In Flight USA Article Categories
In Flight USA Articles
Crash Landing at Kimbolton, England – 1944 After a Bombing Raid Over Germany – in His Own Words
By Barbara Title
Byrd “Bert” Ryland in uniform. (Courtesy Barbara Title)“Our target that day was Hanover, Germany. Right after the bombs, we received three close hits that not only knocked out number four engine and caught number three engine on fire but also injured my co-pilot in the right leg, and my bombardier was also wounded in the upper leg. We went from 27,000 feet to approximately 5,000 feet in a spin. As we got it under control at 5,000 feet, the fire went out on number three, and we were able to feather it. By throwing out most of our equipment, we were able to maintain altitude across the North Sea. The crew took care of the wounded, and the co-pilot stayed in his seat to help me control the aircraft.
When the crew inspected the aircraft prior to trying to land my ball turret, gunner told me that the left main gear was partially hanging down and was holding on by hydraulic lines only. I couldn’t get any indication of gear condition, so the engineer tried to crank it down. It still didn’t come down, and I elected to land it in that condition, as I couldn’t have gone around after an approach and sure as hell didn’t want to bail out when I might have been able to save it. I made a good landing as far as it goes until I lost control of speed.
Journey to Recovery
By Senior Airman Kyle Johnson, Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson Public Affairs
(This feature is part of the “Through Airmen’s Eyes” series. These stories focus on individual Airmen, highlighting their Air Force story).
Senior Master Sgt. Janet Lemmons, the 176th Force Support Squadron sustainment and services superintendent, holds up a note her son Tommy wrote to her and his stepfather, Tom, when he was younger. She found the note among a pile of old receipts when she was looking to trade in some diamond earrings after his death. Lemmons tells everyone the note is a thousand times better than diamonds and she keeps it at her desk. (U.S. Air Force photo/Senior Airman Kyle Johnson)Then-Tech. Sgt. Janet Lemmons realized she couldn’t breathe in the hospital room. It was as if there wasn’t enough space for her family’s grief and the air collectively. She had to get out.
Lemmons stepped into the elevator that would take her someplace where she could breathe, but the cold steel walls provided no comfort as they sealed her in. She took several deep breaths as the elevator descended. The doors opened on friends and family, and they all knew exactly what had happened as soon as they saw her.
Her oldest son, Tommy, was dead.
Lemmons stepped out into a surreal world where nothing was as it should be and didn’t feel like it ever would be.
“How am I going to laugh again?” said Lemmons, now a senior master sergeant and the sustainment services superintendent for the 176th Force Support Squadron. “What is life going to be like? How am I going to eat again? How is anything ever going to be enjoyable again?”
A Look Back at Wonder Woman's Iconic Invisible Plane at 75 Years Old
By Mark Rhodes
Wonder Woman, AKA Princess Diana of Paradise Island, created by William Moulton Marston, is without a doubt the most famous and influential female superhero in comics history. The past year 2016 saw her celebrate her 75th anniversary, and 2017 will see her come to cinematic life in a live-action feature starring Gail Gadot set during World War I. Wonder Woman’s iconic status today overshadows in some ways her origins, which were connected to early feminist thought that foreshadowed the women’s movement of the mid to late 20th century.
So it was with Wonder Woman’s Invisible Plane. The Invisible Plane made its first appearance in Sensation Comics # 1 in 1942. This creation was the handiwork of Princess Diana as a youth on Paradise Island. The idea being that the Plane could fly undetected at high speeds without necessarily having to engage in combat unless absolutely necessary (a theme of the early Wonder Woman stories set during World War II was the collateral damage of male-oriented military conflict). Of course this notion foreshadowed late 20th to early 21st century stealth aircraft.
Besides being invisible, the plane could travel at more than 2,000 mph and was able to be activated and summoned by Wonder Woman’s tiara where she would board it or exit it from a rope ladder. As Wonder Woman’s narrative advanced in the comics, the plane evolved into an ever more sophisticated mode of transportation, being able to fly into space with minimal effort. Reflecting advancements in aviation in general, the plane evolved into a jet in the 1950s.
