AOPA Pilot Magazine - September 2019 - 16

LETTERS
author presents a broad list of
angle of attack indicators that
can help avoid these accidents
and save lives. Nevertheless,
nothing was discussed about
"flying by the seat of your
pants" for avoiding these
dominant aircraft accidents.
Alaska's elite pilots still
use this valuable style of flying
to prevent deadly accidents.
It has worked extremely well
over many decades, and these
top pilots have no need to
change their way of flying by
using AOA indicators. These
pilots are free and unencumbered and would change in a
heartbeat if they found AOA
indicators better than the
old-fashioned way for avoiding loss of control and stall/
spill accidents. Although
antiquated, flying by instinct
is still relevant and Alaska's
top pilots depend on it as the
best way to fly airplanes. Rod
Machado reported in "License
to Learn: Take Notice" in the
September 2015 AOPA Pilot
that no study has shown AOA
indicators as being effective in
preventing loss of control and
stall/spin accidents.

First Saturday
in May
How general aviation serves the Kentucky Derby
B Y J U L I E S U M M E R S WA L K E R
PHOTOGRAPHY BY CHRIS ROSE

FIRST YOU NEED A HAT. That is the advice everyone
gives me when learning I may be going to the Kentucky
Derby, a bucket-list dream of mine. Hundreds of business jets land at the Louisville, Kentucky, airports each
May for the oldest continuous sporting event in the
United States. After some convincing-and a little oldfashioned horse trading-the trip was approved, and I
was off to the 145th Run for the Roses.

58 | AOPA PILOT July 2019

Charlie Abell
AOPA 1170795
Frederick, Maryland

"Proficiency: Making It
Happen" (June 2019 AOPA
Pilot) omitted words at a page
break. The text should explain
that, "accelerating an airplane
from 50 knots to 60 knots will
take less time (and distance)
than accelerating from 60 knots
to 70 knots. Furthermore, the
rule ignores the distance needed
to stop if a safe takeoff cannot
be made."
The cover the July 2019 issue
of AOPA Pilot featured a Pilatus
PC-6 Porter with the right fuel
cap open. AOPA staff was not
the pilot in command for this
photo flight, but we should
have caught it before the flight
or including it on the cover.
AOPA Pilot regrets the errors.

do that. Why leave all that drag
on the airplane?

Francis Gibbons
AOPA 1079610
Rockwall, Texas

HANGAR TALK

Propeller pitch

16 | AOPA PILOT September 2019

aopa.org/pilot AOPA PILOT | 59

I really enjoyed Julie Summers Walker's article
on her trip to the Kentucky Derby. Great work
and a very nice article. I have loved horse racing
since I was a kid. I always watch the big three
races, the Derby, Preakness, and Belmont, each
year on TV.

William A. Quirk III
AOPA 5053580
Anchorage, Alaska

I greatly enjoyed Catherine
Cavagnaro's article "Proficiency:
On Target." The section on propeller pitch really caught my
attention. Many, many years
ago a CFI had me fly emergency
patterns with the prop pulled aft
(gear up, flaps up, prop full aft).
Why? To develop habit patterns.
I've had more than one CFI since
then ask, "What are you doing?"
when we did a loss of engine in
flight scenario during a biennial flight review. Some of the
younger ones told me I couldn't

The track was downgraded to
"sloppy" for the third year in a row-
2018 was still the wettest on record,
but the Kentucky Derby has never
been canceled because of weather.

in 1967. The X-15 reached Mach
6.7 on a single rocket engine.

Errata

"Test Pilot" (July 2019 AOPA
Pilot) incorrectly stated the
number of engines powering the
X-15 for its record-setting flight

We welcome your comments.
Editor, AOPA Pilot, 421 Aviation
Way, Frederick, Maryland 21701
or email (pilot@aopa.org).
Letters may be edited for length
and style before publication.

"I got goosebumps writing this
story," said Editor in Chief TOM
HAINES after turning in his feature story on the C-47s and
DC-3s that flew to Normandy,
France, to commemorate the
seventy-fifth anniversary of
D-Day. "Reflecting on my flight
in Miss Virginia on the anniversary, crossing the English
Channel, and seeing the crowds
react to us taxiing out, the jammed highways full of people watching us fly over,
and thinking about how these very airplanes represented the beginning of the end
of the war was both inspiring and humbling. We should all be grateful to those
who worked so hard to get these old airplanes into condition to make such a trip
because as a result of their efforts we will have them flying for decades to come,
continuing to remind people about the importance of that day and all that was
sacrificed to bring peace to Europe."

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AOPA Pilot Magazine - September 2019

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