Letters

Night forced landings

I feel compelled to write you concerning comments about night forced landings in lakes (" In-Flight Emergencies: Night Forced Landings," November 1999 Pilot). Unless the wind is blowing, making some waves to give reference of the distance from the surface when attempting a landing, you'll probably end up hitting the lake like a ton of bricks. It's usually calm at night. Most small aircraft sink like a rock, and you have at most a minute to exit. Unless exiting immediately, the water pressure on the doors will hold them shut despite all your energies. Ever try to crawl through a Cessna window? After the aircraft is almost full of water, you can open the door - and by then you may be 50 feet down.

If you land far from shore or the temperature is in the 50s, you will live at most five minutes. Even landing close to shore, you're in big-time trouble. Who will see you and come to your aid with a boat? When I see small aircraft headed over Lake Michigan, I shudder; even in daylight, the risk is great.

I always wonder what happened to the question, "What if?" I am a diver and side-scan sonar operator, and if you ever saw an aircraft in 50-degree water, 100 feet down, I think you'd never fly over lakes again, except small ones and at good altitude. I'll fly around, thank you. Some will disregard this, and they will be the ones ending up as a brief account in the newspaper.

William Mea AOPA 1171672
Oak Lawn, Illinois

I just read your article on night forced landings and couldn't help chuckling. I am a Marine helicopter pilot with about 1,000 hours, including civilian time. I have a little over 100 hours flying on night vision goggles, and I highly recommend having a pair anytime you fly at night. In fact, I brought a pair on a night cross-country flight when I was working on my initial CFI rating. My instructor thought it was OK, but not necessary, until we got in the air and started to use them. Especially in areas away from cultural lighting - where the night is the darkest - goggles can be critical in picking a landing area. By the way, most Marine helo pilots I know don't even think about flying at night without them.

Thor O'Connell AOPA 1401181
San Clemente, California

I was out in a Cessna Skyhawk and a Cessna Skylane on a couple of recent nights and took a night-vision scope. It worked well in both aircraft. On the first night, in the area surrounding the Robbinsville VOR in a rural area of New Jersey, I could readily see the difference between lakes, woods, and fields. This was under starlight. I could even see the furrows - or was it crops still standing? - from 2,000 feet. While there might have been a crop still standing in the field, it was easy to determine which way to land. It was not easy to determine whether there were any power lines to contend with. These observations were made by doing nothing more than grabbing the scope with one hand, turning down the panel lights, and looking outside - probably similar to what a pilot would do if he needed to land and was unaware of his surroundings. The scope is quickly switched on by pushing a button on the top of the unit. It comes up to full brightness in about one second.

On the second night, I went flying with my girlfriend, who is a student pilot. We flew from Trenton-Mercer Airport in Trenton, New Jersey, to Pottstown Limerick Airport in Pottstown, Pennsylvania. We both found that it took some significant concentration to determine what was beneath us when flying over brightly lit urban areas. There was too much glare from the streetlights. When looking into the darkest areas, backyards and other not-too-horrible "smash and stay" landing sites came into view. It was easier to see in the darkest areas than in the urban areas. One added benefit of having the scope was in identifying airports. I was just scanning around with the scope when, from many miles away, I was able to detect Doylestown (Pennsylvania) Airport. The regular layout of the runway lights was very obvious in the night scope but lost in the clutter without it.

It is important to turn down the panel lights to prevent glare from within the cabin. Curiously, white lights were less of a problem than the red light, which came on when the panel lights were switched all the way off. Generation III technology does see near-infrared light. In no case were there any difficulties in seeing through the aircrafts' plexiglass windows. Pilots of low-wing aircraft will likely not do as well as those of high-wings when it comes to observing the ground.

While flying up to Newport State, Vermont, two weeks ago, it was quite obvious that routing could make a big difference in the event of a forced landing. If the night scope works well in total darkness, one could easily glide to one of many long, narrow fields located between the rows of mountains - if the routing had been set up with this in mind.

