Chasing the PIN, part 1

February 8th, 2013

Flight Training Technical Editor Jill Tallman is applying for a personal identification number that will permit her to fly into the Washington, D.C., Flight Restricted Zone (FRZ) and land at historic College Park Airport. It’s a three-part procedure involving visits to the FAA, the TSA, and the airport within the FRZ.—Ed.

The FAA’s Baltimore Flight Standards District Office doesn’t resemble a barb-wire-fenced fortress so much as a plain-Jane industrial-complex office building, which it is. The clay-colored, one-story complex is located not far from Baltimore-Washington International, and occasionally a Southwest jet rumbles by overhead.

When you enter the FSDO’s main entrance, you’re asked to present a photo ID and sign in. You cannot just drop by to see the FAA inspector who will review your paperwork for the PIN. You have to make an appointment.

After you’ve signed in, do you then gain entrance to the FAA’s inner sanctum? You do not. You wait in a sort of a hallway outside the main office while the FAA inspector is summoned. You also transact your business in this hallway.

In my case, the FAA inspector arrived promptly and waited while I presented the required documents: my pilot certificate, original copy of my medical certificate; a government-issued ID; and a copy of a certificate indicating that I had completed the FAA’s online course that explains the Special Flight Rules Airspace and the Flight Restricted Zone. As he gathered these things, he asked, “Why do you want to fly to College Park?”

I must’ve looked askance at him, because he said, “It’s not against the law to ask.”

College Park Airport…then

No, and I guess he wondered why anyone wants to fly within the FRZ, knowing as he does that, if you break the rules, the consequences are severe. The airport, built in 1909, is the oldest continuously operated airport in the United States. It’s also a nice little place, the type of airport that, in the days before Sept. 11, 2001, would’ve been a favorite hangout. The folks who manage and operate the airport work hard to keep it open, in spite of the restricted access. They wrote and posted a plain-language, step-by-step guide to getting the PIN, which I have followed from the moment I first decided to do this.

My daughter attends the University of Maryland’s College Park campus and often jogs

College Park Airport…now

or rides her bike near the airport. Her friends are often startled and intrigued when she tells them her mother is a pilot. Even if I can’t take them all up sightseeing, as I would if they were to come out to my home airport, I can still fly in and out, purchase fuel, and help keep this historic piece of aviation remain where it is.

The FAA inspector took my paperwork into the office to make sure I had no violations on my record and came back a few minutes later. We talked for a few more minutes about airspace violations, and that was that.

Next stop: The Transportation Security Administration’s offices at National Airport, where I will be fingerprinted.

 

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What did you ask at the February Facebook chat?

February 7th, 2013

The topic was adventure flying and acquiring additional certificates and ratings, but as usual, the Flight Training Facebook chatters tossed us a wide variety of questions. Here’s an except from the Feb. 5 chat:

Jill: Ian, what was your most adventurous flight?

Ian: Good question. Probably landing a Cessna 185 on the Pica Glacier on Denali. That was a thrill.

Ian: So who is thinking of going beyond the private? Anyone have interest in gliders, seaplanes, etc.?

Comment from Your Name: I just finished my instrument rating. I am building time for the commercial, then I will get commercial ASEL, seaplane as well as gliders.

Comment from Bob: I started my private several years ago, but had to stop due to life issues. Looking to get back into flying and would love to get my seaplane rating after that…

Comment from Your Name: Jill, you own a Cherokee 140, right? How is flying different as an owner vs. a renter?

Jill: Hi there, Your Name! : ) Yes, that’s correct. Flying is different in that, as an owner, I am more mindful of things like how I am on the brakes, whether I remember to turn off the switches—stuff that can affect my pocketbook. Plus, while I was careful not to misuse rentals, I am careful about how I stow my aircraft—always put in cowl plugs, wipe off bugs ,and such.

Comment from Andrew: I have a commercial ASEL and instrument, but have been thinking about doing both a commercial AMEL and/or a commercial ASEL add-on and possibly tailwheel training as well. Not sure which of them would be most beneficial.
 
