The Two Fundamental Concepts that Greatly Simplify NDB Approaches

It was an instrument lesson and an actual approach. We were flying a Piper Arrow into the Monterey Peninsula Airport just north of the famous Pebble Beach Country Club. The localizer was out of service. The only available approach was the NDB  (non-directional beacon) approach using the outer compass locater nestled up against  the outer marker on the breakwater where the peninsula met the Pacific. Flying the  Monterey Bay coast is one of the most beautiful sights in aviation. Above the cloud 

layer the sky is dazzling. Green and brown hills push up through the seemingly  perpetual low stratus more than a thousand feet above the cloud tops. On that day, the  tops were less than 1,000 MSL. 

One fundamental principle of NDB approaches is to fly the course that takes you from  the radio beacon to the missed approach point. The other fundamental principle is that  the accuracy is limited by the accuracy of your gyrocompass. Any drift or 

uncompensated deviation degrades your ability to fly an accurate course. 

The NDB approach requires that you use your gyrocompass for heading reference and  your radio compass (automatic direction finder, a.k.a. ADF) for orientation. The fatal mistake is to simply follow the needle. The seductive part of an NDB approach is that 

half of the time, following the needle works just fine. That half is until you pass over  the beacon. Once your needle points back at 180°, all the radio compass tells you is  that your tail is pointing at the radio beacon. You could be flying in any direction. 

I decided to let Ralph try the approach and told Approach Control that we would execute a missed approach at or before the missed approach point (MAP). Ralph and I  had talked about NDB approaches. I was not sure he understood them. Here was a 

place where a mistake could be fatal. So during our procedure turn outbound and still  above the clouds, I told him to be prepared for me to take over and execute the missed  approach. 

We descended into the clouds. Shortly after passing the NDB, we were 30° degrees  off course and headed into high terrain. I asked Ralph what heading would get us to  the airport. He could not tell me and said we were doing just fine. He started to argue 

with me about flying a missed approach and who should be flying. I applied full  power, retracted flaps and gear, and told ATC that we were missed. Ralph decided I  was serious and capitulated. Once we were on top Ralph stared at the mountains and 

turned pale. © Copyright 2008-2010 Douglas W. Daniel. All rights reserved. 

Assume the course from the NDB to the missed approach point is 100°. Make it easy by assuming that the inbound course to the NDB is also 100°. Fly a 30° intercept to the inbound course. This would be either 70° or 130° depending on the approach procedure. If it is 130°, your heading is 30° to the right of the inbound course. Your ADF would read 30° to the left of straight ahead or 330° when you intercept the course that you want to follow. If you are two miles or more from the NDB, start the 

turn inbound just a few degrees early so you can roll to wings level just as the ADF centers. Initially fly the magnetic heading shown on the approach procedure. In a few moments the ADF will start to move to either the right or left. It always does.

To interrupt the narrative, how do you know when you are on the path that takes you over the NDB to the airport? The answer is when the ADF needle is off to one side and the gyrocompass if off by an equal angle to the other side. Earlier your 

gyrocompass was off by 30° to the right and your ADF was off by 30° to the left so you were on the course but not on the proper heading. We'll try to nail this down next. 

Continuing to track inbound to the NDB, fly trial headings and watch the ADF. Your first try is the heading on the chart. If the wind blows you to one side, turn back far enough that the ADF is pointing to the other side. Suppose the wind blows you to the 

left until the ADF points to 005°, turn right until it points to -005° which is really 355°. This would require a 10° turn changing your heading from 100° to 110°. Hold that course until the ADF moves left to -010° or 350°. If the ADF moves right, then 

you did not turn far enough, but let's say you did. Once again the radio compass is off an equal but opposite angle from the gyrocompass. You are on course but not on the proper heading. You know that the correction angle is between zero and ten degrees because zero was taking you to the left of the inbound course and ten would have taken you to the right of it if you had continued. If the wind compensating angle is between zero and ten degrees, then the heading to fly is between 100° and 110°.You 

may as well try half way between. That would be 105°. It won't work either exactly, so keep refining your heading. 

This is the procedure that you follow all the way to the missed approach point. Once past the NDB your corrections are left or right of straight back rather than straight ahead. 

To put it in a nutshell, for an NDB approach or any other kind of approach, fly headings, don't chase needles.

Private Pilot Training Online focuses on the little things that hold pilots back; dispels the myths that make learning and flying unnecessarily difficult; and makes the ‘hard’ subjects easy.

Douglas Daniel, long time flight instructor, invites you to visit athttp://PrivatePilotTrainingOnline.org for more flying articles like this one. You may also feel free to contact Doug by visiting his website.

 

Three Steps to Perfect Landings

There are just three fundamental skills you need to know to land an airplane safely and consistently. They are airspeed control, projected glide control, and controlled slow flight. You can learn each separately. But you use them all to land safely and
consistently.

The most fundamental and easiest to learn is airspeed control. You should start with it. Then you should master slow Dutch roll thoroughly at various airspeeds, aircraft configurations and angles of bank. Concurrently you can learn to control the projected
glide point while maintaining a constant airspeed. Airspeed control and projected glide control bring the pilot to the right place at the right airspeed to start the transition from the approach glide to the landing phase.

Control airspeed with the elevator; fine-tune airspeed with power, flaps and landing gear. Monitor airspeed with the airspeed indicator, and then adjust your pitch attitude with the elevator to change your airspeed. If you add to the airplane's drag, you will
be forced to pitch down to maintain constant airspeed. The opposite is true, as well. If you add power, you must lift your nose some, and so forth. Once you have learned to control your airspeed in various flap, landing gear, and power settings you are ready to move on to controlling either your projected glide point (PGP) or mastering slow Dutch rolls (SDR).

Controlling your PGP is only slightly more difficult than controlling airspeed. During a constant airspeed approach, you will see a point on the ground that is staying absolutely still in your field of view. This is where you would go if nothing changed and you continued your downward glide. This is your PGP. If you keep your airspeed steady, your PGP will move farther away from you when you add power and it will come closer to you when you reduce the engine's power setting. More drag brings PGP closer; less drag pushes it away. There is really not much to controlling PGP, but when a pilot runs off the far end of the runway almost certainly poor PGP control, poor airspeed control, or both was the problem. You have to control them both to arrive at the right place and the right airspeed to execute a good landing.

