I loved my flight training and the challenges I faced working full time and trying to help my aging and ailing parents all too often kept me on the ground. But it also provided the stress relief I so needed. Lifting myself up out of the difficulties through flight and my faith certainly gives me a sweeter, purer, more focused view of life.
We purchased a Cessna 172 in June 2008 and have had so many wonderful adventures and met so many neat folks. Every pilot has a story to tell and most are willing to share their experiences. It's great to be able to glean bits of advice and learn from other pilots. We love those weekend informal pilot forums at some of the airports we've flown to. Usually we just happen upon an impromptu group and join in, always welcomed. What a neat sense of a wide and diverse community. Yes, romance and adventure do indeed draw me into the skies.
Linda Anderson
Winterset, Iowa
I am a 38-year-old father of four. I have always been interested in flying but, being color blind, had been told by my wife, who worked for an aviation medical examiner, that I couldn't fly. Then, in November 2007, one of my vendors mentioned to me that there was a fairly new rule to flying called Light Sport. So I got online and ordered my ground school materials. I took my introductory flight on November 17. The following week I started flying with fun2flytexas.com out of Lancaster, Texas (LNC) with John Clark. I learned how to fly in a 1946 Ercoupe 415-C which really adds to the romance. This airplane has been fitted with rudder pedals so I didn't have the two-axis restriction. I have obviously found since then that I can take a test with the color guns at a local airport to get my private certificate, which I will definitely do, probably next year. I finished my training and got my ticket on September 8, 2008. I am now a sport pilot.
Dying breed? No, I don't think so at all. I have been amazed at how many pilots I run into now that I am one. Most have let their medicals lapse or simply stopped flying because they don't know there is another avenue. I would love to see more promotion of Light Sport. I know it would get more people back on the runway and taking off to a whole new way to get their fix.
William Carroll
Scurry, Texas
Smoke from a distant fire
I read with interest the "Learning Experiences" ("Unexpected Haze") in the November 2008 issue. From the title and the location, I knew the answer to the question as soon as I started reading the article.
I had launched VFR on a Friday morning from Chesapeake, Virginia, VFR to Lynchburg, Virginia. Undoubtedly, it was the same day. Although blamed on wildfires in North Carolina, the real cause of the smoke was a large fire in the Great Dismal Swamp. It was literally pouring dense smoke into the atmosphere.
There was a high pressure system located over the center of the state, which offered clear skies and a nice tailwind to Lynchburg. I had asked a female co-worker along for the ride who had expressed an interest in learning to fly. It was her first experience in a small airplane.
When I was within range, I tuned to the Lynchburg ATIS to start my arrival checklist. Surprise! Two-mile visibility, expect a VOR/DME approach to Runway 22 came in over the radio. The high pressure flow had packed the smoke from the fire against the mountains and reduced the conditions to IMC. While I could have requested a special VFR clearance to Lynchburg, I didn't relish having to explain to my wife the need to spend the night with a single woman if conditions deteriorated to the point that prevented our departure.
So, I did a 180, contacted flight watch, and requested ceiling and visibility at several airports along the return route. I returned to Chesapeake without incident.
Incidentally, when I finally made the trip to Lynchburg, I encountered the same conditions on my return to Chesapeake. Although the AWOS reported conditions that bordered marginal VFR, I had to descend to pattern altitude to see the runway.
As I write this, the fire has finally been extinguished by a low pressure system that dumped large amounts of rain on the swamp. The co-worker still wants to learn to fly, and I'm still happily married.
Meredith Hutto
Chesapeake, Virginia
Flows and checklists
I'm writing this in response to Terrance Godar's comments made in the November 2008 issue ("Flight Forum: A New Perspective on Landings").
I do agree with him on the fact that if a student is not going to fly the "heavy iron," then teaching flows may not be in the best interest of the student. On the other hand if a sort of flow is not taught then we end up having them use the checklist on the ground only and not in the air. They would end up using the checklist as a to-do list and not pay attention in flight.
If students are taught a simple flow to their procedures then the to-do list part disappears. They do not have to memorize simple procedures; just have a pattern to follow that's backed up with the use of checklists.
Emergency procedures should be memorized to eliminate head in the cockpit problems during an emergency. This would keep the airplane flying as opposed to reading during a critical phase of flight.
If we could come up with a happy medium for the weekend warriors, then we may eliminate or slow down the unnecessary stall/spin-after-departure mishaps, because pilots may have had their head in a checklist finding the what to do part before a bigger problem happened.
Steven Cockrell
New Bedford, Massachusetts
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