AOPA Pilot Magazine - May 2011 - 24

LETTERS
fuel computers” there is no need. I guess that more than half the fleet of pistonpowered stuff out there does not have that fuel-monitoring equipment. When anticipating a dry tank is very soon, I prepare to make the switch, and the autopilot doesn’t seem to know about it! If my attention gets called away, I switch the tank to a fuller tank before attending to the next duty, and go back later if I want to run it down further. Again, not with passengers, but then, Horne said that too.

Thanks for a great article to keep us all thinking, you guys! Rick Hesson, AOPA 650579 Pasadena, Maryland There is no reason for flying with less than one hour’s fuel left. If you do, there is a fool at the controls! I have more than 25,000 hours in J–3s to B767 ETOPS operations. I’m a 53-year pilot and still instruct, mostly mountain flying. I fly a Cessna 180 and a taper wing Waco biplane. Writing articles like this may sell copy, but it sure gives inexperienced pilots the wrong idea. When I

use the term “inexperienced,” I mean somewhere under 10,000 hours. Fuel is sacred and nothing to mess with. Robert D. Patrick, AOPA 876981 McCall, Idaho If a pilot is flying solo, then a pilot should do whatever is prudent when needing max performance from the aircraft. However, no pilot flying with passengers—who are entrusting that pilot to safely get them to a destination—should ever breach that trust by testing the limits of the aircraft and thereby causing passengers to even remotely feel their safety is threatened by any action that the pilot has the option of not having to do, to complete the flight. In other words, when flying with passengers fly with an extra margin of consideration for those passengers. Duane McCardle, AOPA 1164157 Portland, Oregon Over water worth the risk? I held my breath as if trying to escape my sinking Skyhawk while reading Thomas B. Haines’ “Waypoints: Over Water Worth the Risk?” (March 2011 AOPA Pilot). I—and many Southern California pilots—fearlessly fly over water. We fly to Catalina Island, landing on the deceiving “Airport in the Sky,” craving a buffalo burger. We fly over Big Bear Lake at 7,000 feet msl on approach for a day of snowboarding. We traverse the Sea of Cortez with the Baja Bush Pilots Association searching for whales and tequila (eAPIS notwithstanding). We cross enormous Pyramid Lake en route to 88NV, the officially recognized temporary airport of the Burning Man festival in northern Nevada. Like Haines said, risk assessment is a personal decision. Me? I ride a motorcycle to work on the LA freeway almost every day. I surf big waves and I fly small airplanes. I’ve known what vertigo feels like. A big-wave wipeout is akin to the spin cycle in a saltwater washing machine. It sucks, but it’s survivable if you don’t panic—follow your bubbles up. Cabo san Lucas direct Puerto Vallarta? Two and one-half hours over water? I say an unequivocal yes! Just monitor 121.5 mHz, say a prayer, and buckle that shoulder harness! Mark Halvorsen, AOPA 3584574 Yorba Linda, California I wanted to let Tom Haines know how much I enjoyed his “Waypoints: Over
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MAY 2011

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AOPA Pilot Magazine - May 2011

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of AOPA Pilot Magazine - May 2011