Instructor Report: Turning points

I cleared the area, found a visual landmark with which to begin and end the turn, and started the maneuver. I smoothly rolled into a 50-degree bank, advanced the throttles a bit to compensate for increased drag and added back-pressure to keep a windscreen reference (probably a dead bug) on the horizon. A few quick scans of the VSI and altimeter, and a few small pitch corrections had the maneuver dialed in. I held pitch and bank until I saw my landmark, then started a crisp rollout a few degrees before the point. I chose not to use elevator trim to relieve the need for constant back-pressure.

My chief then said he would like to show me how he taught steep turns. He cleared the area, chose a landmark, and began the maneuver, as I had done. The difference came when he used the electric elevator trim to remove the need for back-pressure. He then folded his arms—and, I presume, used a bit of top rudder to combat overbanking tendency—and watched the airplane fly around the turn. His steep turn had less altitude deviation than mine. Did that make it a better demonstration, I wondered? Before I answer let’s consider a few other ideas.

An experienced instructor I knew noted “wheelies” in the logbook of every primary student he taught. I witnessed George doing these with his students on several occasions. He would ask the tower for a high-speed taxi on the runway. I presume that George would control the throttle while the student would bring the nosewheel off the runway with elevator. They would continue this wheelie all the way down the 7,000-foot runway, taxi back, and repeat. What George was giving his students was time to experiment with pitch control in a targeted way. They could see the effects of their exertion, adding back-pressure to lift the nose, then adjusting pressure to maintain a constant pitch attitude with reference to the horizon or the end of the runway.

The other concept is “feel.” We see and hear this word everywhere—from the FAA Airplane Flying Handbook, in an otherwise masterful description of visual attitude flying techniques, to countless discussions between instructors and students. We hear pilots talk about getting the feel of a certain airplane or a certain maneuver. And of course we hear instructors talk about the seat of your pants—feeling the G force of a coordinated turn pulling your butt straight down, rather than a sideways force trying to eject you out the door or into the other pilot’s lap.

While I agree that the kinesthetic sense is a valuable reference, I rank it as secondary to sight. We could still fly if that sense of feel was gone, but we can’t say the same for sight. That’s because controlling an airplane in flight is primarily a visual exercise. We use the flight controls to change or maintain the attitude of the airplane with respect to the horizon, in order to achieve the condition we seek. And like George did for his students, we should talk about feel as it relates to getting a desired visual outcome.

So with visual reference as our primary control cue, let’s talk about whether “three whacks of the trim wheel” is an optimal technique with which to teach students steep turns. One of the most valuable things we learn from doing steep turns is the dynamic balance of back-pressure, attitude (both pitch and bank), and energy—the thrust/drag equation. Just like George doing wheelies with his students, a steep turn gives students a protracted period of time to gauge back-pressure versus attitude, in this case to achieve constant altitude in the turn. As he or she practices, the student learns how much pressure it takes to keep the reference bug on the horizon, as well as where that bug needs to be in order to keep the vertical speed indicator at zero and the altimeter stationary.

Heavier airplanes require use of elevator trim to effectively fly this and other maneuvers. But what does trimming out all the required back-pressure teach the student? Trimming to “hands off” in the steep turn robs the student of this valuable dynamic/visual balance practice that is a metaphor for virtually all control tasks that comprise controlling an airplane in flight. In varying amounts, it’s the same balancing act we do when taking off, landing, climbing, stalling, recovering from a stall, and flying turns in the traffic pattern. Worse still, perhaps, the “three whacks of the trim wheel” method of teaching steep turns arguably teaches the student to use trim as a primary flight control, which is wrong.

The next time you are practicing or demonstrating steep turns with your student, think about the tremendous value of the dynamic balancing act of back-pressure and pitch attitude at a given airspeed. Try the steep turn at different speeds and note the different amounts of pressure required. Ultimately the de-emphasis of trim during steep turns teaches the same thing a new driver learns when negotiating a decreasing-radius off-ramp from the freeway. How much do you turn the steering wheel? Enough to keep the car between the yellow lines at the current speed. How much back-pressure do you use in the steep turn? Enough to keep the horizon reference where it needs to be to achieve constant altitude. And this learning has lasting impact that extends much further than the steep turn your students will perform on their private pilot checkrides. It teaches them that they are in control of the airplane attitude at all times, and, therefore, in control of the airplane and where it sits in the atmosphere, and where it will go next. FT

Charles McDougal is a corporate pilot and flight instructor with more than 11,000 hours.