PropBlast

Let met get this out first, lest anyone get the idea that I'm nothing but a "fan-boy" for Steven Force's work, that I've been listening to Old Time Radio drama programs since I was a child. I was so into it a few years back that I ran a very successful OTR website so I can honestly tell you, I know from good audio!

That being said, I was seriously moved by a segment of the Airspeed Online podcast that I listened to recently. However, I'm one who can easily "willingly suspend disbelief" and, as a result, find myself getting wrapped up in the emotions of a movie or an audio drama. Lori calls me a sap for this reason so I figured I'd try this piece out on her. She's a pretty tough nut to crack but even she admitted to getting "choked up" listening to Fingers in the Airport Fence Entwined. I was pretty proud of her that she got most of the aviation references; she only had a hard time visualizing the various airplane types mentioned.

All in, this is a fantastic piece of audio that every pilot should listen to and to share with their non-flying friends. Perhaps this will help them "get it"... You can download from the link above or you can listen here online using the flash player below...

Flying long days has proven to be a killer in more ways than one. Many have argued that this is the primary reason behind duty day and flight hour restrictions for commercial pilots flying part 124 and 135. Fatigue has been shown to cause pilot performance to degrade rapidly.

Recently, a COPA member detailed a recent Florida to California trip he and his wife took in one day, during daylight hours in Cirrus SR22. Total flight time during this trip was 11.21 hours with a total elapsed time of only 13:08 hours. Amazing endurance when you think about it.

In order to prepare and keep himself alert during this flight he took the following precautions:

• Hydrate heavily (to the point your urine is clear and not colored) for days before the trip
• Stop consuming coffee, sugar and mixed foods (milk and meat, cheese and chicken, etc) for days before the flight as well
• During the flight, consume only fresh fruit and vegetables (as much as you can eat) along with grains and beans. Stay away from soft drinks, coffee, sugar, power bars, milk or meat.
• During the flight, every hour review "Plan, Plane, Me and You" to verify all aspects of the flight are safe to continue
• Perform Isometric exercises once an hour
• Use O2 for the second half of the flight even though it was at 8500 (or 8000 for the IFR arrival into Santa Barbara)
• Remain engaged in the flight by performing mental and "whiz wheel" calculations on fuel burn and arrival/enroute estimates, making Pireps, evaluating WX, etc.

Good tips to keep in mind on longer flights...

Wow! I don't often recommend a book on this blog but I truly enjoyed this read... It took me a while to get up to speed with this book, but once I did it just kept building.

Using an interesting narrative style, Halliday succeeds in weaving the events of close to a year's worth of flying into reflective moments of time during a particularly eventful flight.

Some of the characterizations seem very "Air America" but that that could be due to the similarity in the subject matter. There are, however, some very good flying sequences. One of my favorites is a flight in one of these "flying box cars" flying in ground effect over a river.

I would definitely rate this as a must read for any pilot or anyone with an interest in flying or aviation during the Vietnam War.