Making Lemonade How Mags Fail What Went Wrong

GA TRAVEL DURING A PANDEMIC p. 72 PREVENTIVE MAINTENANCE p. 96 FAULTY ASSUMPTIONS p. 78

The Voice of General Aviation aopa.org/pilot | February 2021 | $8.95

February 2021

PIPISTREL PANTHERA

Slippery Speedster
COMPLEX HIGH-PERFORMANCE
REIMAGINED p. 50
Pipistrel Panthera | AirCam Cross-Country | Beech 18 Seaplane Training | GA Travel in a Pandemic

Two Brothers
AN AIRCAM, AND A
CONTINENT TO CROSS p. 58

Lady of the Lake

MULTIENGINE SEAPLANE RATING
IN A TWIN BEECH p. 66
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 AOPA PILOT

CONTENTS
February 2021 | Volume 64 | Number 2 | aopa.org/pilot

ON THIS PAGE: Splashing down

on Minnesota’s Crane Lake
in a venerable Beech 18.
Photography by Mike Fizer

66 Lady of the Lake

Getting a multiengine
seaplane rating
at Sky Harbor.
By Richard McSpadden

FEATURES
Flying Ferrari A Good Guy Making Lemonade What Went Wrong
A slippery speedster to Have Around GA travel during Faulty assumptions:
debuts in America. Two brothers, an AirCam, a pandemic. Small errors add up
By Thomas A. Horne and a continent to cross. By Alicia Herron to tragedy.
By Dave Hirschman By Richard McSpadden
Page 50 Page 72
Page 58 Page 78

aopa.org/pilot AOPA PILOT | 1

 AOPA PILOT

CONTENTS February 2021 SECTIONS

42 Destinations
Cuisine caliente.

44 Aircraft for the Mission

Buy to train.

46 Postcards

31
Hannibal, Missouri.

PROFICIENCY &
EFFICIENCY
AOPA ACTION
82 Efficiency
9 Insurance options Disinfecting your airplane.
AOPA seeking relief.

90
85 Airframe
PILOT BRIEFING Totally tubular, man.
25 Just for Fun
88 Ownership
Pop culture influences.
Switch hitter.
28 Events
90 Wx Watch
Spring break came early...or late.
Winter’s first strike.
COMMENTARY DEPARTMENTS 30 Musings
94 Proficiency
6 President’s Position 4 AOPA Online Love is in the air.
Looking for moose.
The fear factor. Take your reading
beyond these pages.
31 Aviation History 96 Savvy Maintenance
16 Waypoints Solo flights. How mags fail.
Tale of two centuries. 12 Letters
Santa is a GA pilot.
32 People 100 Never Again
18 Proficient Pilot Paying it forward. Pop quiz.
Cockpit catnaps. 109 Fly by Wire
Index of advertisers.
34 Future Flight
20 Flying Life VoltAero Cassios. MEMBERSHIP
NEWS & NOTES
Being human. 110 Tips from PIC
VIP TFR basics.
35 Test Pilot 102 AOPA Partners
22 Safety Spotlight Young astronaut. Historic partnership.
Fly-bys. 112 Pilots
Carol Joyner.
36 Bookshelf 104 AOPA Air Safety
24 Flight MD Four for your collection. Institute
I wish I had not said that. Never give up.
37 Review
Garmin D2 Air. 106 Turn On Your
Notifications
39 Pilot Products AOPA Weather now online.

25
Study your way.
PILOT BRIEFING 108 Products and Services
Pop culture 40 Airports A welcome change.
influences. Millville Executive, New Jersey.

Making Lemonade How Mags Fail What Went Wrong

GA TRAVEL DURING A PANDEMIC p. 72 PREVENTIVE MAINTENANCE p. 96 FOUR GALLONS MORE p. 78

The Voice of General Aviation aopa.org/pilot | February 2021 | $8.95

PIPISTREL PANTHERA SLIPPERY SPEEDSTER

Slippery Speedster Editor at Large Thomas A. Horne
COMPLEX HIGH-PERFORMANCE
REIMAGINED p. 50

experiences the speed and agility of

Pipestrel’s Panthera, new to the U.S.
market, in “Flying Ferrari,” which begins
on p. 50.
Two Brothers
AN AIRCAM, AND A
CONTINENT TO CROSS p. 58
Photography by Mike Fizer.
Lady of the Lake
MULTIENGINE SEAPLANE RATING
IN A TWIN BEECH p. 66

Contact us at 800-USA-AOPA (872-2672)

2 | AOPA PILOT February 2021

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EXPLORE ONLINE
Take your reading experience beyond these pages | aopa.org/pilot

VIEW THE VIDEO

These and other videos
can be accessed in the
AOPA Pilot Enhanced
Digital Edition and on
YouTube.
aopa.org/
digitaleditions
AOPALive

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A four-seat, 200-knot airplane that can carry four people 1,000 nautical miles, nonstop,
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SKY HARBOR’S GRANDE DAME

Piloting a 1954 Beech 18 on floats is probably the most
enjoyable way to earn a multiengine seaplane rating.
aopa.org/pilot/beechonfloats
THE LARGEST AVIATION EVENT OF 2020
Sun ‘n Fun campus organized a strictly outdoor
fly-in and expo that attracted between 4,000 and
7,000 people enjoying visits by Santa, backcoun-
try flying experts, and more.
aopa.org/pilot/snfinwinter

AOPA PODCASTS
Never Again
AOPA LIVE Pilots share first-person accounts of frightening
Get your weekly news fix by video in experiences in the cockpit so that others can learn
AOPA Live This Week. from their mistakes.
aopa.org/live aopa.org/podcasts

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PRESIDENT’S POSITION
AOPA President
MARK BAKER is a
commercial pilot
with single and
multiengine land
and seaplane
ratings, and a
rotorcraft rating.
6 | AOPA PILOT February 2021
The fear factor
Public perceptions about safety are our business
PRE-CORONAVIRUS, global air travel was at an all-
time high. Between 8,000 and 20,000 aircraft could
be flying at any given moment. In the United States
alone, some 2.7 million passengers passed in and
out of our nation’s airports every day before the
pandemic. Most of us routinely boarded commer-
cial flights, traveled for business, or piloted our
own aircraft without blinking an eye. But, for some
Americans aviophobia—the fear of flying—is a reality
(nobody reading this, of course). And that’s before
the global pandemic added to our general fears.
Despite commercial aviation being the safest
mode of transportation, anxious fliers make up
nearly one in three people. But the chances of being
in a fatal airplane crash are extremely low—roughly
1 in 5 million, according to reports from such out-
lets as The Economist. Automobiles, lightning
strikes, bee stings, and—as we’ve learned lately—
even viruses can be much deadlier than air travel.
Even so, many people are plagued by anxiety when
it comes to flight, likely propelled by oversensation-
alized pop culture.
Because aviation accidents are so rare, they tend
to be spotlighted in the media, although not always
accurately. In the world of the 24-hour news cycle,
ratings-hungry reporters are eager to get the story
quickly. Unfortunately, aviation is complex, making it
a target for mischaracterization by those who just don’t
understand everything that’s in play. I’ve seen count-
less correspondents and aviation “experts” on national
news networks delivering exaggerated or misleading
information—from comical to downright bizarre. And,
sometimes troubling.
For example, a crash involving a student pilot was
accompanied by a photo of a downed commercial
airliner. Either training aircraft have evolved since I
learned to fly, or the media is baiting its audience with
a disregard for the facts. All too often, reporters are
shocked at the age of an aircraft involved in a mishap,
though the majority of our GA fleet is roughly 40 to 50
years old, and still equipped with required top-notch
safety equipment. Another common misconception is
that a “stalled” aircraft will just fall out of the sky like
a rock. Even nonevents, such as crosswind landings or
diversions because of mechanical or onboard medical
issues, make headlines with words like “emergency”
or “miraculous.”
BY MARK BAKER
President and CEO
Crashes involving high-profile celebrities usually
amplify public perceptions about safety. The helicopter
tragedy in January 2020 that killed nine, including bas-
ketball great Kobe Bryant, was the lead story for weeks.
With that coverage came speculation fueled by emo-
tion, which left many with questions about GA. Such
incidents can provoke knee-jerk reactions from legisla-
tors and public figures, calling for more regulation on an
otherwise safety-conscious industry. In extreme cases,
crashes at local airports may incite city leaders to even
call for their closure.
Aviation is one of the most regulated industries in
the United States. Safety is embedded in our culture.
Since 1994 the fatal accident rate for GA has fallen
more than 50 percent. Technological advances, pilots
consuming more safety materials, and increased flying
hours all have contributed to these record safety levels.
Still, skeptics remain unconvinced, and probably
always will. Much of that has to do with the alarmism
cascading from our news networks and social media in
the aftermath of incidents. But there are things we can
do as an aviation community and within the industry to
address the stigma.
We can do better individually. As we’ve all seen,
sometimes the go/no-go decision is the difference
between life and death. We should strive to consume as
much safety material as possible and learn from tragedy.
AOPA’s Air Safety Institute has numerous award-win-
ning safety resources including podcasts, online courses,
quizzes, videos, and in-person seminars.
We can also study the numbers. The release of ASI’s
latest Joseph T. Nall Report brings positive news to the
GA industry with data showing that 2017 saw a decrease
in total accidents from 2016. While 2018 saw a slight
increase in total accidents, it’s important to note that
the overall and fatal accident rates continued down-
ward trends. ASI has completed a major overhaul of the
report to provide near-real-time accident data analysis
as the data are updated on a rolling 30-day cycle.
Let’s focus on what we can do to better improve
safety records for general aviation and tune out the
rest. When the next big air tragedy strikes, I won’t
hold my breath waiting for the media to accurately
gather the facts—because, as we know, sensational-
ism sells. AOPA
EMAIL mark@aopa.org
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aopa.org/pilot
PUBLISHER Mark R. Baker

ASSOCIATE PUBLISHER/
EDITOR IN CHIEF Thomas B. Haines
EDITOR Kollin Stagnito
MANAGING EDITOR Sarah Deener
TECHNICAL EDITOR Mike Collins
SENIOR FEATURES EDITOR
Julie Summers Walker
SENIOR CONTENT PRODUCER
Ian J. Twombly
TURBINE PILOT EDITOR/EDITOR AT LARGE
Thomas A. Horne
EDITOR AT LARGE Dave Hirschman
SENIOR EDITOR Jill W. Tallman
COPY EDITOR Kristy O’Malley
MEDIA PRODUCTION SPECIALIST
Sylvia Horne
EXECUTIVE ASSISTANT

OWNER
Miriam E. Stoner
CONTRIBUTORS Jared Allen
Peter A. Bedell
Brent Blue
Mike Busch
Catherine Cavagnaro
Aircraft insurance rates AssuredPartners Natalie Bingham Hoover
Richard McSpadden
are on the rise. Aerospace is one of Barry Schiff
Neil Singer
We can help. the nation’s largest
aviation insurance firms SENIOR ART DIRECTOR Jill C. Benton
Shopping
around – which means we have
ART DIRECTOR Elizabeth Z. Jones
DIGITAL ASSET MANAGER/GRAPHIC DESIGNER
to save on aircraft the experience, expertise Leigh Caulfield
SENIOR PHOTOGRAPHERS
insurance...SMART. and resources to cover Mike Fizer, Chris Rose
Us doing it for you... virtually every aspect EMEDIA MANAGING EDITOR Alyssa J. Cobb
EVEN SMARTER. of general aviation. We WEB EDITOR Jim Moore
ASSOCIATE WEB EDITORS Dan Namowitz,
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8 | AOPA PILOT February 2021

AOPA ACTION

AOPA exploring insurance options

Pledges to help pilots get relief from burdensome fees, requirements

EVEN BEFORE THE COVID-19 PANDEMIC, the flying community was
voicing its frustration with another impediment to the skies: insur-
ance. “Not a day goes by that I don’t get a call about insurance
rates,” AOPA President Mark Baker said. Many AOPA members,
especially the more seasoned ones, have complained that their pre-
miums are spiking, coverages are being limited, and restrictions to
simply get covered are often harsh—with little to no explanation.
After months of close coordination with AOPA ,
AssuredPartners Aerospace, AOPA’s strategic insurance part-
ner, has teamed with an A-rated aviation insurer that has pledged
to explore options for pilots up to age 79. This development
could provide more options to those who fly single-engine, pis-
ton-powered aircraft with fixed, retractable, or tailwheel gear
configurations; with six seats or fewer; and with hull values as
high as $500,000. BasicMed is also scheduled to be an approved
underwriting element, giving some pilots potential relief from
burdensome insurance-related medical requirements. This
insurer will also offer potential coverage options for younger
and newer pilots.
The current aviation insurance market has been hard on
many in the industry. Aging GA pilots have been faced with fewer
options, as insurers have been scrutinizing their underwriting
criteria for pilots over the age of 65.
While some pilots may be getting partial insurance relief,
it’s important to note that this will not apply to all aviators. In
addition, annual flight training or safety pilots may be required,
depending upon the complexity of the insured aircraft. Hull
deductibles also will increase with aircraft value.
“We’ve been working hard with AOPA to develop options for
those pilots that are experiencing difficulty in finding necessary cov-
erage and reasonable premiums,” said Bill Behan, AssuredPartners
Aerospace CEO. “By bringing another choice to the table, we are
aiming to allow more capable pilots to stay in the skies.”
aopa.org/pilot/insurancerelief

BAKER ON THE NEWS

“While general aviation has experienced a boon despite this chal-
lenging year, reducing insurance pressures has always been on the
front burner for AOPA. They say age is just a number, and nowhere
is that more applicable than in general aviation. This is one step for-
ward in having pilots judged by their abilities and experience, and
not just their age. This is also an example of how we listen closely
to our members and advocate on their behalf. We will continue to
explore more options.”
—AOPA President Mark Baker

AOPA SAYS SOME TELECOMMUNICATION SERVICES A ‘MAJOR RISK’

AOPA AND 15 AVIATION industry associa-
tions urged the Federal Communications
Commission to suspend an auction of
radio frequency spectrum in the 3.7-3.98
GHz band based on a study that found that
some telecommunication services pose a
“major risk” of interference with aircraft
radar altimeter operations. The chair of
the House Committee on Transportation
and Infrastructure, Rep. Peter DeFazio
(D-Ore.), also called on the FCC to post-
pone the auction, citing aviation’s concerns.
Despite strong opposition, however,
the FCC held the auction as scheduled.
The request to suspend the FCC auc-
tion opens a new front for aviation in the
resistance to 5G telecommunications’ use of
spectrum considered risky for radar-altim-
eter operation. A study by the technical
standards organization RTCA “revealed
a major risk that 5G telecommunications
systems in the 3.7-3.98 GHz band will cause
harmful interference to radar altimeters on
all types of civil aircraft—including large
commercial transport airplanes; business,
regional, and general aviation airplanes;
and both transport and general aviation
helicopters.”
Results of the RTCA study “clearly indi-
cate that this risk is widespread and has the
potential for broad impacts to aviation oper-
ations in the United States, including the
possibility of catastrophic failures leading to
multiple fatalities, in the absence of appro-
priate mitigations,” the aviation groups said.
aopa.org/pilot/FCCauction

aopa.org/pilot AOPA PILOT | 9

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because of an emergency. R. Anderson Pew

PRESIDENT/CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER

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SENIOR VICE PRESIDENTS

ADMINISTRATION Greg Cohen
AIR SAFETY INSTITUTE Richard McSpadden
FINANCE AND ACCOUNTING Erica Saccoia
GENERAL COUNSEL AND SECRETARY
Justine A. Harrison
GOVERNMENT AFFAIRS AND ADVOCACY
Jim Coon
MEDIA, COMMUNICATIONS, AND OUTREACH
Thomas B. Haines

VICE PRESIDENTS
ADVERTISING Carol Dodds
AIRPORTS AND STATE ADVOCACY
Mike Ginter
DEPUTY GENERAL COUNSEL
Ronald D. Golden
HR, INCLUSION, AND DIVERSITY
LaKisha Partman
INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY
John Hamilton
MEMBER EXPERIENCE Sherry Rosenkranz
PILOT INFORMATION SERVICES/FLIGHT
OPERATIONS Dave Roy
PUBLICATIONS Kollin Stagnito
REGULATORY AFFAIRS Murray Huling

