No skydiver or pi-lot wants his or her flight path interrupted any more than it already is. The sky, indeed, is a very large place. However, it only takes an extra 30 seconds to divert one's path a mile or so to avoid active jump operations areas.
If you are passing through a jump area, you might think it would be easy for jump airplanes or skydivers to see your aircraft; but it often is not. Although we like to trust our jump pilots (and we do), we all know the more eyes in the sky, the better the chance of seeing other aircraft.
Skydivers love the sky just as much as pilots; human flight is a joy for us all! Please, please, please follow the suggestions of the article, and use the radio to check if jumping is actively taking place.
Melissa Abner
Nashville, Tennessee
Adjusting To The Cockpit After An Absence
I read Mark Twombly's article "The First Five Minutes" (April 2000) and pondered my own reactions after lengthy absences from regular flying. Twombly brings up several good suggestions for getting reacquainted with flying and your airplane after a short hiatus, including cockpit visualization, selecting especially good weather, and having a safety pilot.
I have found that doing a half-hour of touch and goes does a good job of helping me polish off some of the rust or keeping it from forming in the first place. Granted, they really do nothing for your cross-country navigation, but touch and goes do force the pilot to use almost every system in the airplane. Takeoff, slow cruise, and landing are all occurring in short order.
I find that after the first or second time around the pattern, I move more instinctively in the cockpit. Actions such as extending the flaps or turning on the fuel pump, require only a glance for verification rather than a search for the required switch. Pacing myself through the pattern becomes natural rather than forced. And the icing on the cake: I land dad's airplane smoother than he does.
Ralph C. Burr
Roanoke, Virginia
Another Way To Reduce Runway Incursions
I was pleased to read about the AOPA Air Safety Foundation's efforts to offer airport diagrams on its Web site in an effort to reduce runway incursions ("Online taxi diagrams help VFR pilots," April 2000).
Instrument pilots can also make a point of helping by passing on expired approach plates to VFR-only pilots they know. One excellent source of airport diagrams is Jeppesen ap-proach plates. The back side of the first plate for each airport has a very detailed diagram of the airport as well as all of the communication and navigation frequencies you're likely to need. If you're a VFR-only pilot, you can buy these plates at FBOs or ask an instrument-rated pilot to save them for you the next time he up-dates his set.
The diagrams can be very useful when flying into an airport with which you are unfamiliar. It's a good idea to draw in the traffic pattern as well. I keep mine handy in an inexpensive looseleaf binder.
David O'Rourke
Boulder, Colorado
Don't Encourage Nonstandard Patterns
As much as possible I avoid situations that could lead to a midair collision, and statistically speaking, operating in a traffic pattern is the best place in the world to be involved in a midair. I have long felt that it is critically important to be able to know where the other pilots are likely to be, and then look intently in that area and be prepared to do whatever it takes to see and avoid.
In the April issue of AOPA Flight Training magazine, in the story titled "Decisions, Decisions, Decisions: Good ones make good landings," Dan Namowitz says, "We are about four miles out, conveniently positioned on a long downwind to Runway 35. I know there are true believers out there who maintain that we should now dogleg to the right, then dogleg to the left, to re-enter the pattern on a positionally correct (PC) vector. To them I say, let's talk it over in the coffee shop."
I find it difficult to believe that you are promoting this lack of discipline in nontowered traffic patterns. We all have a stake in this. Our very lives depend on our ability to see and avoid. And the more you promote this cavalier attitude that anything goes, the more dangerous our nontowered airport traffic patterns become. And that lack of discipline potentially could be the end of you, or me, or Mr. Namowitz.
To enter on a two-mile-long 45 to the downwind would have added only a half-mile to Mr. Namowitz's trip. One-half mile. At 90 knots, that's 20 seconds. Is it really such a high price to pay for the advantage of standardization and the ability to predict where to look for each other? Where I used to know where to look for potentially conflicting traffic I now have no idea where they might be coming from. I literally have to look everywhere, in-cluding straight up! And yes, I would very much like to meet Mr. Namowitz in the coffee shop.
Scott Gardiner
Via the Internet
At Least One More Great CFI
While reading the letter "Training troubles continue," in your March issue, I had to sit back a moment and think about how fortunate I have been with my instructors. I received my glider rating in 1988. It was a wonderful experience. Subsequently, I added a single-engine land rating and all the training was done without difficulty in my own airplane.
My instructor, Mike, was an absolutely amazing man. He was available, organized, patient, extremely competent, and enthusiastic. He has a love for flying that is so contagious it affects everyone he meets.
Once when we stopped at a neighboring airport, we ran into a young man who, as a boy many years earlier, had asked my instructor if he could look at his airplane, a beautiful Stearman. The reply, "Look at it? If you help me fill it up with gas I'll even give you a ride!" Today, a decade later, that boy is a grown man and a CFI who is applying for a job with the airlines.
Part way through my training, Mike told me, "You already know enough to be a pilot, now we're going to make you a good pilot." "Safety is the first priority." "Never stop learning." These are the attitudes and beliefs that he applies to everything he does. I know that I am a wiser, safer, and more competent pilot because of it.
As for the student in "Training troubles continue," there are still good instructors out there. If you can't find the right one for you, keep looking. I know I found mine.
Kirk Nelson
Milwaukee, Wisconsin
Keeping IFR Skills Fresh
I enjoyed Ralph Butcher's article "Flying the Vertical S" (February 2000). I am an 800-hour pilot with an instrument rating flying about 50 to 70 hours per year. My instructor has an exercise similar to the vertical S described in Butcher's article that is great for knocking the rust off those instrument flying skills. We practice doing timed turns while maintaining a climb or descent rate of 500 feet per minute. This has helped me a lot.
Gary Gray
Via the Internet
Keeping The Pattern Under Control
I read Bruce Landsberg's article "Pattern Hogs" in the January issue of AOPA Flight Training and thought that the method of reducing pattern congestion that was used at Bowman Field in Louisville, Kentucky, years back was worth mentioning. They used left side in the grass, right side in the grass, and the runway to land three airplanes at a time. From my memory, it worked well.
Charley Stone
Via the Internet
Correction
The April 2000 edition of "Final Exam" listed an incorrect answer to Question 10. The minimum flight visibility for VFR flight at night during operations outside of controlled airspace at altitudes of more than 1,200 feet agl, but less than 10,000 feet msl, is three miles. The correct answer is B. Thanks to all the sharp-eyed readers who brought the error to our attention.
We welcome your comments. Address your letters to Editor, AOPA Flight Training, 421 Aviation Way, Frederick, Maryland 21701. Send e-mail to [email protected]. Please include your full name and mailing address on all correspondence, including e-mail. Letters will be edited for length and style.
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