 
To read the entire transcript of the chat, go to the Flight Training Facebook chat page and click “replay.” The next Flight Training Facebook chat will be held on Tuesday, March 5, at 3 p.m. Eastern. Our guest chatter will be Adam Smith, vice president of AOPA’s Center to Advance the Pilot Community (CAPComm). He’ll discuss AOPA’s Flying Club initiative and much more. Go to the chat page for more details or to set an email reminder.

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A brief explanation of the Whitlow Letter

February 4th, 2013

It is common practice to want to pick on the FAA, and often with good reason. However, there are times when the feds do something that is most definitely for the greater good. Most pilots, for example, are aware that in the wake of the Colgan crash in Buffalo, N.Y., the FAA has created new rest rules designed to make it easier for pilots to be adequately rested during their trips. This is a win-win for the companies (though, to hear them tell it, they will all go bankrupt), the pilots, and the traveling public.

But the real breakthrough for this came around 2000, when the FAA issued what is commonly called the “Whitlow Letter.” At that time, the standard practice at the airlines with regard to reserve pilots was to work under the assumption that if a pilot was on reserve, he was not technically on duty until he actually reported for an assignment. This meant that if a pilot woke up at 7 a.m. and went on reserve at noon for a reserve window of availability of 14 hours (which was, and still is, common practice), the company could call him up at the tail end of his window—2 a.m. in this case—and keep him on duty and flying until 4 p.m. the following afternoon. This pilot faced the possibility of being awake for 32 consecutive hours. No rational person would consider this to be safe.

Fortunately, one of those rational people was James Whitlow, then-chief counsel at the FAA. He was responding to a letter of inquiry from Rich Rubin, a captain at American Airlines who was requesting specific guidance on FAR duty and rest rules when he turned the industry on its ear.

Whitlow’s response was a body blow to the old practice, and it was met with fierce resistance by the Air Transport Association (ATA), the airline trade group. The ATA immediately went to court to try to get the interpretation thrown out; they lost. The new interpretation forced the airlines to consider the start of a reserve period to be the start of duty. In the example above, the pilot would start his reserve at noon and would be released from all duty at 2 a.m., even if he did not report to work until 6 in the evening. In practical terms, in many the duty day was also shortened by virtue of the fact that a pilot who is at home and gets called needs to have time to get to the airport, park, get through security, and check in. Common policy is a 90-minute report time window.

Further, Whitlow also said that in any given 24-hour period, a pilot needs to have at least eight hours of uninterrupted rest.

The airlines realized right away that the Whitlow letter would force them to hire more pilots, and schedulers and pilots both became adept at doing 24 look-backs calculated down to the minute.

While the Colgan crash was the event that forced the FAA to develop a more scientifically based rest rule that takes into account circadian rhythms and the effect of crossing time zones, it was the Whitlow letter that gave the pilot bloc the momentum to start pushing for serious change. Unfortunately, as is so often true in aviation, the rules are often written in blood–in this case Colgan Flight 3407.—Chip Wright

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Got a medical coming up?

January 30th, 2013

Is it time to put in your medical application? Whether you’re a first-timer getting ready to solo or a long-timer who’s been around the pattern a few times, take some time to familiarize yourself with the form, the information you’ll need to provide to the FAA, and what you can expect throughout the process. I’ll provide links to AOPA resources throughout this blog that hopefully will help grease the skids a bit.

  • Need an aviation medical examiner? We’ve got a searchable database of AMEs. If none is in your area, ask other pilots or flight instructors whom they visit. A good, knowledgeable AME is like owning a bar of gold. Some are better than others; a bad one (that is, somebody who doesn’t really understand how the FAA works) can trip up the proceedings and delay the issuance of your medical. And in general, your family physician should not be your AME.
  • Is that medicine OK? Some prescription and over-the-counter medications are fine. Some are not fine, and you won’t fly if you’re taking them. Some are permissible once you provide documentation to the FAA that you can function safely while taking the medication in question. Our comprehensive database of medications can be accessed here.
  • It’s all electronic. Did you know that once upon a time, you filled out a paper form and took that to the AME’s office? As of Oct. 1, 2012, it’s all done via the FAA’s MedXPress website. AOPA Director of Medical Services Gary Crump explains how you get online in this article.

