Blogging in Formation
Aviators are a social lot. Spend any time around a small general aviation airport and you’ll learn that even the crabbiest old hangar rats among us is happier when there’s someone around to toss an insult to. Yes, we love doing things together, whether it’s fixing or building an aircraft, eating, sitting around the hangar telling lies, or even flying. The ultimate airborne manifestation of this phenomenon is formation flying. Not just being in an aircraft with fellow pilots, but each person bringing their own airplane along for the ride as well. It can appear deceptively easy. After all, we drive our cars on the highway in “formation” for hours on end and think nothing of it, barely paying attention as we hurl along the interstate at...
Read MoreFighting Back at SMO
The Santa Monica city council voted unanimously yesterday to increase the landing fees at the airport by about 250%. Even some based at the airport feel the battle is trending badly for SMO’s continued viability. I agree with them. The biggest bite doesn’t come from the fee itself as much as the fact that aircraft based at Santa Monica are no longer exempt. So a student learning to fly at the airport will now have to pay thousands of extra dollars to achieve PTS-level proficiency as they get dinged for every single landing. A typical GA pilot or owner at SMO who flies, say, twice a month will face a similar financial burden. And that’s to say nothing of the precedent this sets for other airport operators. You can bet every one of them is...
Read MoreThe Good Life
There are days when I really feel for those who’ve never had a taste of the Good Life. That is, the world of general aviation. The things they’re missing out on! You might not know it from the way most airfields are ensconced by ominous chain link, barbed wire, and signage screaming of long prison sentences for trespassing, but some of the sweetest experiences are on the other side of that boundary. And I’m not even talking about the actual flying. No, this is about the people. Folks who, if they work at the airport, probably go there on their day off as well just because they love it so much. Even when they don’t, their thoughts wander back to that place. There are individuals who will work two and three jobs, laboring, scrimping, saving...
Read MoreJudgement: Knowing When to Say When
Will Rogers once said, “Good judgment comes from experience, and a lot of that comes from bad judgment.” Of course, he died in a plane crash, so you’ll have to excuse him for begging the question. Speaking of good judgement, Chris, a New York-based private pilot, recently related a story about an instructor who steered him wrong on a WINGS proficiency flight. Changing frequencies quickly revealed that light aircraft were swarming around Oswego like flies. All of them were using runway 33 and landing with a direct crosswind. I weighed the options quietly. I could certainly handle a ten knot crosswind and thought that it would be good practice. I decided to enter the pattern for runway 33 along with everyone else so as to not disrupt traffic. I...
Read MoreGetting Better: Simulators for General Aviation
When it comes to technology, it’s funny how little general aviation has changed over the years. A pilot transported to the modern day from a half-century ago would recognize most of the airplanes flying today. He’d certainly recognize 21st century engines and props, because it’s the same stone-simple, air-cooled reciprocating hardware they had 80 years ago. The price, on the other hand, would probably give our time-traveling barnstormer a heart attack that not even modern medicine could fix. I can see him clutching his chest while proclaiming “In my day, gas was $0.15 a gallon!” Since I started flying, the most notable changes have occurred where computers are used. Avionics, tablets, internet-based data connectivity, traffic and...
Read MoreSpeed-to-Fly
Nobody really knows how often something like an powerplant failure in a GA single happens. If the pilot manages to land without any significant damage to the aircraft, nothing ends up in the NTSB accident database because, by definition (see 49 CFR 830.2), there was no accident. I’ve experienced a few of those in my career. One was a clogged fuel filter in a Pitts. Believe me, anything out of the norm in a Pitts really gets your attention. I love the airplane, but it sports a glide ratio akin to that of a brick. Only worse. Another memorable engine failure was caused by a broken cylinder in a Cutlass. The ensuing vibration and smoke convinced me to shut down the engine, and I glided the 10 or so miles to Corona with my commercial student and made a...
Read MoreConstant Speed Propeller Maintenance
Over the years, I’ve noticed that pilots tend to give insufficient attention to two critical airframe elements: tires and props. I’ve already covered tires, so today let’s look at the perils of improper maintenance on a constant-speed propeller. On January 23, 2003 at about 4:20 p.m., Rob Cable — the grandson of Cable Airport founder Dewey Cable — took off from that airfield to perform a post-annual test flight in his twin-engine Beech 95 Travel Air. Six minutes later he was killed when the Beechcraft crashed in Rancho Cucamonga. This accident was big news in the Southern California flying community. Cable Airport bills itself as “the world’s largest family-owned public-use airport” and anyone who’s been there...
Read MoreFAA Tower Closures
A few days ago, the Federal Aviation Administration published a list of air traffic control towers which are slated for closure now that the sequestration-related budget cuts have kicked in. Looking at the list of Southern California facilities, one sees quite a few busy airports which sit under multiple layers of airspace. At times like these, it’s important to take a deep breath, remember that the vast majority of airports are already non-towered, and as always, cast a skeptical eye on the antics of those in Washington. I’ve been monitoring the hue and cry from aviation magazines, organizations, and bloggers and have been impressed by how many have refused to adopt a hysterical “the sky is falling!” attitude. It’s also worth noting...
Read MoreLow and Slow
Early on in my initial flight training, I started hearing occasional references to a requirement for a couple of solo “cross-country” flights. Nobody actually defined the term for me, and this was in the years before the partnership between Google and your ordinary smart phone made figuring these things out a non-event, so in my mind I was looking forward to the adventure of flying literally across the entire U.S. and seeing it all from the air. I was half relieved, half disappointed to find out that for the purposes of obtaining a my private pilot certificate, “cross country” meant landing at an airport at least 50 nautical miles away from my departure point. Fifty miles? In an airplane? Now how long could that possibly take, I wondered?...
Read MoreTSA Follies
The TSA (Transportation Stop Agency, as one person likes to call it) recently pronounced that since 5% of all security badges issued at the John Wayne Airport have been lost, they are revoking everyone’s credentials effective February 22nd. In order to gain access to the ramp, everyone who works there or uses the airport will have to re-apply for a new badge. This might not strike the average person as outlandish, especially if they’re of the “safety at any cost!” ilk, but let’s look a bit more closely at the situation. First of all, 5% have not been lost. They simply weren’t physically returned to the airport administration once they expired. The TSA considers those badges “lost” even though, once expired, they are...
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