After I dropped him off at the control tower, I took off and was number three on the midfield left downwind for Runway 23. As I was about to turn to the base, a controller announced that they were changing runway operations. She asked me to fly a 45-degree entry to left downwind for Runway 10. It was actually a very easy and smooth transition from 23 to 10.
But I panicked and felt helpless. Instead of flying by her instructions, I flew past the control tower and all the way to the end of Runway 23. I continued about two miles, then made a big turn back to Runway 10. Of course, I was reporting to her all the time, and the airport's operation was interrupted for about 10 minutes until I landed. Oddly, no one offered me any help on how to make my transition smoother.
My instructor told me later he was inside the tower and asked them not to talk to me, but just listen. He might have been right, because more instructions would only have made me more confused. He trusted me that I would figure out what to do and make a safe landing. I thank him for his confidence in me, and thank the controllers holding other traffic for me. This experience was somewhat unpleasant, but it certainly was an excellent one.
Eddy Chen
Via the Internet
Vertigo Or Vestibular?
I found Dave Wilkerson's "Checkride: Turn Crisply, Turn Steep" (May AOPA Flight Training) interesting and informative. His insights are right on when warning of the spatial disorientation or vertigo that may occur from rapid entry into a steep turn ("fighter-pilot style") or during a normal rollout out of a steep turn (wherein "roll rates combine with turn rates") while flying in instrument meteorological conditions.
However, I would like to point out that such maneuvers do not "confuse the Eustachian tubes," as Wilkerson writes, but rather severely task the brain's ability to correctly integrate information from the vestibular system in a turning airplane. The Eustachian tube is connected to the middle ear and allows equalization of pressure between the middle ear space and the environment as ambient pressure changes. The vestibular system, and its semicircular canals which sense angular accelerations, are responsible for our senses of turning, rolling, and yawing. Even so, for maneuvers such as those cited, the semicircular canals may respond appropriately for a given rolling or turning, but because the whole system is tilted in a turning airplane, it is the brain that may not integrate the signals correctly.
Thanks for the many wonderful articles each month in AOPA Flight Training.
Jason M. Hanson, M.D.
Chesterfield, Missouri
Explaining Lift
AOPA Flight Training has been an invaluable companion through my challenging and enlightening journey from student pilot to my recently obtained private certificate, and it will continue to be read cover to cover within 24 hours of its arrival. I do, however, have a correction to a letter in "Flight Forum" (May AOPA Flight Training). Reader John McMurray states that "Mark Danielson blemishes an otherwise excellent article, 'Understanding Lift,' when he states that aircraft do not climb as well at high density altitudes because they have less lift." McMurray goes on to say that "The wing produces the same lift at high density altitude as it does at sea level: just enough to hold up the weight of the plane. Airplanes climb slower at high density altitude because they have less power."
Yes, airplanes do indeed climb slower at high density altitudes, but as renowned aviation author William Kershner states in The Student Pilot's Flight Manual, "Airplanes require more runway to take off on hot days or at airports of high elevation because of decreased air density. You can see in the lift equation that if the air is less dense the airplane will have to move faster through the air in order to get the required value of lift for flight - and this takes more runway...Not only is the lift of the wing affected, but the less dense air results in less power developed within the engine."
It seems that author Mark Danielson was right after all.
Rich Cummings
Via the Internet
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