AOPA Turbine Pilot Magazine - April 2015 - 20

LICENSE TO LEARN

Fewer feathers

BY ROD MACHADO

Sometimes low is the way to go
MY HANGAR ONCE HOUSED A BONANZA A36. That
was followed by a Cessna P210. Now a Cessna 150
nestles there. This is a bird of a different feather,
meaning that it has fewer feathers. As long as you
don't have to go anywhere high and fast, then feathers are overrated.
Last December, my wife, Princess Buttercup, and
I flew from San Clemente to Carmel, California,
in our Cessna 150 Landomatic. We chose to fly at
a lower altitude on this flight, but not because we
wanted to experience the sensation of speed. If that
had been our goal, we'd have driven. For us, the
ultimate in-flight entertainment center is an airplane window. Looking outside provides us with as
much pleasure as cats feel when staring at fish in an

We chose to fly at a lower altitude on this flight.
For us, the ultimate in-flight entertainment
center is an airplane window.

ROD MACHADO

is an experienced
CFI living in
Southern
California.

20 | AOPA PILOT April 2015

aquarium. It's a pleasure that never grows old-yet
it can grow stronger if you're slightly closer to the
Earth's surface.
It seems to me that there's a minimum altitude
that provides both safety (assuming you're familiar
with your route) and an optimal sightseeing experience. From 1,000 to 1,500 feet above the ground offers
a sense of forward motion (a rarity in the 150, regardless of wind direction) while providing sufficient
surface detail to inspire lively cockpit commentary.
High-wing airplanes inspire a lot of commentary;
low-wing airplanes are fantastic, too-just don't
expect as much commentary.
As an aside, high wings also keep us in the shade-
one of our darker pleasures. Years ago, someone asked
me what I used for sunblock while flying. I informed
him that my peeps call it a wing. As a teenager, I
worshipped the sun. Now I hate it. Oh, don't get me
wrong. As a celestial body, it's tops in its field, especially at noon. I just can't wait four billion years for
it to stop irritating my skin. Fortunately, the wing of
a Cessna 150 has an SPF rating of about one billion.
It's the type of sun protection I've come to expect
from solid objects.
One of the fun challenges of flying at lower
altitudes is navigating by pilotage. For some pilots,

this means using their origami skills to fold, bend,
and tear a sectional chart until it matches the terrain below. Of course, I'm just kidding; pilots don't
actually need to be origami qualified to perform this
action. On this trip, Buttercup and I didn't use our
origami skills on a sectional chart, mainly because
you can't fold an iPad.
Silly me. I forgot to mention that we used a digitized sectional chart, generated by Wing X Pro
software, on our iPad's moving-map display. This
made navigation by pilotage easy, especially since
we didn't turn off the little blue airplane icon that
followed us around everywhere we went. Was that
cheating with GPS-or was it using a symbol with
benefits? You make the call.
Some pilots enjoy using flight following when
operating at lower altitudes. If you're one of them,
then be prepared for ATC to play games having names
such as "radar contact lost" or "radar service terminated." When the game starts, I tell ATC that I'd like
to remain on my present beacon code and continue
flight following with the next available controller, or
when radar contact is reestablished. More often than
not, the controller consents. Frequently, this makes
the resumption of radar service a bit more likely-and
a bit easier on you.
Keep in mind that when flying at these lower
altitudes, you're more likely to encounter Class D
airspace. If you're near a Class D airport, make it a
point to listen to its ATIS broadcast. You might discover local events that could affect your flight, such
as glider, parachute, or balloon operations. You don't
want to bump into anything, much less a balloon.
Despite the airbag, someone's getting hurt.
I recall one ATIS broadcast that mentioned a
model rocket convention north of the airport. Can
you imagine a bunch of kids, raised on sci-fi movies,
watching a tiny airplane overfly their launch pad at a
low altitude? "Look, Billy, it's a miniature, featherless
Klingon Bird of Prey! Launch when ready."
Flying high and fast is great. If, however, you fly an
airplane with fewer feathers, it's time to embrace your
plumage. Fly an occasional trip at a slightly lower altitude, but only if you can do so safely. Sometimes low
is the way to go.
AOPA
WEB

www.rodmachado.com

http://www.rodmachado.com

AOPA Turbine Pilot Magazine - April 2015

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