Being able to identify that point in the windscreen which is not moving (the aim point) is one of the most difficult things to teach. A good demo in this case is worth a thousand words. Once the student is able to identify the aim point, most of the rest of the landing phase starts to come together. As for landing with precision, I fully agree with Davisson. Too few general aviation pilots force themselves to work for a good landing on a regular basis. Practice every chance you get.
Eddie Fulmer
New Braunfels, Texas
I was thoroughly confused by the statement, "If you don't have all the flaps out, drop the rest of them and see if that's enough to get you down to glideslope." Better use of the English language: "If you do not have the flaps fully lowered, lower the remainder to get you down to the desired glideslope."
Flaps do not go "in" or "out." They go "up" or "down." I would not know if the writer means for me to pull the flaps up or down, since you could be above or below the glideslope. However, because he states, "down to glideslope," it could be assumed that "drop the rest of them" meant "lower all the flaps you have and as low as they will go." So I would ask, "How many flaps do we have? Do you mean all the flaps?" His instructions are very ambiguous.
While taking my flight lessons, I never heard my instructor ask me to take my flaps "out," like taking a pencil out of a pocket. I might ask, "How do they come out? I don't think I'm qualified to take flaps 'out.'"
Learning to fly is hard enough without confusing statements as to what the instructor really wants his student to do. Not understanding what is said could get someone killed, according to my wife.
Bill Boydstun
Oakley, California
Static stability clarified
Don Byers' article, "Seeking Out Stability" (October AOPA Flight Training) is great. However, I must nit-pick one statement. He says that static stability is the ability to "continue flight without change in direction in glass-smooth air," and that dynamic stability is "the ability to return to the desired flight path when disturbed by gusts."
In fact, static stability is the tendency to return to the trimmed airspeed and/or a zero-sideslip angle, whether the disturbance is in smooth or rough air. Dynamic stability deals with how long it takes this to happen, and only exists if the airplane is first statically stable. (If it will never return to the attitude from which it was disturbed, it makes no sense to talk about how long it will take.) Note too that stability about the roll and yaw axes (no matter how stable the airplane might be) will not necessarily return the aircraft to the desired flight path; only to a zero-sideslip condition, at which point the pilot will have to return it to the desired flight path.
Jerry L. Robinson
Arkadelphia, Arkansas
Robinson is a professor and director of aviation programs at Henderson State University.-Ed.
Origin of 'The Mechanic's Creed'
In "Welcome to Maintenance Control," September AOPA Flight Training, reference was made to "The Mechanic's Creed"; author Joel Stoller mentioned that he did not know to whom that oath was attributed. "The Mechanic's Creed" was written by Jerome Lederer, director of the Civil Aeronautics Board's Safety Bureau, in 1941. It is still very applicable today, and as an aviation mechanic I have kept it on my wall and read it periodically for more than 17 years.
Terry Hunt
Via e-mail
Hunt is manager of aviation education at Oklahoma State University. Jerome F. "Jerry" Lederer is president emeritus of the Flight Safety Foundation in Alexandria, Virginia. He is indeed the author of "The Mechanic's Creed," as well as a book, Safety in the Operation of Air Transport, and hundreds of papers and articles.-Ed.
