AOPA Pilot Magazine - January 2020 - 14

LETTERS

FROM OUR NOVEMBER 2019 ISSUE

Lone beagle
Following Snoopy's dogged pursuit of the Red Baron

Brian Narelle
AOPA 1083738
Rohnert Park, California

E = MC2

As a research scientist, I always
enjoy Catherine Cavagnaro's
articles in AOPA Pilot and "No
Equations Required" hit home.
The reason is that, in addition
to my aviation safety research,
I also run a fear-of-flying program in the Houston area for
jittery airline passengers. We've
always struggled  in giving a
simple explanation (glazed eyes
with any mention of Bernoulli!)
as the passengers are nonpilots and of course most are
nonscientists. In this regard, I
particularly liked the captured
video image showing air flow
faster over the top aspect of the
wing, which will complement
my fan/paper demo. Hence,
I have downloaded the video
per the website she referred
to, although I felt a wee guilty
as I obtained it free whilst she
forked over $150.
Douglas Boyd
AOPA 1404428
Sugar Land, Texas

14 | AOPA PILOT January 2020

PILOT BRIEFING

34 SWEEPSTAKES 36 AOPA NEWS 38 BUDGET BUY 40 TEST PILOT 42 MILESTONES 44 NEWS

Thank you very much for
Catherine Cavagnaro's AOPA
article for November. The article and videos are awesome!
Kirk Doughty
AOPA 6976634
Grapeview, Washington

BasicMed bliss

PEANUTS WORLDWIDE

I loved finding Snoopy in the
latest issue ("Pilot Briefing: The
Lone Beagle Takes Off"). As a
pilot who teaches cartooning at
the Charles M. Schulz Museum,
I start every morning with my
Sonoma County Airport mug
in hand, featuring Snoopy and
the tower where I took my FAA
oral exam. In a few days I will
be back teaching kids how to
draw Snoopy flying his doghouse. Who knows? There
might be a future cartoonist/
pilot in my next class.

COMPILED BY JULIE SUMMERS WALKER

aopa.org/pilot AOPA PILOT | 31

Readers might be
amused to fly either
RNAV approach into
Charles M. Schulz
Sonoma County
Airport for Runway
32 or 14. Both have
Peanuts character references. How fun it
is to report "crossing
PIGPN" or "LUSEE."
Dennis K. Johnson's
article on the adventures of Pilot Snoopy
was a treat.
Chris Cowlin
AOPA 1064991
Hollywood, South Carolina

A good friend encouraged me to
go and get my BasicMed exam
and take the easy online course.
Both enjoyable!
After my experience I
shared it with about 40 of my
flying friends-most of whom,
to my amazement, also went
immediately ahead and got
their BasicMed ("BasicMed
Breaks 50,000"). Interestingly,
they hesitated until they
learned that they were not giving up their "type medical" and
that the BasicMed was just
underlying their other medical.
My flying buddies then also
did what I did and they sent out
an invitation for their friends to
get BasicMed, with the suggestion to send it on to others that
they knew. Before we knew it,
those 40 friends have already
turned into hundreds of pilots
who now have BasicMed in the

event something happens to
their health.
Hopefully, this could grow
and grow, thereby helping more
pilots continue flying and help
pilots who have not been flying
to get back into the air. It would
also be nice to have more AOPA
members!
Kent B. Williams
AOPA 1146435
Columbus, Montana

Memorable flights

I just saw Barry Schiff 's
"Proficient Pilot: Dear Diary"
column in the November 2019
AOPA Pilot, which reminded
me of an entry in my logbook
that doesn't count for anything-namely, I logged sitting
in the cockpit of the Concorde,
long ago, when it landed at
Dulles. I do remember saying
to myself, Hey, except for higher
approach and touchdown speeds,
this isn't any different from landing my Cessna 310; first the main
wheels touch down, then the
nosewheel, and that's it-not a
big difference! Of course, I don't
have to lower the nose first.
Another memory item is
when Sully put the airliner

Which AOPA Air Safety Institute video category
interests you the most?
Accident Case Studies
Real Pilot Stories
Safety Tips
Ask ATC
Other

Aviation eBrief poll

57%
23%
13%
6%
1%

1%
6%

13%
23%

57%
http://www.aopa.org/pilot
AOPA Pilot Magazine - January 2020

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of AOPA Pilot Magazine - January 2020
