AOPA Pilot Magazine - August 2013 - 12

LETTERS

FROM OUR JUNE 2013 ISSUE

The Unlikeliest Astronaut
Our June issue highlighted two aviation legends with a profile on test pilot Mike Melvill and
reflections of columnist Barry Schiff, who celebrated 50 years with AOPA Pilot.
Thank you for the excellent
article on Mike Melvill (“The
Unlikeliest Astronaut”). What
an inspirational story of someone who prepared himself so
well for the opportunities life
presented to him.
The article included one
inaccuracy that I think illustrates the brilliance of Burt
Rutan. SpaceShipOne did
include brakes. The article is
correct that the main energy
conversion device for the kinetic
energy of the landing was the
maple block on the front landing strut. This was an ingenious
way of aligning the mission with
the weight requirements. Early
on in the collaboration between
MATCO Manufacturing and
Rutan on the wheel and brake
system for the vehicle, Rutan
determined that such an
approach would save weight
while providing the required
maneuverability on the landing rollout. Having the drag on
the nose strut is unstable but, at
touchdown speeds, there would
be adequate aerodynamic forces
to manage it. At lower speeds,
some braking is required. Rutan
estimated the amount of steering required and converted it to
an energy requirement for the
brakes. MATCO designed and
tested the brakes to meet this
final requirement. In the end, it
reduced the original brake disc
weight by more than one pound
per side.
That two-pound savings was
the difference between making
it to space on the first attempt
or not. This weight savings feat
was accomplished on dozens of
12 | AOPA PILOT August 2013

systems across the spacecraft,
making the endeavor all the
more remarkable. It is a tribute
to the perfect blend of engineering, practicality, and a dedication
to solve problems decisively with
a can-do spirit that allowed the
project goals to be met.
George R. Happ
AOPA 992402
Sandy, Utah

“Rutan’s SpaceShipOne”—I call
it this because in my mind the
real SpaceShipOne was Gagarin’s
Vostok; the real SpaceShipTwo
was Mercury—only repeated a
portion of the X–15 program, not
even the most difficult, which
was designed and flown 45 years
before Mellvill. And the X–15 saw
sustained flight upwards of 4,100
mph, not just for a few minutes of
reentry like Rutan’s.
So I don’t get it. Then again,
I’ve sent spaceships to Jupiter,
Saturn, and Mars, plus one
in Earth orbit that discovered more than 60,000 unseen
galaxies, and a space shuttle
experiment that had a thermometer accurate to one-half
billionth of a degree at two
degrees above absolute zero.
It ’s nice that Rutan’s
SpaceShipOne is in the
Smithsonian, but I don’t see it as
a pioneering aircraft, just a copycat, much like if you put a Cessna
172 next to the Wright Flyer. Not
that that is bad, mind you; it’s
great to be able to hop in the
172 and do something humans
haven’t been able to do for hundreds of thousands of years. But
pioneering? Nah.
David Rosing
AOPA 518759
Sunland, California

which I fear are or soon will be
no longer available. I have litreflections, 1963-2013
tle interest in hashing the old
versus new, stick and rudder
versus autoflight, but I would
add to your feelings of what
you have been so fortunate to
have done.
One other thought: it was—
and still is—fun! Yes, I have had
some moments that did not
seem much fun at the time,
and my time investigating bad
outcomes was hardly happiness incarnate, but over my 55
Barry Schiff’s column years as a pilot most memowas absolutely top of ries are recalled in the context
of good times. So many of the
the line (“Proficient youngsters I talk to today seem
Pilot”). Fifty years almost antiseptically analytical
about aviation (how’s that for
is a long time—half alliteration?)—either not hava century—and he ing a passion for the wonder of
it all or, worse, to have it, but be
has accomplished it embarrassed to show it.
I have never lost the sheer
with style, grace, and
joy of flying, no matter what
humor. I admire him I was doing in what airplane.
and the career he What greater thrill can there
be than to take off in a typical
carved out of this old northeast occluded front and
burst out the top into the brilspinning sphere.
Dave R. Case
liant sunshine? How about the
Alameda, California
chest-puffing exhilaration of
a perfect touchdown in a seaplane on totally still water or
the quiet magic of night flight?
Reflections
Let only the Great Writer
Well, old friend, once again you himself still your pen—we
[Schiff ] have used humility to need your words to remember,
make a point and, hopefully, not in fond hope of a return
present a lesson to those who to the good old days but to
will have to live with our suc- ensure that, going forward, we
cesses and failures.
are always conscious of from
We have clearly shared some whence we came.
Webster “Dan” Todd
wonderful times and expeAOPA 185075
riences, aviation generated,
Oldwick, New Jersey
Proficient Pilot