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10 | AOPA PILOT February 2021
AOPA ACTION
COVID-19 UPDATES |
Flying after the vaccine
Info for pilots and ATC from the FAA
PILOTS AND AIR TRAFFIC CONTROLLERS can receive the Pfizer-BioNTech
COVID-19 vaccine, but they may not fly or control air traffic for 48 hours after
each dose, the FAA said in a policy statement released in December. The FAA
Office of Aerospace Medicine said that it reviewed available data regarding
safety profiles associated with the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine that
the Food and Drug Administration approved under emergency use authori-
zation. The vaccine is administered in two doses, 21 days apart.
“Holders of FAA-issued airman medical certificates or medical clearances
may receive the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine; however, a 48-hour
no-fly/no safety-related duty interval must be observed after each dose,” the
policy said.
However, the agency added that it would monitor “patient response to
Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine and may adjust this policy as necessary to ensure
aviation safety.” In addition, the FAA Office of Aerospace Medicine will eval-
uate subsequent vaccines as the FDA grants emergency use authorization.
“We applaud the FAA Office of Aerospace Medicine for carefully review-
ing the data and quickly releasing a policy that allows pilots and air traffic
controllers to receive the vaccine and continue working and flying after a
brief period,” AOPA President Mark Baker said.
AOPA SURVEY ASSISTS FAA
WITH SFAR RELIEF PLANS
AOPA CONDUCTED AN ONLINE SURVEY asking pilots to weigh in on questions
concerning COVID-19 restrictions and give the FAA data to consider before
it decides whether to extend pandemic relief beyond Special Federal Aviation
Regulation (SFAR) 118-2, which took effect October 1, 2020—the third pan-
demic-relief measure of the year.
SFAR 118-2 was complex, but narrower in scope than both the original
SFAR 118 in April that initiated extensions of several medical, airman testing,
and currency provisions—and its first amendment (SFAR 118-1) published in
June, which afforded relief to a different group of pilots.
In December, as the pandemic underwent a resurgence surpassing the
FAA’s expectations of just a few months earlier, AOPA sought to present
the FAA with fresh survey data estimating how many pilots made use of the
SFARs, what they found helpful, and what wasn’t helpful—and give pilots
a chance to suggest ways any future SFAR amendment could be improved.
“The FAA needs relevant and reliable data to support its decision to
grant further regulatory relief. This survey will provide that hard data,” said
Christopher Cooper, AOPA senior director of regulatory affairs. “If more reg-
ulatory relief is going to be sought, we want to make a request that reflects
the needs and safety of the pilot community,” Cooper said.
aopa.org/covid19
Aviation events in 2021
• AOPA will be hosting events throughout the
year in the form of two AOPA Aviator Show-
cases and up to three AOPA Pilot Gathering Air
Tours. Dates and locations to come.
• DeLand Sport Aviation Showcase organizers
in DeLand, Florida, postponed the 2020 show-
case and will host a one-day fly-in, drive-in at
DeLand Municipal Airport-Sidney H. Taylor Field
January 30; the 2021 Sport Aviation Showcase
is scheduled for November.
• The Northwest Aviation Conference, originally
scheduled as an in-person event in Puyallup,
Washington, in February, has been canceled.
Organizers are exploring options for offering a
virtual event.
• The National Business Aviation Association
will host two virtual events: the NBAA GO Flight
Operations Conference February 23 to 25 and
the NBAA GO Leadership Summit March 24 and
25. NBAA has yet to announce a new location
for its Maintenance Conference, scheduled for
May 11 through 13.
• Women in Aviation International will host a
virtual event March 11 and 12.
• The Helicopter Association International’s
2021 HAI Heli-Expo is on track for March 22
through 25 in New Orleans.
• The Sun ’n Fun Aerospace Expo is on sched-
ule for April 13 through 18 in Lakeland, Florida.
• The 2021 Great Alaska Aviation Gathering is
scheduled for May 1 and 2 in Anchorage.
• The Valdez Fly-In will be back in 2021, but
later than usual. The famous short-takeoff-and-
landing competition will be on Memorial Day
weekend in 2021.
• The Aircraft Electronics Association’s sixty-
fourth annual AEA International Convention and
Trade Show planned for March 15 through 18 in
Dallas has been rescheduled to June 22 to 25.
• The Paris Air Show canceled its June 2021
event but plans to be back in 2023. The Paris
Air Show alternates years with the Farnborough
International Airshow in England.
• EAA AirVenture is still set for July 26 to Au-
gust 1 in Oshkosh, Wisconsin.
• The Antique Airplane Association/Airpower
Museum Invitational Fly-in for Antique Airplane
Association members and guests will take place
on Labor Day in 2021.
• The Stihl National Championship Air Races
and Air Show is on track for September 15
through 19.
• The Albuquerque International Balloon Fiesta
is on schedule for October 2 through 10 in Albu-
querque, New Mexico.
• The Sun ’n Fun Holiday Flying Festival and
Car Show was created in response to the
coronavirus pandemic canceling the Sun ’n Fun
Aerospace Expo earlier in 2020. The event was
such a success that organizers said they plan
to offer the festival again next year (see “Pilot
Briefing: Events,” p. 28).
If you don’t see your favorite event here,
check the event’s website or aopa.org.
aopa.org/pilot AOPA PILOT | 11
LETTERS
Santa is a GA pilot
Readers caught the warm and fuzzies from this giving-back holiday story
Julie Summers Walker’s article
on Michigan’s Operation Good
Cheer brought back many fond
memories. I lived in southeast
Michigan from 1986 to 2001 and
did quite a lot of flying out of
Oakland County International
Airport (PTK); my own air-
plane was based there. I knew
many pilots who participated
in Operation Good Cheer, and
every year at least one—and
sometimes all three—of our
club airplanes were pressed into
Good Cheer service! But I must
admit that I never flew in any of
the missions myself.
Also, I knew Taki Kortidis
well, initially through the
aviation safety counselor pro-
gram (forerunner to today’s
FAASTeam) at the Detroit
FSDO. Taki was our lead
counselor (analogous to a
FAASTeam lead rep today)
through much of that time.
Those were my early years as
a CFI, and Taki was a genuine
mentor to me. Taki never said
no to any request, and always
seemed to have time for a wor-
thy cause. Some years later
I heard that Taki had passed
away. But only through your
article did I learn that he died
in a car accident.
What is your routine regarding military operating areas
(MOAs)?
I fly VFR through MOAs
I avoid flying through MOAs
I file an IFR flight plan
Other
Aviation eBrief poll
12 | AOPA PILOT February 2021
FROM OUR DECEMBER 2020 ISSUE
58 | AOPA PILOT December 2020
With all the sad, angry, and worrisome news in
the media, this is a story that should be shared
on PBS, all the news channels nationwide, and
the public in general, not just pilots.
With age I am realizing
more and more that GA is
really about people. (Well, yes,
there are airplanes and flight
adventures, too.) Thanks again
for your wonderful article, and
for briefly returning me to such
a good place.
Frederick, Maryland
6%
46%
26%
22%
6%
frightening accident reputation
of their early amateur deriva-
tions. For decades, the gyro
sport faced headwinds within
the FAA and the aviation com-
munity at large because of the
fear factor the term gyrocopter
had and continues to instill.
The term gyroplane is
now recognized to repre-
sent the new generation of
the much safer and easier-to-
For 50 years, pilots in Michigan have delivered
Christmas joy to needy kids
B Y J U L I E S U M M E R S WA L K E R | P H OTO G R A P H Y B Y M I K E F I Z E R
You say you don’t believe in Santa Claus? In Michigan you’d be proven wrong. Very wrong.
fly gyroplanes, with adequate
aopa.org/pilot AOPA PILOT | 59
horizontal stabilizers and
flight pitch stability. They are
quickly becoming more and
more recognized as part of the
acceptable community of air-
craft. The term gyrocopter,
and the negative safety con-
notation that term images,
Kenneth Bayles
AOPA 577013 has hindered general accep-
Dallas, Texas tance and support among the
FAA and aviation community
for decades.
Greg Gremminger
AOPA 2645439
All-terrain vehicle Sainte Genevieve, Missouri
As a long-time proponent and
flight instructor in gyroplanes, Listen up!
I am gratified to see the article Did you miss any of my favor-
featuring a gyro operating an ites? You sure did! May I draw
exciting commercial enterprise your attention to Podcasting
in Costa Rica. This new genera- on a Plane (podcastingona-
tion of gyroplanes offers unique plane.com/), by Brandon
Fred I. Stahl capabilities and the thrill of Gonzales, who is a pilot, CFI,
AOPA 899593
freedom of flight our youthful ATC tower controller, and air-
dreams inspired—in a machine plane crash survivor. So many
that makes surfing the wind great episodes and interesting
and flying like a bird safely fun. guests, but particularly worth
I have one important cri- checking out are Concorde
tique of the article. The article Week (episodes 33-36), Spy
22% refers to these aircraft as gyro- Week (61-65), and his ongoing
46% copters. “Gyrocopter” is a coverage of the Boeing 737
26% brand name of the original Max saga.
Bensen Gyrocopter. The term Daniel Sternbergh
AOPA 10799406
gyrocopter elicits images of the Palo Alto, California
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LETTERS
Please consider Aircraft Owner
Maintenance Podcast hosted
by Dean Showalter. Dean pro-
vides in-depth information for
owners of aircraft interested in
maintaining and learning more
about aircraft maintenance.
Please give it a listen, you will
be impressed.
Tobin Genung
AOPA 5429027
Smyrna, Georgia
I cannot believe you left
Uncontrolled Airspace out of
the list. It is by far my favor-
ite, though many of the others
listed are certainly great to listen
to. It’s also among the most long
lived and popular aviation pod-
casts. I’d also add SonexFlight to
the list; even though type-spe-
cific, it is an excellent podcast.
Robbie Culver
AOPA 9560446
Naperville, Illinois
I just read the December issue
of AOPA Pilot and was a bit
disappointed that one of the
oldest aviation broadcast/pod-
casts was overlooked in your
roundup. JustPlaneRadio has
been on the air and the internet
for over eight years covering the
latest in aviation news, learning
to fly and the aviation lifestyle.
In fact, we feature your own
Tom Haines frequently on the
show. Feel free to check out our
back catalog of episodes, they
are available on iTunes or your
favorite podcast app.
Dennis Hayes
AOPA 1004077
Fort Myers, Florida
Watts up?
Barry Schiff is probably right
about the future of electric-
powered aircraft. They will
be a novelty until the endur-
ance problems are resolved. I
would recommend that when
he states that “The electric air-
plane, of course, does not create
14 | AOPA PILOT February 2021
Fly Well
I am a regular reader of
Jonathan Sackier’s “Fly
Well” articles and was
sad to learn his December
2020 article will be his
last. I regularly read his
monthly articles and
regret that these will
not continue. I wish him
well in his future writing
endeavors.
Jack Henion
AOPA 629891
Trumansburg, New York
I was quite dismayed when I read that I
had just finished the last “Fly Well” column.
Sackier’s humorous spin to all things medical
made it a pleasure for the common person
to enjoy reading about how to take care of
ourselves.
For several years I’ve enjoyed being educated by Jonathan
Sackier through his “Fly Well” column in AOPA Pilot. His les-
sons, spiced with British humor, have been an important source
of information to keep me flying into my seventh decade.
Please see Dr. Brent Blue’s column “Flight MD” on p. 24. Jonathan
Sackier continues to contribute his wit and wisdom online
(aopa.org/pps). —Ed.
pollution,” he should mention
that the electricity needed for
the airplane is generated by
polluting power plants. Most of
the power plants in the United
States use coal or natural gas.
Lots of folks think that by plug-
ging the item into the grid, it is
free of pollution. There are still
some folks who do not want
“atomic”-generated electricity
or undependable wind turbines
FLY WELL
‘The Good, the Bad and the Ugly’
Please heed the lessons of this pandemic
EVERYONE LOVES CLINT EASTWOOD’S FILMS, but
his performance as “Blondie” in the 1966 spaghetti
Western referenced in my headline is, in my opinion,
unsurpassed. Pursuing Confederate gold and viewing
wartime carnage, he proclaims, “I’ve never seen so
many men wasted so badly.” The movie’s title entered
common parlance, illustrating the totality of any situ-
ation, so let’s apply it to COVID-19: the good; the bad;
and, sadly, the ugly.
The Good. That’s easy: international scientific
collaborations characterizing the virus, developing
diagnostic tests, building vaccines, initiating clini-
cal trials, and finessing treatments, all at warp speed.
And to be clear, there is plenty of international col-
laboration: Advancing the Oxford vaccine involves
a British university; a Swedish company; the United
States’ National Institutes of Health and its Rocky
Mountain Laboratories; and trial sites in the United
States, Britain, South Africa, Brazil, Japan, and Russia.
In the movie, Eastwood’s character agrees to share
the gold with Tuco, the ugly, but restrains Tuco so
he can make his getaway. To quote President Ronald
Reagan: “Trust, but verify,” a phrase Reagan used dur-
ing nuclear arms negotiations.
The Bad: Playing the bad guy, “Angel Eyes,” came
easy to Lee Van Cleef. For our current situation it’s hard
to know where to begin, as there are so many bad guys.
COVID-19 spread around the world like wildfire; if
someone sneezes in China, someone in Chicago catches
a cold. We must embrace the good and engage in polite
discourse; challenge thinking, but do so respectfully.
For instance, emerging data implied those with darker
skin pigmentation fared worse from this disease. Knee-
jerk reaction suggested socioeconomic factors were to
blame, when it is possibly because of low vitamin D
levels—in other words, a biological cause, just as West
Africans are less likely to contract severe malaria. All
humans can learn and benefit from each other.
As I write this, more than 1.1 million people have
DR. JONATHAN
died from the novel coronavirus, more than 220,000
SACKIER is a private
pilot and surgeon. in America alone. Many will have so-called “long
He helps members Covid”—enduring fatigue and malaise. Sadly, count-
through the AOPA less people will suffer more serious sequelae such as
Pilot Protection
Services program.
aopa.org/pps
cardiac and neurologic problems. The economic dev-
astation to commercial aviation, hospitality, and many
26 | AOPA PILOT December 2020
Phill Wolfe
AOPA 1027911
Warrenville, Illinois
Mike Moore
AOPA 680554
Gainesville, Virginia
that are eyesores, make exces-
sive noise, and kill birds. Solar
panels are still a pipe dream.
New panel,
new checklist
I see that Catherine Cavagnaro
bought one of the best air-
planes ever made. I found with
the preflight checklist that
Beech provides in the POH I
continually missed something.
I amended the list:
BY DR. JONATHAN M. SACKIER
other sectors (except debt-relief companies) will take
Electric: Turn the battery
years to recover.
The Ugly: Tuco was played by Eli Wallach, “The
Rat.” Viruses that cause human disease often start in
animals and “jump” species: MERS from camels; SARS,
and the current virus, likely from bats; a reservoir of
on, lower the flaps, and walk
myriad coronaviruses with the potential to cause human
harm. The Wuhan “wet markets” have been implicated
as a source for the pandemic—a place where multiple
species that do not mingle in nature are thrust together,
including humans. We must rethink our interactions
around the airplane check-
ing every light. Also, in cold
with the animal kingdom, or eventually a virus will arise
that is as easily transmitted as that causing COVID-19
but much, much more fatal. The first SARS epidemic
killed about 14 percent of those infected; MERS exter-
minated 34 percent, and Ebola slaughtered as many as
90 percent of those infected. Think about that.
We need to learn the lessons and remove our egos
from the equation while we await a potential vaccine.
And that is no sure thing. Please accept the measures
weather make sure the pitot
that my medical colleagues advise, including hand
washing, social distancing, and wearing masks. My
father used to say that if something looked like a con-
spiracy it was probably just error; humans are not as
Machiavellian as one might think and, let’s face it, very
heat is on (touch it) and the
few secrets are not eventually leaked. There is no con-
spiracy, no hidden agenda, I personally know people
who have died from this disease. It is very real and very heating pads on the prop are
nasty. Our future demands we collaborate; be cautious,
yes; verify, yes. But without collaboration, without
trust, it is not a matter of if but when a pandemic will hit
that could decimate the population in biblical fashion.
Ennio Morricone’s haunting score to The Good, the
Bad, and the Ugly features a tune called “The Trio”
on (touch them). And while at
as Blondie, The Rat, and Angel Eyes participate in an
iconic standoff. The Bad dies, killed by the Good, and
the Ugly is put in his box. We need to do the same.
This will be my last Fly Well column in AOPA Pilot
magazine, although I shall continue to contribute to
the prop, check it for any prob-
lems. Then turn off the battery.
the online newsletters. Thank you for your interest
over the years; it has been my privilege to serve you
and I hope you have found my scribbles helpful. Please
stay safe, stay well, and fly well. AOPA
EMAIL DrJonathanSackier@gmail.com
Control surfaces, fuel
tanks, tires, wheels, and inte-
rior of wheel wells: Beginning
at the right flap and doing a
complete 360 ending at the
step, all cotter pins or con-
nections of any kind are hand
checked to make sure they are
secure. All control surfaces
are checked by hand through
full travel with the ailerons
visually checked that they are
correct with respect to correct
position of the yokes. Also, the
elevator is checked against the
pitch of the yokes. Fuel tanks
are visually checked and
sumped. With a flashlight, the
inside of wheel wells is visu-
ally checked. One time I found
a large bag of kitchen garbage
in the far corner of the left
wheel well.
Engine: Open both sides of
the cowling and with a flash-
light check everything. Oil is
checked that the prescribed
nine quarts are present. I have
purposely omitted everything
that I found that needed to be
repaired over the 13 years that
Sam Merrill I flew the airplane.
AOPA 783350 Don Stein
Brownsville, Texas AOPA 1315762
Franklin, Tennessee
We welcome your comments.
Send letters to Editor, AOPA
Pilot, 421 Aviation Way, Fred-
erick, Maryland 21701 or pilot@
aopa.org. Letters may be
edited for length and style.
WAYPOINTS
Tale of two centuries
Using legacy designs to map the fleet of tomorrow
THE RED-AND-WHITE PIPER SUPER CUB snuggled up
next to the cranberry-red Cessna 170. Inside, Senior
Photographer Chris Rose began working his photo-
graphic magic, capturing the 65-year-old Super Cub
in its glory over the West Virginia mountains as the
late summer light was just starting to soften and turn
a beautiful golden color.
I observed the mid-century Super Cub getting her
close-ups from a couple of hundred yards away, just
out of the photographic frames. My perch was a very
twenty-first-century airplane, a Van’s RV–12. Its Dynon
displays showed me on a large moving map exactly
where we were over the terrain, pointed out the nearby
Will late twenty-first century pilots
look aghast at the RV–12’s fossil-fuel-
burning engine, as efficient as it may be,
and wonder, what were they thinking?
traffic, and kept me informed about the health of the
efficient Rotax 912 engine, which was loafing as we
poked along awaiting our turn for the close-ups.
As we observed, I couldn’t help but compare and
contrast the two airplanes, designed more than six
decades apart. The tube-and-fabric Super Cub with
its strutted wings, tailwheel, and 150-horsepower
Lycoming engine is an excellent backcountry airplane
and warms the heart of any pilot. It is rugged and reli-
able and highly repairable. But despite its narrow
cockpit and tandem seating, it still struggles to hit 95
knots or so while burning 8 or more gallons per hour.
The RV–12 with its spindly (although surpris-
ingly sturdy) tricycle gear is no backcountry airplane
and, with its oddball narrow nose, does not evoke the
nostalgia of the Super Cub. But its wider cockpit and
glass canopy make it a delight to sit in. Its aluminum
skin is durable and smooth. With wheel pants on, the
100-horsepower Rotax will pull it along at near 120
Editor in Chief knots while sipping less than 4 gph.
TOM HAINES has Both airplanes have their missions and do them
been reporting well. The Super Cub design may be beyond retire-
on the aviation
industry for more ment age, but it is copied left and right by newer
than 35 years. “cubalikes.” The efficient RV–12 is making a place for
16 | AOPA PILOT February 2021
BY THOMAS B. HAINES
Editor in Chief
itself as a new-century replacement for the Cessna
150/152—a highly capable trainer.
The Super Cub breaks away and heads back to the
barn, and I hear a radio call urging me into its place
next to the 170. As I maneuver into Rose’s viewfinder,
I wonder what the next 60 years will bring in aircraft
design—and especially propulsion. Will the Super
Cub still be a working airplane, or a scrap-heap relic?
Will late twenty-first-century pilots look aghast at the
RV–12’s fossil-fuel-burning engine, as efficient as it
may be, and wonder, What were they thinking?
Electric propulsion is finding its footing in ground
transportation, but issues with batteries—energy
capacity, weight, recharge times, and environmental
impact—have yet to be solved for aviation. As recently
as 18 months ago, big companies were betting heav-
ily on battery-powered electric aircraft, especially for
urban air mobility vehicles. However, today the real-
ity seems to be setting in that hybrid solutions—maybe
not even involving batteries—are the likely solution
for the near- to mid-term future. The combinations
abound—perhaps battery powered for small, short-
range aircraft; maybe an internal combustion engine
(ICE) and a battery-powered motor working in tandem
for longer-range and larger aircraft; an ICE generat-
ing electricity to drive efficient electric motors; even
hydrogen fuel cells seem to be gaining more and more
respect as a possible source of airborne electricity.
Hydrogen-powered test flights are underway.
Historically, engine design has driven airframe
design. But today we see designers stuffing electric
motors and batteries or fuel cells in Cessna Caravans
and Skymasters, Piper Malibus, and de Havilland
Beavers, among others; some are even already in
commercial trials. Conventional airframe designs are
surely a compromise for engineers working on new
propulsion concepts, but what a cost-effective way to
gather data and test market acceptance.
It’s been said that Orville and Wilbur Wright used
up 80 percent of the magic of flight back in 1903 and—
from Super Cub to RV–12 to some quadcopter—we
continue to tinker with the balance. Seeing the ver-
satility of our legacy airframes suggests there’s some
truth to that. AOPA
EMAIL thomas.haines@aopa.org
@tomhaines29
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PROFICIENT PILOT
Cockpit catnaps
If you don’t snooze, you could lose
IT WAS THE SUMMER SOLSTICE OF 1967, and we seemed
hung in suspension over Greenland at Flight Level 370 in
a Boeing 707 on the great circle route from Los Angeles to
London. Although midnight local time, the sun refused
to die. The northern horizon was a muted band of polar
twilight and the ice below a pale, purple haze.
We had endured a lengthy departure delay and
were hours behind schedule. The captain was tired,
shifting restlessly in his seat while trying to find a com-
fortable position. He finally gave in to the fatigue and
tilted his seat aft. “I know it’s not legal to sleep in the
cockpit,” he groused, “but there’s nothing in the book
that says I can’t faint.” Moments later he was out. Gone.
The flight engineer and I were on our own on the flight
deck, an occasional snore-whistle breaking the silence.
At least this captain was direct about his need
to nap. Others, I discovered, preferred a different
approach. They would simply close their eyes and
claim to be studying a checklist tattooed to the insides
of their eyelids. I was initially amused by such ploys—
until discovering for myself what an efficient method
of study this can be. Although some might criticize
catnapping during the calm of cruise, this is certainly
preferable to fading on final. No joke, that happens.
I have flown with crewmembers so wiped out
during red-eye flights that they fell asleep during the
approach. I recall once landing into a blinding sunrise
at JFK after having been on-and-off duty for more than
16 hours. We were numb. After turning off the runway,
BARRY SCHIFF
began his airline my first officer switched to ground for our taxi clear-
career with TWA ance. But instead of being cleared, we were advised to
as co-pilot on a return to tower. Puzzled, we complied. The control-
Lockheed
Constellation ler could hardly contain himself as he asked us if we
in 1964. would now like to have our landing clearance.
18 | AOPA PILOT February 2021
BY BARRY SCHIFF
Such fatigue often is the result of being scheduled
by computers that cannot always sense when pilots
have had enough. Although there have been some pos-
itive changes to the working conditions of those who
spend a great deal of time flying on the back side of
the clock, more relief is needed. This should include
encouraging the FAA under certain circumstances to
make honest pilots out of those who can truly justify a
cruise snooze, which—under controlled conditions—
is much safer than falling asleep on final.
When the lone general aviation pilot becomes
fatigued, his only option is to land and rest.
Unfortunately, many of us feel compelled to push on
when we should be in bed. Pilots who drive themselves
this way may be involved in many more accidents than
we realize because the physiological evidence often
does not survive the crash.
Accidents resulting from pilots falling asleep at
the controls most likely occur between 0000 and
0600 local time. Unless investigators can determine
that the pilots were seriously fatigued and had been
“holding their eyelids open with toothpicks,” such
accidents are simply and perhaps incorrectly attrib-
uted to spatial disorientation or controlled flight
into terrain. They know intuitively but might not
be able to prove that many otherwise inexplicable
accidents were caused by pilots flying beyond their
endurance limits.
Several years ago, my good friend Richard Somers
and I flew a Beech Debonair from the East Coast to
West. We reluctantly opted to fly through the night
because Somers had to be in Los Angeles the next
day for a business meeting. Weather forced us onto
a southern route over the swamps of Mississippi and
between layers at oh-dark-hundred. The world beyond
our windshield was black and featureless. I do not
recall whose idea it was, but we turned off all interior
and exterior lights just to see how dark it really was.
It was as black as black can be. We saw nothing and
began losing reference to time and space—at which
point we began to experience a mild form of halluci-
nation likely exaggerated, we were told, by fatigue. The
cockpit quickly became a flurry of hands groping for
switches. We could not turn on the lights soon enough.
Tired writers, I understand, also need to recognize
when it is time to rest. AOPA
barryschiff.com
FLYING LIFE
Being human
Let’s stop being so hard on ourselves
2020. THAT WAS THE YEAR OUR ROADS WERE sup-
posed to be full of driverless cars. But here it is 2021,
and we’re still driving our own vehicles. Even with
all the mistakes we make, humans exhibit better and
more consistently safe decision-making than robots.
If you were to ask a group of pilots their predictions
for the future of pilotless skies, most would give you
10 reasons why humans are better pilots than artifi-
cial intelligence. We exhibit critical thinking skills.
We can make rapid decisions in situations we have
not been trained for. We consider passenger comfort,
et cetera. I wonder why it is, then, that we so often
demand absolute robotic perfection of ourselves and
our fellow pilots?
In most cases, it’s not the FAA demanding blood
when bad things happen. For an honest mistake, the
agency usually just requires the pilot to get some more
training on the issue that led to the incident. No, we
do this to ourselves. When we hear about an incident,
we look for all the mistakes those “incompetent” pilots
made so we can tell ourselves it would never happen
to us. And when I make a mistake, the harshest critic
is often…me. While that type of thinking might help
us manage the discomfort of things not turning out as
planned, it doesn’t make us any safer as a pilot group.
One of the privileges of my position as a des-
ignated pilot examiner is that I get asked to give
FAA-mandated remedial training to those who have
had an aircraft incident, such as a runway excursion
or incursion. Many times, when these people walk in,
shoulders slumped, the defeat is evident on their faces.
But folks, one mistake does not make you incompe-
tent. It makes you human. As a recovering perfectionist
myself, I’ll tell you the very worst thing we can do is
continue to beat ourselves up over a failed checkride
or a mishap in the airplane. That self-doubt becomes
a self-fulfilling prophecy, making us weaker instead
of stronger.
So, for the last long-faced person who showed up in
my office, we watched the courtroom clip from the film
Sully before we got down to the business of dissecting
the runway excursion that led to remedial training. For
NATALIE BINGHAM
HOOVER is a those of you who haven’t watched the movie, go do it.
CFI, CFII, and As a pilot, it will help you breathe a little easier.
multiengine Here’s the part that did it for me: Capt. Sullenberger
instructor with
more than 3,000 and his first officer, Jeff Skiles, are in the NTSB hear-
hours of dual given. ing, watching simulator pilots re-create the dual engine
20 | AOPA PILOT February 2021
BY NATALIE BINGHAM HOOVER
loss scenario—but instead of a water landing on the
Hudson, the sim pilots make it back to LaGuardia and
Teterboro. (Note: This scene is Hollywood sensational-
ized. Sullenberger himself requested that actual names
of the NTSB inspectors not be used because he did
not want them unfairly demonized.) Sully then turns
the tables by eloquently delivering the point that the
sim pilots are effectively robots, having the benefit of
warning and 17 practice runs before the courtroom sim-
ulations. “You are looking for human error. Then make
it human,” he says. In the movie, this promps the NTSB
to agree to a 35-second human factor delay before the
sim pilots can turn for the runway. Those attempts at
airport landings are unsuccessful.
The NTSB ultimately rules Sullenberger and his
crew were heroes for managing to make a safe water
landing and get all 155 souls out alive. But here’s the
question: What if the NTSB had ruled pilot error?
Would that make Sullenberger and Skiles any less
heroic? No. They were proficient pilots who managed
to keep their cool and form a plan of action in an impos-
sible situation. Hindsight says there may have been
a better plan, but there was no way they could have
known for sure there in the heat of the moment.
As a group, we pilots tend to dislike excuses.
We demand accountability and logical answers to
problems. So, if something went wrong, then it was
obviously the pilot’s fault. And if it was pilot error, then
he must not be a very good pilot. No, it was pilot error
because that pilot was human. When things happen, we
need to analyze the incident (minus the self-inflicted
abuse) and determine a course of action that will pre-
vent such a thing from ever happening again.
Yes, after the incident, someone sitting in a warm,
still room sipping their coffee may come up with ways
we could have done it better. We probably will even
do this to ourselves. Was there a way we could have
reacted differently when the engine failed? Did we miss
something on the preflight that might have prevented
the problem? Could we have better briefed our students
to prevent them from locking up the brakes? Of course,
we could have. And with experience, and practice, and
more knowledge, we will do it better next time.
That’s what our failures should be good for. They
make us better the next time. We are not robots, we’re
something better. We’re human. AOPA
myaviation101.com
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SAFETY SPOTLIGHT
Fly-bys
10 tips to perform them safely
I AM NOT OPPOSED TO FLY-BYS, even though one of
my previous columns (“Safety Spotlight: Difficult
Conversations,” November 2020 AOPA Pilot) led some
readers to believe otherwise. In that column—which
wins the top spot for the most controversial I’ve writ-
ten at AOPA—I lamented not speaking with a pilot
whom I observed making an unfitting fly-by in the
Idaho backcountry. Most readers agreed with carefully
engaging pilots in a discussion when safety and eti-
quette are in doubt. A few readers, on the other hand,
encouraged me to mind my own business.
Based on the passion behind that column’s
responses, I’d like to make another pass at fly-bys. Fly-
bys can be fun, safe, and legal, in the right environment,
but they are sneakily demanding. They seem easy, which
is why we lose pilots to them every year. Legally, keep
in mind that the requirements of FAR 91.119 (minimum
safe altitudes) are open for interpretation. The FAA has
cited pilots for violating FAR 91.119 after intentional
fly-bys, even within an airport environment. In some
cases, the FAA found explanations that they were just
“go-arounds” or “low approaches” to be disingenuous.
We can reduce the risk of fly-bys with a little plan-
ning. Impromptu decisions substantially elevate risk
in aviation, especially when they involve low-altitude
flying. Thus, we should avoid fly-bys on a whim. Take
the time to plan your fly-by, then execute methodically.
Here are 10 tips for safe fly-bys:
1. Study the area on a chart. Include a satellite view.
Determine the ground level, and establish a minimum
altitude “floor” to keep you safe and legal.
2. Factor in sun position and angle; ideally, the sun
will be at your back. Don’t perform a fly-by headed
into a low sun.
3. Avoid fly-bys in areas where depth perception is
hampered. Don’t perform a fly-by over glassy water or
flat white conditions.
4. Based on all that you observe, plan a route, which
includes direction of flight, minimum altitude, your
start point, ingress corridor, target, egress corridor,
AOPA Air Safety and end point.
Institute Senior
Vice President 5. Fly overhead and assess your route. Ensure you
RICHARD have an accurate altimeter setting. Confirm your path
MCSPADDEN flies his is clear of obstacles, terrain, and bird activity. Assess
Piper Super Cub
to backcountry wind and turbulence. Scan for traffic visually and on
locations. ADS-B displays.
22 | AOPA PILOT February 2021
BY RICHARD MCSPADDEN
Senior Vice President
AOPA Air Safety Institute
6. When ready to execute, focus on these priorities:
flying airspeed, clear flight path, altitude awareness.
7. Once you start the run-in, keep your eyes com-
pletely outside the airplane. Set power at mid-range
and focus on the far end of the fly-by route, not the tar-
get. Avoid the temptation to look at the target as you pass.
8. After completing the pass, set your bank angle,
then pull back gently. Once you’ve confirmed a shallow
climb, glance at your airspeed and altitude, and adjust
power and attitude as necessary.
9. Climb to cope. Be ready to abort the pass if anything
is amiss. Your first reaction is to climb, then handle
any issues.
10. Make one pass. Don’t return. Many fly-by mis-
haps occur in the reposition off the first pass. Airshow
pilots will tell you that some of their highest risk is
away from the crowd in repositions, the maneuvering
that takes place after a stunt to return to show center.
Inexperienced fly-by pilots tend to underestimate the
time and space needed for a reposition, and they turn
back too quickly, without enough horizontal and ver-
tical offset. That sets them up for what is in effect a
base-to-final stall/spin. They overshoot the intended
flight path, correct with too much bank, inside rudder,
and “G”—then stall/spin, with no room to recover.
Avoid intentional low-altitude fly-bys in the back-
country, flown just for a thrill. This does not include
go-arounds or fly-bys to assess fields for safety of flight
purposes. Those should always be encouraged when
appropriate. When flying the backcountry, pilots need
to remember we are not alone. We share a respon-
sibility to protect the wilderness experience with
backpackers, rafters, cyclists, horseback riders, and
more. These adventurers are just as passionate about
enjoying the great outdoors as GA pilots. It takes an
enormous amount of work with local, state, and fed-
eral agencies to keep these airfields open. That work
is far more difficult if other users gang up against avi-
ation. Just a little courtesy goes a long way. If you’re
itching for the sensation of speed or to show off your
airplane or your skills, there are more appropriate and
more exciting settings for your fly-by.
Go fly. If you’re considering a fly-by, make it safe,
legal, and fun with a little planning. AOPA
EMAIL richard.mcspadden@aopa.org
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FLIGHT MD
I wish I had not said that
And other nonflying pilot errors
“I HAD A HEART ATTACK” is what the pilot put on his
online FAA Form 8500 medical certificate application.
I asked him to tell me about it.
“Well, I had chest pain,” he said. “They had me all
wired up and did a lot of tests and let me go.”
“Wait a minute,” I said. “You mean they discharged
you from the emergency room that same day?”
“Yes, and just told me to follow up with my primary
care doctor if it happened again.” This pilot has unnec-
essarily entered the FAA medical certification “hurt
locker.” He did not have a myocardial infarction, com-
monly known as a heart attack, which is an obstruction
of an artery that supplies blood to the heart tissue itself.
He would have been admitted to the hospital and had
tests and medical interventions to reduce the severity,
and prevent recurrence. This would take a couple of
days to a couple of weeks if he required bypass surgery.
The problem for the pilot and me was to prove to the
FAA that the pilot did not have a myocardial infarction.
What he had was chest pain, and tests in the emer-
gency room that ruled out a heart attack. Chest pain
lands people in the emergency room for multiple rea-
sons, including indigestion, strained chest wall muscles,
or inflammation of the lining of the internal chest wall.
These noncardiac issues do not disqualify a pilot from
receiving a standard medical certificate.
To provide information for the computer file to be
sent to the FAA, I must request and review medical
records from the emergency room. If the record shows
another reason for the chest pain, I can document the
findings and the problem might end there. However,
the FAA may decide it wants to see the record and the
agency will be less forgiving. For instance, if the emer-
gency room physician states in his dictation that the
pilot has some “skipped heartbeats” in the past, even
though these are common in normal individuals, the
FAA may require additional testing.
In the old paper system, the 8500 form was filled
out in the aviation medical examiner’s (AME) office, so
DR. BRENT BLUE is an the pilot could ask the AME how to answer questions
ATP with more than on the form. Since pilots now fill out the form online,
9,000 flight hours, if they have a question, they should call their AME for
and a senior aviation
medical examiner. advice before submitting the form. The FAA does not
He helps members want to review records that do not fall into special issu-
through the AOPA ance categories any more than the pilot wants to send
Pilot Protection
Services program. them. A simple phone call to an AME or to AOPA’s Pilot
aopa.org/pps Protection Services can prevent these problems.
24 | AOPA PILOT February 2021
BY DR. BRENT BLUE
Misdiagnosis or assumed diagnosis by a physician
also can create problems with the FAA. I was diag-
nosed with rheumatic fever when I was 5 years old. It
was 20 years later when I was in medical school that
I realized that I never had it. When I asked my pedia-
trician about it, he said “close enough,” because he did
not know what else to call it. Since rheumatic fever may
have cardiac implications and affect insurance rates, I
worked months to have my medical record corrected.
Many times, physicians will not realize the implica-
tions of a casual diagnosis. Physicians may put a patient
on an antidepressant when they are going through a life
trauma such as a divorce; being put on one can have dev-
astating effects on a pilot’s medical certification. Once
placed on an antidepressant medication, even if it was
discontinued, the pilot may have to prove he or she does
not have depression nor need medication.
In the nonmedical world, a bad headache is often
called a migraine. However, in the medical world,
migraine is a syndrome that includes headache but also
may have visual and neurological symptoms. If a pilot
puts “migraine” on the 8500 form, this will require doc-
umentation to determine if it is true migraine syndrome
or just an occasional bad headache.
I am a proponent of pilots getting a BasicMed signoff
if qualified and appropriate for their type of flying.
However, the pilot must understand the important dis-
tinctions between BasicMed and the third class medical.
If the pilot fills out the 8500 form online, it does not go
anywhere until the submission number is given to the
AME. If there are any questions about data on the 8500
form, ask your AME before you give your number. Once
the AME has the number, the 8500 history page must be
sent to the FAA whether or not you complete the exam.
If there is a problem on the 8500 form, whether or not
you complete the AME physical exam, the FAA may
deny your FAA medical—which would make you inel-
igible for BasicMed or sport pilot privileges. The pilot
certainly can fill out both the BasicMed form and the
8500 form prior to going to the AME’s office. Once he
discusses any issues with the AME, the pilot can decide
which way to proceed, but only before the submission
number is given to the AME. If the 8500 form online is
not entered into the system by the AME, it is deleted
after 60 days without being sent anywhere. AOPA
EMAIL brentblue@wyoming.com
 PILOT BRIEFING 28 EVENTS 30 MUSINGS 34 FUTURE FLIGHT 35 TEST PILOT 38 YOU CAN FLY 40 AIRPORTS
ASAF HANUKA

COMPILED BY
JULIE SUMMERS WALKER

aopa.org/pilot AOPA PILOT | 25

 PILOT BRIEFING
JUST FOR FUN |
Pop culture influences
Can a movie—or TV show—produce pilots?
B Y J U L I E S U M M E R S WA L K E R
“WE NEED ANOTHER TOP GUN” is an oft-repeated mantra of
those hoping to increase the pilot population. And it was
true; a military recruiter at the time of Tom Cruise’s depic-
tion of U.S. Navy pilot “Maverick” (1986) was reported as
saying that when he asked of the numerous young people
why they were signing up, they told him it was because of
the movie. But aviation has been a part of popular culture
since the first Academy Award for Best Picture went to the
1927 movie Wings. Consider these influences:
Wings (1927). Silent film set during World War I starring
Clara Bow (if you don’t know who Clara Bow was, think
Nicole Kidman circa 1920). Known for its realistic air com-
bat scenes.
Top Gun (1986). Young pilots in the elite U.S. Navy fighter
weapons school learn a few things about life in the air and
on the ground (starring Kidman’s first husband).
Sky King (1951-1962). Television series about a rancher
in Arizona; his niece Penny; and his Cessna 310, Songbird.
Black Sheep Squadron (1976-1978). Television series
about misfit pilots during World War II. Robert Conrad
played Greg “Pappy” Boyington, a World War II flying ace.
26 | AOPA PILOT February 2021
Magnum P.I. (1980-1988). One of the top TV series in
history, Tom Selleck’s character often flies the islands of
Hawaii in a helicopter.
M*A*S*H (1972-1983). TV series spinoff of the movie of
the same name, the Bell 47 was as much a starring char-
acter as the rest of the cast.
Jimmy Stewart. A real-life pilot and star of the 1957 film
The Spirit of St. Louis. Stewart also plays the pilot of a
Fairchild C–82 who makes an emergency landing in the
Sahara in The Flight of the Phoenix (1965).
Airplane! (1980). Considered one of the funniest movies
of all time, this parody of the Airport movie series intro-
duced phrases such as: “Flying a plane is no different than
riding a bicycle, just a lot harder to put baseball cards in
the spokes” and “Surely you can’t be serious? I am serious,
and don’t call me Shirley.”
Airport (1970). Managing an airport—during a snowstorm,
with a stowaway and a suicide bomber on a landing air-
ASAF HANUKA
plane—is a tough but exciting job. There were three sequels.
Sully (2016). Everyone wants Tom Hanks as their pilot
if they can’t have the original Chesley Sullenberger. Presidential pilots
(and a royal or two)
Re-creating the true story of the “Miracle on the Hudson” Three U.S. presidents have been
landing of a US Airways flight. pilots. Dwight D. Eisenhower, the
nation’s thirty-fourth president,
Flight (2012). Or maybe you want Denzel Washington— soloed in 1937 and earned his
private pilot certificate in 1939.
drunk or not drunk—performing landing miracles.
He was also the first president to
use the call sign Air Force One
The Bob Cummings Show (1955-1962). Actor Bob (in 1953; it became official in
Cummings played a “swinging” photographer who flew
around Los Angeles in a Mort Taylor Aerocar. The actor
was a commercial pilot and owned his own twin-engine
airplane.

