Insights

Fly smart - your future depends on it

In 1960, as a newly certificated commercial pilot, I flew a few charter flights for individuals who thanked me and paid their bills, but I never heard from them again. Months later, while listening to some experienced pilots discuss flying - formerly called hangar flying - I discovered why.

Airplanes are efficiency tools, and many seasoned passengers recognize proper and improper pilot techniques. If the customer perceives inefficiency, you may lose future revenue or employment. Student pilots should master - properly - these techniques.

Consider braking. Do you jam on the brakes for the brake check prior to taxiing, or do you make a smooth application that does not cause the airplane to pitch down? Do you drag the brakes to control taxi speed when taxiing downwind or downhill, or do you use idle power and intermittent spot braking? Do you apply heavy braking after landing in order to make the first turnoff, or do you let aerodynamic deceleration do the job until you slow to taxi speed?

Consider descent planning. Do you always reduce power when starting a descent at the end of a cross-country flight, or at the end of a lesson in the practice area? If your answer is yes, you should learn to use a cruise-descent arrival profile - you set normal cruise power (usually 75 percent) and establish a 500-foot-per-minute descent, a rate that passengers� ears can usually tolerate. The extra airspeed saves time and money, but there are limits.

Cruise rpm is the first consideration. In fixed-pitch-propeller airplanes, you must reduce power as airspeed increases in order to maintain cruise rpm. Airspeed limitations are next. Power must always be reduced to keep airspeed below V_NE (the redline�s never-exceed speed); below V_NO (the maximum structural cruise speed at the intersection of the green and yellow arcs), which can be temporarily exceeded only in smooth air; or at or below V_A (maneuvering speed) when moderate or greater turbulence is encountered or expected, or a smoother ride is desired.

The cruise descent should end four or five miles from the airport at pattern altitude if terrain and obstructions allow. If you approach an airport at pattern altitude, it is much easier to spot traffic conflicts because your visual background will usually be the sky, not the Earth's surface.

When you level off at pattern altitude, set slow-cruise power and let the airplane decelerate. As you turn onto the downwind leg, the airplane should be stabilized and trimmed for slow-cruise flight, an arbitrary speed that is just below the flap extension speed, V_FE. If your downwind leg must be extended because of traffic, extend the first increment of flaps in order to reduce speed further and remain close to the runway.

When ready to descend for landing, extend the first increment of flaps if not already extended, extend the landing gear if applicable, and reduce power for the descent to the runway. Adjust your remaining ground track and plan the remaining flap extension so that another power reduction is not required until idle power is set just prior to touchdown. That way, only three power reductions are made after the cruise descent is initiated. Flying in this manner makes you look very sharp.

A simple mental calculation is used to determine the descent's starting point. For example, you want to descend at 500 fpm from a cruise altitude of 8,500 feet to a pattern altitude of 1,000 feet with a groundspeed of approximately 120 kt or two miles per minute�typical for many fixed-gear trainers. The distance required for the descent will be 7.5 (altitude difference in thousands of feet), times 2 (approximate groundspeed in miles per minute), times a vertical speed factor of 2 (1,000 divided by 500). That equals 30 miles (7.5 X 2 X 2). To reach pattern altitude five miles from the airport, start the descent 35 miles out. If groundspeed is approximately three miles per minute - typical of higher-performance airplanes - use three for the speed factor instead of two.

When efficient aircraft operation is combined with a minimum number of smooth control inputs and a good landing, you'll always get a thumbs-up from your passengers. Best of all, they will come back, and you may be surprised with an offer for a flying job.

Ralph Butcher, a retired United Airlines captain, is the chief flight instructor at a California flight school. He has been flying for 43 years and has 25,000 flight hours in fixed- and rotary-wing aircraft. Visit his Web site.