Training Notes and News

A Pennsylvania pilot who was one of the first graduates of a program aimed at helping persons with disabilities learn to fly will conduct a barnstorming flight for charity this summer. Sean O'Donnell, who got his sport pilot certificate in July 2007 through Able Flight, will fly his adapted Sky Arrow from Philadelphia to EAA AirVenture in Oshkosh, Wisconsin, over about a 10-day period in July.

"I will be making stops every day to raise awareness at airports and towns about how the world of piloting is not just for the able-bodied," he said. You can make a donation on the Web site in support of the barnstorming tour, or for flight training scholarships through Able Flight.

O'Donnell, who was profiled in the November 2007 AOPA Pilot, has since launched a flight school at Wings Field near Philadelphia that specializes in sport pilot instruction and training for persons with disabilities.

Pilots getting special issuance medicals sooner

The medical certificate is one of the most important pieces of paper that a pilot can have. And when there's a delay in getting that piece of paper, it can cause some anxiety. The good news is that at the end of May, the backlog for special issuance and deferred medicals in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, was down to 600 cases. That's a significant improvement from several years ago when the backlog reached tens of thousands. The progress is due in part to the FAA's Document Imaging Workflow System, which now allows for efficient electronic management of the more than 450,000 medical applications that pour into the Aerospace Medical Certification Division each year. The FAA converted more than 1 million hard-copy medical records into the electronic system while continuing to process several thousand pieces of mail correspondence coming in every week.

Airline training school opens second Georgia location

Airline Transport Professionals has opened a second Atlanta-area training center at Gwinnett County-Briscoe Field in Lawrenceville, Georgia. The first location opened in 1984 at Fulton County Airport-Brown Field. The new facility includes classrooms, simulator bays, pilot sleep/shower quarters, and 20,000 square feet of hangar space. ATP praised the location as being optimal for its airline training program, as the airport lies in Class D airspace but outside the 30-nautical-mile veil of Atlanta's busy Class B airspace. In other ATP news, the company has begun taking delivery of five new Piper PA-44 Seminoles. Two arrived in June, and the fifth is expected in August. This acquisition brings ATP's training fleet to 140 aircraft, including 84 Seminoles, 50 Cessna 172s, five Diamond Stars, and a CitationJet.

Start applying for scholarships, WAI says

Women in Aviation International has a message for scholarship applicants: Get going. The organization began accepting applications on July 1 for the 2009 program. "We wanted to give our members more time in the application process," WAI President Peggy Chabrian said. New scholarships for 2009 include two $5,000 recreational pilot flight training scholarships for WAI members who are small aircraft maintenance technicians, sponsored by Sporty's Foundation, and a $1,000 scholarship for a college junior or senior woman majoring in aviation management with the intent to start her own aviation business after graduation, established in the memory of Flo Irwin--co-founder of Aircraft Spruce and Specialty. The scholarships are open to men and women who are WAI members, and the deadline to apply is November 21. For more information, scholarship guidelines, and an application, see the Web site.

School News

Program gets room to grow
LeTourneau University's aeronautical program has been expanding. To continue that growth, the school has purchased a 50,000-square-foot building at East Texas Regional Airport. The school plans to spend about $6 million to renovate the facility, which was owned by a flooring company, to include classrooms, laboratories, offices, and meeting spaces before moving in some 250 students next year. The new building, which also includes a 10,000-square-foot hangar, will ultimately be able to accommodate as many as 500 aviation students.

West Point cadets begin helicopter training at UND
Two groups of West Point cadets have begun a four-week helicopter training program at the University of North Dakota school of aerospace sciences in Grand Forks, North Dakota. When they complete the program, they will have logged enough hours to solo. The initiative continues an agreement established in 2003 between UND and the U.S. Military Academy at West Point to train cadets to fly Army helicopters. The program has trained 143 cadets to date.

What It Looks Like: Surface corrosion

By Mark Twombly

Looking good on the outside is great, but with both people and airplanes, you have to be vigilant to make sure the stuff you can't see on the inside also is in good shape.

One hidden condition that can pose a serious problem to an airplanes is corrosion. Corrosion is analogous to cancer. It comes in many forms, but the effect is the same--it eats away at metal skins and components, reducing their thickness and strength. Left unchecked, corrosion can result in structural failure of the metal.

Corrosion is an electrochemical process. When two different kinds of metals (including the aluminum alloys used for aircraft skins and structure) are in contact with water or some other electrolyte, an electrochemical reaction takes place that permits a flow of electrons from one metal to the other. The byproducts of corrosion, including sulfates, oxides, or hydroxides, can take the place of the original material, thus significantly affecting its design strength.

