Flight Training - September 2012 - 8

LETTERS

Talk back
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A NEW ANGLE
THE WORLD IS DIFFERENT FROM AN AIRPLANE

n my fiftieth birthday my girlfriend, Diana, gave me the gift of three introductory flights at a local flight school; 40 hours later I’m studying for my FAA knowledge exam and looking forward to my checkride.
so much as I quietly chastised myself for waiting so long to do it. We descended to 500 feet and contacted Kennedy Tower to advise them of our intention to transition below the Bravo airspace. The flight over the beach was amazing. I knew all of the landmarks from the ground and appreciated them even more now from the air. A climbing turn to the north to 1,000 feet at the Coney Island amusement park and a fabulous view of the Ferris wheel took us to our first reporting point on the CTAF, the Verrazano Narrows Bridge. We overflew it at midspan, and as I looked down at the bridge reaching up to cradle us from both sides I had no words. I looked back toward our heading and there below us was the great expanse of New York Harbor with the Statue of Liberty standing guard over the new Freedom Tower. Over to the Intrepid museum and the new home of the space shuttle Enterprise. Yankee Stadium to the right and Giants Stadium to the left, then over the George Washington Bridge. The view was incredible. Diana photographed the entire show while my instructor navigated and cued me on the radio. We flew to the Alpine (Armstrong) tower, around the Bravo, then headed for home along the north shore of the island. Tomorrow it would be back to the “job” of training for my private certificate, but today was a look at the future—and the reason why this pilot is flying. Steve Burg Coram, New York

PICK A SPEED

After reading the article, “Right Seat: From the Outside In” (July 2012 Flight Training), I had the idea to begin to pay Diana back for the most thoughtful gift I had ever received. I called my instructor, Adam Nadel from American Airman Flight School at Long Island MacArthur Airport (ISP). I asked him to take a break from training and take Diana for a sightseeing tour up the Hudson River.

How about best glide speed (see “V is for Velocity,” June 2012 Flight Training)? It’s not a regulatory speed since it’s not listed in FAR Part 1. But I would certainly include it in my top six, and maybe number one! Four of the six speeds highlighted in the article are always shown on the airspeed indicator so there’s no need to memorize these. However, best glide speed is not; one usually has to search the pilot handbook for this. Best to know this before you need it. Steve Sierens Clermont, Florida I believe the explanation of VNO was in error. While it is defined as the maximum structural cruising speed, that terminology is misleading. The never exceed speed (the red radial on the airspeed indicator— VNE) is the maximum speed an aircraft may be flown in smooth air according to (among others) the FAA test writers in Oklahoma City. Certainly you do not want to exceed VNO when the air is not smooth. Fred Abrams Columbia, California

As it worked out, he had time the next afternoon for the three-hour trip. It was a beautiful day. Not a cloud. A mild breeze on the ground made my first passenger a bit apprehensive. But, after a weather briefing and some reassurance, we were good to go. Terminal area chart in hand, I received our clearance and after a bumpy climb we were flying the south shore of Long Island on a westerly heading toward a hazy Manhattan skyline. It had never looked so attractive to me. How many times had I seen it before without a second thought? I was enjoying the flying
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Flight Training - September 2012

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