BY BarrY Schiff

Celebrating 50 years as a Pilot writer

MY firSt Magazine article, “Why Not Really Learn
to Navigate,” appeared in these pages exactly 50 years
ago (June 1963). It was about my having discovered and
purchased a war-surplus sextant and practicing celestial
navigation in the cockpits of general aviation airplanes.
I was enchanted with the elegance of using celestial
bodies to establish a fix because I knew that these compatriots of the night sky would accompany me wherever
in the world I would wander.
But what goes around really does come around. As I
now celebrate my fiftieth anniversary writing for AOPA
Pilot on my seventy-fifth birthday, I discover that I once
again write about using celestial bodies for navigation,

The AuThOr was
25 years old when
he wrote about
celestial navigation
in his first story
for AOPA Pilot.

bArry schIff

has logged
28,000 hours in
332 different types
of aircraft during
61 years of flying.

20 | AOPA PILOT June 2013

although man-made satellites provide far more precision than a young man in 1963 could have ever imagined.
The editor of AOPA Pilot at that time was Max
Karant, first at the helm of this magazine. This means
that I have written for all of Pilot’s editors—and there
have been many—up to and including the current editor
in chief, Tom Haines. What has never ceased to amaze
me is that these men of the pen published what I wrote,
because in the beginning what I wrote was not so great.
I didn’t know the difference between a dangling preposition and a split infinitive.
Some are surprised to learn that I have not had a
formal education in writing or literature (beyond Mrs.
McDonald’s English composition class in high school).
As a good friend, mentor, and Pulitzer Prize nominee
Bob Said used to tell me, “The best way to learn to write
is to read a lot and write a lot.” I continue to do both.

My early writing success, I think, was due mostly
to a knack for explaining complex subjects in a simple,
understandable manner. I would also like to think that
some of my thoughts and original concepts in subsequent years have made meaningful contributions to
aviation safety. That would not have been possible
without this forum, and for that I am and shall be forever grateful.
During my formative writing years I wrote articles
by hand on lined notebook paper. I would then take this
scrawling to a secretarial service for typing and ship the
final draft via air mail, special delivery. The process has
changed a bit since then.
During my half-century tenure with Pilot, I missed
only one deadline (although my propensity toward
procrastination has caused me to come close many
times). This is when I was on assignment covering
the Hanover Air Show in West Germany in the early
1970s. I made the mistake of going through Checkpoint
Charlie with my film of the airshow during a visit to
East Berlin. The East German polizei apparently considered me a spy of sorts and confiscated the film
during my return to the West.
Most of my columns have attempted to pass along
sage advice regarding flying safety, so you might be
wondering what aspect of that I am trying to convey
this month. Well, my friends, you need to know that
this column is not so much for you as it is for me. I
think that 50 years of writing for this magazine entitles me to some digression and reflection.
No matter how thorough or painstaking his
research, no writer is totally free of error, especially
one who has been immortalizing his thoughts in print
for 50 years. Mistakes, though, never go unnoticed or
uncorrected. I’ve always said that if a writer needs the
answer to a question, he can easily obtain it by publishing an incorrect answer. Given the incredible expertise
of Pilot’s readership, it is axiomatic that the truth will
quickly bubble to the surface (sometimes via irate and
indignant mail). I only wish that there were some way
to tap that resource before committing to paper and
ink.
Much of what I have written over the years has been
possible only because of my having been a writer for
Pilot. I am certain that the Air Force otherwise would
not have given me dual instruction at 75,000 feet in
a Lockheed U–2, nor would NASA have assigned its

AOPA Pilot Magazine - August 2013

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