Those Magnificent Men in their Flying Machines (1965).

Set in 1913, this comedy feature film is about an interna-
tional aircraft race hoping to win glory for Great Britain.

Wings (1990-1997). The television series was set in

Nantucket, Massachusetts, where two brothers ran the
small airline Sandpiper Air. George H.W. Bush

1962) and first to use a helicopter

TaleSpin (1990-1991). A Disney cartoon that somehow for state business. George H.W.
blended Rudyard Kipling and aviation. The characters of Bush was one of the youngest
Kipling’s The Jungle Book become bush pilots. My sons pilots in World War II (at age 19)
loved this show (but neither became pilots). and distinguished himself during
the Battle of the Philippine Sea,
flying a Grumman Avenger. He
Air America (1990). Young pilots (Mel Gibson and Robert The Tulis list loved skydiving and, at the age
Downey Jr.) fly CIA front missions in Laos during the Every February,
Vietnam War. The hillside landing alone is worth watch- eMedia Associate
Editor David Tulis
ing the movie. puts together a list
of aviation-themed
American Dad (2005-present). Speaking of the songs to recog-
CIA, Agent Stan steals the Spirit of St. Louis from the nize the Grammy
Smithsonian so son Steve will do well in school. Awards. Check his
(and AOPA staffers’
and other pilots’)
Family Guy (1999-present). Glenn Quagmire is a com- selections online.
mercial airline pilot, and also flies an aerobatic airplane, aopa.org/pilot/
a biplane, and a World War II Zero. playlist

Prince Harry of Britain

Planes (2013). Although it did not do as well as its cousin
Cars, the computer-animated film did give us Dusty
of 90, he celebrated his birthday
Crophopper. with his last jump (he jumped
every five years on his birthday
Always (1989). A list must end sometime so I’m ending after 1997; his first jump was
this with my personal favorite. Romantic, funny, sad, this from an Avenger during the war).
George W. Bush also was a pilot
Richard Dreyfuss movie shows how mentorship can help
and flew in the Texas Air National
fellow pilots—even when it hurts. Guard. Prince Charles of Britain
earned his private pilot certifi-
What did we forget? Email pilot@aopa.org with the cate in 1971 and his helicopter
subject line “Pop Culture.” license in 1974. He stopped flying
in 1994. Princes William and
Harry are helicopter pilots.
EMAIL julie.walker@aopa.org

aopa.org/pilot AOPA PILOT | 27

PILOT BRIEFING

EVENTS |
POSTCARDS |

AVIATORS DON’T USUALLY associ-

ate Santa Claus with the sunshine
and festivities of Sun ’n Fun. But in
these unprecedented times, even
old Saint Nick is using general avia-
tion to get around. Santa and Mrs.
Claus arrived in a 1941 Stearman
PT–17 to greet eager—and some-
what skeptical—children. Once
they got over his nonstandard
arrival (where was the Rudolph-led
sleigh?), scores of youngsters lined
up to offer their Christmas wish lists
as their parents listened closely.

Spring break came early…or late

Sun ’n Fun campus holds December event
BY CHRIS EADS

SUN ’N FUN IS USUALLY CALLED a “spring
break for pilots” and heralds the start of
the summer flying season. Santa Claus and
Christmas are not what typically come to
mind. But 2020 wasn’t a typical year. Not
to be deterred by the year’s sweeping can-
cellations of aviation events nationwide
in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic,
the leadership of the Sun ’n Fun Aerospace
Expo seized upon the holiday season and
Florida’s mild early winter weather to host
what may have been the largest aviation
event of 2020…anywhere.
On Friday and Saturday, December 4
and 5, several thousand people converged
on the campus of the fly-in and expo for a
socially distanced outdoor festival that drew
together elements familiar to both fly-ins
and local holiday events. While nearly 70
backcountry flying experts competed for
the shortest landings on the Lakeland Aero
Club’s grass airstrip, Santa and Mrs. Claus
made their own arrival at show center in a
automobile enthusiasts displayed classic
and muscle cars. A balloon glow accented a
twilight airshow that featured the U.S. Air
Force F–35 and F–16 Viper demo teams.
Between exhibitor aircraft, warbirds,
STOL competitors, and attendees flying
in from all over the region, approximately
350 aircraft arrived for the event, accord-
ing to show officials. Aircraft camping sold
out with 100 participants. For those com-
ing just for the day, low IFR conditions
on Saturday kept arrivals slow at first, but
ceilings eventually lifted, presenting a
beautiful cloudless sky for the STOL com-
petition finals and the afternoon airshow.
On Saturday morning, John “Lites”
Leenhouts hosted AOPA President
Mark Baker and Experimental Aircraft
Association Chairman Jack Pelton for an
engaging conversation on the state of gen-
eral aviation in a pandemic. Much of the
conversation centered on the future of
aviation events, with the three executives
place in April 2021. Pelton also emphasized
EAA’s commitment to hosting Air Venture
2021, and Baker explained AOPA’s plans to
conduct a series of AOPA Pilot Gathering
Air Tours to visit pilots at nearly two dozen
events across the nation next year.
“General aviation is alive and well,”
Baker said. “Aircraft sales are fantastic right
now, people are doing flight training, flight
schools around the country are busier than
they’ve ever been…people are turning to
general aviation more and more.”
Organizers of the holiday fly-in empha-
sized the entirely outdoor nature of the
event, which allowed attendees to spread
out as the pandemic continues. Attendees
were encouraged to practice appropriate
health safety protocols. Greg Gibson, chief
marketing officer for Sun ’n Fun, estimated
between 4,000 and 7,000 people were in
attendance over two days, and he indicated
interest in continuing to hold this holiday
event in future years.
CHRIS EADS

PT–17 to collect Christmas wish lists from sharing their organization’s plans for 2021.
scores of eager children. More than 200 Leenhouts promised Sun ’n Fun will take EMAIL chris.eads@aopa.org

28 | AOPA PILOT February 2021

JACK KLEIN OF LITTLE ROCK, ARKANSAS, marks Jon Humberd's take- CLASSIC CARS were a part of the event as well, with nearly
off spot; the Zenith STOL CH 701 was airborne in less than 75 feet. 200 automobiles on display. Many won awards for best-
The demonstration of extreme aircraft performance capabilities in-show among various categories.
thrilled hundreds of spectators throughout the two-day event.

THE FRIDAY EVENING airshow was capped off with a

balloon glow. The balloons framed a 1974 Grumman
Traveler belonging to AOPA member Robert Wiles of
Gulfport, Mississippi.

aopa.org/pilot AOPA PILOT | 29

PILOT BRIEFING
MUSINGS |
Love is in the air
Flying to the heart of the matter
B Y I A N J. T W O M B LY
I LEARNED TO FLY while in college,
a glorious time when life freedoms
coalesced with my new-found freedoms
in aviation in a way that made it feel like
anything was possible. While I mostly
used the airplane to train and have fun
with friends, like any good young bach-
elor I recognized its appeal for dates.
So, it was with disappointment
that upon meeting a lovely woman
with a radiant smile in the most
unlikely of places, I was unable to
wow her with my ability to fly us to
romantic dinners and weekend get-
aways. She understood the practical
value, but it was going to take more
than a pilot certificate to impress her.
30 | AOPA PILOT February 2021
Yet, aircraft played an important
role in our budding relationship. Our
first date was on a weekday (I appar-
ently wasn’t yet weekend material),
and she lived two hours away. What
better way to handle the logistics
than with an airplane? I fired up my
flying club’s Cessna 172 and hopped
down for dinner. In addition to being
a two-hour drive, she also lived on
the opposite side of the Washington,
D.C., metro area, which meant a flight
through the Washington Special Flight
Rules Area. Ever since I had owned a
one-sixteenth share in the Skyhawk
it had been afflicted with electri-
cal gremlins, and when it was time
to leave from her local airport, I dis-
covered the airplane’s interior lights
were wonky. This being a night flight
through the SFRA, I sheepishly admit-
ted that our date was going to have
to continue a little longer because I
wasn’t flying anywhere.
She insisted it was a ploy and that
this player-pilot tried that trick on all
the girls. I said that while a creative
idea, it really was a safety of flight
issue. Despite branding me a player,
she decided to keep me around, and
today we fly as a family of four to the
EVA VAZQUEZ
beach, grandma’s house, and more.
When I earned a helicopter add-
on more than 10 years after that
 AVIATION HISTORY |
unplanned first overnight stint on her
couch, it was a no-brainer who would
be my brave first passenger. More than
just flying around the patch, I wanted
to impress her as I wasn’t able to with
the airplane. We had been wanting to
try the restaurant at a local country inn,
and I couldn’t help but notice they had a
large, flat grassy parking area. A plan was
hatched, and with the blessing of both
the restaurant and the helicopter owner,
I proposed celebrating our anniversary
like the player I am.
Once again, I had to contend with the
SFRA, but this time I had to land inside
it, off a charted landing site, and then 100 YEARS AGO
depart again, all without running afoul FEBRUARY 24, 1921
of the complex regulations. Thankfully
the weather was beautiful, and we sailed Solo flights
over rolling hills with both doors off the
Robinson R22, like a summer afternoon Lt. William D. Coney completes a solo flight from Rockwell Field in
motorcycle ride at 500 feet. San Diego, California, to Jacksonville, Florida, in 22 hours and 27 min-
Neither of us remembers much about utes flying time. Flying coast to coast alone became a challenge that
the food. I guess it was good. But we’ll many attempted—Charles Lindbergh in 1930 (14 hours, 45 minutes);
never forget the flight. More a prag- Lt. James “Jimmy” Doolittle in 1922 (21 hours, 19 minutes) and again
matic than a passionate passenger, my in 1931 (11 hours, 16 minutes); and Howard Hughes in 1936 (9 hours,
wife rarely mentions wanting to go fly- 27 minutes) and again in 1937 (7 hours, 28 minutes)—to name a few.
ing. But when I ask if she wants to go in a It was the late John Glenn, former astronaut, who would fly “Project
helicopter, we both drop everything and Bullet” in 1957 at supersonic speed (3 hours, 23 minutes).
find the nearest babysitter. Ironically,
although the helicopter has been known WILLIAM CONEY
as a machine made for work since the (above), John
time of Igor Sikorsky, it has brought us Glenn.

more of a sense of fun and freedom than

airplanes. Besides conjuring life’s child-
hood fantasies of flying, I can confirm
that helicopters can also be more roman-
tic than a box of chocolates and a bouquet
of flowers.
The total time to get from our house
to the restaurant was about two hours, far
longer than the 17-minute drive it other-
wise would have taken. We tend to use
airplanes primarily to make time speed
up between us and our destination, but
helicopters are a way to make time more
valuable. In flying, as in love, the journey
is what matters.

Senior Content Producer IAN J. TWOMBLY

and his wife, Sara, have two children who
love to fly.

aopa.org/pilot AOPA PILOT | 31

PILOT BRIEFING
PEOPLE |
Paying it forward
Young CFIs grateful for free multiengine training
BY THOMAS B. HAINES
YOUNG FLIGHT INSTRUCTORS Jonathan
Gray and Zach Douglas received training
for their multiengine instrument ratings as
a gift from husband and wife instructors
Endre Holen and Stephanie Goetz.
“It really was unexpected,” said Gray
after earning the coveted rating. “But that’s
kind of the beautiful thing about being
around here.”
“Here” is the Luke Weathers Flight
Academy at Mississippi’s Olive Branch
Airport. The community-supported flight
school is an offshoot of the Organization
of Black Aerospace Professionals. OBAP
started the academy to provide flight, main-
tenance, and air traffic controller training
for students in the Memphis area, the
hometown of Tuskegee Airman Lt. Col.
Luke Weathers. At the end of World War II,
Weathers became the first Black air traffic
controller at Memphis International Airport.
After earning his instructor rating at
the academy, Gray began instructing there
in single-engine airplanes, hoping to earn
32 | AOPA PILOT February 2021
enough money to earn advanced rat-
ings toward his goal of being an airline
pilot. Douglas followed a similar path.
Meanwhile, Goetz and Holen, rec-
ognizing the disparity in gender and
ethnic background in aviation, wanted
to make a difference and were consid-
ering giving financial scholarships to
students at the academy for multien-
gine ratings. “We really believe that
multiengine ratings are the gateway to
big pilot jobs, because, of course, to fly
most jets and to fly jets for the airlines
you have to have a twin or multiengine
rating,” Goetz said.
JONATHAN GRAY, Zach Douglas, and their CFI
While her husband has been an Endre Holen at Luke Weathers Academy
instructor for several years, Goetz in Mississippi.
earned her instructor and multiengine
instructor ratings earlier in 2020. Both fly a Cessna Citation and Piper Twin Comanche. The
couple flew the Piper from their home near Minneapolis to Olive Branch Airport to pro-
vide the training. “It was a fun plane to train them in because the Twin Comanche is known
for being a little tougher of the light twins to fly for training,” Goetz said. “And I thought
that that was helpful for them, because if they’re going to be flying advanced aircraft and
they’re going to be flying Citations or Gulfstreams or a Boeing…or an Airbus, they’re going
to have to be able to deal with situations that
happen really quickly. And they all handled
it beautifully well—very, very well—and had
no problem at all with it.”
“The training was pretty intense because
we’re learning a whole new aircraft and
learning different speeds. Because basi-
cally we were trying to treat it as a Cessna
172 at first, and then we later find out we
can’t really do that,” Douglas said.
The program was a workout for Goetz
and Holen, too. “We got there on a Monday,
we trained two students all the way until
on Friday,” Goetz said. “That’s when they
did their checkrides. And they were abso-
lutely thrilled with the accelerated course,
because you really just dedicate basically 7
a.m. till midnight. You even sleep thinking
about flying. So, it was an exciting time and
incredibly rewarding for us, but incredibly
remarkable for these students who got to
go through it.”
The Friday checkride came around fast,
according to the students. “We’re studying,
we’re pressuring ourselves. But thanks to
Endre and Stephanie, they made it happen
for us. Their training was unbelievable—
how fast they got us done and made sure
that we were ready to go when the time
came,” Douglas said.
The Twin Comanche had a previous
connection to OBAP. Before Goetz and
Holen bought the airplane last year, it had
been owned by an airline captain whose
son had used it for his multiengine rating
and to build twin time. The captain was a
member of OBAP. “It’s almost like the Twin
Comanche was destined to be down there
at some point,” Goetz said.
Gray said the assistance from Goetz and
Holen is typical of what happens around
the academy. The “support and all of the
people that just come through just to lend
a helping hand to people that need it. So
yes, Stephanie and Endre came into our
lives and funded our multiengine training.
They were phenomenal people and they
honestly have changed my life, and I’m for-
ever grateful for them,” he said.
Academy Director Capt. Albert Glenn
said the students’ excitement was palpable.
“They were overwhelmed. I mean, they
enjoyed it. Some students get the ratings
and you don’t see that big smile on their
face. Plus, it was a surprise. This wasn’t
something that was really in their future.
They were busy saving the funds for it, so it
gave them an opportunity to get the multi-
engine rating and to look forward to getting
their multiengine instructor rating next.”
Glenn, who had a 40-year career at
FedEx as a pilot and in management, now
oversees the nonprofit flight school. The
school’s success comes from the commu-
nity involvement, he said. On any given
day, active and retired airline pilots, cor-
porate pilots, mechanics, and avionics
technicians may be there volunteering their
time. The school is located just 10 nautical
miles southeast of FedEx’s headquarters
at Memphis International. All of them
are there, like Goetz and Holen, to make a
difference.
In addition to offering ratings neces-
sary for becoming an airline pilot, the OBAP
program helps to give students headed to
aviation colleges a leg up when they get
to campus. “One of the biggest challenges
for first-generation pilots, which is a lot of
Black pilots…is that they show up at colleges
or aviation programs and they’re there with
students that, you know, ‘my dad was a pilot.
My mom was a pilot.’ And it’s a struggle for
them because they might have never been
in an airplane before.”
To address that need, the school devel-
oped the Solo Flight Academy to get
students to solo before college or, in some
cases, get them to a private pilot certifi-
cate. “We’re seeing some success around
that now,” Glenn said.
Learning to fly in the 1970s, Glenn
had trouble finding a mentor. Some
instructors agreed on the phone to teach
him, but “as soon as they saw me, they
were too busy to teach. And I finally met
a gentleman who actually was a professor
at Embry-Riddle, who ended up saying,
‘Hey, I taught everybody from all over
the world in the Air Force. I don’t have
a problem.’”
Glenn said he always remembers that
and said his role at the academy “gives me
a chance to give back, too.”
Gray’s goal is to be an airline pilot;
however, he understands the responsibil-
ity he has to help others the way he has
been helped. “One of the biggest things
that Endre and Stephanie taught me is
that there’s always a moment that you can
pay things forward. So that’s definitely in
my plans. Any student that needs help, if I
have the ability and the time to help them,
then absolutely, that’s what I’m going to
do. So that is part of my future, part of my
career now.”
EMAIL thomas.haines@aopa.org
aopa.org/pilot AOPA PILOT | 33
PILOT BRIEFING

FUTURE FLIGHT |

VoltAero’s Cassios
Hybrid power for 200 knots and long legs
BY THOMAS A. HORNE

WHEN YOU THINK of the growing batch of eVTOLs and other The company has been evaluating candidate motors
lithium battery-powered aircraft, your mind is usually drawn and propellers using a Cessna Skymaster, which it calls a
to four- or five-seaters. VoltAero, a French company, has Cassio I, as a flying testbed. Two Safran electric motors are
another idea. It’s developing what it calls its Cassio series mounted on the wings, and their batteries are located in the
of hybrid-powered four- to 10-seat aircraft, two of which Skymaster’s twin booms. Hybrid powerplants are mounted
are aimed at the air taxi, charter, and utility markets. Hybrid in the aft fuselage, with their batteries in the nose section
power systems make sense because they use both batteries and avgas in the airplane’s wing tanks.
and gasoline-burning internal combustion engines (ICEs). The Cassio project has attracted the European Union
This can provide benefits beyond system redundancy and Innovation Council’s interest. Under its Green Deal Strategy
higher power ratings. Battery and ICE power can be teamed and Recovery Plan, VoltAero was awarded an initial grant of
up for takeoffs, or for high-speed 2.1 million euros (about $2.5 million),
cruising. When low-noise takeoffs with eligibility for additional funding
To see the testbed in flight go to
and landings are priorities, battery voltaero.aero/en/feature-stories/ of 300 million euros ($358 million).
power alone can drive any electric voltaero-flight-video/ The company says the Cassio 330
motors. And after an electric-only will be the first of the line to earn
takeoff, ICEs can be fired up to both certification under European Union
recharge batteries and boost en route speed and range. Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) CS-23 rules and the first to
VoltAero’s concepts use sleek fuselages, forward canards, enter service, sometime in 2023. CS (Certification Standard)
straight wings, and twin-boom tails supporting wide-span hori- 23 regulations are close analogues to the United States’ FAR
zontal stabilizers. Performance claims are impressive: Its Cassio Part 23 certification rules, so there is promise of reciprocal
330 will be a four-seater with an electric motor rated at 330 kW approval in the future—assuming U.S. rules finalize stan-
(about 442 horsepower) and a range of 54 nautical miles. The dards allowing for electrically powered and hybrid-powered
Cassio 480 will have six seats and a hybrid powerplant setup aircraft. With target takeoff and landing distances of 1,800
capable of a total of 480 kW (about 644 hp), and a range as feet, the Cassios could serve well at existing airports, espe-
long as 324 nm. The top-of-the-line model, the Cassio 600, will cially those located in or near metropolitan areas.
be a 10-seat hybrid with a whopping 600 kW (about 805 hp),
a 648-nm maximum range, and a 3.5-hour maximum endur- voltaero.areo
ance. Target maximum cruise speed for the Cassio 600 is 200
knots. Pricing for each of the Cassios has yet to be announced. EMAIL tom.horne@aopa.org

34 | AOPA PILOT February 2021

 TEST PILOT | BY BARRY SCHIFF
1. They are nicknamed the Doomsday
Planes. What are they?
2. True or false? During aviation’s days
of yore, pilots flying aircraft without flaps
lost excess altitude on final approach by
executing a series of alternate-direction
spin entries and recoveries.
3. From reader Charles Baumann: When
would the crew of a jetliner see a rubber
jungle?
4. The earliest application of an exhaust-
driven turbocharger occurred in
A. 1908.
B. 1918.
C. 1928.
D. 1938.
5. From reader John Schmidt: In 1959
police were called to the racially segre-
gated library in Lake City, South Carolina,
because a 9-year-old child, Ronald
McNair, refused to leave without being
allowed to borrow books. What happened
to this defiant African American?
6. True or false? In military aviation, a
sortie usually is a combat mission con-
sisting of two aircraft.
7. From reader Boom Powell: Gliding in
a glider is descending and soaring in one
implies ascending (in rising air). When
was the first official soaring flight?
8. A turbocharged airplane is parked with
its engine shut down on an airport with an
elevation of 300 feet msl at a time when
the altimeter setting is 29.72 inches and
the ambient temperature is 0 degrees C.
What is the indicated manifold pressure?
A. 29.42 inches
B. 29.62 inches
C. 29.72 inches
D. 30.02 inches
ANSWERS on p. 48
AOPA NEWS |
HUDSON REJOINS
AOPA BOARD OF
TRUSTEES
WILLIAM “WILL” HUDSON is rejoining
the AOPA Board of Trustees. He served
for several years after the retirement
from the board of his father, Fitzgerald
“Jerry” Hudson, in 1999; the elder
Hudson had served on AOPA’s board
for more than 30 years. He died in
2003. Will Hudson is a founding part-
ner of Vx Capital and an avid pilot. In
his position, he handles transaction
origination, asset management, and
engine portfolio activities. During his
career, he has bought, sold, or leased
numerous aircraft, and managed
several large passenger-to-freight con-
version programs. Before founding Vx,
Hudson was vice president of Pegasus
Aviation, where he was responsible
for aircraft remarketing. He will serve
on AOPA's finance and compensation
boards. Hudson holds a bachelor's
degree from Duke University and a
master's in business administration
from the University of North Carolina
at Chapel Hill. He has two children and
resides in Marin County, California.
aopa.org/pilot AOPA PILOT | 35
PILOT BRIEFING
BOOKSHELF |
THE STORY
OF A WASP
A promise made to her late
husband is Raquel Ramsey’s
book about her sister-in-law,
Taking Flight: The Nadine
Ramsey Story. Co-written
with Tricia Aurand, the book
tells the story of Nadine
Ramsey—one of the first
women to fly the U.S. Air Mail,
one of only 26 women to fly
the Lockheed P–38 Lightning,
and one of the first women in
Kansas to earn a commer-
cial pilot certificate. She was
the sister of decorated World
War II veteran and memoir-
ist Edwin P. Ramsey, who
had always wanted his sis-
ter’s story told. “Taking Flight
is the inspiring story of a girl
from Depression-era Kansas
who overcame tremendous
challenges and defied conven-
tion to become an elite pilot,”
says the author.
—Julie Summers Walker
PRICE: $29.95
CONTACT: kansaspress.ku.edu
36 | AOPA PILOT February 2021
GRACE YOUR
COFFEE TABLE
Visually stunning is the lim-
ited-run rerelease of Villinski,
an in-depth monograph that
captures the work and influ-
ence of sculptor Paul Villinski.
Documenting three decades
of the artist’s studio and
public art practice, the book
covers Villinski’s ground-
breaking work, which has
been exhibited extensively
throughout the United States
in museum and gallery exhibi-
tions. Metaphors of flight and
soaring often appear in the
work of Villinski, a pilot and
AOPA member. This beauti-
ful book includes gorgeous
photographs and essays by
renowned critics, curators,
and authors. Each limited-
run, hardcover coffee table
book is hand-finished by the
artist and includes an alumi-
num butterfly framed within
the front cover.
—Julie Summers Walker
PRICE: $95
CONTACT: vivantbooks.com
'ARTFUL FLYING'
NOW AN
AUDIO BOOK
Michael Maya Charles, an
aviation writer and retired
airline pilot, reads the text of
his 2005 book, adds his own
music (as well as some real
engine sounds), and even
provides spaces for quiet con-
templation. Charles blends
Eastern philosophy with avi-
ation insights, and he suggests
pilots can raise their perfor-
mance to the level of art by
approaching flying with joy
and wonderment in addition
to technical expertise. Artful
Flying, the audio book, has
a 10-hour run time, and it’s
available for download.
—Dave Hirschman
PRICE: $25
CONTACT: artfulpublishing.
com
CHILDREN’S
BOOK
INTRODUCES
AVIATION TO
YOUNGSTERS
Po l a r c i r c u m n av i g a -
tor Robert DeLaurentis
teams up with fellow pilot
Susan Gilbert for The Little
Plane That Could, an illus-
trated children’s book that
introduces youngsters to
aviation through the wings
and fuselage of Dash, a
small red airplane with
dreams of soaring with
bigger and more capable
aircraft. The authors hope
the wholesome story will
kindle the next genera-
tion’s desire for flight.
—David Tulis
PRICE: Available online
from $2.99
CHRIS ROSE
CONTACT: amazon.com
REVIEW |
Garmin D2 Air
Smart, elegant, and useful
B Y D AV E H I R S C H M A N
A PILOT WATCH must do a few things well: look good, be
comfortable, tell local and Zulu time, and have a stopwatch.
Garmin’s new D2 Air does those essential things, as well as
hundreds of others, some of which are really useful.
Unlike Garmin’s previous bulky forays into aviation
watches, the D2 Air is light, comfortable, and visually appeal-
ing. Its lithium-ion battery lasts all day (10 hours) in the air
with internal GPS and other power-hungry sensors on, and
a full workweek (5 days) on the ground in normal operation.
The D2 Air’s best new features for pilots are built-
in oxygen and pulse rate sensors; an altimeter; direct-to
GPS navigation; airport weather reports; sunrise/sunset/
civil twilight times; and flight logging functions tied to the
Garmin Pilot app. Less useful items include the Garmin Pay
app (who knew Garmin even had one?); animated workouts;
a buzzer that lets you know you’ve taken enough steps; and
distracting alarms whenever you get an email, a text, or talk
on your phone. (Do I really need my watch to tell me I’m
talking on the phone? Perhaps as a way to avoid prolonged
butt-dials.)
The D2 Air pairs to a smartphone via Bluetooth and the
Garmin Connect app, and it can link to Wi-Fi networks, too.
Garmin is a big player in wearable technology ranging
from watches to dog collars, and the D2 Air is specialized
for pilots the way other Garmin watches are made for hikers,
runners, bikers, and fisherman. Personally, I quit wear-
ing watches several years ago when the battery in my last
Timex Ironman died. Since a smartphone is my constant
companion, I saw no point in replacing the dead battery, and
the watch has resided in the bottom of a dusty desk drawer
ever since. But I’ve enjoyed test-driving the D2 Air and wear-
ing a watch again.
It’s unobtrusive, and it’s got a clever sensor that some-
how knows when you twist your wrist to glance at it. (If
that doesn’t work, just double tap the screen to wake it up.)
Then the watch face shows a classic screen containing an
hour, minute, and sweep second hand. It also displays the
temperature, surface wind, and the sky conditions at an air-
port of your choice; the day and time; and the digital time.
Other, more advanced functions take some time to learn
and the eight-page Quick Start Manual that comes with the
watch doesn’t do much to explain them. That requires dig-
ging into the Garmin website where the online manual
resides.
Today’s gadgets can do so much that one of the biggest
decisions designers must make is what to leave out. Here,
Garmin shows some laudable self-discipline by avoiding
a “kitchen sink” strategy. Previous Garmin pilot watches
included dubious features such as, for example, the ability
to remotely control video cameras—wasted electrons. The
D2 Air avoids such pitfalls. It’s a smart, elegant, and help-
ful addition to any pilot’s throttle hand.
PRICE: $499
CONTACT: garmin.com
EMAIL dave.hirschman@aopa.org
aopa.org/pilot AOPA PILOT | 37

