A Passion for Flying...Where are Aviation Safety Ethics Today

Part 2-
Continued from 2/09/2013

The concept of mentoring and decision making was used as part of the Certified Flight Instructor’s mantra, at least with the flight instruction that I received in the 1960s. 

While my first lessons were with Mike Dewey of Dewey Aviation at the Santa Paula( KSZP) airport, and he was good…he soon became too busy. Dewey’s business was like this...flying from 7 a.m. on the weekends until dark.

As my father was getting his license I was hanging around the Dewey’s Fixed Base of Operations (FBO) during his instruction.

All the students were watching their wrist watches to see if it was their time to fly. When a plane landed and was five minutes late it backed up the schedule. My first lessons were only half-hours and this put a crimp in Dewey’s days.

Once my friend Tony, the son of Sammy Mason turned 17-years old he got his Private License and immediately started on getting his Commercial license and Certified Flight Instructor ratings.

He did both all in one day…on his 18^th birthday.

This thrilled my other airport friends Johnny, Harrison and Pete and my bother Vince as we spent our free time riding bicycles all over the airport checking each hangar to see what new was going on, or who was getting ready to go flying.

This meant that we could go flying, get instruction by renting a plane with fuel and pay our buddy now a professional pilot for our dream of learning to fly.

I mowed lawns, cleaned yards, raked leaves and pulled weeds every weekend to earn money to go flying. Once my lawns were done I hopped on my 10-speed bike and peddled down Ojai Road to the airport south of town.

Tony was professional, ethical and was a mirror of his father, dark complexion, bushy blondish eyebrows six feet tall wearing Ray-Ban aviator’s glasses. While he didn’t wear white dress shirts with epaulets, usually blue jeans, and a T-shirt with tennis shoes, his instruction style was thorough to the point and well explained.

Flying lessons with Tony were discussion before we flew, and after each lesson then he would sign his observations and pass you your logbook.

He posted progress and what we were going to do next on every entry in my logbook.

“Air work practicing power-off, power on stalls, slow flight…good recovery. Next lesson landing approach work. Anthony Mason, CFI #XXXXXX 1/29/68”

Tony had the inside scoop on everything airport at Santa Paula as not only was his father connected but his older brother was also flying almost daily.
 The Mason’s hangar was close to Dewey’s outfit and we used to all gather in the hangar and talk flying while we were challenged by Tony to questions about aeronautics.

One time we entered the Mason’s hangar and found two or three wooden crates in the back of the hangar covered with a foreign language shipped to a M. Slovak.
This piqued our curiosity and became the center of conversation...what aircraft could be in those huge wooden crates?

Growing up around this airport was like reliving the different stages of aviation from the 1920s to the apex of general aviation’s aircraft manufacturing in the 1900s. DeHavilland DH-5 mail plane, Travelair, Curtiss Robin, Monocoupe, Curtis PT-19, PT-22, Ryan STs, Aeronica Bathtub, Staggered Wing Beechcraft, Howard DGA, Stearman Biplane, Cessna T-50 “Bamboo Bomber,” AT-6, SNJ-4, Pitts Special S-1,2, Thorpe T-18, Cosmic Wind Goodyear Racer, Cassutt Racer, etc.

All these wonderful aircraft on one airport and all flown by professional pilots many who flew during the week at Van Nuys, Burbank, or Los Angeles International airports, keeping their personal aircraft at Santa Paula.
Soon we would find out what was in those boxes and what new aircraft would join our bevy of flying machines at the airport.

To be continued...Next: Our Brother in Flight Joins the Angels

A Passion for Flying...Where are Aviation Safety Ethics Today

 Teaching us to fly right!

               Sammy Mason


by Rob Stapleton

Its not hard to imagine how those of us who have been watching birds fly while growing up and admiring nature would yearn to fly ourselves.

It was not just the flapping of wings, or the circling above that first caught my eye it was the precision and exactness of a birds landing that interested me.

The glide into the area, the change in their wing's angle of attack, and then the back winging motion to set down in an exact spot.

Amazing, truly amazing, to see small and large birds land on telephone and power lines high above the streets were we were playing below.

Later I took this fascination to the local airport where I grew up.

Santa Paula, California had a family owned airport and once I could break away from my weekend chores it was a race to head to the airport. I rode my bicycle down Ojai Road as soon as the chores were done, once arriving it was pure joy to watch aircraft taxing for take off, rotating for take-off and the engine at full power climbing above.

Of course I always imagined that it was me, pushing the rudder pedals, checking the mags and then fire-walling the throttle to thrust forward and lurch into the sky.All the time adjusting the pitch for climb and soaring above my home town toward the clouds above.

