Letters

Airport magic

Lane E. Wallace gave us all a beautiful gift by creating " Airport Magic" (October Pilot). What a masterpiece of heartfelt verbal and visual connections of private recollections most of us share.

For me during the rural 1950s, it was Avon Airport, Mather Field, and Columbia Station in northern Ohio. Whenever you find "the magic," cherish the moment — it's slipping away!

Thomas William Jones AOPA 874072
Snohomish, Washington

Wallace's article described exactly what I've been trying to tell my family and friends for decades, but have not been able to get across to them. I had to quit flying many years ago for various reasons, but I still love airports and must visit them whenever I am in the vicinity of one.

Thanks for a super article that just might give some people reason to think about airports as something other than facilities for landing and taking off.

David Schuhmann AOPA 148901
White Sands, New Mexico

Wallace's beautiful essay reminded me of the Nut Tree Airport in California's Sacramento Valley. It used to be that Nut Tree was the only way I could lure my children into an airplane. After a lazy flight in the straight-tail Cessna, a small open-coach train would transport us from transient parking to pony rides, merry-go-rounds, and ice cream cones. I hope that our next generation will have many such memories to cherish.

Donald J. Herman AOPA 1055860
Concord, California

Home on the range

I am not sure I really enjoy being put in the classification of being so old that I am one of the few left who remembers flying the radio range (" Four-Course Radio Ranges," October Pilot). Aside from that, Barry Schiff left out one of the truly unique features of the loop range; it stopped broadcasting course guidance when the weather was transmitted, whereas the Adcock range did not. At 15 and 45 minutes after the hour you got the weather without any course signal. This could certainly mess up an approach if it happened near station passage. Depending on where you thought you were in relation to the station, you could hold or continue your approach.

Lawrence J. McElligott AOPA 723566
Ione, Oregon

Navigating over the Sea of Japan in the dead of night during radio silence and trying to locate the USS Essex by using only a Mk III Plotting Board and an E-6B circular slide rule made stateside A's and N's look like the greatest thing since sliced bread.

Knock it if you wish, but I still think that it was better than VOR or GPS because the pilot's dead reckoning had to be current to the instantaneous moment. Electrical failure wasn't such a big factor where navigation was the exercise. Also, one could use one's eyes for critical instrument scanning while listening for navigation input. Needle-chasing (VOR) and surrogate thinking (GPS) are bad navigation habits to develop.

The A's and the N's of the quadrants and the steady tone of the legs were sweet music to my ears — better than Beethoven, Bach, or Mariah Carey. I'm waiting for the low-frequency radio range to make a comeback so that I can make another cross-country flight.

Tommy Thomson AOPA 091975
Rancho Santa Fe, California

Kudos for a great October issue of AOPA Pilot. From time to time I've toyed with the idea of some writing of my own, but after reading the likes of Lane E. Wallace's truly magnificent "Airport Magic," Barry Schiff's intriguing "South African Safari by Air," and his "take me back to the good old days" exposition on the four-course radio range, I've concluded that I should just sit back, read, and enjoy.

Regarding the latter article, I really had a good laugh over Barry's assertion that only a masochist would attempt to fly a radio range in the vicinity of an electrical storm. Over "The Hump" between India and China in the world's worst weather, what choice did we have? Bent beams, split beams, disappearing beams, ear-splitting hash in the earphones, and that old ADF making like a whirling dervish were nothing more than the order of the day.

Couple this with gut-wrenching turbulence — and needle, ball, and airspeed — and I want to tell you, it was mighty comforting to do a quadrant bisector orientation and then be driving that old B-24 inbound with the faintest steady tone dominated by the A or N quadrant signal; you knew you were on the right side of the beam and not likely to ram somebody outbound. This was of paramount importance close to the station, where the beam was so narrow.

Today, as I tool along cross-country in my partner's Stearman, playing with the GPS to keep "airspace legal," I wonder how we ever survived — and I think, "Man, by the grace of God, you've really seen it all."

Krieger Henderson AOPA 042163
Alexandria, Virginia

Agreeing with Brad

I have just finished reading Mark R. Twombly's " Pilotage: Brad, Meet Brown" (October Pilot). The article itself I found very interesting because, like Brad, I've learned that aircraft ownership is not cost-effective, and so my wife and I have become aircraft renters. Our local FBO has a number of well-kept aircraft to fly — and guess what — I've found that renting is not cost-effective, either. It is exactly twice the expense of the airlines. However, the convenience and excitement of piloting my rental aircraft wherever I wish gives me the freedom he alludes to in his article and very few sleepless nights wondering how the next installment will be paid.

Terry R. Ogle AOPA 775860
Milton, Florida

Where the wild things are

Barry Schiff's " Postcards: South African Safari by Air" (October Pilot), reflecting enjoyment of viewing game by air and land, gave me pause to reflect that, but for the great effort of hundreds of brave game rangers who have and do risk their lives in the day-to-day "war" against the wanton killing of wildlife by poachers for profit, those creatures would be virtually extinct today or found only in zoos.

