I just received my January/February issue of Flight Training. Sarah Deener’s editorial about seeking additional aviation accomplishments (“Ratings Bingo”) is right on target. The great majority of my students were learning to fly to fulfill a dream of flight, not for a career. There’s absolutely nothing wrong with enjoying the basic private license.
That said, to encourage new pilots to explore other options, I wrote a book some 40 years ago to explain and encourage the many options beyond the private license, now in its fourth edition. Beyond Flight Training is available at ASA or perhaps Amazon if you care to check it out.
LeRoy Cook
Butler, Missouri
I liked Dave Hirschman’s article in the January/February 2024 Flight Training magazine, “Fly Like an Autopilot.” However, I beg to differ on the point of his statement, “No human pilot can reliably pull off that trick,” of rolling out “exactly on course.” I started my flying career in 1971 in the Air Force Undergraduate Pilot Training program and after graduating was a T–38 Talon Instructor Pilot for nearly three years.
In the T–38 there was no automation that flew the plane for us. We had to think well ahead of the aircraft flying anywhere from 4 to 5 nautical miles per minute for instrument arrivals. We, therefore, had to think well ahead of the aircraft to anticipate turns. En route, we flew 7 to 9 nautical miles per minute so we had to mentally compute lead points even further in advance. I believe those skills are pretty much lost. Automation is not necessarily a pilot’s friend.
If we know the fundamentals of flying and apply those rules, we can make those 90-degree turns to final and roll out very close to, if not exactly, on course. Perhaps not exactly every time but with practice very close all the time.
Thanks for the article. It is a good insight to the benefits of the autopilot.
Peter G. Graf
Missoula, Montana