Monthly Archives: August 2015

Pilots – A Tough Crowd

30 Sunday Aug 2015

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Pilots

Some pilots are a little too quick to criticize their fellow aviators.

Luckily, our group isn’t that way. I was reminded of that when we flew to the Vineyard’s main airport for breakfast this morning.

It’s the time of year where some of the guys had “family stuff” to do, so we met at Taunton with 8 airplanes and headed across Buzzards Bay with 5. After about 20 minutes of flying, the tower controller did his usual great work getting us sequenced for landing between Cape Air flights and jet traffic, despite the haze.

Over omelets and home fries, somehow the subject of our conversation turned to the many foibles and escapades of one former member of the group, who apparently lost his medical and gave up flying. It was gentle ribbing, really, and several of his ground loops and unplanned adventures were related as funny stories. (I got it! I got it! … Aw shit.)

When we get started on those hangar stories, nobody is safe. But more often than not, we enjoy some self deprecation and say,  “I’ve done worse than that!”

Not all pilots are that generous. Some inexperienced aviators can’t resist critiquing someone else’s less than perfect landing, even when theirs are nothing to write home about. But somewhere around the time an airman checks out in a variety of airplanes and gets a few advanced ratings, and then starts flying tail wheels or aerobatics or seaplanes, a mind-shift may occur. After that, we’re all just doing the best we can and enjoying this great sport called flying.

Of course, there’s always an exception, and in this case it would be the old curmudgeon who taught Wilbur and Orville to fly and never caught a wingtip in the grass or busted an assigned altitude. So we all just smile and ignore those blowhards, even if they really are as great as they believe themselves to be.

I remember one bad landing a few years ago, when a friend who is a very fine pilot bounced a heavy landing in his airplane, with full fuel and six of us onboard. There happened to be a flock of charter jet crews standing around in their Ray Bans and gold stripes to witness the “arrival,” and my friend was mortified to have to walk past the professionals to get to the restaurant, with all of us still laughing.

“Are you kidding?” I suggested. “Those jet guys wish they were flying their own airplane with a few buddies, so they could get out laughing after a terrible landing, without worrying about losing their jobs!”

It’s all in your perspective.

Happy Flying!

America’s No Fly Zones

16 Sunday Aug 2015

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This is the time of year when we really appreciate flying our airplanes to the Cape and Islands.

Sadly, there hasn’t been much enthusiasm for flying in Southern New England lately, even though August has brought some great weather, with relatively calm winds and abundant sunshine. This is because President Obama is vacationing on the Vineyard … again.

From Friday August 7th, until Sunday August 23rd, a 30 mile “Temporary Flight Restriction” has been set up around the island. Any unauthorized flight in this zone will result in swift and severe action against the pilot by the United States Secret Service … again.

To be fair, it is possible to do some limited flying during the TFR. I flew my Cherokee into the outer ring to visit a friend in Falmouth yesterday, and the FAA made it easy. All I had to do was to file (but not necessarily open) a VFR flight plan, get a discrete transponder code, and stay in radio contact with Cape Approach and Departure. The controllers were friendly and helpful, but there were certainly Secret Service agents looking over their shoulders watching for one misstep, one wrong turn, one wingtip brushing the forbidden zone of the 10 mile inner ring, which would result in unleashing the hounds.

It isn’t fun flying when you know that you could loose your license for 90 or 180 days at any moment. Not to mention submitting to detention and an ardent Secret Service interrogation, where your personal political views may be considered “motive” for disrupting the chief executive’s serenity.

Of course, 9-11 is the reason why presidential vacations cost the taxpayers millions (billions?) of dollars in travel costs and security. The exact dollar amount is “classified” and obscured in dozens of bureaucratic accounting streams, but an island boondoggle certainly adds more to the national debt than a few weeks at Camp David.

So if you want to take off from an obscure grass airstrip around here (there are many) in your J-3 Cub or Ultralight, forget about it. If you run a flight school or a skydiving operation, suck it up. And if you make it to Edgartown or Vineyard Haven only to discover that blocks of streets are barricaded and shut down because the Pres went into town for an ice cream cone, take heart: He will soon be back among his billionaire buddies, golfing and brainstorming for new ways to make life better for the hard working middle class.

