Reader Mail

Skip Flight Planning Mr. Stephans:I am writing in regards to your article Skip Flight Planning, (Flying the System, May 19). I agree with you! I am a retired Army aviator with 26 years of service. I was an Instrument Flight Examiner for most of those years as well as an Instructor Pilot.Planning a cross-country instrument […]

Ethanol In Autogas After reading the article in today’s AVweb about ethanol in auto fuel in Idaho (AVwebFlash, May 4), I want to tell you that almost the same situation exists in Kansas. In my hometown of Hutchinson, the only place in town where I can get auto fuel without any ethanol is at one […]

MOAs This [MOA] controversy is stirring up the controllers.While using VFR flight-following on a clear day on my 14-hour Sun ‘n Fun trip home from Florida to New Hampshire, I was about to enter an MOA in South Carolina when the controller indicated it was now hot (no warning, no schedule — he had just […]

Synthetic Vision In last week’s AVmail, Phil Seizinger wrote, “I’m concerned about SV creating a possible situation where VFR pilots will scud-run in marginal or IFR conditions simply because now they can see the terrain, which — as you can imagine — creates a hazard for IFR flights.” Excuse me … Isn’t synthetic vision a […]

Fenway Flyby AVweb wrote (On the Fly, Apr. 14), “A blown flypast by National Guard F-16s at Fenway Park in Boston has resulted in the grounding of the out-of-position pilot. The maneuver he chose to remedy his error busted an altitude limit, but having video of the maneuver distributed on YouTube likely added to the […]

F-16 Intercept in the MOA In listening to the two podcasts, it appears that the initiating factor for both the Pilatus and the bizjet were TCAS alerts (Podcasts, Mar. 31 and Apr. 4). For us “flibber” drivers, who do not have TCAS, we’d never have known there was anything going on until the F-16 appeared […]

Fuel Economy and You Sorry, but I was one of your “None of the above” respondents (Question of the Week, Mar. 27). Another option could have been to “Fly at reduced power settings.” I now fly more hours but use less fuel.How come? Well, prior to the fuel-price hikes, I would cruise my 1986 Partenavia […]

Unexpected Aerial Tour of India Well, it was a nice story (AVwebFlash, Mar. 26). But actually it is not true.As a former air traffic controller, I couldn’t believe it. So I contacted KLM. And they told me that the crew was aware of the new airport. But when they arrived the weather conditions were below […]

Ric Peri Gets Real About ADS-B Mr. Peri made some interesting comments (Podcast, Mar. 12).I heard him say that he is solidly behind the technology and compares it to the introduction of VOR technology. I also heard him say that the ADS-B technology has had a great impact on the Alaskan aviation community. Perhaps this […]

Southwest Airlines Just read your blurb regarding Boeing defending Southwest Airlines (AVwebFlash, Mar. 7). What you did not mention — and I believe you should have — is that the FAA approved of the action taken by Southwest Airlines after the airline self-disclosed the problem. The action to defer the inspection for 10 days was […]