Membership News & Notes

Las Vegas produces a winner

Allegiant Airlines instructor is taking home the Sweepstakes 172

By Jill Tallman

When Gary Walters entered the FBO at Henderson Executive Airport in Nevada, he thought he was meeting a potential real estate client. Instead, Walters found out he is the winner of the 2017 AOPA 172 Sweepstakes.

“No way! Come on! You gotta be kidding me!” Walters exclaimed as AOPA President Mark Baker related the news.

Walters, a line and instructor pilot for Allegiant Airlines, came to the FBO to meet Greg and Suzanne Herrick. Longtime friends of AOPA and Baker, the Herricks arrived at Henderson pretending to be prospective home buyers. Walters and his wife, Sandra, operate a part-time real estate business. Instead, the Herricks led Walters to Baker, who happened to be hanging out in the FBO with AOPA’s video crew.

“Have you ever won an airplane before?” Baker asked.

“No! How’d I do that?” Walters said.

Because the 172 is in Oshkosh awaiting the start of AirVenture 2017, Baker and AOPA Senior Vice President of Media, Communications, and Outreach Tom Haines presented Walters with a set of keys and photos of the airplane that will soon be his.

“Wow, thank you so much! It’s absolutely fantastic,” Walter said. “That is beautiful. I’m speechless.” Walters put Sandra on the speaker phone to share the news with her.

Walters estimated it’s been about 25 years since he last flew a Cessna 172. “I think I still have an old headset up in the attic,” he said. But he won’t have to dig out that old headset because Bose Aviation has provided two sets of A20s for the winner of the Sweepstakes 172. And a local flight instructor who happened to be in the FBO offered Walters a business card if he should need some help getting current in something a little smaller than an MD–80.

Walters learned to fly in Burbank, California. He said he’s looking forward to taking the Sweepstakes 172 on a trip to visit family in Southern California.

“We’re going to do some flying,” he said.

The AOPA Sweepstakes 172 was launched in 2016 with the acquisition of a 1978 172N. The sweepstakes closed May 31, 2017. An independent accounting firm tallied the entries and chose the winner.

All the bells and whistles: NonTSOed equipment enhances Sweeps 172

Walters’ red-and-silver-gray Cessna 172 comes to him updated well beyond a typical restoration. The airplane features a modernized panel with new avionics, including two Garmin G5 electronic flight instruments and a Trio Avionics Pro Pilot autopilot. AOPA has been a driving force behind encouraging the FAA to permit nonTSOed safety equipment into the cockpits of legacy aircraft. The nonTSOed G5 and Trio autopilot provide a great deal of information, spatial awareness, and safety innovation for the certified Cessna 172.

Giving through flying is priceless

Get involved—become a volunteer pilot

By Machteld Smith

You love to fly, and perhaps you like the idea of using your passion to help others. But where do you begin and what skills are required of volunteer pilots?

The AOPA Air Safety Institute’s Public Benefit Flying: Balancing Safety and Compassion online course (www.airsafetyinstitute.org/courses/publicbenefit) helps answer these questions. It also prepares you to elevate your flying to a new, rewarding experience. The course, which was recently updated and optimized for tablet viewing, profiles real-world public benefit flight scenarios that allow you to practice decision-making skills for safe choices on every flight.

Joining one of the more than 60 public benefit flight organizations is one of the best ways pilots can hone their skills, and grow as a person and pilot. But volunteer flying demands an extra level of commitment and professionalism, like that of commercial flight crews who take care to keep their passengers safe.

Learn how to mitigate pressures and recognize treacherous mindsets that could cause harm. Become an expert at managing risk. You’ll be rewarded with the knowledge that your passengers’ safety and comfort are well cared for.

The course was produced with the generous support of the Air Care Alliance and affiliated volunteer pilot groups.

Machteld Smith is an aviation technical writer for the AOPA Air Safety Institute.

Scud running is never a good option

How does a four-hour cross-country flight turn into a 30-hour survival crisis? Ask Brian Brown. A noninstrument-rated 300-hour private pilot, he checked the weather for the flight from Lodi, California, to Mountain Home, Idaho, but on departure adverse weather moved into the route crossing the Idaho mountains. Brown was confident it would clear. That confidence became wishful thinking when his Cessna 172 was only 25 miles from its destination. In Real Pilot Story: From Miscue to Rescue, Brown reflects how a series of delays, poor decisions, and lack of preparation almost cost him and his family their lives. Brown discusses the importance of matching expectations with experience and skill levels, not pressing on in adverse conditions, and being prepared with a Plan B and using it. Watch the video and consider what you would do in a similar scenario.

Products and Services

Tips from PIC

Customizing your flight review

By Tom Zecha

When it comes to the flight review, currency does not mean proficiency. FAR 61.56 states the regulatory requirements for pilots to continue exercising the privileges of their certificate as pilot in command. These requirements are only the bare minimum that must be included in a flight review.

Sitting down with your instructor and reviewing Part 91 regulations for an hour, and then going out and flying the same routine maneuvers that you always fly, will satisfy that requirement. But, for a flight review to be effective, a good instructor will design the instruction to truly help you learn something.

That process begins with an honest discussion between pilot and instructor to gauge how much and what kind of flying the pilot does. A flight review is designed differently for a pilot who flies locally and has 20 hours since his last flight review, than for a pilot who flies to distant destinations and has a few hundred hours since his last flight review.

While there’s usually just a little tune-up needed on the stick-and-rudder skills, decision-making skills that tend to get pilots into life-threatening situations often need extra attention. The best flight reviews incorporate realistic scenario-based training situations that lead to improved decision-making skills. These are the tools needed to keep pilots flying safely.

