Letters

After reading Barry Schiff’s “Proficient Pilot: Lancer-Not” in the August issue, I felt compelled to respond. I owned and flew a Champion 402 Lancer for several years, so I speak from experience. It is such a unique and rare aircraft. While Schiff is correct that the flight characteristics are not good, it is still fun to fly. 

The Lancer is a multiengine Citabria with several unique features. The engine starters are engaged by pulling handles/cables in the ceiling of the cockpit. The left engine counter rotates. Throttles are mounted on the left side ceiling, reminiscent of the Grumman amphibians. It has a yoke in the front (solo) and stick in the back seat, with manual flaps.

I really enjoyed owning and flying a Lancer. What I loved most was taking it to airshows. I would always try to park next to a P–51, then spend the whole day surrounded by people asking about the Lancer while the P–51 got far less interest from the crowd. Fun times!

I finally sold my Lancer to a pilot who owned every Champion make and model and needed a 402 to complete his collection. I knew it was going to a good home.

Karl Kunze / AOPA 983826
Rochester, New York

As a recently retired private pilot, I always look for Barry Schiff’s ‘Test Pilot’ questions. While ornithopters never flew (July 2022 AOPA Pilot), in 1973 I bought a metal sculpture by Bill Rutherford, a Wichita artist, of such a device. This one, about 18 inches high, has the requisite flapping wings, a pair of balloon-like lifting tanks,decks, propeller, cabin, and wheels like a fanciful predecessor of the Hindenburg.

William Ramsay /AOPA 858248
Lincoln, Nebraska

178 seconds

I read with interest the article concerning VFR into IMC hazards (“178 Seconds,” June 2022 AOPA Pilot). It was very informative, but I think the author missed an important factor when discussing training versus real-world IMC.

Oftentimes when entering clouds, especially cumuliform clouds, there are significant roll/pitch/yaw deflections and vertical speed fluctuations coincidental with cloud entry. This can be very disorienting to a VFR or unsuspecting IFR pilot. A CFI can use several techniques to simulate these effects, but until you have actually experienced it you can’t fully appreciate it, let alone be prepared for it. In addition to using view-limiting devices during flight in turbulent air, the CFI should consider taking a student or inexperienced pilot as a front-seat passenger on an IFR flight through a few cumulus clouds. A little experience is better than none.

Grant Van Bavel / AOPA 1404993
Naples, Florida

Stalls and spins

Catherine Cavagnaro’s article on stalls and spins versus natural instincts (“Flying Smart: Stalls and Spins,” August 2022 AOPA Pilot) brought to mind a topic often discussed with my son. 

I am a one-time soaring student, and my son is an accomplished pilot and former instructor in the U.S. Air Force Academy soaring program. We both have had ample opportunity to experience subgravity sensations as part of our soaring. We’re of a mind that most upset training today falls far short of what’s needed to make the reaction to a stall inculcated muscle memory rather than something you have to think about.

Most of my experience was in slow flight along the ridge in a Schweizer SGS 2–33. I learned quickly not to use the stick to pick up a dropping wing, but rather the rudder, and to react quickly with a quick brief forward snap of the stick to a hint of a stall.

A 1996 flight out of Black Forest, Colorado, with my son was interesting because he showed me the difference between an aggravated stall in the thin air above the Colorado plains versus what I’d experienced in the thicker air over Warrenton Soaring Center in Warrenton, Virginia, back in the late 1980s and early 1990s. In that thin air above Black Forest, entering an aggravated stall left me suddenly hanging in the straps, looking up at the Earth as the aircraft turned turtle. It was fun, so we did it again, but the lesson stuck with me.

Emory Tate / AOPA 7172640
McDaniel, Maryland

Catherine Cavagnaro’s excellent article in which she describes stalling while inverted near the top of a loop exactly mirrors my own experience of learning empirically in a Waco Great Lakes that an airfoil can indeed be stalled at any attitude. At the time I was embarrassed that it took me a moment to recognize why the airplane’s controls were unresponsive and the dive had developed a distinct sideways lean. Fortunately, simply releasing the controls allowed the airflow to reattach and a relatively decent final quarter loop. The salutary embarrassment, however, has never detached from me. I trust it never will.

Michael Hart / AOPA 9992003
Tucson, Arizona

Pilots: Charlie Hammonds

Nice article on Charlie Hammonds (“Pilots: A Life Well Lived in Aviation,” August 2022 AOPA Pilot). He is a fantastic person and instructor. You may appreciate how great an instructor he is with this short story:

One day after some stall instruction in the T–6, one stall turned into a violent falling leaf, scaring both of us. We called it a day. His parting words to me as we drove off were to go home to my wife and enjoy the night. Nine months later and on the same day, Charlie and I were presented with baby girls. Now is that a great instructor or what?

J.W. “Corkey” Fornof / AOPA 1368539
Frisco, Texas

Dogfight: To helmet or not to helmet

Both Dave Hirschman and Ian Twombly are misinformed about the safety and availability of a lightweight, inexpensive, extensively impact-tested, comfortable aviation helmet (“Dogfight: To Helmet or Not to Helmet, That is the Question,” July 2022 AOPA Pilot). Helmets save lives. I spent a U.S. Air Force career developing life support systems for advanced tactical fighter pilots; I’m an aerospace medical researcher and graduated from the Uniformed Services School of Medicine and U.S. Air Force School of Aerospace Medicine; and am also a trained accident investigator graduating from the University of Southern California and U.S. Air Force Aircraft Mishap Investigation courses.

Many aircraft accidents are survivable if head impact protection is provided. Even a brief moment of unconsciousness will drown a partially submerged seaplane pilot. Helmets not only provide impact protection, they help attenuate sun with visors and attenuate aircraft noise with their construction, and can be modified to carry an emergency flashlight or night vision device if you could afford one.

There is an extensively tested (both military and civilian) commercial, off-the-shelf helmet supplied to U.S. Special Forces by company Team Wendy that has been adapted by Sky Cowboy to accept all modern aviation ANR headsets. This can be purchased as a fully assembled helmet with ANR headset or DIY to accept your headset.

I’ve been wearing mine for the past four years in hot, humid Florida with low-level seaplane operations in a loud IO–390 Super Cub. It is comfortable, keeps sun glare down, and helps attenuate the noise in a rag-wing aircraft. I wear it performing aerobatics and when renting a 172. I don’t leave home without it. 

Robert G. Elves / AOPA 939995
Melbourne, Florida

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.