IMC Monthly Inaugural Issue Peter Conant, Editor

As a pilot who is interested in every aspect of flying, I am very pleased to welcome

you to this first issue of The IMC Monthly. We at the IMC Clubs hope to bring you

interesting articles which are aimed at helping all pilots better understand the world

of IFR, the airplanes we fly, the available technologies we use and the regulatory envi-

ronment we inhabit.

When I started flying over thirty years ago, I read everything about flying I could get

my hands on and now have quite a library of books on everything from Aerobatics to

Zulu time. And I’ve always envied the editors of Flying magazine and AOPA Pilot,

who have the best jobs in the world, in my opinion. But now with Internet access to

literally thousands of Web sites it is a treat for me to be able to browse the world of

aviation literature and select articles, podcasts and videos which hopefully benefit

both novice pilots and old–timers like me. For retrieval and dissemination of up to

date information, the good old days weren’t all that good.

continued on page 2

this issue

From the Editor P.1 DUATS’s 20th P.2

Modern Airplanes, Basic Skills P.2

DUAT’S 20th

By Thomas Horne Reprinted and condensed from AOPA Pilot, September

2009

In what may one of the best ex-

amples of the federal govern-

ment’s making wise use of tax-

payer dollars, DUATS has

evolved over the years into one

of the best free services available (Continued on page 2)

IMC Monthly Monthly Magazine of IMC Club International. Inc.

ISSUE 01 September 2010

I was just thinking…

By Peter Conant

MODERN AIRPLANES, BASIC SKILLS

Every time I visit Norwood Me-

morial Airport I spend some

time walking around the tran-

sient ramp, looking to see what

sorts of airplanes have turned

up since my last visit. These

(Continued on page 3)

IMC Monthly Inaugural Issue Peter Conant, Editor continued from page. 1

Your input/comment/criticism will be a

valuable resource for us. How are we

doing? What could we be doing better?

What types of articles would you like to

see? What type do you not want to see?

What aviation sources or Web sites do

you recommend? The aviation literature

is vast, the opinions about flying are

many, and the experiences one has at

the controls always make for good sto-

ries. So if you have a story which might

belong in Flying’s “I Learned About Fly-

ing From That” or AOPA Pilot’s “Never

Again”, we would encourage you to

share it with us.

Someone once said to me that “there is

no aviation accident worth having

unless you learn something from it.” We

at IMC Clubs are definitely on the side

of accident prevention, and specifically

would like to hear and learn from pilots

who catch themselves before making a

mistake. Awareness and management of

risk, the joy of being in control, the mas-

tery of complex equipment, the freedom

to slip the bonds of earth; aren’t these

the reasons we all strap ourselves into a

flying machine? I hope we at IMC Clubs

can add to your enjoyment of this amaz-

ing activity we all share.

So contact me, Peter Conant, at pe-

ter@imcclubs.org. We’ll have a “Letters

to the Editor” section where you can

comment, complain, elaborate, clarify

and share your thoughts. At this point

in our fledgling publication, all news is

good news and all information is good

information.

I look forward to hearing and corre-

sponding with each of you.

END

“At this point in our fledgling publication, all news is good news and all

information is good information.”

to pilots. From today’s perspec-

tive, DUATS’ roots were humble.

In September 1989, personal com-

puters were few and far between.

Back then, the Internet had yet to

appear in any meaningful way.

And connections? Dial-up was the

rage- and we liked it! Ever so

slowly (compared to modern DSL

and T1 speeds), your computer

shook hands with data providers’

servers that understood MS-DOS

only. The result was a dot-matrix

printout that came from a noisy

printer spooling out a continuous

stream of paper. And the weather

graphics we’ve all come to take for

granted? They existed at FSSs

only, when the vast majority of

pilots dialed 1-800-WX-BRIEF for

information, and oral briefings-

and mental pictures- had to suffice

for preflight planning.

“Oh yes, the access was pretty

clunky back when we started up,”

said Bill Young, program manager

for Data Transformation Corpora-

tion (DTC), one of today’s two

DUATS providers. “But the FAA

was smart. They paid us by market

share, so there was an incentive to

always improve our products. In

the beginning, thee were three

(Continued from page 1)

(Continued on page 3)

DUAT’S 20th

Modern Airplanes, Basic Skills

days, with fewer general aviation

operations at OWD, most of the

visiting planes are corporate jets or

chartered turboprops. The other day

I was treated to two Piaggio Avantis

outside the FBO looking very sleek

and futuristic with their canards

and five-blade pusher props. An

Embraer Phenom 100 graced the

ramp last month, straight from the

factory in Brazil I was told. And a

Partenavia high-wing piston twin

was up from Florida a little while

back, an Italian design which re-

minds me of a small Twin Otter. I’ve

only seen one at Sun N Fun a few

years ago and still wonder why such

a sensible airplane design isn’t used

more in this part of the world for

island-hopping and sightseeing.

Those Italian designers always have

a certain flair and drama with their

creations.

A few weeks ago I got my first ride

in a Siai Marchetti SF260, a nifty

two-seat aerobatic job designed by

the Italian legend Stelio Frati who

once said “it does not cost any more

to make things beautiful”. The

Marchetti is a Ferrari in looks and

performance and resembles a minia-

ture P51 Mustang. Now, I’d flown in

a Pitts Special twenty years ago to

gain some aerobatic experience and

(Continued from page 1) thought I knew about control

response, but the Marchetti was

nothing short of unbelievable.

