Flight Forum

May 5, 2005

There goes another shirttail ...

I am glad that you made a big deal of this dying tradition ("Preflight: The Shirttail Tradition," April 2005 AOPA Flight Training), because the first solo flight is a big deal! I soloed August 27, 1990, and I still have my shirttail. I can recall to this day the feelings of accomplishment and exhilaration just by holding it in my hands.

My shirttail was very basic. Black Sharpie on a white T-shirt. I carry on this tradition as a CFI at The Flight School of Gwinnett in Atlanta. We have a very talented artist by the name of Rebecca Black who adds a lot of color and flair to the basic scribbles we artistically challenged CFIs come up with.

Let's keep this tradition alive and well!

David Tenhundfeld
Atlanta, Georgia

My flight school, Attitude Aviation at Lawrence County Airpark in South Point, Ohio, is still mutilating innocent shirttails. I think it is a great tradition, and I hope it is around for a long time to come. My first solo was on October 24, 2004; the shirttail is hanging on the wall in my CFI's office. The rest of the shirt was airbrushed, framed, and given to me as a Christmas present by my sister.

James Stacy
West Hamlin, West Virginia

Not everyone wears a cheap cotton T-shirt when they solo. I take their picture with the aircraft and have a 5-by-7-inch print made, place it in a frame, and present it to them. It becomes a keepsake to preserve a significant moment in their life, and it motivates them to come back and continue their efforts to complete the training.

Karl Elmshaeuser
Ogallala, Nebraska

Amen to 'Eyes Outside'

Regarding Budd Davisson's "Eyes Outside" in the March 2005 AOPA Flight Training, I appreciated the potential for midair collisions being broken down into "points of convergence," both in the traffic pattern and on cross-country flights.

I was being a good boy, keeping my pattern tight, announcing my position eight miles southwest of Bloomsburg, Pennsylvania, announcing entry on the 45, then again announcing at the actual turn to downwind, announcing "turning base runway two-six," when FAR 91.113(g)'s second clause happened.

Runway 8/26 more or less parallels the Susquehanna River and the bluff on the south side of the river. Left traffic downwind to 26 keeps you just south of that bluff. From downwind, the view of the river is obscured, including any aircraft attempting a low, straight-in approach to 26.

I knew the airplane and its student's instructor: It has a working radio. I made five radio calls, and was cut off on my turn from base to final. Them in high-wing, me in low-wing, view to the east up the river restricted on the 45 and on downwind. When I turned base, my right wing was raised, blocking my view (indeed, I was looking!) up river, and that's exactly when the Cessna 150 would have come into view had I been in a high-wing myself. As I leveled on the base leg, the FAR 91.113(g) offender was right under my nose and perpendicular to my flight path. Only when I was in the turn from base to final did I see the other airplane coming out from my right to my left, maybe 150 feet beneath me. I announced a 270 right turn for spacing, then landed.

Moral of the story is as the article states: "Eyes outside!" And be aware of the very real possibility of some NORDO traffic, in your blind spot, at low altitude, with a retreat impossible.

Chris Pfaff
Bloomsburg, Pennsylvania

It's all about safety

Kathy Yodice is certainly correct about the frequent discussion regarding the Aeronautical Information Manual's status: regulatory or not? ("Legal Briefing: Guidance is Golden," April 2005 AOPA Flight Training). She did a good job analyzing the situation, even though she had to conclude that there is no definitive answer. My short answer to students is to consider everything in the AIM to be regulatory -- thus eliminating the possibility of a violation and with the added benefits of using the safest procedures. After all, isn't safety the reason why they're there?

Vince D'Angelo
Naples, Florida

Erratum

In "Rescue Me!" (April 2005 AOPA Flight Training), the description of the VFR flight from Winchester, Virginia, to Princeton, New Jersey, should have said that the route would go through the more northerly parts of Class B airspace around the nation's capital, but not into its flight-restricted zone.

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