Recent content by Witmo

Plenty of important things to worry about, this is not one of them.

There were significant changes made throughout the time 150s were manufactured while few changes were made by the time the 152 came out. What year-model 150 is yours? I owned a 150 '76 M for a good number of years. The M model was manufactured for three years, 75-77 before the 152 came out in...

Aerobats were available in both 150 and 152 models. I fly a 1973 A-150L with an O-360 (STC) and tow gliders with it.

Cessna vented caps are normally closed. They only pop open if a vacuum forms in the tank due to a stopped up main vent.

The tower controller's primary responsibility is sequencing aircraft not separation. If there had been a midair, the responsibility for the accident would be shared by both the Cirrus and Diamond pilots with the Diamond pilot getting the lion's share of blame. The tower controller would be...

When you accept a visual approach while Ifr, you either land if cleared to land or execute the missed approach. The controller asked whether the Cirrus wanted to go missed approach, ie. stay IFR, or remain visual (cancel IFR and remain in the pattern). I don't know of any instance where you...

A call that is often neglected is acknowledging that you have the aircraft in front of you in sight. Can't tell you how many times aircraft take off behind me while I'm towing a glider and fail to say they have tow and glider in sight. Makes me very uncomfortable doing a pattern tow, turning...

This may only be semantics but here goes. Lift is lift and it is a force generally perpendicular to the surface of the wing. Lift can have either a horizontal component or a vertical component or some combination of the two depending on bank angle. In other terms, lift is a vector sum of the...

Maybe if we only did straight-ins there would be no base to final accidents. :)

I knew it was only a matter of time before O Clubs were done when the military police stopped every car leaving the O Club parking lot on the night of the Wing Christmas party for breathalyzer tests. No warning or announcement to expect this. Merry Christmas! I stopped by Randolph AFB the...

A limit is a limit. Everyone can argue numbers. Overall, basic med has been great. I doubt the third class will ever go away because a private pilot with a third class could theoretically fly just about anything given enough money and a type rating if required. I really don't want some guy who...

You're correct; I was thinking 2 years to mission ready. The rating takes about one year of full time training.

And you just aren't getting the point. No one argues that spin training, learning commercial maneuvers or aerobatic training is a bad thing. The military takes two years for someone to earn a pilot rating. That's two years of intense, full time, flying, simming, and academics. What's that...

If you're flush with money, far be it from me to tell you not to spend it. Heck, might as well tell your instructor you want to learn chandelles, lazy eights, and every other commercial maneuver. They'll make you a better pilot. You'll end up with 150 hours of dual and broke with no Private...

I've been to both Pcola and WrightPat but it's been years since. My thoughts are the Air Force has a more extensive collection but the Navy presents their collection much better. You learn a lot more about Naval Aviation at their museum because it has context than you learn about USAF aviation...