Aircraft recognition training

Although my hobby is taking shots of military machines, I have been posting a lot of general aviation planes of late, and will post a lot more. I have been putting "photo taken for aircraft recognition training" on the shots. So now let me tell "the rest of the story."

After three years training at Chicago Center, in August 1981 during the ATC strike I was sent to DuPage Tower, West Chicago to train there (they asked me to return to the Center in December, but I liked the tower better). I soon realized that a VFR tower was busy with GA airplanes and it made one's job a lot easier if he knew his aircraft types. The only problem was that I taught myself military aircraft recognition, and if it was a GA plane I hadn't flown or that didn't have a military counterpart, I had no clue. So the first month there I got back into my own recognition handbooks and also got the Jane's books from the library and within a couple weeks I knew them all. The manager had seen me with the books during breaks studying and comparing planes while working and he asked me if I could train the other new controllers coming in to replace the strikers. I suggested a slide program and he provided me with funds for film and processing.

So by October of 1981, with a letter of authorization from the airport authority to be on the field with my hand-held radio in my car, I was taking photos with my Pentax K1000 at DuPage, and also at airports all over the Chicago area in order to get all the photos I deemed necessary. Then I wrote up a text describing each plane and sometimes included the history to show the ancestry to help make sense. By April 1982 I had a slide program ready and it was quite successful. Aurora and Palwaukee towers both requested copies of my program so all my slides were duplicated for them. After using the program all year and finding where improvements could be made, I revised it that November. Then Chicago Center, Midway Tower, Meigs Tower and Las Vegas, NV Towers all requested copies. Word was getting around.

By now I realized I was on to something and I revised the program again and offered it as a national program to the FAA in 1983. The FAA paid me $1000 as a "Suggestion Award" and took my original slides after I made a copy to keep at DPA and printed all the slides for my own reference as to what went out. As is usual with the Washington suits, they ended up dropping my slide program and came out with an 8X11 glossy recognition book. The problem was, it was rife with error and I wrote to them telling them as much. That book died after a few years and that was about the extent of the FAA's recognition training.

I continued to revise my program and in May of 1984 Flying Cloud (FCM) requested a copy as did Carbondale (MDH). In 1987 Muskegan, MI tower also got a copy.

By now I figured I could do a book myself, and I wrote a manuscript titled, "General Aviation Aircraft Recognition For Controllers" based on my text for the slides. I then chose the format of B&W photos (5X7) for the manuscript and from 1987 through 1989 I was slowly working on my manuscript and taking photos, with a friend processing them for me.

Then I discovered that getting published wasn't as easy as I had hoped. I submitted my manuscript to one publisher after another, each time being told there was no market. Finally one publisher offered to take on the task if I provided $4000 up front to offset the costs. I couldn't afford that and since then my manuscript has sat in a box with all the photos printed from the slides.

After finding A-D, I posted photos of all those whose N-numbers were still current, and some that weren't but which had interesting paint schemes.

Well, I have to retire April 30th because of the age limitation for ATC. Some of the new kids coming in to Cedar Rapids tower can't tell a Cherokee from a pickle, so I thought I'd brush off my course and update it and make a CD for training. That's why I got into my slide-prints again. I figure I can post them on A-D first, then download them back with the data and copyright stamp on them! I'm posting all of them, and then choosing which photos I like best for the course. A big thing is now shooting new birds with my digital camera. It seems there are about twenty or so new bizjets and quite a few other GA machines since 1990 that I don't have shots of. It will be an arduous task to complete within the next month, but it should be fun also.

And now you know, "the rest of the story."

Thanks for all the kind words, guys! I wondered if my dissertation would be too long but I wanted to explain all the sudden posting of 20-year-old photos of civilian planes, and especially all the B&W. I think those B&W shots are often really good for contrasting parts of the planes. Not all of my shots scanned in as well as I would have liked, and some of them have deteriorated and yellowed sitting in the basement in a box. There have been a few posted that come up with someone's more current shots. A real example of change is N4633V, a Varga Kachina that I shot in its production paint scheme and which now has a photo posted wearing WWII trainer colors!

I gave up the idea of a book back in 1990; I'm just going to do a CD with text for the controllers here as a good-bye present.

I got my first a/c recognition book back in 1968, which I still have. It is all silhouettes and titled, "The MacDonald Aircraft Handbook," compiled by William Green and illustrated by Dennis I. Punnett, put out by Doubleday & Company. This is a small book, about 4X6 by 1 ½ thick. My second one, also purchased in 1968, has all the same silhouettes and text but also has photos, and is titled, “The Aircraft of the World,” and also published by Doubleday. Its format is 8 ½ X 11 and about 1” thick. Over the years I got all the Jane's handbooks, and the Montgomery & Foster one. If it was a recognition book out since 1968, I had it and used them for developing my FAA course. I also used the Jane's All the World's Aircraft to get history and figure out how things connected - I even had the Aurora, IL public library purchasing them every year!

I actually was going to incorporate belly silhouettes in my program and that's when I bought a Pentax ME Super so I could put an auto-wind on it. I collected belly shots from about two dozen planes while sitting off the departure end of Runway 28 at DPA, but I dropped the idea as too much work!