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PILOT BRIEFING
YOU CAN FLY |
Virtual symposium a success
More than 950 educators and students attend online
B Y D AV I D T U L I S
THE SIXTH ANNUAL AOPA High School students are female, compared to about 7.5
Aviation STEM Symposium presented percent of career pilots in the United States.
as a livestream by the U.S. Air Force was Interactive chats began as the program
as engaging and informative online as it went live and continued throughout the
has been during in-person sessions. The presentation hosted by Swayne Martin, a
STC SA03525NY sharing of ideas, professional pilot
information, and with a large inter-
teaching tips flew AOPA scholarships are available. Appli- net following.
by at a rapid pace cations will be accepted until February AOPA President
14, 2021, at 11:59 p.m. Eastern time.
during the 1.5- Mark Baker wel-
A variety of applications for students,
hour presentation. teachers, older pilots, and those seek- comed hundreds of
The appetite for ing new ratings are available. online participants
Email: FTscholarship@aopa.org
aviation learning and said he remains
aopa.org/flight-training-scholarships
and accompanying focused on prepar-
careers has grown ing young people
exponentially in for aviation careers
the years since the AOPA You Can Fly High despite temporary setbacks that might not
School Initiative began in 2015. always allow a “straight line” to a full-time
The yearly gathering of science, tech- job. Baker encouraged instructors and their
nology, engineering, and math teaching students to stay the course and predicted
specialists helps highlight an engaging aviation careers would remain strong in the
curriculum for young people that spans months and years ahead.
ninth through twelfth grade with hands- Women in Aviation International CEO
on projects that make learning fun and Allison McKay, UPS Vice President of
interesting. Flight Operations and Safety Capt. Houston
“It’s feeling really good here,” said AOPA Mills, and Organization of Black Aerospace
High School Aviation Initiative Director Professionals Board Chair Vanessa
Glenn Ponas. More than 950 people Blacknall-Jamison led a diversity discus-
attended the virtual event, which included sion on inclusivity and broadening the pilot
sessions presented by aviation STEM edu- ranks. Blacknall-Jamison said, “Mentorship
cation leaders and professional pilots. is vital, but you have to believe in yourself
Several schools held virtual watch parties [and] have faith. You are capable of doing
with teachers, students, administrators, and anything. The sky is the limit.”
parents sharing the experience. The next AOPA High School Aviation
The AOPA curriculum is available free STEM Symposium is planned for November
of charge to school systems nationwide and 14 through 16, 2021, in Orlando, Florida.
has been deployed in more than 400 class-
rooms at more than 200 schools in 38 states, EMAIL david.tulis@aopa.org
shaping the lessons taught to about 8,000
students. One of the hallmarks of the ini- The You Can Fly program and the Air Safety
tiative is broadening the demographics of Institute are funded by charitable dona-
those exposed to aviation to help diversify tions to the AOPA Foundation, a 501(c)(3)
the pilot population. Between 22 and 23 organization. To be a part of the solution,
percent of the high school aviation STEM visit aopafoundation.org/donate.
38 | AOPA PILOT February 2021
PILOT PRODUCTS |

Study your way

Sporty’s upgrades
online courses
B Y D AV E H I R S C H M A N

SP ORT Y’S RECENTLY COMPLETED a

major upgrade of its online pilot training
courses that allows students to study how-
ever, wherever, and whenever they want.
Whether they study on a mobile phone,
tablet, portable or desktop computer, or
Web-linked TV, the new Sporty’s app
allows students to pick up where they left
off, regardless of the devices they use.
“All the platforms talk to each other,”
said Eric Radtke, president of Sporty’s
Academy. “Whether a student uses
Android, an iOS device, Apple TV, Roku, or
Chromecast, our app tracks their progress.”
Sporty’s online training courses for
private pilot certificates and instrument
ratings contain about 15 hours of video
content and 20 hours of test prep. Students
get lifetime access to Sporty’s courses, so
they can review the material even after
they pass their checkrides. Course content
is periodically refreshed so that test ques-
tions and other material remains current.
Each course contains an online ground
school and test prep, and students can obtain
completion certificates that allow them to
take FAA knowledge tests at the conclu-
sion of the online material. If students
have questions along the way, they can ask
Sporty’s flight instructors by phone or email.
“Everyone studies differently,” said
Bret Koebbe, Sporty’s vice president for
video. “Now, students can pick their plat-
form and decide for themselves how they
want to use it.” Koebbe said Sporty’s has
been working on the upgrade for one year,
and the Ohio-based company made large
back-end technology investments to pro-
vide a better customer experience.
Sporty’s has operated its own flight
school for many years, and the school serves
as an on-site laboratory for online content.
Sporty’s students typically take the online
ground school and pass FAA knowledge
tests before they start flight training.
Tens of thousands of student pilots
have used the Sporty’s online training con-
tent in the past decade, company officials
said. Each course gives students real-time
reports on how they’re doing in a variety of
subject areas. It also provides online flash
cards that enable them to focus intensively
on certain topics.
Sporty’s online courses provide links
to ForeFlight and Cloud Ahoy digital log-
books for automatic record keeping.
Sporty’s has a large and expanding
video library, and students who sign up for
online flight training often revisit the mate-
rial throughout their flying careers. At first,
their focus is passing a test or a checkride.
Later, it shifts to advanced ratings and air-
craft, or remaining current on regulations
and technology.
“People come back to us again and
again,” Koebbe said. “Our courses often
serve as reference material for pilots that
they search at their convenience.”
PRICE: $249 per course
CONTACT: sportys.com
EMAIL dave.hirchman@aopa.org

INDUSTRY NEWS |
ICON GOES WITH GARMIN G3X TOUCH
ICON AIRCRAFT is offering the Garmin G3X Touch and autopilot as
options on its A5 amphibious light sport aircraft. The 7-inch G3X is
a $15,500 option, and the addition of a Garmin GMC 507 autopilot
raises the total price of the upgrade to $25,000. The two-seat, fold-
ing-wing Icon A5’s base price is $360,000.
“The Garmin G3X Touch takes our commitment to product
improvement to the next level, greatly enhancing the adventure
flying experience while seamlessly fitting into our intuitively
designed cockpit,” said Jason Huang, Icon president. The A5 typ-
ically uses a portable Garmin aera 796 for navigation.
Icon has long advocated that pilots use an angle of attack indi-
cator as a primary flight instrument, and the company’s in-house
AOA indicator is still front and center in the A5 panel.
—Dave Hirschman

aopa.org/pilot AOPA PILOT | 39

PILOT BRIEFING
AIRPORTS |
Visit this airport
with your Pilot
Passport on the
AOPA app.
aopa.org/travel/
pilot-passport
Millville Municipal Airport,
New Jersey
America’s first defense airport
BY DENNIS K. JOHNSON
THERE WAS A LOT OF SHOOTING in Joysey back in the 1940s—not from mobsters,
but from P–47 Thunderbolts. In the years 1943 to 1945, more than 1,500 fighter
pilots trained at the U.S. Army Air Forces gunnery school at Millville Army
Airfield, now a bullet-free municipal airport in southern New Jersey. Situated
35 miles southeast of Wilmington, Delaware; 34 miles west of Atlantic City; and
40 miles south of Philadelphia, it’s a convenient base to do business in the region.
Plus, with Cape May and Wildwood, two of the nicest Jersey Shore towns,
30 miles to the east, it’s a good place to land for a beach vacation. These two
beach towns are rather sedate compared to glitzy and grimy Atlantic City,
where you can lose the pink slip to your jet at the casino gambling tables. But,
if you think of New Jersey as only turnpike exits and urban sprawl, the nearby
Pinelands National Reserve offers 1.1 million acres of Atlantic coastal pine
barrens ecosystem, set aside in 1978 to preserve its ecology. In the 1980s, the
40 | AOPA PILOT February 2021
United Nations designated it as an International
Biosphere Reserve. So, stay awhile in the pines
and maybe you’ll encounter the Jersey Devil?
FIRST DEFENSE AIRPORT
In 1940, the escalation of the war in Europe
prompted President Roosevelt to request huge
appropriations for national defense, which
included funding for the construction of hun-
dreds of new airports. The Millville airport was
built as a civil airport under the program and ded-
icated as the nation’s “First Defense Airport” on
August 2, 1941. After the attack on Pearl Harbor,
the military converted it into the Millville Army
Airfield. By January 1943 it was the site of a
gunnery school for fighter pilots. Initially, they
flew Curtiss P–40 Warhawks, but Millville soon
became the place to be for advanced fighter train-
ing in the P–47 Thunderbolt.
THE JUG
The Republic P–47 Thunderbolt wasn’t sleek
or good looking, with a shape that many pilots
thought resembled a milk jug, which may
be the origin of its nickname, the “Jug.” The
Thunderbolt was initially powered by an 18-cyl-
inder, 2,000-horsepower radial engine, which
gave it a top speed of about 440 mph. As a fighter
or fighter/bomber, it sported eight 0.50-caliber
machine guns and could carry aloft 2,500 pounds
of bombs. With a maximum weight of more than
17,000 pounds, it was one of the heaviest fight-
ers of the war and one of the most durable. The
pilots who flew it, loved it, and more than 15,000
were built during the war and used in all theatres
of operations.
At the end of 1945, Millville was returned to
civilian use and many of the military buildings
converted into apartments for veterans return-
ing home and starting families. The apartments
have since gone, but Millville thrives with general
aviation, numerous air-ambulance helicopters,
and various businesses on the airport grounds.
Today, the original military headquarters build-
ing houses the Millville Army Airfield Museum,
which is worth a landing.
MILLVILLE ARMY AIRFIELD MUSEUM
The Millville Army Airfield Museum strives to
preserve the history of the World War II era
activities that took place there. The museum
exhibits numerous World War II aviation
artifacts, with displays featuring the Navajo
Code Talkers and the WASP—women pilots
who transported aircraft throughout the war.
The museum highlights the role the
Thunderbolt played in winning the
war and honors those pilots who flew
the “Jug.” Each year, it sponsors air-
shows and hosts an annual Veterans
Appreciation Day. Admission is free, but
donations are welcome.
After visiting the museum, fuel up
at either Verna’s Flight Line Restaurant,
which serves breakfast anytime, or the You never take off without a plan.
Glasstown Brewery for a freshly made Same goes for building wealth.
brew—but only for passengers. Both
are just a few steps from the museum and Having your own financial plan from our financial planners can propel your
the tarmac. dreams – by helping you grow, protect and preserve your wealth.
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Shore vacation, play the slots at Atlantic
From here forward.®
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the history of the valiant pilots who flew
the Thunderbolt. *The 2020 America’s Best RIA Firms Independent Advisory Firm Ranking issued by Barron’s is
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Millville Army Airfield Museum

1 Leddon Street
Millville, New Jersey 08332

PANEL
856-327-2347
www.p47millville.org THE

FUTURE
Museum opens 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.,

OF THE
Tuesday through Sunday. Call to
schedule a Monday visit or for a
personal or group tour.

Flying In
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104 Leddon Street
Millville, New Jersey 08332
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PILOT BRIEFING
DESTINATIONS |

Cuisine caliente
A taste of New Mexico in Santa Fe and its environs
B Y J U L I E S U M M E R S WA L K E R
TRIPADVISOR RECENTLY released its
Travelers Choice awards for Dining
and—no surprise — Santa Fe, New
Mexico, has three restaurants on that
list. Santa Fe is usually thought of as a
visual treat, what with its stunning scen-
ery, historic architecture, and beautiful
weather, but a trip here will strain your
waistband—and your wallet. It’s a great
spot for foodies, although it can be an
expensive one.
One thing is for sure, the food in Santa
Fe is not for the timid. There’s its New
Mexican heritage, Texas influence, and
appreciation for native food, indigenous
ingredients, and love of wild game, espe-
cially elk. And chiles will be used!
It will come as no surprise that the
chile is New Mexico’s state vegetable and
that its flag colors are red and green. In
fact, in most restaurants, the first ques-
tion you’ll be asked is “red or green?”
Your server is asking about the type of
chile you’d like on the side (and this isn’t
a chuckwagon chili, it’s more of a salsa).
THE CITY DIFFERENT
The city decided on its unified building
style as far back as 1912. Founded in 1610,
it’s the third-oldest city in the country
(St. Augustine, Florida, and Jamestown,
Virginia, are older) and its founders real-
ized that tourism was going to be key to
keeping the city vibrant. A second ordi-
nance was filed in 1957 again dictating the
Pueblo style of architecture. The result
is a melding of structure and nature, the
modern buildings of Santa Fe looking like
they have been there 400 years and the
400-year-old buildings kept up as if they
were new. The ordinance included struc-
ture height, so most of Santa Fe comprises
low-slung buildings, hugging the land-
scape. The adobe structures build upon
themselves; rooms in restaurants and
shops lead down narrow corridors to new
spaces and visitors are apt to get lost in the
maze of hallways. Ask for detailed instruc-
tions when looking for a bathroom!
A TASTE OF NEW MEXICO
GETTING THERE
Santa Fe Municipal Airport
(SAF) opened in 1941. It is
home to some 200 based
aircraft and offers commer-
cial service through United
Airlines to Denver and
through American Airlines
to Dallas/Ft. Worth and
Phoenix. There are three
runways—Runway 2/20 is
8,366 feet long, Runway
15/33 is 6,316 feet long, and
Runway 10/28 is 6,301 feet
long. Elevation is 6,349 feet
and the airport is located
nine miles from the city.
flysantafe.com
WHY YOU SHOULD GO
From its adobe mission
architecture to its rich
cultural history, Santa Fe
exudes a vibe you’ll not
find many places. With
a respectful nod to his-
tory and a smile toward the
future, Santa Fe calls itself
“The City Different” because
of its welcoming nature. A
1928 fiesta program told
visitors: “Be yourself, even if
it includes synthetic cowboy
clothes, motor goggles, and
a camera.” That was 1928
and the same advice for
travelers here still stands.
Come in jeans and rock a
bolo tie even if your roots
are in Milwaukee.
CHRIS ROSE

santafe.org/The_City_
If you can’t make up your mind between So, what about those top TripAdvisor res-
Different
red or green, ask for Christmas! Get it? taurants? Number 6 on the Fine Dining

42 | AOPA PILOT February 2021

list is Geronimo, a French restaurant on
Canyon Road (Canyon Road is Santa Fe’s
art district; winding streets invite you into
eclectic art galleries, stores, and restau-
rants). Geronimo is in a 1756 adobe house,
but its new outdoor patio is COVID-19
friendly. Its French chef definitely checks
his New Mexico flavors and elk is an often-
requested specialty.
Sazon in downtown Santa Fe is num-
ber 12 in fine dining and it takes traditional
Mexican food to incredible new heights. The
décor is fabulous—a ceiling-to-floor paint-
ing of Frida Kahlo, sombreros, and twinkly
star lamps dangling from the ceiling—and
the chef is originally from Mexico City. The
Ranch House is number 23 on TripAdvisor’s
Everyday Dining list. It’s a barbecue restau-
rant and has an outdoor patio.
La Fonda on the Plaza is one of Santa
Fe’s oldest hotels and features period-
style rooms with original timber beams
and authentic tile. Its rooftop bar and res-
taurant is a wonderful place to see the city
and watch a spectacular sunset.
Dynon’s SkyView HDX system is now approved for installation into
Piper PA-34 Seneca I / II / III / IV / V
(and nearly 600 other single-engine aircraft models)
OUTSIDE OF SANTA FE is the town of Madras
(left), made famous in the movie Wild
Hogs. Chiles are found everywhere in New
Mexico, even in wine.
With its overcrowded décor and myr-
iad decorative homages to Mexican and
Native American culture, the Cowgirl BBQ
and Western Grill is a true barbecue joint.
Its wood tables, flamboyant bar area, and
festive outdoor seating promise diners an
authentic Santa Fe experience. Cowgirl
calls its barbecue “righteous” and with
good reason: There’s 12-hour mesquite-
smoked brisket, pork, and chicken served
hot off the smoker. The restaurant’s five-
pepper nachos with salsa diablo was ranked
thirteenth in the nation by The Wall Street
Journal and Cowgirl’s food has been fea-
tured on Rachael Ray's $40 a Day and Heat
Seekers. You can also get a burger made with
elk, buffalo, or venison.
The Relleno Brothers are a local New
Mexico company that make wines with the
chiles of its native state, bottling as Noisy
Water Winery. Try tastings at the shop on
San Francisco Street, especially the Besito
Caliente, white wine made with green chiles.
EMAIL julie.walker@aopa.org | 43
PILOT BRIEFING

AIRCRAFT FOR THE MISSION |

Buy to train PIPER CHEROKEE

Finding the perfect first airplane

BY MIKE COLLINS

THE CUSTOMER: Student pilot with a limited budget

THE MISSION: Flying has always been a dream of yours. You had to put
off that dream soon after college because money was tight, and then
you started a family. Now the kids are getting older and you’ve reached
a point where you can invest in your goals. Rental airplanes in your
area are old dogs, and you love the idea of buying something to train
in. You don’t aspire to go to the airlines, but an instrument rating might
be nice. Once you earn a certificate you think you’ll use it mostly to fly
around the region for fun. It’s still unknown whether your family will
join you, but a four-place purchase will give you more options there.

THE BUDGET:
$50,000 financed

EMAIL mike.collins@aopa.org

THE OPTIONS: higher-horsepower models—there’s the 140-horsepower Cherokee

Cessna 172
The humble Cessna Skyhawk does almost everything acceptably,
if not exceptionally. This four-seater handles well and is predict-
able; its speed isn’t breathtaking but its cruise of around 120 knots
is enough to take you places. Rounding out this jack of all trades
is the fact that the 172 makes a great trainer. Why not learn to
fly in an airplane that can continue to serve you for many years?
It’s also a capable instrument platform, if the instrument rating is
next on your list after a private pilot certificate. In early December
the market included a good selection of late 1950s to early 1960s
Cessna 172s beginning in the $30,000s, with airframes from the
1970s to 1980 reaching the $50,000 mark—and some newer mod-
els well north of $300,000. The Cessna 152 is another option; with
two fewer seats, it gives you less flexibility, but you’ll burn less fuel.
Piper Cherokee
Prefer a low-wing airplane, or maybe you’re tall and just don’t
want to duck while loading or preflighting a high-wing? Consider
the Piper Cherokee, which is a good choice for all the same rea-
sons as the Cessna 172. Large fleets of both are in service, so
maintenance and parts are readily available. A Cherokee’s
140, a number of which have been upgraded to 160 hp (adver-
tised as Cherokee 140/160); an additional 20 ponies power the
Cherokee 180. In December there were Cherokee 140s in the
$20,000 range, with a lot of nice choices between $35,000 and
$45,000; many Cherokee 180s are north of $50,000. The newer,
180-hp Piper Archer breaks the budget, with aircraft advertised
between $70,000 and $200,000.
Beechcraft Bonanza Model 35
A complex airplane like the Beechcraft Bonanza Model 35, with
a bigger engine and retractable landing gear, may make learning
to fly a bit more challenging—especially if it’s equipped with the
original, single throw-over control yoke—but it can be done. The
increased performance could make it more useful, for longer, after
flight training is completed. Older Bonanzas are reasonably fast,
cruising around 150 knots, and typically have miserly fuel burns
of around 10 gallons per hour. In December 2020 prices began in
the high $30,000s but some patience could be required to find the
right one, since the market average is around $92,000. Updated
avionics and other improvements tend to raise an aircraft’s price
and may justify the additional dollars; shop carefully! In general,
CHRIS ROS

performance—as well as its price—aligns with the power pro- the less expensive models were built between the late 1940s and
duced by its Lycoming engine. Generally, you’ll pay more for the early 1960s.
ROSE
SE

44 | AOPA PILOT February 2021

 BEECHCRAFT BONANZA MODEL 35

CESSNA 172

LET US KNOW
WHICH AIRCRAFT
YOU WOULD CHOOSE!
PILOT@AOPA.ORG

aopa.org/pilot AOPA PILOT | 45

PILOT BRIEFING
POSTCARDS |
Hannibal, Missouri
Flying into Mark Twain country
B Y L E R OY C O O K
MOST DEVOTEES of celebrated
American author Samuel Langhorne
Clemens, a.k.a. Mark Twain, have vis-
ited his stately home in Hartford,
Connecticut, where he spent the most
productive years of his life. However, his
boyhood beginnings on the banks of the
Mississippi River in Hannibal, Missouri,
are equally celebrated, and well worth a
fly-in visit to Twain’s hometown.
Hannibal is a hillside city in north-
east Missouri, boasting a population of
17,000. However, its downtown still has
its historic foot at a levee by the riv-
erboat landing, accompanied by the
railroad tracks that supplanted steam-
boat commerce. Fortunately for us,
Hannibal Regional Airport (HAE) has
a fine single runway suitable for most
general aviation aircraft at 4,400 feet
by 100 feet.
46 | AOPA PILOT February 2021
MARK TWAIN’S TOWN
Hannibal, where young Clemens grew
up, provided much of the inspiration
for his famous works, The Adventures
of Tom Sawyer and The Adventures of
Huckleberry Finn. Accordingly, there is
a restored “Huckleberry Finn House”
where the Huck Finn inspiration,
Tom Blankenship, lived—along with
the Clemens’ family home; a “Becky
Thatcher” museum and home across
the street where Clemens’ first sweet-
heart, Laura Hawkins, resided; the
Justice of the Peace building where
Clemens’ father, J.M. Clemens, held
court; and the Grant’s Drug Store phar-
macy, above which the widow Clemens
moved with her children after her hus-
band passed away.
All these well-kept attractions are
grouped closely, requiring only a single
passport-style admission that also
gains entry to the Mark Twain Museum
two blocks downriver.
ROLLING ON THE RIVER
The riverfront, now as then, provides
a backdrop for the downtown area,
although it’s no longer the town’s front
door through which visitors arrive. To
provide a tourist feel for the river-cen-
tered past, a replica riverboat provides
hour-long cruises up and down the
mighty rolling Mississippi, and it’s avail-
able for party cruises by arrangement.
Gift shops, restaurants, galler-
ies, and entertainment venues line the
downtown streets. We ate at the Ole
Planter’s Restaurant and Becky’s Ice
Cream Parlor and found them excel-
lent choices, with typical reasonable
Midwestern prices. For exercise, you
 TOM SAWYER AND HUCKLEBERRY FINN might recognize their "hometown," as
much of Hannibal remains unchanged and restored to appear as it was in
the eighteenth century. The Rockcliffe Mansion (left) and a riverboat replica
(above) are highlights of a visit.

can climb the steps up the hill at the end
of Main Street, ascending past the Tom and
Huck statues to reach the Mark Twain light-
house, a modern reconstruction with no
purpose other than serving as a landmark.
To range slightly farther afield, the
view from Lover’s Leap, a storied 200-
foot bluff downriver, is well worth the ride,
giving a sweeping panorama of the town
and river—and a view across the water-
way into Illinois. Immediately upriver lies
Quincy, Illinois, and 70 miles downriver is
St. Louis, where the Missouri and Illinois
rivers merge into the Mississippi.
The Mark Twain Cave attraction,
featured in Tom Sawyer, is a few miles
south of town and is a necessary stop for
all Twain aficionados. While its maze of
passageways is not overly replete with sub-
terranean formations, it carries the cache
of two centuries of public use, including
markings from the time of young Sam
Clemens, with graffiti and well-worn
footpaths. For a more-natural caving expe-
rience, the adjoining Cameron Cave is also
available for tours.
DON’T MISS THE MANSION
Our favorite Hannibal site had nothing to do
with Mark Twain. The Rockcliffe Mansion
is a huge 30-room Georgian Revival edifice,
built by lumber magnate John J. Cruikshank
around 1898 to 1900 on a hilltop overlook-
ing the town and river. Constructed with
the finest of materials and workmanship,
it was occupied by the Cruikshank family
for the first quarter of the twentieth cen-
tury and was used for lavish entertaining,
including a reception held during the final
visit to Hannibal by Clemens in 1902, before
his death in 1910.
The uniqueness of the Rockcliffe
Mansion stems from its state of preserva-
tion and ongoing restoration. Following Mr.
Cruikshank’s passing in 1924, it was aban-
doned by the survivors and sat empty, fully
furnished, for 43 years. Only days before the
giant house was scheduled to be demolished
for land clearance, its historical landmark
value was finally recognized and it has since
passed through several ownerships, in an
attempt to keep it as a window into the past.
Now open March 15 to November 15 for
guided tours and bed-and-breakfast stays,
the Rockcliffe Mansion provides insight into
the gentile elegance of turn of the century
living, when electricity and gas lights com-
peted, and indoor plumbing was a mark of
wealth. Most of the furniture, wallpaper, fix-
tures, and woodwork are original, just as the
family left them, many imported at consid-
erable cost.
LEROY COOK is an airline transport pilot,
instructor, and frequent contributor to
AOPA publications.

Flying In
Hannibal Regional Airport (HAE) is
served by RNAV approaches to the
runway, with an AWOS broadcast on
120.775 MHz. In the AWOS’s absence,
nearby Quincy, Illinois, provides a sec- Center on 126.225. Self-service 100LL
ondary altimeter setting, raising mini- and Jet A fuel are available, as is pilot-
mums by no more than 60 feet. Clear- activated lighting on the 122.8 Unicom
ances are obtained through Kansas City frequency.

aopa.org/pilot AOPA PILOT | 47

PILOT BRIEFING

TEST PILOT ANSWERS from p. 35

1. These are four Boeing E–4Bs,

Boeing 747s modified to serve as
command and control centers during
war and to survive a nuclear blast or
an electromagnetic pulse. They are
considered the best way to protect
the president, and an E–4B fol-
lows whenever the president travels
abroad.

2. True. Called a falling leaf, the

maneuver was executed by holding
the aircraft in a stall and entering and
recovering from a series of incipient
spins in alternate directions. When
viewed from ahead, the airplane
appears to be falling like a leaf.

3. Rubber jungle is a term used by

airline crewmembers to describe the
effect created when oxygen masks
are deployed throughout the cabin
from above passenger seats and
dangle at the ends of their rubber
hoses.

4. The correct answer is B. This is

when General Electric turbocharged
a Liberty engine that produced more
power atop Pike’s Peak in Colorado
(14,110 feet msl) than at sea level.
This led to a 1920 altitude record of
33,000 feet.

5. McNair earned a doctorate in phys-

ics from Massachusetts Institute of
Technology, became an expert in laser
physics, and was the second African
American to fly in space. He perished
in the Space Shuttle Challenger disas-
ter in 1986, and the library is named
after him.

6. False. A sortie involves a single

aircraft. Sortie originated from the
French verb, sortir, which means to
go out.

7. Orville Wright began the sport and

science of soaring when he soared for
9 minutes 45 seconds over Kill Devil
Hill on October 24, 1911, a record that
stood for almost 10 years.

8. The correct answer is A. With

the engine shut down, a manifold
pressure gauge acts as a barometer
and indicates ambient atmospheric
pressure, which—in this case—is 29.72
inches minus 0.30 inches, or 29.42
inches. Temperature is not relevant.

48 | AOPA PILOT February 2021

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50 | AOPA PILOT February 2021
aopa.org/pilot AOPA PILOT | 51
 CLOCKWISE FROM RIGHT: The Panthera’s Garmin panel has dual G3X Touch
displays, glareshield-mounted gear and flap controls (with indicators that
flash when they’re in transit), and control sticks with hat-style trim controls.
The red streamer is for the ballistic parachute handle. The Panthera’s clean,
business-like power qaudrant; and textured leather seats reminiscent of those
found in business jets. Seats are reclined to give more headroom.

Pipistrel’s Panthera, a sleek four-seater

with base price of $600,000 and a 200-
knot maximum cruise, has finally arrived
in the United States to pretty much univer-
sal enthusiasm. Deposits have been placed
for 10 of the first airplanes, certified under
experimental exhibition rules, with some
of the checks dating back to 2019; 50 more
deposits are on the books for the FAR Part
23 version that should follow in 2022. It’s
surprising that most of these orders were
placed by pilots who’d never even sat in
the airplane, let alone flown it. Now that’s
a sign of a compelling design.
The Panthera looks like it’s going 200
knots just sitting on the ramp. Its all-com-
posite airframe has been optimized for low
drag, so there’s little frontal area and great
attention to detail when it comes to fit and
finish. Starting at the front, you can see the
tight cowling and smallish engine cooling
inlets, which feed ram air into a massive ple-
num to maximize cooling. The airplane’s
260-horsepower Lycoming IO-540 also has
tuned Inconel exhaust stacks for improved
combustion efficiency and lower noise pro-
files. Its titanium landing gear assemblies
are light, yet strong, and Beringer wheels
also were chosen for their light weight.

