NORDO no more

Aviation news international – It will come as no surprise to regular readers that I am a huge fan of the Piper Cub.

The J-3 is a classic in every sense. It includes nothing but the basics.

If it’s not absolutely necessary to achieve flight, the J-3 doesn’t have it. There’s no electrical system. There are no lights. The panel is as sparse as the regulations allow. Little more than a smattering of round gauges providing the bare minimum of information can be found there.

I would argue that the most beneficial instrumentation on the Cub comes in the form of the plexiglass that surrounds the pilot and the passenger.

With the stick in my hand and the balls of my feet resting on the rudder pedals, I’ve got full control of the aircraft. I can hear the engine and adjust the throttle with reasonable accuracy without even peeking at the tachometer. I can see 270° or more of the horizon through that all-important plexiglass or the always open clamshell door that provides an unrestricted view out of the right side of the cockpit.

A quick glance at my wingtip against that horizon tells me all I need to know about my angle of attack. My airspeed is virtually immaterial. By setting pitch and power I know I’m in a stable cruise configuration. If the open lower door starts to flap up and down, I know I’m in a stall. If my speed on final is a bit high, all I have to do is close the throttle.

An airframe designed with all the drag in the world will slow me down as if I threw an anchor overboard. Touching down and making the first turn-off from the runway, just 500 feet from the numbers, is no problem.

If I have the opportunity to operate from a grass strip, I take it. The Cub was built for grass. It flies like a dream. My tires touch down as smoothly as if they were sliding onto a dish of butter. The slow, mechanical drone of the engine at low idle leaves me enthralled.

I absolutely, without reservation, love the Piper Cub.

I do not love NORDO aircraft, however. In fact, I will go so far as to say I believe flying without benefit of a radio is irresponsible, dangerous, and completely unnecessary.

Frankly, I would look askance at anyone trying to make the point that flying NORDO is wise. It’s not.

Yes, it is legal to fly in Class G or Class E without a radio. The regulations of Part 91 clearly allow for that freedom. We can go communication naked if we wish. Silence is acceptable, so say the rules. They do not suggest silence is golden however.

The accident record tells us otherwise.

Collisions between aircraft where one doesn’t have a radio have been unnecessarily frequent in recent years. Collisions between aircraft that have radios but are piloted by individuals who choose not to use them are equally unsettling.

That’s how a PA28 came to meet a NORDO Pitts S-1S while airborne in Westminster, Maryland.

A CFI issued an Aviation Safety Reporting System (ASRS) report that detailed a near collision between his PA-28 and a C-172 whose pilot chose not to use their radio when in the pattern at a Class G non-towered airport.

There is the case of a C-172 flying the wrong pattern, then landing on top of a C-150 flown by a student pilot on his second solo flight. The student was making radio calls. The CFI in the C-172 was not.

The worst aviation accident in history occurred on a towered field between two transport category aircraft, one taking off in fog while the other was back taxiing on the same runway. One aircraft initiated takeoff without clearance. They neglected to make a call announcing their departure, which would have alerted the other aircraft and the tower controller to the danger. The result was the death of nearly 600 people, all due to the lack of a radio call.

NORDO aircraft had their time in the sun. In fact, there was a period of several decades when installing a radio in an airplane made little sense. Electrical systems and radios were often sketchy and always quite heavy. In smaller general aviation aircraft they were impractical from a cost perspective, as well as a weight consideration. With the limited air traffic of the time and the plethora of non-towered airports and grass strips popping up across the land, allowing NORDO operations made sense as a practical decision.

If asked to express my personal opinion, I would reply that is no longer the case.

Recently I sat down for lunch at a local restaurant with Tim and Ann Baker, along with their son-in-law Jonathan Rowe. Missing from the table was Faith Baker Rowe, daughter of Tim and Ann, wife of Jonathan.

Faith was killed, along with three others, when her aircraft collided with a NORDO aircraft. It was very nearly a classic low-wing, high-wing accident. The PA-28 banked and descended directly into the J-3 below. Nobody broke any rule. Neither pilot acted rashly, or impulsively, or with reckless abandon. Yet they met in flight and paid an unacceptably high price.

I fault nobody for owning a NORDO aircraft. I’ve owned more than one. But I do not fly without a radio, handheld or otherwise. Sometimes I take a handheld along in my bag as a back-up even if the aircraft has a panel-mounted model on board.

The handheld weighs less than a pound. Cost is not a factor — my headset cost several times as much as the radio. I get safety, security, emergency communications should I need it, and the peace of mind that my wife and kids will likely not have to share a meal with a stranger while telling the story of how I was lost for lack of an easily obtainable communication device.

We can do so much to protect ourselves and our passengers in flight. Let’s do that voluntarily, lest some governmental body choose to foist a new requirement on us due to our unwillingness to put safety first.

source: https://generalaviationnews.com/2023/08/15/nordo-no-more/