AOPA Turbine Pilot Magazine - March 2025 - 12

LETTERS
Surfing the
friendly skies
Combining passions can
double the reward
The article " Surfing the Friendly Skies, "
(January 2025 AOPA Pilot) by Andre Pinto is
a great reminder of how flying combined with
other hobbies/passions can help you become
better at both. As pointed out by Pinto, adapting
to local conditions, keeping your eyes on the
prize, the importance of good training, and not
living in fear all apply to both surfing and flying.
The article particularly resonated with me, as
I recently began teaching my 12-year-old daughter
to surf during our yearly trips to Brazil where I
grew up. She loves flying with me around Chicago
where we live and often make $100 milkshake
flights to JVL. The connections between surfing
and flying were a good reminder to both of us, but
I'll add one more to his list: proficiency. Just like
in flying, the long breaks between surfing trips
make me a " rusty " surfer, as my daughter pointed
out after a couple not-so-good waves/rides. " I
thought you used to be good at surfing.... "
Gubio Henrique
Chicago, Illinois
There Is No Excuse
I read Barry Schiff's recent column ( " There Is
No Excuse, " January 2025 AOPA Pilot) regarding
fuel starvation/exhaustion. I agree that fuel
vents should be inspected for blockage prior to
flight, but I would suggest learning exactly how
this might be done for the airplane you are flying.
I had a power failure some years ago in a
straight-tail Cessna 172; fortunately, it happened
in the pattern at Wheeling, West Virginia, and I
was able to land at the airport without any damage
to the airplane. What I learned about the fuel
system was that the vent located underneath the
left wing ran only into the left tank; the right tank
was vented by a line running from that tank to
the left tank. The blockage occurred in the vent
line outside the left tank; the vent itself faced forward,
but the line then made a 90-degree bend
and ran up into the wing, then into the left tank.
The blockage itself was located beyond the bend
and was made by a mud dauber wasp; it was
invisible when looking into the vent tube end. It
12
AOPA PILOT / March 2025
effectively stopped flow from both tanks. After
this incident, I always carried pipe cleaners in my
flight bag and ran one into the vent during preflight.
I never found another blockage, or a live
wasp either.
Henry Gurshman
Lyndhurst, Ohio
Barry Schiff responds: I could not agree with you
more. A pilot certainly needs to know how to preflight
his airplane, whether he is checking the
fuel vents or other features of his airplane. Many
thanks for taking the time to share your fuel starvation
incident.
I like your idea of using pipe cleaners to clear
the vent, but it makes me wonder: Might not this
simply push the obstruction farther into the vent?
LAX In-N-Out
Alicia Herron's article ( " LAX In-N-Out, "
December 2024 AOPA Pilot) reminded me of
growing up a few blocks from LAX in the 1950s
and 1960s. I still have a photo taken with my
Brownie camera of DC-7s and Constellations
taxiing to 25R. My friends and I would walk over
to the approach end of 25R, sit on top of a railroad
equipment box, watch takeoffs, and with
the advent of the jet age, nearly get blown away
by the arrivals. From our front porch I could see
airplanes on a two- to three-mile final to 25L
and 25R and catch another glimpse of short
final between the houses across the street. Most
memorable are the early jet airliners: a BOAC de
Havilland Comet was the first I saw, and then the
707s, DC-8s, Convair 880s, and even a Tupolev
114 carrying Khrushchev on the 1959 visit when
he was " most displeased " at not being able to go
I'm a 31-plus-year
AOPA member who
looks forward to
receiving AOPA Pilot,
Turbine Edition,
and Flight Training
magazines each
month. I sincerely
appreciate the article
( " Simon Says for
Autopilots, " January
2025 AOPA Pilot)
and sharing your
knowledge and
experience. The
article was perfect,
clearly summarizing
very important
items on one page. I
particularly enjoyed
the " Tips " sidebar.
Vince Vetere
Round Hill, Virginia
BRIEFING
MUSINGS /
approach it. Similarly, a pilot needs to read
the weather and anticipate the conditions
of the runway he's landing on. At the same
time, he must understand the aircraft's
limitations as much as his own, to have
a clear picture of what the machine's
behavior will be.
EYES ON THE PRIZE
Expert surfers frequently say:
" Wherever your eyes are looking, that's
where you'll go. "
My flight instructors, back when
they were guiding me through approach
for landing, hammered into me that I
had to focus on the line of the strip and
lock my eyes on the aiming point.
These are two approaches to the
Surfing the friendly skies
Sharing a passion for both, helps me be better at both
BY ANDRE PINTO
DOES SURFING HAVE anything to do with flying? I say yes!
I may not be a great surfer (or even a very good one), but I share the same passion for
the ocean as any great surfer. As a wise man once said, " The best surfer is the one having
the most fun in the water, " and I believe this applies to any activity in life. I try to live by
this ideal.
During one of my many surfing days in Papua, Indonesia, where I live, I was having
the sort of difficulties you'd expect a not-very-good surfer to have. I was struggling to
read the waves. I was trying to be conscious about where I stood on the board, how I
placed my arms, and what my eyes were looking at. The whole process required a lot
of awareness because there was so much to keep track of. And suddenly it hit me: This
is a lot like flying.
The more I thought about it, the more I realized that surfing and flying had more in
common than just a high need for awareness.
ADAPTING TO LOCAL CONDITIONS
In the type of challenging flying we do in Papua, most runways are short and unimproved.
