Letters

Many thanks for the outstanding article, “Kiss the Runway” (June 2011 Flight Training). It should be mandatory reading for all student and recent pilots and CFIs. While working on my private ticket, all three of my CFIs insisted that power be cut to idle over the threshold. With power at idle, transitioning from the required nose down for airspeed to nose up for flare required keen

judgment, timing, and control inputs that I lacked as a novice, and it usually resulted in less-than-gentle touchdowns, an unfortunate habit I could not seem to unlearn. After reading the article, I applied the recommended techniques on my most recent landings. Result: my absolute smoothest landings of the now 800-plus in my logbook, and getting better every time.

The techniques are relevant even to those of us who fly out of very short fields. On a short field, you have only a few tens of feet down the runway to begin your flare, not a few hundred feet. So plan and time the flare close to your aim point, but not too close and short! Second, on a short field be careful not to carry too much power up to the flare as it results in extended ground effect—especially in low-wing aircraft, thereby increasing the tendency to float and balloon.

G. J. Vinskey
Dayton, Ohio

Which island?

I enjoyed your June issue, particularly the object lesson that was the sobering tale of the final flight for Grimaldi and Emmanuel in 1966 ("Lessons Learned," June 2011 Flight Training). The map accompanying the article contained a glaring error. The map refers to the departure location as Block Island (consistent with the story’s facts), but the island shown on the map graphic as the point of departure is in fact Martha’s Vineyard; Block Island is a much smaller island in Long Island Sound directly south of Rhode Island.

Michael Hogan
Georges Mills, New Hampshire

Although we know where Block Island is, you wouldn’t know it by looking at the map, which was in fact wrong. Thanks to Mr. Hogan and others for their sharp eyes. —Ed.

Quality of instruction

As the manager of the Cessna Pilot Center program for Cessna, I read with interest the letter from George Stephenson in the May 2011 issue of Flight Training. I am concerned, as Cessna Aircraft Co. has a significant investment in the quality and performance of the Cessna Pilot Center network, and to that end we monitor closely the standards and efforts of our affiliated flight schools through site visits as well as other measurements. We require the use of the Cessna Flight Training System contractually at our CPCs, and this curriculum includes a structured syllabus as well as a home-study course and extensive instructor guidance on its execution.

The Sport/Private Pilot Course syllabus also provides for integration of flight training devices in several of the lessons, and we encourage the use of low-cost simulation at CPCs. CPCs were the first adopters of the Redbird Flight Simulations FMX AATD, with more than 40 of those units at CPCs nationwide.

We do not currently have a Cessna Pilot Center in Santa Fe, New Mexico, where the reader lives. That leaves a couple of possibilities, that the reader was not training at a current Cessna Pilot Center (the responsibility for removing signage lies with the former CPC owner if the relationship is terminated), or that the reader attended another CPC in another city.

Julie K. Filucci
Manager, Cessna Pilot Centers
Cessna Aircraft Company