The slightest pressure on the

stick resulted in the plane bounc-

ing and twitching, as if to say

“you want us to do a roll? No? So

why am I in a seventy-five degree

bank?” The instructor/owner

calmly pulled us around a three-G

level turn with the wings almost

vertical (or so it seemed to me).

Imagine using the elevator as the

primary heading control! This

airplane lets you know immedi-

ately that flying is a three-

dimensional activity. A cute little

Italian Air Force two-seat trainer,

it was built in 1969 and is still

going strong, with a Lycoming

540 fuel-injected engine. And it’s

equipped with a Garmin 430 and

an autopilot.

All this got me to thinking about

the differences between a forty

year old airplane with updated

systems and avionics, and the

newer models by Cessna and Cir-

rus equipped with glass cockpit,

TCAS, NexRad XM weather, TKS

weeping wing anti-ice, carbon

fiber structure, and all sporting a

price tag probably four times the

cost of that little Marchetti. The

planes I see refurbished on the

ramp at Norwood run the gamut for

updates, from recent Malibu and

Bonanza turboprop conversions

and updated panels to the ancient

Cessna 152’s and Piper Warriors

with vacuum instruments but fitted

with engine analyzers, IFR certified

GPS moving maps. portable paper-

less approach plate devices, and

redundant electrically power atti-

tude indicators. It seems like there

is nothing you can’t add to an old

(Continued on page 4)

DUATS contractors: DTC, Con-

tel- which later got bought by

DynCorp, then CSC (Computer

Sciences Corporation)- and

Lockheed Martin. Lockheed

Martin dropped out after a short

time,” Young added. Lockheed

Martin returned to the govern-

ment-subsidized briefing market

big time when it was awarded

the contract to privatize and

centralize the FAA’s flight ser-

vice stations in 2006.

Now, DTC and CSC share the

DUATS market. Estimates are

that CSC has a 55-percent share,

and that DTC has 45 percent.

“We probably handle 8,000 to

10,000 flight plans per day, on

average,” said Leon Thomas,

CSC’s program manager or

DUATS. “And over the years, I

think the biggest change for

DUATS was the switch from

strictly dial-up access to an

Internet-based front-end system

with forms that store your per-

(Continued from page 2)

(Continued on page 4)

DUAT’S 20th

Modern Airplanes…. From page 3.

airframe to provide you with better navigation and engine data.

But as much as I’ve seen some amazing cockpit developments

and avionics upgrades in my thirty-plus years of flying, in a sense

nothing has changed. Situational awareness is still practiced by

pilots who have had equipment failures and who know better

than to blindly follow a GPS course line. The behavior and feel of

the airplane in slow flight, steep turns, accelerated stalls and the

landing flare is still taught by careful flight instructors who let

their students experience the ragged edge of diminishing control

authority. I realize now that the Marchetti experience was a

wakeup call, emphasizing for me the importance of basic aerody-

namics and taking control of all flight attitudes. Compared to

slogging along in a Beechcraft or Cessna, it felt like I’d graduated

from a pony ride to a high-strung thoroughbred race horse. I’m

now inspired to go back and re-read William Langewiesche’s

classic, Stick and Rudder.

New avionics, cockpit weather and traffic awareness displays

have greatly increased the safety of flight and made us all better

navigators. But it is good old-fashioned piloting skills and judg-

ments that contribute most to the safe outcome of a flight. As the

economic picture improves and more GA operations are heard in

the land (aircraft engines efficiently converting fuel into noise)

we can all work to improve our basic airmanship, in whatever

steed we’re riding. My suggestion is to get into an aerobatic plane

with an experienced instructor and see what you’ve been missing.

You may find yourself appreciating just how wonderfully a fine

aerobatic design responds to your coordinated control inputs,

and how quickly it yells at you when you are the least bit sloppy.

END

IMC Club International

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www.imcclubs.com

sonal profiles. That eliminated the need to an-

swer question after question and follow prompts

each time you logged on for a briefing or flight-

plan filing.” CSC’s Web site first went live in

1994, although the company still offers old-

fashioned dial-up access.

Today’s DUATS providers offer features that

have made them primary go-to sources for vari-

ous flight planning tools. Why phone an 800

number when you can go online and see a wide

range of weather charts and other graphics in

living color? The visit still counts as an official

FAA weather briefing, and DUATS flight plan-

ners can b e used to optimize your route. Be-

sides, the 800-number telephone briefings are

still offered by Lockheed Martin, and dial-up

DUATS access- still required per the FAA con-

tract- remains available to those without Internet

access. Apart from going directly to DUATS Web

sites, their services also are provided via third-

party vendors. DTC and CSC have agreements

with other portals offering flight planning ser-

vices, and customers are routed from them to

DUATS. DTC serves weather and flight planning

Web sites such as those belonging to Seattle Avi-

onics, RMS Technologies, Jeppesen, and AOPA’s

Internet Flight Planner. CSC’s Thomas says his

company serves “all third parties. I don’t know

how many…and we give many of them the tech-

nology to set up links, free of charge.”

DTC recently began its DUAT mobile service,

which lets pilots use PDA’s and smart phones for

access to briefing information and flight plan-

ning services. Similarly, CSC is also accessible

through iPhones, BlackBerrys, and other such

portable devices. “The trend is definitely toward

cell phones and other portable Web browsers,”

said Thomas. CSC also supports Stenbock and

Everson’s new Golden Eagle FlightPrep software,

which provides automatic routing, weather over-

lays, VFR and IFR charts, rubber-banding of

routes, and much more- including flight plan

filing. DTC provides charts, including airport

diagrams, instrument approach plates, and sec-

tional charts. END

(Continued from page 3)

DUAT’S 20th