Innholdsfortegnelse for June/July 2021 i Flying

Honestly, I made my travel reservations not 100 percent sure that I would go. But I could say that about every flight I’ve planned. Like so many trips that had weather, airplane and pilot come together at the right time, the pieces for this trip fell into place just the week before the first big show of 2021, the Sun’n Fun Aerospace Expo. I admit I was out of practice. I forgot my name badge. I missed restocking the business cards in my backpack, so I only had the ones in my purse. I managed to arrive with enough clean shirts to make it three days—I call that a win. My fellow aviation journalists expressed the same awkwardness, and we’d lost to COVID-19 a dear mentor and friend from among…

Chicago’s Midway International Airport (KMDW) is heavily used by the airlines, business-aviation turbine fleets, and a sizable number of smaller GA transient and training aircraft, especially since the city of Chicago closed nearby Meigs Field (KCGX) some years ago. The PANGG 3 (RNAV) arrival is one of seven at KMDW, and controllers say it’s commonly used for traffic arriving from the east destined for runways 22L and 31C. This arrival includes a variety of instructions the crew must absorb before entering the Chicago terminal area to be certain everyone understands what’s expected of them. Gathering all the critical data on one chart allows a pilot to sort through the details of this arrival procedure and reduces radio chatter and unnecessary vectoring by ATC. A The Beginning The PANGG 3 offers pilots…

As a member of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and the United States Air Force’s most senior uniformed officer, Gen. Charles Q. Brown Jr. is responsible for the organization, training and equipping of 689,000 active-duty National Guard, Reserve and civilian forces serving in the US and overseas. A military adviser to the secretary of defense, Security Council and president, Gen. Brown is the kind of a leader that knows true leadership is much more than just giving orders. Throughout his career, Brown has ascended up through the ranks of the Air Force after being called upon to command a fighter squadron, the US Air Force Weapons School, two fighter wings, and the US Air Forces Central Command while amassing 2,900 flying hours—130 of them in combat. Through it all, Brown…

Paging through a photo album (yes, there are still actual printed photos—think illuminated medieval manuscripts), I came across several of an old and dear friend. Frank learned to fly and owned a Beech Bonanza back in the 1950s, when he was a partner in his family’s law firm. Later, embroiled in a morass of marriages and divorces, he sank into a nearly hopeless alcohol addiction; he was on the verge of being probated, and flying airplanes was the last thing anybody thought he’d ever do again. But after a particularly gruesome bender in Akron, Ohio, he woke up in a ward in St. Thomas Hospital run by the legendary Sister Mary Ignatia along with the co-founders of Alcoholics Anonymous, Dr. Robert “Bob” Smith and Bill Wilson. Frank could never explain…

I never thought I’d see the day, but General Motors—among a number of other auto manufacturers, not to mention nations—has pronounced a death sentence upon the internal-combustion engine. Stays are possible, but permanent commutation is unlikely. It appears that electricity, in one form or another, may triumph in the end. The powerplants of cars and reciprocating-engine airplanes have a lot in common, and while aviation benefits from a lot of special pleading—look at the ever-lingering matter of leaded avgas—the intense research and development going into electric cars and their batteries is bound to spill over into airplanes. Electric point-to-point flight is currently possible—marginally. It is practical for small, light and clean fixed-wing airplanes, such as the Pipistrel Alpha Electro, flying short distances at moderate speed. High speeds over long distances…

In May 2019, two men took off from Tipton Airport (KFME) in Fort Meade, Maryland, for a pleasure flight. They were in a Guimbal Cabri G2 helicopter, and had hoped to find and photograph a relative of the passenger who was fishing from a boat in the Chesapeake Bay. The morning was foggy; when the pilot called to file the flight plan required by the Washington, D.C., special-flight-rules area, the briefer reported that an airmet for possible IFR conditions was active until evening, and VFR was not recommended. When asked if he would like a weather briefing, the pilot replied that he did not need any other information. The helicopter crossed the Chesapeake Bay alongside the Highway 50 Bay Bridge. The passenger snapped pictures from the western side. The opposite…