Types of corrosion seen in aircraft include filiform or surface corrosion, stress, fretting, and intergranular corrosion. The accompanying photo (right) shows an area on the belly of a fuselage where an antenna was mounted. Intergranular corrosion that began on the inside of the fuselage went undiscovered and has developed into exfoliated corrosion, an extreme form in which the metal flakes off. In this case, the affected skin has to be cut out and replaced with new skin.

Corrosion typically produces a grayish-white powder on aluminum, and reddish deposits--rust--on ferrous metals. Bumps or blisters in paint are signs of surface corrosion.

Check seams, laps, and joints where aluminum skins join, and inside wheel wells on retractable-gear aircraft. Just about any area where water or other electrolytes can collect or get under the paint, especially where dissimilar metals meet such as around rivet heads, is a hot spot for corrosion.

Corrosion can be treated by removing it with abrasive action followed by the application of a protective coating. Several commercial products are available that control the spread of corrosion through the application of an oily protective coating to the affected areas.

What's in AOPA Pilot?

Here's what you're missing if you don't read AOPA Pilot, the association's flagship magazine published each month for certificated pilots:

• Cirrus Perspective: An upgraded panel, a snazzy paint scheme, and other enhancements for the SR22.
• Tool Bag Tips: A tutorial for owners on what you need and what you don't.
• Flying on the Fourth: An airline pilot conducts an Independence Day flight he'll never forget.

Are you ready to read about more advanced subjects such as these? Just as pilots upgrade to more advanced certificates, it might be time to upgrade your magazine. You can convert your paid membership to AOPA Pilot at any time by calling AOPA toll-free (800/USA-AOPA).

Final Exam

Final Exam is composed of questions similar to those a student may expect on the private pilot knowledge test. Answers are researched by members of the AOPA Pilot Information Center staff and may be found below.

1. Wingtip vortices are created only when an aircraft is
1. operating at high airspeeds.
2. heavily loaded.
3. developing lift.
2. The greatest wingtip vortex strength occurs when the generating aircraft is
1. light, dirty, and fast.
2. heavy, dirty, and fast.
3. heavy, clean, and slow.
3. A person may not act as a crewmember of a civil aircraft if that person has consumed alcoholic beverages within the preceding
1. eight hours.
2. 12 hours.
3. 24 hours.
4. No person may operate an aircraft in formation flight
1. over a densely populated area.
2. in Class D airspace over special VFR.
3. except by prior arrangement with the pilot in command of each aircraft.
5. What may be indicated when a current convective sigmet forecasts thunderstorms?
1. Moderate thunderstorms covering 30 percent of the area.
2. Moderate or severe turbulence.
3. Thunderstorms obscured by massive cloud layers.
6. What information is contained in a convective sigmet?
1. Tornadoes, embedded thunderstorms, and hail three-quarters of an inch or greater in diameter.
2. Severe icing, severe turbulence, or widespread dust storms lowering visibility to less than three miles.
3. Surface winds greater than 40 knots or thunderstorms equal to or greater than video integrator processor (VIP) level 4.

Final Exam answers

1. The correct answer is C. Lift is generated by the creation of a pressure differential over the wing surface. The lowest pressure occurs over the upper wing surface, and the highest pressure under the wing. This pressure differential triggers the rollup of the airflow aft of the wing, resulting in swirling air masses trailing downstream of the wing tips. After the rollup is completed, the wake consists of two counter-rotating cylindrical vortices.
2. The correct answer is C. The strength of the vortex is governed by the weight, speed, and shape of the wing of the generating aircraft. The vortex characteristics of any given aircraft also can be changed by the extension of flaps, as well as by a change in speed. The greatest vortex strength occurs when the generating aircraft is heavy, clean (flaps up and gear retracted), and slow.
3. The correct answer is A. FAR 91.17 establishes eight hours as the minimum wait time between consumption of any alcoholic beverage and acting as a crewmember of a civil aircraft.
4. The correct answer is C. FAR 91.111 does not prohibit formation flying over any particular area or in any airspace; rather, it mandates that formation flying be accomplished only by arrangement with the pilot in command of each aircraft in the planned formation flight.
5. The correct answer is C. Any convective sigmet implies severe or greater turbulence, severe icing, and low-level wind shear. A convective sigmet may be issued for severe thunderstorms due to surface winds of 50 knots or greater, three-quarters-inch-diameter hail at the surface, or tornadoes; embedded thunderstorms; or a line of thunderstorms. Thunderstorms obscured by massive cloud layers are considered embedded.
6. The correct answer is A. Convective sigmets warn all pilots of potentially hazardous weather such as tornadoes, embedded thunderstorms, and hail three-quarters inch in diameter or greater. However, convective sigmets are not issued for widespread dust storms, or for surface winds less than 50 knots.