This would become a passion that witnessed pilots from all over the world coming to our airport. Mira Slovak, Rex Wells, Mike Dewey, Steve McQueen, Cliff Roberts, others and then there was Sammy Mason.

Mason was a quiet man, religious balding with caterpillar bushy eyebrows, and a quick smile... a man of precision and decisive action.

He was the father of my friend, later to become my flight instructor Anthony "Tony" Mason. Named after Tony LeVier a aviation racer, and test pilot for Lockheed.

Tony's father Sammy was also a test pilot for Lockheed, and well known for his flying from his days when he led the Hollywood Hawks barnstorming group to aerial antics over California.

Has I transitioned from a nameless boy on a bike to a boy who liked to help clean aircraft and polish wind screens, conversations about aviation safety were easily heard in the hangars among aviators that used my talents.

My style was to work hard, act like I wasn't listening and then focus on what they were saying. This way they wouldn't stop, thus continuing the conversation about airspeed, engine settings, short field take offs and landings. Just the stuff any teenager would love to know, and do and do it I would.

What does any of this have to do with ethics or aviation safety you may ask? Most conversations rallied around the topic of flight safety. Be it aerobatics, racing or flying cross country it seemed that safety was the key word, and objective of these professionals.

Sometimes the rumor mill (which all airports possess) would be how one of the more experienced pilots would talk to another less experienced pilot to give him or her an idea of how close they were coming to their demise with their manner of flying.

Those of who feared and admired these pilots, and Mason was one of these were our idols.
To be continued-

Sport Pilot stalled in Alaska over bureaucracy

Check out the first in a series at www.examiner.com about the How Sport Pilot is stalled in Alaska: http://exm.nr/ckwNPb

Piper Sport in Anchorage

ANCHORAGE, AK-(Aug. 19,2010)--Land and Sea Flight School sent me the Piper Light Sport pilot's operating handbook for the LSA. I am hoping to fly it this week and will report on the aircraft with a first person pilot report after I get checked out in it.

The specs indicate that the Piper Sport will cruise at 98 knots (111 m.p.h.) and has a maximum speed of 125 knots (143 m.p.h.) and a VNE of 138 kts and has a maximum rate of climb of 1,200 feet per minute. Stall speeds of 32 knots with flaps down idle, and 39 knots with flaps up (Vs1) idle/power off.

The specs on it look pretty interesting and the performance is pretty amazing for a Rotax engine less than a 100 horsepower (98.6 hp @ 5,800 rpm).

According to the folks at Land and Sea the Piper Sport will be available to see at the Alaska State Fair at Palmer later this month.

Built by Czech Sport Aircraft the two seater despite being a low wing aircraft has some potential.

We shall see!

Back in the sky!

Anchorage, Alaska-Nov.19--Today I had the opportunity to call the local Anchorage Flight Standards District Office (FSDO) they are the regulation and enforcement arm of the Federal Aviation Administration here in Alaska.
For those of you who are not familiar with the difference between ultralights and Light Sport Aircraft as designated by the FAA you won't understand the rest of this posting. But for those of you who do read on.

I wanted to amend my airworthiness certificate beyond the Jan. 31, 2010 deadline and called to make an appointment with the FSDO to trigger a Letter of Deviation Authorization.

This came after I read a post on the Web site Trike Pilot from Paul Hamilton who quoted the Experimental Aviation Association's Sport Pilot and Government Affairs page with info about a two-step process to change the E-LSA airworthiness certificate expiration date from Jan. 31, 2010 out in to the future (see http://www.eaa.org/news/2009/2009-11-05_trainers.asp).

This would allow me to continue to use my E-LSA WSC (weight shift trike) for instruction. Although I am not instructing, due to the lack of insurance offered here in Alaska, I may in the future want to offer instruction (when I can get a Designated Pilot Examiner to give me a check ride/practical test) or I may wish to sell my Antares MA-33 R582 and purchase a newer better supported S-LSA trike.

After speaking with two inspectors at the FSDO I determined that they had no idea what I was talking about. To be honest this was what I expected, and thought that I would be their first LODA customer.

After being told that because I built the Antares that I could not qualify for the instruction rating on my operation limitations as a manufacturer my fears were realized.

They had no idea what I wanted.

So as not to lay blame here I told the inspector that I would be happy to let him research what I was opting for and that he could call the FAA 610 Branch to find out what was needed.

To his credit he did inquire further and called me back and informed me that he was working on another project and that we could get together next week to continue this process.

The moral to this post:

If you have an E-LSA with Operation Limitations that include instruction in your aircraft, be it a Powered Parachute, Weight Shift Trike, or a Tri-Axis SEL aircraft don't expect miracles yet.Be patient.

As I get more information I will pass it along to the Alaska Sport Pilot community "Blue Skies"!

