I really enjoyed Julie Summers Walker’s article on aviation books (“Great Aviation Books,” May 2025 AOPA Pilot). I would like to add a book I just really love: The Originals: The Women’s Auxiliary Ferrying Squadron of World War II by Sarah Byrn Rickman.
It is a wonderful and storied history about U.S. women pilots, the WAFS and WASP training programs, and the role that they had in World War II while moving military aircraft around the world, written with an excellent pilot’s perspective. I have given several copies to young pilots who all found it as inspiring as I did. If you like World War II aircraft and look to learn from pilots’ experiences, this is a great book.
Sam Taber
East Troy, Wisconsin
I was just reading Julie Summers Walker’s article “Great Aviation Books” (May 2025 AOPA Pilot) and found it very interesting. I have been an AOPA member since 1957 and want to share a book that I feel would be of interest to AOPA readers. It was written by a friend of mine, Dick Harper, a World War II pilot who is 101 years old. The book, titled The Cream: Retrospections of an Aviation Cadet, follows his experience through flight training in World War II. Dick, a pilot who flew several military aircraft of that era, flew until age 93. At that time, he was flying the CAF AT–6, BT–13, and PT–19. He was also checked out in the Curtiss SB2C Helldiver in his early eighties. In 2024, he was awarded the FAA Wright Brothers Master Pilots award at 100 years old. A fascinating individual and book.
Rich Welsh
Houston, Texas
Celebrating Saint-Exupéry
I really enjoyed Capucine Cordina’s aviation history article “Celebrating Saint-Exupéry” (May 2025 AOPA Pilot), which hopefully will inspire others to read his beautifully written works about flying. In the article, Cordina states, “He never returned, vanishing without a trace over the Mediterranean.” Readers might be interested to know that his airplane was discovered in 2000 off the coast of France, and in 2004, “…French officials and investigators from the French Underwater Archaeological Department officially confirmed that the wreckage was from Saint-Exupéry’s aircraft.” I believe that his disappearance, which fascinates me and many others, was resolved after six decades of mystery and speculation.
Kip Pope
Champaign, Illinois
Hangar Talk
Pilot-Induced Oscillations
Barry Schiff’s article about Dutch rolls (“Pilot-Induced Oscillations,” April 2025 AOPA Pilot) in the Boeing 727 brought back memories. I flew the KC–135 Stratotanker, and no other aircraft had as bad a Dutch roll as it did. The aircraft did not have a yaw damper, so we engaged the rudder axis of the autopilot immediately after takeoff. Once it was disengaged, you had to stay on top of the aircraft to prevent it from entering a deep Dutch roll (at least one KC–135 was lost when the crew could not recover from a Dutch roll).While Schiff describes the correct way to stop the Dutch roll, the quickest way to get out of it was to enter a coordinated turn. As long as all three control surfaces are being utilized effecting the turn, the aircraft would exit the Dutch roll immediately.
Leo Mora
Groveland, California
Jekyll and Hyde
Regarding Natalie Bingham Hoover’s article (“Jekyll and Hyde,” May 2025 AOPA Pilot), many years ago, I attended the U.S. Army Instrument Examiner’s (IE) course at Fort Rucker (now Fort Novosel) in Alabama, a course with a notorious legacy of Mr. Hydes. I was a recent hire as a civilian flight instructor for the U.S. Army. My “stick buddy” was a U.S. Army National Guard flight instructor and FAA designee. We had 4,000-plus helicopter flight hours, including commercial helicopter and single-pilot IFR experience.
Within two weeks, we had three instructor changes. None were requested by us. Our new instructor had an interesting background, seemed caring and devoted to his craft. Within a few minutes in the Huey flight simulator, Mr. Hyde appeared. It was an insulting and abusive experience. On the second or third day, I had had enough. As the pilot on the controls, I selected freeze and turned off motion for the simulator. The instructor repeatedly said that I couldn’t do that. I said yes, I can, and we were going outside to have a conversation. Initially he refused to accept our constructive comments, and we asked the chief pilot to intervene. Mr. Hyde finally saw the light when he realized his job was on the line, as he was the reason for the previous instructor changes. CRM works; you may not have a second chance with a Mr. Hyde if you’re not in a simulator.
Ken Holden
LaOtto, Indiana
Ready, Fire, Aim!
When reading the article “Ready, Aim, Fire” (May 2025 AOPA Pilot), I noticed that Mike Busch suggested performing the airworthiness directive search after the visual inspection of the aircraft. That is out of sequence with a proper annual inspection. If you perform the AD search during the preinspection paperwork (before the visual inspection), there are a few advantages:
While doing a logbook review before the inspection you may see recurring actions that might need attention. Record any AD that needs to be inspected for proper compliance on your discrepancy list. This time may be over and above a normal inspection and the IA should be compensated properly. While inspecting the aircraft, you now know of manufacturing defects and the corrective actions that should have been completed or need to be completed again if recurring action is needed. Also adding this item to the discrepancy list if action needed. This will save the IA time and money and not having to return to the aircraft unnecessarily.
Doug Keck
Belleville, Illinois
Test Pilot
As usual, “Test Pilot” is one of my favorite features in the magazine. The question regarding turning from a north to a south heading without turning through east or west intrigued me (“Test Pilot,” May 2025 AOPA Pilot). I thought that any flight over the North Pole would qualify, but then I started thinking of the nuances of the situation. As his question specified heading, rather than course, the trip over the Pole would only be a straight line in the case of no crosswind, otherwise a heading correction would need to be made at the Pole. Applying this to the Immelmann maneuver, a heading reversal would only cause a course reversal in the case of zero crosswind. I am not sure if a course reversal defines the maneuver or not. Just something to think about.
Jerry Russell
Costa Mesa, California
Barry Schiff responds: You’re absolutely right. There is a second answer to that question, although I confess, we hadn’t thought of the Polar solution. Good catch. We should have asked the question about changing from an easterly heading to a westerly heading instead of from north to south. Then there would have been only one solution.
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