AOPA Pilot Magazine - November 2014 - 12

LETTERS

Barry Schiff 's article brought
back some memories. We listened to the cockpit voice
recorder tape after that
Northwest 727 accident, and it
was eerie hearing the ambient
cockpit noise getting quieter
and quieter as their airspeed
went down. So much so that
one wondered how they could
not notice it. Of course the stick
shaker, being an AOA indication, worked just fine.
It just shows how even experienced and well-trained crews
can get head up and locked and
miss the most basic of cues.
It happened again to Air
France out of South America.
That is one of the reasons that
I always hand flew from takeoff
to cruise altitude and back-
so I knew very closely what
attitude and power setting
12 | AOPA PILOT November 2014

Bob Gould
AOPA 631108
Kaneohe, Hawaii

Never Again

I just read the nail-biter "Never
Again: Uphill Battle" in the
September issue. Our Rockies
airport in Crawford, Colorado
(99V) is a 5,000-foot runway
with a 100-foot drop at the east
end. Once you are airborne,
everything is in your favor as

HANGAR TALK

Dick Welsh
AOPA 1665837
Bellevue, Washington

would give me what I wanted.
My pitot system once froze,
but I just flew attitude and
power with an occasional
glance at the captain's airspeed
indicator until we got rid of the
ice (reset the pitot heat circuit
breaker as I recall). It comes
down to two things: situational
awareness and flying the airplane-both of which are in
danger in the current digital
all autopilot environment.

P&E

survived my own bad decisions more than once and try
to avoid repeating them.

never again

Donald R. Geddes
AOPA 560756
Crawford, Colorado

Errata
Uphill battle
Thank goodness for 100 horses
By Jim Holder

After nine yeArs of high-powered performance, my partners
and i sold our Beech Debonair. i was not ready to hang up my goggles, so i found a nice aeronca 7eC Champ that had been modified
with a 100-horsepower Continental O-200 engine and a climb
prop. now i could not go very fast or very far, but i sure had a
short take-off roll.
about a year later, and with 40 or so hours in the little gal, i
decided to fly about 30 miles to the west to a big Saturday fly-in at
Peach State airport, near Williamson, georgia. Peach State has a
downhill grass runway similar to that of Seven Lakes, our home
patch, near Jackson, georgia. it was a cool morning with a forecast of much warmer temperatures as the day went on. a nice little
breeze was blowing out of the northeast, but that was no concern
to me, taking off downhill to the south at Seven Lakes. The Champ
would leap into the air as usual.
i had half a tank of gas (about 13 gallons) and planned to top off

the tanks at the fly-in. Just before departure a good friend asked if
he could fly over with me. He was an ultralight pilot and had heard
it was bumpy upstairs, so he did not want to bounce his way over.
My friend is a bit stocky, but i did some quick mental calculations
and decided i would be legal to take him with me.
So off we went, expecting to be airborne after a slightly longer
takeoff roll. This did not happen. i cannot say how much farther
we rolled, but it was enough that i actually glanced down to see if
i had left the carb heat on. it was off. i decided the little tailwind
must be the culprit.
We got airborne with runway to spare and turned out of traffic,
heading for the fly-in. On the way, i reflected on the long takeoff
roll and decided that i might not buy any 100LL, as it would be
considerably warmer when we departed for home.
Upon arrival at Peach State, we learned that airplanes were landing to the southeast-uphill-which worked out OK, because all the
airplanes were parking at the far end of the runway, where the food
and drinks were. The northeast wind favored this, as it gave us a
slight left quartering headwind for landing. Many airplanes also
were taking off uphill, hopping rides, fly-bys, and all that. Seeing
this and recalling the longer takeoff we had just made, i decided
not to buy any fuel. Probably the only good decision i made all day.
Some three or so hours later, with airplanes still departing and
arriving in the warmer noontime hour, using the uphill runway,

JAmes CArey

when every other instrument
is not reliable. It is ironic that
the 727 Barry Schiff mentioned
was a Northwest airplane; obviously the lessons learned in 1961
did not carry forward to newer
crews.
If my memory is correct, the fatal flight departed
Plattsburgh, New York, on a
ferry flight back to Minneapolis
as the incoming flight dropped
off a charter football team.
The co-pilot and first officer swapped seats which I
think led to the pitot heaters
being turned on by one and
then turned off by the other
because of their seated positions and the location of the
pitot heater switches which
were just above the co-pilot's
head. It has been years since
I read the report so I am a bit
fuzzy on the particulars.

94 | AOPA PILOT September 2014

the ground drops away. The
opposite is true uphill and I
have seen more than one airplane give up and try to land
again going into the wind.
Watching the ground catch
up as you climb is an event
you will long remember-if
you actually survive it. With
7,000 hours of high-altitude
experience, I have fortunately

The Historic Aircraft
Restoration Museum at
Creve Coeur Airport in
Maryland Heights, Missouri, just outside of St.
Louis, is the best Golden
Age museum you may
never have heard of. At
least 30 of its dozens of
aircraft were restored to
flying condition by John
Cournoyer and staff. We
have Ozark Air Lines to
thank for Cournoyer's
lifetime total of 100
mostly Golden Age aircraft restored to flying condition. It was that
airline's offer of $3.50 an hour in 1954 that
led him to abandon his dream of becoming
an airline pilot and return to his auto body
shop where the pay was enough to support
his hobby of aircraft restoration. Senior Editor AL MARSH and photographer MIKE FIZER
were in the St. Louis area to do a pilot report
on the Sirius light sport aircraft when they
heard about Cournoyer. Fizer was so inspired
by the collection he returned to St. Louis a
second time to work his photographic magic
on the collection. See OLD-STYLE RESTORATION" on page 74.

The size of Texas was misstated
in a graphic published in the
October 2104 issue ("Training
to Stop Destruction," AOPA
Pilot). The total area of Texas
is 268,596 square miles. The
Mackinac Island airport is run
by the Michigan State Park
system, not the federal government ("Fly-Outs," October
2014 AOPA Pilot). AOPA Pilot
regrets the errors.
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.

Who in their right mind
would shut down a perfectly good engine while
cruising over the mountains? Answer: Those
fortunate enough to be
flying a Stemme S10 VT
motorglider. "It's an unusual
sensation, that's for sure,"
said Editor at Large TOM
HORNE. "But when you're at
best glide speed and you
look at your rate of climb,
and you're climbing, well,
that's a feeling few get to
experience." To learn more
about the Stemme and its
unique features-such as
its folding wings, folding
propeller, and turbocharged
Rotax engine, see "POWER
SAILING," on page 58.

AOPA Pilot Magazine - November 2014

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of AOPA Pilot Magazine - November 2014