Letters

Flight Training is one of the few magazines that I pretty much read cover to cover soon after it arrives. I am a recent pilot— I earned my sport pilot certificate on my sixty-ninth birthday in a taildragger a little more than a year ago—I find the articles invaluable supplements to my need to learn about flying, and flying safely.

One comment on David J. Kenny’s article “Early and Often” (February 2011 Flight Training)—we are taught go-arounds, we demonstrate them during the checkride, and then…not much. I have made two go-arounds in earnest, recovering from bad approaches, and have practiced a few. Am I in a minority? Did those pilots that thought too late to go around do recent practice? I find that sometimes I understand the theory of a flight maneuver quite well—or so I think—but the execution leaves something to be desired, until I get it down through practice. What is the distance to get airborne once we push the throttle forward? How far down the runway can I go before I realize getting off is not going to happen? When do I react to a bad approach? Only with practice followed by analysis do we learn to understand.

Hermann Gucinski
Fairview, North Carolina

David J. Kenny’s article “Early and Often” was very good. One of the things I ask my students to do when downwind is pick a point on the runway. If the main wheels are not on the ground when they get to that pre-determined point, it is a definite go-around. Be realistic; don’t pick a point 10 feet beyond the threshold and don’t forget to tell your passengers what you are doing when downwind; that way they won’t be surprised when you go to full power. Tell them if you’re not down by the predetermined point, “We’re going back up and try it again.” I tell my students they could be one foot off the runway going 65 knots and they will float quite a ways down the runway.

Pete Kempe
Morristown, New Jersey

The impossible dream?

I’m surprised at the advice to the young college graduate—hello, he’s got an aerospace engineering degree, kudos to him (“Career Advisor: The Impossible Dream?” February 2011 Flight Training). If he doesn’t have an engineering job, then he needs to get one. Earning an aerospace engineering degree was no cakewalk, that’s why companies are willing to pay him $60,000 per year as a fresh graduate. 

You want the dream, young pilot? Work that high-paying job as hard as you can, but live at that pilot’s salary for the next five years; pay your debt off faithfully with the extra money. You’ll be 30 years young and out of debt; and still have plenty of time to fulfill many more dreams. The next five years will go much faster than the past five years—trust me. Yes, having a dream to fly is great—protect it, stay current. But flying is a privilege that comes with hard work. Your dream to fly will be in your hand once you reach a much more important dream—to be debt free.

David Soto
League City, Texas

Hot shot?

In “Hot Shot?” (February 2011 Flight Training), author Jeff Pardo stated fuel-injected engines' advantage over carbureted systems was the absence of induction-icing problems. I believe he meant the absence of carburetor icing. Even a fuel-injected engine has an induction system and this induction system could suffer icing problems with resultant engine stoppage just as would one with a carburetor..

Lynn Simons
Birmingham, Alabama