AOPA Pilot Magazine - June 2018 - 16

Formula

LETTERS

An exceptional airplane + beautiful
fall weather = a great day of flying
B Y I A N J. T W O M B LY
P H O TO G R A P H Y B Y C H R I S R O S E

It's an unseasonably warm day

in early November at New Garden Flying Field outside
Philadelphia. The leaves are turning yellow and red but still
hanging tight to the trees, and the sky is a deep, welcoming
blue. It's a perfect day for Fairchild flying.
The Fairchild 24 is a statement to an era of thoughtful
design and stalwart construction long since passed. Sitting
tall and wide on its ungainly landing gear, the Fairchild has
an abundance of interesting angles and charming features.
Chief among them is the windows, the key ingredient
that makes the Fairchild the perfect airplane for this beautiful day. Unlike most airplanes where the windows pop out or
fold open, the Fairchild windows roll down, old-school carcrank style. And given that the big taildragger lazes around
at around 100 miles per hour, the windowsill makes a great
place to rest an elbow as the sights and smells of the countryside roll by 1,000 feet below.

50 | AOPA PILOT April 2018

CONTEST WINNERS

Zack Schmidt and Jeff
Auen cross western
Wyoming in a pair
of brand-new Aviat
Huskys. The rugged,
purpose-built airplanes
are ideally suited to the
high terrain and rocky
airstrips. Each winner
was accompanied by
a highly experienced
instructor.

SENIOR PHOTOGRAPHER CHRIS ROSE

said the Fairchild 24 doesn't have a
bad angle, although the landing gear
is a matter of taste.

www.aopa.org/pilot AOPA PILOT | 51

Far and away the smalle s t d e m o g ra p h i c i s t h e
that-sounds-reasonable type.
They will carefully consider all options and adopt
and adapt to meet real-world
situations. Probably test it
in software before testing
in hardware. It is this last
group to whom Carroll was
pretty clearly writing. Let's
see more articles for this tiny
but tremendously important
temperament-and-personality group.

Merel R. O'Rourke
I enjoyed Ian J. Twombly's article on the
AOPA 5771047
Grangeville, Idaho
Fairchild 24. Having owned a Fairchild PT-19
many years ago, I can attest to the great Ranger Charted territory
Loved your article in AOPA
engine and the smooth flying characteristics
Pilot about aeronautical
of the 19.
charts. I, too, am very fond
Charles W. Demyan
AOPA 1026532
Murrells Inlet, South Carolina

HANGAR TALK

Are readers likely to benefit from John's excellent
article? Depends largely on
their temperament and personality type. Temperament
and personality get surprisingly little attention. Yet the
differences in temperament
and personality among pilots

are extreme. Many are by-thebook types, especially those
trained ab initio to operate
large or military aircraft. Still
others are more of the thirteenth commandment types:
"Thou shalt not get caught."
They will do anything they can
get away with.

of them and have saved a few
over the years, including a
Luftfahrtkarte Aeronautical
from the 1970s when I was
flying Aero Club Cessnas out
of Bitburg Air Base, Germany.
One of my favorite uses of
expired charts is to wrap
birthday and Christmas presents for my kids, and now
grandkids, leaving no doubt
about who the sender is. They
enjoy the gift and the wrapping, too.
Mike Moore
AOPA 680554
Gainesville, Virginia

Lancair's Mark and Conrad Huffstutler
provided an unusual photo platform to photograph the Mako in Uvalde, Texas: a T-6. "It
brought back fond memories of my father's
stories of his training in the early 1950s," said
AOPA Senior Photographer MIKE FIZER of
the photo shoot for DAVE HIRSCHMAN'S story
"ON THE HUNT," which begins on p. 54. "It's
always a pleasure to get back in the T-6. It's
a challenge shooting from one but it's great
to experience the rattle and the roar of this
magnificent beast."

Pilot maker

Dave Hirschman stirred some
great memories in "Budget
Buy: T-6 Texan;" even though
I've passed the big nine-oh it
reminds me of the good old
days when I was a cadet in U.S.
Air Force Class 49-B. Some
great flying in the trusty T-6.
The aviation cadet program
had just cranked up again
shortly after the end of World
War II. The Air Force was trying a new experiment; i.e., "put
'em in a T-6 and teach 'em to fly
that beast."
The drill was eight months
in the T-6 (called basic training), and if we survived that then
onward to advanced training
in one of three choices: fighter
school in the F-80 Shooting Star
or the P-51 Mustang, or multiengine training in the B-25.
A couple hundred hours in
the T-6 and some of us 21-yearold hotshots thought we could
conquer the world. I was lucky
to get jet school, and I might
say that transitioning directly
from a T-6 into a 600-mph turbojet was an eye-opener. But
that's another story.
Thanks for such a neat article on that very fine aircraft.
Lloyd Herman
AOPA 466160
Sarasota, Florida

Erratum

In "Sleeper Hit" (May 2018
AOPA Pilot), we incorrectly
stated that the main rotor system of the Cabri G2 spins to the
left from the pilot's perspective.
It turns to the right. AOPA Pilot
regrets the error.
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.

16 | AOPA PILOT June 2018

AOPA Pilot Magazine - June 2018

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of AOPA Pilot Magazine - June 2018