AOPA Pilot Magazine - May 2013 - 14

LETTERS
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FRUGAL FLIER

The good old days
weren’t so great
Fond reminiscences overlook modern advances
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PILOTS WHO PINE for a
return to a bygone era
in which the world of
general aviation was so
much better can certainly point to today’s
well-known woes of
high fuel costs, astronomical new aircraft
prices, and a waning
pilot population.
But all the nostalgia
overlooks some important advances that have
made general aviation
safer, more enjoyable,
and—in some ways—a
real bargain compared
to the past.
Looking at an avionics story in a 1983
issue of AOPA Pilot magazine illustrates
the point. Thirty years ago, King Radio had
brought to market a wondrous new technology that seemed almost too good to be true.
“Area Navigation” made user-deﬁned waypoints a reality and promised vastly simpler
and more precise IFR ﬂying. King’s top-ofthe-line KNS-80, at a price of $7,600 (in
unadjusted dollars), let you be part of the
revolution.
Of course, $7,600 then is more like
$17,650 now—and for that you can get a
Garmin GTN 750 that stores 1,000 userdeﬁned waypoints (instead of four on the
KNS 80). The GTN also shows them to you
on a vibrant, color touch screen with terriﬁc com and nav radios; a comprehensive
database; and an intercom, audio panel,
and transponder, too. If that isn’t enough,
the GTN 750 also can show you weather
and traffic, futuristic safety tools that

THE KNS-80 (above) was a wonder 30 years

ago but is a dinosaur today. The GTN 750
(top) is far more powerful, easier to use
and about the same price.

“AOPA and the GA industry have lost track of
what GA flying is supposed to be about: fun!
Those good old days were indeed the good
old days, never to be seen again! P.S. Recently
two friends gave up flying days after they
received their private. It was too expensive,
too controlled, and no darn fun!”
Carl Kettler
AOPA 1286265
Flemington, New Jersey

would have seemed like the stuff of fantasy in the early 1980s.
Area navigation was beyond the means
of many IFR pilots 30 years ago, but those
who flew in the clouds and wanted to
improve their situational awareness could
buy a cutting-edge “horizontal situation
indicator.” HSIs took the guesswork out
of intercepting VOR radials and localizers,
and dramatically increased flight accuracy—and who could say no to a KI-152A at

92 | AOPA PILOT March 2013

Airmanship

Barry Schiff’s “Proficient Pilot:
Airmanship” reminded me of
the primary instructor I had
during CFI training. He told me
I should conduct every flight
as if I had an employer in the
back, sipping a drink. If I took
a turn onto a taxiway a little too
fast or was a little too abrupt in
my course corrections, he’d say,
“You spilled my drink.” I never
became a corporate pilot, but I
try to fly as if my job depends
on it to this day.
Larry Stephens
AOPA 1208488
Savoy, Illinois

I think Dave Hirschman confused need and want (“P&E:
The Good Old Days Weren’t So
Great”). Some time ago (1960) I
was a private pilot and had never
used an electric starter, nosewheel, VHF radio, or the FAA
(except for my written test and
flight check). As a naval aviator
for 30 years, I enjoyed licketysplit jets with a lot of cockpit
toys. I have always stayed current with GA; my present mount
is a Cessna 182M with a KNS80, which is all I need to get me
out and in on foggy days. When
some distance from Class B and
C, I enjoy canceling services and
hang up the headset. It is important to me to know where I am
and where I am going rather
than being told where I am and
where I am going.
It is wonderful to want these
great new avionics. But the
author’s first paragraph correctly identified the associated
problem—high cost. I learned
to fly while working my way
through college. I don’t think
that is possible today. It seems to
me that the “good old days” (for
me) were much more affordable
and maybe more fun.
Vince Huth
AOPA 1076987
Monterey, California

14 | AOPA PILOT May 2013

The photos on the first page
of Dave Hirschman’s “Frugal
Flier” caught my eye because
my aircraft has both the
new Garmin 750 and the old
KNS-80. I love to plot my
cross-country flights with
both. No matter how accurate I think I am being when I
measure the distance off VOR
radials to provide the inputs to
the KNS-80, the fly-by points
still have minor deviations
from the Garmin 750 course
being used by the autopilot. I
love both the precision and the
ease of use of that Garmin 750.
When my oldest child
turned 30 a few years ago I
decided to restore my own joy
of flying, retrained, and bought
a Turbo Arrow. During that
retraining I showed my young
flight instructor a flight plan
I had saved in my old books
from my original training. His
reaction was, “If I had to do
all that I would have quit flying.” I just laughed. I actually
enjoy double and triple redundancy in plotting my plans.
That “third” that I add to the
Garmin 750 and the KNS-80?
Well, an iPad with ForeFlight,
of course!
Emmons Patzer
AOPA 6978771
Palmetto, Florida

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.

HANGAR TALK

Frugal flier

A drafty, windowless room
with a cement floor and an
overworked space heater
hardly seems like a place where
dreams are made. But that’s just
what’s taking place in southern
Indiana, where a group of high
school kids has built an RV–12
Light Sport aircraft and is now learning to fly it
through the fledgling Eagle’s Nest program. “These
kids are learning a lot about aviation,” says Senior
Editor Dave Hirschman, who dropped in on the
young volunteers (“Pulling Together,” page 54).
“But they’re finding out even more about teamwork,
accountability, and accomplishment. They’re the
future of aviation, and there’s no doubt in my mind
they have the skill, talent, and heart to take flying
to entirely new levels.” Eagle’s Nest Founder Bob
Kelly says the Indiana volunteers have helped create
a repeatable process that will improve many other
young lives around the country.
“The incredible advances in
aftermarket avionics technology naturally have owners
thinking about what else they
can do to get better safety and
utility from their airplanes,” says
Senior Editor Ian J. Twombly. “A
natural question when upgrading to an electronic primary flight display is whether
to get rid of the vacuum pump.” Mooney owner
Mike Hall faced this when he put in a Garmin G500.
On a continual quest for redundancy and safety,
Hall knew he wanted the vacuum pump out and a
second alternator in. A job like this isn’t hard, but the
paperwork is. Twombly explores Hall’s paperwork
adventure in “This Mooney Is Out of Air,” which
begins on page 68.
AOPA Pilot Magazine - May 2013

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of AOPA Pilot Magazine - May 2013
