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Thursday, July 15, 2004
Vol. 1 No. 4 |
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Welcome to the Over the Airwaves aviation newsletter. This irregularly published e-mailing is being sent to members of the E-Pilots listserv. The aim of this e-publication is to promote flight safety, encourage students and new pilots, enhance pilot awareness of upcoming events, and to build enthusiasm for aviation in general. EAA AirVenture 2004 - Oshkosh Less than two weeks left before the official start of the famous 52nd annual EAA AirVenture at Oshkosh, WI. Called the BIG SHOW of aviation, over 13,000 general aviation aircraft will travel from all over the world to Wittman Field. There, they will be met by over 100,000 drive-in visitors to the greatest airshow in the universe.
Click on the map to the left to enlarge. You will see the location of our aircraft camping site adjacent to the arrival end of runway 9 shown on the left side of the map. You will note that it is in close proximity to the lav and shower facilities. It is also along side of Wittman Road where free school busses run every five minutes or so to carry campers to locations throughout the show. Several of our frequent locations are: (1) Piggly Wiggly Supermarket; (2) Hilton Hotel; and (3) airshow flight line. We camp in tents nestled under the wind of the airplane along side of thousands of other airplane campers. Admission Fees: Click HERE for admission price information.
Flying to Oshkosh:
There are
many ways to get to Oshkosh, but the "natural" way to get there is
to toss a tent and sleeping bag in the back seat and fly in.
There's nothing like waking up each morning to the smell of 100
octane and Jet-A fuel. Despite rumors to the
contrary, flying into Oshkosh is a walk in the park. Simply
review the arrival NOTAM (click
HERE) and follow the guy ahead of
you. There are three basic routes from WNY. For the
adventuresome, it's due west along the northern shore of Lake Erie,
then direct across the 80 miles spans of Lake Michigan. For
the less adventuresome, its northwest over the more narrow upper
portion of Lake Michigan, via Greenbay, WI. For the more
conservative types, it's along the south shore of Lake Erie, over
Southbend, Indiana, below Chicago to Joliet, then due north to
Oshkosh.
Camping is about the only way left to secure overnight accommodations at Oshkosh - no advance reservations are necessary. All the hotels, motels, and dormitories book out months in advance. You can click HERE for housing information. You might get lucky . . . or at least make your reservations for next year! What to Do at Oshkosh: There are three general areas of daily activity:
Photos: Upper right - Erica (daughter, age 14) and Bob Miller; Left - Erica and Ken Condrell at campsite. Aero Club of Buffalo to Host An Evening with the B-29 and B-24 - Thursday, August 5, 5-9pm at the Buffalo/Niagara International Airport
On August 6, 1945 as the B-29 I named Enola Gay approached the Japanese city of Hiroshima, I fervently hoped for success in the first use of a nuclear type weapon. To me it meant putting an end to the fighting and the consequent loss of lives. In fact, I viewed my mission as one to save lives rather than take them. The intervening years has brought me many letters and personal contacts with individuals who maintain that they would not be alive if it had not been for what I did. Likewise, I have been asked in letters and to my face if I was not conscious stricken for the loss of life I caused by dropping the first atomic bomb. To those who ask, I quickly reply, NOT IN THE LEAST. - Paul W. Tibbets, Brig General USAF, Retired.
