AOPA Pilot Magazine - November 2012 - 14

LETTERS
“This was a beautifully written article. I thoroughly enjoyed the gentle interweaving of aviation and a touching human-interest story.”
A little boy goes home
B Y I A N J. T W O M B LY

TYLER PERYEA IS A LITTLE MORE THAN

2 years old, and he’s about to go for an airplane ride with his mom, Jamie. Most 2-year-olds would be pointing at Joe Howley’s big Pilatus PC–12 turboprop and saying “plane, plane.” But Tyler doesn’t say much. In fact, even half an hour after meeting him, all he’s said so far is, “Ho ho.” It means he knows he’s going home and he’s excited for Santa to come. It’s June.

Gabriel Scherzer, AOPA 3011202 Medina, Washington
www.aopa.org/pilot AOPA PILOT | 69

VIEW THE

VIDEO

P H OTO G R A P H Y B Y C H R I S R O S E

68 | AOPA PILOT September 2012

Flight before Christmas
I wanted to thank you so much for the amazing job in capturing the essence of both Patient AirLift Services and Joe Howley in the video and article. I saw the video on AOPA Live and was brought to tears by the emotion and impact it evoked. Then I got my copy of AOPA Pilot and was once again blown away and brought to tears. I called this our “Sophie’s Choice” flight and said to the staff that no mother should have to choose being with one child over another, and that we should do our best to fly her other son out there as much as we could. Awareness articles like this will help us to connect with more pilots who might want to join PALS in an effort to help other mothers like Jamie. We consider PALS to be a team, a fraternity, a sisterhood, and AOPA has become a great part of the PALS team.
Eileen Minogue, AOPA 7231607 Executive Director, Patient AirLift Services Massapequa Park, New York

fuel stop. The weather was good and I was VFR at 9,500 feet. Suddenly I noticed the outside air temperature plummet. I have never been at a level altitude and actually seen the needle moving. The temperature dropped 40 degrees as I watched, dumbfounded. Then the attitude direction indicator tumbled in a manner I have never seen before. It didn’t just die, but did everything except depart the instrument panel. However, as Tom Haines mentioned (“Waypoints”), the S-Tec is rate-based and runs

off the turn coordinator so the aircraft didn’t wiggle a bit. After pondering the two events and marveling a bit, I just continued on uneventfully. The next flight, the attitude direction indicator worked perfectly and has ever since. Amazing.
Bill Zollinger, AOPA 569727 Memphis, Tennessee

American nerve or vision. The entire issue can be distilled by one simple and depressing fact: $6 per gallon gas. Mr. Landsberg, don’t let this toxic political environment cloud your vision: GA would come roaring back with all of the optimism of the 1960s and ‘70s with 48-cent gas. Of course, don’t hold your breath for that.
William H. Corwin, AOPA 539875 Princeton, New Jersey

Erratum
In “Jet A for Your Skylane,” October 2012 AOPA Pilot, the cross-country flight time for the T182 T versus the JT-A was 1.3 hours, not 3.2. AOPA Pilot regrets the error.
We welcome your comments. Send letters to: Editor, AOPA Pilot, 421 Aviation Way, Frederick Maryland 21701 or email to pilot@aopa.org. Letters to the Editor may be edited for length and style before publication.

An aviation ecosystem
Bruce Landsberg is way overthinking the cause of the relentless decline in American GA (“Foundation Focus”). It’s not the overreaching bureaucracy or some spooky failure of

Correcting a bad attitude
One winter several years ago I was on a return flight in my Beechcraft B33, which has an S-Tec Fifty-Five autopilot. I had a pretty good tailwind and had made a fuel stop, and planned on making it to my destination nonstop from the
14 | AOPA PILOT November 2012

It’s sweepstakes season again, and this time AOPA will be giving away—drum roll, please—a 1963 Beechcraft Debonair! “You guessed it, it’s another fixer-upper,” says sweepstakes project manager TOM HORNE. “And that’s saying a lot. Finding a good 50-year-old airplane is tough. I mean, how many 50-year-old cars do you see on the road these days?” After a months-long hunt and two false starts, Horne found just the right Debonair—well-used, a little rough around the edges, with dated equipment, and yet upgradable to better-than-new status. It was based at the Brainard Airport in Hartford, Connecticut, home to the 2011 AOPA Summit. Follow Horne along in “DEBONAIR DEBUT” (page 66) to learn about the hunt—and what will become a remarkably well-restored classic.

Welcome to Reno. We’re really good at turning avgas into noise. That was one of the first comments photographer CHRIS ROSE said he heard upon arriving at this year’s Reno Air Races for his first time (“RETURN TO THE VALLEY OF SPEED,” page 54) “In short, Reno is loud and colorful and with an edge that is absent from other airshows— which means that photo opportunities come at you faster than expected. If you’re heading to next year’s races—and you should (Reno will celebrate 50 years of racing)—remember three things: Crank up the shutter speed on your camera, bring ear plugs, and wear sunscreen.”

HANGAR TALK

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AOPA Pilot Magazine - November 2012

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of AOPA Pilot Magazine - November 2012