Mom-Made

Senior Director of Photography Chris Rose may look happy in this photo of him standing on a truckload of donations for the Navajo Nation Christmas Airlift (see “Giving Back: Christmas in the Nation,” p. 58) held November 2021 in Gallup, New Mexico, but he wasn’t smiling for a part of the trip. “When we can’t fly GA to a story, we have to rely on my driving and navigating skills,” says Senior Features Editor Julie Summers Walker. The pair had several stories in the Midwest last year, and Walker isn’t great at navigation—nor is Rose who once drove north with his wife and children only to realize an hour later that they had taken a wrong turn and ended up back home. “I have to remind him of that story when I do things like estimate a 30-minute drive that is actually a three-hour one,” says Walker of the drive on Route 66 from Albuquerque to Gallup. “For this Maryland native, the West is truly a big country, and it’s why we always wish we could fly GA.” Three hours on a two-lane highway in the dark, out and back—and you thought this job was glamorous.

I loved Julie Summers Walker’s story on good airport restaurants (“Mom-Made,” November 2022 AOPA Pilot). My brother and I would fly our Bonanza to Chino Airport (CNO), tank our airplane with fuel at a place for $1.55 a gallon, then walk 50 yards outside the gate to Flo’s Airport Cafe, and eat just what Walker wrote—chicken-fried steak (and eggs), biscuits and gravy, and yes, one of those cinnamon rolls. They were huge and good!

After consuming all those calories, we all needed exercise so we would walk Chino Airport. On one side was the Planes of Fame Air Museum. Perhaps the best part was their restoration shop which, if careful, you could walk through. But that’s not all. There were at least four more big hangars on the field that did warbird restoration, and you could walk through those as well. By the time we got back to our airplane we were ready for another cinnamon roll and more coffee. Chino was a 15- to 20-minute flight from Burbank, but Flo’s, the airport, and a couple of miles of walking was at least three hours.

Larry Weitzman / AOPA 504833
Hurricane, Utah

It’s ironic that as the November AOPA Pilot hit the mailbox singing the praises of Bethany’s Airport Diner at Block Island. Bethany’s served their last in October. The Rhode Island Airport Corporation’s RFP for future service at the location contained terms that were so onerous to potential lessees that no one bid to rent the space, including the incumbent. The Airport Corporation is reformulating the bid document and promises new service in the spring. On the basis of past performance and a restaurant space that has lain empty at Westerly (WST) for years, no one is holding their breath.

Graeme Smith / AOPA 6968542
Newport, Rhode Island

I’m sorry to report that Bethany’s Airport Diner on Block Island (BID) has closed. The FBO informed me that she had lost her contract and someone new will be taking it over. —David Esposito / AOPA 11255133, Roslyn Heights, New YorkStealth in Palm Springs

Twenty-one years ago we were attending the Dobbins Air Reserve Base airshow in Marietta, Georgia. There was an F–117 in attendance, well roped off with armed guards to keep observers at a distance. After the show was over, attendees had to wait in a mile-long queue along a taxiway to board busses for the parking lots. As tired and bored attendees inched along at a snail’s pace, along comes the F–117 up the taxiway. Of course, when spotted, thousands of cameras start clicking. The crew chief was in the open cockpit waving his arms and yelling, “No pictures! No pictures!” Did he really think you could tow an airplane as exotic as the F–117 along a mile-long line of bored airplane geeks and expect them not to take pictures? I haven’t been to the Palm Springs Air Museum since the late ’90s. Nice to know that we can now see an F–117 up close without admonishment (“Briefing: Fly in for History,” September 2022 AOPA Pilot).

John McGrew/ AOPA 1210726
Missoula, Montana

Healthy Flying

While at Disney with family—including two grandkids—I caught up on some aviation reading. Dr. Brent Blue’s article in October (“Flight MD: Healthy Flying”) was spot on. As I read, I thought, he has written this just for me. I just knew Dr. Blue saw me at EAA AirVenture in July. As a 71-year-old pilot with 37 years of flying (a Cessna 172XP for most of those years), I appreciate his lifting this concern up to us. Disney is not a good location to make lifestyle changes, but those have been implemented upon my return.

Lee Myers / AOPA 976452
Charlotte, North Carolina

Be Prepared

I read Barry Schiff’s “Proficient Pilot: Be Prepared” (October 2022 AOPA Pilot) with a mix of empathy, amusement, and pain. Despite 40-plus years of soaring, I’ve never gotten done my Silver Duration. Three-hour flights usually end with a quick trip behind the hangar. Even with adequate prep of an external catheter and hospital bag, the combination of a four-point belt, parachute straps, and being of a certain age seems to conspire to restrict my abilities. Sufficient practice in the reclined seat of my car, belts fastened, enables the occasional exception. Fortunately, my soaring philosophy dovetails with that famous line from Treasure of the Sierra Madre: “We don’t need no stinkin’ badges.”

Tom Witkin / AOPA 597133
Sudbury, Massachusetts

I, too, laughed uncontrollably at Barry Schiff’s “Be Prepared,” but in a much more cathartic manner than his celebratory pilot pals after his flight.

While I haven’t yet had the same experience, I was on a commercial flight as a passenger from Portland, Oregon to Salt Lake City—a connection on the way back home to Cincinnati—a few years ago with some colleagues, and during a long approach into the airport, I began sensing that certain physiological necessity, which I expected not to be a problem as we were pretty low on what I assumed was our final approach.

Fast forward 15 minutes, and we’re still cruising along at a fairly low altitude with panic beginning to set in. Nearly bursting and coming to the realization that I would not be able to hold back the flood gates while everyone slowly shuffled off after finally getting on the ground and taxiing to the gate, I quickly unbuckled and sprinted to the lavatory at the back of the plane, for which I received much ribbing from my colleagues afterward.

James Melone / AOPA 11379773
Blue Ash, Ohio

Anatomy of a Slip

I enjoyed Catherine Cavagnaro’s article on slips (“Anatomy of a Slip,” October 2022 AOPA Pilot). Alas, it raised a question or three that I should be able to answer but haven’t yet figured out how. Long ago I flew gliders from a confined field in an area of uneven topography. On some days it was common to carry a bit of excess speed in the pattern as a hedge against wind shear. The technique was to slip toward a landing but, approaching the roundout/flare, reduce the bank angle to zero while holding slip inputs. This (as I recall) resulted in briefly flying sideways just above the grass dissipating a bit of speed before aligning the longitudinal axis with the track and sitting down.

Was that final portion of the approach a skid or a slip? I am inclined to think it was a skid because of the sideways motion. But slip control inputs were being used so maybe it was still a slip.

Paul Burgette / AOPA 268216
Dallas, Texas

It all depends how you define a skid. I tend to define a skid as a maneuver in which you’re giving too much rudder with respect to your bank angle so that would mean, wings level, any rudder in excess of that which makes sense for coordinated flight would count as a skid.

I was taught the same maneuver—fishtailing—as a way to lose excess energy before touching down in a confined area. When I’m finished with an aerobatic routine, I fishtail right before I land as an extra bit of flash. But, I do consider it a skid that deserves appropriate precautions (maintaining a low angle of attack) for safety.

I hope this helps.

Catherine Cavagnaro

We welcome your comments! Send letters to Editor, AOPA Pilot, 421 Aviation Way, Frederick, Maryland 21701 or [email protected]. Letters may be edited for length and style.