Okay, that was a cheap shot.

But what does it say about America when our leader may take such extraordinary measures to seal off and claim one of the most beautiful and desirable locales in the nation as his private and exclusive domain … again?

Phantoms I Have Known

04 Tuesday Aug 2015

Posted by in D. S. Cooper Books, This Writer's Life

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Old Cadet Cover

Like my character Kevin O’Connor, I have known phantoms.

They often come in the night, bringing tingling sensations to my right leg, which was amputated above the knee three years ago. These visits by a limb which no longer exists in the physical world are not always unpleasant. Sometimes the illusion that my leg has returned is so convincing that I must reach down and touch the end of my stump to prove to my senses that there is nothing there. On occasion, there is searing pain, like a prolonged electric shock, which causes muscles that are no longer alive to brutally convulse. And while these most severe bouts of phantom pain are infrequent, I have learned that resistance is futile. I just get up and read and watch TV and listen to music through the night. By morning, the phantoms will have left me.

Civil War physician and writer Silas Weir Mitchell (1829-1914) gave a nod to the ghostly nature of the phenomena when he coined the term phantom limb, writing that “thousands of spirit limbs were haunting as many good soldiers, every now and then tormenting them.”

So when I decided to put a supernatural twist on my novel about the kidnapping of a boy from a military prep school in Pennsylvania, at least one of the characters — Kevin O’Connor — had to know the same phantoms which I have known.

Out of Paper

02 Sunday Aug 2015

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Pitts

Pilots don’t like to run out of altitude, runway, fuel … or paper.

By paper I mean the aircraft’s registration, annual inspection, transponder certification or any of the other paperwork that is required for flight. And I was unable to fly my own airplane to breakfast again this week — even though my magneto was fixed — because I didn’t have a required piece of paper; my medical certificate had expired!

It was my own fault for waiting too long to make an appointment with my FAA Medical Examiner. I probably could have seen another examiner before the end of July, when my two years was up, but I’d rather hold off a day or two to see the same FAA doc who has been familiar with me and my medical history for many years.

So I hopped in with Robbie for a flight to the Vineyard, which is something we won’t be able to do for most of August, since President Obama will be vacationing on the island for a few weeks. It was a beautiful calm morning for flying, and breakfast at the main airport was just fine.

“You guys look like you’re out on parole.”

Celebrity sightings are common on the Vineyard, and usually we just smile and go on our way. But actor/comedian Bill Murray, who does not do many Hollywood interviews, is notoriously friendly in real life. So when our gang literally ran into him with his own group of friends at the gate to the flight line, Mike said hello and Bill obliged our motley crew with some banter and the quip about us being out on parole. Which was reasonably astute, since we are a bunch of working guys who do look a bit scruffy for our breakfast flights.

Third Class Medical Reform

Speaking of medical certificates, the Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association (AOPA) is wrangling with congress right now to do away with the FAA’s  inefficient and cumbersome medical requirements for private pilots. They would like to move to a self-reporting system for medical issues, similar to the state drivers’ license system or the relaxed medical standards for light-sport pilots, which have been working well in smaller airplanes for many years. I’m all for that! So I was a bit miffed when I learned that the Air Line Pilots Association (ALPA) is one of the staunchest opponents to the reform legislation.

However, upon reflection, I can see airline guys’ side of the issue, since the total elimination of the third class medical requirement might allow some pilots to fly beyond their physical limitations at airliner altitudes, such as a person with a history of heart trouble or sleep apnea choosing to fly at 17,500 feet in an unpressurized aircraft. Supplemental oxygen would be required at that height, usually delivered via a nasal cannula. Especially a night, that could lead to big trouble. And there are other scary scenarios.

So I really don’t know. I believe that my fitness to fly family and friends low and slow in my little Cherokee is between me and my personal physician. I wish that the FAA would allow private pilots of single engine four seat airplanes to self-report medical issues and remedies. But who knows if the other guy would push the limits too far?