Attention News Reporters: Small Plane vs. Big Plane

Aviation Lesson Number 1 for news-media reporters: Many times it gets reported that a "small plane" crashed - and then when they identify the craft involved it turns out to be a $6 million business aircraft (like today in Australia). I find this irritating. The meaning of "small plane" as used by the media seems to be "it's scary and incapable."

Little Plane

For the purposes of your education, so you don't continue to look like idiots, here are two photos. One is a small plane, or a "light" plane.

Beech Super King-Air

The other is a highly capable, turbine-powered business aircraft - while it is smaller in size than your average 757, there is little difference in capability or performance when compared to the larger aircraft - they all fly and are controlled the same way. In fact, these Beech King-Airs are quite often used as airliners. The main performance difference between the turbo-prop and a pure jet is slightly lower speed and they operate at lower flight levels than does a jet.

No one in aviation or familiar with aviation would call an aircraft like this sophisticated Beechcraft a "small" plane, like the news people routinely do, and did again today in reporting the crash in Melbourne. No owner of such an aircraft would turn anyone loose in one who was not a highly experienced and professional pilot.

Additionally, within it's realm, the small plane is capable and safe for that matter, when it is piloted by a competent pilot. But that's a fight for another day.

Grocery Comparison Shopping in Phoenix

Once in a while, I do some comparison shopping for groceries and household items.  The clerk down at Basha’s always says “you saved x amount of dollars shopping at Basha’s today."  And that’s hogwash. Basha’s is never cheaper than the other stores – every time I’ve done my little exercise, real world (this is the 4th), Basha’s is always the most expensive local store.  

An employee also recently told me that they always have a more complete selection of products – that you can always find what you’re looking for at a Basha’s store.  That’s not true either – in fact, I often complain that I can’t find everything on my list at Basha’s and have to go somewhere else looking for an item or two – especially if it is something unusual. I cannot help but think they are being deliberately dishonest.  This is not a hate-rant on Basha’s, I often shop there for the convenience – it is the closest to my house.  I have shopped there for years and I like some of the employees there. But that dishonesty does bother me.

Today I shopped for a list of thirty-five items that I normally buy, randomly selected before I left the house.  I don’t sale shop – nor do I use coupons.  I typically go after only what I’ve run out of (for the things I keep on hand) plus what I need to make whatever I’ve decided I’m going to eat.  I will buy the “house-brand” if I believe the quality of that product is the same as the normal national brand. Today, some of the items on my list were on sale, others were not.  I figure that all balances out as it changes every week – and all stores have sales.

TODAY'S LIST

At Basha’s, today, my specific list of 35 items would have cost me $150.31.  The same list at Fry’s totaled $126.63.  At Wal Mart, $122.67.  It comes out like this every time I do the exercise – Basha’s is always significantly higher, Fry’s is always the lowest of the traditional stores, and Wal Mart always the cheapest overall.  In the past, I’ve included Safeway and Albertson’s in this also, and they have always fallen in between Basha’s and Fry’s (but I didn't include them today).  

If I consistently shopped at Wal Mart for my groceries, assuming that I bought a list like this each week, I would save $1,437 each year shopping at Wal Mart.  I think that’s a lot of money, and I think Basha’s just finally lost a customer.   My savings won’t be quite as much, because I don’t usually buy this much at one time, but it will still be a significant amount.  Even if I shop at Fry’s (owned by Kroger, and a much nicer store with a huge variety), I would save $1,196 per year over Basha's, and this would only be $4 per week more than Wal Mart at this level of spending.  That's hard to pass up and those stores (Fry's and Wal Mart) aren't so much farther away that I would lose the savings in extra gas money.

Uncle Bob's Countrified Pork Chops (fried, dieters beware)

Mmm - Pork Chops!

Do you long for a country-fried supper like Grandma used to make? (or in my case, Aunt Retha)… look no further!

This is a recipe for “breaded” and fried chops, with Yukon-Gold smashed potatoes (w/a touch of garlic) and cream gravy.  I serve this with something green, like spinach, or peas, or salad, or whatever you want.  Serves 4 diet-conscious lightweights or two hungry-man humans.  This is not diet food, sorry.

