Suggested Banner: Log It Or Not?
“How do those little airplanes run in the heat?” is a common
comment posed in casual conversation. “Well”, says I, “They start easy, but we
try to get upstairs quickly, where it’s cooler.” It’s usually pretty
comfortable at altitudes of 4000 feet or more, given the standard temperate
lapse rate of 3.5 degrees F. per 1000 feet. Engine temperatures (oil temp and
cylinder heat temps) have to be monitored, because air-cooled engines require a
constant flow of air to dissipate heat.
Traffic was sparse in the afternoons last week, because most
flyers took a siesta after lunch. A nice Cirrus SR22 came over from St. Louis,
a Piper Archer flew down from Kansas City Downtown, and a Cessna Skybawk
dropped in. Locally, the BCS AirTractor sprayplane made some fungicide runs,
Jay McClintock’s Piper Tomahawk was out and Randy Miller put some time on the
club Skyhawk.
A few words of explanation about pilot logbooks might be in order.
First, a freeloader looking for a ride might say “Don’t you have to log so much
flying time anyway?” No, there’s no
specific amount of proficiency practice required; legally, I can stay on the
ground for a year, go out and fire up my plane, and fly away if I want. Not smart,
but legal. The only restriction is that I can’t take a passenger along until
I’ve done at least three landings.
Which bring us to the requirement to log flying time. If case an
inspector might check, we should record the requisite three takeoffs and
landings every 90 days, and our logbook needs to show an instructor’s
attestation of a Flight Review within the past 24 months. Otherwise, no one
cares if we write down the specifics of each flight or not. Insurance companies
often want a testimony of how much you flew last year when applying for
coverage. When building experience, of course, we’ll carefully document every
minute of flying time.
We can’t hide anything we’ve done in the air, in these days of
Automatic Surveillance Broadcast equipment recording our every move. A Southwest
Airlines 737 slipped down to 500 feet during approach to Oak City last week, a
little earlier than it should have, and the hall-monitor software flashed a
warning for ATC to call out to the pilots. Wouldn’t be surprised if Southwest
imposes a requirement to fly a coupled instrument approach, even clear weather,
instead of hustling in on a visual arrival.
Our last-week’s question wanted to know which Air Force bomber had
the most engines, the B-36 or B-52. Well, the old Buff (B-52) always had eight
engines, but the earlier B-36 Peacemaker had six pusher-propeller radial
engines, upgraded in the H-model with two extra jet engines on each wingtip,
for a total of ten. “Six a-tuirnin’, four a-burnin'" the B-36 flight engineer used to say. For next week, tell us who claimed to have
the most total flying time logged. You can send your answers to
[email protected].