Dear Rod:
I read the following post on an aviation blog. What do you think?
“Most students are trained pretty well not to bank more than 30 degrees in the pattern, aren’t they? Isn’t the stall-in-the-pattern problem simply a matter of pitch? If the nose is below the horizon, and the bank is less than 30 degrees, how can the airplane stall, even if the student completely mishandled the rudder? If the student is taught that the turn to final and the final approach should be flown with the nose below the horizon, then he won’t stall.
“My opinion is that this is a situation where attitude awareness is much more important than airspeed awareness.”
Michelle
Greetings Michelle:
Well, this is one of the most unfortunate misconceptions that pilots can have. It’s what happens when you miss school on angle-of-attack day. What this post doesn’t reflect is an understanding that an airplane can stall at any attitude and any airspeed. Stalling is not a matter of attitude. It’s a matter of exceeding the critical angle of attack and this can occur in a nose-down attitude, regardless of the airspeed.
For instance, suppose you’re making a descending turn at 30 degrees of bank onto final approach with full flaps extended. Flaps require a much lower nose-down attitude to sustain the desired airspeed. A power-off descent also requires a nose-down attitude to sustain the target airspeed. It’s entirely possible that a pilot can be at 30 degrees of bank in a descending turn and apply sufficient elevator back-pressure to exceed the critical angle of attack and stall the airplane with the nose pointed below the horizon. Not exceeding 30 degrees of bank while turning is no guarantee that you won’t stall, even with the nose pointed below the horizon.
Dear Rod:
Our flight school’s policy is to have students fly with different instructors every few lessons. To date, I’ve been through seven of them. I also have about 40 hours and haven’t soloed yet. Today I flew with the instructor I took my first three lessons with. Is this normal?
R.K.
Greetings R.K.:
I almost can’t believe what I’m reading. This is clearly one of the strangest ideas I’ve heard in a long time. No, it’s not normal to switch instructors every few lessons, nor is having so many instructors conducive to your learning to fly. Yes, I know that the school probably says that they all teach from the same syllabus, but that doesn’t mean that the instructors teach the same way—much less transmit your performance, learning style, needs, and learning preferences properly from instructor to instructor before you fly. So here’s what I suggest you do.
Tell the school that you will no longer fly with different instructors. Tell them you want one instructor. Period! Then choose the CFI whom you believe best suits your needs. If you can’t get one instructor to work with, then go to another school and stop wasting your money. I hope I’ve conveyed this point strongly enough. When you’re just learning to fly there is absolutely no value in jumping from instructor to instructor. That should be quite clear given that you’re at the 40-hour mark and haven’t soloed.
Dear Rod:
When should I open my VFR flight plan? One instructor says that I should open it after departure and before contacting ATC for radar flight following. Another says to wait until after I’ve begun receiving flight following before opening the flight plan. What do you think?
Anonymous
Greetings Anonymous:
There’s absolutely nothing wrong with either of the options you’ve mentioned. Then again, there’s nothing wrong with opening your flight plan with a flight service station (FSS) while you’re still on the ground prior to departure. You can do this by calling the FSS on the radio or via cellphone. In many ways, this is the easiest method since it minimizes your workload just after departure. Of course, the FSS specialist will likely caution you not to forget to close that flight plan if, for some reason, you were unable to depart.
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Dear Rod:
I read the following post on an aviation blog. What do you think?
“Most students are trained pretty well not to bank more than 30 degrees in the pattern, aren’t they? Isn’t the stall-in-the-pattern problem simply a matter of pitch? If the nose is below the horizon, and the bank is less than 30 degrees, how can the airplane stall, even if the student completely mishandled the rudder? If the student is taught that the turn to final and the final approach should be flown with the nose below the horizon, then he won’t stall.
“My opinion is that this is a situation where attitude awareness is much more important than airspeed awareness.”
Michelle
Greetings Michelle:
Well, this is one of the most unfortunate misconceptions that pilots can have. It’s what happens when you miss school on angle-of-attack day. What this post doesn’t reflect is an understanding that an airplane can stall at any attitude and any airspeed. Stalling is not a matter of attitude. It’s a matter of exceeding the critical angle of attack and this can occur in a nose-down attitude, regardless of the airspeed.
For instance, suppose you’re making a descending turn at 30 degrees of bank onto final approach with full flaps extended. Flaps require a much lower nose-down attitude to sustain the desired airspeed. A power-off descent also requires a nose-down attitude to sustain the target airspeed. It’s entirely possible that a pilot can be at 30 degrees of bank in a descending turn and apply sufficient elevator back-pressure to exceed the critical angle of attack and stall the airplane with the nose pointed below the horizon. Not exceeding 30 degrees of bank while turning is no guarantee that you won’t stall, even with the nose pointed below the horizon.
Dear Rod:
Our flight school’s policy is to have students fly with different instructors every few lessons. To date, I’ve been through seven of them. I also have about 40 hours and haven’t soloed yet. Today I flew with the instructor I took my first three lessons with. Is this normal?
R.K.
Greetings R.K.:
I almost can’t believe what I’m reading. This is clearly one of the strangest ideas I’ve heard in a long time. No, it’s not normal to switch instructors every few lessons, nor is having so many instructors conducive to your learning to fly. Yes, I know that the school probably says that they all teach from the same syllabus, but that doesn’t mean that the instructors teach the same way—much less transmit your performance, learning style, needs, and learning preferences properly from instructor to instructor before you fly. So here’s what I suggest you do.
Tell the school that you will no longer fly with different instructors. Tell them you want one instructor. Period! Then choose the CFI whom you believe best suits your needs. If you can’t get one instructor to work with, then go to another school and stop wasting your money. I hope I’ve conveyed this point strongly enough. When you’re just learning to fly there is absolutely no value in jumping from instructor to instructor. That should be quite clear given that you’re at the 40-hour mark and haven’t soloed.
Dear Rod:
When should I open my VFR flight plan? One instructor says that I should open it after departure and before contacting ATC for radar flight following. Another says to wait until after I’ve begun receiving flight following before opening the flight plan. What do you think?
Anonymous
Greetings Anonymous:
There’s absolutely nothing wrong with either of the options you’ve mentioned. Then again, there’s nothing wrong with opening your flight plan with a flight service station (FSS) while you’re still on the ground prior to departure. You can do this by calling the FSS on the radio or via cellphone. In many ways, this is the easiest method since it minimizes your workload just after departure. Of course, the FSS specialist will likely caution you not to forget to close that flight plan if, for some reason, you were unable to depart.
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