Flying Life: Work smarter, not harder

But can you imagine how unsuccessful Ozzie would have been had he stood waiting for the ball with his hands in his pockets or attempted to do a backflip without bending his knees? I think we pilots could take a few cues from the Baseball Hall of Famer and intelligently position our bodies to be used most effectively on the controls. Yes, there are many different ways to fly an airplane, but why make life harder for ourselves by expending more energy than is absolutely necessary? With some minor adjustments, we can make sure that every little muscle movement is effective in moving the airplane in the direction we want it to go.

Let’s start with the hands. I often notice on private pilot checkrides that applicants believe they need two hands on the control wheel. This is something I do not allow, for several reasons. First of all, I want to live. If an applicant did something dangerous with a two handed, white-knuckled grip on the control wheel, I would have a hard time overpowering him. But for the flying pilot’s sake, only putting one hand on the control wheel is the wise thing to do. This leaves the other hand free to make throttle or trim adjustments, change the radio frequency, or smack the safety pilot when he falls asleep. Also, airplanes are sensitive creatures that generally require only a very light touch. If you put both hands on the control wheel, there is a tendency to make larger movements than necessary, making for extra work to chase a specific altitude or airspeed. If you find that you need the strength of two hands, you probably need more trim. Try relieving the pressure on the wheel with a good trim setting and you will find that only one hand on the wheel is more than sufficient.

I’ll take all the help I can get making things a little bit easier for myself in the cockpit.Next let’s move on to the elbow—a generally overlooked, but highly useful body part when trying to hold an airplane steady. When I’m with a student and notice the airplane oscillating quite a bit despite smooth air, I always suggest he place his flying elbow on the armrest so he can have an easier time holding the airplane steady. My flight instructor, who wasn’t quite as funny as he thought he was, used to call this phenomenon PIT or pilot-induced turbulence. For some reason, we are still friends. When I go for recurrent training in the Beechjet, we always have to perform steep turns in the simulator. It is next to impossible to hold altitude if you don’t use the arm rest to steady your elbow when every small movement sends you darting high or low by hundreds of feet. I realize not all airplanes have an armrest, but if you’ve got one, why not use it?

Finally we arrive at the feet. The only time your entire foot should be up on the rudder pedal is when you are on the ground, taxiing. When you are in the air or rolling quickly down the runway, your heels should be on the floor with only the balls of your feet on the very bottom of the rudder pedals. In most light general aviation aircraft, runway length is not a limiting factor. So there is no need to slam on the brakes immediately after touching down. This practice leads to many expensive tire changes because of bald and flat spots.

The Airplane Flying Handbook (AFH 3-1) puts it this way: “The pilot’s feet should rest comfortably against the rudder pedals. Both heels should support the weight of the feet on the cockpit floor with the ball of each foot touching the individual rudder pedals. The legs and feet should be relaxed.” When I’m giving a checkride and notice the applicant having a problem keeping the aircraft coordinated—something that always makes for excitement when testing power-on stalls—I can almost guarantee his or her feet are farther up on the rudder pedals than they should be. Think about it. Would it require more energy to move your entire leg back and forth or only the ball of your foot up and down while your heels rest comfortably on the floor?

I have come to realize that I may never be as good at flying as Ozzie was at baseball. That’s why I’ll take all the help I can get making things a little bit easier for myself in the cockpit, starting with where I position my hands, elbows, and feet. Remember the motto of any good pilot: Work smarter, not harder.

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