Everybody’s health situation is different, and it’s impossible for me to address all the possible permutations of health scenarios in this blog. But a single piece of advice holds true for all pilots: Know before you go. If you have a health issue, find out how to address it to the FAA’s satisfaction before you make that appointment with the AME. If you have questions, call AOPA at 800-USA-AOPA. AOPA Pilot Protection Services can be especially helpful for complicated issues; find out more on the website.—Jill W. Tallman

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The January “Since You Asked” poll: What element of landing an airplane is/was problematic for you?

January 24th, 2013

No matter what we accomplish in flight training, nothing (it seems) quite eclipses the ability to nail a landing. Is it any wonder? Landing the airplane is probably the toughest part of flying it. (If you disagree, feel free to do so in the Comments section.)

So it was that our January digital poll asked the question in the title of this blog. The idea for the poll was sparked by the student pilot who wrote Rod Machado to ask for guidance on how to control the airplane during rollout. Rod was puzzled, and so he contacted the student to ask for some additional details. It turns out the guy had a shoe size  13-1/2. Aha! Rod theorized that the student was having difficulty properly placing his feet on the cockpit floorboard so as not to accidentally touch a brake pedal.

Mystery solved, I wondered what other types of problems with landing plague us. I could’ve guessed the outcome,  but here are the unofficial poll results to bear it out: It’s the flare.

  • 71 percent of respondents chose the flare as their problem area.
  • 14 percent of respondents said it was the sight picture.
  • 7 percent said the rollout.
  • 7 percent said other. (I’m curious to know what that might be–perhaps gauging your airplane’s height above ground?)

“Since You Asked” polls appear monthly in the digital edition of Flight Training. If you’d like to switch your magazine from paper to digital at no additional charge, go here or call Member Services 800-USA-AOPA weekdays from 8:30 a.m. to 6 p.m. Eastern.

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Student or teacher: Which is harder?

January 23rd, 2013

So which is harder: learning to fly, or teaching people how to fly? I’ve been on both ends of that spectrum, and looking back, it’s hard to say.

There are a lot of things in life we have to learn, some which we don’t see the immediate value in or have an interest in, such as learning rote math facts or the difference between verbs, adverbs, and dangling participles. Other things that we learn are the result of optional endeavors, such as learning to play an instrument, painting, and flying. Those optional endeavors are not necessarily easy to learn, but because we choose to do them, they are either fun to learn, or “easier” to learn, because we are motivated to learn them.

Let’s face it. Some parts of learning to fly are easy, and some parts are downright hard. Learning the FARs is rote memorization, and much of it is common-sense stuff: Don’t fly too low over houses and highways; stay out of clouds; and get a good weather briefing. All of these are pretty simple.

Other stuff is much more work-intensive and more difficult to learn, landings being the most obvious one that comes to mind. Everyone has more trouble learning to land than anything else because you simply can’t replicate the same approach (or even the same control inputs and hand-eye reactions) on each attempt. That’s also one of many variables that make teaching landings so challenging.

Every student has certain maneuvers they struggle with more than others. I recall one who was absolutely terrified of steep turns, but had no trouble with stalls and slow flight. Another—a teenager, no less—had so much trouble learning to taxi that we spent an hour one day just following yellow lines and working on using his feet to turn. Talking on the radio comes naturally for some, but creates stage fright for others.

As a student, it’s possible that you will complete your certificate and possibly never take another organized lesson again outside of a flight review.

The CFI, on the other hand, must master not only the private syllabus, but also those of the commercial certificate and the instrument rating. Further, the CFI must also be able to fly and teach these maneuvers all from the right seat, which can be a challenge.

Learning the various maneuvers is one thing, but being able to break down all the material into bite-sized chunks that students can digest is something else. We’ve all had instructors who were better than others, whether it was because of patience or the ability to convey the subject in terms that student can understand. Having had it both ways, I think that learning to fly is more difficult, only because you are getting your initial exposure to so much. You need to learn the terminology, the acronyms, the skills, and so much more. Teaching flying forces you to slow everything down, but at least you already have (or should have) a basic grasp of the material.