Ironically, once you have flown the proper approach, you no longer need to control either airspeed or PGP. A new set of skills is required to execute the landing itself. Fortunately you can learn most of these skills with one exercise conducted at a nice
comfortable attitude. You learn it by doing SDR in slow flight and in a landing configuration.

Pick a point on the horizon, hold it steady, and very slowly change your angle of bank without letting the point move. Repeat this exercise while transitioning from an approach glide to level slow flight.

Add power as required to maintain a constant altitude while keeping that point steady. Now you are ready to start landing practice.

You learned how to keep the airplane from turning left or right in various angles of bank while flying in a landing configuration at speeds just above a stall by practicing SDR. This is a very good description of the technique used to land an airplane. If you
have a simulator, you don't need an instructor. That is the nice thing about simulators; you botch up and try again. Airplanes are not so forgiving.

In either airplane or simulator, here is how to learn to land. You have successfully flown the approach so you are about one wing span above the runway, over its center line and at just the right airspeed. From now on, forget about airspeed and PGP.
Looking forward and from side to side like you were driving on the open road, you start raising your nose to slow the airplane's descent. Using your rudder pedals you keep the nose pointed at the far end of the runway. Using your ailerons you keep the
airplane centered over the runway. Use your pitch attitude first, and then throttle, to keep the airplane off the runway.

You are NOT going to land! This is just an exercise. The objective is to get as close to the runway, at as slow airspeed as possible, without touching it. You are now doing that SDR in level slow flight that you did earlier. Just to prove you have mastered the
situation, slide the airplane from side to side just above the runway without touching but as close as you can get. Be certain that you continue to keep the airplane pointed at the far end of the runway and the airplane's body parallel to the runway. As you
approach the end of the runway, smoothly apply full power and execute a go around.

Each time you do this, fly the airplane as slowly as you can. Keep that stall warning screaming. It is really a fun thing to do.

As you develop skill with this maneuver, try touching the runway but without landing. Touch it very gently but at as low a speed as you can. At some point you will realize that all you need to do is to touch the runway very gently at a very slow airspeed, then
close the throttle and you will have landed. Easy, wasn't it?

Private Pilot Training Online focuses on the little things that hold pilots back; dispels the myths that make learning and flying unnecessarily difficult; and makes the ‘hard’ subjects easy.

Douglas Daniel, long time flight instructor, invites you to visit at http://PrivatePilotTrainingOnline.org for more flying articles like this one. You may also feel free to contact Doug by visiting his website.

Three Most Dangerous Landing Mistakes Pilots Make and How to Prevent Them

Over-shoot, under-shoot, loss of directional control, wing tip strikes ... are all symptoms of mistakes made BEFORE the pilot touches down. Mistakes that are easily prevented - but not necessarily in a way you might think.

I landed at the Nuttree Airport in a Cessna 172 in 1968. I felt pretty smug. It was a very smooth landing, one of those landings that you could hear but not feel. Then a wind gust picked me up and I landed a second time on a parallel taxiway. The pilot
taxiing in the opposite direction was kind enough (or perhaps stunned enough or frightened enough) to hold short of a turn-off so I could move over to the parking apron. I couldn't look him in the eye as we went past. I mumbled some excuses to my
passengers that I didn't believe. I had just made the three biggest (and most common) mistakes a pilot can make when landing.

Determined to never let that happen again, I spend a great deal of time in the intervening 40 years thinking about how to prevent these mistakes. The NTSB says that a full 45% of the weather-related accidents are caused by crosswinds and gusts. I
believe it. It is time to introduce some little known techniques that help prevent these accidents. But first, we should look at their causes.

Landing too fast is caused by flying the approach too fast or trying to force the airplane to land before it is ready. The solution is to fly a consistent approach at the same airspeed, picking a safe projected glide point (or PGP), and controlling the PGP until you land. But hold the airplane a foot or so off the runway until the airplane nose has rotated up to the landing attitude. Hold that attitude until the airplane lands. That way you will land at the right speed.

Failing to cross control in a crosswind leads to ground loops, being blown off the side of the runway (the MOST common cause of accidents in the United States), wing tip damage, or, in my case, flying over the infield and landing on a taxiway. To put it simply, cross controlling is using the rudder to keep the long axis of the airplane parallel to the long axis of the runway and using the ailerons to keep the airplane positioned over the runway. This guarantees that you will keep the airplane moving
straight down the runway after the wheels touch.

Quit flying the plane before the plane is through flying is one of the most dangerous mistakes that a pilot could make. Its cause is lack of concentration. Its solution is good flying habits.

I was lucky at the Nuttree. If the crosswind had been coming from the opposite side, I could have been blown into a canal. Remember that just because the main gear is on the ground does not mean that there is no 'fly' left in the airplane. Also remember that if you keep the airplane just above the runway until it absolutely, positively will not fly any more, then it will an unusually strong gust to put it in the air again.

It is easy to be lulled into the bad habits that lead to these mistakes. When the wind is gentle and the runway is long, all will be forgiven. So the question is: how to keep these bad habits from developing? Let me introduce two exercises that have helped my students far more than I could have ever imagined. They are the 'very slow Dutch roll' and the 'controlled projected
glide' point. Neither is difficult or dangerous. Both simplify and strengthen any pilot's ability to land.

The very slow Dutch roll is a simple exercise done at a safe altitude. It teaches two very important skills. First the pilot learns to continuously move the stick and rudders to control the airplane as conditions change, and second, the pilot learns how to cross
control the airplane in the most extreme circumstances.

Here is how to do a very slow Dutch roll. Pick a point on the horizon and hold it steady as you change the angle of bank, airspeed and flap configuration. Maintain constant altitude. Change your bank very slowly. Continue to increase the angle of bank until either the aileron or the rudder is pushed to its limit. This is the angle of bank for the maximum crosswind that the airplane can land in. The cross controlled airplane slowly accelerates to the side for a minute or two. During this time, the pilot must move the flight controls continuously - an unanticipated benefit of this exercise when I thought it up.

Let me tell you about the projected glide point or PGP. When you approach the runway your eye will naturally gravitate toward a point on the runway that does not move in your field of vision. The phenomenon is much like when you are on a collision course with another airplane: it stays still in your field of vision but just gets bigger. Well, there is always a point on the ground where exactly the same thing happens. This is the point that you would glide to if you never made that last little flair to land. This is an extremely important concept that can save you many hours of landing practice. I never heard another flight instructor talk about it but I am sure that many pilots use this technique.