52 | AOPA PILOT February 2021

aopa.org/pilot AOPA PILOT | 53
 But the most remarkable aspect of the
landing gear is the gear door arrangement.
Most general aviation retractables make do
with one, maybe two gear doors per wheel.
Pipistrel put four doors on each main gear
and three on the nosewheel assembly. That’s
a total of 11 doors, which must be some kind
of record. Look at them at the right angle,
and the doors’ angular shapes resemble
origami creations. And instead of the doors
being the sharp-edged, single, flat pieces of
aluminum we’re accustomed to seeing, these
have beveled interior surfaces. When the
gear retract, the doors close absolutely flush
with the underside of the wing. When they
extend, all those doors create a lot of drag.
54 | AOPA PILOT February 2021
The cabin doors—there are three of
them, including an aft passenger door—
are equally well fitted and have passive
rubber seals. With the doors shut, those
seals and the flush fit translate into a quiet
cabin. But it’s the seats that catch the eye.
They’re fixed in a reclined position in
keeping with the mandate to minimize
the fuselage’s cabin height and frontal drag,
and the demonstration airplane I flew had
textured, black-and-red leather seats. Once
in your seat, the view out front depends on
your height, because the seats don’t adjust
vertically. I’m 5 feet 10 and during taxi,
takeoff, and in the landing flare I could
just make out the tarmac ahead. A shorter
person would have a view more like that of
a taildragger. A thick centerpost can also
interfere with forward vision.
The panel evokes that of a light jet. The
Garmin avionics include dual G3X Touch
primary/multifunction displays with split-
screen capability, GTN 750Xi and 650Xi
navcoms, a GFC 500 autopilot, a Mid-
Continent standby attitude indicator, and
more. The landing gear and flap controls
are glareshield-mounted, and their posi-
tion indicators flash when the gear or flaps
are in transit. The emergency gear exten-
sion crank is beneath an armrest panel, and
the BRS ballistic parachute handle is next
to your head, on the centerpost.
An earlier Panthera prototype had a
210-horsepower Lycoming IO-390 engine,
which Pipistrel intended to use with auto
fuel. I flew an IO-390-equipped Panthera
in 2015 during a visit to Pipistrel’s factory
in Slovenia, and it didn’t seem underpow-
ered. But mogas certification never came
for the IO-390, so the switch was made
 SPEC SHEET
Pipistrel Panthera (Experimental exhibition certificate)
BASE PRICE 497,000 EUROS/$593,929 (AS OF SEPTEMBER 1, 2020)
TYPICALLY EQUIPPED PRICE $600,000 TO $700,000

SPECIFICATIONS
Engine | Lycoming IO-540V-V4A5, 260 hp
Max takeoff weight | 2,900 lb
Useful load | 1,100 lb
Total usable fuel | 55.4 gal
Payload, full fuel | 770 lb
Wingspan | 35 ft 8 in
Wing area | 121 sq ft
Length | 26 ft 6 in
Height | 7 ft 2 in

PERFORMANCE
Stall, landing configuration | 60 KIAS
Stall, clean | 65 KIAS
Cruise speed, 75% power, 8,500 ft | 198 KTAS
Cruise speed, 65% power, 12,000 ft | 193 KTAS
Range w/45-min reserve, at 155 KTAS cruise, 12,000 ft,
4 pax | 1,000 nm
Climb rate at MTOW | 1,550 fpm
to the more powerful, 260 horsepower
Takeoff roll | 968 ft
Lycoming IO-540, which can burn both
Takeoff distance over 50-ft obstacle | 1,772 ft
avgas or 93-octane, ethanol-free mogas.
Landing distance over 50-ft obstacle | 1,870 ft
For this article, I flew with Andy
Chan, COO of Right Rudder Aviation at
LIMITING AND RECOMMENDED AIRSPEEDS
the Inverness, Florida, airport and the
VA (maneuvering speed) | 143 KIAS
Panthera’s only U.S. dealer. Inverness has a
VFE (max flaps extended) | 106 KIAS
5,000-foot runway and I’ll bet we used 2,000
VLE (max gear extended) | 106 KIAS
feet of that—and a lot of right rudder—to lift
VNO (max structural cruise) | 175 KIAS
off and clear the standard 50-foot obsta-
VNE (never exceed) | 205 KIAS
cle. The initial climb rate on our 85-degree
day settled at 1,300 fpm while at the VY of
FOR MORE INFORMATION:
100 knots; cruise climb is 130 to 140 knots.
pipistrel-aircraft.com or rightrudderaviation.com
Before long we were at 6,500 feet, where it
was 61 degrees Fahrenheit (approximately
All specifications are based on manufacturer’s calcula-
ISA +10-degree Celsius conditions) and set
tions. All performance figures are based on standard
up to answer the burning question: Is this
day, standard atmosphere, sea level, gross weight
really a 200-knot airplane?
conditions unless otherwise noted.
Power was brought up to max con-
tinuous, fuel flow hit 13 gph, and the G3X
calculated a true airspeed of 193 knots.
Chan said that at the airplane’s posted CRUISE SPEEDS PUSHING 200 knots are possible at lower altitudes, but at the price
of a 16-gph fuel burn. Cruising at 11 to 13 gph at 8,500 feet gives you an approxi-
normal or recommended cruise power mate cruise speed of 185 KTAS. At 6,500 feet above a cloud layer near Inverness,
setting, true airspeed runs around 183 Florida, it was a smooth ride for the air-to-air photo shoot.

aopa.org/pilot AOPA PILOT | 55

knots, with an 11.5-gph fuel burn at 8,500
feet. Chan said under ideal conditions you
could cruise as high as 194 to 198 knots, but
that fuel burn would reach the 14 to 16 gph
range. Even so, Pipistrel itself touts a maxi-
mum speed of 203 KTAS.
Whether it’s 187, 194, or 198 knots,
the issue is that the Panthera’s VNO is 175
knots, and its VNE is 205 knots indicated.
So powered up, that slippery airplane
can quickly pick up speed with even
slight nose-down pitch. It happened to
me. While cruising at 160 knots, I nosed
over to recapture a target altitude and the
Panthera headed deep into the yellow arc.
Redline was only seconds away. This air-
plane doesn’t have speed brakes, but it
certainly needs them.
All this means that descent and
approach planning should be done well
before reaching the terminal area or air-
port pattern. Chan said that those 11 gear
doors serve as good stand-ins for speed
brakes, and extending the landing gear (it
takes 10 seconds)—as well as extending the
flaps—can help scrub off speed. Quite true,
but there’s a complication: Both VLE and
VFE are 106 knots. Depending on your air-
speed, it could take a while for the airplane
to slow to those limits using engine power
alone. The Panthera builds speed quickly
and is reluctant to shed it.
56 | AOPA PILOT February 2021
That said, on final approach, with 18
inches of manifold pressure, gear down,
and flaps at their max 45-degree deflec-
tion, you’ll realize the recommended
reference airspeed of 75 to 85 knots.
Hold it off, wait for the chirp, let the trail-
ing-link landing gear do their magic, and
you’re down in style.
The story goes that the airplane was
designed at Pipistrel founder and CEO Ivo
Boscarol’s request. He wanted a four-seat,
200-knot airplane that could carry four
people 1,000 nm, nonstop. It appears that
U.S. pilots want the same kind of perfor-
mance, and with the added attraction of a
price that’s hundreds of thousands of dol-
lars less than those for new Cirrus and
Bonanza airplanes. Order an experimen-
tal-exhibition version right now and you’ll
wait a year for delivery. For a Part 23-certi-
fied Panthera ($800,000) deliveries should
begin in 2022. Extras like long-range fuel
tanks ($60,000), oxygen, air conditioning,
and other options will drive prices up, and
the euro’s performance against the dollar
is another factor.
Pipistrel has earned a stellar repu-
tation as a manufacturer with a heavy
emphasis on light singles focusing on the
training and recreational markets. In keep-
ing with its commitment to ecologically
friendly designs, some of them were the
CLOCKWISE FROM RIGHT: The IO-540’s air
plenum keeps CHTs under control; the
airplane’s 11 gear doors, and the fixed
wingwalk that remains in place even with
flaps extended; the emergency gear
extension crank (under the armrest) has
a medieval look to it, and is perhaps the
only “unsleek” part of the airplane; three
large doors allow easy access to those
comfy seats.
first electrically powered trainers brought
to market. One branch of the company,
Pipistrel Vertical Solutions, is working on
an eVTOL cargo-hauler, the Nuuva.
So yes, Pipistrel is even planning a
hybrid-electric variant of the Panthera,
one that pairs a Rotax 915iS with an elec-
tric motor, will do 212 knots, and have a
price starting at $800,000. Yet another
Panthera concept would use electric and
hydrogen power.
A small, 250-employee company
tucked away in a small town in a chunk of
the former Yugoslavia seems to be busting
out of its niche and setting a new trajectory
for general aviation. AOPA
EMAIL tom.horne@aopa.org
aopa.org/pilot AOPA PILOT | 57
A good
guy to
have Two brothers,
an AirCam, and a
continent to cross

around B Y D AV E H I R S C H M A N

P H OTO G R A P H Y B Y C H R I S R O S E

We made our escape just as the sun peeked

over the desert floor. Taking off from North Las Vegas Airport in the
pink light of dawn—before the summer heat had a chance to build, or the con-
trol tower opened—we slid north under the Class B airspace, then hugged the
mountainsides as we entered the barren, rock-strewn valleys to the northeast.
“Are we flying or levitating?” my brother Harry asked with amusement from
the back seat of the AirCam, the twin-engine, two-seat observation airplane that
we’d spend the next few days ferrying to the East Coast. “This feels more like
riding in an elevator than an airplane.”
Harry and I are the two middle brothers in a brood of four. We walk the
same, talk the same, and share a fascination with flying—yet our aviation paths
couldn’t be more different.
Harry was the pilot prodigy in our family. He was the golden boy who soloed
on his sixteenth birthday, worked as a flight instructor during college at UCLA,
joined the U.S. Navy, and flew F/A–18 Hornets for a decade. Then Crohn’s dis-
ease, a chronic autoimmune disorder, ended his military flying career. He was
deeply disappointed but quickly applied himself to new pursuits. He went back
to school for a master’s degree in business, started a family, and then worked for
a series of fast-paced Silicon Valley startups.
He put jets aside and had a partnership in a single-seat Yak 50, a Russian aero-
batic airplane, but he never flew professionally. He just wanted to pull Gs, fly
in formation with friends, and dogfight with other mostly former fighter pilots
like himself.
I’m a purely civilian pilot, learned to fly in my mid-20s, and was drawn to all

58 | AOPA PILOT February 2021

aopa.org/pilot AOPA PILOT | 59
60 | AOPA PILOT February 2021
Harry and I are the two middle brothers in
a brood of four. We walk the same, talk the
same, and share a fascination with flying—yet
our aviation paths couldn’t be more different.

THE AIRCAM PROVIDES a close-up look at America’s splendor and its scars, and sharing
the cockpit with my brother Harry (above, right) was a rare privilege.

the impractical stuff: aerobatics, historical airplanes, and tailwheels. I worked as a

journalist and flew for recreation and personal challenge, and I frankly never antic-
ipated that I’d ever have the chance to work in aviation.
Recently, however, Harry stepped away from the corporate world and jumped
back into full-time flying. At age 54, he renewed his long-lapsed flight instructor cer-
tificate, added some new ratings, and started teaching. He planned to pursue a jet
type rating or two—just as the global pandemic hit and demand for pilots imploded.
So, when I had an opportunity to ferry an AirCam from Nevada to Maryland,
Harry—for once—was available to come along. I had to let him know at the start,
however, that this trip would be especially challenging.
The AirCam is a sensory feast to fly because of its limitless view, and its twin-
engine design allows it to safely explore remote regions. But it’s achingly slow—about
70 knots in cruise—and light wing loading makes it feel like a cork on the ocean in
turbulence. It’s drafty and cold in the winter, especially in the rear seat, and blaz-
ing hot in summer.
Also, this particular airplane’s transponder and ADS-B transmitter were inopera-
tive, so we couldn’t get VFR flight following, transit or overfly Class B or C airspace,
or appear at all on air traffic control radar. (Authorizations were required to leave
terminal airspace at the beginning of the journey, and enter it at trip’s end.)
Harry dismissed those limitations with a shrug.
“We’ll fly at low altitudes where we’re unlikely to encounter other airplanes and
keep a sharp lookout,” he said. “You’ve flown these routes—but you’ve never done it
in such good company.”

A grueling pace
I flew the first leg out of Las Vegas to demonstrate the AirCam’s unique traits, and
I described them to Harry along the way. Harry would fly up front on the next leg—
and we’d alternate the rest of the way across the continent.
From Las Vegas, we overflew Zion National Park, and the Canyonlands, all the
way to Moab, Utah—a 4.5-hour flight made possible by a 12-gallon auxiliary fuel tank.
Flight conditions were sublime with smooth air and unlimited visibility.

aopa.org/pilot AOPA PILOT | 61

 Next, Harry took over for what turned out to be the most difficult
portion of the trip: crossing the Rockies and the Continental Divide
on a route that took us by the ski resorts at Vail and Aspen, Colorado.
Surface winds were mercifully light, but towering cumulus
clouds rose in the afternoon heat, and the AirCam was buffeted
by turbulence. Harry moved the controls from stop to stop to
keep the wings level—but his poise and sense of humor seemed
unaltered.
“It looks like the afterburners in this airplane are inop,” he
cracked. “I’m going to have to write that up for maintenance.”
Then, seeing that I had set the moving map to track up, he
feigned indignance.
“That’s it! We’re completely incompatible. It’s got to be north
up or I’m done.”
Going by the Eagle County Regional Airport, we looked down
on a line of corporate jets going into Aspen. In the back seat, I had
a GPS set to the Terrain page on one knee and an iPhone with a
moving map on the other. Harry rode rising air columns to an alti-
tude of more than 13,000 feet (but less than 2,500 feet above the
ground) over the Continental Divide, then descended with the ter-
rain as we crossed onto the plains north of Denver.
Harry made his first AirCam landing at Fort Morgan, Colorado,
and he recited verbatim the advice I’d given him as he flew.
“Sixty-five miles an hour on final, half flaps, and carry power
into ground effect,” he said. “Pull the throttles to idle, and full aft
stick for a three-point landing. Nothing to it.”
We filled the fuel tanks and considered our next move. It was
3 p.m., we’d flown nine hours, and there were still six hours of
EARLY MORNINGS and late evenings are ideal for the AirCam
and I punished my night-owl brother by insisting we start
flying by sunrise.
62 | AOPA PILOT February 2021
daylight remaining. The clouds that had been building through-
out our flight across the Rockies were now mature thunderstorms
headed our way. We could stay ahead of them if we left right away.
We climbed back into the AirCam and flew east to Nebraska.
“Now I see why no one wants to fly with you on these ferry
trips,” Harry said. “You set a grueling pace.”
In only a few flights, Harry and I were falling into a comfort-
able pattern. The front-seat pilot flew and spoke on the radio. The
back-seater navigated, tuned the radio, synchronized the propel-
lers (it’s easier to hear a mismatch between the fixed-pitch props
in the back seat), and evaluated airport options. Backseat duty also
included serving as a human autopilot by taking over the controls
and holding a heading and altitude when directed.
Whenever I took over from Harry, the airplane was perfectly
trimmed, on the magenta GPS course line, and exactly on altitude.
I once chided him over eastern Colorado by pointing out that his
altitude had strayed 50 feet.
“You must have missed the last barometric pressure setting
because mine is dead nuts on,” he said. “Navy training, man. It
sticks with you.”
We each handled our own drinks and snacks. I drank water
and iced tea and ate mostly raisins and nuts from home. Harry
guzzled Gatorade and soft drinks and ate Pop Tarts, Oreos, and
chips from vending machines.
We were running out of daylight and drifted into Mc Cook,
Nebraska (MCK), over fields of amber grain that really were
waving in the wind. We hopped into the infamously dilapidated
30-something Crown Victoria courtesy car from J&S Aviation and
drove to town. The car’s headliner was falling down, only one
window opened and closed, and the low fuel warning light was
constantly on even though the gas tank was full, but it got us to a
Wendy’s and a hotel.
There, I watched Harry devour two bacon cheeseburgers, fries,
and two lemonades, then fall asleep on the foldout sofa-bed he kindly
took instead of the real bed. He was snoring within minutes, so I
found a pair of foam earplugs that allowed me to get some rest, too.
We’d covered more than 1,000 nautical miles on our first day,
and the weather forecast looked favorable for the next 48 hours.
The AirCam was behaving beautifully, and oil consumption on the
two Rotax 912 engines was minimal.
Harry and I have plenty of differences as people and as pilots.
He flies low and takes in the sights while I tend to go high for
greater efficiency. He circles and snaps photos when he sees some- HARRY WAS THE pilot prodigy in our family and excelled
in the military, where he flew F/A–18 Hornets. His
thing interesting while I tend to keep going. He’s a night owl and
enthusiasm for aircraft ranging from supersonic jets to
I’m a morning person. He likes to strike up conversations with low-and-slow sport airplanes is genuine and contagious.
everyone he meets and I’m more reserved. I’m always in a hurry
but stick to the speed limit when I drive. He’s laid back until he
gets in a car and then he speeds. But he was right about being
good company.
He’s happy and relaxed in the air; quick with one-liners; and
refreshingly, authentically cheerful. When he was first diagnosed
with a chronic illness, he told the doctor he accepted the hardships
that would come—but surely there was an upside.
“Does this mean I get a prescription for medical marijuana?”
he asked. “How about a handicapped parking sticker? There’s got
to be something.”

TWO 100-HORSEPOWER Rotax engines provided enough

power to easily cross high elevations in the Rocky
Mountains, and they performed flawlessly throughout
the journey.

aopa.org/pilot AOPA PILOT | 63

Good to have around
Harry flew the first leg out of Nebraska and turned east toward
Maryland as soon as the wheels broke ground.
“Let me guess,” he said. “Take off and turn to zero niner
zero—just like every other leg.”
We leveled off about 600 feet above the ground and Harry
announced that we’d reached our cruising altitude.
“It’s less boring down here,” he said. “When we did low-levels
in the Hornet everything was a blur. I like seeing all the details.”
He also bonded with the AirCam. “This thing is so fun it’s
redonkulous!” he said. “I love sitting so far forward on the pointy
end of the pencil. It’s like a jet, even though we used to taxi the
jets faster than this thing cruises.”
Fuel flow at cruise ranged from 6 to 7.5 gallons per hour, and
Harry found that astounding. “I keep thinking that must be the
fuel flow for one engine,” he said. “It’s hard to believe that little
number is the total for both.”
Eventually, we found a tailwind and groundspeeds increased
to 100 knots, then 110, blistering speed for an AirCam. We com-
pleted two 400-nautical-mile legs that day and were within
striking distance of Maryland when we took off on the third.
But thunderstorms over West Virginia blocked our path, so we
dropped into Athens, Ohio (UNI), for the night.
It was my turn to fly the final leg over the Appalachians
the next morning, and flight conditions were perfect: smooth
air, unlimited visibility, and a tailwind. But since Harry had
been such a good sport by sleeping on the sofa bed the previ-
ous night, I gave him the front seat for the trip over the eastern
mountains.
We made a stairstep climb to the summit. Then Harry spot-
ted the Potomac River near Cumberland, Maryland, and followed
it over the Shenandoah Valley to Harpers Ferry, West Virginia.
64 | AOPA PILOT February 2021
Finally, we peeled off and completed our journey about 20 miles
away in Frederick, Maryland.
We’d covered about 2,200 nautical miles, flown 25 hours,
climbed above 13,000 feet, and our average fuel burn was less than
seven gallons per hour. But the numbers don’t come close to tell-
ing the story of this aerial odyssey.
Harry and I live on different sides of the country, and we’re
both so focused on our families and careers that we only see each
other a time or two a year. These few days of intense, cooperative
effort in the same cockpit working on a shared goal made me feel
closer to my brother than I had in a long time.
Neither of us felt any need to fill the silences during our
marathon flight, and they weren’t uncomfortable. A Bluetooth
telephone connection was available in the airplane, yet neither of
us plugged it in. We didn’t want to talk on the telephone. We were
flying together, and that was entertaining enough.
I got to appreciate Harry’s aviation skills and saw him figure
out an airplane that was wildly different from anything in his vast
experience. I also got to watch him react to novel situations in the
air and on the ground—and I liked what I saw. The sibling rivalries
that defined our youth are distant memories now, and we’ve each
raised kids of our own. I have only respect for the man my brother
has become, and pride in his many accomplishments.
Even though we seldom see each other, or fly together, I
eagerly await the next time. Crossing the country with my brother
was a privilege, and an experience I’ll always treasure.
“Since this went so well, you really ought to take me on more of
these oddball ferry trips,” Harry said as I dropped him off for his
airline flight back to California. “You’ve got to admit that, except
for the snoring, I’m a pretty good guy to have around.” AOPA
EMAIL dave.hirschman@aopa.org
aopa.org/pilot AOPA PILOT | 65
66 | AOPA PILOT February 2021
Hangar doors opened to a 1954 Beech 18 on floats, resplendent in white
with nautical blue trim. The grande dame sheltered at Sky Harbor (DYT),
a humming GA airport and seaplane base in Duluth, Minnestota, rooted
on a spit of land between Lake Superior and Superior Bay. I was among a
few fawning onlookers mesmerized by the legendary twin. Tom Sullivan, a
multiengine seaplane CFI, waved me to join the passel of scurrying atten-
dants, fussing over details of preflight preparation.

aopa.org/pilot AOPA PILOT | 67

 I
I was at Sky Harbor for Lake Country Air’s two-day multi-
engine seaplane rating course. Lake Country’s training
is only open to pilots with both a multiengine land and
a single-engine seaplane rating. The program focuses CRANE LAKE in northern Minnesota is the site of
on the exclusive experience of flying one of the most Scott’s Seaplane Base, where we refueled Lake
iconic twins ever built, only a handful of which are on Country Air’s Beech 18. Legendary handling
characteristics makes this Beech a “true” flying
floats. The MES isn’t the main draw to Lake Country’s airplane, even with a challenging checklist.
program; anyone looking to notch ratings can find more
practical alternatives. Lake Country’s program is for the
romantics, the adventurers, and those willing to pay
$8,775 for five hours of inimitable flying.
Sullivan, my instructor for the weekend, is a
25,000-hour GA pilot. He’s instructed in N33JP since
2012. Early in his career, he set sales records at Cirrus
Aircraft that remain unbroken. He’s got a fun, energetic
way about him. I quickly grasped his success in sales.
He likes people and loves to fly. More than anything, he
wanted me to savor the incomparable experience of fly-
ing a Twin Beech off the water. I did, thanks in part to
his unobtrusive instruction that stood watchful guard
while I did all the flying, from the first engine start.
Doug Haala, an A&P/IA who’s maintained this par-
ticular Twin Beech for some 36 years, led an extensive
preflight, then Sullivan and I climbed into the cockpit
via a custom hatch just above the pilot seats that I found
easier and more fun than the typical rear cabin door.
After a couple of dry run-throughs I flipped primer,
starter primer, starter, and then—following a few pro-
peller swings—turned on the mags and coaxed the
throttle. I smiled at success with the Twin Beech’s noto-
rious “three-handed” start, which created one of the
most enjoyable sounds in aviation: an awakening radial
engine. We kept the oil bypass doors closed while the
engines idled and the oil warmed, which took some 20
minutes on a temperate October day.
We shut down and Carl Nephew, Lake Point’s
smiling line agent, towed us to the water ramp. A com-
mercial-rated college student, he’s in pursuit of ratings
so he can join the pilots who fly Lake Country’s clas-
sic radials for hire. Nephew’s the kind of person you’re
happy to see coming up the ranks in GA. He eased
us down the launch ramp and the 8,725-pound Twin
Beech floated off the trailer effortlessly. I recranked the
engines, and my first surprise was how maneuverable
the Beech 18 is on the water. Effective water rudders and
differential power allow for excellent water taxi control.

68 | AOPA PILOT February 2021

 We idled to the takeoff point, radials chugging,
running pretakeoff checklists, scanning the area for
water traffic, and managing shutter doors to optimize
oil temperatures—a process that continued through-
out the flight. Watching sideways, Sullivan suggested
we not worry about carburetor heat in these temper-
atures. I knew enough about Pratt & Whitney R-985s
on Beech 18s that I didn’t take the bait. We pulled on
carburetor heats, and both engines coughed from ice
discharge. The air intakes underneath each engine,
directly over the water, draw moist air to the carbu-
retors, increasing the potential for carb icing on the
water. The fun, impressive demonstration was a hall-
mark of Sullivan’s instruction.
I set approach flaps and steadily pushed the throt-
tles to 35 inches manifold pressure, less than full
throttle to preserve engine life. Even on floats, at our
weight, the Twin Beech didn’t need all 450 horsepower
from each engine for takeoff. The nose rose consider-
ably as the EDO 7850 straight floats plowed the water.
Sullivan gave me a reassuring nod, indicating all was
normal. Visibility over the nose was poor, similar to
the Beech’s ground posture on wheels, but after a few
seconds the nose began to lower as the floats planed. I
relaxed back-pressure to hunt for the optimum plan-
ing attitude, a sweet spot noticeable by smoothness
and acceleration. After 15 seconds and about 2,500 feet
of water run, I banked slightly leeward to unstick the
upwind float, and the Beech lifted crisply off the water
at 80 mph. The takeoff was smoother and easier to fly
than a Super Cub on amphibious floats.
Shortly after takeoff I leveled and accelerated
beyond VMC (107 mph), then initiated the first power
reduction—carb heat on for a few seconds of preven-
tive heat. I began a climb at 115 mph, retracted the
flaps, and initiated the second power reduction—man-
ifold pressure to 30 inches and rpm to 2,000.
Out of the water, it was just a Beech 18 with
more drag and fuel burn, but the core characteris-
tics remained. Floats didn’t affect the Twin Beech’s
legendary characteristics: aesthetically beautiful,
aurally soothing, physically stable, and predictable.
It was smooth on the controls, balanced with control
pressures that felt just right—meaning not too heavy,
which I had expected. Responsiveness in pitch and roll
matched what I intuitively expected when I moved the
yoke. Such is a characteristic of a “true” flying airplane,
a frequent adjective used to describe the Beech 18.
We cruised north to Scott’s Seaplane Base on Crane
Lake in northern Minnesota, which gave me an hour
or so to get comfortable with the instrument scan
and enjoy the stunning fall scenery, framed through
the Beech’s cockpit. En route I managed the radial
engines, which insisted on frequent primping. The
radials grumbled at each other slowly, back and forth.
I refereed them with rpm levers, coaxing agreement—
a process I fiddled with the entire weekend.

aopa.org/pilot AOPA PILOT | 69

 With 28 inches of manifold pressure and 1,800
rpm, we cruised at 135 mph burning 50 gallons per
hour, some 65 mph slower than a Beech 18 on wheels.
Occasionally we activated preventive carb heat and
adjusted oil shutter doors to manage the narrow oil
temperature targets for optimum engine operation.
While fidgeting with the engines, I flew the stable
Beech easily in cruise with small inputs to the large
elevator trim wheel at my right hip, which allowed pre-
cise altitude control and a smooth ride.
On downwind for our first landing, I selected
approach flaps once below 120 mph, and turning base
used preventive carb heat for a few seconds. On final,
110 mph felt about right to stay above VMC until land-
ing was assured, then 100 mph. “From here,” Sullivan
coached, “just feel it and fly it.” A typical water landing
in the Twin Beech is much like a glassy water landing
in other floatplanes but with a slightly steeper descent.
I managed power and pitch to descend steadily to the
water at about 400 feet per minute. Once in ground
effect, I started a slow, continuous power reduction
with steady aft yoke, and the floats sliced the water
gracefully. The Twin Beech can be “greased” on
water landings because of excellent control authority
throughout the flare and touchdown, and large floats
that slip into the water. The touchdown and water
transition were much easier and smoother than flying
a Super Cub, my previous seaplane ride.
We worked on taxi techniques between landings.
The EDO 7850 floats aren’t connected by spreaders and
side loads are especially worrisome, since each float is
independent. Turns during high-speed, planing taxi
are delicate, especially with any wave activity. Docking
takes some room because of the long wingspan, but
speed control is easy by sequentially working power,
carb heat, magnetos, and cutting the engines in succes-
sion approaching the dock.
We fueled at Scott’s, a quaint seaplane base used for
decades as a last fuel stop before crossing the Canadian
border. Fueling any seaplane on the water requires some
sea legs. Trapeze skills are helpful to top off the Twin
Beech’s nose tank, placed forward of any comfortable
reach from a solid wing hold. Wing fuel tanks are easy
enough to access, once you climb out the cockpit hatch
onto the wing. Legend has it that you’re not a real sea-
plane pilot until you’ve dropped your keys or something
expensive in the water. I joined the ranks of the fully
inducted by dropping my favorite pair of sunglasses as
I ambled across the fuselage to the outboard wing.
The second and final day was checkride day. We
stayed near Duluth for checkride practice and splashed
around Superior Bay amid the iron ore docks made
famous by Gordon Lightfoot’s somber ballad. Late
that afternoon, FAA designated pilot examiner Geary
“General” Padden arrived. Competent, confident, and

70 | AOPA PILOT February 2021

SPLASHING AROUND in Crane Lake, I got
comfortable with the Twin Beech, especially its
T-formation flight instruments, hefty trim wheel,
and many engine and propeller controls. I joined the
ranks of seaplane pilots by losing my favorite pair of
sunglasses in the water.
engaging, he seemed delighted to be in the Beech again,
which he flies frequently. He’s an ATP-rated airline
captain, a retired fighter pilot with Navy and Air Force
experience, and has a few thousand hours in multi-
engine seaplanes. He got down to business with the oral
exam. I stumbled on a buoy question, and he picked at
that topic a bit before we moved on. He quizzed me on
seaplane basics and engine failure response in the Beech
18. After a little more than an hour he was satisfied, so
we stepped to the airplane and launched.
Since I’m multiengine rated and single-engine
seaplane rated, two takeoffs and two landings would
suffice—if all went well. I didn’t do anything “dumb,
different, or dangerous” and flew the Twin Beech as
Sullivan and I had practiced. After the second landing,
Padden advised he’d seen enough, but I could keep fly-
ing. I was tempted; it was so much fun, but it was still
a checkride. And as long as Padden was on board in his
DPE capacity, the checkride was still in progress and a
small mental mistake could ruin the day. It took some
discipline, but I reluctantly passed.
A direct tailwind made it easy to line up with the
ramp. We kept a little speed and added a smidge of power
to beach onto the wooden trailer Nephew had waiting.
He attached cables to the bow of the floats and activated
a winch that pulled us completely out of the water and
onto the trailer. The entire process took five minutes.
The Twin Beech, having graced her subjects, retired
for the evening. The local crew offered beer from the
nearby hangar refrigerator, and I tried to absorb the
entire experience, made special by an enjoyable group
of talented pilots who seemed to delight in sharing their
love of one of the most unique flying experiences in GA.
I booked my trip with an extra day for weather
contingencies, which allowed me to loiter on the Sky
Harbor ramp the next day, helping Nephew launch and
recover a few Beaver flights carrying tourists. When
the Twin Beech emerged, I scurried over to help, now
proud to be one of her humble attendants. Sky Harbor
was tough to leave, and so I lingered, chatting with Alex
Vickory, a 31-year-old United Airlines captain, A&P/IA,
and one of Lake Country’s owners. Wearing shorts and
flip-flops in 60-degree weather, tanned, with dark sun-
glasses spearing thick, unmanicured hair, he threw more
California surfer than ATP-rated instructor. Vickory’s
comfortable demeanor and his understated, yet clearly
evident joy in flying and teaching in Lake Country Air’s
iconic radial airplanes perfectly reflected the essence of
the entire experience at Sky Harbor.
There are certainly more practical ways to achieve
a multiengine seaplane rating. It’s hard to imagine one
as enjoyable. AOPA
RICHARD MCSPADDEN is senior vice president of the AOPA
Air Safety Institute.
aopa.org/pilot AOPA PILOT | 71
 MAKING
LEMONADE GA travel during a pandemic
BY ALICIA HERRON

For all the unprecedented stress of 2020, it was a

good year to be a general aviation pilot. Flying in
small private aircraft is one of the few ways to travel
and still control whom we contact—and flying solo
is the perfect socially distant activity.
Late in the year, as coronavirus cases declined and the Golden State
started reopening, I prepared to take a flying trip around Southern
California for a short solo vacation and to sharpen up my cross-country
skills on the way.

