AOPA Pilot Magazine - September 2012 - 14

LETTERS
aviator. We are very active GA pilots. I owe all that to my inspiration on that July 1969 day when Armstrong made history, and to this day I celebrate it each time I fly. I now live in China where I hope I can help ignite the love of GA in this country in the hearts of many who have not known it to date.
Shane Tedjarati, AOPA 6539271 Shanghai, China
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EPIC FLIGHT

Flying the Husky in its habitat

NATURAL WONDER
A heavy coat of morning dew beads on the windshield of the AOPA 2012 Sweepstakes Tougher Than a Tornado Husky.
It’s been tied down overnight on a grassy lawn at Alpine Airport (46U) in western Wyoming, waiting for ﬁrst light to begin a 160-nm northerly ﬂight past the towering granite peaks of Grand Teton National Park, over volcanic Yellowstone National Park, and then to our destination at Gallatin Field Airport in Bozeman, Montana.
B Y DAV E H I R S C H M A N PHOTOGRAPHY BY MIKE FIZER

“Dave Hirschman’s narrative of flying the Tougher Than a Tornado Husky is topped only by the backdrop for Mike Fizer’s photographs. An extraordinary airplane in an extraordinary place.”
Ron Wehmann, AOPA 550716, Black Diamond, Washington

50 | AOPA PILOT July 2012

www.aopa.org/pilot AOPA PILOT | 51

Cloud attack
I read, with great interest, “Never Again: Cloud Attack” (July 2012). I have lived and flown in Reno for years. If I had been home on the day when the author landed, I would have undoubtedly seen that rotor cloud from my study. When the author got his weather briefing, what were the forecast winds aloft for Reno? When the winds at 9,000 and 12,000 feet (near the

My first instructor was a man named Frank Lucie. Frank ran the Corry, Pennsylvania, airport from 1965 until his death in 1979. Not one to talk much about the past, he did mention that a long time ago when he was teaching in Ohio he taught a 16-year-old kid named Neil Armstrong how to fly.
Jay Moyer, AOPA 645716 Corry, Pennsylvania

ridgelines) are blowing from the southwest at a healthy clip, it is a warning of potential trouble. Based on what the author encountered, I would bet that the forecast winds aloft were strong. As a coward pilot, I probably would not have made the flight. The winds aloft forecast is the most important part of the weather briefing for Reno, certainly more important than the forecast for surface winds. I flew for years in Reno without

knowing about another important source of information—the National Weather Service compiles and displays “remote data” for various locations. The data for the Reno area is found online (www.wrh.noaa.gov/rev/remote data/index). I usually use this site to check the conditions on Slide Mountain, which is notorious for wind. If it is less than 10 knots, I am good to go!
William H. Eilberg, AOPA 1145178 Reno, Nevada

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AOPA Pilot Magazine - September 2012

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