Some runways are curved with several different slopes and side slopes, embedded in
46
AOPA PILOT / January 2025
unforgiving terrain. Some even create
illusions that might lead to disaster if
you try to land straight-in as if it were a
normal airport. And the weather can be
treacherous, especially in the mountains.
There are procedures in place that
help pilots deal with these challenges,
but nothing replaces experience and good
judgment. In Papua, a day is never the same
as the previous one, and adaptability is key
to the success and safety of the flights.
The ocean shares the same dynamic. A
surfer needs to adapt to the day's conditions
and understand his own limitations as well
as those of his equipment. He needs to read
the waves one by one and instinctively
know which one to ride, and how he will
same idea. Countless times when
surfing, I fell forward on a board while
trying to " pop up " and soon realized I
was looking at the wave's flats instead
of locking my eyes down the line. This
is especially important for any advanced
surfing maneuvers. If you're not looking
at where you're supposed to go, you
won't be able to explore that wave's full
potential, and you risk falling off your
board and wasting a good ride.
Applying this same principle on
approach to land in mountain operations,
pilots who don't focus on the right
aiming point might end up too high or
too flat, land too short, or float down the
runway. Another mistake pilots often
make in mountain runways or unimproved
strips is failing to keep focus
on the line of the strip, which might
cause the aircraft to veer off the runway,
especially in crosswind landings.
Some runways in Papua have excessive
crowns making them extremely hazardous
if not landing right in the middle,
especially when they are wet. Because
of the absence of a painted center line, it
can be tricky to visualize this reference,
especially in curved runways. If the line of
the strip is not established early on in the
approach, and then kept for the remainder
of the approach, the result is usually a
landing off the center. The pilot should be
No matter how much you've read and studied the theory
behind an activity like flying or surfing, it cannot fully
prepare you for the sensations of the actual experience.
cross-checking the aiming point with this
imaginary reference by looking up and
down the strip as many times as needed,
ensuring alignment till the moment of
flare. Only then should the pilot move his
eyes up and focus on keeping that line all
the way up the strip.
In surfing or flying, we must remind
ourselves where to look until it becomes
second nature. But this raises a new
question: Why is it so difficult to keep
our eyes where they should be? I think
there are two big reasons: fear, and a lack
of good training.
THE IMPORTANCE OF GOOD
TRAINING
In both flying and surfing, training
should come first. Awareness and
knowledge transferred from instructor
to student or from senior surf buddy to
surf buddy are crucial for a successful
outcome. For me, a smooth landing off
the center line is as bad as a bounce on
the center line. A good instructor will
instill their student with discipline and
a drive for perfection, to nurture good
habits early on.
Everyone knows learning good practices
from the beginning will contribute
to good airmanship. Poor transfer of
knowledge (or acceptance of poor student
performance) will obviously be
detrimental to any activity. If your landings
are missing finesse as much as your
surfing (or worse yet, missing finesse as
much as my surfing), you should start
thinking about where you've been placing
your eyes. Knowing will enable you
to perfect the art of surfing, or flying, or
any number of other activities.
DON'T LIVE IN FEAR
Another factor that plays a huge role
is fear. Fear creates what's known as a
" fight or flight " response (or, for pilots,
sometimes a " fight in flight " response).
No matter how much you've read and
studied the theory behind an activity like
flying or surfing, it cannot fully prepare
you for the sensations of the actual
experience. The sound of a wave, its
towering size, a short runway, or a strong
crosswind; all of these can be scary the
first time we are exposed to them. And
that's when we're likely to forget the
theory we studied, as instinct takes over.
Our survival instinct will tell our
eyes to look at the immediate threat.
On a steep wave, inexperienced surfers
will tend to look straight down the wave,
scared of falling off when seeing the
wave picking them up. Inexperienced
pilots can tend to flare high when
seeing the ground rushing up during a
landing. On mountain strip operations,
inexperienced pilots (or no-recentexperience
pilots) can be to be too low
on sloped runways. They fail to keep
their eyes locked on the aiming point
of the runway, fail to assess the relative
position of the aircraft to the beginning
of the strip, and subsequently assume
they are too high. The result is a flat and
dangerous approach using lots of power,
usually at the last portion of the landing,
not leaving much room to abort.
Overcoming the fight or flight response
takes years of practice, like any other activity.
But hands-on training, along with
experience and exposure to new situations,
will help reduce the stress induced by our
fight or flight response.
There are many similarities between
flying and surfing. I am less skilled as a
surfer, but that's OK because it's also much
less problematic to jump off your surfboard
amid a maneuver. Still, I believe that surfing
made me a better pilot, and flying made me
a better surfer.
Andre Pinto documents
his flying adventures in Papua, Indonesia,
on his YouTube channel " A Pilot's Home. "
AOPA PILOT / January 2025
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EOIN RYAN

AOPA Turbine Pilot Magazine - March 2025

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of AOPA Turbine Pilot Magazine - March 2025