Letters from our April 2021 issue

First thing I read every month in AOPA Pilot is Barry Schiff’s column, and the second thing is “Test Pilot.” Thank you so much! 

I am just a few years younger than Schiff and have only a small fraction of his hours, but his article about age and pilots (“Proficient Pilot: And Just Like That…”) really hit home.

I (I’m pretty sure it was me) came up with the following little riddle about aging pilots: “Why are old pilots safer than young pilots?” Answer: “Because we run out of bladder long before we run out of fuel.”

Andy Markoe
AOPA 1417832
Lawrenceville, New Jersey

Barry Schiff’s April column is very encouraging to me and hopefully will be to others as well. I am 63 and got my private certificate in 1979 (AOPA member from before then) but until last year hadn’t flown since 1989. With a lot of free time on my hands due to the pandemic I decided to get current again. I also decided to transition to a Cirrus, which is a great airplane and seems light-years ahead of the Cessna 172 and Piper Cherokee 6 that I had flown last. It was interesting to watch my instructor reviewing my logbook and realize my last entry was before he was born! The transition to the glass panel slowed getting my sign-off but was well worth it.

I was starting to think I might have waited too long, but after reading Schiff’s column I am anxious to move forward with the next items on my list: instrument rating, multiengine rating, and purchase of my first airplane. Thanks again for the inspiration.

Morgan Brown
AOPA 5590233
Ponte Vedra Beach, Florida

When I was a boy, sometimes during the summer I would get bored and complain to my mother. Her usual answer was: Enjoy the time now because when you got older it will pass very quickly. I didn’t believe her. Also, when I was young, every Thanksgiving Day one of my rituals was to create a calendar of the days until Christmas. I would cross off each day in succession. It seemed like it took an eternity for the 30 or so days to pass. Now, as soon as I have washed, dried, and put away the Thanksgiving dishes, it is New Year’s Day.

Soon it will be my seventy-fifth birthday. For some reason that is the number that gets caught in my throat. The inability to fly to fun and interesting destinations and 75 looming like an auger in front of me made the lockdown all the more depressing to me. So, thank you for your article. It has given me hope that I still have a few more good flying years ahead of me.

Joseph Padronaggio
AOPA 889050
Parrish, Florida

I hope a lot of pilots read Catherine Cavagnaro’s article “Learning to Call BS.” I have been training students to do it the old-fashioned way for 40-plus years and double-check that it all makes sense, then confirm along route and at top off at destination. That helps to verify numbers in the POH. —John Ogozalek , AOPA 948150, Kings Park, New YorkThis Tiger will growl

The only airplane I ever owned was a Grumman AA–5 Traveler. Hurt me to sell it several years ago. I’m drooling to be the winner of AOPA’s first Grumman offering (“Sweepstakes: This Tiger Will Growl Once More”)! The AA–5B is an awesome aircraft in itself, and I can hardly wait to see what AOPA and its vendors will do to spruce it up. Count me into the sweepstakes!

Alan D. Resnicke
AOPA 5278610
Silver City, New Mexico

John's medical

Just a line to thank Brent Blue for his article “Flight MD: John’s Medical” and to let you know that I think it is very much to the point. I am encouraged to see that someone in his position, i.e., with some clout, is calling it like it is about the FAA Office of Aerospace Medicine’s totally unreasonable requirements and approach for many years, as I can testify from personal experience. I hope that you are correct in seeing “a sea change through new leadership.”

Henry H. Brecher
AOPA 1548858
Columbus, Ohio

Another great article and right on target! I am loving the direction you are taking, challenging the status quo and acknowledging our hope for progress under Susan Northrup.

Quay Snyder
AOPA 1295171
Centennial, Colorado

Our printed history

I thoroughly enjoyed reading the history and development of our aviation charts as covered in “Our Printed History.” While not having any of these documents, I confess to having a temporary radiotelephone operators permit dated April 1973 in my flight bag. This document was required of all pilots wishing to use radio communication. This too is a throwback to another time, or more specifically, another millennium!

Bob Paszczyk
AOPA 622360
Tinley Park, Illinois

Hangar Talk

Hanging out on a farm on a beautiful day is just one of the perks of working for AOPA—we really never know where our stories will take us. Senior Photographer Chris Rose is an avid outdoorsman—he fly-fishes, hunts, hikes, and metal detects in the natural world around AOPA headquarters in Frederick, Maryland. While many may think that AOPA’s proximity to Washington, D.C., means Frederick is the “big city,” we are surrounded by farmland, historic battlefields, and rivers and streams. It was nice to get even more out of town to Stafford County, Virginia, to meet DC Aerial Photos owners Susan and Dan Hedenberg, who live on a 40-acre farm complete with a grass airstrip. The dichotomy between where they live—rural farmland—and where they work—the nation’s capital—is intriguing, made even more so by the access general aviation affords. Washington, D.C., traffic even on a good day means hours spent in a car from both Frederick and Stafford County, but a short, beautiful flight. Read “Farm to Capital,” beginning on page 60.

Pilots love to personalize their aircraft, and balloon pilots are no different. Patrick Smith, the pilot in “Light the Fire,” has three balloons—and each one’s N number includes the initials and birth dates of his three children: Lylah James; Levi Rend Patrick; and Lucie Blaire Emberlynn. Smith and his wife, Meagan, are expecting a fourth child in June; no word yet on whether this baby will get his or her own balloon as well.