He did use the stars, sometimes through the cabin skylight when it was hazy enough that he couldn't see them near the horizon, to provide an outside visual reference to help him hold his course more easily. Without a modern attitude indicator and heading indicator but with only two compasses and a turn and bank indicator, he tried to do as little pure instrument flying as possible.
Incidentally, Lindbergh plotted his great circle using the method used by shipboard navigators, by first drawing the course line on a chart using a gnomonic projection, on which a very long great circle is drawn as a straight line, and then transferring - by latitude and longitude - a series of 100-mile-long course segments to a Mercator projection chart which he used for en route navigation. This gave him hourly heading changes to make during the flight to fly a series of Rhumb line segments approximating a great circle.
Mike Bevan
Annapolis, Maryland
Choose your CFI wisely
I read with great enthusiasm "Perfect Match: Picking a person to teach you to fly" (May AOPA Flight Training). I could not agree more. There is a special relationship of trust and learning that is essential for new pilots. I flew with a number of instructors before I settled on Finnes Bowman. Initially, my sister-in-law (who did not finish her training) introduced me to her instructor. After he slapped my right hand for the second time for resting it on the yoke during flight, I could see why she never finished and lost confidence. I flew with another instructor who allowed me to (accidentally) put a Cessna 152 into a spin and told me I was "doing great.' Another reminded me of Doogie Howser - a nice young man but lacking in self-confidence, particularly with older students.
I suppose my anxiety to learn was apparent to Bowman. He would constantly remind me, "Rome was not built in a day," and pilots are the same. What he has done, as I now ready for my cross-country flights, is to prepare a confident and well-trained student pilot who can actually relax and enjoy flying with the knowledge that he has learned from the best.
Pick your instructor carefully. Look for someone who loves flying and is enthusiastic about sharing it with others. It's your money and your life!
Joe Green
Ione, California
URL for TCDS
In your May 2003 issue, David Wright's response to the "Flight Forum" question advises that getting the type certificate data sheets for your aircraft is "another story.' His explanation that you should first approach your mechanic and if that is not successful, you can contact your local FSDO.
In actuality, the TCDS can be downloaded from the FAA Web site without much effort. The TCDS link is located on the left side of the page under the Aircraft Certification menu.
I typically require all of my commercial and ATP students to be well-versed in the purpose, content, and the method for locating the TCDS. It is one of the documents that I have commercial or ATP applicants examine during their course of training.
Jesse Sherwood
Stilwell, Kansas
Dumbing down the weather
I wish that the article by Jack Williams ("The Weather Never Sleeps: The Pressure's On," May AOPA Flight Training), had not been "dumbed down" in the last few paragraphs. Even student pilots must learn that, above the friction layer, the wind blows parallel to the isobars. Over the water or open plains, the winds at the surface deviate about 30 degrees toward lower pressure; at 1,000 feet, the inflow is much less. Only in very rough terrain will the surface flow be directly from high to low pressure, while in the mountains the complex interactions of heating and surface often override the pressure gradient force, and the pilot can make no assumptions based on the pressure field alone.
David S. Twining
Corvallis, Oregon
Correction
"Careers: Big-league CFI" (May AOPA Flight Training) included an erroneous Web address for CAE SimuFlite. The correct Web site is www.caesimuflite.com. AOPA Flight Training regrets the error.
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