MODAERO Festival
Gilroy Garlic Art Contest
Bruce's Custom Covers
ACI Airport Economics & Finance Conference
Aircraft Spruce Sponsors Northwest Aviation Conference
Editorial: New Third Class Medical Provisions
By Ed Downs
It is now official, as of May 1, 2017, the FAR’s will contain provisions that allow an individual to exercise the privileges of a private pilot without the need for a third class medical certificate. But, let me quickly add, there are a number of conditions and caveats in the new rule. Those looking for specific details must review the “Final Rule,” www.faa.gov/news/updates/media/final_rule_faa_2016_9157.pdf, and Advisory Circular 68-1, www.faa.gov/documentLibrary/media/Advisory Circular/AC_68-1.pdf. These two fun-filled documents total 112 pages of legal language that needs to be read several times in order to get a full grasp on what is going on.
It had been the intent of this writer to summarize this final ruling, but space will simply not allow this. Instead, allow the opinions of this writer to set the stage and then take a look at the FAQ’s that are included directly from Advisory Circular 68-1. This is probably the fastest way to get some idea of what this ruling entails.
Lone Star Flight Museum Hall of Fame
Business Aircraft Productivity Calculator
Ford Tri Motor Sacramento Executive
Oklahoma Students Speak to Astronaut
Wichita, The Air Capital!
By Carl Chance, Editor, WingsOverKansas.com
It is worthy to affirm Wichita’s Unique position among the aviation industry, where nowhere else you will find the concentration of top-name general aviation aircraft manufacturers co-located within such a concentrated geographic boundary. What the city of Detroit had become to the automobile in the last century, and Silicon Valley had become to the computer-chip, so too has Wichita, Kans. become the nations and the world’s hot spot for aircraft development and manufacturing!
A Legacy
This incredible business journey has seen the Kansas aviation industry get its fledgling start during the late 1800s when the imaginative but unworkable concepts were envisioned by thinkers and dreamers and converted into reality as test aircraft by mechanics, craftsmen, and blacksmiths. It has seen Kansas become the proving grounds for such industry icons as Walter and Olive Ann Beech, Clyde Cessna, Matty Laird, Lloyd Stearman, and Bill Lear, just to name a few. Through the “Golden Age” of Barnstorming and Airracing, the Kansas Aviation connection has always been at the forefront with such names as Amelia Earhart, Art Goebel, Frank Hawks, Benny Howard, and Blanche Noyes. Kansas has also played a significant role as a key component in the “arsenal of democracy,” with su ch intrepid manufacturers as Boeing (Wichita) and North American Aviation (Kansas City, Kans.) building medium and heavy bombers in the heartland. This amazing legacy is sustained even to this day as new names emerge to carry on the tradition of development that set the world standard for excellence in recreational, business, and military aviation.
Loss of Control (LOC) needs to be Re-Examined
By Quest Richlife
Mark Twain was a stickler when it came to using the right word in the right spot for the right effect. I feel the same way about the prevalent misuse of the phrase “Loss of Control” (LOC) within the aviation community, and it should be addressed.
LOC is an inaccurate nametag for basic pilot error. This pilot error continues to be the cause of a high percentage of aircraft accidents, which occur even while there is a fully functioning human at the controls. Because of the fact that the FAA, NTSB, and others continue to use the term LOC, everyone down the line uses it too. And they do so without questioning its efficacy. But it’s not an accurate descriptor, which will help lead us to solutions for reducing accidents and fatalities in GA. To better attack this problem, we need a phrase, which tells a more complete story of what’s going on in these scenarios.
You see, pilots do more than just control the aircraft they’re flying. Yes, there are control surfaces, control systems, control cables and rods, control inputs, control pressures, and even “the controls” such as the yoke, stick and rudder pedals. But the term we should be using for the operation of those controls by the pilot is: command. That’s because from the very moment that any aircraft moves for the purpose of flight until that aircraft comes to a complete stop again, every fraction of an inch of the movement of that aircraft is COMMANDED by the pilot. If this isn’t true, then who or what IS commanding that aircraft? Is the airplane, helicopter, glider, etc. commanding itself? Do today’s aircraft really have the ability to command themselves? I’ve heard it said with tongue-in-cheek that there’s such a thing as “airplane in command” when a pilot wasn’t doing a very good job of piloting. And if it weren’t for the fact that this quip gets a chuckle from us, it could be sobering as a deadly true statement regarding ineffective piloting technique.