I L LU S T R AT I O N B Y N E I L W E B B
P H OT O G R A P H Y B Y T H E A U T H O R

72 | AOPA PILOT February 2021

aopa.org/pilot AOPA PILOT | 73
BEST-LAID PLANS
By the end of summer, I was
more than ready to escape Los
Angeles; I hadn’t flown out of the
county since before the pandemic
began. The original plan: fly from
my home base of Zamperini Field
in Torrance to San Luis Obispo,
Santa Ynez, Big Bear, Palm Springs,
and Borrego Valley. All I needed
was a favorable forecast, and how
hard could it be to find a series of
sunny days in Southern California?
With clear skies on call, I reserved
a Cessna 172 from my local flight
school for the following week.
The forecast changed.
74 | AOPA PILOT February 2021
Persistent late-season marine layers—
called “June Gloom” even outside of the
title month—kept me grounded for the start
of the week. Then, smoke from the Northern
California fires pushed bizarre “sky clear”
low IFR conditions on much of the state,
grounding me again. A couple weeks later
and with the northern fires mostly
contained, the forecast looked per-
fect, if a little windy. I booked the
airplane once more.
Overnight, a fire started
in the Angeles National
Fo r e s t . T h e w i n d
shifted and the state of
California, blanketed in
Blade Runner-orange
haze, elevated itself to the
regrettable position of
having the worst air qual-
ity in the world. It rained
flecks of gray ash, and
there wasn’t an airport
in Los Angeles without
a fitting “FU” reported,
which is of course the
indicator for smoke
on a METAR. I once
again canceled the
trip, obsessively checking the
weather day after day while conditions
did not improve.
I was desperate to get in the air, but the
fires were still a factor. On top of my desire
to escape, I felt needlessly guilty canceling
with the flight school every other day. If I
could help it, I didn’t want to cause lost
revenue for them—but I couldn’t change
the smoke or the weather. In a very on-
brand move for 2020, the trip would just
have to wait.
ESCAPE FROM LA
Once the fires in LA calmed down, it was
back to the flight plan drawing board. The
airspace north of the LA Special Flight
Rules Area was still smoky and unappeal-
ing. Relaxing on the dunes at Pismo Beach
and sipping pinot in Santa Ynez were out.
Unseasonably hot and windy weather
eliminated the Big Bear stop because of
high density altitude and potential for
mountain turbulence. Palm Springs and
Borrego Valley seemed doable, and after
weeks of delays, the stars aligned. On a
bright midweek morning, I started up my
rental 172, cautiously optimistic that this
might work out after all.
I expected the highest workload portion
of the trip to fall under the first leg. You don’t
need to go very high to get to Palm Springs
from Torrance, but extra altitude creates
more options, especially in a congested area
where the nonairport forced landing sites
are sardine-can eight-lane freeways. Since I
wanted to climb to avoid a bevy of airspace
transition requests, I needed to get flight
following quickly and hope for a breezy
Class Bravo clearance—LAX’s Bravo starts
at 5,000 feet over Torrance, and I hoped to
get cleared to 7,500 for cruise. Luckily, a
quiet Zamperini Ground called SoCal for
me, gave me my VFR clearance, and away
we went. Soon after checking in with
Departure, SoCal handed me off to a new
controller.
The new frequency sounded routinely
busy. Two aircraft with similar N numbers
confused each other’s instructions, and
SoCal had to repeat half a dozen calls to
get them on the same page. Thrilled to
finally be en route, I diligently waited for
a lull to check in. I called, then paused
in anticipation—no response. Chatter con-
tinued. It seemed that this sector was
handling the early stage of approaches into
John Wayne and LAX, and I wondered if
the controller, perhaps thinly spread under
pandemic conditions, was broadcasting on
another frequency as well.
I waited another couple of minutes,
cruising steadily closer to the Banning
Pass, and tried again. I caught a glimpse
of Disneyland, Angel Stadium, and Knott’s
Berry Farm, their empty parking lots a
strange sight. Still no call back—maybe
this was one of those (totally understand-
able) times when the IFR demand was too
high for ATC to deal with VFR traffic. I was
out of the Bravo, away from any airways or
approach paths, but there was one prob-
lem—I was now only a few miles west of
Banning, which, surrounded by steep ter-
rain, is a radar and VHF radio dead zone
for aircraft at my altitude. I expected to lose
SoCal within the next couple of minutes, and
I hadn’t even checked in with this sector yet.
A PERSISTENT MARINE LAYER
creeps into the Port of Los
Angeles near Zamperini Field
(facing page, top left). Parked
for the night near the base of
the Palm Springs tower (facing
page, top right). Looking out of
the Palm Springs Air Museum’s
World War II hangar toward the
San Jacinto mountains (facing
page, center). Flying over the
wind farm just beyond the
Banning Pass on a dead calm
day (below). The author all
masked up to enjoy the Palm
Springs Air Museum (left).
aopa.org/pilot AOPA PILOT | 75
 I reminded myself that it was a perfect
VFR day, I was on a perfectly acceptable
VFR route, that I’d be on the ground in less
than half an hour, and that this was not a
safety-of-flight problem. Aviate first. If
I couldn’t get in touch, I’d call approach
from the ground and make sure they knew
I was fine. I tried for the last time: “SoCal,
Skyhawk Six-Six-Zero-Sierra-Papa would
like to cancel flight following.” The imme-
diacy of the controller’s response earned
a wry smile. “November Six-Six-Zero-
Sierra-Papa squawk VFR, frequency
change approved.” No harm, no foul; coor-
dinating approaches was understandably
more important than calling me back.
I welcomed the radio silence through
the pass while waiting for enough line-of-
sight to pick up Palm Springs’ ATIS. The
often-gusty transition from basin to the
valley was dead calm, the hundreds of wind
turbines statue-still and the air improba-
bly stable for a hot morning. I forgot about
the pandemic, the election, the fires, the
national unrest; it was a privilege to escape
the earthbound world, listen only to the
comforting hum of the engine, and see
only sky and desert sand. Too soon, infor-
mation Juliet came through on com 2, with
76 | AOPA PILOT February 2021
instructions to contact approach on a new
frequency for arriving aircraft—part of the
old Terminal Radar Service Area (TRSA)
procedures that are still in place for the
now officially Class D airport.
On the descent into the “at least it’s
a dry heat” Coachella Valley, I could feel
the temperature rise nearly 20 degrees
Fahrenheit in the space of a few miles.
The pressure was different, too, and the
updated altimeter setting from the ATIS
changed my displayed altitude almost 100
feet. After an uneventful approach I taxied
with tower to the FBO, where I picked up
a rental car and booked a hotel—happy to
finally, finally be out of LA.
PALM SPRINGS
With a couple hours before check in, I
headed across the field to the Palm Springs
Air Museum. The four-hangar museum has
SAN PEDRO’S VINCENT THOMAS BRIDGE is almost perfectly lined up with final for runways
29L and 29R at Zamperini Field (top). Delicious fresh ceviche, which would have been
perfect for sharing but tasted just fine socially distanced and solo (above). The author
saying Cheese! on the way home and feeling proud of the World Series champs (right).
enough space to maintain distance from
other visitors, and when not admiring its
collection of airworthy warbirds and learn-
ing from helpful docents, patrons can sit
on shaded bleacher stands and watch Palm
Springs’ air traffic. The museum’s B–17 I’d received
and still-flying P–51D are highlights, and at check-in to
any avgeek could easily spend half a day the star gazing amphi-
or more checking out the collection and theater. It welcomed
plane spotting. visitors with a sign—
Heading into town felt prepandemic sic itur ad astra—“thus
normal, and Palm Springs’ fair weather one journeys to the stars.”
made dining outside for a late lunch feel Night-vision-friendly red
like a choice rather than a mandate. I wan- bulbs illuminated the path, and
dered down the closed-to-cars main street, a tall wooden fence kept the few
bought some postcards and stamps (I was resort lights out. I used my jacket as
really on a trip, I had to tell people!), and a pillow and laid out, wondering about
took my time getting to the boho-chic, the desert wildlife I could be disturbing.
eminently Instagrammable Les Cactus for While the hotel was by no means empty, I
the night. Falling asleep in a new zip code still felt it was more likely I’d run into a coy- most normal thing I’ve done
was a luxury. ote than another guest. Satellites, shooting since shutdowns started and
stars, and the discernible edge of our spi- N95s became a household term.
TO THE STARS ral galaxy are rare sights for city dwellers, I encountered far fewer people on a
Weather was no factor the next morning and I stayed out there until my imagination three-day, hotel-visiting, restaurant-din-
on the flight south to Borrego Valley. To ran away with visions of scorpions crawling ing trip than I do on a single visit to the
the east, desaturated space race blues and over to say hello. grocery store. While almost every aspect of
tans stretched as far as the eye could see; it daily life has shifted in unanticipated ways,
was easy to picture past shuttles landing in BACK HOME flying GA hasn’t changed. Like the rest of
the nearby Mojave. I followed the edge of One peaceful night’s sleep later and it was the aviation world, I can’t wait for us to
the Salton Sea before turning west toward time to wrap up the trip. I was grateful for get back to fly-ins and big events, but until
Borrego, checking the novelty box of flying a noon checkout while I waited for an imp- then, at least we pilots have the option
over land with an elevation lower than 0 ish marine layer to lift at Torrance. Before to go places as few others do, and we are
feet msl—Jackie Cochran Regional Airport I set out on this short adventure, I didn’t mobile in our distance. AOPA
(TRM) is listed at minus 114 feet. The peace know how I’d feel about travel in the age
of a simple flight was welcome, and I wished of a pandemic. Turned out it was by far the EMAIL alicia.herron@aopa.org
the field was just a touch farther away so I
could stay up in the air longer. Startup to
touchdown took a mere 0.7 hours, and I’d
arranged for that night’s accommodation,
La Casa del Zorro Desert Resort, to pick me
up from the airport at noon.
With rare good timing and luck, I
arrived right on schedule, tied the air-
plane down for the night, and doubled
the chart for a sunshield—there still isn’t
an app for that. The Spanish-style resort
has five pools to choose from, and for most
of the afternoon I had one to myself. The
expansive grounds are lined with mat-
cha green Palo Verde trees, cozy outdoor
seating, and firepits. It’s the perfect place
to unwind with no pressure to go off the
resort grounds—I could see myself coming
back for a week with a silenced cellphone
and a stack of to-be-read books.
The Anza-Borrego area is a known dark
sky zone. With clear skies in the forecast
and after a couple hours poolside, I eagerly
anticipated nightfall. I followed the map
aopa.org/pilot AOPA PILOT | 77
78 | AOPA PILOT February 2021
 | WHA
AT WE
WENT
NT WRO
RONG
N
NG |

Faulty
assumptions
Small errors add up to tragedy

B Y R I C H A R D M C S PA D D E N
I L LU
LUSTRA AT I O N B Y B R E T T A F F R U N T I

aopa.org/pilot AOPA PILOT | 79

 THE ATP-RATED PILOT summoned
all his experience to redirect fate
in a battle he was losing. Heavy
weight, with center of gravity
aft of limits, and eyeing his fuel
gauges, he was descending on
the GPS approach, in instrument
meteorological conditions, when
he lost power on both engines 13
miles from the field. Amid the
confusion and a daunting work-
load, he restored one engine, but
didn’t feather the propeller on
the dead engine and left the flaps
extended. According to the NTSB
investigation, that was the last in
a series of mistakes and misjudg-
ments that would cost the pilot
and five passengers their lives.
The aircraft was a Beechcraft
Baron 58. According to the NTSB,
At maximum gross weight, he knew his
fuel state was tight, leaving little margin for
contingencies. It’s likely he believed the risk of
adding more weight was greater than the
risk of fuel exhaustion.
the tragic sequence began when
the 5,600-hour pilot (with 2,400
hours Baron time) believed he
had refueled to full capacity
several days before the mishap
flight. In actuality, investigators
believe, he was approximately
12 gallons short of his expecta-
tion. Tip tanks on a Beech 58 can
be partially refueled through the
main wing filler port, but a full
top-off requires pumping the last
six gallons directly through the
fueling port of each tip tank. Left
and right fuel gauges on a Beech
Baron 58 register full once the
tanks are above 75 gallons and
stay at that full reading until fuel
falls below that level. The engine
data monitoring system the pilot
used accurately tracked fuel con-
sumption, but it required manual
80 | AOPA PILOT February 2021
inputs after each refueling to
update total fuel.
The only way to confirm a
full top-off in a Beech 58 is to
open each main wing and tip
tank fuel cap and visually check
the fuel status. There was no
cockpit indication to the pilot
that his actual fuel state was
12 gallons less than full. The
aberration lay dormant for five
uneventful flights.
Video surveillance confirmed
the pilot visually checked the
left-wing tank quantity before
the mishap flight; however, the
Baron wing tanks only have tabs
that indicate 40 and 60 gallons.
Unless the tanks are at either
of those quantities, actual fuel
quantity can only be roughly
estimated by visual inspection.
The pilot was planning a depar-
ture with what he believed was
54 total usable gallons. Fuel lev-
els would have been well below
the 40-gallon tab on each wing,
so a visual inspection provided
no insight. He seemed to accept
this by not bothering to check the
right fuel tank.
The pilot’s manual fuel and
flight time log indicated he
thought his fuel state to be 54
usable gallons at engine start
of the mishap flight. According
to his ForeFlight flight plan,
he believed his trip from West
Ho u st o n A i r p o r t ( I WS ) t o
Kerrville Municipal Airport/
Louis Schreiner Field (ERV)
legally required 58 gallons,
including reserves, but would
only require 38 gallons to fly.
Based on NTSB reports, the pilot
knew he was fudging his reserve
requirement by four gallons but
thought he would have sufficient
fuel to fly the trip. What differ-
ence is four gallons when you’re
burning 28 gallons per hour?
The pilot was managing a
dilemma almost all GA pilots
have faced. He likely would have
preferred more fuel, but taking
on more fuel would exacerbate
his gross weight problem. He
was already at, perhaps slightly
above, the Baron’s limitations.
At maximum gross weight, he
knew his fuel state was tight,
leaving little margin for con-
tingencies. It’s likely that he
believed the risk of adding more
weight was greater than the risk
of fuel exhaustion. That risk-
management calculation would
have succeeded except for the
hidden problem, still beyond his
recognition, that he didn’t have
enough usable fuel to fly the trip.
The actual usable fuel state
at departure was close to 42 gal-
lons and the Baron consumed
it all. Weather worse than fore-
cast precluded vectors to a visual
approach, which the pilot likely
expected. Instead, he was forced
to fly beyond the airport and
shoot an approach back into
Kerrville, using more fuel than
he planned, but less than what
he thought was on board.
Pilots who have pushed fuel
limits can attest to the sink-
ing feeling as seconds grind by.
The fuel gauges become a domi-
nant part of the instrument scan;
watching, willing them to stop
dropping. It’s difficult to stay
in the moment and not second
guess the decision. Your present
self is agitated with what it must
now contend with, because of the
flawed logic of your past self—
and your future self butting in,
asking how you will ever explain
such a poor decision.
In those last few minutes,
the pilot understood his issue
was fuel exhaustion, but he
would have been confused. He
used an engine data monitor to
track fuel consumption, which
aligned with his manual log, both
of which led him to infer he was
low but had fuel to make it. His
fuel gauges also indicated fuel
remaining. He didn’t know he’d
been carrying 12 gallons less fuel
for the last five flights. And he
didn’t know his fuel gauges were
lying to him in the worst possible
way, indicating more fuel than
there actually was. The NTSB
would discover that excessive
resistance in the fuel tank trans-
mitters caused a surplus fuel
reading of approximately five
gallons in each wing tank.
In dense weather, 13 miles
from his destination at about
2,000 feet agl, both engines sput-
tered and quit within 10 seconds
of each other. The pilot dead-
sticked the Baron for 40 seconds,
sinking rapidly before somehow
routing fuel to restart the left
engine. Continuing inbound on
the approach, he broke out below
the overcast at 500 feet agl, near
course guidance, but well below
approach profile altitudes and
in a descent he couldn’t arrest.
Using full power on the left
engine he raised the nose further,
still further in a futile attempt to
stop the descent.
A single-engine Baron near
maximum gross weight will
not hold level flight with flaps
extended and an unfeathered
propeller. Sinking to 300 feet
agl, the airspeed fell below 83
knots, VMC in a Beech 58 Baron—
an ominous threshold for all twin
aircraft. The airplane began roll-
ing to the right, which no amount
of rudder or aileron could avert.
The aircraft crashed flat, wings
almost level, indicating the pilot
flew the Baron through the VMC
roll, fighting to the end to mini-
mize the force of impact.
The accident sequence started
with a misunderstanding of the
actual fuel state, eight days before
the accident. The ultimate irony
is that the decision on the mishap
flight to operate just four gallons
shy of legal requirements proved
catastrophic.
Four gallons wouldn’t nor-
mally matter, but on this flight,
four gallons would have been
enough to keep both engines
operating for 13 more miles, thus
precluding the final sequence of
events and mortal configuration
errors—the same four gallons the
pilot seemed to believe was just a
technical requirement and not a
practical one. Fate has a morbid
sense of irony. AOPA
airsafetyinstitute.org
EMAIL richard.mcspadden@aopa.
org
aopa.org/pilot AOPA PILOT | 81
PROFICIENCY & EFFICIENCY 85 AIRFRAME 88 OWNERSHIP 90 WX WATCH 96 MAINTENANCE 100 NEVER AGAIN

Certain alcohol-based liquids may help

disinfect hands, but they can be dangerous
to airplane avionics, instrument panels, and
other components of an aircraft interior.

DAVID TULIS

82 | AOPA PILOT February 2021

P&E EFFICIENCY
Disinfecting your airplane
Experts explain the correct way to clean avionics,
instrument panels, and personal devices
B Y D AV I D T U L I S
GA IS NOT IMMUNE to the effects of
COVID-19, the disease caused by the coro-
navirus that prompted the World Health
Organization to declare a pandemic on
March 11, 2020, and which continues to
challenge us nearly one year later. Dr. Brent
Blue, an AOPA Pilot magazine contributor
(see his new column, “Flight MD,” on page
24), FAA senior aviation medical examiner,
and airline transport pilot with more than
9,000 hours of flight time, offered several
measures to help keep pilots and passen-
gers safe in general aviation aircraft.
Blue said if pilots “are sick for any
reason, they need to do a self-analysis of
their readiness to fly.” AOPA offers a free
Medical Self-Assessment online course to
help pilots better understand how to assess
their fitness for flight (basicmedicalcourse.
aopa.org).
He also suggested that if a pilot trans-
ports a person “who is sick or becomes
sick shortly after a flight,” it’s important to
wipe down the aircraft’s interior surfaces,
“including headsets and mics. If they have
a foam mic cover, it should be taken off
the mic and rinsed in a 10-percent Clorox
solution and dried thoroughly before rein-
stalling.” He also reminded pilots to clean
the underlying microphone with a disinfec-
tant wipe, and any touch screens, as well.
Blue said to be mindful that altitude
can adversely affect sick people. He said to
thoroughly clean or discard oxygen masks
or cannulas if a sick person used one of the
devices, because “the virus is attracted to
lung tissue.”
Garmin’s Joey Ferreyra, who helped
outfit avionics for the 2019 AOPA
Sweepstakes Super Cub, said “using the
wrong cleaner can be bad news for avi-
onics.” The company published a service
advisory that informs pilots how to clean
and disinfect touch screens and func-
tion knobs on panel-mounted avionics,
with specific guidance about reducing
the spread of disease while preserving the
integrity of the avionics devices.
To begin with, aircraft owners and
pilots should use a lint-free cloth instead
of paper products—which can mar surface
displays—and a cleaner that is specified
“safe for anti-reflective coatings.”
Garmin and other avionics compa-
nies advise pilots to avoid ammonia-based
cleaners because the chemical will harm
the anti-reflective coatings on aviation
Garmin published a service advisory that
informs pilots how to clean and disinfect
touch screens and function knobs on
panel-mounted avionics, with specific guidance
about reducing the spread of disease while
preserving the integrity of the avionics devices.
display screens. The G1000 series has a
special anti-reflective coating found on
many other Garmin products that is “very
sensitive to skin oils, waxes, and abrasive
cleaners. Cleaners containing ammonia
will harm the anti-reflective coating,” the
company said.
Disinfecting solutions of 70-percent
isopropyl alcohol are acceptable and pro-
vide the “best combination of bactericidal
effectiveness and equipment safety,” as
long as they don’t contain ammonia. The
surface must remain wet for at least 30 sec-
onds, Garmin said.
Other exposed surfaces like knobs,
buttons, and bezels can be cleaned with
a damp cloth moistened with soap and
water, but pilots should remove the soap or
soap residue to prevent buttons and knobs
from gumming up or becoming slippery.
The company reminded pilots that “many
aviation products are not rated as water-
proof. Spraying or wetting the units to the
extent where moisture could go beyond the
exterior surfaces could damage the unit.”
Garmin does not recommend bleach-based
cleaners or other harsh chemicals.
Some panel-mounted touch-screen
avionics have a special screen-cleaning
function button that temporarily dis-
ables touch-screen operation so pilots can
remove fingerprint smudges. A video pro-
vides additional guidance for the Garmin
GTN series of avionics.
Aircraft and portable devices also
require attention. Aviators who are not
grounded by local stay-at-home orders
during the coronavirus pandemic can
come in contact with germs on fuel pumps,
point-of-sale touch pads, and pilot lounge
computers.
MyGoFlight’s Dominic “Nic” Martinez
suggested pilots adhere to the most
aopa.org/pilot AOPA PILOT | 83
 P&E EFFICIENCY
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4%
REMOVE and disinfect your headset foam mic cover as well as the inside microphone.
Clorox wipes are recommended for the entire headset as well.

recent Centers for Disease Control and

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mon-sense approach to helping to protect
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ourselves, coworkers, friends, and family.”
He said pilots could start by creating
a space in their flight bags or luggage to
Switch today to the locate protective and cleaning gear quickly.
new AOPA credit card, Travel-size liquid disinfectants are handy
when water is unavailable, Martinez said.
and stop paying too
much on your
“You will want to use them often, and prior
to entering the cockpit.” He advised pilots
aviation purchases. to “wipe down all surface areas with a dis-
infecting cleaner like Clorox wipes prior
to and just after entering the cockpit and
spend particular attention to areas you will
touch often.”
Visit
Tablets, phones, and avionics mounts
AOPA.org/creditcard also should be cleaned prior to handling.
to learn more Martinez said travel-sized disinfectant
wipes for this purpose are convenient,
effective, and easy to dispose of, but “don’t
forget to bring a trash bag to dispose of the
wipes you may have used in flight.” Many
portable devices have special chemical-
resistant glass over their touch-screen
displays, and come with similar precau-
tions to avoid ammonia-based cleaners that
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Terms and Conditions for full details at AOPA.org/creditcard. can damage their surfaces.
1 Rewards points can be redeemed for Cash Back or other items pro- MyGoFlight sells a line of protective
vided through AOPA Pilot Rewards. A Cash Back redemption is applied ArmorGlas products for electronic flight
as a statement credit. The statement credit will reduce your balance
but you are still required to make at least your minimum payment. A bags and tablets that contain an oleopho-
minimum of 2,500 points is needed to redeem for Cash Back. Values bic layer that reduces oils and grime, and
for non-cash back redemption items such as merchandise, gift cards,
and travel may vary. adds anti-glare protection for improved
visibility.
Pilots can start by
creating a space in
their flight bags or
luggage to locate
protective and
cleaning gear
quickly.
Martinez said it is safe to use a mild
dish detergent on silicone components,
including suction cups for handheld avi-
onics and point-of-view cameras. They can
be cleaned and then dried with a soft cloth.
“UV light is very aggressive on the silicone,
so you don’t want to leave it out in the sun,”
Martinez noted. He recommended storing
interior mounts out of sunlight to preserve
their integrity.
He said face masks, protective eye-
wear, and disposable gloves can be effective
when pilots are required to sit in close
quarters with other pilots or when they
are carrying passengers. Martinez cau-
tioned everyone to help “pilots, families,
and crews stay safe and stay healthy” dur-
ing the ongoing coronavirus crisis. AOPA
EMAIL david.tulis@aopa.org

84 | AOPA PILOT February 2021

 P&E AIRFRAME
Totally
tubular, man
Why new airplanes are still being built out of steel tubing
BY STEVE ELLS
THE DAMAGED/RUSTED tubes in the cluster are cut and removed (left). New tubes are cut
and the junctions reinforced with sleeves prior to welding (right).
BACK IN 1982 when I was new to Alaska,
I watched an experienced CFI put one
hand on the leading edge and one hand on
the trailing edge of the vertical stabilizer
of a Taylorcraft BC-12. Next, he pushed
hard with his left hand and pulled with
his right hand. As an airframe and pow-
erplant mechanic with scant experience
in the world of tube-and-fabric airplanes,
my eyes popped open when I saw the sta-
bilizer twist a little.
“She gets out of rig once in a while
and a good twist gets her back to flying
square,” explained the CFI as he brushed
past me, heading into the heated hangar.
I had spent the previous decade
working on a flight school diet of alumi-
num airframes: Cessna 150s, 172s, 182s,
Beech Bonanzas, and a variety of oth-
STEVE ELLS
ers—airplanes the tube-and-fabric pilots
call “spam cans.” I had never even con-
sidered twisting a vertical stabilizer to
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right an out-of-trim airframe. Nor will
any mechanic ever find that “fix” in an
aluminum airframe manufacturer’s ser-
vice manual.
Visit
Beech, Cessna, Piper, and other alu-
minum airframes are of semi-monocoque
AOPA.org/creditcard
construction. This structure uses an to learn more
internal skeleton of frames, bulkheads,
and stringers to provide strength and
rigidity. A semi-monocoque fuselage is
strong because of its shell-like structure
comprised of many relatively thin parts
securely connected by rivets, instead of
a relatively small skeleton of steel tubes.
Think of it like this: Tube-frame air-
*Certain points and purchases restrictions apply, see full Rewards
planes are strong because of a skeleton; Terms and Conditions for full details at AOPA.org/creditcard.
an aluminum-frame airplane is strong 1 Rewards points can be redeemed for Cash Back or other items pro-
because of its shell. Then there’s Mooney; vided through AOPA Pilot Rewards. A Cash Back redemption is applied
as a statement credit. The statement credit will reduce your balance
its airframe construction consists of a but you are still required to make at least your minimum payment. A
minimum of 2,500 points is needed to redeem for Cash Back. Values
welded steel tube forward fuselage and
for non-cash back redemption items such as merchandise, gift cards,
a semi-monocoque rear fuselage. The and travel may vary.
aluminum forming the outer shell of the
aopa.org/pilot AOPA PILOT | 85
 P&E AIRFRAME
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2%
REPLACEMENT PROCEDURES for welded tube repairs.

