In your feature story, “The Cover of Darkness” (October AOPA Flight Training), author Alton K. Marsh refers to utilizing his GPS to help him locate the active runway on more than one occasion. I’d like to offer an alternate approach I believe others may benefit from.
Once an airport has been selected as a waypoint or destination you can use the GPS’s OBS function to orient yourself to the active runway. This works extremely well for doing exactly what the author described, trying to find a runway at night. Select your airport as the waypoint, set the runway heading on the associated VOR/CDI, and lastly select the OBS mode on your GPS. Your GPS will now display a line directly to and through the selected runway, and you can very easily see your position relative to the appropriate runway. A simple little trick to make all of your night time flights that much easier.
Dave Kalbach
Reading, Pennsylvania
Getting current
I just wanted to add my two cents’ worth and relay my experience around “The Cover of Darkness” by Alton K. Marsh and “Preflight: Romance the Night” by Ian J. Twombly. Anticipating a day-long family outing and not wanting to cut the trip short by having to fly back during the day, I decided to schedule time to get my night currency.
I knew the minimum requirement was three takeoffs and landings beginning one hour after sunset, but I decided to take Alton’s advice and follow his lead. I planned to fly from Frederick, Maryland, to Carroll County, Maryland, at night. For me, this would involve flying over familiar territory, but at night, which I have never done in this area. So this exercise involved pilotage and dead reckoning at night, identifying the airport, turning on the runway lights, and landing.
Glad to say it was an uneventful flight, but it taught me a lot. The biggest thing I learned was the need for lights, flashlights for the preflight and chart reading, the airplane’s recognition/ position lights, and the airport lighting (beacon and runway lights). As part of my briefing for the flight, I had to make sure I knew how to turn on the runway lights, because they are not on all the time! Also, I found out that too many clicks will turn off the lights.
The best thing about the flight is actually the lights. The lights on the ground make a wonderful picture. The view reminded me why I fly! I was able to see Baltimore, which was about 40 miles away. I would suggest that anyone looking to gain his night currency take a trip to another airport to see how different it is at night and enjoy the ride.
Lynn Beamon
Owings Mills, Maryland
Camping memories
I saw your article on camping with your airplane in the October Flight Training (“Sleeping Bags and Avgas”). I love camping under the wing. I recognized the location of your pictures (especially the showers) in Kern River, California. I was there about five years ago and there were a million earwigs. I hope it’s better now.
Rod Watkins
Hemet, California
Choosing the right info
In her October story, “Résumé Smarts for a Changing World,” Capt. Karen Kahn mentioned that you can list vital statistics such as your age, height, weight, citizenship, and marital status on your résumé. I would like to mention that many employers are equal opportunity employers and that those employers cannot legally discriminate or make hiring decisions based upon classifications protected by law such as race, color, national origin, religion, sex, age, veteran status, disability, or sexual orientation. Many employers provide a section on their application forms where an applicant can voluntarily submit that information for affirmative action data collection purposes. With these things in mind, you may consider using the space you would have used on your résumé for vital statistics to strengthen the information about things employers can legally use to make hiring decisions such as your experience, qualifications, awards and honors, and volunteer work in the aviation community.
Julie Hall
Rogers, Arkansas
Erratum
Columnist Rod Machado offers the following clarification related to his October “Since You Asked: Why an E6B?” “When applying the wind correction angle (WCA) to the compass course (CC), I made an assumption that isn’t always true. There’s nothing wrong with applying the WCA to the CC as long as this doesn’t require that you use a compass deviation different from that previously used. To prevent any errors in your calculations, you should apply the WCA to the magnetic course (MC) to get the magnetic heading (MH), then correct this for compass deviation to arrive at the CH.”
We appreciate your comments. Letters should include your name and address. E-mail letters to [email protected] or mail to AOPA Flight Training, 421 Aviation Way, Frederick, Maryland 21701. Letters may be edited and will be printed as space permits.
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