Dreams of past flights...

By Rob Stapleton
Jan. 29, 2008

Birchwood, AK (BCV)-One of the greatest things about flying a weightshift trike is how low you can fly over flat terrain, or water, very low...

A few years ago in the winter I had the occasion to make one such flight just to practice flying low and slow.

The air was clear, and cold, it was a beautiful March Spring day in Southcentral Alaska and I couldn't sit at a computer editing photographs any longer, I remember it well.

The sky was calling!

My Antares MA-33 was ready, on skis, radio charged up, full of fuel. This would be a solo flight around the upper Knik Arm. I pulled on my helmet, climbed in, fastened the seat harness, and yelled "CLEAR" to start the engine.

The trike leaped into the sky off of Runway 01 on takeoff, trailing a mist of snow from the skis as I headed straight North toward the Village of Eklutna.

Once abeam of the village at 2,000 feet I made a shallow clearing turn to the right and then made a 90 degree left turn to fly direct over the upper Arm near the mouth of the Knik River.

I like crossing the ice laden river, or Knik Arm here because it is narrow and would allow a glide mid-channel to either side should the engine fail. Plus there are trails that lead to road access from this area that would allow a walk to civilization should an emergency arise.


The trike was headed for Solo Lake, where I would let down and do some ground skimming. Once over the lake only about 12 minutes into the flight I let down to about 500 feet circled the lake looking for anyone else. No one around, good.

I set up for a landing in a slight glide with power to get a closer look at the snow conditions. I had landed here before when there was no snow and it was icy. I remember it took me for ever to get a single place Tundra Trike stopped, eventually it bumped into a log frozen into the lake, and came to sudden halt.

A bit of an embarrasing moment, but no damage done. Lesson learned...don't land on wind blown lake ice with skis.

Today would be different the snow was hard packed by wind but crusty where no one else had landed. Good I want to make my own tracks.

Adding power I climbed up a 100 feet, made a left circle, headed the nose and wing into the wind, and cut the power back to idle.

Just as the main skis touched the snow, I gave the control bar a brief push to flair, and then came back bar neutral for a soft, smooth touchdown in the snow. Sliding straight ahead I came to stop.

After checking the wind, or lack of it, I gave the trike full power and took off.

Climbing up to 100 feet, I eased the power back to around 4500 RPM, made a shallow turn to the left and followed a creek to the opening, or the mouth of the Knik Arm.

Slowly letting down, 75 feet, then 50, then 30, 20, 10 feet and into ground effect I held the bar neutral, with just a little back pressure. Feeling the air in the wing I knew at this speed I could hold the same altitude and airspeed all day.

Skimming over the flat snow, glistening bright white, near the inky glacial mud, the air was still, and I was following the tracks of a wolf, keeping a keen eye ahead to look for anything in my way.

The two-cycle engine was purring, the Exhaust Gas Temperatures looked good, around 1100 F. A fine flight, smooth with a slight smell of salt water in the air.

What a rush.

Following the tracks I crossed another creek and was coming up on a bluff that was about 500 feet higher than I was flying. Full power I climbed up, up , up and circled to my left away from the bluff, let off the power and glided down to the same trail, this time at about 50 feet.

Indicating just at 60 m.p.h.-- bar neutral--I eased back on the power and continued to fly northeast following the western coastline of the Knik Arm. After crossing back over the wolf tracks I continued to fly toward the upper Knik Arm, to the river.

As I crossed the river to the Eklutna side, I gave the two cylinder engine a bit more fuel and climbed up to 500 feet just before making a right turn and crossing over slow moving ice floes coming out of the river toward the upper Cook Inlet. Once on the other side I headed south, over Eklutna and back to Birchwood.

After landing and taxing back to the northeast ramp, I thought, "Now this is what trike flying is all about, low, slow flying, and a chance to see the snow covered country at 60 m.p.h. from 50 feet--a real thrill."

Now, where's that coffee thermos full of Colombian blend?

Sport Aviation in AK...a deadlock

No insurance, no Sport Pilot!

Enthusiasm for Sport Aviation in Alaska is high, but where are all the instructors and aircraft? It might be years, before Alaska will see the affects of the sport flying boom, according to local aviation and insurance officials.

"Right now the emphasis in Alaska is on getting airworthiness certificates for Experimental Light Sport Aircraft," said FAA certified DAR John Davis.

These two place "fat ultralight" aircraft must be registered by their owners by Jan. 31, 2008, or they will be illegal to fly after Jan. 31, 2008, according to FAA regulations.

When the Sport Pilot initiative that allows a pilot's license on 20 hours of instruction using a third class medical, or a valid drivers license became effective on Sept. 1, 2004, there were several deadlines imposed.

