Airmanship

demonstrating how the black-hole approach effect works in daytime conditions.”

Airplane performance and good maintenance are closely related. The figures published by the manufacturer are frequently viewed as optimistic once an airplane is put into service-and suffers prop nicks, bugs on the leading edge and a couple of bad landings-but book numbers can be achieved even years later. When actual performance differs from the published numbers, its often because the airplanes condition has diminished over the years and hours of use. The level of maintenance an airplane has received over the years will have a significant impact on its overall performance.

I read with interest the article NTSB Takes on Pireps (June 2017). What was not mentioned, and my primary reason to not submit Pireps, is the removal of Flight Watch and its common frequency, 122.0 MHz. Requiring the pilot to search for the flight service station within radio range makes it less likely a report is even started, and fragments the consolidation into the NAS. To me, the elimination of Flight Watch is going backward.

Whether we want to admit it or not, human flight by reference to instruments alone is an unnatural act. To determine up from down or left from right without a natural horizon, we need hours of training, and even more hours of regular practice. We also need a decently equipped airplane, stuffed with radios, colorful moving maps, some gyroscopes or their electronic equivalent, and more than a few charts, telling us where to go and how to get there.

Everything that can be invented has been invented is a popular quote attributed to Charles H. Duell, commissioner of the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office from 1898 to 1901. Today, the quote often is used to ridicule those who refuse to embrace the latest technology or believe nothing new will be forthcoming. The thing is, Duell never said that. He said quite the opposite instead: In my opinion, all previous advances in the various lines of invention will appear totally insignificant when compared with those which the present century will witness. Yet, hes not remembered for that statement, only the former, erroneous one.

On the off chance youve forgotten, heres a helpful reminder: ATC privatization is still a thing. Its baked into a bill being considered in the U.S. House of Representatives to reauthorize the FAA. The legislation-or something like it that continues the agencys programs-needs to be enacted by September 30, 2017. Current U.S. Senate legislation to accomplish the same basic task doesnt have ATC privatization in it at this writing.

We all know the hazardous attitudes the FAA wants us to understand. Concepts like anti-authority, impulsivity and invincibility have no real place in the cockpit. Now, Im going to add one more: the desire to be helpful, or the motivation to please others. One of my big motivations in life is to be helpful to others. I enjoy writing for this magazine, for example, because it is helpful to other pilots. I also get great pleasure in being a solution to other peoples problems.

The problem with an airplane like that is you cant really use it for travel, said a pilot looking out the FBO window at a Cherokee 140 sitting on the ramp. That pilot was saying that an entry-level airplane-think two or four seats, fixed gear and no more than 160 hp-cant go places. Show me where it says that. Its hard to imagine Charles Lindbergh shrugging off the Ryan NYP because it barely made 110…

Unusual attitude recovery is a standard part of the FAA checkride for nearly every rating, plus flight reviews and instrument proficiency checks. Pilots dutifully don a hood, put their heads down as an instructor or examiner puts the airplane through a few gyrations and then says, Youve got it. The pilot looks up to see that the airplane is either in a nose-low or nose-high bank and usually makes a power change to help control speed, levels the wings and returns the nose to the horizon before something breaks. A check is placed in the unusual attitudes box and the pilot and instructor move on to other tasks.

On the off chance youve forgotten, heres a helpful reminder: ATC privatization is still a thing. Its baked into a bill being considered in the U.S. House of Representatives to reauthorize the FAA. The legislation-or something like it that continues the agencys programs-needs to be enacted by September 30, 2017. Current U.S. Senate legislation to accomplish the same basic task doesnt have ATC privatization in it at this writing.