Look in your logbook and tell me something: How much time have you spent practicing directional control? There is a way to estimate it, but it’s a rough method at best. Figure how long it takes your trainer or the airplane you fly most often to get airborne on takeoff, or on rollout after touchdown, and multiply that value by the number of takeoffs or landings.
We all know that hours alone aren’t a measure of skill. So let’s heavily discount all the zero-wind hours of directional control time you have put in. Crosswind time is good, and the more crosswind, the better that training time. Tailwind components are no-nos for takeoffs and landings so your experience level there is probably negligible. Practicing directional control in wind is an exception to that rule which states that hours alone don’t tell you much about a pilot’s experience.
Directional control is an element in several tasks on the practical test and it demands good touch. Although it’s a ground operation, directional control is a three-axis concern, combined with braking. As the takeoff is begun there will be yaw as the power comes up, so be there with rudder. Nimble aileron control keeps an upwind wing down in any crosswind, also lessening effects of gusts. Pitch regulates rotation, or manages the intricacies of a soft-field liftoff. All of these control inputs must be moderated when acceleration makes the associated control surfaces more effective. The reverse is true after touchdown on landing.
Even an accident that occurs in flight may have had its beginnings with directional problems on the ground—especially when flying a tailwheel-equipped aircraft because of its tendency to “swap ends” when yaw is left unmanaged.
The wind was “variable and shifting” on April 4, 2009, in Monterey, California, when an American Champion 7GCAA taxied out for takeoff, according to a National Transportation Safety Board accident summary. “Immediately after clearing the pilot for takeoff on Runway 10R, the controller told the pilot that the winds had shifted and now were from 330 degrees at six knots. The pilot noted that she would be taking off with a left quartering tailwind. During the ground roll, she pushed the stick forward to bring the tail up, then she eased up on the forward pressure and the airplane became airborne momentarily. The pilot was attempting to get the airplane into ground effect for more airspeed, but the wind changed direction and the airplane yawed to the left. She tried to correct, but stated that there was no lift and no altitude, and the airplane was in a nose-up attitude. The nose quickly dropped to the right, and the airplane came to a rest on its belly off to the right side of the runway. The tail wheel and left gear collapsed, the left wing tip was damaged, and the prop struck the ground.”
The NTSB said the probable cause for the accident was: “The pilot’s inadequate compensation for the wind conditions and failure to attain/maintain an adequate airspeed, which resulted in an aerodynamic stall.”
Another case shows how an inexperienced pilot may skate by until something happens to outmatch him and put lack of experience in the spotlight. Landing under windy conditions in a new make and model, for example. On April 25, 2009, in Townsend, Georgia, the pilot was executing a second balked landing in a Diamond DA20 when he lost control and hit a tree.
“The pilot reported encountering turbulence while en route and on approach. The recorded wind at an airport located 19 nautical miles northwest of the accident airport, about the time of the accident, was from 140 degrees at eight knots. Runway 2 was 3,475 feet long, 41 feet wide, and was surrounded by trees. Winds at the airport were from the east at approximately 10 knots, as estimated by the pilot, and during the landing roll the airplane veered west of the runway centerline. The pilot applied right rudder; however, he was unable to correct for the drift. He subsequently added power to perform another aborted landing, but the airplane continued to track west and impacted a tree,” said the NTSB report. Noting that the pilot reported he had “169 hours of total flight experience; of which, three hours were in the accident airplane,” the NTSB said the probable cause of the accident was “the pilot’s failure to maintain directional control during a landing roll with a crosswind. Contributing to the accident was the pilot’s lack of experience in the make and model airplane.”
It doesn’t take a howling wind with a generous crosswind component to put an accident into the loss-of-directional-control category. The left-turning effects of a larger engine have been known to get the better of pilots whose upgrades to more horsepower have not been sufficiently thorough. Often those adventures begin with a rude shove of the throttle as the takeoff run is commenced. Running off the runway (usually to the left) is the predictable outcome.
Focusing on proper control deflection during ground operations is a good place to start, and a good defense. Train yourself to maintain those pressures at all times—not just when you can feel the wind pushing against the airframe. Be gentle with throttle inputs on takeoffs. Tighten your tolerances for when to apply corrective rudder on takeoff and landing runs (and with braking when rudder is not effective).
Make it a habit to pin that aircraft to the runway centerline! If that stripe ends up under a wing tip after the rolling and thumping has ended, ask yourself (or your CFI) why and be sure that you arrive at the right answer.
Some new pilots discover that they are doing everything just fine on the rollout—until they put their heads down to raise the flaps, remove carb heat, or acknowledge a radio command. Review your cleanup technique, and if necessary delay those steps—that is, those distractions—a few seconds longer. If there’s a nice long runway available and more practice is indicated, try dual practice of high-speed taxiing when traffic permits. Even at the lowest taxi speeds, a standard of precision will help develop the habit pattern of keeping those painted lines under the nosewheel where they belong.
Just as a pilot learns in cruise that “small corrections” keep an aircraft flying in the right direction at the right altitude, minor modifications of your method are probably what you’ll need here on the ground as you work on better directional control. The other part of the equation is avoiding adverse conditions that wait to snare the unwary.
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