The Los Angeles-based Wilderness Conservancy has had six aircraft in antipoaching operations in southern Africa, although two were lost in 1992. Operating today are two Bellanca 8GCBC Scouts and two American Champion 8GCBC Super Scouts — ideal aircraft for such service.

When Schiff mentioned hazards to aircraft presented by wildlife, it reminded me of the time I had a lion pop my Scout's main-gear tires, and another time when a hyena chewed the fiberglass off the tip of my horizontal stabilizer — both in Umfolozi Game Reserve in KwaZulu-Natal. Then there was the time when, because of the lack of a hangar at Mana Poos National Park in Zimbabwe, our Zimbabwe Scout was parked regularly under the canopy of a large acacia tree. The baboons used the wings as a trampoline. Soon thereafter an animal-proof hangar was built.

I have been flying the bushveldt, deserts, and swamps of southern Africa since the late 1960s. I can encourage pilots who fancy the exotic and quest for the unusual to try a flying safari in South Africa. Some rental aircraft have GPS, but I would urge that one with a worldwide database be carried along. It is a super backup to pilotage.

Dr. Robert N. Cleaves AOPA 264324
Los Angeles, California

Cleaves is president of the Wilderness Conservancy — Ed.

Calling the tower

At the conclusion of today's IFR flight, I was asked to call the tower in order to discuss my apparent deviation from a given clearance. What I expected to be an adversarial discussion was, instead, a learning experience. The tower supervisor reviewed the audio tapes and, with input from the working controller, reconstructed the communications and procedural confusion. All turned out well, as there was contributed lack of communication clarity on both sides.

The most important part of this event was that I was offered a tour of the tower and radar facilities so that I might better understand their procedures and responsibilities, and I in turn offered a flight and instrument approach in order that the supervisor better understand my workload and procedures.

We both accepted each other's offers, and I am most pleased to have met intelligent and highly competent individuals working in air traffic control who endeavor to understand a pilot's view of a given situation and who are interested in utilizing situations as a foundation of a safety-related learning experience.

As one who is normally disappointed with this government and its career employees, I must say that almost all of the hands-on air traffic control personnel with whom I have had contact are singularly dedicated to safety and the improvement of the system.

Alan Laschiver AOPA 877649
Monterey, California

Defending the instrument rating

Talk about "self-righteous." Mark Peters uses this term to describe instrument-rated pilots' attitudes when discussing VFR night flying by non-instrument-rated pilots (" Letters," October Pilot).

I, too, am fairly new to flying — 1,600 hours, commercial and multiengine instrument, all in less than six years. His letter gave me pause to look in my logbook to verify passing my instrument checkride with just 289 hours. The decision to get the rating was a "no-brainer," my having read the NTSB fatality report wherein 80 percent of all fatal aircraft accidents are the result of non-instrument-rated pilots' flying inadvertently into instrument meteorological conditions and "losing it."

Peters states that he has no intention of entering IMC conditions. I am sure the VFR pilots mentioned in the report who found themselves in IMC — and died — had these same good intentions.

Mike Kinsella AOPA 1130043
Columbia, South Carolina

Tip of the hat

One year ago it was still just a dream. Eight months ago I reached out to find someone who could give me answers. I e-mailed AOPA and found that person, Ruth Moser. She e-mailed me back with information on how I could find the resources to learn to fly an airplane. I've done a lot of things in my life, but never dreamed I could actually pilot an aircraft.

When I received Ruth's e-mail, I was shocked to find out that people in my circumstance (I cannot walk and am confined to a wheelchair) can do what I thought was the impossible — fly an airplane.

Well, Ruth, I did it. After a hard eight months of training and trying to prove to the FAA that I am capable of piloting an airplane, I am a pilot! The examiner said that I did very well. My wife, Laurie, asked him if she dared go up with me, and he replied, "I'd send my wife and kids up with him."

Dreams do come true.

Randy Bezile
Holland, Michigan

Errata

In " Nasty Attitudes" (October Pilot) it was stated that Cessna's new 172 is not approved for spins of any kind. This is incorrect. The new Cessna 172R is certificated for spins in the Utility category, although spins are prohibited in Normal-category operations.

The temperature range for rime icing was incorrect in " Wx Watch: Wrestling the Iceman" (October Pilot). Rime icing is most likely to form between minus 20 degrees Celsius and minus 10 degrees Celsius.

We welcome your comments. Address your letters to: Editor, AOPA Pilot, 421 Aviation Way, Frederick, Maryland 21701. Send e-mail to [email protected]. Include your full name, address, and AOPA member number on all correspondence, including e-mail. Letters will be edited for style and length.