Unicom

I have two questions regarding the article Landing at the Max [Airmanship, March] You state: … with a 46 KCAS stall speed. Enter the flare in a 172 at 65 knots instead of 60 and you have 2.25 times as much kinetic energy to dissipate before the airplane will stop flying.

My first question is: How did you compute the factor of 2.25? Here is how I analyze this problem. Kinetic energy is proportional to the square of ground speed. For simplicity Ill assume that CAS is equal to GS. The airplane stops flying at its stall speed of 46 knots, therefore the KE (kinetic energy) that must be dissipated before the airplane will stop flying is the difference between the KE at entry and the KE…

I enjoyed Wally Millers article Big Pile of Trouble [Weather Tactics, June], but I was sorry to see that he did not list my favorite pre-flight planning guideline and flying technique for handling wind and the mountains. At my flying club in Seattle, they teach us to plan for at least 1,000 feet of ridge clearance for each 10 mph of wind at altitude. If your airplane cannot fly at that altitude, take a different one (we have a pressurized Centurion) or do not go. Following this guideline does not assure that you will stay out of trouble – as pointed out in Millers article – but it does give the pilot a minimum altitude to fly and reasonable basis for a go/no-go decision.

-Daniel Wise…

At the risk of falling into the category of the uninformed, I would like to comment on Graveyard Spirals [Reality Check, May].

The flight tests of an airplanes stability is broken into categories of static, dynamic and maneuvering. Control forces and the airplanes response to various test conditions are measured against the FAAs requirements. These are done with the basic requirement that the airplane should tend to return to trim condition exepect that the airplane is not expected to roll wings level when measuring stick force per g in maneuvering flight.

The tests of the phugoid mode, the spiral mode and the lateral-directional stability are done hands-off. The object is to dete…

An excellent article on turnbacks [Airmanship, July]. John Eckalbar discusses this in detail in his books: Flying High Performance Singles and Twins, and Flying the Beech Bonanza. I attended the Bonanza Pilot Profiency Program in April and had the pleasure of hearing John speak in person. Part of the study material was a chapter on Turnbacks written by Eckalbar. Out of curiosity I later asked several members of a flying club I belong to about turnbacks, minimum altitude, optimum bank angle and optimum airspeed. I was surprised that many had no clue. I was shocked at how few had a plan for engine failure at low altitude.

The BPPP approach to the problem is similar to yours, they…

I was the pilot of the Grumman F9F-2 Panther referenced in your August, 2000 story Warbirds of Attrition, [Airmanship, August] which ran off the end of the runway at Kalamazoo/Battlecreek International Runway. I must say I am appalled that you would write such an article with apparently as little information as you had, especially about my accident. The NTSB changed its Factual Report on my accident three times because it couldnt get it right. Apparently the information you had came from perhaps one of the earliest of the accident reports.

First, I had far more than just an hours conversation with a test pilot before I flew the Panther jet. I had two days of intensive ground trainin…

The Twice Bitten article was good [Proficiency, July], but I remain curious about the accident statistics on twins. Fatalities, per the stats, are four times as high for a twin when an engine fails than for a single as you noted. Not hard to understand during takeoffs. But how do the stats include the numerous instances of engine failure in a twin that never make it into the database because the plane landed without incident?

My own admittedly limited database contains many instances. When an engine fails during cruise and landing phases of flight, I bet more singles dont land safely. What should I draw from the stats? Is my sense of twin security while flying over water and at nig…

Great job! Thanks for stereotyping all young CFIs as unprofessional, lazy and undedicated [Editors Log, November]. I work on a community college instructor staff and can assure you that all of us have worked very hard to reach and maintain a high professional standard. I guarantee that you would never catch any of us with our headset tap-tap-tapping against the right side window.

I would also like to point out that your implication that any older experienced pilot can teach the CFI a couple of new tricks is exactly the opposite from what I normally see when flying with the average non-professional airman. Most of them have a hard time remembering how to perform a stall correctly (to…

In reference to A Better Mousetrap [Reality Check, November], logic fails to explain the complete prohibition on antidepressant medication for aviation. Depression is common, especially among middle-aged men and people who have given up smoking, which is why Zyban – an antidepressant – is often prescribed as an aid to smoking cessation.

Depression is treatable but, as with most mental illnesses, it is prone to widespread misconception. Prozac, for example, is widely equated with Thorazine – a tranquilizer that turns agitated people into placid, happy zombies.

Prozac, Zoloft, Paxil, Celexa, drugs that combat the most common forms of depression and anxiety disorder, are selective ser…

I would like to comment about your editorial on shortage of flight instructors [Editors Log, November].

For several years I flew for a commuter airline. At 50 I was told I did not meet their pilot profile and I should quit. I also had personal problems at home, so I left to be closer to home.

I decided to go back into flight instruction. For the next three years I worked six and sometimes seven days a week, sometimes from 6 a.m. to 10 p.m. in order to accommodate students. All for only a four-figure income a year.

Three years later I found a job on a assembly line. It only pays a couple of dollars above minimum wage, but it doubled my yearly income. I continued doing flight instr…

Jeff Schweitzers article Beyond See and Avoid [Instrument Check, January] is a good start.

I have been flying just shy of 30 years, but 500-plus hours in the Northeast in a Skywatch-equipped Bonanza over the past 22 months have shocked me. We are fooling ourselves if we think see and avoid is much more than a snare and a delusion in congested airspace.

The new boxes give you a fair chance when an intruder is coming from behind or climbing rapidly from below, offer a second chance for distracted pilots in rapid-convergence situations, expand the circle of safety for pilots (IFR or VFR) in marginal VMC, could have prevented a number of multiple-fatality midairs involving high-perf…