One for pilots with previous experience, that allowed them to transition with a letter of experience from either the Experimental Aircraft Association, Aero Sports Connection, or the United States Ultralight Association, after taking the FAA Sport Pilot knowledge test and a practical flight test.

The second was a deadline imposed that after Jan. 31, 2007 pilots would need a minimum of three hours of instruction with a valid Sport Pilot Instructor before being able to take the SP Practical.

The third and most onerous is the Jan. 31, 2008 deadline that forces all two place fat ultralights to transition into Experimental Light Sport Aircraft, or they become expensive non-flyable lawn ornaments.

These former FAR Part 103 aircraft once N-numbered can now only be flown by FAA certified pilots who possess a Sport Pilot License, or have received a Proficiency flight check from a Certified Sport Pilot Instructor, or Sport Pilot student pilots who have a log book endorsement by a Sport Pilot Instructor. So make no mistake, if you see what looks like an Ultralight, and they are using an N-number to identify themselves in the the pattern, they are now Experimental Light Sport Aircraft flown by licensed pilots.

Sport Pilot numbers in Alaska are growing slowly and the two new types of aircraft, weight shift, and powered parachutes, added to the list of Light Sport Aircraft can be seen flying in Alaska's skies, but the numbers pale in comparison to places like California and Florida.

Special Light Sport, and Light Sport Aircraft, or LSA's are turn-key certified N-numbered aircraft that are a two-place, fixed pitch, or ground adjustable propeller aircraft licensed with a certified gross weight of 1,320 pounds or less, (1430 lbs. for float planes) a maximum stall speed of 51 m.p.h. (45 knots), a maximum speed of 138 m.ph. (120 knots) in level flight at maximum continuous power, using a single reciprocating engine.

The popularity of ultralights were their low price tag in the $15,000 range before Sport Pilot passed. The new SLSA, and LSA aircraft range from $40,00 to $120,000 thus requiring financing.

The requirement of hull type insurance by banks who loan money to buy LSAs, and the State of Alaska Department of Transportation and Public Facilities' Title 17 regulations that govern state owned airports are the hurdles for growth in Alaska.

"Until LSA's can be insured, bank loans will likely not be available to purchase them," said Mike Kradowski, a Soldotna based aviation insurance salesperson.

A poll of company's that sell aircraft insurance that will not insure Alaskan based Light Sport Aircraft proved the point.

AirSure in Soldotna, Avemco, AIG, Falcon, and First Flight recently all rejected applications for insurance on ELSA, Special Light Sport Aircraft , and Light Sport Aircraft.

"Everything looks good on the applications until you get to that little box that you need to check if you fly or keep your aircraft in Alaska," said Lloyd Hood a weight shift Sport Pilot from Palmer. "Once you check that box, you've disqualified yourself from even getting a quote."

Instruction on learning how to fly ELSA, SLSA, or LSAs is also stymied by the insurance issue...the State of Alaska DOT requires liability insurance to give flight instruction on their airports.

To date no U.S. based company will issue liability insurance for instruction in an ELSA, or LSA aircraft in Alaska.

Without liability insurance instruction can only be done on privately owned airports like North Pole's Bradley Sky Ranch. Currently there are two Sport Pilot instructors, and one DPE that work from that location which is thriving with sport aviation activity.

So to instruct, an FAA certified Sport Pilot Instructor is forced to fly in his own, or his student's aircraft illegally on DOT airports, or fly from a privately owned or remote airstrip.

This effectively takes Sport Pilot instruction into a rather risky zone, one that will limit the growth of Sport Pilot in Alaska until regular established flight schools embrace the movement.

But despite these challenges a local Designated Airworthiness Representative who has inspected and certified 45 ultralights into the Experimental Light Sport Aircraft category says that Sport Pilot is on a roll.

"I have done 45 inspections and have about 15-20 more to do before the deadline," said Davis. "The emphasis by this group will now shift to getting their Sport Pilot license."

The requirements for these pilots who have previous flight experience, some of whom were Basic Flight Instructors in ultralights, will force them into taking 20 hours of instruction to be eligible to legally fly their newly transitioned aircraft after the Jan. 2008 deadline.

To date in Alaska there are only four Sport Pilot Instructors, and three Sport Pilot DPE's listed in the FAA's instructor/DPE registration on the FAA website.

Instruction can only be done in a Light Sport Aircraft to be eligible for a Sport Pilot License. The FAA did allow for instruction to be done in Experimental Light Sport Aircraft, but that privilege must be listed in the aircraft's operation limitations for certification and will expire in 2010.

Rob Stapleton can be reached at: 907-230-9425, rob@alaskasportpilotcenter.net, or www.alaskasportpilotcenter.net