Letters

Leap of faith

As a soaring pilot I enjoyed the article in the June issue of AOPA Pilot (" Leap of Faith"). Julie Boatman approached her training with enlightened common sense and was rewarded by what seems to me to be a very clear idea of what distinguishes soaring from powered flight — important in that power pilots are the magazine's main audience. I hope that more will add glider ratings to their tickets.

Boatman also hinted at what has most glider pilots hooked when she said, "There is an art to the sport that has no limit." The art is the subtleties of being able to fly long, high, and far; optimizing the performance potential of your glider within the vagaries of the ever-changing air mass; bearing hands-on witness to the power of nature; and doing such special things as thermaling with hawks and watching a cloud being born a few hundred feet away. It's great recreation and relatively inexpensive compared with golf or boating.

Bruce McGhie
East Haddam, Connecticut

I flew on "the other side" instructing full time a long time ago, and I still instruct occasionally. I think soaring is one of the best ways to learn to fly mountains safely. I have used my soaring skills flying Part 135 in the Grand Canyon and even to this day flying my Luscombe in the mountains. Whether you're in a Cessna 210, Piper Cub, or de Havilland Twin Otter there is a time and need to soar the airplane safely in the mountains.

Patrick W. Doyle AOPA 874159
Boulder, Colorado

I enjoyed the article on soaring. I'm a woman who discovered the sport six years ago when I was 46 and only knew how to give my boarding pass to a gate attendant. In 2002 I got my power rating and now fly a taildragger. I can only say that learning to soar made me feel like I could accomplish anything. Now I can't imagine a weekend not at the field.

Francis A. Berryhill AOPA 2202982
Fort Worth, Texas

Out of gas

When I started reading Eric Jaderborg's article " Aviation's Dirty Little Secret" in the June issue of AOPA Pilot, I figured I would be reading yet another overview of how my fellow pilots do the unthinkable, running out of fuel while in flight. I'm dismayed and saddened to read that this event repeats itself every three days somewhere in the United States. That's much more often than I had imagined.

I think Jaderborg's last two paragraphs should be required reading and his method adopted by every flight instructor in the nation. Simulating running out of fuel within sight of the destination airport with a student during his or her dual cross-country flight will no doubt leave an indelible impression of, as he puts it, "the adrenaline, the sinking hopelessness, the stupidity" of fuel exhaustion.

As I write this I am in the final stages of my training to become a flight instructor. I fully intend to use this simulated emergency with all of my students.

Richard Kowalski AOPA 2902159
Zephyrhills, Florida

Many thanks for the fine article on fuel exhaustion. I hope that every pilot reads it. After 54 years as an aviator, I am still unable to come to grips with the mental process that would lead anyone to run out of gas in an airplane. Your article provides useful insight and, thanks to your gentle use of humor, avoids hitting anybody over the head with words akin to stupidity or arrogance.

James M. Pollak AOPA 752856
Ennis, Montana

After reading yet another article about fuel shortfalls, I offer what seems to be a simple and reliable means of estimating one's fuel status, namely the tachometer reading. My Cherokee 180, leaned to maximum rpm, burns a consistent 9.3 gph, plus or minus 0.5 gph. For reasons of simplicity and safety, I just multiply the elapsed tach time since the last top-off by 10. This has worked for me for six years, and I've no doubt that many other pilots have thought of this simple scheme. However, in the innumerable articles on the subject I can recall no mention of it.

Richard M. Watson AOPA 1177524
Mendham, New Jersey

Richard Bach

I enjoyed the article on "the Bacher" (pronounced bocker). There is more to Dick Bach's story to tell and I feel compelled to tell it.

The Berlin Crisis in 1961 sent many ANG fighter units to Europe to defend whatever. My unit, the 141st NJANG Fighter unit (F-84s) went to Chaumont, France. Although an agricultural area, it was only 150 clicks (read kilometers) from Paris, which was next door as far as we were concerned.

So there we were, guys in our late 20s and early 30s, temporarily loose from family ties, and all we had to do was fly. Like being a teenager with money. What a deal!

Into this hotbed Dick Bach was assigned. He had some fighter time and was eager to learn how the big boys did it. Or, how anybody did it, for that matter, because he is a most curious type who is open to all things of interest to him.

So, among all these hormone-driven, carousing, drinking, swearing fighter pilots came mild-mannered Dick Bach. No boozing of consequence, nary a foul word, even of temper, quiet stay-at-home Richard had to live with us.

How could a person of the Bacher's ilk survive in such an atmosphere? The answer is he survived because he loves to fly, and flying fighters is the Mount Everest of aviation. We recognized that Dick was different. He stayed mainly in his room typing endlessly of the things he saw and loved while we were actively practicing self-destruction.

Because I had been a fighter weapons instructor for four years, I flew a lot with the Bacher during his checkouts. A joy in the best sense. Dedicated, interested, and a lover of flight, he was a serious learner of the game, as we all still are, and gained the respect of all who came in contact with him.

And that's my story. How different people get along so well through the common love of an activity, in this case, flying.

Patrick Flanagan AOPA 1268421
Reno, Nevada

Aircraft lighting

Having the good fortune of being married to an AOPA member, I frequently read AOPA Pilot. Even though I am not a pilot myself, I believe I might be qualified to write to you because in bygone years I dabbled with a method of crystal growth that comes very close to the mechanism by which the halogen lamps described in " Filament-Free Future" (June Pilot) really work. Peter Bedell's statement that halogen gas "works as a light amplifier" does not correctly portray the true brilliance (pun intended) of a halogen lamp's design.

In a normal bulb, the temperature of the tungsten filament cannot be pushed too high because the tungsten would evaporate and permanently deposit on the glass envelope much too quickly to give the bulb a useful lifetime. In a halogen bulb, the tungsten filament is driven to these high temperatures and the tungsten does evaporate, but the envelope is much closer, and therefore hotter, in these bulbs.

The envelope has to be made of quartz to withstand these temperatures, but there is a point to this added cost. At this hot quartz surface, the halogen in the bulb reacts with the evaporated tungsten to form another gas (an iodide of tungsten) that drifts around inside the bulb. Any of this gas contacting the higher-temperature filament breaks down into its constituents again, thereby depositing the tungsten back on the filament and freeing the halogen to go back for more. Thus the halogen acts to pump evaporated tungsten back to the filament, thereby extending the bulb's lifetime, even at these high temperatures.

In addition, at these high temperatures a much higher percentage of the input electrical power is radiated in the visible part of the spectrum. Comparatively less of the power is wasted as heat, giving greater efficiency. Note that one must not allow the quartz exterior to become dirty, because the dirt will absorb more heat and raise the quartz temperature possibly to the point where the halogen no longer reacts with the tungsten to form the right gas.

As a professor of physics, I try to convey to my students the beauty, the elegance, the subtlety, and the sophistication that I appreciate so much in my field. The truth is much more interesting than "the gas works as a light amplifier." Longer life with greater efficiency: Truly brilliant.

Peter Mattocks
(Mary Mattocks AOPA 1008489)
East Amherst, New York

Erratum

The correct answer to question nine in " Test Pilot" (June Pilot) is "False." NTSB regulations state that any accident involving "substantial damage" to the aircraft must be reported.

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.