An effective flight review is one that will leave the pilot feeling a true sense of accomplishment from a valuable learning experience. And done right, it should be fun, too!

Tom Zecha is the manager of the AOPA Pilot Information Center.

Mental health and aviation safety

By Gary Crump

Depression is sometimes insidious in the way it presents, which is why others often pick up signs and symptoms before the depressed person does. A diagnosis of depression is not the end of one’s flying. There are few circumstances involving a diagnosis of depression that would result in denial of medical certification.

That said, if you are diagnosed with depression, and even if you’re not placed on medication, you shouldn’t fly until you have a good understanding of the issues. Discuss your flying with the treating physician or psychologist and heed the advice as to the proper time to resume flying. We all operate under FAR 61.53 when we fly, and that means we self-assess that we are medically fit to fly.

The FAA policy allows four different medications called selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs). Serotonin is a neurotransmitter and helps relay messages from one area of the brain to another. It is believed to affect a variety of psychological and other body functions. If you are placed on a SSRI short-term for a “situational depression” such as death of a loved one, loss of job, divorce, or other life stressors—and the medicine is taken for no more than about six months, then discontinued—the FAA could consider your case after you have been off the medication for at least 60 days, and have no recurrence of symptoms that would require you go back on the medication.

If you were diagnosed with depression, and treated with counseling therapy but not antidepressant medication, you will need to provide information for FAA review. For a serious depression history that requires long-term medication therapy, the FAA will ask for a detailed evaluation from a psychiatrist or psychologist who is familiar with FAA certification policies.

Gary Crump is director of medical certification for AOPA Pilot Protection Services (www.aopa.org/pps).

Ask Jim

BasicMed insurance carriers

Q: How are insurance carriers reacting to BasicMed?

A: Nearly every one of AOPA’s core carriers will accept BasicMed in place of a third class medical certificate. A couple of carriers are taking a wait-and-see approach, and medicals may still be required for those requesting high liability limits or transitioning into high-performance or pressurized aircraft, but for the vast majority of pilots BasicMed will be accepted by insurance companies.

What about rates? Rates generally boil down to two points: losses experienced by companies insuring certain categories of pilots or aircraft, and competition. Carriers must justify why one aircraft costs more than another, if all things are equal (seats, horsepower, availability of parts) and carriers determine that through analyzing historical losses. If aircraft X, for whatever reason, results in higher losses than Y, rates will be adjusted accordingly. The competition part is easy—the more competition, the higher the pressure on rates.

Carriers tell us that rates will not increase because of BasicMed. However, if additional losses start to occur, rates will adjust accordingly. No one foresees that happening. It didn’t occur with the Light Sport market, and that’s been around for more than a decade.

Have questions? Email [email protected]

Pilot Protection Services

Legally speaking

Flying under BasicMed: Can you be a safety pilot?

By Jared Allen

“Can I fly under BasicMed and act as a safety pilot?” The answer is—well, it depends. A pilot is only a safety pilot during simulated instrument flight under FAR 91.109(c). This rule states in part that no person can operate an aircraft in simulated instrument flight unless “the other control seat is occupied by a safety pilot who possesses at least a private pilot certificate with category and class ratings appropriate to the aircraft being flown.”

With limited exceptions, the safety pilot must have adequate vision forward and to each side of the aircraft, which is equipped with fully functioning dual controls.

Consider this flight in simulated instrument conditions: Pilot A is under the hood and is acting as pilot in command, and Pilot B is acting as safety pilot in the other seat. Pilot B’s presence is required under FAR 91.109(c) for the portion of the flight that Pilot A is in simulated instrument flight, so Pilot B is then referred to under the regulations as a “required pilot flight crewmember.”

Under federal law, BasicMed only applies to a pilot acting as PIC and does not apply to required pilot flight crewmembers, such as the safety pilot in the example. When acting as a required pilot flight crewmember, FAR 61.3(c) requires the safety pilot to have a valid and appropriate medical certificate.

A pilot qualified under BasicMed who wants to act as a safety pilot under FAR 91.109(c) without a medical certificate can do so by acting as PIC when performing the duties of safety pilot. This does require the BasicMed pilot to meet all currency and qualification requirements to act as PIC and accept being directly responsible for, and the final authority as to, the operation of the aircraft while acting as PIC.

Even though the pilot under the hood cannot simultaneously act as PIC, the simulated instrument flight still satisfies that pilot’s recent flight experience requirements for a PIC under FAR 61.57. The regulation does not require the pilot under the hood to be acting as PIC while he or she performed the required tasks during the simulated instrument flight.

Note that whenever a BasicMed pilot acts as PIC, the entire flight from takeoff to full-stop landing must be conducted within the flight condition limitations of BasicMed. The FAA states that this limitation applies even if another qualified pilot holding a medical certificate is also present and able to act as PIC. Be sure to confirm that the aircraft limitations do not restrict the PIC to the left seat, and that anyone acting as PIC meets all applicable insurance requirements.

Jared Allen is an in-house attorney with AOPA’s Legal Services Plan.

Notice of annual meeting of members

The annual meeting of the members of the Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association will be held at 9 a.m. on Thursday, September 7, 2017, at the headquarters of AOPA, 421 Aviation Way, Frederick, Maryland, 21701, located on the Frederick Municipal Airport (FDK), for the purpose of receiving reports and transacting such other business as may properly come before the meeting, specifically including the election of trustees. If you are not able to attend, but would like to appoint your voting proxy, please go online (www.aopa.org/myaccount) or call 800-872-2672. —Kenneth M. Mead, Secretary