REFLECTOR: Dear Unbelievable
Douglas Holub
douglas.holub at gmail.com
Thu Jun 25 20:16:42 CDT 2009
I owned a Tri-Pacer 20 years ago when I was in my early 30's, and I loved flying at night. The air is smooth and calm, ATC isn't rushed and seems more relaxed, and you can see the airport beacon from 10 miles away. I started flying again last summer after an 18 year hiatus and was surprised how nervous I was about flying after dark. I don't know if I am more aware of my own mortality now, or what, but I am very aware that if the engine quits at night, I will probably die.
But I still love flying at night. Last week my wife and I flew to a party about 80 miles away and we flew home around midnight. I wasn't worried because I immediately climbed up to 6000 feet, and at that altitude was never out of gliding range of an airport with a beacon all the way home.
We plan to travel back home to Spokane this summer in the Velocity, and I was a little concerned about flying over the Rockies with a single engine plane. But after planning the route, I'm not worried. It's high plains all the way from Dallas to Great Falls, Montana, then 130 miles over inhospitable terrain to Spokane, except for the 6 long, paved airports that dot the landscape between Great Falls and Spokane. It will take about 60 minutes to fly over those mountains, but for only 15 of them will I be out of gliding range of an airport.
Doug Holub
----- Original Message -----
From: Kathy Cook
To: Velocity Aircraft Owners and Builders list
Sent: Thursday, June 25, 2009 7:29 PM
Subject: Re: REFLECTOR: Dear Unbelievable
reference the apparant interest in FLIR....my experience with thousands of hours around the world with thousands of hours at night and in true weather , I can assure all Velocity/single engine type pilots that their first concern should be far from investing in a FLIR system. In the first place, flying at night or in the weather, as a routine practice, in a single engine airplane, is inherantly an unsafe practice. Most concern should be in that senerio with keeping the single engine operating, number one, and number two, having a way to determine a safe off airport landing site in the dark. In regards to FLIR, if you do insist on using it, it should only be used as a back up to other instrument systems and then only with a headsup display. There are many variables to the above claim that in the weather and at night are unsafe. Perhaps in the plain states, an off airport landing, might be less critical, but here in the West, with the mountains, forests, rocks, etc, my position is that routine flying at night or in serious weather is unsafe. L.. Cook
--- On Thu, 6/25/09, Jack Prock <jackprock at comcast.net> wrote:
From: Jack Prock <jackprock at comcast.net>
Subject: Re: REFLECTOR: Dear Unbelievable
To: "Velocity Aircraft Owners and Builders list" <reflector at tvbf.org>
Date: Thursday, June 25, 2009, 4:17 PM
I don't know Dave Dent, but I think he was probably thinking the same thing
when the fire started. You have
to remember this was not his plane, he was doing someone a favor. I just
hope the new guy had his insurance
in order. Bill Walker did come off a bit heavy handed, and I'm sure that was
not his intent. I can assume Dave
feels bad enough without being preached to. He has probably tried to figure
out what he could have
done differently to have a different outcome.
But Bill's point is valid. Every vehicle should have an extinguisher. In my
life I've had two vehicles with fires.
The first was my Grumman Cheetah. Luckily, a guy 100 feet away in a hanger
had an extinguisher and was
able to put it out without much damage to anything. After that I went and
got small extinguishers for every
vehicle I had. A few years later, the car I was driving caught fire... I had
the small extinguisher and put it
out easily.
Buy one, Buy several. They are cheap insurance. There is nothing worse than
the feeling of helplessness
that comes over you when you are standing there watching a fire consume your
vehicle, and you have
no way to fight it.
Jack
----- Original Message -----
From: "Doug Kanczuzewski" <doug at customstudio.com>
To: "Velocity Aircraft Owners and Builders list" <reflector at tvbf.org>
Sent: Thursday, June 25, 2009 12:50 PM
Subject: Re: REFLECTOR: Dear Unbelievable
Dear "Unbelievable" ...I am one of probably many that keep to the
background but your tirade is so outlandishly vulgar that I wish you would
keep your opinions to yourself and I need to speak up otherwise too many
people like you would ruin an excellent open forum. Other pilots are openly
willing to come out and tell of their experiences and your attempt to
ridicule them does nothing but drive good people away from us mortals that
are wanting to learn and hopefully not make similar mistakes.
Doug K
-----Original Message-----
From: reflector-bounces at tvbf.org [mailto:reflector-bounces at tvbf.org] On
Behalf Of LAURA WALKER
Sent: Thursday, June 25, 2009 5:38 AM
To: reflector at tvbf.org
Subject: REFLECTOR: how hot is too hot?
Just a quick question....WAS THERE NO FIRE EXTINGUISHER OF ANY SORT IN THIS
AIRCRAFT !!!!????? If not then what in the world were you or any else
thinking about concerning safety AND JUST THIS SORT OF SITUATION when
attempting to fly an aircraft such as this?
It is a constant sorce of amazement to me reading these blogs and people's
rationalization for leaving stuff like safety door locks and fire
extinguishers off their aircraft.
This is just the thing that gives homebuilt aircraft a bad reputation and
makes the public very uneasy about our endeavors.
Unbelievable.
Bill Walker
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