Cash Back1 FBO’s

& Flight Schools;
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Visit
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to learn more
*Certain points and purchases restrictions apply, see full Rewards
Terms and Conditions for full details at AOPA.org/creditcard.
1 Rewards points can be redeemed for Cash Back or other items pro-
vided through AOPA Pilot Rewards. A Cash Back redemption is applied
as a statement credit. The statement credit will reduce your balance
but you are still required to make at least your minimum payment. A
minimum of 2,500 points is needed to redeem for Cash Back. Values
for non-cash back redemption items such as merchandise, gift cards,
and travel may vary.
forward fuselage is for aerodynamics; it is
not load bearing.
THE TUBING IN A PIPER
Clyde Smith Jr., aka “The Cub Doctor”
(cubdoctor.com), said that Piper always
used 1025 mild steel tubing aft of the bag-
gage section in every tube-frame airplane
it built right up until it stopped produc-
tion in 1982.
Two alloys of steel aircraft tubing are
used in general aviation aircraft: SAE 1025
and SAE 4130. 1025 is a plain steel with
only carbon as its alloying element; tech-
nically it’s a “low hardenability carbon
steel with low tensile strength;” 4130,
often called chrome moly tubing, also
contains molybdenum and chromium as
strengthening agents. 4130 is stronger in
shear strength, fatigue strength, and hard-
ness; 1025 has better rust resistance. Both
alloys are very easy to weld.
Why did Piper continued to use 1025
tubing? Smith explained that it was less
expensive, easier to bend, and the greater
strength of the 4130 was not required aft
of the baggage area. That helps explain
why the vertical stabilizer may need to
be “tweaked to trim” in Piper and other
early tube-style airplanes.

86 | AOPA PILOT February 2021


A FINISHED AVIAT HUSKY (left). The cart contains all the 4130 steel tubes—cut to length and
scarfed as required—that go into a Husky’s welded steel fuselage (right).
When a rust-weakened tube or cluster of
tubes is damaged because of rust, an accident,
or ground incident, it’s relatively easy to peel
back the fabric covering and cut out the
damaged area.
Today, companies such as Aviat
Aircraft and CubCrafters that build tube-
type airframes use 4130 tubing.
TUBING REPAIRS ARE CUT AND
SPLICE AFFAIRS
It’s not uncommon to find rust-weakened
sections in the lower aft tubes of older
tube-frame airplanes, or in tube-frame
airplanes that are flown on floats.
Pushing the tip of an ice pick against
the tube is a fool-proof detection method.
When a rust-weakened tube or a clus-
ter of tubes is damaged because of rust,
an accident, or ground incident, it’s
relatively easy to peel back the fabric
covering and cut out the damaged area.
Then, using procedures described and
pictured in detail in Chapter 4 of Advisory
Circular AC 43.13-1B, the fuselage is
STEVE ELLS
returned to full strength by splicing in
and welding up the new tubes. Repairing
the fabric is not a complicated process, but
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like other tasks, experience is the key to aviation purchases.
creating a hard-to-see patch repair.
Repairing a damaged section of an
aluminum aircraft will require the care-
ful removal and replacement of a large
Visit
number of rivets, high-strength fasten-
ers, or bolts. If the damaged skin cannot be
AOPA.org/creditcard
repaired or locally fabricated using sheet to learn more
stock of the correct alloy, then the replace-
ment part must be ordered from the factory
or an aftermarket supplier, if one has been
approved. If an approved replacement part
is not available, it must be manufactured
under the owner-produced-parts rule. This
can be a lengthy and expensive process.
In most cases, it’s much easier to repair
*Certain points and purchases restrictions apply, see full Rewards
damage to an airplane with a steel tube frame Terms and Conditions for full details at AOPA.org/creditcard.
than it is to repair an aluminum fuselage of 1 Rewards points can be redeemed for Cash Back or other items pro-
semi-monocoque construction. AOPA vided through AOPA Pilot Rewards. A Cash Back redemption is applied
as a statement credit. The statement credit will reduce your balance
but you are still required to make at least your minimum payment. A
minimum of 2,500 points is needed to redeem for Cash Back. Values
STEVE ELLS is a freelance aviation writer,
for non-cash back redemption items such as merchandise, gift cards,
pilot, and A&P mechanic based in Paso and travel may vary.
Robles, California.
aopa.org/pilot AOPA PILOT | 87

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P&E OWNERSHIP
Switch hitter
Now you can ‘clap on’ your engine preheater
BY THOMAS B. HAINES
PLUG THE SWITCHEON box into whatever electrical item you want to switch on or off and
the app makes the connection.
AN AGE-OLD DILEMMA: Tomorrow, a
Saturday, is going to be beautiful and
you’re wanting to fly the Mighty Bird. But
overnight temps are going to be down in
the mid-20s. It’s a 40-minute drive each
way to the airport, so the idea of trekking
out there after work tonight to plug in
the engine heater is enough to dissuade
you from flying at all. If you wait to plug
it in when you get to the hangar tomorrow
morning, it will be hours before the engine
comes up to a temperature where you feel
comfortable starting it. If only you could
clap on, clap off.
The real solution, of course, is some
way to remotely turn devices on and off.
Such systems have been around for a
few years, using dedicated cellular con-
nections. However, for the most part,
traditional cellular plans didn’t cost effec-
tively accommodate such occasional uses.
Owners would have to pay for dedicated
cellular service, often at $40 a month or
more, just to send a few bits of data a few
times a month.
88 | AOPA PILOT February 2021
Sean Mollet, an electrical and soft-
ware engineer consultant and Beechcraft
Baron owner with time on his hands dur-
ing the COVID shutdown, decided to design
his own solution. The result is SwitcheOn
(pronounced switchy-on), a two- or four-
channel electrical outlet that can be
controlled remotely through the cell net-
work. The two-plug model sells for $199; the
four-outlet unit goes for $299. Rather than
having to add your own phone connection
and deal with a variety of SIM cards, you pay
an annual fee of $50 to SwitcheOn through
its app to take care of it. The first year’s ser-
vice is included in the purchase of the unit.
Set up is super simple—and rather
clever. Download the SwitcheOn app for
your Apple or Android device. Plug the box
in and a QR code appears on a small display
on the unit. Scan the code with the app and
it immediately makes a connection.
Plug into the box whatever you
CHRIS ROSE
want to switch off or on. Depending on
model, the app shows two or four famil-
iar slider switches. Each can be labeled

REMOTELY turn systems on or off simply
using your phone.
for whatever is being controlled—“Engine
Preheater,” for example. So now, on
that Friday night as you anticipate your
Saturday morning $100 breakfast flight,
simply slide the switch to On and know
that when you arrive the next morning,
Mighty Bird’s engine will be toasty warm.
The unit has a temperature sensor
that shares data with the app, so you can
remotely check the temperature in the
hangar to determine whether you need to
activate the heater.
But the SwitcheOn does more than sim-
ple on/off control. Through the app you
can set it to automatically turn devices
on or off at selected temperatures. Or
turn things on or off on particular days at
selected times. And the time/date selection
can be temperature dependent as well—so
it will only take the action if the tempera-
ture is, say, below 40 degrees Fahrenheit.
James Gallagher, a Beechcraft
Bonanza owner and friend of Mollet’s,
has been promoting the product. He says
pilots have been using them not just for
GET THE
AOPA
APP
Simply slide the switch
to On and know that
when you arrive the
next morning, Mighty
Bird’s engine will be
toasty and warm.
engine preheaters, but also for ceramic
heaters to warm the cockpit and avion-
ics. He uses one to warm the engine on
a tired gasoline-powered aircraft tug.
They’ve also noticed people using them to
turn battery chargers on and off not only
for airplanes, but also for boats and recre-
ational vehicles. The unit is weatherproof,
so it can be used outside.
A 15-amp fuse protects the circuitry,
which means users have to be careful about
what they plug in—ceramic heaters on a
High setting, for example, can draw 13 amps,
according to Gallagher. A typical engine
heater draws only about 3 amps. Mollet said
a 20-amp version will be available soon, but
THE PERFECT
electrical code requires it be plugged into a COMPANION FOR
20-amp outlet and utilize a 20-amp connector. PILOTS ON THE GO!
When discussing those cabin heaters,
Mollet, with his electrical engineer hat on,
Our award winning
can’t help but caution about the amount of
AOPA App keeps you
heat those 1,500-watt ceramic heaters can
connected to all things
generate—becoming a fire hazard should
aviation-anytime, anywhere.
they get tipped over. His recommenda-
tion is the PMAed, installed 500-watt Download the AOPA App
cabin heater from Tanis (tanisaircraft. and get more out of your
com/product/replacement-parts-accesso- flying today!
ries/avionics-cabin-heater/thp3094-500),
which can still be controlled by the
SwitcheOn.
For more information, see the
SwitcheOn (switcheon.com) or Gallagher
Aviation ( gallagheraviationllc.com/
switcheon.html) websites. AOPA
EMAIL thomas.haines@aopa.org
aopa.org/pilot AOPA PILOT | 89
 P&E WX WATCH

Winter’s
first strike
The northeast takes a hit
BY THOMAS A. HORNE

TAKE YOUR
AVIATION CAREER
TO NEW HEIGHTS
You’re cleared
for takeoff on the
AOPA Job Board

POST
a resume so employers
NOVEMBER 30 WATER VAPOR imagery from the GOES-16 satellite shows the three main flows
can find you. around the winter system in the northeast. Warm air at high altitude (blue) shows the high-
est cloud tops. Gray clouds wrap around the central low, and orange identifies the dry air
SET UP behind the cold front.

job alerts so you never

miss a new opportunity. WHEN DID WINTER ARRIVE THIS SEASON?
For the northeast quadrant of the nation,
SEARCH there was little doubt. The sequence of
thousands of active events began on November 29, when a
listings from hundreds of huge Canadian air mass descended from
the top employers in all Ontario and Manitoba, delivering sur-
sectors of the industry. face temperatures in the 30s to the Great
Lakes states. This was the leading edge
Go to jobs.aopa.org for of an upper-level trough—a U-shape,
your next career move. southward extension of low pressure and
cold temperatures. Pilots should know
Posting a Job? what these troughs look like, because
AOPA members get they nearly always produce lousy flying
Once this trough moved eastward over
the Ohio Valley, its eastern flank ran into
the 60-degree air that had been parked
over the mid-Atlantic and southeastern
states. The stage was set.
Here’s how you know. If a trough,
especially a deep one like this, has a north-
ward extension, or ridge, of high pressure
to its east—and it usually does—a deep
surface low is in the offing. Planning a
flight? Now’s the time to start looking at
the TAFs, airmets, and the GFA (Graphic
Forecast for Aviation) tool on the Aviation

20% off!
weather, and in the cold season, icing con-
ditions. You can identify them on the 500-,
300-, and 250-millibar constant pressure
charts, which are roughly equal to the
pressure patterns at the 18,000-, 30,000-,
Powered by and 35,000-foot levels, respectively.
Weather Center website for any signs of
trouble. Look to the area between the
trough and the ridge. That’s where any
surface lows will deepen. That’s also the
spot where cold and warm fronts will radi-
ate from any centers of lowest pressure to

90 | AOPA PILOT February 2021

A SKEW-T LOG-P CHART FOR central New York on December 1. The circled area shows a their south and east. Needless to say, that’s
close temperature-dew point spread from approximately 5,000 feet to 8,000 feet. also where you’ll find instrument weather,
Temperatures were below freezing, so it’s safe to assume there was a cloud layer between
those altitudes, and icing conditions as well.
icing conditions, turbulence, shearing
winds aloft, and thunderstorms.
Why is it that strong winds in the flight
levels create lows at the surface? It gets
complicated, but simply put, there’s a
huge tug of war going on aloft. You may
see tightly packed height contours on, say,
a 300-millibar chart and assume that wind
speeds aloft are very high—and you’d be
right. Sometimes they rise well above 100
knots in jet stream cores. But the winds
aren’t always moving at exactly the same
speed. Low pressure pulls air toward it,
then relaxes and lets air move away, so the
motions are more like slugs of high-speed
air speeding up and slowing down. And
where air parcels slow down, they create
divergent airflows aloft.
Nature hates a vacuum, so divergence
aloft means that air near the surface must
converge to compensate. Because con-
verging air at the surface has nowhere to
go but up, this produces the lifting forces
that ultimately create surface lows and
their fronts. That’s exactly what happened
THE SURFACE ANALYSIS chart for November 30 shows the orientation of the fronts around over the mid-Atlantic and southeast states
the lows, as well as the general extent of the rain and snow in the system’s mature stages. on November 30.

aopa.org/pilot AOPA PILOT | 91

P&E WX WATCH

Cold
conveyor
belt

Dry
conveyor Warm
belt conveyor
belt

CLASSIC FLOWS AROUND surface systems are often called “conveyor LIGHTNING RETURNS FROM thunderstorms, as seen from space.
belts.” Compare this illustration with the imagery on page 90 to see This system essentially was the last gasp of the warm season
the concept of warm, cold, and dry conveyors. The dry conveyor belt being overcome by a Canadian low that migrated from Manitoba.
is frequently called the “dry slot.”

THE DECEMBER 1 GOES-16 satellite’s visible imagery channel gives a more SURFACE LOWS TYPICALLY form east of well-defined troughs aloft,
detailed look at the cumulus buildups circulating around the surface low around the area circled in red.
pressure, as well as the dry slot being drawn into New England.

The surface lows (there were a pair)
were over southern Virginia and the
Chesapeake Bay. An especially strong
north-south cold front ran all the way
to Florida, and a pair of warm fronts
extended into the Atlantic Ocean. There
were severe thunderstorms ahead of
that cold front, fed by a 70-knot “warm
conveyor belt” of southerly winds.
Directional and speed shear—changes
were widespread damaging winds and
power outages.
But wait, there’s more. What’s known as
a “conveyor belt” of cold air aloft wrapped
around the surface lows and dumped snow
in an arc ranging from New England to Ohio,
and down the Appalachian Mountains. This
wraparound snow and other precipitation is
common in many well-developed low-pres-
sure systems. For many, it was the first snow
doesn’t give hurricane-style names to winter
storm systems, The Weather Channel does.
It called this storm Dane.
One week later, the mid-Atlantic and
northeast states experienced another win-
ter storm—dubbed Eartha—but this one
was a nor’easter that began in the Gulf of
Mexico. It may seem counterintuitive to
have a snowstorm with origins in such
sunny latitudes, but with nor’easters—
TOP LEFT: STEVE KARP

of wind direction and velocity with
altitude—set up enough rotation that
tornado watches were issued. Two tor-
nadoes touched down in Maryland, and
one in eastern Pennsylvania, and there
of the season. As you might suspect, airmets
for icing and instrument meteorological con-
ditions went into effect from Michigan to
Maine, and as far south as eastern Tennessee.
Although the National Weather Service
so called because of their strong winds
out of the northeast—it’s common. Once they
form, they track up the eastern United States.
The Cape Hatteras area is another
prime breeding ground for nor’easters.

92 | AOPA PILOT February 2021

 My Friend
in the Sky

FOR DECEMBER 1, IMC AND ICING airmets

were posted over 22 states, along with
warnings for strong surface winds. Freez-
ing levels from 2,000 to 10,000 feet msl
extended as far south as Georgia, Florida,
Mississippi, and Tennessee.

Other winter systems include North

Pacific lows that come ashore in the Pacific
Northwest and those that develop along
the lee slopes of the Rockies. We’re talking

“
about major storms caused by upper-
air dynamics here, not smaller events
caused by more mechanical forces, such I’m realizing my
as lake-effect and orographically induced
snows.
dream of flight with the
Though the major types of winter assistance of AOPA Pilot Protection
storms may come from different geogra- services for the purchase
phies, the dynamics are similar. A trough of my aircraft, AOPA truly is
aloft generates jet stream winds, which
my friend in the sky

”
cause lifting at the surface; fronts develop;
and their rising motions create clouds as I begin my aviation adventure!
with supercooled droplets and their asso- — Tom,
ciated icing conditions. AOPA member with PPS since 2019
It’s no picnic near the surface, either,
with low ceilings and visibilities wher-
ever there’s a tight temperature-dew
point spread. Those conditions can hap-
pen any time of year, but where freezing
temperatures exist you may get to see pre-
cipitation in all its forms: fog, freezing fog,
rain, freezing rain, freezing drizzle, snow,
or snow pellets (also called graupel). On
cloud-free nights, you may even arrive at
the airport to find a nice layer of frost on
Are you getting the most from your membership?
the airplane. AOPA
aopa.org/tom
EMAIL tom.horne@aopa.org

aopa.org/pilot AOPA PILOT | 93

P&E PROFICIENCY
Looking for moose
Mastering stalls and turns around a point
B Y C AT H E R I N E C AVAG N A R O
HOW COULD I TURN DOWN a weekend filled
with aircraft emergencies? Several years
ago, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s avi-
ation manager invited me to present on loss
of control situations at its national training
symposium. In addition to flying airplanes,
learning the science of flight, and best prac-
tices for emergency situations, sharing LOC
with others is among my favorite activities.
Stalls, spins, and crazy attitudes are right up
my alley. Any gathering of pilots features
that special camaraderie and swapping avi-
ation stories, so I readily agreed. We ironed
out the details and just as I was about to sign
off the call, he added, “Oh, make sure your
presentation includes the moose stall!”
“Absolutely! You got it on the moose
stall,” I said before I hung up.
Truth be told, I had never heard of a
moose stall. You see, while unusual and
emergency aircraft situations are in my
wheelhouse, moose have never been. I’ve
lived the entirety of my life in California,
Illinois, and Tennessee—regions of the
country in which moose are in short supply.
Aerodynamically, of course, stalls have
nothing to do with wildlife. A wing stalls
when the angle of attack—the angle between
94 | AOPA PILOT February 2021
the relative wind and the chord line of the
wing—exceeds the critical value. At that
point and with increased angle of attack, the
air across the top of the wing separates from
it and lift decreases dramatically. Paired with
a lack of coordination, a spin lurks around
the corner. A spin requires both those ingre-
dients, so pushing forward on the yoke when
near a stall will lower the angle of attack and
ensure the worst doesn’t happen.
The way we introduce and practice
stalls in training often bears little resem-
blance to the way they occur in nature. It’s
not to say that such practice isn’t appropri-
ate; rather, it’s just not enough. Without
incorporating realistic scenarios, one might
be left with the impression that stalls and
spins happen with plenty of warnings that
prompt us to recover, or even that we could
never find ourselves in such a situation. But
the NTSB aviation accident database tells a
different story.
Despite the inadequacies of my resi-
dences in preparing me for the moose stall,
a quick internet search brought me up to
speed. The moose-stall scenario involves a
pilot who flies at low altitude and becomes
so preoccupied with tracking wildlife that
she fails to notice and correct for an immi-
nent stall. It is amazing what we can ignore
when we are distracted, nervous, or over-
loaded. Such pressures serve as a catalyst
that allows an emergency to occur when
otherwise it wouldn’t.
Every now and then I find myself in a
situation that betrays how these accidents
can happen. I flew Stephen, a local photog-
rapher, in my Cessna 152 to collect aerial
images of Sewanee’s campus. The sand-
stone buildings glowed in the late afternoon
light, but the sun would soon set. After cir-
cling a couple times, the view of the chapel
was perfect except for the aircraft’s strut in
the way. So, I input right rudder and exe-
cuted a slip to provide a better camera angle.
As Stephen exclaimed, “That’s perfect!” it
hit me that this is exactly how an ordinary
photo shoot can go wrong. Had I not been
careful to maintain a low angle of attack, the
flight may not have been a success. Moose
stalls can happen anywhere.
In the private pilot syllabus, the turn
around a point is a ground reference maneu-
ver that can provide a scenario in which a
moose stall can occur. During the maneu-
ver on the practical exam, I typically ask,
“So why do you think the FAA wants you to
master a turn around a point?” Candidates
are busy enough, but providing realistic dis-
tractions is part of my job, and I’m always
curious to hear the answer. I rarely hear a
compelling reason. It’s a low-altitude, con-
stant-radius turn flown at a constant altitude
around a ground reference. To properly
compensate for wind means both the bank
and crab angles continuously change. While
fixating on the reference might be tempting,
looking out for other traffic or obstacles in
the area is imperative. There is a lot going
on with the maneuver, and setting up the
moose-stall scenario is the best reason to
include it in training.
Mastering turns around a point yields
benefits in other phases of flight, too. In
the pattern to land at an airport, we are low
to the ground and need to compensate for
winds in order to execute each turn onto the
next leg of the pattern. Flying each corner of
TAYLOR CALLERY
the pattern is modeled on some 90-degree
arc of the turn around a point. The maneu-
ver helps with planning and executing a
rectangular pattern for landing.
 As promised, I did present on the moose
stall and turn around a point maneuver at
the U.S. Fish and Wildlife training sympo-
sium. While understanding and practicing
stalls is important, so are the maneuvers
that provide the scenarios in which they
New 2021

PILOT GUIDES
may occur. The turn around a point may not
be an easy maneuver to do well, but we all
should practice it regularly because, at some
point, we will have a passenger who wants
to get a good look at his house, a gorgeous
campus, or a moose in Alaska. AOPA

CATHERINE CAVAGNARO is an aerobatics THE ONLY

instructor and professor of mathematics at

COMPLETE RESOURCE
Sewanee: The University of the South.
aceaerobaticschool.com

TURNS AROUND A POINT

To brush up your skills on the FOR
R FLYIN
FLYING THE ISLANDS
turn around a point, select a
ground reference such as, say,
an intersection of roads near
terrain that affords options
should a mechanical anomaly
arise. I plan on a quarter- to
half-mile-radius turn that mim-
ics the arcs in a traffic pattern
and locate several landmarks
that same distance from the
reference. The Private Pilot
Airmen Certification Standards
require an entry altitude of
600 to 1,000 feet agl, and I
prefer the upper end of that
spectrum. Entering on a down-
wind ensures that the starting
bank angle will always be the LOOKING FOR MORE FREQUENT UPDATES TO THE GUIDES?
greatest. (You wouldn’t want Digital versions are also available for iPad, iPhone, and all
to enter with a 30-degree bank internet browsers—including Android
on the upwind only to realize
ANNUALLY UPDATED AIRPORTS AND COVID-19 RESOURCES
you need a 45-degree bank
upon turning downwind.) Once
the intersection is off your
wing tip, bank the airplane and BUY NOW
fly over the landmarks you’ve
identified to keep a constant AOPA.ORG/PILOTGUIDES
distance from the intersection.
Setting a crab angle into the
wind will help form a perfect
circle around the intersection.
Maintain coordinated flight,
a constant radius about the
intersection, altitude within
100 feet, and airspeed within
10 knots. —CC

aopa.org/pilot AOPA PILOT | 95

P&E SAVVY MAINTENANCE
OPINION |
How mags work
The spark plugs in most piston aircraft engines are still
powered by 120-year-old technology
BY MIKE BUSCH
BENDIX S-20/S-200
BENDIX S-1200
BOTH THE FEDERAL AVIATION regulations
and their predecessor, the civil air regula-
tions, require that certificated spark-ignition
reciprocating aircraft engines—the kind
most of us fly behind—have fully redundant
dual ignition systems. Part 33, Subpart C,
states that “each spark ignition engine must
have a dual ignition system with at least two
spark plugs for each cylinder and two sepa-
rate electric circuits with separate sources
of electrical energy or have an ignition sys-
tem of equivalent in-flight reliability.”
There’s a good reason for this: Ignition
system failures are relatively common-
place. Without a properly functioning
ignition system, the engine could quit, the
airplane could fall out of the sky, and people
could get hurt. Spark plug failures happen
a lot, but the consequences usually aren’t
serious—often they’re not even noticeable—
precisely because we have two spark plugs
in each cylinder, and one is enough to keep
the cylinder producing power. Usually, the
only sign that a spark plug has failed in flight
is that the EGT on the affected cylinder rises
by 50 degrees Fahrenheit or so. Unless you
have an engine monitor installed and keep
it in normalize mode, you’ll probably never
96 | AOPA PILOT February 2021
BENDIX D-3000
SLICK 4300/6300
notice. Often these failures are caused by
crud getting lodged in the spark plug elec-
trodes, and often those failures self-resolve.
Even when they don’t, spark plug failures
often aren’t caught until the next preflight
magneto check, when the failed plug causes
an excessive magneto drop.
Magneto failures happen less often,
but when they do, the consequences can
be much more serious—or not, depending
on the failure mode. If the mag just quits
cold—say, because the breaker points fail,
the coil opens, or the condenser shorts—
then the consequences are relatively
benign: All cylinders continue to make
power in single-ignition mode, all EGTs
rise in unison, and you fly to your destina-
tion and get the bad mag fixed. No big deal.
A failure that affects the magneto’s
timing can be a very big deal, particularly
if the timing is advanced—i.e., the spark
plugs fire earlier than they should. A mag
that fires 5 degrees early can send CHTs
right through the roof, and one that fires
10 degrees early can melt holes in pistons
and cause cylinder heads to separate. Ugly.
The worst kind of mag failure—and one
we’re seeing disturbingly often—occurs
Savvy Maintenance coverage
sponsored by AIRCRAFT SPRUCE
when the mag’s plastic distributor gear
fails and starts shedding teeth. When this
happens, the magneto can start firing ran-
dom spark plugs at random times, and all
hell breaks loose. The engine starts running
change-of-underwear rough, and unless the
pilot quickly throttles way back, the pow-
erplant can start coming seriously unglued.
I counted six such magneto distributor
gear failures during a two-year period in a
fleet of roughly 300 piston GA airplanes.
That works out to an average of one fail-
ure per year per 100 airplanes. To my way
of thinking that’s a pretty scary failure rate.
That’s why the FAA requires that our
engines have two magnetos. Even if one mag
goes berserk, we’ve still got a healthy one to
get us home, right? Don’t be so sure.
I investigated these six magneto dis-
tributor gear failures thoroughly. They
happened to all sorts of pilots, ranging
from newbies to veteran multi-thousand-
hour CFIs, and they occurred in phases
of flight ranging from pattern altitude to
Flight Level 210. Not once did the pilot
have the presence of mind to identify and
shut off the misfiring magneto! That’s even
true of the failure that occurred at FL210,
where the experienced pilot had nearly half
an hour to troubleshoot the issue as he was
descending, power off, to an emergency
landing. In every one of these six cases—
high-time or low-time pilot, high altitude
or low altitude—the pilot declared an emer-
gency, pulled the power back to near-idle,
and put the airplane on the ground at the
nearest airport. Fortunately, all the emer-
gency landings were uneventful.
Had these pilots been taught to deal with
such a failure by identifying and shutting off
the bad magneto, their engines would have
resumed smooth operation and their air-
planes could have continued uneventfully
to the planned destination, at which point
the bad magnetos could have been repaired
or replaced. But none of the pilots did that.
All treated the situation as a catastrophic
engine failure. Not one attempted to trou-
bleshoot or resolve the problem, something
that easily could have been accomplished
simply by shutting off one magneto at a
time until the bad one was identified and
disabled.
 The Bendix D2000/D3000 dual mag-
neto is used on many Lycoming engines. If
your Lycoming engine model number ends
in a “D” suffix—e.g., O-360-A1F6D or TIO-
540-F2BD—it has one of these puppies
installed. It’s two independent magne-
tos packaged into one box, with a single
drive shaft, mounted on a single pad on
the accessory case. The idea was to reduce
the real estate and gear train complexity
at the back of the engine. This probably
wasn’t Lycoming engineering’s best idea.

