AOPA Pilot Gear: Wearing your passion

Company founder René Lacoste was nicknamed the crocodile because of his prowess on the tennis court. He wore tennis shirts of his own design with a crocodile embroidered on the chest of the shirt. La Chemise Lacoste was founded in 1933.

One of the ironically funny lines in the movie Back to the Future is when character Lorraine Baines launders Marty McFly’s underwear in 1955 and assumes his name is Calvin Klein because it’s embroidered on his clothing. We’ve been wearing logoed merchandise to show our pride in our purchases for some time and there’s no better way to say you’re an AOPA pilot than to wear one of our T-shirts, hats, jackets, or other logoed apparel.

The AOPA Pilot Gear store was established in 2015 and offers not only logoed apparel, but also lifestyle products such as mugs, umbrellas, blankets, and bags with the AOPA logo. AOPA’s marketing department works hard to find quality products upon which to place our seal of approval. These high-quality goods make great gifts as well as help promote the association, share your joy of flying, and tell the world you are an AOPA pilot. Looking for holiday cards to send greetings to your friends and family? Remind them of your passion for flying by sending an AOPA holiday card. They’re on sale now in the AOPA Pilot Gear store.

pilotgear.aopa.org

Air Safety Institute

Matter of time

Taking care of your engine in winter takes time and planning

By Alicia Herron

When dealing with winter weather and temperatures, consider engine health before you yell “clear prop” and start up. Different metals in the engine shrink and expand at varying rates and at extremely low temperatures, oil loses some ability to lubricate. Starting an engine in these conditions can cause metal parts to rub together, which in aviation is generally not what we’re looking for.

This, in turn, can cause extreme wear in a very short time—wear that means hours taken off your engine’s life, and money lost because of it. When the temperature is near or below freezing, you can help prevent this extra wear by preheating the engine (see “P&E: Ownership,” on page 84).

There are many types of preheaters available, and you can find one that suits your needs and budget. Hot-air preheaters pump hot air into the engine compartment; electric preheaters provide electric heat directly to the oil pan. Newer systems that combine cylinder and oil pan electric preheaters are faster and help prevent damage by heating the cylinders as well as the oil.

When you preheat, don’t let that cold outside air slow down the process—place a blanket over the cowling and keep that engine happily bundled up. It’ll thank you with a clean start and more quickly available cabin heat. Don’t leave the blanket in the hangar, either. Toss it in the airplane and use it to keep the engine warm if you shut down away from home, or to keep you warm in a forced landing scenario.

If you’re on the road or don’t want to invest in your own system, FBOs often offer preheats (for a price). Just make sure you give them enough notice—the process isn’t instant and on a cold morning you probably don’t want to be number 10 on the wait list.

Preheating takes time, planning, and patience, but you’ll save your engine from unnecessary wear and tear and help it live a long, healthy life. An engine that is properly cared for is ultimately more reliable and safer.

airsafetyinstitute.org/safetycenter/icing

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Member Products and Services

Legally Speaking: Filing an ASRS report

Lessons learned are an interesting byproduct

By Cristina Zambrana

Any situation that could affect safety in the National Airspace System (NAS), other than criminal activities and accidents, may be confidentially reported to the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) through the Aviation Safety Reporting System (ASRS) program. This program was implemented by the FAA after the investigation of an airline crash in 1974 revealed a lack of information sharing among various parties in the NAS. FAA Advisory Circular 00-46E explains the procedures for, and protections available from, ASRS.

While there are many reasons to file an ASRS report, pilots often file a report to avail themselves of the waiver of sanction in FAA enforcement cases. One of the requirements to be eligible for the waiver of sanction is that the report is filed within 10 days of the date of the violation or the date when the person became aware or should have been aware of the violation. However, even though the waiver of imposition of sanction prevents the FAA’s proposed penalty (for example, a certificate suspension) from taking effect, the finding of violation from the enforcement action will still go on the airman’s record.

Airmen are often the sole-source reporter of unique events in the NAS. These sole-source reports may alert others to issues that might otherwise come as a surprise, such as the pitfalls of operating unusually lightly loaded aircraft, and thus improve safety in the NAS. It’s important to note that airmen are still eligible for the waiver of sanction even when the FAA becomes aware of a possible pilot deviation through another source or before the airman files an ASRS report, such as when ATC issues a Brasher Notification (“possible pilot deviation” followed by a phone number to call), or ATC telephones the pilot who forgot to close the IFR flight plan.

All information that might help identify persons filing ASRS reports and parties named within are deleted by NASA, and FAR 91.25 prohibits the FAA from using ASRS reports in any enforcement action, except accidents or criminal actions. Individuals may avail themselves of the data NASA has collected and the various ASRS resources (alerts, database, publication bulletin, focused studies) that NASA makes publicly available. ASRS Research Papers offer published research in specific topics, while ASRS Operational Issues Bulletins are timely published for important topics. ASRS Directline offers publications significant to crew of complex aircraft, and ASRS Callback is a monthly collection of “lessons learned” topics using anonymized examples from real ASRS filings.

aopa.org/pps

Cristina Zambrana is an attorney with the AOPA Legal Services Plan.