Letters

Just watched the video on the surprise ride for Alton Downer. I could not agree more about lifting up those that support us every day at our airports. Throughout my career, I have given countless rides to those that work and serve our aviation community at the airports I have flown out of over the years.

It really helps bring everyone closer together at an airport. So many of these folks fuel our airplanes, cut the grass, and do any job required of them supporting our flying. I firmly believe including them in the flying side. It makes them more aware of day-to-day operations and what affects the safety of an airport. It just opens up a whole new world that they don’t always get to see. Not everyone has had the opportunities that we have enjoyed. Each time I fly an airport employee, I see an immediate change in how they react to other pilots. They assimilate and grow in our aviation community. It’s a benefit to us all.

I so enjoyed the surprise flight with Downer, a bit of dust got in our eyes here in the desert as it so often does!

Wayne Marshall / AOPA 979561
Eloy, Arizona

The video of the surprise flight in the AOPA Extra 300L was great. It made me smile to see how excited Mr. Downer was when you revealed that he was going to get to fly the AOPA Extra 300L. Very well done, and I’m glad to be a member of an organization that promotes aviation in all aspects. —Martin Keller / AOPA 1315139, Ventura, California

Abandonment issues

I wish my CFIs would have trained me heavily in going around (“Proficient Pilot: Abandonment Issues,” September 2022 AOPA Pilot). First, that it is a good thing to be confident in, and second, there is no pressure to land the airplane. I believe one problem with training is that there is some kind of inherent thought that one must land. Maybe there are a lot of airplanes in the pattern, or maybe there is a thought that in a controlled airport you really must land. Maybe there is a thought that other pilots will think less of your skills if you go around. All of these thoughts are pressures that a pilot does not need to worry about.

I routinely go around if something doesn’t seem right. Maybe the approach is not stabilized, maybe I’m too high or low, maybe I need more time to coordinate things, maybe I’m distracted by something. In any case, I rarely see other pilots in my area making a going around call. I do it all the time and feel great doing it.

Bob Pietrs / AOPA 10079467
Madison, Alabama

Filing on the fly

Having previously filed on the fly numerous times during my 50-plus-year flying career, I found it difficult at best and have been told several times by ATC to file via Flight Service even when on flight following (“Filing on the Fly,” September 2022 AOPA Pilot). In-flight filing while flying single pilot, IFR in fixed or rotary wing, in marginal weather creates a very heavy pilot workload. An alternative I’ve used during the past 10 years as a single-pilot IFR air-medical pilot, I would often file an IFR flight plan anytime the weather had the possibility of going marginal (below 3000-5), then fly the mission VFR (with a patient onboard, point to point flights are always better when time is an issue).

Having an IFR flight plan on file, regardless of the mission, has several advantages: 1) ATC has all the info needed for a clearance, thereby not tying up the radio, 2) a destination change is easy once on a clearance, 3) you are less likely to scud run, 4) in EMS, the patient has a better chance of getting to destination when unforecast weather is encountered, and 5) if not used, it simply drops out of the system. When unplanned IMC weather is encountered, having an IFR flight plan on file is a simple matter of calling ATC and picking up a clearance—just be careful of freezing levels and mountains.

Dave Balthazor / AOPA 610259
Ashland, Virginia

Safety Spotlight

Richard McSpadden presented two excellent articles in the July and August issues. The July article, “Train Like You Fight,” describes air-to-air refueling, which in itself is a delicate maneuver, especially in IFR night and formation flying. In “Good to be Me” in the August issue, he presented a very enjoyable story involving his father and son in a ferry flight that reminded me of following my daughter on her solo navigation to get her private pilot’s certificate.

John Edgar Bradfield / AOPA 3499968
São Paulo, Brazil

Stalls and spins

I have always enjoyed Catherine Cavagnaro’s columns, but I especially enjoyed “Stalls and Spins” in the August 2022 issue. Back in October of 2007, I had the privilege of taking Ms. Cavagnaro’s stalls and spins course. During one of our airborne sessions, we were recovering her Cessna Aerobat from a fully developed spin with the wings still stalled and with the nose practically pointing straight down. I had been taught to lower the nose in order to prevent, or recover from, a stall, but here I had to ask myself: how do I lower the nose any more than it’s already lowered? Nevertheless, I pushed and, even today, after all these years, I have a vivid memory of seeing the nose of the airplane tuck under and almost immediately we were flying again. Neither prior nor subsequent to that experience have I witnessed a demonstration that so convincingly proved a point. I have since felt that I owe Ms. Cavagnaro a debt of gratitude. So, when you next hear that an airplane can be stalled at any airspeed and/or at any attitude, believe it! Push, always push, works every time.

Jim Pivirotto / AOPA 618297
North Myrtle Beach, South Carolina

As a full-time, grey-around-the-ears commercial pilot and 30-year CFI who still enjoys providing instruction, something in Catherine Cavagnaro’s writing caught my attention. There is a lot of confusion in how stalls are taught. Too many are taught that an airplane stalls at a critical angle of attack relative to the horizon and assumed to be significantly nose up. I have used the example of the loop many times. Conventional thinking would imply every loop has a stall in it somewhere.

What got me was the line about stalling in a nose-low attitude. I have never done that with a student. How do you demonstrate this?

Jonathan Hanold / AOPA 1056939
Southlake, Texas

For the typical student pilot who is working only on stalls, how do we simulate this? In normal flight we lower the nose, and the angle of attack goes down and airspeed builds. It strikes me that the inefficiency of slipping/skidding flight is a way to achieve a nose-low attitude and a high angle of attack (see “Anatomy of a Slip,” October 2022 AOPA Pilot). In my own spin course, I show that one can have a high angle of attack plus a lack of coordination and be on the way into a spin and that pushing forward on the yoke/stick is all it takes to avoid the spin.

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.