Pete Gruendeman AOPA 1090956
Hopewell, New Jersey

Kennedy comment

Prompted by Paul Burch's letter (" Letters," November 1999 Pilot), I reread Phil Boyer's " President's Position: Media Mania" (September 1999 Pilot) regarding the John F. Kennedy Jr. tragedy and became even more concerned that you printed the letter. Since it is the only letter you have printed on the matter, I must question your judgment in doing so. Not only does Mr. Burch not address any of Boyer's points, he reveals himself as petty and mean-spirited. This is what he said: "Phil Boyer hit the proverbial nail on the head in 'President's Position: Media Mania.' Beatification of Kennedy just about says it all."

Nowhere in his column does Mr. Boyer say or imply any such thing, nor does he address the public profile of Mr. Kennedy in any way. Other than his kind expression of sympathy, he addresses only the conduct of the media. How could you print a misrepresentation of Mr. Boyer's column without comment or correction? In any event, the government's response to the accident with heightened search measures was surely the decent thing to do. (Remember decency?) The two letters printed above Mr. Burch's had very kind words for the life of an airport. Would that we were so generous with the only son of a president and his family. Or maybe that plane in inverted flight on the letters page is more symbolic than I originally thought.

Steven T. Branca AOPA 1407692
Phoenix, Arizona

It is AOPA Pilot's policy to publish letters representative of the correspondence that we receive, and that policy was followed in the case cited above - Ed.

Praise for ePilot

What a surprise to see AOPA pop up on my server with a weekly [e-mail newsletter]! As a pilot who was away from the yoke for a few years, getting back means a complete update of current information. I find this update just what I need, presented in a readily available format. Keep the info coming.

Mike Kloton AOPA 879657
Tobyhanna, Pennsylvania

What a treat to find your newsletter on my e-mail. In a cyber world of messages - from folks wanting me to refinance to others providing me an opportunity to make "hundreds of dollars from my home" - your e-mail was certainly welcome. Keep up the good work.

Jim Traner AOPA 841925
Edmonds, Washington

I love the concept of ePilot. It will be exciting to see how it evolves in the future.

Jim Gorman AOPA 1118153
Birmingham, Michigan

ePilot is AOPA's new, free weekly e-mail newsletter. To read previous issues or to subscribe, visit the Web site ( www.aopa.org/members/files/pilot/epilot/) - Ed.

At what cost?

It was time for me to have another third class flight physical, so I got a list of the aviation medical examiners in my area and started calling around in an effort to get the best price. Of the four physicians here in town, I was quoted $60 twice and $75 twice. I travel around part of the state a bit, so I called some of the listed physicians in the area I travel. I was surprised to find prices that were bouncing around and higher than the prices I had been quoted.

To satisfy my curiosity, I called the 43 remaining physicians listed in the state. The results totally baffled me. I had two experiences of just reaching voice mail; one didn't answer at all; and four no longer gave the exams. Of the remaining 36, I was quoted prices between $45 and $200. In each case my request was, "I'd like to get a price on a third class FAA physical, please." A few times I had to explain further what I was after, and once I had to state what FAA stood for.

Why the great difference in prices? A third class physical basically proves that you're alive; have no obvious tendency to pass sugar; and can see red, yellow, and green. Who determines the pricing structure? One of the lowest prices I was quoted came from a town that's not very large, and the highest quote came from the largest city in the state. There's no correlation there.

Ken Graham AOPA 950898
Lincoln, Nebraska

The FAA does not set or control the prices that physicians charge for providing aviation medical examinations, so these providers can charge what the market will bear. Perhaps that explains the relationship you observed between small towns and larger cities. We have seen similar correlations in flight-test fees charged by designated pilot examiners - Ed.

Erratum

The name of flight instructor Evelyn Bryan Johnson's former student who captained an airliner she took to Oshkosh in 1997 was incorrect in " Pilots: Evelyn Johnson" (November 1999 Pilot). The pilot's name is Eddie Roberts.

Clarification

Despite what we may have implied in " Waypoints: Flight to the Factory" (November 1999 Pilot), the only autopilots that S-Tec Corporation installs at its factory are those for which the company is developing new supplemental type certificates. Any other installations must be done at an authorized S-Tec avionics dealer.

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 number on all correspondence, including e-mail. Letters will be edited for style and length.