You can control the PGP with power and drag while keeping the airspeed constant. To move the PGP closer to you, reduce the engine's power or increase the airplanes drag - usually with flaps. To move the PGP away from you, increase the engine's
power or decrease the airplane's drag. Put the two concepts together to make consistent, safe landings. Once established on
final, use the center line of the runway as your reference point for very slow Dutch rolls. Use the ailerons to position the airplane on the extended centerline, the rudder to keep the long axis of the airplane parallel to that extended centerline. Move the PGP
to the same place every time. I recommend the runway threshold. Consciously continue cross controlling until the airplane slows to a taxi.

These two simple techniques will get you to the same place on the runway every time in a landing configuration that compensates for crosswinds or gusts until the airplane is going so slow that you can taxi to parking.

Private Pilot Training Online focuses on the little things that hold pilots back; dispels the myths that make
learning and flying unnecessarily difficult; and makes the ‘hard’ subjects easy.

Douglas Daniel, long time flight instructor, invites you to visit at http://PrivatePilotTrainingOnline.org for more flying articles like this one. You may also feel free to contact Doug by visiting his website.

 

NDB Approaches Made Easy

The NDB approach is the oldest instrument approach and the most difficult to fly. For
me, it is the approach of last resort. A non-directional beacon is a very simple AM,
low power radio transmitter located near an airport. It sends out a Morse code signal
that you can listen to for identification. That's all; no azimuth or range information.
The instrument that tells you what direction you are headed is the gyrocompass after it
has be aligned with the magnetic compass. The instrument that tells you where the
NDB is relative to your airplane is the automatic direction finder (ADF). The ADF
looks like the gyrocompass but the compass rose has a different meaning. 360° means
straight ahead of the airplane, 90° means to the right, and so on around. You have to
use both of the compasses to fly a successful NDB approach.

Let me set up a hypothetical and straightforward NDB approach. Assume that the
NDB is three nautical miles from the missed approach point (MAP); the wind is from
the northwest at 14 knots; the approach speed is 100 knots; the minimum descent
altitude (MDA) is 350' MSL; and the final approach course is 360° magnetic. The
approach procedure tells you to pass over the NDB at 950' MSL. The NDB also
serves as the final approach fix (FAF).

Knowing all this, you do some mental arithmetic. The 14 knot wind has a 10 knot
crosswind component and a 10 knot headwind component. We can see that the ground
speed on final approach will be 90 knots. Fortunately 90 knots is 1.5 miles per minute.
So if you must go 3 miles from FAF to MAP, the approach will take 2 minutes. The
FAF altitude is 600 feet above the MAP altitude, so the final approach vertical speed
should be 300 feet per minute (fpm).

Let's start after you have descended to 950'MSL and have turned inbound to intercept
the final approach course. You fly a heading of 30° until the ADF reads 330°. The
airplane is now directly south of the NDB. A turn to 360° puts the plane on a bearing
directly to the NDB and both the gyrocompass and ADF read 360°. As the airplane
approaches the NDB the crosswind component blows you off course to the right.
The ADF tells you that the plane is off course by pointing to the left of straight ahead
by a few degrees. You cannot turn the airplane by those few degrees and head directly
toward the NDB again and hope to intercept the inbound course because the wind will
just blow you off course again. You know that you need to turn into the wind to some
degree if you are to find the crab angle that will keep you on course to the NDB. If the
ADF told you that the NDB is 5° to the left, you need to turn to a course that is more
than 5° to the left of the NDB. Read this next paragraph very carefully. It is tricky.

You know that you must turn into the wind to compensate for its drift. The ADF told
you that you have moved to the right relative to the NDB. Therefore you must turn to
the left. If you turned 5°, you would be pointing directly toward the NDB. You also
know that you must be heading to the left of the NDB to compensate for the
crosswind. If you did not move any closer to the NDB during your turn, you might
turn 5° to the left of the NDB and be on a ground track that would take you directly
over the NDB. But you have moved closer to the NDB and you want to intercept the
inbound course before you get to the NDB so you have more time to fine-tune your
inbound heading.

You turn the airplane 15° to the left. Both the ADF and the gyrocompass respond. The
ADF changes from 355° to 010°. The gyrocompass changes from 360° to 345°. You
want to stay on that heading until intercepting the inbound course. You would like to
see the ADF change from 010° to 015°. You monitor the ADF to see if it starts to
swing back to the right. If it doesn't, you need to increase the correction angle. If the
needle does swing to the right, you will be on course when the ADF points the same
number of degrees but in an opposite direction from the apparent error on the
gyrocompass. In this case, the ADF would read 015° and the gyrocompass would read
345°. Once you are on course, turn right to a heading of 355°. That is based on the
belief that a 5° correction to the left is the proper drift correction angle. You continue
to fine-tune your approach heading all the way to MAP at MDA.

Here is a mental trick that works for me that you might try: When looking at the ADF,
I think of 345° as -15° or as 15° to the left of straight ahead. I visualize it as one big
mark and one small mark to the left of straight up.

As you approach the NDB, you stabilize the airspeed at 100 knots indicated airspeed
(KIAS). When the ADF starts to be extremely sensitive, you know that you are very
close to the transmitter and simply fly what you believe to be the best heading. When
the ADF suddenly reverses itself, you note the time or push a timer button. You
reduce power to a setting that should yield a 300 fpm descent. You continue to track
toward the airport, maintaining a very constant airspeed. You adjust the power as
needed to establish your 300fpm or slightly greater descent.

Ideally you should be at MDA before you reach the MAP, otherwise you may never
descend to MDA. You are very careful to never descent below MDA.
When the timer indicates that the plane has flown for two minutes past the FAF, and
you do not have the airport environment in sight, you must execute the missed
approach procedure.

Doug Daniel is a long time pilot, flight instructor, software engineering manager and author. His department developed the software for the out-the-window-displays for the space shuttle, F-117, RS-71 and numerous other exotic airplanes. His writing focuses on flying techniques designed to make flying easier and safer. If this was interesting, visit his website at http://PrivatePilotTrainingOnline.org .

 

Three Lessons from Steep Turns

I was asked the question, "How do I keep my bank angle and speed steady in 45 degree turns?"
 
While this question looks quite simple, it is a very good one. There are several very  useful concepts you can learn by understanding what happens in a constant altitude,  constant airspeed 45° bank.
 