It’s a brilliantly clear, calm and slightly chilly Tuesday morning in the skies high over Central Florida, and I’m feeling a little sick. I am packed tightly among 15 other skydivers sitting backward in a steeply climbing PAC 750XL, all swaying rhythmically as one to the light turbulence. The others’ moods are ebullient, high-fives and fist bumps all around, but my eyes are closed, my heart is racing, and bile is rising in my throat. It’s been a long time since I’ve felt this way. What exactly am I afraid of? Death? Not really. Getting hurt? Possibly, but that’s never stopped me. Screwing up? Ah, there it is: the old fear of looking foolish in front of others, namely the two experienced instructors who are accompanying me on my very…

As a longtime contributor to Flying, I have been blessed with the good fortune of attending many events, including airshows. Having spent a career mostly mastering the art of straight-and-level flight in the stratosphere, I have tremendous admiration for the aviators that perform physics-defying maneuvers at stepladder altitudes. I am awed by the skills involved. That being said, it was refreshing to observe a new type of event that didn’t involve a smoke-infused outside loop or an eardrum-shattering fly-by. On Friday, December 4, 2020, at the Sun’n Fun Holiday Flying Festival and Car Show in Lakeland, Florida, I was introduced to the National STOL Competition. It is an event that only reaffirms what pilots already know: Takeoffs and landings are a spectator sport. Fast-forward to Saturday, the final day of…

The Best of What’s New • Improvements have been made to scoring and visualization within the Pro version of the app. Stay within the dotted lines of the glideslope wedge, marked by dotted lines. • Look at the localizer and glideslope accuracy within the profile view to determine specifically how well you flew. The missed approach is shown in lighter colors for quick delineation from the approach itself. • CFI Assistant, including scoring with color-coding, gives you instant feedback on the Pro version. • You can animate the cockpit view by scrubbing through the graphs during the replay to show those portions of the approach from a pilot’s point of view. • Wind vectors can also be overlaid on the track to illuminate their impact on your approach. CloudAhoy’s flight-analysis…

NO.960 Many years ago, a friend landed and left his Cessna 172 in Louisville, Kentucky, because of weather, an hour and half away from our home-base airport in Madisonville. He was far too busy in his business to go back and fly it home anytime soon. As a newly minted 17-year-old private pilot, I jumped at the chance to be his volunteer ferry pilot. My mentor and neighbor—an Eastern Airlines captain and the only airline pilot living within 30 miles of Madisonville—happened to be driving to Louisville to catch his deadhead to New York. He said I could ride with him to Louisville, and he would help me prepare for the flight. His offer lent my “rescue” mission an air of authority. My friend Catherine thought the plan was grand…

“You don’t know how other people live,” my brother said. He was not technically correct. We do know how other people live; we just don’t live that way. We were not exactly sure what he meant. There are a lot of things we don’t do like other people do—for instance, we certainly aren’t stylish dressers. Most notably, since 1969, when Martha and I learned to fly—except for international destinations—we have always flown ourselves for travel. We do know that other people travel on the airlines. We just travel differently. We think flying yourself is traveling in style. That’s because flying yourself is fully engaging—you are participating in life to the fullest. Our current airplane is a jet that requires two pilots. Flying it as a crew and taking turns as…

Laypeople are both astonished at a pilot’s abilities and wholly unimpressed during the act of flight itself. They sleep like children during instrument approaches to minimums but lose their minds when they get even a taste of light turbulence in the flight levels. It seems most people don’t know what to be afraid of and when. I do. I used to think landings were the only place you could hurt yourself. I never understood how a takeoff could bite so many pilots. But then I lost my plane to a wind-shear incident departing Telluride, Colorado. I am now fully versed. I currently have a healthy amount of respect for all envelopes of operating an airplane. Hell, even washing one. The day I departed Telluride was windy but within my airplane’s…

With a satchel full of years and a bucketful of good fortune, you might say I’ve been privileged to travel in style to an unconscionable degree. Much of the high life has been “purchased” with airline-mileage, hotel or credit-card rewards points—the best use for these “incentives” is to experience otherwise unattainable treats. The St. Regis Hotel is my favorite hotel in the world. Service here is personal, not formulaic. You may hear, “May I help you, sir?” and “My pleasure, ma’am,” at a Ritz Carlton (fine properties to be sure), but not at this St. Regis. No matter what your request, it is never parried with a flat “no.” They may say: “Well, sir, I’m afraid we can’t ride motorcycles in our small lobby, but the nearest Harley dealer is…