Paul, I have a deck of those WWII spotter cards - lots of fun! I actually made my own page with a cutout that covered all the text of my first book (that home-made page is still in my book) and I would use that to memorize the silhouettes.

As for using other photos off A-D, I've already considered that. I don't know how else I'm going to get all the new stuff in only 67 days that I have left. I've been in a very long e-mail relationship with the top poster, Daniel Compton, and I've already asked for the use of his for those I can't get. We'll just see what I can come up with.

For Doug, I established very logical sections. My “Part 1” was just demonstrating common designs among Cessna, Piper, Beech and Mooney so as to know what company something came from before learning the types. I showed Cessna high wings as 100 and 200 series, twins of 300 series and 400 series; Beech singles of the Musketeer series with companion Duchess, Bonanza series with companion Barons, and King Airs. For basic Piper designs I showed the PA28 series and companion PA44, PA32 series and companion PA34, PA24 to PA30, Apache to Aztec, PA31s to Cheyennes and even how the PA46 resembled PA31s. Then I had part 2, divided into chapters (sections in the slide program). Chapter 2 is high wing, single engine, starting with tail-draggers. Chapter 3 was low wing, single engine. Chapter 4 was twins, divided into tail-draggers, then tri-geared high winged and tri-geared low wing. Chapter 5 was corporate jets. I tried to keep similar-looking machines together for comparison.

In my text I pointed out specific highlighted features, but the history of some to connect them was always good for me so I figured it would help others make sense of it. Just like a post a recently about the C210 with wheel pants and I pointed out that it was a C205 and explained how it worked (actually the C205 was under the C210 type cert, so it was something like "210-5" if I recall) by using the history beginning with the C180. The C120/140 to C150/152 is similar, and the C170 to C172 also a similar story. I liked the story about the Bonanza and Twin Bonanza origins of most of Beech's planes. Those two were Beech's first two planes after the WAR. If you follow the trail, the BE35 led to the BE33, which led to the BE36 (and the T-34 by the way), which led to the BE95 Travelair and Baron series. My understanding was that the Army asked for a stretched version of the BE50 which is where the BE65 Queen Air came from, which led to the BE80 with the swept tail. Then the Army wanted turbo-props on the Queen Air making it the U-21, and stretching that Beech made the BE99, but Beech saw the potential of a pressurized Queen Air with turbo-props and that made the King Air, which just kept getting bigger and bigger.

Doug, I like your idea of the voice-activated recognition thing - that would be a great thing to develop if you are a computer person. John, I was hoping some of those old shots would be recognized by people who flew them. Bringing memories back is always exciting. I have a shot of an F-104 that was at the Dayton show in 1982

http://www.airport-data.com/aircraft/photo/096096.html;

I recently got an e-mail from a retired Air Force colonel telling me he was the one who flew it there! That was neat.

As for my retirement, I plan to finally get to see some more airs shows since I will not be working weekends, especially the one in Dayton that I haven't seen since 1986. And there are many museums I want to visit. But a lot of my time will be spent in ministry work because that is what I have been looking forward to having time for - too often my work gets in the way of it!

Ken, my course I'm building will be on a CD because that's how much technology I know and it will work. If you have a way of setting something like that up for connecting to on the net, I'd be more than happy to provide it.

Glenn

Well, I finished my course and turned it into the manager today. He likes it.

Ken, you said you were interested in a copy of the CD; e-mail me where to send it. bluebaron52@yahoo.com

Of 209 photos, 180 were mine, 27 were taken from Daniel Compton, one from an ex-employee of one of our FBOs (he got the Eclipse 500 in their hangar) and one other by someone who shot one of our planes that hasn't been out since fall. I was able to get quite a few newer planes by the time I finished my text. If I had more time I would have just waited for the planes to come to CID, since almost all my missing shots have been in to CID frequently.

Not reallay all that big. I have the text in Works, but also saved in rtf. The CD says there's 30MB on it now.

The text is oriented a lot just towards CID, and some of the types chosen for inclusion were limited to CID rather than try to do every plane in my original manuscript. For example, I just have a few tail-draggers other than Cessnas, and low-wng singles are pretty much limited to US made with prevalent foreign built In fact, the whole thing is limited mostly to US stuff, since most foreign machines don't show up here and if they do, they can look them up in a recognition guide. Carriers were limited to just what comes into CID on a regular basis or during bowl games when we get larger stuff, so they are limited to ATR, Dornier J328, E135/145, E170, B272, B737, 747, 757, DC9, L1011, MD80, CRJ1/2/7/9. Odd ducks are just what flies into or is based at CID: Taylorcraft BC-12, Stinson 108, RVs, Pitts, Christen Eagle, Glassair, Long EZ, Flight Design CT, Jabiru, Commander 100.

209 photos but there are some aircraft that needed more than one to demonstrate the permutations they went through, such as the C182 and C210, which people are surprised to see old models being the same type as the newer ones.

Glenn

I'm not sure where that last response fit in with the topic :

I suppose I should give an update. Six weeks after my retirement from the FAA I was hired by Washington Consulting Group to be a part-time contract classroom instruction, and RADAR simulator operator, to train controllers at Cedar Rapids. Since my retirement, they have acquired five new kids, plus there were three already in various phases of training. So I have been quite busy.

The good thing for me is that many of the old photos - as well as many of Daniel's photos - are being replaced as I watch out my office window.