For the chops…

4 pork chops.  I used boneless center cut, med cut (not too thin, not too thick)

Flour

Corn Meal

Panko Crumbs

Salt, Pepper, and Onion Powder

Milk

Heat a cast iron skillet (or whatever you have if you don’t have an iron one).  I smear it with a little oil to preheat it to medium, then add more cold oil as I put the chops in the skillet. (This is the world's first non-stick skillet).

In a shallow dish of some kind, put in a generous amount of flour. I didn’t measure but probably ½ to ¾ cup.  Add maybe 1/8 cup (2 TB) of Panko crumbs, a sprinkle or two of corn meal, plus some salt, pepper and onion powder (maybe 1 tsp each).  I tend to add more pepper.  I like pepper.  Mix this all up with a fork.

In another shallow dish or bowl, add ½ cup or so of milk.  Dip each chop in the milk, let it drip for a second or two (I just hang it by hand over the bowl), then dredge the wet chop through the flour mixture.  If your skillet is ready (hot enough to sizzle and splatter a drop or two of water), put the chop in the skillet (you’ve just added the extra oil – maybe 2 or 3 TB of it).  Set the heat about medium-low to medium.  Repeat with as many of the chops as you can fit in the skillet (about three will fit in a twelve-incher). 

Fry the chops on one side about 4 minutes, turn and fry 3 minutes more. You may need to adjust the heat so they do not burn. Remove to a platter and set in the microwave to keep warm, and fry the remaining chops the same way. You might need to add a bit more oil. If the chops are thin-cut, try frying 3 minutes each side; no need to overcook them.

For the gravy:

After the chops are all done, add a touch more oil to the dirty skillet and as it heats, dump in the remaining flour mixture along with a little bit of dried minced onion (if you have it).  Add a pat of butter for a little extra flavor.  Cook this for a few moments over med heat, until it is all bubbly and sizzling.  Start adding milk and as it cooks, it will thicken.  As it thickens, add more milk.  Start with about 3 or 4 TB oil (including what's left in the skillet from the chops), 3 TB flour, and 1½ to 2 cups milk.  Add the milk slowly, and quit when the gravy is the consistency you like.  You can add more milk if you need to, but you cannot take milk back out if you put in too much. So just do a little at a time.   (You could add a touch of chicken bouillon for extra flavor, if you want, but I don't think it needs it.)

For the smashed taters:

1½ lb Yukon Golds

¼ cup half and half

2 TB melted butter

1 tsp salt

1 tsp coarse ground pepper

½ tsp pulverized prepared garlic

+ additional milk as needed

Peel the taters and quarter them lengthwise.  If they are large ones, I cut the quarters in half.  Place these in boiling water about 15-20 minutes – until you can very easily run a fork through them with no resistance. Drain them well and place into a large bowl.  Add the melted butter.  Warm the half/half to room temperature or better. Add that to the bowl.  Add the salt, pepper and garlic. Using a hand potato masher, smash everything all together until it’s as smooth as you can get it with your masher. Then add a tiny bit of milk (maybe 1/8 cup) and mash some more – as much as it takes to get the consistency you want.  Dot the top of the smashed up bowl of potatoes with about a TB of butter, cut into bits and spread out like you were dotting a pie.  Let it melt.

Serve the warm chops with a heaping pile of smashed potatoes on the side, top it all with some gravy and add a vegetable or salad.  This is old-fashioned country cooking and as easy as pie.

Note: If you ever made mashed potatoes and they turned out gummy, it's because you used cold milk or cream.  That's why I stated room temperature or better for the half/half in this recipe.  The warmer the better.

The amounts of ingredients are ball-park.  Like most cooks, I make this without reference to a recipe -- the amounts aren't critical as long as you don't get carried away. Don't eat this everyday, but once in a while.  It's a heart attack on a plate!  (But oh-so good!)

Harrison Ford’s Latest Flying Misadventure

Harrison Ford landed off-runway at John Wayne Airport this afternoon.  I feel bad for him – as this was a bone-headed mistake.  In saying so, that particular airport can be a visually confusing one [see note at end], but he has no excuse as I believe he uses that field fairly regularly (I've seen photos of his planes there before) – and I am sure that’s exactly what he would tell you as well (as he slaps himself up-side the head). In fact, it has been reported that immediately after his mistake, he contacted ATC and identified himself as "the schmuck."