Let's assume that you enter a left turn by coordinated aileron and rudder movement.  As your angle of bank increases you have to pull back further on the elevator control.  Once the bank approaches 45°, you once again coordinate your aileron and rudder movement to stop the roll and maintain a constant bank but you must continue pulling back on your elevator control.
 
Where you look now is very important. Most important is that you notice where the horizon cuts the top of the instrument panel. A quick glance at the artificial horizon will verify that you are indeed at 45°. In most airplanes, that tiny white ball in the center of the artificial horizon instrument will be just slightly above the instrument's horizon. But be careful: don't fixate on that instrument.
 
Now take a quick glance at the altimeter. Is it moving? Verify that the ball is in the center. Before you move any controls, look out the window straight ahead. Then adjust your angle of bank and pitch attitude. One more time take a quick scan of the instruments. Keep this scan going. But spend most of your time looking outside.
Notice that I did not include the airspeed indicator in your scan. It is not important. If you hold altitude and bank constant, your airspeed will settle down and quit moving.
 
Interestingly enough, your aileron and rudder controls are to the right of neutral even though you are in a left turn. When you turn left your right wing inscribes a bigger circle through the air than your left wing. So it must travel faster. Since it is going faster, it produces more lift. Of course, when the right wing produces more lift than the left wing the airplane wants to roll to the left. So you must deflect the left aileron down and the right aileron up. In other words, you must keep the aileron control slightly to the right of neutral in a left turn.
 
Now you know that airplanes are unstable in roll. The fact that it wants to increase its bank once a bank has been established and the airplane is turning tells you this. So it requires your input to keep the bank from increasing.
 
It may not be obvious but you are in a slight pitch up angle of attack. This is because your airplane must lift 141% of its weight. This increased angle of attack causes Pfactor. Just as you must compensate for P-factor in a climb, you must compensate for P-factor in a steep turn. That is why you must push on the right rudder pedal. So there you are: turning left even though you are keeping the rudder and aileron to the right of neutral. Steep turns to the right are not exactly symmetric to steep turns to the left. Pfactor persists. More times than not you will find that you are pushing on right rudder pedal in a right turn even though your aileron control is slightly to the left of center.
 
Steep turns, like any other regime of flying, require that you move the controls to adjust the airplane's attitude. You should not move your controls to some preconceived position but only to change attitude.
 
The absolutely most useful lesson to learn from tight turns is to fly the airplane by controlling its attitude not by moving its controls to some preconceived position. By comparison, the facts that you eventually put the controls in a position opposite to the direction of turn to maintain a steady bank and that an airplane is unstable in roll are just curiosities.
 
Executing steep turns is an important and useful skill to master. It is also an essential exercise when becoming familiar with an airplane.

Private Pilot Training Online focuses on the little things that hold pilots back; dispels the myths that make learning and flying unnecessarily difficult; and makes the ‘hard’ subjects easy.

Douglas Daniel, long time flight instructor, invites you to visit at http://PrivatePilotTrainingOnline.org for more flying articles like this one. You may also feel free to contact Doug by visiting his website.

Three Most Dangerous Landing Mistakes Pilots Make and How to Prevent The

Over-shoot, under-shoot, loss of directional control, wing tip strikes ... are all  symptoms of mistakes made BEFORE the pilot touches down. Mistakes that are easily prevented - but not necessarily in a way you might think.

 

I landed at the Nuttree Airport in a Cessna 172 in 1968. I felt pretty smug. It was a  very smooth landing, one of those landings that you could hear but not feel. Then a  wind gust picked me up and I landed a second time on a parallel taxiway. The pilot  taxiing in the opposite direction was kind enough (or perhaps stunned enough or  frightened enough) to hold short of a turn-off so I could move over to the parking  apron. I couldn't look him in the eye as we went past. I mumbled some excuses to my

passengers that I didn't believe. I had just made the three biggest (and most common)  mistakes a pilot can make when landing.

 

Determined to never let that happen again, I spend a great deal of time in the  intervening 40 years thinking about how to prevent these mistakes. The NTSB says  that a full 45% of the weather-related accidents are caused by crosswinds and gusts. I  believe it. It is time to introduce some little known techniques that help prevent these  accidents. But first, we should look at their causes.  Landing too fast is caused by flying the approach too fast or trying to force the  airplane to land before it is ready. The solution is to fly a consistent approach at the  same airspeed, picking a safe projected glide point (or PGP), and controlling the PGP  until you land. But hold the airplane a foot or so off the runway until the airplane nose  has rotated up to the landing attitude. Hold that attitude until the airplane lands. That way you will land at the right speed.

 

Failing to cross control in a crosswind leads to ground loops, being blown off the side  of the runway (the MOST common cause of accidents in the United States), wing tip  damage, or, in my case, flying over the infield and landing on a taxiway. To put it  simply, cross controlling is using the rudder to keep the long axis of the airplane  parallel to the long axis of the runway and using the ailerons to keep the airplane  positioned over the runway. This guarantees that you will keep the airplane moving  straight down the runway after the wheels touch.

 

Quit flying the plane before the plane is through flying is one of the most dangerous  mistakes that a pilot could make. Its cause is lack of concentration. Its solution is  good flying habits.

 

I was lucky at the Nuttree. If the crosswind had been coming from the opposite side, I  could have been blown into a canal. Remember that just because the main gear is on  the ground does not mean that there is no 'fly' left in the airplane. Also remember that  if you keep the airplane just above the runway until it absolutely, positively will not  fly any more, then it will an unusually strong gust to put it in the air again.

It is easy to be lulled into the bad habits that lead to these mistakes. When the wind is  gentle and the runway is long, all will be forgiven. So the question is: how to keep  these bad habits from developing?

Let me introduce two exercises that have helped my students far more than I could  have ever imagined. They are the 'very slow Dutch roll' and the 'controlled projected  glide' point. Neither is difficult or dangerous. Both simplify and strengthen any pilot's  ability to land.