SPECIFICATIONS PERFORMANCE
The B-29 Super fortress was the largest aircraft of its kind. Over 1,600 of them were manufactured, yet only one remains in the air today and it is coming to Buffalo. The Aero Club of Buffalo will host an evening of barbecue food, music of WWII provided by professional disc jockey Dennis Porebski, and drinks at the Buffalo/Niagara Airport on Thursday, August 5 from 5pm to 9pm. This event will be open to Aero Club members, spouses, and significant others only! If you are not already an Aero Club of Buffalo member, there is still time to join and be part of this fun-filled event. A special thanks goes to Prior Aviation Services and Al Maroone Ford for sponsing this event!!!! Click Here for an Aero Club membership form. Print, complete this form, enclose the $25 annual membership fee, and follow the mailing instructions provided. That's all there is to becoming a member! New and current members click HERE to make your reservations for this event. Your reservations must be received by July 27th. Your Aero Club of Buffalo membership will open a whole new world of aviation opportunity for you and your guests as you join with the legends of aviation each month for informative talks and presentations in monthly evenings of social activities, dinner, and exciting aviation presentations. Early presenters at the Aero Club of Buffalo included the Wright Brothers, Amelia Earhart, Charles Lindbergh. This is the oldest Aero Club in the United States and the second oldest Aero Club in the world. Western New York played a vital role in the birth and development of aviation. We're proud of the fact that many of our active members were a part of The Greatest Generation . . . and are willing to share their experiences with the rest of us. A special invitation is given to out-of-town friends to join the Aero Club of Buffalo. Make each of the monthly Aero Club dinner programs a destination event for you and your guests. These meetings are held at either the Protocol Restaurant or Salvatore's Italian Gardens on Transit road, only minutes away from the Buffalo/Niagara Airport. Come spend the day, visit the casinos in Niagara Falls, attend the Aero Club meeting, spend the night, then wing back home the next day. Keeping Those Traffic Patterns Tight According to the Air Safety Foundation's Null Report, more accidents occur in and around the airport traffic pattern than in any other phase of flight. Could this be due, in part, to student pilots being taught to fly a pattern with a 3/4 mile or longer final? According to the July, 2004 issue of Flight Safety Magazine [Five Pattern Sins, p. 20], these wide patterns are inefficient, discourteous, and downright dangerous.
Sadly, long and wide patterns beget even wider and longer patterns as the number two, three, and four pilots on downwind are taught to wait until the aircraft on final passes abeam their left wing (or right wing in right traffic patterns) You may be tempted to solve this problem by turning on base inside the guy on a boorishly long downwind, but this requires extreme caution and lots of CTAF coordination. You must also be certain that your aircraft is faster or at least as fast as the Sunday driver ahead of you. Finally, the larger the traffic patterns, the longer it takes to complete them. Arriving and departing airplanes are forced to wait, engines running, while pilots fly traffic patterns three states wide - largely because that was the way they were taught! An effective test of appropriate pattern size is to ask yourself, In the event of sudden engine failure anywhere in the pattern, could I reach the runway and land safely? What is the ideal pattern size? The staff of Flight Safety Magazine suggests that patterns resulting in 1/4 to 1/2 mile turns to final are about right for light, general aircraft. They go on to say that a 1/8th mile final isn't too short for us. Tight traffic patterns are easier to fly and they require less time in hazardous airspace. The key to tight pattern entries is airspeed control early in the pattern. Effective use of power settings, flaps, and forward slips, where necessary, are marks of a well-trained, proficient pilot. Note: AC 90 66A - Traffic Patterns and Practices at Non-Towered Airports does not mention any prescribed dimensions of a standard airport traffic pattern. What about straight-in Landings? The Aeronautical Information Manual (AIM) states that straight-in landings are acceptable if they do not cutoff another airplane on the base turn. Straight-ins require extreme care, lots of radio coordination, and observational diligence. If you have any doubt about the safety of a straight-in landing, break it off and enter the upwind, cross-wind, and down-wind pattern in the standard fashion. Aircraft on the base turn should ALWAYS be aware of the possibility of another airplane on a straight-in approach. Aerial T-bone accidents occur when the guy on base leg gets rammed by the guy on a straight-in approach. Nasty, to say the least!
Don't miss this exciting event featuring each of the following aerial events:
Lost in the Hold Have you ever wondered if some parts of the FAR/AIM and PTS were written to provide job security for under-employed flight instructors? Take holding pattern entries, for example. I have given many Instrument Proficiency Checks (IPCs) and watched instrument trained pilots approach assigned holding fixes scratching their heads, scribbling mathematical computations, or spinning little gadgets in vain attempts to determine the proper holding pattern entry. Let's see . . . is it a parallel, no it's a direct, darn . . . no, I think it should be a parallel entry. I imagine that a good CFI will earn a good three to four hours of instruction fees teaching those little complicated techniques to instrument students!
