Eternal debates in aviation...

[R. Novak]

Low wing vs. high wing?

Does Marvel Mystery Oil have any effect or not?

Lean of peak, or not?

Wheel land or 3-point?

Janet! I can help with the MMO question - actually did some testing on it a few years ago. "Without data it's just another opinion". See you later.

[Kiwi ZK-CKE]

Mentioned earlier - the Taildragger Wheeler vs 3 Pointer debate. I was having some issues getting my wheeler landings to stick when getting checked out in my new homebuilt. Whenever I mentioned that to anyone I just knew that I would get a major Thesis on either a. why I should just ignore doing wheelers or b. why real taildragger pilots only ever use wheelers - didnt seem to be any middle ground! how to really confuse a newbie taildragger pilot!

[rosiejerryrosie]

I was having some issues getting my wheeler landings to stick when getting checked out in my new homebuilt.

I noted the "was". Assume you have the problem licked?

[mcmurphy]

Controlled versus uncontrolled airports. I am amazed at the number of pilots who fly out of controlled fields that consider uncontrolled fields as dangerous.

[Kiwi ZK-CKE]

I noted the "was". Assume you have the problem licked?

concentration and lots of practice.... It comes right eventually!

[WingsAloft]

What about the guy who navigates with just his GPS vs. the radio navigation stickler? And throw into the mix-- Dead Reckoners!

[WingsAloft]

...or how about iPods vs. paper in the cockpit? (and btw, there really is still debate on that, at least as long as I'm here!)

[Joe LaMantia]

The "Controlled" vs "Uncontrolled" is an interesting topic, I trained at a controlled airport but have been flying out of uncontrolled airports for the past 11 years. I don't think uncontrolled are more dangerous, given the dead economy there is very little traffic around the small airports these days, but that can breed complacency in the pattern. My only near "miss" in the traffic pattern was flying into a controlled airport where a Bonanza took-off without clearance from a crossing runway and climbed over me on my downwind! The guy in the tower read the riot act at the Bonanza and I got a very soft spoken clearance to land. I fly in controlled airspace often enough to stay current in both procedures and communication which are areas that can get "rusty" without use. In the end, you can get killed in any airspace, if your VFR KEEP LOOKING!

Joe

[steveinindy]

I am amazed at the number of pilots who fly out of controlled fields that consider uncontrolled fields as dangerous.

Neither of them are entirely safe obviously. With pilots playing by the rules, neither should really be any less safe than the other when all other things are equal. That said, when flying in instrument conditions, I will give preference to controlled airports because it's not uncommon to pop out of the clouds on approach to uncontrolled fields when it's VMC or marginal VMC below and find someone who is flying no radio (or just plain not paying attention) bopping along in the pattern.

My only near "miss" in the traffic pattern was flying into a controlled airport where a Bonanza took-off without clearance from a crossing runway and climbed over me on my downwind! The guy in the tower read the riot act at the Bonanza and I got a very soft spoken clearance to land. I fly in controlled airspace often enough to stay current in both procedures and communication which are areas that can get "rusty" without use.

Glad to hear that ended well. My only good controlled airport story consists of the IND tower controller who gave a Cargolux 747 crew clearance to takeoff while we were on rollout on the parallel runway with the caveat "caution wake turbulence from the traffic on the parallel". We were in a Cessna 172. LOL

In the end, you can get killed in any airspace, if your VFR KEEP LOOKING!

Amen to that. Truer words have seldom been spoken, although I'd argue that you should keep your eyeballs peeled when IFR as well.

[steveinindy]

...or how about iPods vs. paper in the cockpit? (and btw, there really is still debate on that, at least as long as I'm here!)

I prefer the answer of "both". We aren't talking about lugging around the entire Jepp chart set when it comes to light aircraft so weight shouldn't be a factor and redundancy is always a great thing to have in an aircraft.