 

The very slow Dutch roll is a simple exercise done at a safe altitude. It teaches two  very important skills. First the pilot learns to continuously move the stick and rudders  to control the airplane as conditions change, and second, the pilot learns how to cross

control the airplane in the most extreme circumstances.  Here is how to do a very slow Dutch roll. Pick a point on the horizon and hold it  steady as you change the angle of bank, airspeed and flap configuration. Maintain  constant altitude. Change your bank very slowly. Continue to increase the angle of  bank until either the aileron or the rudder is pushed to its limit. This is the angle of  bank for the maximum crosswind that the airplane can land in. The cross controlled  airplane slowly accelerates to the side for a minute or two. During this time, the pilot  must move the flight controls continuously - an unanticipated benefit of this exercise  when I thought it up.

 

 

Let me tell you about the projected glide point or PGP. When you approach the  runway your eye will naturally gravitate toward a point on the runway that does not  move in your field of vision. The phenomenon is much like when you are on a  collision course with another airplane: it stays still in your field of vision but just gets  bigger. Well, there is always a point on the ground where exactly the same thing

happens. This is the point that you would glide to if you never made that last little  flair to land. This is an extremely important concept that can save you many hours of  landing practice. I never heard another flight instructor talk about it but I am sure that  many pilots use this technique.

 

You can control the PGP with power and drag while keeping the airspeed constant.  To move the PGP closer to you, reduce the engine's power or increase the airplanes  drag - usually with flaps. To move the PGP away from you, increase the engine's  power or decrease the airplane's drag.  Put the two concepts together to make consistent, safe landings. Once established on  final, use the center line of the runway as your reference point for very slow Dutch  rolls. Use the ailerons to position the airplane on the extended center line, the rudder to  keep the long axis of the airplane parallel to that extended centerline. Move the PGP

to the same place every time. I recommend the runway threshold. Consciously  continue cross controlling until the airplane slows to a taxi.

 

These two simple techniques will get you to the same place on the runway every time  in a landing configuration that compensates for crosswinds or gusts until the airplane  is going so slow that you can taxi to parking.

 

Private Pilot Training Online focuses on the little things that hold pilots back; dispels the myths that make learning and flying unnecessarily difficult; and makes the ‘hard’ subjects easy.

 

Douglas Daniel, long time flight instructor, invites you to visit at http://PrivatePilotTrainingOnline.org for more flying articles like this one. You may also feel free to contact Doug by visiting his website.

 

Airplanes Don't Stall, Pilots Stall Them: The Myth of Stall Speed

When smooth airflow separates from your wings they stall losing most of their lift. If you are lucky the airplane drops like a stone, pitches forward, accelerates and starts to fly normally again. If you are not so lucky, one wing stalls, rolling your airplane toward the stalled wing as it progresses to a spin before you can recover. It is probably a good idea to keep the airflow attached to the wing and the tail and every other aerodynamic surface needed for controlled flight. An aerodynamicist would tell you that stalls can only occur when an airfoil reaches or exceeds its critical angle of attack. I would say that a stall occurs only when you try to make the wind turn too sharp a corner.

You see, air is sticky. Not very sticky but it is a little sticky. An aerodynamicist would clear his throat; raise his eyebrows and say, "Viscous." So let's ignore the aerodynamicist. It's sticky. When air blows past a gently curved surface, like a wing, it tends to stick to the surface even though the surface curves away from the wind.

If the wing is symmetric top and bottom and the wind is coming straight on, the wind impacts the front of the wing and builds a high pressure area there. Then as it starts to follow the contour of the wing, like anything following a curved path, it gets pulled out. But its stickiness holds it on the surface. The result is low pressure over most of the surface, top and bottom.

Now if you pitch the wing up a bit by pulling back on the stick a bit, the air on top must change direction a bit more than the air on the bottom. The result is more low pressure on the top and less on the bottom. Perhaps the high pressure area on the bottom of the wing is bigger than before. The wing is sucked up by the top and pushed up by the bottom. We call this lift. Suppose you pitch the wing up a lot by pulling back on the stick a long way. The air on the top has to change direction a lot and the pressure on the top drops a lot. If you pull the stick far enough, the low pressure area on the top of the wing sucks air from the back of the wing forward, separating the airflow from the top of the wing. This is bad. The low pressure area on the top of the wing disappears as it is filled by the forward flowing air. The wing loses lift. This is a stall.

The airflow separates from the wing of a properly designed airplane before it separates from the tail. If the tail has lift and the wing doesn't the airplane's wing drops and the tail doesn't. This is a good thing because the wing comes down and faces a lower pitch attitude. The results are that the wind re-attaches to the upper surface, lift is restored and the airplane returns to normal.

Now, suppose the pilot continues pulling back on the stick. As soon as the wing develops lift, it goes up too far again and stalls again. We call this bobbing action 'buffeting.' Buffeting is good because it warns the pilot that he or she is pulling too hard on the stick and the wing is ready to enter a serious stall - one that could lead to a potentially fatal spin.

So now we know that the real warning of an impending serious stall is buffeting. We also know that buffeting is caused by pulling the elevator control too far. So we know that the way to avoid a stall is to pull less when we feel buffeting. We also know that if we pull less on the elevator, that the airplane will go down. That could be a really bad thing. Increasing the engine's power simultaneously with easing up on the elevator can mitigate that sinking feeling.

Notice that no where in this discussion of what causes stalls and what to do about them was the concept of airspeed needed. Stalls are only caused by pitching the wings up too far - nothing else. Even though stalling speed is a useful term, there really is no unique stalling speed for an airplane. You have to read the fine print. What 'stall speed' usually means is the speed at which an airplane's wing exceeds its maximum pitch attitude when the airplane is loaded to maximum landing weight, is in the landing configuration and flying straight ahead.

Private Pilot Training Online focuses on the little things that hold pilots back; dispels the myths that make learning and flying unnecessarily difficult; and makes the ‘hard’ subjects easy.

Douglas Daniel, long time flight instructor, invites you to visit at http://PrivatePilotTrainingOnline.org for more flying articles like this one. You may also feel free to contact Doug by visiting his website.

The Most Fundamental of all Flying Skills

Attitude control is the most fundamental all flying skills. I am sure this comes as a surprise so let me illustrate it in several very diverse regimes of flight.

60º Steep Turns
It may not be obvious but you are in a slight pitch up angle of attack. This is because
your airplane must lift 141% of its weight. This increased angle of attack causes Pfactor.
Just as you must compensate for P-factor in a climb, you must compensate for
P-factor in a steep turn. That is why you must push on the right rudder pedal. So there
you are: turning left even though you are keeping the rudder and aileron to the right of
neutral. Steep turns to the right are not exactly symmetric to steep turns to the left.