Does ATC really care how you enter an assigned holding pattern? They simply want you in the hold, on the protected side, flying in the proper direction, and at your assigned altitude . . . and they don't want you to leave it until cleared or until you reach your EFC (expect further clearance) time. The only ones who will likely ever care about HOW you enter the holding pattern will be your obsessive/compulsive or under-employed CFII and your DPE (designated pilot examiner). Remember, the AIM describes the three holding pattern entries as "recommended" methods only. They are offered as the most direct and efficient means of getting set up in the hold. They are, in fact, the way you will likely make your entry naturally. Here's the language from the AIM: (d) While other entry procedures may enable the aircraft to enter the holding pattern and remain within protected airspace, the parallel, teardrop and direct entries are the procedures for entry and holding recommended by the FAA. My point here is not to advocate a disregard for the official FAA recommended holding pattern entry procedures. Use them if you like, but don't compromise safety in calculating the precise holding pattern entry called for in a given situation. And, if time and money is limited or your flying workload is excessive, focus your holding pattern work on: (1) remaining on the protected side of the hold; (2) maintaining your assigned altitude; and (3) proper aircraft control. One of the best recent additions to the Practical Test Standards (PTS) is its current FAA emphasis on aeronautical decision making (ADM). This is an indication that the FAA wants pilots to begin thinking for themselves rather than relying solely on rules, regulations, checklists, FARs, and the AIM to sort out the limitless challenges of flight. Good ADM technique enables the proficient pilot to recognize and assess a problem, then apply good common sense to solve it. Common sense suggests to me that you get into a holding pattern whichever way works . . . then fly the prescribed holding course. Quotable [Why airplanes crash]:
Something
like 1700 of the 2000 accidents annually are completely and
utterly avoidable if pilots would simply learn to identify
the appropriate risks and reduce or manage them to
acceptable levels. Go/no-go decisions are one aspect of risk management but the other critical half of the equation is handling the novel situation en route; what to do when the weather sours or something unanticipated transpires. As any given flight progresses, you usually have fewer options than you did at takeoff. You have less fuel, you're more fatigued, you may be flying into an area of fewer airports, the weather may be deteriorating -- in short, you have fewer resources to focus on your decision-making so the probability of making the wrong decision may increase at a time when you're confronted with decisions that carry the most serious consequences. Flight students skilled ONLY in making go/no-go decisions are dangerously under-prepared to handle the unexpected enroute and destination encounters including:
Each of the above described UNEXPECTED encounters has taken far too many pilot/passenger lives. All of these encounters, however, are perfectly manageable in the hands of a proficient pilot. How, then, does one become proficient in these area without subjecting himself to undo risks? There are lots of ways.
And finally, here are the most common (sub-conscious) reasons why pilots choose NOT to acquire these proficiency skills:
As any flying skeptic will quickly point out, small planes fall out of the sky every day. Stuff happens . . . and most of this "stuff" is caused by pilot error! Trivia Quiz: What was the first man-made object to break the sound barrier? Email your answer to rjma@rjma.com Winners will be listed in the next issue of Over the Airwaves! Wonderful World of Flight: Be sure to visit (and save as a favorite) the Wonderful World of Flight webpage. You can find it by clicking on http://www.rjma.com/flight/homepage.htm. This frequently updated website contains a wealth of useful aviation information to both the recreational and serious pilot. Drill down through its many links to discover valuable training tips, upcoming events, and interesting stories and photos of local aviators. Send Over the Airwaves to a Friend: Click HERE to have Over the Airwaves e-mailed regularly to a friend. Past Issues of Over the Airwaves:
Vol I, No 1
Safe Flying,
Bob Miller, CFII
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If
you turn to final a mile out, you may not be seen by an airplane
waiting to depart. This is particularly hazardous on hazy
days. The pilot waiting to depart assumes he has the airport
to himself. He makes a few last minute adjustments to his
heading indicator, adjusts his altimeter, tightens his seatbelt,
then suddenly taxies out to the active runway and commences his
take-off roll, square in your face as you prepare to touch down
You mash on the power, side-step; he climbs, turns, and
slams into your vulnerable underside. Had you made your
turn to final 1/2 to 1/4 mile out, he would have clearly seen you.
He would have made a more confident decision to hold short or launch
without delay. [Remember, not everybody has or uses radios . .
. and many that do have the incorrect CTAF frequency tuned in.]
Thunder
of Niagara Air Show
- August 28-29, Niagara
Falls International Airport (IAG)
The
negative thing about emphasizing these holding pattern entries is
when the well-intentioned instrument pilot sacrifices position
awareness, good collision avoidance techniques, and aircraft control
as he tries to determine the "proper" holding pattern entry.
Couldn't they avoid all this by simply going to the holding fix and
hold as published or as directed by ATC?