Letters: From our November 2018 issue

Mike Busch’s article in AOPA Pilot (“Savvy Maintenance: Have a Test Pilot Mindset”) brought back a memory.

About 20 years ago, my Piper Aztec was being worked on in New Hampshire. Because I was working at that time, I was only able to get a ride up late one night—the airplane was left on the ramp for me to pick up. After going though preflight, for some reason I decided to look in the nose baggage compartment. To my shock I found about 200 pounds of lead weights! (They had been put in because one engine had been removed to replace a bad engine mount.)

I don’t think it would have been a successful takeoff that night!

Howard Schur
AOPA 682078
Purchase, New York

Thank you for having some consideration for us A&P mechanics. Since mobile phones have become very popular, we haven’t had any phone booths to jump into and change clothes when an aircraft needs repair. Mike Busch’s comment: “Don’t pick up your airplane on a Friday if you can avoid it. Things tend to get frantic,” really has a lot of truth to it.

When I worked at a busy FBO, quite often the expectation was for a mechanic to fix the airplane “yesterday,” with work done perfectly (our personal goal, too), and at a cost almost half what a car dealership would charge. This became a very real frustration, particularly on Fridays.

Fridays were the days when someone would decide to take a beach trip, head out to their airplane that has been sitting for three weeks, and expect it to be problem-free. I don’t think someone would really expect that of their automobile. Flat tires, dead batteries, sump drains that get stuck open, mud dauber nests (“pitot cover? Never needed one before”), and more. And every trip is urgent.

The shop was open from 7:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Friday afternoon chaos got so consistent that I coined it the “4:30 disaster,” because that’s when everyone and everything seemed to happen. Spent lots of Fridays working until 5 p.m., or even later. By and large every aircraft mechanic that I have known wants to do an excellent job. A little thoughtful planning and consideration from aircraft owners helps a lot.

Paul Cotrufo
AOPA 898618
Apex, North Carolina

Change of plans

The excellent “Never Again” article by Robert Tompkins titled “Changing of plans—Flying IFR in the Balkans” takes me back to some of my five flights around the world in small GA aircraft.

The story he told of multiple diversions and incredibly bureaucratic complexity is typical of many countries in the world, and it is getting worse and worse.

AOPA members who fly primarily in the United States are indeed fortunate with the current U.S. air traffic control system. The way your air traffic controllers can cope with a large amount of “heavy iron,” plus very often give direct tracking and the friendliest service to GA, is nothing short of amazing. It is indeed fortunate that the United States has not followed many other countries in the world with an ever-increasing regulatory bureaucracy and freedoms being removed.

Yes, we have AOPA to thank for this, and AOPA must never give up! The freedom to fly in a viable, safe, and common sense way in the United States is the envy of the world. 

Dick Smith
AOPA 1065210
New South Wales, Australia

Lest we forget

Just got my November issue of AOPA Pilot and came across the article “Lest We Forget” by Julie Summers Walker about Fredric Arnold. I had the privilege of meeting Arnold at Oshkosh in 1991. His book Doorknob Five Two is an excellent read and I recommend it to AOPA readers. I don’t know if it’s still in print, but it would worth finding. He also wrote and illustrated a pilot training manual for the P–38 Lightning. My library includes both books, autographed by Mr. Arnold. Thanks to Ms. Walker for “Lest we forget.”

T.H. Lymburn
AOPA 814543
Princeton, Minnesota

Eliminating hope

It must be wonderful to have accurate fuel gauges. Therefore when the engine quits, one can glance at the fuel gauge and know why it quit.

Fuel management is much more than knowing how much fuel remains in the tanks. I have flown thousands of different aircraft and dozens of different models. Starting with a known quantity and carefully using your watch or timing device has worked for me the past 50 years. I usually take off and climb on the first selected tank, fly for an hour or other appropriate amount of time and switch to the other tank or tanks and fly the same amount of time. I always fly until the first tank is empty (if the flight is long enough). I then know I have at least the minutes used in the last timing cycle.

William Zollinger
AOPA 569727
Leesburg, Florida

Eyes on the Cub

Congratulations, and thank you for the magnificent article “High and Low” in the November issue of AOPA Pilot. It was an excellent description of mountain flying, and it made me hope that I will be the winner of the Sweepstakes Super Cub. My only mountain experience has been in my Cirrus SR22, landing at airports such as Eagle and Grand Junction, hardly in the same league as Alyssa J. Cobb’s backcountry airports. Her descriptions were vivid, and the diagram of the canyon turn was quite instructive.

And kudos to Mike Fizer for providing those wonderful photos. It made me put Idaho on my bucket list.

Victor G. Vogel
AOPA 693199
Louisburg, Pennsylvania

Errata

In “Reader Response: More $100 Hamburgers” (October 2018 AOPA Pilot), three airports were misidentified by name or identifier. Katama Airfield should be Katama Airpark. The identifier for Reading Regional Airport is RDG, and the identifier for Arnold Palmer Regional Airport is LBE.

“Wx Watch: Runway In Sight?” (December 2018 AOPA Pilot) incorrectly stated the time frame that determines when an alternate airport must be named if a destination airport is forecast to have ceilings at or below 2,000 feet agl and visibilities below three statute miles. It is from one hour before to one hour after the estimated time of arrival.

AOPA Pilot regrets the errors.