COLLEGE AVIATION DIRECTORY

I’ve been struck by how many aircraft own-
ers and mechanics have bad experiences
with these dual mags, some declaring that
Seeking a college degree in the field of aviation?
they would not fly any single-engine air-
plane that was dual-mag equipped. Find your best match in AOPA’s College Aviation Directory.
The original D2000 dual mag was aopa.org/colleges
horribly unreliable, and most of them
have long since been replaced with the
improved D3000. Although the D3000 has
pretty much dual everything—dual breaker
points, coils, distributors, and distributor
gears—it still doesn’t provide the level of
redundancy of two conventional magnetos.
One problem area has been the hold-
down clamps that attach the mag to the
engine. They have a history of com-
ing loose—either because they were not
properly torqued or because the magneto
mounting flange or engine mounting pad
was worn. When the clamps come loose,
the dual mag can shift and that screws
up the timing of both magnetos (not just
one). Another single-point failure is the
impulse coupling that drives the dual
mag from the engine gear train. A dual-
mag-equipped Lycoming engine has only
one of these, rather than two. An impulse
coupling failure can take out the entire
ignition system.
Although the dual magneto complies
with the letter of the FAA’s two-source
requirement, I can’t help but wonder
whether it meets the spirit of the regula-
tion. It just doesn’t provide the same level
of redundancy as two conventional mags.
As if this wasn’t bad enough, the dual
mag is used only on Lycomings but was
manufactured by Continental. In 2010,
Continental discontinued manufacture and
support of the dual mag, leaving owners of
“-D” Lycomings in something of a pickle

aopa.org/pilot AOPA PILOT | 97

 P&E SAVVY MAINTENANCE

and dependent on aftermarket sources of

parts to keep their dual mags alive.
Even with two conventional mags, it’s
still possible for a common mode failure to
compromise the entire ignition system. One
such failure occurred to a client of mine who
was cruising his Cessna 340 at FL240 when
suddenly, the left engine came unglued and
started shaking so badly that the pilot was
worried it would tear itself off the wing.
He declared an emergency, requested
a lower altitude, and started an emergency
descent. After descending a few thousand
feet, the left engine started running a lot bet-
ter, so he continued at the lower altitude,
landed safely at his home base, and asked
his A&P to figure out what was wrong.
It didn’t take the mechanic long to
find the cause: the 340’s engines’ Slick
6300-series pressurized magnetos. A
tiny plastic nipple on the magneto pres-
surization filter had broken off, instantly
THIS LITTLE plastic magneto pressurization filter can cause a single-point failure of the entire depressurizing both mags and sending them
98 | ignition system at high altitudes. into violent high-altitude misfire. When the

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mechanic removed both mags and opened
them up, he found evidence of severe inter-
nal arcing. One of the distributor gears was
badly burned and partially melted.
It strikes me as pretty dumb to have
both magnetos sharing a single pressuriza-
tion hose and a single plastic pressurization
filter. This creates the potential for a sin-
gle point of failure that can take out both
magnetos simultaneously at high altitudes.
Yet every pressurized magneto installation
I’ve looked at—whether Bonanza, Cessna,
or Cirrus—does it this way. Go figure.
Magnetos normally receive only a cur-
sory inspection during annual or 100-hour
inspections. The mag-to-engine ignition
timing is checked with a buzz box and
adjusted if necessary. Perhaps the breaker
points are checked for condition (or per-
haps not). That’s pretty much it.
Both Bendix/Continental and Slick/
Champion recommend that their mags be
removed from the engine and opened for a
thorough disassembly inspection every 500
hours. Although the 500-hour inspection
is not compulsory for Part 91 operators,
Although I’m a big believer in doing main-
tenance strictly on condition rather than
on a fixed timetable, there’s really no way
to assess the condition of a magneto with-
out taking it off and opening it up. And
although I would normally consider a
component that is part of a fully redundant
system to be a run-to-failure item, it has
become painfully clear that pilots don’t do
well in the face of magneto failure modes
that cause the engine to go berserk.
The 500-hour inspection provides
an opportunity to inspect the magneto’s
breakable plastic parts (such as the distrib-
utor gear), to replace various consumable
items (such as the carbon brush), to lubri-
cate internal parts (such as the cam, gear,
and felts), to inspect the condition of the
breaker points and reset the point gap
to specifications, and to reset the mag’s
internal timing (“E-gap”) to ensure that it
generates maximum spark voltage. This is
all stuff that is very much worth doing.
Some A&Ps have the knowledge, spe-
cial tools, and inclination to perform these
important 500-hour inspections them-
selves. Others prefer to send the mags out
to a good magneto specialty shop. (I used
to do my own 500-hour inspections, but
these days I send mine out.) If your shop
sends your mags out, make sure they ask
for a 500-hour IRAN (inspect and repair
as necessary) rather than an overhaul—
there’s typically no need for magnetos to
be overhauled except when the engine is
undergoing a major overhaul. AOPA
MIKE BUSCH is an A&P/IA.
EMAIL mike.busch@savvyaviation.com
savvyaviation.com
ASK THE A&PS
Have a maintenance question?
Submit your questions to
podcasts@aopa.org.
aopa.org/podcasts
| 99

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P&E NEVER AGAIN
Pop quiz
Be ready when one comes up
B Y PAU L LO C A N D E R
WE ALL MAKE MANAGEMENT decisions
from the mundane (such as being on
time, which is good) to the critical (like
stepping in front of a freight train, which
would be bad). They’re a part of our
daily routine. However, life has a knack
of throwing any of us a curveball at any
time, which could be considered the
equivalent of a managerial pop quiz. It’s
something that happens when you least
expect it, and sometimes at a scale that
could end your life—or someone else’s.
One particular pop quiz started for me
about 30 seconds after leaving my home
airport in a Vans RV–12, an airplane I was
to be checked out in the next day. “I smell
gas,” I said as an odor of gas wafted up my
nose. I was in the right seat and getting a
preview of the airplane I was looking for-
ward to fly that wasn’t a Cessna.
“I don’t smell anything,” dismissed the
CFI (who we’re going to call “Frank”) in
the left seat. Frank, who’s well into his
70s, was scheduled to check me out the
100 | AOPA PILOT February 2021
following day. “But I do smell oil,” he said
a few moments later.
And Frank was right. The smell of gas
had morphed into an undeniable stench
of burnt oil, followed by a blue haze that
flooded into the cockpit. With the air vents
quickly opened and oil pressure diving, we
decided to set down.
Now, we all know what the prescribed
course of action is—land the airplane. It
is hammered into us from the beginning
when there’s even a hint of engine trou-
ble. Safety seminars, countless safety
videos, the FAA, and my wife all reiter-
ate the same thing: Put the wheels on the
ground (preferably upright). Even the air-
plane’s operating handbook barks out the
same gospel: Plan a “Precautionary Landing
Approach” as complete engine failure is pos-
sible at any time.
And up ahead was a sleepy little air-
port with a short runway that was no wider
than a country road, about a mile out and
a couple of thousand feet down. It was the
perfect safety net before the engine could
seize into a boat anchor.
Instead, Frank hung a U-turn for home.
“We’re not landing?” I asked while
watching the narrow strip of asphalt dis-
appear under the wing.
“No….” Frank answered, followed by a
muddling of words I would never be able
to recite from memory, even under sodium
pentothal. He had decided, as pilot in com-
mand, to return to our airport, which was
a good five miles away. However, as far as I
was concerned, it might as well have been
500 miles to an airplane with an engine
that likely was bleeding to death.
Now, it’s fair that I share some criti-
cal context. I had just come back from a
24-year break from flying, with nothing
more than a measly 260 hours to my name.
Frank possessed more than 10,000 hours,
making me a comparative Forrest Gump in
contrast. So, with that in mind, I consid-
ered that, maybe, there was something he
knew that I didn’t. Or perhaps, I had for-
gotten something within the rust.
I chose to bite my tongue and deferred
my fate to Frank.
Before everyone starts throwing things
at me, I do know that I didn’t make this
decision in a vacuum. Yes, my instincts
screamed land, but I weighed a few points
in the fog of that moment.
Point one, Frank not only had thirty-
eight times the hours I had, but he’d also
been flying since before I was even born. So,
the guy’s gonna know a bit more about fly-
ing than I do, right?
Point two, my father raised me with
the mantra of respect your elders and those
above you, which he would enforce with a
painful thumb-thump to the top of one’s
head (ask me how I know this).
In other words, I chose to cower in
ANNA MILL
deferment within a perceived expectation
that it was the right thing to do. But what I

The airplane had essentially rained lubricant
on everything below our flight path until there
was nothing left.
really did, instead, was completely flunk a
pop quiz in critical decision-making.
In fairness to Frank, he weighed his
own critical decision points. Did we still
have a working motor? Kind of. Could we
see our home airport? Yeah. Did we have
altitude? Not a lot, but yes. All green lights
to take a pass on the runway below us, even
though he presumably knew better.
We did eventually make it back to the
airport, but not before the motor seized
with a soul-jarring clunk when it decided
it had enough of running without oil a
half-mile out. With a propeller blade
frozen upward, Frank got us onto the
runway, touching down just on the edge
of the asphalt. It was my only, and hope-
fully never again, firsthand witnessing of
a dead-stick landing. We coasted down the
runway and bailed as soon as the 1,300-
pound airplane rolled to a stop.
Once outside, we found streaked oil
on the cowling everywhere forward of
the wings. The airplane had essentially
rained lubricant on everything below our
flight path until there was nothing left,
all caused by an inspection bolt that had
worked its way loose and was not secured
by a required safety wire.
With the clarity of being back on the
ground, I knew Frank’s decision to push
for home was irrefutably wrong. I tossed
aside my father’s militant lessons of def-
erence and pressed Frank on what he was
thinking. Why did he risk returning to the
airport when we had a perfect landing spot
below us?
“We were too high,” Frank demurred,
which we both knew was a load of excre-
ment the moment he said it. He would
Donate
Any
Airplane
Get
A Tax
later concede that he turned us around
Receipt!
simply because “that’s where his car was.”
Frank also admitted he would’ve landed
at the little airport given the chance to
do it again. The man knew he had made
an error in judgment, and we were both
lucky it didn’t turn out to be worse than
it already was.
But that’s not the takeaway from this.
In the end, we were fortunate that nei-
ther one of us met our untimely demise
that day—not to mention the damage and
harm that could have occurred to those Contact:
below us. And although my instincts were
proven correct, I was wrong for not press- www.BuildAPlane.org
ing them. Admittedly there was little I
could do beyond starting a fistfight for the 505.980.5915
stick, but that’s an extreme and dramatic
perspective that pales against the one
thing I should have said, with increasing
volume: “Land the airplane!”
Help kids
More important, I failed to man-
age upward. And I had done it out of an
learn
antiquated sense of polite deference and
introverted passivity, thus making my
science,
error nearly as bad as Frank’s. Although
I was rusty in the cockpit, that doesn’t
technology,
absolve me of my responsibility as a pilot
to make the right decision, even when I’m
engineering
not a pilot in command. And while this is
not an endorsement to start arguing with
and math
those you disagree with, it is an endorse-
ment to find your voice and speak to what
by building
you believe, or know, is right.
Life is full of pop quizzes. Your life, and
or restoring
those of others, may depend on how ready
you are for them. AOPA
real airplanes.
www.buildaplane.org
PAUL LOCANDER is an IT executive, writer,
and pilot based in Olney, Maryland.
aopa.org/pilot AOPA PILOT | 101
 $255,000
News & Notes
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IT WAS 1884 AND INNOVATION WAS A WORLDWIDE phenomenon.

Everyone, it seemed, was creating and inventing products that would
change the world. Industry, science, and sport were all progressing at a
furious pace. Observing this, Swiss watchmaker Leon Breitling became
obsessed with aviation. He watched as the Wright brothers took to the
skies and he knew the world would need more precise and accurate
timing methods. AVIATION PIONEERS SQUAD
During World War I, Breitling introduced a piece of technology to
In 2020, Breitling introduced its Aviation Pioneers
pilots; they needed an easy-to-use timer that freed their hands for take- Squad. It is made up of three individuals who repre-
off. Pocket watches were in vogue at the time, but their fobs and chains sent different aviation disciplines but who all define
were cumbersome for the chaos of the cockpit. Breitling’s innovative a new age of adventure in the air: Scott Kelly spent
a year of his life looking down at the Earth from the
solution: the world’s first wrist-worn chronograph with a push piece
International Space Station (ISS); Commandant Rocío
separate to the crown. González Torres has logged more than 1,000 hours of
Willy Breitling took the helm of the brand his grandfather had founded flight time in a fighter jet and is a role model for girls
and established the Huit Aviation Department in 1938. Fully aware of the and young women determined to conquer the skies;
and Luke Bannister excels in a new aviation discipline—
strict requirements for military and civil aviation, its name—the French
he won his first World Drone Championship at the age
word for “eight”—reflected the eight-day power reserve offered by many of 15 and has been on a winning course ever since.
dashboard clocks and other chronometric instruments, including the wrist “No watch brand in the world has a more impressive
chronographs Breitling was developing for aviators. In addition to power and enduring link to aviation than Breitling. All three of
the members of the Breitling Aviation Pioneers Squad
reserves and readability, these onboard chronographs were distinguished
define an incredible new age of adventure in the air,”
by their lightweight cases. The Huit products attracted the attention of mil- says Breitling CEO Georges Kern. “Breitling celebrates
itary aviators and, as World War II loomed, the Huit Aviation Department the collective spirit of those united in pursuit of their
received an order for chronographs from the Royal Air Force. mission. Fueled by camaraderie and driven by purpose,
we accomplish more together than we could alone. The
As Europe was plunged into darkness, the Nazis surrounded
Aviation Pioneers Squad launches the new Breitling
Switzerland and blocked the exportation of products, especially items Avenger collection, which reinforces the unparalleled
that could be used in the war effort. This included Breitling timepieces. pioneering status that Breitling has as the world’s lead-
Willy Breitling and a group of friends drove to a field near the Breitling ing maker of aviation-related and pilot’s watches.”
breitling.com
plant and set up a makeshift runway using their car headlights. The air-
planes were loaded with the timepieces and took off—all without the
knowledge of Nazi intelligence. To provide himself with an alibi during
these midnight raids, Willy would go home via a local bar and make him- The first Breitling
self conspicuous. This occasionally put him in the drunk tank, but the Navitimer
watches and cockpit devices ended up in Allied hands.
Because of its founders’ passion for aviation, Breitling has been a long-
standing contributor to the flying world. From its reliable and precise watch
designs, its evolution from watch fobs to wrist-worn, and its love of the
excitement of aviation in its sponsorship of exciting world events such as
its French jet team performances, the Breitling Orbiter (the first balloon
to circumnavigate the globe), sending a Breitling watch into space with
Scott Carpenter in 1962, and more, Breitling has long celebrated aviation.
Breitling is now a premier partner with AOPA. The AOPA-Breitling
COURTESY BREITLING

partnership spans more than 65 years, since 1954 when AOPA selected the
Breitling Navitimer as the official watch of AOPA.
This article includes excerpts from the Breitling historic collection.

EMAIL julie.walker@aopa.org

102 | AOPA PILOT February 2021

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NEWS & NOTES AOPA AIR SAFETY INSTITUTE
Never give up
Prepare for emergencies and learn from
one pilot’s journey across the Atlantic
BY ALICIA HERRON
THERE’S NO WAY TO BE TOTALLY READY for
every emergency, but there are ways to sig-
nificantly improve your odds of surviving
one. Preparation predicts performance. A
NASA study of airline crew performance
found that 85 percent of “textbook” emer-
gencies—those that the crews had trained
for—were handled well, while only 7 per-
cent of “new” emergency situations were
handled with the same degree of success.
While we can’t avoid the slim pos-
sibility of a “new” emergency, many
emergencies are avoidable because they’re
set in motion by the pilot (pilot error). Too
often, pilots fly into avoidable scenarios,
like icing conditions, thunderstorms, fuel
exhaustion, and VFR into IMC—some-
times leading to an accident. That these
accidents are largely preventable makes
their associated fatalities and destruction
even more painful.
But if you manage risks wisely and
maintain real-time awareness of what you
can and can’t control, you’ll reduce the
probability of an emergency. You can’t con-
trol the weather, but you can choose your
route. You can’t significantly modify your
fuel burn in unexpected headwinds, but
104 | AOPA PILOT February 2021
you can control when and where you land
to refuel. Practice good aeronautical deci-
sion making: You’ll be less likely to have an
emergency and more able to cope with one.
Here are some key points to consider
before each flight to help you prepare for
an emergency:
• Brief every flight to cover emergency
contingencies and critical checklist items.
Commit immediate procedures to mem-
ory—and practice them.
• Route selection: Are you flying over water,
high terrain, or a forest? What’s the weather
like on the ground along your route? Have a
plan for an unscheduled off-airport landing.
• Practice engine-out and partial-panel sce-
narios with a qualified flight instructor.
• Equip for redundancy—carry backup
radios/GPS equipment, and batteries.
• Pack a survival kit appropriate to the flight
and number of people on board.
• File and activate a flight plan to help with
potential search and rescue operations.
• If planning to fly IFR and in actual IMC,
know where the nearest VFR conditions
are and the height of the ceilings along
your route of flight. Do you feel prepared
for an engine-out scenario with 1,000-foot
NEW FROM ASI
THERE I WAS...:
GEAR-UP LANDING
In this episode we talk to Todd
Clark, a 700-hour pilot based in
beautiful Kalispell, Montana. Clark
experienced a gear-up landing
in his Mooney M20J, and he joins
ASI to talk about the day’s events
that led up to the incident.
airsafetyinstitute.org/thereiwas
ceilings? How about 200-foot ceilings?
• Don’t guess with fuel—always know how
much you have available and plan to land
with a reserve.
Other critical factors in surviving an
emergency are attitude and a commitment
to never give up. In the summer of 1994,
Kerry McCauley, an international ferry
pilot now with more than 30 years of expe-
rience, was flying over the North Atlantic
to Paris in a new Bonanza F33 when he
discovered an issue with his auxiliary fuel
tank. The problem? No ram air—the fuel
wasn’t moving. The solution? Pressurize
the tank via lung power. For eight straight
hours McCauley was alone, over the ocean,
in a single-engine airplane, with only his
will keeping him aloft and alive.
McCauley’s commitment to his own
survival is what kept him alive when he
could have given up. His grit and deter-
mination are good lessons to all pilots that
even in a seemingly hopeless situation—
like flying solo over the Atlantic—there can
be a positive resolution.
airsafetyinstitute.org/RPS/atlantic
EMAIL alicia.herron@aopa.org
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NEWS & NOTES TURN ON YOUR NOTIFICATIONS

AOPA WEATHER NOW POST OF THE MONTH |

ONLINE AND VIA APP
Powerful suite of flight
planning tools on your
mobile device

The new AOPA Weather,

delivered by SiriusXM Aviation,
provides national and airport-
specific data in a mobile-friendly
format that makes it perfect for
checking weather on the go—
even via the AOPA app. The upgrade is the latest in a series of
flight planning tool improvements AOPA made in 2020 to serve
you better. In April, iFlightPlanner debuted, replacing the legacy
flight planner. In September, the AOPA Airports and Destinations
Directory was added to an upgraded AOPA app, making the data
downloadable for use offline. Consolidation of AOPA GO into the
AOPA app was announced in November.
Now, in another enhancement, AOPA members can access the
new mobile-friendly AOPA Weather and iFlightPlanner for AOPA
via the AOPA app as long as you are connected to the internet.
“These upgrades make our powerful suite of flight planning HANG LOOSE
tools—weather, flight planning, and airports database—available
Flying into the weekend like...
from your mobile device. We specifically tailored these upgrades
#flywithaopa @davehirschman
to make it easier for you to plan your flights on the go,” said Jiri
Marousek, AOPA senior vice president of marketing. “As pilots,
Tag @flywithaopa for your chance to be
we need to be flexible, and we wanted our flight planning tools to
featured on this page.
be just as flexible so that you can access them whether you are at
home, at the airport, or enjoying an outing at a new w destination.”
AOPA Weather pulls in your home and favorite airports from
your settings in the AOPA Airports and Destinations ns Directory, but
you can also set your home and favorites from AOPA PA Weather by
clicking on the “Home” and “Heart” icons within the e METAR and
elected a home
TAFs details for an airport. If you haven’t already selected
dentifier.
or favorite, you can search by entering the airport identifier.
Weather layers, weather charts, and forecasts are re delivered by
SiriusXM Aviation. Get radar, satellite, wind stream, surface winds,
and surface analysis charts in the Current Weather Layers and
Current Weather Charts sections. Layer radar, satellite lite images,
and the wind stream for a detailed big-picture view w of what’s
happening across the country. Turn off those layers s to then check
surface winds or the surface analysis.
In the Forecasts section, you can choose among g a surface
forecast, airmets, or sigmets. The three cannot be o verlaid.
overlaid.
bscuration/IFR
However, within airmets, you can layer mountain obscuration/IFR
areas, turbulence, and icing/freezing areas.
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration ion charts
available from within AOPA Weather include prog c harts, surface
charts,
forecast, cloud forecast, winds aloft, long range windsnds aloft,
NOAA charts
freezing level, icing severity, and icing probability. NOAA
for Alaska are called out in their own section.
Users can also check temporary flight restrictions ns within
AOPA Weather.
aopa.org/weather

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NEWS & NOTES MEMBER PRODUCTS AND SERVICES
LEGALLY SPEAKING |
A welcome
change
FAA introduces online
DUI/DWI motor vehicle
action reporting
THE FAA HAS LONG REQUIRED the holder
of any pilot certificate to report a Motor
Vehicle Action (MVA), as defined in
FAR 61.15(c), within 60 days. Common
examples of a reportable MVA include a
driver’s license suspension, or a convic-
tion, for driving under the influence or
driving while intoxicated (DUI/DWI).
However, until recently, these reports
could only be sent by mail or fax to FAA’s
Security and Hazardous Materials Safety
Office (formerly Civil Aviation Security
Division). FAA has now rolled out a new
online reporting option, which enables a
pilot to enter their email address into a
website and receive a customized report-
ing link via email.
FAR 61.15(e) details the information
required when making a report. The FAA
has a template available for mail or fax
submissions, and its use is optional. It is
worth noting that the template has fields
for information beyond what is required
by the regulation (e.g., telephone num-
ber), but does not distinguish them from
CONTACT AOPA
ADDRESS CHANGE?
Send your new address and AOPA
membership number to AOPA:
421 Aviation Way
Frederick, Maryland 21701-4798
Fax: 301-695-2375
aopa.org
TOLL-FREE PILOT
INFORMATION CENTER
800-USA-AOPA (872-2672)
pilotassist@aopa.org
AOPA PILOT INFORMATION CENTER HOURS
Do you have questions or need information about an aviation topic? Access the team of aviation experts in our Pilot Information Center
during our convenient weekday hours. Call 800-USA-AOPA (872-2672) Monday through Friday, 8:30 a.m. until 6 p.m. Eastern time, with
your questions and our staff will be happy to assist you.
Visit the website (aopa.org/membership) to learn about upgrading to our higher levels of membership with Pilot Protection Services
coverage included.
108 | AOPA PILOT February 2021
BY CHAD MAYER
Pilot Protection Services
required information. The web form contains
fields similar to the template’s. However, the web
form uses an asterisk to denote required informa-
tion, which is a welcome change.
Failure to timely report an MVA can lead to
certificate action, and the AOPA Legal Services
Plan staff recommends keeping proof of sub-
mission in case there is ever any question about
whether a report was timely made. Until now,
this meant either sending the report by certified
mail with return receipt requested, or saving a fax
send confirmation. For pilots electing to make a
61.15 report through the FAA’s website, it may be
advisable to keep screenshots, as well as call on
the phone the next business day to confirm the
submission went through successfully. At pres-
ent, a confirmation email is not automatically
sent after submitting a report through the web
form. Pilots with questions should consult with
aviation counsel to ensure any required reports
are properly submitted.
aopa.org/pps
CHAD MAYER is an in-house attorney with the AOPA
Legal Services Plan and an active private pilot.
AOPA FOUNDATION
800-955-9115
aopafoundation.org
AOPA AIR SAFETY INSTITUTE
800-638-3101
airsafetyinstitute.org
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AVIATION FINANCE |
ADAM ANSWERS
B Y A DA M M E R E D I T H
P R E S I D E N T, A O PA F I N A N C E
Q: I own a Cessna 177RG that’s
free and clear and am seeking
to finance up to $80,000 with
my airplane as security...do you
all offer this service?
A: Equity financing of an air-
craft can be challenging.
Lenders will need a good
understanding of how the
funds are to be used. If the
funds are to be put back into
the aircraft for upgrades,
improvements, etc., we have
plenty of options. This would
be treated like any other pur-
chase or refinance. If the funds
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where or to increase cash flow,
the lending options are much
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would expect a lower advance
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finance.aopa.org
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AOPA AIRCRAFT FINANCING
800-627-5263
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AOPA PERSONAL INSURANCE
800-USA-AOPA (872-2672)
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AOPA PILOT PROTECTION SERVICES
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AirMedical Global Assistance 10 www.amgassist.com/aopa • Garmin Communication Cover 4

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Institute FIRCS aopafirc.org • 800-638-3101 Guardian Avionics 41 guardianavionics.com • 520-889-1177

AOPA Finance/turbine T-8 aopafinance.org/turbine • 844-674-2761 Gulf Coast Avionics 17 www.gca.aero • 800-474-9714

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AOPA Pilot Gear 107 aopapilotgear.com • MT- Propeller 38 www.mt-propeller.com • 386-736-7762

AOPA Pilot Guides 95 aopa.org/pilotguides • National Flight Simulator T-4

AOPA Pilot Protection 93 www.nationalflightsimular.com/turbine •

Services aopa.org/pps • 800-872-2672 Pacific Coast Avionics 17 www.pca.aero • 800-353-0370

AOPA World 84, 85, 86, 87, 105 Pacific Health 19 www.claroxan.com • 855-820-4055
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Aviat Aircraft Inc. 98 aviataircraft.com/aopa • 307-317-5550 Sporty’s Pilot Shop 13 sportys.com/flightgear • 800-SPORTYS
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Bristell Aircraft 111 www.bristellaircraft.com • 516-658-1847 beechcraft.com/heir-of-excellence •
CIES Corporation 97 ciescorp.com • 541-977-1043

AOPA Pilot magazine (ISSN: 0001-2084), February 2021 (Vol. 64, No. 02), is produced and distributed monthly by
the Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association, 421 Aviation Way, Frederick, Maryland 21701. Distribution restricted
to AOPA members, those in aeronautical education (faculty and schools), libraries, and the news media. Annual
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aopa.org/pilot AOPA PILOT | 109

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aopa.org/pilot AOPA PILOT | 111

PILOTS FIRST LADY OF CHECKRIDES
Carol Joyner
Teacher turned DPE
B Y G E R I S I LV E I R A
CAROL JOYNER DIDN’T START OUT to be a
designated pilot examiner. In fact, she didn’t
start out to be a pilot at all. However, since
she became a DPE 24 years ago, Joyner
has given more than 2,500 checkrides and
counting. She averages 100-plus rides a year.
After earning her degree in education,
Joyner moved to Pomona, California, to
start her career. Soon after, she met her
future husband, Bill, a private pilot. Her
life’s work was going to change from teach-
ing junior high schoolers to instructing
student pilots.
In 1977, the couple purchased a Cessna
Turbo 210, the family aircraft they flew to
visit relatives and took on ski trips. At Bill’s
suggestion, Joyner took a Pinch-Hitter
course. “I was immediately hooked on fly-
ing,” she says. That same year, she earned
her private pilot certificate. Her commer-
cial certificate, instrument, and multiengine
ratings followed quickly. Encouraged by a
fellow pilot, Joyner added flight instructor
112 | AOPA PILOT February 2021
certificates. With two young sons to care for,
Joyner instructed part time, and in the early
1990s, the FAA appointed her a safety coun-
selor. In 1996, Joyner became a designated
pilot examiner.
Her main territory is Los Angeles, but
in 2016, Joyner spent time in Florida and
arranged to give checkrides there. “The
Florida flying environment is very differ-
ent from Los Angeles. The climate is more
humid; it’s at sea level—no mountains—and
there’s lots of water.”
With so many checkrides under her
seatbelt, Joyner isn’t surprised by anything
an applicant does. “Two of them got me into
spins. We recovered fine, because I’m still
here,” she laughs.
As an experienced DPE, Joyner has this
advice: “I tell my applicants the checkride
is only a second opinion. Your instructor
wouldn’t have recommended you if they
didn’t think you were ready.” She spends
a lot of time with each applicant, helping
LOGBOOK
WHO | Carol Joyner, designated pilot
examiner and certificated flight instructor
HOURS | 7,000
CERTIFICATES AND RATINGS | CFI, single-
engine and multiengine land, instrument;
commercial airplane, single-engine and
multiengine land, instrument; ground
instructor, advanced and instrument
FAVORITE AIRCRAFT | Cessna Turbo 210, the
Joyner family “truckster”
EXTRA | To the applicants who ace their
checkrides: “I wish the FAA had been pres-
ent for your checkride. It was perfect.”
them to feel comfortable. If an applicant
does fail, she never lets them leave until
they fully understand what they need to do
to pass.
People often ask Joyner why she didn’t
fly for the airlines. “I never wanted to be an
airline pilot. My goal is to help applicants
achieve their dreams. I want to be a part of
their success. And that’s what I find most
CHAD SLATTERY
satisfying about my job.”
GERI SILVEIRA is a commercial pilot with
more than 5,000 hours.
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