Of course, it would be more accurate to say that one of the bigger challenges is learning how to teach people how to fly. Unfortunately, the first several students become the guinea pigs, and the airplane becomes the lab.

What are your thoughts?—Chip Wright

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Flying over the holidays

January 15th, 2013

As I write this, we are a week away from Christmas Day, with New Year’s right behind. I can’t help but think of all of the employees within the airline industry who will be working, especially the pilots and the flight attendants. For the most part, all of the other employees will be going home after their shift. Flight crews may not be.

There is much that is very cool about being an airline pilot, but there is one thing that is decidedly not, and that is working on the holidays, with Thanksgiving and Christmas being two of the worst. Most folks can get past most of the other big days on the calendar (the reality is that the Fourth of July fireworks from an airplane are pretty cool), but Thanksgiving is a truly American holiday, and since more families go out of the their way to get together for Turkey than Santa, it’s a tough one to miss. Christmas is also hard, especially if you have young kids who are still enraptured with Santa.

While the winter holidays can be celebrated pretty much any time you want them to be, being gone is hard. Even if you would not normally have done anything special, a hotel can be a pretty lonely place. Restaurants are closed or open only for limited hours; room service often is cancelled for the day; and when you turn on the TV, you are reminded even more so that you just are not where you want to be. Hotels will do what they can, but their staff will be limited as well. If there is anything worse than being stuck in a hotel for a holiday, it’s being stuck in a hotel when you and your crew are the only guests.

Working holidays is a fact of life in many occupations, and the airlines are no different in that regard. But, when you work a job where you can go home after your shift, it’s much easier to swallow, especially if you get premium pay. A little-known fact is that more airlines do not pay a premium for holiday pay than those that do, and that just adds insult to injury. Those that do often have no problem finding volunteers.

If there is a benefit to working holidays, it may be a reduced schedule. Flights are usually reduced on certain days, and that may create fewer trips. If the overall schedule is large enough, it may be possible for the company to build a lot of shorter (one -and two-day) trips, or a lot of trips with a split a.m./p.m. schedule that allow at least part of the day to be spent at home.

If you are a commuter, one of the first things you will do when looking at trips for November and December is to try to find one that overnights in your home town or the town of family. In fact, if you’re really lucky, you might score a layover that gives you a full day off at home for a holiday, for which you might be getting paid.

Fly for the airlines long enough, and you will undoubtedly meet someone who clearly has the seniority to be off for a holiday but chooses to work it. I can’t remember if I was a first officer or a captain at the time, but I had to work Thanksgiving early in my career, and one of our most senior captains (one of the top three) was working. He had no kids at home anymore, and had decided to work so that a junior captain who probably had a family could be home. There have also been folks who have bid the holiday off, and then gone into work and picked up a trip from a fellow pilot as a surprise so that they could be home with their families. It’s a favor I’d like to pass on someday myself.

As with any career, the airlines have their downsides, and working holidays can be depressing, especially when you’ve done it several years in a row. Some have pretty stringent policies in place to prevent abuse of sick time, but the reality is that at some point you will most likely have to do it, and most of the time, your fellow employees will be in a good mood that becomes contagious. The passengers may not show as much appreciation as you’d like, but rest assured that they have a tremendous amount of gratitude for your work. I’ve been on both sides of the cockpit door, and while I’d prefer being on the one taken where I want to go, it’s not always so bad to be the taker either.—Chip Wright

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Which comes first: flying or ground school?

January 9th, 2013

It’s a classic aviation topic of discussion: Do you start with ground school or flying lessons?

The answer, of course, is yes.

Back in the day, pilots-to-be overwhelmingly sat in a classroom and learned the academic side of flying the same way they learned algebra, English, and history. Courses would run several weeks depending on how many days a week it met, and most students were flying concurrently. Nowadays, so many pilots engage in the self-paced home-study courses that it’s probably difficult to find a traditional ground school.

The advantage of starting with flying right away is that you have a much easier time keeping up your enthusiasm, and besides, flying is fun, so why not do it? The truth is that you can do both at the same time, but you need to learn how to do it efficiently and effectively.

