Dear Rod:
I have a student who is about five feet tall. She needs a cushion to effectively control the airplane, but other than that she has no problems with control (i.e., reaching the rudder pedals or toe brakes). Can you think of anything that might prevent her legally from getting her certificate?
Regards,
Concerned CFI
Greetings Concerned CFI:
There’s no legal or practical reason that your student can’t fly an airplane as long as she can control the airplane safely. I’ve had several students five feet or less, and each one adapted perfectly well with cushions (both seat and back cushions) and some type of footwear that extended their toe reach (heel reach is important but ball-of-foot reach is more important). Rudder pedal extenders, clog-type shoes, or any type of Lady Gaga footwear might do the trick (but with a bit less gaga, of course).
Dear Rod:
I’m a student pilot with 14.3 hours and I’m having trouble with crosswind landings. I hope to solo soon, but when a crosswind is present I start drifting off the runway centerline. I applied rudder to turn the nose into the wind to stop the drift but I still drift. My instructor doesn’t have much to say other than that I’ll eventually get it. If you have any suggestions, I’d really appreciate hearing them.
Thank you,
R.K.
Greetings R.K.:
I think you have misunderstood how to apply a crabbing crosswind correction. If I used your technique to correct for wind drift on a long final approach, I’d end up with one mighty tired leg after touchdown. That’s because you don’t step on the rudder to point the airplane’s nose into the wind. Instead, you turn the entire airplane into the wind to apply your wind correction angle. This means using rudder and aileron in coordination as you roll into a normal turn, then rolling out using rudder and aileron in coordination when you’ve established the desired wind correction angle. Any adjustment to the wind correction angle on final should be made with small coordinated turns. If you elect to hold that crab into the landing flare, you’ll use rudder to align the airplane with the runway centerline just before touchdown while using your ailerons to keep the wings level.
Dear Rod:
During my last solo cross-country flight I hit some turbulence that scared the heck out of me. I felt that I could hardly control the airplane. It was so bad that I was afraid the wings would fail. My question to you is, how much turbulence is too much? When should I be worried and what can I do about it?
Sincerely,
Sandy
Greetings Sandy:
I don’t know any pilot who likes turbulence. Period. It’s simply no fun getting bounced around like you’re the last Tic-Tac in the box. That said, those with enough experience know that turbulence presents more debilitating stress to you on a psychological level than it does to the airplane on a structural level. Why? Because we never quite know how bad it will get (so our imagination typically conjures up the worst-case scenario). You should find great comfort in knowing that turbulence induced by Mother Nature and experienced in VFR conditions rarely (and I do mean rarely) damages small airplanes in flight.
In fact, it’s extremely difficult to find even a single instance where it did. That’s because pilots are taught to slow down to speeds at or below the airplane’s maneuvering speed in turbulence. Doing so means that the airplane will stall before exceeding its structural limitations.
So when you encounter turbulence, slow the airplane down to at or below your calculated maneuvering speed (I prefer to slow down 10 knots below this speed to compensate for wind gusts) and tighten your seatbelt for the rough ride. Keep the airplane in level flight attitude and don’t try to hold altitude at the expense of exceeding your maneuvering speed.
Related Articles