Just as additional information, his last crash on the golf course at Santa Monica was judged to have been due to an un-foreseeable mechanical fault.  He was assigned no blame for it whatsoever. I do not see a pattern.

Today though, he landed in otherwise normal circumstances on the parallel taxiway to the left of runway 20L.  If you look at the photo I’ve taken from Google Maps, I added some marks to show where he was cleared to land on 20L (green arrow), where he did land on the taxiway (red arrow) and where the American Airlines 737 that he overflew was waiting for takeoff clearance at the time of the incident (red triangle).  

John Wayne Airport

If you look at the runway number for 20L and contrast it to the numbers on 20R, that alone could be confusing - 20L is marked on the concrete and those numbers may not stand out very well if a person was otherwise visually disoriented. Keep in mind he wasn't looking directly down at this view as in the photo - it was in 3D stretched out in front of him (like looking down a highway from slightly above it).

He couldn’t have missed seeing the 737 – so I am certain there was no danger of a collision between them, but as the news reports have stated, he commented on that jet as he landed and his comments indicate he was very aware it wasn’t supposed to be underneath him – but he didn’t immediately draw the conclusion that he was in the wrong place instead (which he would have if he'd been thinking straight).  His little Aviat is more than capable of landing on much shorter runways than that taxiway, so he surely found it very easy to make a short, steep approach and land beyond.  The question is, why didn't he recognize that as being something wrong while he was in the process of it?

I can see how he could make such a mistake – the visual combination of the left runway (20L) and that taxiway are similar to the visual combination (in aspect) of the 20L and 20R runways – but as someone who wasn’t a stranger to this field, he shouldn't have made that error.  The only times in my entire flying career that I was ever that disoriented on an approach was at unfamiliar airports – never at airports I was in and out of all the time. 

In addition, the taxiway has no runway markings (which a competent pilot like Ford should have immediately realized).  That big 737 in front of (and under) him was another huge clue.

It may sound to you like I am being overly critical.  I am not.  Any pilot who has been around a while has made a mistake or two.  I don't even want to talk about some of the dumb-ass mistakes I made in the almost 30 years I was flying.  

I will be interested to read or hear his thoughts on just exactly how this happened. I suspect he's going to be in a certain amount of trouble with the federales over this one; but as I mentioned, none of us are spotless.  I remember once after a (shall we say) "non-standard" entry to a traffic pattern when I had to go see the tower and explain "just what the hell was I thinking..." 

This isn't an egregious enough offense to warrant the severest action (without some aggravating circumstance), my opinion. In the past, I have even been cleared to land on taxiways - even once landing on a cross-runway taxiway in a stiff crosswind (when I couldn't have landed otherwise).  There has been no mention of any resulting conflict with anyone on the ground (on or crossing that taxiway), although that is certainly a danger at such a busy airport.  Perhaps that will save Mr. Ford from more serious consequences.  I hope so, because absent a more serious outcome, more than a minor sanction would be an over-reaction.   Some are saying it could have been a terrible disaster if he'd "stalled" while over that airliner - but the fact is he didn't and those commentators were being extremely over-dramatic ("The sky is falling, the sky is falling!").  Thousands of airplanes and helicopters fly over stuff with people in them every day without stalling. In fact, the plan is always not to stall until you want to.

*On a VFR approach to this airport one time in the late 1970s, I failed to see the airport at all until I was almost over the fence.  It was very hard to see it against all the ground clutter.  Fortunately, I was lined up with the correct runway when I finally did see it and was able to complete a safe landing without having to go-around.

But, you know... "any landing you can walk away from is a good one," so...

Update 05/01/2017: In the end, the FAA chose not to sanction Mr. Ford at all - so apparently their assessment was similar to mine.  I'd still like to know how it happened though...

Flying Across the USA in 1965

On July 29, 1965, I started the day in a little town near Pontiac, MI called Keego Harbor.  My step-mother’s family lived there, and when we left the Upper Peninsula in late-June or early-July, that’s where we landed.  My Dad’s new job was with Bendix Corp. at Royal Oak.  So we lived that month with “Moms,” Vera’s mother. She taught me how to play Gin Rummy - and I had the very first Big Mac I ever had!