The home-study courses available today are a far cry from what was available even 10 years ago, and they are light years ahead of where they were 20 years ago. Jeppesen used to charge a king’s ransom for a series of video tapes that accompanied the private pilot curriculum. Now, online classes and DVDs have replaced VHS, which means you can go right where you want to study, and better yet, it’s all interactive, which keeps you more engaged. The video quality is better as well. And Jepp being Jepp, they still charge a king’s ransom, but the Kings are still doing their thing as well.

There are some areas of study you should start with right away. Aerodynamics, the FARs, and weather are topics that you can’t get a jump on fast enough. Most people are more weather savvy today, thanks to the Weather Channel and the Internet, but aviation weather is still information intensive, so getting a leg up on it early is always a good idea.

But a few areas of study call for caution when it comes to getting too far ahead of where your training is. You should spend a lot of time reading, watching, and studying all of the maneuvers. However, don’t jump into trying to understand all of navigation until you are ready to do your cross-country flying. In more modern aircraft, you may already have a bit of proficiency with the GPS since you use it all the time. In older airplanes, it may just be you and your VOR indicators. I am a firm believer that you will be a better pilot—you’ll certainly be more knowledgeable—if you can do everything the old-fashioned way, and that includes using a manual E6B. After all, it doesn’t ever need to have batteries replaced. As for the panel-mount GPS, a good instructor will take the time to show you all the ins and outs you need to know as you need to know them.

When getting ready for your knowledge test, don’t do it by just memorizing all of the answers. Make sure that you understand the theory and the concepts discussed in each question. Be able to answer them using what you know, especially weight and balance and navigation questions. Some of them are indeed rote memorization (the FARs), but make sure you really know the material and know where to find it!

Learning all that you need to know can seem daunting, but if you break it down into chunks, it is much more manageable. Yes, you can fly before you open a book, but if you combine the two, you will have more effective learning and have a more enjoyable training experience.—By Chip Wright

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A holiday flight

January 7th, 2013

Back in December, we asked chat participants what was on their Christmas wish lists. There was a prize at stake—a free eBook.

Chatters wished for more money to fly with, more time to fly with, a handheld nav/comm, and just plain more flight time (40 hours, to be exact, so that the chatter could complete an instrument rating). The wish that got us was David Kincade’s. He asked for 10 hours’ block time at his FBO. To finish up a rating? No. Turns out he wanted to fly his wife to her parents’ home for the Christmas holiday.

David won the eBook—and what’s more, he actually made the trip. He posted a photo on our Facebook page with a note:

“Hey Ian and Jill; thanks again for the book I won in December’s chat. I did get some flight time for Christmas, and did indeed use it to take me wife from St. Louis (KSET) to Branson West (KFWB) to visit with her parents. I even got to take her mother for a sightseeing flight around Table Rock Lake. We had a blast, discovered some fun airports, and met some great people along the way.
Just Southeast of Springfield, MO, there are some giant TV towers, 2000agl, photo enclosed.
This flying thing is kinda fun.”

Thanks for checking in and letting us know, David! And yeah, no argument there—this flying thing is kinda fun.—Jill W. Tallman

Our next Flight Training Facebook chat will be at 3 p.m. Tuesday, January 8. The topic is paying for flight training with guest chatter Brittney Miculka. Go here to set up an email reminder, or just join us at the chat! 

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The best and worst of 2012

December 20th, 2012

It’s that time of year again! Welcome to my third annual Best and Worst list for the flight training industry. I spent a few moments reviewing the 2011 roundup (which you can read here), and boy, did we have some interesting developments. Still, 2012 is shaping up to be notable, too.

In 2012, criminals continued to use airplanes for all the wrong reasons. We lost a beloved designated pilot examiner. Santa Monica Airport’s neighbors are using increasingly inventive and unlawful ways to show  how much they don’t want this airport—and its student pilots—in their backyards.

On the up side, I’m pleased to note some things that should affect the flight training industry for years to come. Some of these come out of AOPA. You may call me self-serving for including those in this list, but at least I’ve lumped them into one item.

