Flying for Barbecue

My introduction to North Carolina barbecue was about 35 years ago. I flew down to Twin Lakes (8A7), near Advance, North Carolina, to pre-buy and pick up an airplane. As lunch time approached, the FBO owner offered to pick up pork barbecue sandwiches for us—we all agreed. What he brought back was a pile of barbecued pulled pork, covered with coleslaw, on a big bun, and it was absolutely amazing!

My dad lives in Belmont, and last summer, I flew down to visit for a few days. We had dinner at a hole-in-the-wall barbecue joint. The platter was identical to the one pictured on the cover spread of your story (“Flying for Barbecue,” March 2025 AOPA Pilot): $7.50!  

Craig Brown
Orrtanna, Pennsylvania

Lessons From a Snap Roll 

I really enjoyed Catherine Cavagnaro’s article (“Lessons From a Snap Roll,” April 2025 AOPA Pilot). I especially appreciate the formulas for how load factor is calculated. I now understand the math defining maneuvering speed and how it relates to the normal category aircraft spec of +3.8 load factor.

One question: During a snap roll, what is the position of the ailerons? Do you just let the non-stalled wing provide the roll force, or do you use the ailerons to enhance the roll rate?

Tim Heyboer
Pacific Grove, California

Catherine Cavagnaro responds: Thanks for your kind words on the snap roll article, and I’m glad you found it useful. Good question on aileron use. In my Cessna, I teach students (in the rare instances I teach snap rolls) to leave them neutral, just to keep things simple. They happen fast, and it takes a while to learn to recover exactly when desired, typically to be exactly wings-level at the end. I personally add ailerons into the snap roll, as it gives me a bit better roll rate. But I take them out at the beginning of the recovery.

Bird Strikes

Natalie Bingham Hoover’s article about bird strike mitigation (“Bird Strikes,” March 2025 AOPA Pilot) brought back memories of my time in England as a weapons systems officer on the F–111E. Our mission required us to fly at very high speeds and at very low altitudes. In my four years in England, we lost four aircraft total, two by bird strikes. One caused structural damage that allowed raw fuel to pour down an engine. The other smashed through the cockpit. Fortunately, both crews ejected and survived. For a while, I was assigned to the wing safety office as an additional duty to my flying job. I interviewed ornithologists at the University of Oxford, who advised us to climb a few thousand feet over large estuaries, such as the Firth of Forth, that were on major bird migratory routes. That was about all the mitigation we could come up with that was consistent with our mission. Just about every crew experienced bird strikes, including me, that did not destroy the aircraft.

Patrick Barron
Pocopson, Pennsylvania

There Is No Excuse

If you fly an airplane with bladder tanks, it’s especially important to make sure the fuel vents are clear (“There Is No Excuse,” January 2025 AOPA Pilot). Because if they’re plugged, as fuel is drawn from the tank, the bladder will shrink and may tear away from its supports inside the wing. It’s possible that the bladder will fold over on itself, reducing capacity. And the fuel gauges may indicate that the tanks are full when they aren’t.

If you remove the fuel cap after a long flight and hear a sucking sound, you can bet that the fuel vents are plugged. It would seem prudent to have a mechanic clear the vents and verify that the bladder tanks are intact.

Kenneth Best
Elmhurst, Illinois

The Miracle of Lift

I was delighted to read Barry Schiff put a nail in this lift issue (“The Miracle of Lift,” March 2025 AOPA Pilot). I was taught incorrectly in Army flight school back in 1990, and it took me a long time to mentally work through forces and overcome the wealth of improper application to figure this out. He puts in a few great statements about changing from static pressure to kinetic energy—many folks think Bernoulli is a force, not an “equation.” His biggest nail is telling us that all lift is measured by summing the movement of the air towards gravity—nothing left to calculate for suction. I still think people will read his explanation and find a reason to make a pressure differential argument based on low pressure wing load statements. I don’t recommend standing right next to your propellor, but there just isn’t much moving up there, even dangerously close. You’re not moving an aircraft based on that draft!

Glen Woodard
Enterprise, Alabama

Bookshelf

Thank you for your mention of Night Flight by Antoine Saint-Exupéry in “Bookshelf” (April 2025 AOPA Pilot). It was a wonderful reminder of a timeless book and one of my favorite books about flying.

On an equal level in my memory is Stranger to the Ground by Richard Bach. As with Night Flight, it is an almost poetic book, from Bach’s preflight inspection of his F–84F Thunderstreak to his piloting and describing of his courier night flight over Europe through thunderstorms and his meandering stream-of-consciousness thoughts as he wings his way on his mission.

I wish I could adequately describe the contemplative mood that both these books instilled in me each time I read them years ago. They are both books to be read in a relaxed atmosphere where the reader is able to let his or her mind wander and meditate over the captivating thoughts and prose.

Kip Pope
Champaign, Illinois

Eagle Eyes

I have just finished reading Greg Anderson’s article (“Eagle Eyes,” March 2025 AOPA Pilot) for the second time, and it probably won’t be the last. I first met Greg in Kitty Hawk, North Carolina, on December 17, 2003, at the one-hundredth anniversary First Flight Airport event. This event changed my life, and Greg was a major part of the magic. I considered him to be an exceptional person then and now an even better writer.

Throughout his article, Greg managed to invite us into his cockpit through carefully chosen words—not easily done but accomplished with multidimensional perspectives. As a pilot and AOPA member for over 40 years, I can honestly say that this piece is one of the best that I have ever read, if not the best.

I am a “rotor head,” so I was able to relate to Greg’s third-dimension references. I am proud to say that I can safely fly a Bell Jet Ranger 206B–3 model, but I can’t write like that. I only hope that our paths cross again before the two-hundredth First Flight anniversary because I plan to be there, and I hope he will too.

Frank Floyd
Hunting Valley, Ohio

Errata

In the answer for question two in “Test Pilot” (April 2025 AOPA Pilot), the “diminutive robot” in
Star Wars is R2-D2.

In “Schweizer Is Back,” (May 2025 AOPA Pilot), we incorrectly captioned an image of the S300CBi’s impeller assembly by stating it compresses engine intake air. It provides cooling air for the oil cooler and engine baffling. We regret the error.

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