Soul Searching

Growing up on the south side of Chicago, Humberto Gil’s exposure to aviation came at an early age as his family made their home near Chicago’s Midway Airport. With a steady stream of aircraft overhead, Gil was introduced to the thought of flying in one of the many craft that plied the skies above. “I really have my family to thank,” remarked Gil, saying how they would indulge his desire by taking him to local airports to see the airplanes on the ground, allowing him to dream.

His first step to realizing his dream was an introductory flight he took with Lewis University in 1995. As a senior at Morton East High School, Gil was president of the school’s aviation club and considering a career in the field of his childhood. Continuing on his way to an aviation career, Gil was a student at Lewis University in Lockport, Illinois when the events of September 2001 unfolded. “I stopped flying after that, thinking the [aviation] industry wasn’t going to recover,” said Gil, who went on to graduate with a Bachelor’s Degree in Aviation Management in 2002. For the next five years, Gil worked as a construction worker, but felt dissatisfied.

In the summer of 2007, Gil decided that it was time to take his life into his own hands and again pursue his goal of professional aviation. When he came to American Flyers in July, the atmosphere and people were immediately attractive. “I felt taken care of… very friendly.”

Gil came to the school with approximately 80 hours of flight time and within six months he had earned his private, instrument and commercial licenses. As Gil recalled, once training had started, all doubts about his decision were erased, “I just dove in head-first!” When asked about his training experience, Gil said that the training was fun, “I was coming to work to study aviation,” and that all the instructors really made learning fun.

Right now, Gil is working at American Flyers at DuPage airport as a flight instructor, striving to become the best teacher he can be. He has plans to stay on and teach for the next three to five years, “You just never stop learning.” Looking back on the road that brought him to where he is today, Gil couldn’t be happier. He expressed gratitude to his parents for helping him through flight school and providing support.

Destinations

With summer in full swing, it’s time to get out and experience the sights and sounds. This month American Flyers Newsletter takes you to great weekend getaways for the whole family.

This month’s featured destination is the Moody Gardens Hotel, Spa and Convention Center at Galveston Island. This tropical destination is great for groups and families alike, with spectacular attractions and activities.

You can get away and relax at the spa, take in a show, get in a round of golf, or visit the beach to play. If you’re looking for something more adventurous, the Aquarium Pyramid holds penguins, sharks, thousands of tropical fish, and beautiful birds in various displays and hands-on exhibits. In the ten-storey Rainforest Pyramid, you can visit the creatures of Africa, Asia and the Americas in their own habitats.

Moody Gardens is accessible via the Scholes International Airport (GLS). With so much to see and do, you will want to visit www.moodygardens.com to plan your visit.

Worlds’ Smallest

For nearly as long as designers have endeavored to build the largest or fastest airplane, there have been folks who have gone the other way.

The first airplane to hold the title of “world’s smallest” was known as the Wee Bee, and was built in the late 1940s by Ken Coward, William Chana and Karl Montijo of San Diego, California. This small craft had a wing span of 18 ft and measured just over 14 ft long. This plane wasn’t flown so much as ridden – the pilot operated the aircraft from a prone position on top of the fuselage.

Various designers and inventors have compressed the airplane even further, but the current world record belongs to the Bumble Bee II, built by Robert Starr in 1988 as an improvement on a previous design. Bumble Bee II sported an empty weight of 396 pounds, and measured 8.8 ft in length with a wingspan of 5.5 ft! The flight of this craft on May 8th, 1988 secured Starr’s plane in the record books.

Source: aerospaceweb.org

Laugh Out Loud

At the Naval Air Station a young ground crew member was being trained on how to direct an F-18 into the fuel pit for hot refueling. The instructor gave him a go, and after quite some wild arm waving, the aircraft was parked. But the student soon discovered that he had brought the airplane too far forward for the fuel hose to reach it.

“You’ll have to send him around again,” said the instructor. “What?” said the surprised student. “They spend millions on these things and you can’t even put them in reverse?”

Source: www.aviation-humor.com

The Service Man in Your Engine
By Rick Freidinger
Director of Maintenance

Oil: while it’s something that most people don’t think about very often, it is probably the single most important element contributing to the life of your engine. Fuel and air may be what keep your engine running, but oil is the true lifeblood of your engine. Frequent oil changes, at least once every 50 hours, will help extend the life of your engine to TBO and beyond. (TBO is a manufacturer’s recommended time at which your engine should be overhauled.)

Oil serves many purposes in an engine. It lubricates all the moving parts, helps cool the hot parts and more importantly, it picks up all the “garbage” in the engine. Microscopic particles like dirt and dust that get past your air filter and burned combustion byproducts that slip past your cylinder rings, if left in the engine, will cause excessive wear to the internal parts of your engine. This waste is caught and suspended in the oil. When the engine is running, oil is picked up from the sump and pumped through the oil filter, which traps all the suspended debris. The clean oil then passes through the oil cooler and on to the engine where it again lubricates, cools and cleans.

This process continues the entire time the engine is running to assure a long healthy life for your engine. At approximately $1.25 per flight hour, oil may be the cheapest thing you put in your engine, but it gives you the biggest bang for the buck. If you want your engine to live a long and healthy life, don’t skimp on quality or quantity when it comes to oil changes.

From the Professor’s Desk
By Dr. Michael Bliss

The phrase “There’s nothing like experience” is certainly true of flying in general and working with ATC in particular. Newly licensed pilots are naturally tentative when dealing with ATC. After all they are the “controllers” and we are the “controllees”. But the fact is that as we gain experience and become more familiar with how the system works, there are many instances when we can make requests of what would be helpful to our own needs.

ATC is essentially concerned with the safe separation of aircraft and the smooth flow of traffic. To accomplish this, they develop canned procedures for traffic flow that are in their interest but may or may not be in the best interest of the pilot (other than safety that is). When the controller’s workload is heavy we need to be sensitive to that situation and not make requests that will add further burden. However, when traffic is light to medium, there are opportunities to request what is in our best interest, without compromising safety.

Typical requests would include routing changes, often requesting direct to the destination. We are more likely to have such requests approved if we have done our homework and have studied the approach and arrival charts to understand standard traffic flow. While a request for “direct” to a busy airport may not be approved, a request for “direct” to an arrival fix for that same airport may well be approved. Even if you are a VFR pilot, studying an approach chart to determine arrival fixes could save you some time and fuel.

Sometimes controllers cannot approve requests because of the altitude being flown, whereas if a higher or lower altitude were flown it might make the request possible. If the controller is not overly busy it might be helpful to ask if an altitude change would make the request possible.

We are also more likely to have a request approved if our radio conduct is professional. If we use the correct phraseology and speak confidently, the controller will be more likely to go along with a change from the routine than if he were dealing with someone who may not seem to be on top of things.

Finally, there can be weather related issues where the pilot may have to be insistent with a request in order to maintain safe flight. Most controllers will work with you to accommodate deviations around thunderstorms and large buildups, or altitude changes because of unexpected encounters with icing. In such situations, learn to use the word “unable”. Never meekly accept a controller’s instruction that would put you in an unsafe situation.

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