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Training TipsThe tell-all technique
How is that possible after such a brief time sharing your cockpit?
It’s tied directly to the basic aspects of your earliest training. Specifically, do you move the controls in a coordinated fashion, inducing aircraft motion around one or more axes while controlling for adverse motion in another? Or do you appear unaware of the aircraft’s responses to your control pressures, slipping and skidding through checkride tasks?
An operation as simple as turning to an assigned heading can tell all.
Suppose you have been asked to perform a right turn from north to east. If you bank the aircraft to the right without applying right rudder, what happens? Initially, the nose will yaw left. That’s a response to the lift and drag added to the left wing by downward deflection of its aileron.
Even if the examiner appears busy scribbling on a clipboard, he or she will sense the uncoordinated turn as a sideways nudge in the seat—an unpleasant sensation, especially if repeated multiple times during a flight.
That sickly sensation becomes downright uncomfortable in slow flight, when the adverse-yaw effect of even small aileron deflections intensifies. There’s a safety issue here: If left uncorrected, adverse yaw is what turns stalls into spins.
Whether in normal or slow flight, the same uncoordinated use of the controls that spoils a turn entry is likely to ruin the rollout as well. As you start rolling out of that right turn, simultaneously add a touch of left rudder. If the nose does not slew farther right as you begin the rollout, and if you feel no sideways motion in your seat, you have achieved coordination.
Here’s a good warm-up exercise for any training flight: After level-off, perform several gentle banks left, right, left, right. Focus on using rudder to keep the nose pinned to a prominent visual reference.
Wait—doesn’t the little ball in the inclinometer tell you if your flying is coordinated?
It does provide a synthetic indication of coordinated flight. But if your turns feel smooth, and if the aircraft’s nose obediently moves only in the desired direction, the ball only confirms what you (and the examiner) already know. Flight Training NewsTechnique: All the way to the chocksThe windsock indicated a direct and very strong crosswind as the clipped-wing J-3 Cub touched down on the runway. The pilot, Jimmy Gist, was doing a masterful job of putting the feather-light airplane down on its main wheels and tracking the centerline despite the stiff winter wind. “Nice landing!” AOPA Pilot Senior Editor Dave Hirschman blurted out from the passenger seat. But Gist deflected his compliment in a typically understated way. “It ain’t over yet,” he said laconically. “In fact, it’s just getting interesting.” Read more >> Embry-Riddle Worldwide hosts online human factors courseEmbry-Riddle Aeronautical University-Worldwide has opened registration for an online aviation human factors course that is free to the public. The Massive Open Online Course (MOOC) is the first of a series of free courses that the university plans to offer. Read more >> Five flight data appsThis week, AOPA looks at five flight data apps: Air Nav Pro, SkyDemon, ARPort, FlightIntel for Pilots, and Flight Instruments. Read more >> AOPA FlyQ EFB special presentations at AirVenture 2013Join the AOPA FlyQ team at EAA AirVenture in the AOPA Tent (outside Hangar C) for exciting daily prize drawings and a series of special presentations during the show. Enter daily to win an iPad Mini with RAM mount, Dual XGPS 170 Automatic Dependent Surveillance-Broadcast (ADS-B) receiver, Sagetech Clarity SV ADS-B receiver, Apple gift card, and other great prizes. Three AOPA FlyQ EFB subscriptions will also be awarded daily. Read more >> Students get aviation introduction through Albuquerque programTwenty Albuquerque high school students participated in the Double Eagle Aviation Adventure (DEAA) summer challenge to get exposed to aviation and aerospace careers. DEAA was created by the Albuquerque Experimental Aircraft Association Chapter 179, and sponsored by Aspen Avionics, Van’s Aircraft, and Bode Aviation. The teens spent a week in an airport environment learning aerodynamics, flight planning, aircraft instruments, and systems; building aircraft; and visiting a control tower. Accident Case Study: Everyone’s ProblemOn Nov. 15, 2007, the tranquility of a central Texas afternoon was shattered when a Piper Arrow fell to the ground in pieces, killing a flight instructor and two students. It had been a routine training flight in a well-maintained aircraft on a calm, clear day. How could things have gone so wrong? The Air Safety Institute’s latest video, Accident Case Study: Everyone’s Problem, seeks to shed light on the tragedy, and the unsettling circumstances that led to it. Originally developed for the institute’s new online Flight Instructor Refresher Course, it’s a tale of extraordinary recklessness and irresponsibility, but one that still holds lessons for all of us—not only as pilots and CFIs, but as friends, peers, and co-workers. Watch the video >> The mountains are callingSummer in the mountains—snow-capped peaks, flowing streams, and lush meadows—is a beautiful sight, especially from above. But the rich rewards of mountain flying are only matched by the dangers present, particularly to the unprepared or inexperienced pilot. Learn more about the unique hazards of mountain flying by taking the Air Safety Institute’s Mountain Flying online course. Log in to take the course >> Training ResourcesThe Best of Never Again Vol. 1More than 50 years after Never Again was first published in AOPA Pilot, it remains among the most popular pages in the magazine. Countless pilots may have been saved by the Never Again stories that AOPA members shared in AOPA Pilot. The association has compiled some of the best Never Again stories into an e-book for your enjoyment and continued learning. The cost is $9.99.
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AVIATION EVENTS & WEATHER
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You have barely leveled off at the assigned altitude and heading for your checkride, and already the designated examiner has a fair idea of what to expect from the rest of your performance.
IFR Fix: Full steam ahead?