Pfactor persists. More times than not you will find that you are pushing on right rudder
pedal in a right turn even though your aileron control is slightly to the left of center.
Steep turns, like any other regime of flying, require that you move the controls to
adjust the airplane's attitude. You should not move your controls to some preconceived
position but only to change attitude.

The absolutely most useful lesson to learn from tight turns is to fly the airplane by
controlling its attitude not by moving its controls to some preconceived position. By
comparison, the facts that you eventually put the controls in a position opposite to the
direction of turn to maintain a steady bank and that an airplane is unstable in roll are
just curiosities.

Executing steep turns is an important and useful skill to master. It is also an essential
exercise when becoming familiar with an airplane. This is the one skill that makes the
difference between good pilots and so-so pilots. It applies to visual flying and
instrument flying, to gliders, land planes and seaplanes, to single engine planes and
multiengine planes, to jets and props. Often referred to as attitude flying, it is really
taking charge, deciding what you want to do and doing it.

Three Point Landings
You must hold the airplane in what ever attitude you choose. For example, the secret
to a three-point landing is to put the airplane in a three point landing attitude just
above the runway at the right airspeed and hold it in that attitude until it lands. Don't
put it in the three-point attitude then let the nose drop. Hold it in the attitude. Be in
command.

Crosswind Landings
The secret to a successful crosswind landing is to align your fuselage with the runway
using your rudder pedals, control your airspeed using your elevator controls, and keep
your airplane exactly over the center line of the runway using your aileron controls.
You cannot do this by letting your nose point where it will, by letting the airplane
drift around, or by letting the nose pitch up or down. You must be in command. You
must know exactly how you want your airplane oriented in space then you must put it
there.

As the airspeed changes and as the wind gusts, your control input must change
accordingly. Put that behind you. Don't even think about it. Just think about the
airplane's attitude compared with what it should be. When the airplane so much as
twitches out of place, put it back where it belongs. You must do whatever it takes to
keep the airplane in the attitude you need.

You cannot control an airplane's attitude if you are not continuously aware of its
attitude. Sounds straightforward, doesn't it? But this is the reason that some pilots
seem to be passengers rather than pilots. They have not developed that sense of
situational awareness that all good pilots have. How then to have situational
awareness?

Think about the airplane's attitude more than any other parameter. When flying
visually, spend most of your time mentally out of the airplane. Don't be a casual
observer. Don't say, "Oh, the horizon is slowing dropping. Isn't that interesting?"
Think of the world as staying still and of the airplane's attitude as changing. As soon
as the nose starts up, bring it back down. Tweak the trim so you don't need to
concentrate for certain, but put the pitch attitude where is should be. That is your task.
Be in charge.

Instrument Approaches
The same advice is valid for instrument flying. You can still be mentally out of the
airplane even if there is nothing to see when you look out the window. The attitude
indicator and every other flight instrument tell you something about your airplane's
attitude.

The secret to successful instrument approaches is to decide what heading, altitude or
rate of descent, and airspeed to fly then to take command and fly. Don't chase the
needle; don't let the heading wander; and don't drift off altitude; just take charge and
fly.

Whether in the clouds or blue sky, you must maintain a mental picture of your
airplane in space.
Know what your airplane's attitude should be; know what your airplane's attitude is;
and make them the same.

Private Pilot Training Online focuses on the little things that hold pilots back; dispels the myths that make learning and flying unnecessarily difficult; and makes the ‘hard’ subjects easy.

Douglas Daniel, long time flight instructor, invites you to visit at http://PrivatePilotTrainingOnline.org for more flying articles like this one. You may also feel free to contact Doug by visiting his website.

How to Practice 10 Times as Much Each Pass Down The Runway - Private Pilot Training Online

How many touch-and-goes can you do in an hour? I can only do at most one every 6 or 7 minutes. That means that, if every thing works out just right, I might get 10 touch-and-goes in an hour.

Now suppose I told you that you could get ten times as much practice with each pass down the runway? You probably wouldn't believe me. I know how you feel. So my challenge is to convince you in the next 600 or so words.

Before you try this you need to do two things.

First go to your favorite practice area and practice the Slow Dutch Roll (SDR). Find a spot on the horizon - a landmark. Point your airplane exactly at that spot. Slowly bank first one way then the other. But keep the nose pointed exactly at that spot. When I
say 'slowly' I really mean slowly. Take this maneuver to its extremes. Increase bank until you either cannot move your aileron control further or you cannot move your rudder control further. Practice this at constant altitude, in glides, and at various
airspeeds. Practice it in the landing configuration until you slow to a stall.

Second, find a flight instructor who has both the self-confidence and skill to practice these maneuvers with you.

All good landings happen after the pilot has successfully flown the airplane in slow flight just above the runway. This is what you are going to do.

There is another attribute to all good landings. The airplane's main wheels are always pointed in the direction the airplane is traveling before touch down. This means no crabbing, only side-slipping allowed. This is what you are going to do, too.

With a competent instructor in the right seat, after having talked this over with the tower and received their concurrence, approach the runway as for a normal landing. As you flare to land, have your instructor slowly add power as you keep the airplane off the runway. Don't let it land. You've got the plane in a nose-high attitude; the stall warning is screaming away. Check your alignment. Be certain that you've got it over the runway center stripe and the nose is pointed right down the center stripe to the far end. Don't let the airplane go too fast or you will not be learning much at all. Now you're ready.

You have several maneuvers you can execute. I recommend that you practice them all. Make sure that your airspeed has stabilized first.

Maneuver 1. Very slowly ease the airplane to the ground without actually landing. Just touch with your upwind main gear. Then pick it up; hold it there for a few seconds - maybe a count of five; then touch again. Repeat several times. There should
be no bounce, no thud, no sensation other than sound. This is a very effective way of learning exactly how far you are off the runway - an essential skill for making landings you would want to show your friends.

Maneuver 2. Have your instructor reduce power slightly, forcing you to increase your pitch attitude. Since you are now, or soon will be, on the 'back side of the power curve,' your instructor shares the responsibility with you for keeping off the runway.
He or she may have to increase the power setting after you have slowed to a higher setting than before you slowed. You keep going slower and slower but not landing. A fellow instructor and I were able to get a Cessna 152 so slow without landing that the
airspeed indicator read less then 40 KIAS and the tachometer read 2100 RPM. This shows you just how high the pitch attitude can be in a full stall landing.

