were older. On his fortieth birthday, her gift to him was the Cessna Flight Instruction program.

I knew my friend would take to flight instruction like a duck takes to water because I had taken him flying every time I made a flying visit to their town. He was a natural — comfortable with my Cessna Cardinal, gentle with the controls, and absolutely joyous with flying. He now has progressed through basic flight instruction, the written exam (scoring 98 percent), and the flight physical, and he is ready for his checkride.

I want to share an excerpt from a letter I received from my friend shortly after he began his flight instruction: "The thrill and challenge of flying are providing me with a sense of satisfaction and enjoyment unparalleled by any other experience I've ever had.... Every time I've climbed into the cockpit and buckled up, as I peer out over the instrument panel and prepare to throttle up, out of the corner of my mind's eye I see you smiling approvingly and coaxing me on. Thanks for everything."

Nancy J. Warren AOPA 163925
Columbus, Indiana

What drug problem?

After I read a quote from Federico Pena in "Pilot Briefing" (March Pilot), I could not remain silent. In his statement, Pena is announcing the reduction in the random drug test program to 25 percent as a reward for reducing drug use in the commercial aviation industry. How dare he make such an outrageous statement.

Those of us within the aviation community know that there never was a drug abuse problem in the cockpit. The entire program was forced on our companies by Washington bureaucrats and has cost millions of dollars for the sole purpose of satisfying a political agenda. I wish Pena had demonstrated personal integrity and the political courage to tell the public the truth, instead of making such a disingenuous statement.

Unfortunately, I have come to expect the Washington Beltway crowd to issue statements that sound politically correct but are insulting to those of us who know the facts.

Paul F. Reidy AOPA 555577
Tinton Falls, New Jersey

Pena can now claim to have single-handedly "cured" the drug problem in the transportation industry by surprising us pilots — at the end of a trip, no less — by having us pee in a bottle to keep us from using drugs. With that great accomplishment on his resume, I'm sure he will have no problem getting a new job in 1996. Maybe he can be in charge of building a new airport in Chicago.

Gregory Pfeil AOPA 1201720
Centerburg, Ohio

Sharing expenses

I read the article about sharing expenses (" Pilot Counsel: Sharing Expenses," March Pilot) with personal interest. I just don't understand why the FAA makes it so difficult for the average Joe to build flight time. I can understand strict FARs concerning air safety, but the rules about expense sharing just seem overdone. In the case presented in the article, the pilot, the instructor, and the passengers all benefited from the flight, so what is wrong with their sharing expenses?

Scott Peterzell AOPA 1232427
New York, New York

Forward slips

Where did the forward slips go? " Never Again: Oil, Oil Everywhere" and " Fears of Flying: Sleet Shocked" (March Pilot) both caught my attention. Both show the importance of staying current with forward slips. While the articles related experiences where the pilots questioned their prior-to- flight judgment, the fact is that if forward visibility is lost through the windshield, a forward slip can bring back considerable frontal vision. In the landing configuration, slipping to a flare is a lot better than the way they got down.

Lloyd J. Fries AOPA 591827
Visalia, California

I have a question with respect to " Never Again: Oil, Oil Everywhere" (March Pilot). When he was over the threshold but too high (about 150 feet), and too fast (90 knots IAS), and with no forward visibility, could he have used a forward slip to lose altitude and airspeed and also improve visibility?

Since the purpose of "Never Again" is to learn from others' experiences, I would like to raise this question. It seems to me, with the advantage of retrospective vision from my armchair, that this would have been an appropriate maneuver in this situation.

Joseph F. Metcalf AOPA 1207620
Mobile, Alabama

Frontal assault

" Safety Pilot: Frontal Assault" (March Pilot) was very valuable to me. The specifics of the accident were so complete I was able to live through it in my imagination but survive to benefit from the experience. The unpredictability of weather, the need to be fully aware of the situation, the limitations of ground control, and the meaning of "pilot in command" all took on clearer definition than if I had read a dozen sermonizing or analytical articles. I hope you will run more fatal accident reports in this style.

David R. Reel AOPA 1243381
Oakton, Virginia

Bruce Landsberg suggests that the civil justice system is the wrong tool. He argues that juries are too emotional and unsophisticated to decide claims of unsafe design in airplane accidents. As a better approach he offers a non-government oversight board of aeronautical personnel and expanded FAA accountability.

Is it time to trash the civil justice system in favor of more bureaucracy and government? There is a public perception of business suffocating under an avalanche of frivolous claims. The truth, however, is that losing lawsuits are rarely reported. They just don't sell newspapers. Product liability claims comprise only four percent of all tort cases in state courts, and filings have decreased over the past few years. If juries really decided cases on emotion and not facts, why wouldn't every seriously injured plaintiff win?