Opinion on Loss of Control
By Ed Downs in Response to Quest Richlife
As the primary editorial contributor to In Flight USA, an active CFI, former Exec with a major airline and seminar instructor who works with more than 300 students per year, I applaud the thoughts offered up by Quest Richlife. The fact is, this writer agrees with virtually everything Quest said, with one exception that will be address, but fears the opinions offered are tilting at the wrong windmill. I believe many in the real world of pilot training agree with the “command” concept, but the FAA does not… and the FAA is a pretty big windmill.
Flight Instructor Refresher Clinics (FIRCs) are required to present FAA-approved courses, with content carefully supervised by the FAA. Failure to use FAA safety terminology as taught in the official FAA thinking process called “Aeronautical Decision Making” (ADM) can result in de-certification of a training course. Virtually all FAA published training manuals now carry large chapters on ADM. As new technology, fully auto integrated, aircraft came into common use almost 15 years ago, the FAA concluded that basic flying skills would no longer be needed, but a process of thinking and behavior would be stressed to manage these new aircraft. And here is where Quest and this writer are forced to part way, if only by a little.
Pressurized Skyhawk?
By Eric McCarthy
There we were, climbing out of Paso Robles (KPRB) in my friend’s Cessna 172, joining our course line to the Fellows VOR (FLW). We had completed our photo mission in the Central Valley, refueled the plane at Los Banos (KLSN) and ourselves at Paso, and now it was time to head home. We contacted Oakland Center to request VFR Flight Following for the 233nm, two-hour flight back to Palomar (KCRQ).
Our course would take us over the mountain range just north of Santa Barbara on Victor 485, to OHIGH intersection where we turn east to enter the LA basin. On a calm, clear day, you can get over the coastal range safely at about 7,500’ although I usually prefer to carry extra altitude and make the crossing at 9,500’, both to escape the orographic turbulence and to provide greater glide range in case anything goes awry–those mountains are pretty rugged and unforgiving.
Passing Fellows it became clear that 9,500’ was not going to be enough to get over the cloud layer that had developed along the coast and the mountains ahead. They began as widely scattered fair-weather cotton balls and progressed to thick cumulous billows as we got closer to the mountains. Ok, up we go! Rich broke out the oxygen cannulas as we climbed through 10,000’.
The Sanders Legacy
Tuskegee Airman Reflects on Time in Service
By Staff Sgt. Regina Edwards, 19th Airlift Wing Public Affairs
(This feature is part of the “Through Airmen’s Eyes” series. These stories focus on individual Airmen, highlighting their Air Force story.)
Tuskegee aircrew was one of his best memories. (U.S. Air Force illustration/Staff. Sgt. Regina Edwards)“I’ve come a long way from picking cotton in the fields with my grandfather,” said retired Master Sgt. Leroy Mazell Smith, who has lived a life few could probably imagine.
He was born on an Arkansas bridge during the Great Mississippi Flood of 1927; son of a logger and farmer, Smith grew up in Pine Bluff, Ark. His mother, who cared for him and his two siblings, left school at the age of 13.
He credits his upbringing to his grandfather whom Smith picked cotton with. He said his grandfather taught him the value of hard work and perseverance.
Smith graduated from high school in Fordyce, Ark., at the age of 16. While there, he attended preflight aeronautical classes, changing the course of his future.
News from the CAF Nevada Wing
By Joe Gonzalez
The Stinson AT-19 in WWII. (Courtesy of Joe Gonzalez)In an airplane hangar north of Las Vegas, a rare Stinson AT-19 Reliant has been undergoing restoration by the Nevada Wing, one of the smallest units in the Commemorative Air Force (CAF). After 11 years of painstaking work, the Nevada Wings is now on the threshold of returning this aircraft back to the skies where it belongs–but we need your help. With donations totaling just $15,000, this airplane can be back in flying condition–and back to honoring the men and women who built, flew, and maintained this aircraft in World War II. Will you help make this possible by making a gift today?