Maneuver 3. Slowly slide the airplane from side to side across the runway while keeping it pointed at the far end. If you like, combine this with exercise 1. Don't be moving laterally when you touch. But when you touch, be particularly sensitive to
lateral forces. If the airplane gets jerked to the side, it wasn't properly aligned before touching. This maneuver prepares you very thoroughly for crosswind landings. Once these maneuvers were shown to me and I started teaching them, my students
were ready to solo in less then half the time in the pattern than when I used traditional methods. More importantly, they were much better at landing than my earlier students.

Private Pilot Training Online focuses on the little things that hold pilots back; dispels the myths that make learning and flying unnecessarily difficult; and makes the ‘hard’ subjects easy.

Douglas Daniel, long time flight instructor, invites you to visit at http://PrivatePilotTrainingOnline.org for more flying articles like this one. You may also feel free to contact Doug by visiting his website.

How to Perfect Your Airplane Landings with Slow Dutch Rolls - Private Pilot Training Online

Landing is the most challenging maneuver most pilots will ever perform. Not
surprising, it is the most dangerous few moments of any trip. I stumbled on an
exercise that shortened the time that I needed to teach landings and dramatically
improved my students landing skills far more than I ever thought possible. I call it the
'Slow Dutch Roll.'

The original Dutch roll was a rhythmic maneuver that most instructors agree is about
as useful as patting your head while rubbing your tummy. In contrast, the Slow Dutch
Roll proved to be a very powerful tool.

When executing an ordinary Dutch roll, you keep the nose of the airplane pointed at a
speck on the horizon while rapidly wagging your wings with your ailerons and
holding the nose steady with your rudder pedals.

When you move the stick to the left, the nose wants to swing to the right forcing you
to step on the left rudder pedal, but not quite as much as you would in a turn. Then, as
the bank increases, you have to step on the other pedal to keep the nose steady. And
so the exercise continues. But to what purpose?

My colleagues and I don't like this exercise for two reasons. First, aileron - rudder
coordination should be focused on keeping the ball in the center. To put it differently,
a good pilot could put a cup of coffee on the instrument panel and go through a series
of turns in both directions without sloshing the coffee. He or she would have to
coordinate the ailerons and rudder properly to succeed. During a Dutch roll, the coffee
would be all over the cockpit. Our second objection is that, in addition to teaching bad
habits, there is basically no region of normal flight where the pilot would execute a
traditional Dutch roll. We view an ordinary Dutch roll as somewhere between
worthless and counterproductive.

In contrast, the Slow Dutch Roll (SDR) teaches you skills needed in almost every
takeoff and landing as well as some other very useful skills.

I don't hold a patent or copyright on the SDR. It wouldn't surprise me if some other
flight instructor discovered it before I did. But it makes better pilots. I would like as
many pilots and instructors as possible to know about it and use it.

SDR, much like the traditional Dutch roll, requires you to aim the nose at a point and
keep it there while changing the angle of bank. By executing it very slowly, it teaches
you, among other things, precisely controlled crosswind landings and takeoffs.

To get the maximum benefit from SDR, you should practice it at constant altitude and
various airspeeds including slow flight with wheels down and flaps extended. Then do
the same thing while gliding rather than at constant altitude, eventually practicing
SDR at speeds just above a stall with the airplane configured for landing. Depending
on your skill, you might start SDR practice by simply trying to keep the airplane's
heading constant as you change the angle of bank slowly.

I recommend not only changing the angle of bank slowly, but holding bank constant
for as long as 30 seconds or more. You might be surprised at what happens during
these periods of constant bank. With a wing down but the airplane not turning, the
wing's lift will start to move the airplane in the direction of the bank. As it accelerates
to the side, the relative wind direction changes. This wind shift requires you to change
the position of both rudder and aileron controls to keep constant bank and heading.
This continuous change in control position while maintaining a constant attitude is the
added bonus of SDR. It teaches that essential skill that all good pilots have. To be a
good pilot, you must be able to fly the airplane by putting it in the right attitude
regardless of where the controls are. If you must move the controls continuously to
maintain the proper attitude, you will neither know nor care; you simply focus on
maintaining the proper attitude. With SDR, you can practice this skill at a safe, lowstress
altitude rather than during landings.

Having mastered SDR, you have mastered 90% of the skill required to make safe,
precise landings. In a light plane in particular, you must keep the airplane pointed at
the far end of the runway while keeping the wind from blowing you off the runway.
By mastering SDR, you have mastered the controlled sideslip required in the vast
majority of landings. By mastering SDR you have also mastered the art of attitude
flying. You have learned to put the airplane in the attitude that you want and hold it
there regardless of wind shifts and diminishing airspeed - an absolutely essential skill
in safe, smooth and precise landings..

Private Pilot Training Online focuses on the little things that hold pilots back; dispels the myths that make learning and flying unnecessarily difficult; and makes the ‘hard’ subjects easy.

Douglas Daniel, long time flight instructor, invites you to visit at http://PrivatePilotTrainingOnline.org for more flying articles like this one. You may also feel free to contact Doug by visiting his website.

The Three Skills to Land an Airplane

There are just three fundamental skills in Private Pilot Training you need to know to land an airplane safely and consistently. They are airspeed control, projected glide control, and controlled slow flight. You can learn each separately. But you use them all to land safely and consistently.

The most fundamental and easiest to learn is airspeed control. You should start with it. Then you should master slow Dutch roll thoroughly at various airspeeds, aircraft configurations and angles of bank. Concurrently you can learn to control the projected glide point while maintaining a constant airspeed. Airspeed control and projected glide control bring the pilot to the right place at the right airspeed to start the transition from the approach glide to the landing phase.

Control airspeed with the elevator; fine-tune airspeed with power, flaps and landing gear. Monitor airspeed with the airspeed indicator, and then adjust your pitch attitude with the elevator to change your airspeed. If you add to the airplane's drag, you will be forced to pitch down to maintain constant airspeed. The opposite is true, as well. If you add power, you must lift your nose some, and so forth. Once you have learned to control your airspeed in various flap, landing gear, and power settings you are ready to move on to controlling either your projected glide point (PGP) or mastering slow Dutch rolls (SDR).

