Flying May 2023

FOR A COUPLE of years after college graduation, in the mid-90s, I instructed out of the Boulder Airport in Colorado. One of the other CFIs on staff moonlighted there while keeping his day job (and nights too) as a sim instructor at the United Airlines Training Center at Stapleton. Aside from being the first person to show me spins in a Cessna 152—I’d done mine for the initial CFI in a Piper Super Cub—Kevin was also the first to get me into the left seat of a real full flight simulator. We met up before one of his late shifts, and he parked me in the captain’s chair in the unit no one had reserved that night—a Boeing 747-200 Level D sim just past the apex of its career. Those UAL…

WELCOME TO THE May edition of FLYING magazine (Issue 937). We have been busy at FLYING Media Group, rolling out our newest print product, Aircraft for Sale—a newspaper filled with classified ads focused on aviation, including listings for aircraft, real estate, gear, equipment, and other related products. And the cover is yellow—chosen for its nostalgic value. Aircraft for Sale’s print edition has the largest reach of any classified newspaper in aviation, since we send it to every FLYING subscriber and FBO in our network. The advantage of sending Aircraft for Sale directly to subscribers is that the ads reach both the active buyer and the casual prospect. I know many pilots that weren’t looking for a new aircraft to add to the fleet, but decided to do so once they fell…

IT’S NOT A STRETCH to say that manned flight was achieved because Alberto Santos-Dumont, Gustave Whitehead, and the Wright brothers were dreamers. Clyde Cessna, William T. Piper, C.G. Taylor, Leroy Grumman, Olive Ann Beech, Jack Northrop, Bill Lear…also dreamers. They are among the countless early pioneers who turned their aspirations into great aviation brands that still exist today. Dreaming is a valuable source of inspiration for those who make dreams a reality and lift those around them in the process. Like Amar Bose, Paul Poberezny, Bob and Flo Irwin, Belford “B.D.” Maule, General Chuck Yeager, Burt Rutan, Hal Shevers, Gary Burrell and Min Kao, and Alan and Dale Klapmeier. All have contributed greatly, in one form or another, to the activity of flight. And for every known contributor, there are dozens…

ILAFFT Obsolete? I’m disappointed in John Folk’s account in the latest issue of FLYING [“Iced-Up Mooney, April/Issue 936] As a major airline pilot, 20-plus years in the industry, and almost 30 now as an aviator, [I feel] Mr. Folk’s account of what happened breezes past poor aeronautical decision making and seems to highlight ATC as a protagonist of sorts. He concludes with his Mooney Ovation parked with ice accumulation still on the aircraft with some noted on the cowling intake! There is no reason to believe that ice was not on the horizontal stabilizer as well, but [perhaps] that was conveniently omitted by the author. Also, this feature of FLYING is almost obsolete. If pilots, specifically those of high-performance aircraft, do not know the myriad of threats they face by…

After the May 1996 crash of ValuJet Flight 592 in the Florida Everglades, the FAA was criticized for the possible part it played in the disaster, allowing for cost-cutting to impact safety. Some legal scholars observed that the functions of protecting passenger safety while promoting industry interests (including all other civil aviation) weren’t compatible. So Secretary of Transportation Frederico Pena called for Congress to reexamine the FAA’s “dual mandate.” Thus, in October 1996, Congress amended the Federal Aviation Act, removing the language “promoting” aviation and adding more provisions emphasizing safety. ● MARTHA LUNKEN is a lifelong pilot, former FAA inspector, and defrocked pilot examiner. She owns and flies a Cessna 180, and she loves anything with a tailwheel, from Piper Cubs to Douglas DC-3s.…

A VISITOR TO BRISTOL, Tennessee—billed as the birthplace of country music—might drop into the museum focused on that fact, or perhaps for the several yearly NASCAR events at the Bristol Motor Speedway. Nestled in a deceivingly mountainous locale on the Tennessee-Virginia border, the approach plate hints at some terrain in the area, especially to the south and east. A GLADE SPRING VOR IAF A pilot might use the Glade Spring VOR to transition onto the approach, using the 210-degree radial outbound to intercept the ILS course of 230 degrees. A small note along the course, though, indicates that while no procedure turn (NoPT) will be needed, the pilot will be expected to be at 6,000 feet on this leg. The note above the 210 degrees indicates that it is a…