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The AOPA Pilot Information Center puts some of general aviation’s most experienced pilots as close as your phone or email. The skilled group of more than 20 pilots, medical certification specialists, and flight instructors has more than 80,000 hours of collective flight experience and responds to more than 200,000 member questions and thousands of emails and letters in a year. Call 800-USA-AOPA (872-2672) Monday through Friday, 8:30 a.m. to 6 p.m. Eastern time, or email [email protected].
Deciphering Ad Jargon
What those abbreviations mean
Pilots practiced the dark art of limiting keystrokes long before cellphone users added LOL, OMG, and other such gems to our popular lexicon. In order to pay less for ads in Trade-A-Plane and other sales publications that charge by the word, acronym-loving pilots developed their own shorthand. And it works remarkably well—as long as everyone knows the code.
So here are a few abbreviations pertaining to engines and propellers that airplane buyers should commit to memory: TT (total time); TTAF (total time airframe); TTE (total time engine); SMOH (since major overhaul); STOH (since top overhaul); SPOH (since propeller overhaul); SHOT (since hot section, an inspection item for turbine engines); SFRM (since factory remanufacture); SNEW (since new).
In aviation parlance, IRAN isn’t a country—it means “inspect and repair as necessary.”
E/AB and EXP are nearly synonymous (they mean Experimental/amateur-built and Experimental, respectively).
But pay attention to nuance. An airplane with NDH (no damage history) isn’t the same as one with NMDH (no major damage history). Or no “known” damage history.
You don’t have to be an IA, ATP, or Ph.D. to crack this code, but buyer beware: Airplane buyers and sellers don’t necessarily share the same definitions. And both sides seem to live by the fighter-pilot mantra: IYACYAT (“If you ain’t cheatin’ you ain’t tryin’”). —Dave Hirschman
Pilot Speak
Bold pilot
Pilots describe other pilots in colorful terms—both complimentary and derogatory.
No one wants to be ham-fisted, mechanical, behind the airplane (or the power curve), a weak sister, a knuckle dragger, or possess hands of stone. Seagull doesn’t sound bad, but it means you’re a reluctant flier who won’t take to the air without rocks being thrown at you. Being called a “bold pilot” might sound complimentary, but it’s a backhanded way of saying you’re not expected to live long enough to become an “old pilot” (since everyone knows there are no old, bold pilots). And “metal bender” and “future NTSB report” are both harsh and self-explanatory.
On the positive side of the ledger, an ace of the base is a good stick and a pilot’s pilot who has a golden arm, soft hands, and solid headwork.
It’s revealing that there are more pejoratives than accolades, but that’s the nature of the game. There are lots of ways to mess things up, but relatively few to fly just right. —Dave Hirschman
Ask AOPA
Ready to multi?
Training for twins takes time
By Ferdi Mack
Stepping up to a piston twin-engine airplane is easier if you have some complex single-engine airplane experience, or a complex airplane endorsement. Here are some differences to be aware of between single- and twin-engine airplanes:
Preflight: Two engines, oil sumps, cowlings, and propellers. Maybe two fuel tanks, but four are common, and six are possible; each sump is checked.
Cockpit: Six engine controls: two throttles, usually black; two propeller controls, usually blue; and two mixture controls, usually red. As the aircraft sits when shut down, throttles full aft, props full forward, and mixtures full aft. Two manifold pressure gauges and two tachometers, or one gauge for each with a left and right engine needle. Maybe four fuel gauges. Two fuel pump switches, or a split switch and two alternator switches, or a split switch. One vacuum gauge with a failure indicator for each engine-driven pump. Fuel selectors may read On, Off, Inboard, Outboard, and Crossfeed, so the left engine can use fuel from the right tank(s) and vice versa.
Start: Start one engine at a time, and begin with the one the manufacturer recommends. Once running and gauges checked, start the other and do the same.
Taxi: Move the throttle controls in unison. Push them up together to add power and pull them back together to reduce power.
Flight: Enjoy your first hour with both engines running in harmony, because that will be your last! Single-engine emergency procedures will dominate your training.
Contact AOPA’s Pilot Information Center at 800-872-2672, or email [email protected].
Ferdi Mack is senior manager of the AOPA Pilot Information Center.
Tips from PPS
Moving on out
Let the FAA know where you’re going
By Chad Mayer
Be sure to notify the FAA if you’ve recently moved or otherwise changed your mailing address. FAR 61.60 requires holders of FAA pilot or instructor certificates to update their mailing addresses within 30 days in order to continue to exercise the privileges of those certificates. Address updates to the Airmen Certification Branch can be made online. Similarly, FAR 47.45 requires aircraft owners to notify the FAA’s registry of a new mailing address within 30 days. That notification to the Aircraft Registration Branch also can be made online.
AOPA Legal Services Plan is offered as part of AOPA’s Pilot Protection Services.
Chad Mayer is an in-house attorney with AOPA’s Legal Services Plan who counsels members on a daily basis. He is also a commercial pilot, a remote pilot, and an advanced instrument ground instructor.
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