So here are the worst and best, in no particular order. Tell me what you think I left out in the Comments section.—Jill W. Tallman

Worst

1. Santa Monica Airport makes it to the list again, this year because people are so intent on shutting down this airport–with its six flight schools–that one of them took it upon himself to scatter nails in the flight schools’ driveways to make his point (sorry). What’s next, flaming bags of dog poop on the flight school steps? (Maybe I shouldn’t give them any ideas.) The Santa Monica City Council gets special recognition for considering a noise reduction plan that would have paid flight schools each time a student pilot and flight instructor took their landing practice to another airport.

2. Border patrol agents seized a flight school’s Cessna 172 after a renter pilot was arrested on suspicion of using it to smuggle illegal immigrants across the U.S.-Mexico border. The owner said he wasn’t optimistic he’d ever see the airplane again, and its seizure could spell the end of his business.

3. St. Cloud University, St. Cloud, Minn., shutters its aviation program in a cost-cutting measure.

4. The U.S. Air Force told its oldest GA flying club–located on Wright-Patterson Air Force Base in Dayton, Ohio–to hit the road. That the USAF would evict its own is a tad ironic, as is the fact that Dayton is widely considered the Birthplace of Aviation. This one’s not all bad, though; the club, 300 members strong, moved operations to a nearby GA airport and has vowed to remain active.

5. “Mama Bird” took her final flight. Evelyn Bryan Johnston, a widely loved designated pilot examiner and the grande dame of Tennessee aviation, died May 10 at the age of 102. She had logged more than 57,000 flight hours and administered more than 9,000 practical tests.

Best

1. Persons with disabilities are learning to fly. A fantastic organization called Able Flight is helping persons with disabilities to earn their wings. The organization really took off in 2012, when it helped six men to become sport pilots through a joint program with Purdue University.

2. Women are finding out that flying is fun. There are some very determined people trying to bring more women into aviation. Last year’s list mentioned International Women of Aviation Worldwide; this year my pick is designated pilot examiner Mary Latimer of Vernon, Texas, who hosted about 40 women at a weeklong camp at her home airport (Vernon-Wilbarger County, near Wichita Falls). The Girls in Flight Training Academy participants got free housing, food, and ground school, and they paid just $50 per hour dry plus the cost of fuel to fly in a Cessna 150. The result? Five took the knowledge test, four soloed, and two got through the private pilot checkride. You’ll read more about GIFT in an upcoming issue of Flight Training magazine.

3. Apps, apps, apps! From weight and balance to flight planning to weather to making a 3D image of your 10 trips around the pattern so you can see if you’re squaring off that base leg, cool, easy-to-use, and mostly inexpensive apps for the iPad and other tablet devices exploded in 2012. Student pilots will benefit from all that technology, so long as they remember to keep their eyes outside.

4. King Schools makes its private and instrument syllabus available free to independent flight instructors. Cheers and a tip of the hat to John and Martha King, who inspired my very first best-and-worst list back in 2010. I’m glad to bring them back for a happier reason. Honorable mention: Sporty’s Flight Academy in Clermont County, Ohio, whose modular flight training program that focuses on getting student pilots to solo is showing some impressive results–how about four solos in one week?

5. AOPA’s Flight Training Retention Initiative and the newly created Center to Advance the Pilot Community have been hard at work to tackle the problem of the shrinking pilot population. Some accomplishments to date:

  • Successful training programs were recognized during the first Flight Training Excellence Awards; you can read more about the people and flight schools that got special recognition here.
  • The Flight Training Field Guides for instructors, flight schools, and students are now available to download in .pdf format. Click here to get yours–scroll down the page to see where the field guides can be downloaded.
  • Have you noticed the series of articles on AOPA Online about successful flying clubs? Look for much more on flying clubs, including a Flying Club network that will strengthen the bonds among pilots and clubs nationwide.
  • Recognizing that we shouldn’t wait until a kid turns 16 to nurture his or her interest in learning to fly, AOPA also launched AV8TRS–a completely free membership program for youths aged 13 to 18. Go here to find out more, or sign up a youngster.

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