We found out that my sister was getting married in Phoenix that evening (of July 29).  The original plan to get me home to Phoenix for the school year had been to drive down to my Grandparents’ farm at Alamo, Indiana, and I would ride back to Arizona with them (they were winter residents here). But Dad and Vera seemed to think I’d want to be at Ruth’s wedding, so they asked if I wanted to fly home to Phoenix that day so I could be there.  I was crazy about airplanes so wedding or not, it sounded like a good plan to me.

I wouldn’t be alone for the whole flight – Vera’s family had a friend who was traveling to LAX that day – a lady named Vera Ott.  Today, I don’t remember anything about her – which is unfortunate because without her willingness to share her trip with me the flight wouldn't have even been considered.  But my excitement about flying across the country overwhelmed all other memories.

Flying low in a '58 Chevy

We rode to the airport in Detroit in Aunt Kathleen’s ’58 Chevrolet.  I remember that very well too – I’ve always loved the late 50s Chevrolets; the late 50s Chevies were as beautiful as the early-50s Chevies were ugly.  Anyway, that may have been the only ride in a ’58 that I ever had.  Everyone remembers the ’57 – but the ’58 was every bit as great a car, my opinion.  What I remember most was its absolute smoothness – it just glided down the road.

At Detroit’s airport, they put me on an American Airlines 707 to Los Angeles via Chicago, with Vera Ott.  My first memory of the flight was descending over Lake Michigan, seeing the curve of the southern edge of the lake and Chicago in the sunshine.  The jet was a new turbofan model, but I am not sure which one – American had the 100 series, as well as 300's and 720B's.  At any rate, it was a 707 with fan-jets.  After a short stop in Chicago, and seeing a new 727 for the first time out the window, we departed for LA.

An American 707-123 at LAX

Airline meals were still something to look forward to in 1965.  Especially for an 11 year old whose second love was eating.  The first of course was airplanes and flying…  American served me a breakfast of corned beef hash and baked eggs.  I don’t remember if lunch was served – probably not given the flight was only 4 or 5 hours.  I remember seeing the Rockies, and perhaps the Grand Canyon as we flew over Arizona – but from 35,000 feet or so I wasn’t all that impressed with either view.  I hadn’t even seen the Canyon from the ground at that point in my life – that was still a year or two away.

In Los Angeles, I was handed over to Western Airlines – I would be traveling alone to Phoenix from there on.  That was on Western Airlines Flight 54 (I still have the ticket).  This flight started in Los Angeles, stopped in San Diego and then Phoenix, before flying on north that day for Calgary with some intervening stops.  I was treated like a prince!  The stewardess (they were not called flight attendants yet) seated me in First Class where she could watch me, plied me with hot chocolate and who knows what else, and that smooth Lockheed Electra glided in sweeping banks through the towering cumulo-bumpers all the way to Phoenix.  It was the only chance I ever had to fly on an Electra; I was a little bit fearful as this was only a couple of years after the Electra’s problems with in-flight structural failures and several fatal crashes.  But that flight was one of the best I ever had – and the Electra is still one of my favorite aircraft.  Looking out the big window and seeing those big Allison turboprops was awesome. Just remembering that flight I know exactly why they call the Electra a "pilot's airplane."

A Western Airlines Electra

Phoenix was still an open-air airport in 1965 – it was before modern jetways had been built.  So the airliners pulled up on the tarmac in front of the terminal, they’d roll a set of air-stairs up to the side of the plane (or in the case of the Electra, it had it's own retractable staircase), and you stepped down onto the concrete and walked to the terminal in the sunshine.  I will never forget the blast of 110 degree July Arizona heat that greeted me as I stepped out of the air-conditioned plane in front of the then-new Terminal 2.  For about 3 minutes, that warmth was heaven – and I knew I was home.  

Of course, having just flown across the country, I felt like a movie star.  I’m sure I talked non-stop all the way home about my summer-vacation adventure, and I am also sure my Mom and sisters never got tired of hearing about it.