Our civil justice system has served this country well for more than 200 years. Product safety has been dramatically advanced because of single individuals holding large corporations accountable for negligent design in a court of law. Backup beepers on trucks, asbestos control, and Dalkon Shield protection are all examples of consumer safety advanced by civil justice, not government regulation.

You may have guessed that I'm a trial attorney. I'll concede that the legal system isn't perfect, but it is still the best way to determine accountability and force positive change.

Hugh Mossman AOPA 1156894
Boise, Idaho

Articles like "Frontal Assault" make my blood boil. Why should lawyers and their clients be allowed to take a free ride on society? This is the very reason why Cessna stopped making single-engine aircraft in 1986 and hundreds of pilots like myself are flying old, made-in-the-1950s aircraft. When I got my ticket in 1976, I purchased a 1974 Cessna 172 for $17,500, IFR equipped. Now the value of the same aircraft has risen to at least $45,000.

If a pilot gets himself into trouble and gets killed, his family should not try to take away from the pilot's stupidity by blaming the aircraft manufacturer and the FAA. The airplane can be made only so strong or it would not fly, and the weather forecast is just a forecast. If we pilots would remember this, maybe there would be fewer accidents.

E. G. McElvy AOPA 1106681
Westcliffe, Colorado

Lisunov, not Ilyushin

It was Lisunov that built the DC-3 under license, as the Li-2, not Ilyushin as the Il-2 ("Test Pilot," March Pilot). While the Li-2 and DC- 3 are nearly identical, the Li-2 can be distinguished from its American counterpart by two notable features. First, the Li-2's cowling intakes are not the open circles of the DC-3 but are enclosed with a series of cutout openings. Second, there is an extra side window located just aft of the cockpit on each side. On the left side, this window is over the forward baggage door. The Li-2 was powered by two Shvetsov M-62 engines rated at 900 horsepower each.

As R.E.G. Davies points out in Aerflot: An Airline and Its Aircraft, the Li-2, like its American counterpart, was available after the war in large numbers and provided the backbone for the founding of many airlines in eastern Europe. As such, it was this California-designed aircraft, built in the U.S.S.R., that gave the Soviets a foothold in supplying aircraft to the Six-Pool group of eastern European airlines that was to prevail for the next half century.

Edward Cox AOPA 1213652
Milford, Connecticut

Barry Schiff responds: The otherwise authoritative book The Plane That Changed the World, which was my source, claims that the Soviet DC-3 was an Ilyushin Il-2. I checked with McDonnell Douglas and determined that you are indeed correct and that the author of the book, Douglas J. Ingells, had made a mistake, which I perpetuated in my quiz.

Teasing the brain

While watching "Jeopardy" and doing Barry Schiff's "Test Pilot" (March Pilot), I came to the "Brainteaser." After due consideration, I decided that this was a trick question and came up with a trick answer. Start 500 miles south of the North Pole, fly 500 miles north, circle the Pole — easterly — until you have gone 500 miles, then turn south on the same meridian you came up on and arrive home.

Then I read Barry's answer. Well, that's OK, but how about 500 miles north to the parallel that's 250 miles around, then two circuits, or to the one 166.33 miles long and three circuits? There is an infinite number of possibilities. I do enjoy Barry's quizzes.

Bob Bridges AOPA 488187
Escondido, California

Barry Schiff responds: I never said that there was only one solution to the problem. I simply provided the one that was easiest to understand. The other solutions are conceptually identical and, yes, I agree that there are — in theory — an infinite number of such possibilities.

The lesson of 'Never Again'

After my December 1994 "Never Again: Little Things Mean A Lot," a young commercial pilot questioned my snowy takeoff and says he has "a hard time accepting the analysis" (" Letters," February Pilot).

The analysis states the problems and what I should have done about them; specifically, I should have shut the engines down and sorted out the problems the next morning. The closing lesson for all readers was that good judgment comes from experience — but, alas, experience frequently comes from bad judgment. By the way, the date of that flight (edited out of my text) was 27 years ago.

Two years ago, I wrote another pilot critical of a different author's "Never Again" lesson: "The pilots who write these articles are saying to the rest of us, 'Here is what I did. I learned a valuable and life-saving lesson from the poor judgment and pilot errors of this flight. I want to help you to be a safer pilot by profiting from my experience.'"

Jack L. Parnell AOPA 134542
Collegedale, Tennessee

Colored lights were used

Barry Schiff's information on blue refueling lights was correct (" Letters," February Pilot), but the procedure is no longer in use.

I flew KC-97s for four years and KC-135s eight years. The blue rendezvous lights were applicable to the KC-97 operation. Different colored rendezvous lenses were inserted by the boom operator to identify a tanker's position in five-ship cells. We remembered the color coding by the following ditty: "Girls are willing but reluctant." Number one aircraft of the cell was green, followed in sequence by amber, white, blue, and red.

These procedures were never applicable to KC-135 operations.

Frederick Pennell AOPA 441341
San Antonio, Texas

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