Aviation Myths, Part 1

Over the past decade and a half I’ve been keeping a mental list of frequently encountered misconceptions about flying. For some reason, I recently Googled “aviation myths” and found quite a few articles on the topic and it inspired me to finally set my own list to virtual “paper”. This list is not exhaustive, but it does represent the myths I encounter most frequently. Some of these are misconceptions held by non-pilots, others are more common among student aviators or even experienced professionals. I’ve written about a few of these in the past, but thought it might be worthwhile to throw the whole list out there for others to chew on. I’m planning to make this a three-part series, with five myths per post. Have you...

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Better or Worse?

That’s what my optomotrist is always asking me as I peer through the phoropter during my annual eye exam. It’s also what I ask myself in the never-ending battle which pits two schools of thought against one another on the state of general aviation in the United States. On one shoulder stands a little guy who points out how flying is becoming less accessible due to escalating costs and regulatory burdens. He says, look at the number of active pilot falling each year, see how airports have become unwelcoming barbed wire fortresses, and notice how even the best primary flight schools are struggling just to survive. His nemesis on the other shoulder, however, points out things like this article heralding the availability of a instrument rating for French...

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Are Needle, Ball, and Airspeed Obsolete?

With the advent of the Glass Age, I’ve been seeing more and more pilots question the need for traditional needle/ball/airspeed instrument skills. Why bother to learn the technology of yesterday, they ask? On the surface, this question makes sense. After all, who even manufactures aircraft with non-glass panels anymore? Heck, even the venerable Legend Cub is being built with a Dynon D10A these days. At my home field, we have a Waco UPF-7 (a 1930′s era open-cockpit biplane) with a Garmin glass panel. It looks more like you’re sitting on the bridge of the starship Enterprise than in a barnstormer ready to dust crops. There’s no doubt that glass panels have fewer insidious failure modes than analog instruments. Instead of an attitude indicator...

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I Love Days Like This

It’s so rare to get true winter weather here in Southern California. But as Lesley always says, it never fails to rain on opening night, and last night was no exception. Boy did it pour! I nearly broke into a Gene Kelly-esque dance all the way down Avenue of the Arts as I made my way to OCPAC for the opening night performance of Die Zauberflöte. Ave. of the Arts even has the right kind of street lights for it! But there’s something about the ultra-modern look of the theaters which kept me from indulging myself. (Note: I may also have been concerned about looking stupid, although that’s never stopped me before). I’ve been making quite a few flights to northern California lately, and this weather has certainly made that part of my day job...

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