From: utzoo!decvax!cca!LRH@MIT-MC@sri-unix
Newsgroups: net.aviation
Title: Re: re WSJ articles
Article-I.D.: sri-unix.2487
Posted: Fri Aug  6 00:39:22 1982
Received: Sun Aug  8 07:21:09 1982

From: "Lyman R. Hazelton, Jr." 

   And by the way, most of the pilots that I have met care and are
very aware of the "rest of the universe".  Your generalizations
seem to me to be based on what you think pilots are like... it sure
doesn't sound like you have had much contact with them.
   Finally, if you want to experience real non-square patterns and
really see what the world of flying has to offer in the way of a
challenge to a good pilot, try going into DCA at around 18:00 on a
Friday evening.  I'd like to see your square patterns there, and you
better be warned about things like wake turbulance by yourself,
because the controllers won't have the time to tell you about it.
But if you do screw up, they will take the time to either envite you
up for a chat if you manage to land, or send you to another airport
(and that with a very few words, too.)  I've seen this happen more
than once.
   I agree that pilots could be trained much better than they are to
handle unusual and demanding situations, and I have known a few who
were.  But I doubt that the way they fly patterns would tell you of
that fact.