Controlling PGP is only slightly more difficult than controlling airspeed. During a constant airspeed approach, you will see a point on the ground that is staying absolutely still in your field of view. This is where you would be if you continued your approach glide. This is your PGP. If you keep your airspeed steady, your PGP will move farther away from you when you add power and it will come closer to you when you reduce the engine's power setting. More drag brings PGP closer; less drag pushes it away. There is really not much to controlling PGP, but when a pilot runs off the far end of the runway almost certainly poor PGP control, poor airspeed control, or both was the problem. You have to control them both to arrive at the right place and the right airspeed to execute a good landing.

Ironically, once you have flown the proper approach, you no longer need to control either airspeed or PGP. A new set of skills is required to execute the landing itself. Fortunately you can learn most of these skills with one exercise conducted at a nice comfortable attitude. You learn it by doing SDR in slow flight and in a landing configuration.

Pick a point on the horizon, hold it steady, and very slowly change your angle of bank without letting the point move. Repeat this exercise while transitioning from an approach glide to level slow flight. Add power as required to maintain a constant altitude while keeping that point steady. Now you are ready to start landing practice.

You learned how to keep the airplane from turning left or right in various angles of bank while flying in a landing configuration at speeds just above a stall by practicing SDR. This is a very good description of the technique used to land an airplane. If you have a simulator, you don't need an instructor. That is the nice thing about simulators; you botch up and try again. Airplanes are not so forgiving.

In either airplane or simulator, here is how to learn to land. You have successfully flown the approach so you are about one wing span above the runway, over its center line and at just the right airspeed. From now on PGP and airspeed need not concern you. Looking forward and from side to side like you were driving on the open road, you start raising your nose to slow the airplane's descent. Using your rudder pedals you keep the nose pointed at the far end of the runway. Using your ailerons you keep the airplane centered over the runway. Use your pitch attitude first, and then throttle, to keep the airplane off the runway.

You are NOT going to land! This is just an exercise. The objective is to get as close to the runway, at as slow airspeed as possible, without touching it. You are now doing that SDR in level slow flight that you did earlier. Just to prove you have mastered the situation, slide the airplane from side to side just above the runway without touching but as close as you can get. Be certain that you continue to keep the airplane pointed at the far end of the runway and the airplane's body parallel to the runway. As you approach the end of the runway, smoothly apply full power and execute a go around. Each time you do this, fly the airplane as slowly as you can. Keep that stall warning screaming. It is really a fun thing to do.

As you develop skill with this maneuver, try touching the runway but without landing. Touch it very gently but at as low a speed as you can. At some point you will realize that you could just touch the runway very gently at a very slow airspeed, then close the throttle and you will land. Easy, wasn't it?

Doug Daniel, long time flight instructor, invites you to visit http://PrivatePilotTrainingOnline.org for more flying articles like this one. You may also feel free to contact Doug by visiting his website.

Why Cross Control?

There are two ways to know if a crosswind is too strong. One is to land and see if you skid off the side of the runway or ground loop. The other is to cross control the airplane before landing to see if you can align the airplane with the runway. I prefer the second technique.
When you use your rudder to align the airplane with the runway and the ailerons to move the airplane laterally over the runway, you are cross controlling the airplane. This is a technique not used often in flight, but a very useful one to master.

Some pilots advocate flying wings level in a crosswind and kicking the rudder pedal vigorously the instant before touchdown to get the airplane pointed in the right direction. I have even seen this technique described in how-to-fly books. This seems to be one of those ideas that sound good but does not hold up. With this technique, you just don't know if you can get the nose pointed down the runway until you land, nor do you know if the crosswind will blow you off the runway before you're on the surface and under control. So if your life insurance is paid up and you don't have an aviation exclusion clause, you might try the old kick-and-hope trick.

There is an exception. If you are flying a nose wheel equipped airplane with lift-killing spoilers - which means you are flying a heavy airplane, not a light plane - then you can deploy the spoilers fully the instant you touch down and let the plane swivel toward the far end of the runway. I would refer you to that now famous Lufthansa crosswind landing. Its URL is youtube.com/watch?v=z42fchrzhHY. As you can see, even that technique requires some rather precise timing. I have seen some videos of the A380 and some B474s successfully using this technique. They were flown by multi-thousand hour test pilots. I cannot recommend the technique for someone flying a light plane.

Passengers find cross controlling disconcerting. All of us like the floor to be directly beneath us and the seat to feel level. Cross controlling to align the wheels with their direction of travel requires that the upwind wing go down and that the pilot press - sometimes vigorously - on the downwind rudder pedal. Suddenly the floor tilts and the seat sits at an angle. This is all very upsetting to the passengers. What to do?
I recommend practicing entering the cross controlled state just as you start to raise the nose to land. This is the optimal technique and only requires slightly more skill than the procedure I describe a little further on. The wing loses lift when it is cross controlled, raising the airplane's stall speed a little. If the airplane cannot be cross controlled enough to get the airplane properly aligned, applying power immediately and returning to a wings-level, coordinated flying condition will lower the stall speed again and get the airplane climbing. With the wheels now pointed off the side of the runway, a botched go-around could be disastrous.

This technique minimizes the passengers' exposure to cross controlled flight. Nevertheless, it is better to have a disconcerted passenger than a bent airplane. So if you are not the compete master of the cross control at the last minute technique, cross control while you are still in your pre-landing glide.

If you cross control when you are a hundred feet above the surface, you have enough time to see if the airplane can be aligned with the runway before you have to start concentrating on the landing itself. If not, then you have enough time to smoothly transition back to wings level and execute an un-hurried go-around. This technique is the easiest and safest. But it is the most disconcerting to the uninitiated. So let your passengers know before you do it, that this is a quite necessary and safe procedure.

An important point here is that you should keep cross controlled all the way through the landing and during the roll out.
A lot has been said and written over the years about crosswind landings. It all boils down to having your wheels pointed in the same direction you are traveling before you touch down and knowing if you can while you have enough time, altitude and airspeed to easily make a safe go-around.

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Private Pilot Training Online focuses on the little things that hold pilots back; dispels the myths that make learning and flying unnecessarily difficult; and makes the 'hard' subjects easy.

Douglas Daniel, long time flight instructor, invites you to visit at http://PrivatePilotTrainingOnline.org for more flying articles like this one. You may also feel free to contact Doug by visiting his website.

Is The Crosswind Too Strong?

There are two ways to know if a crosswind is too strong. One is to land and see if you skid off the side of the runway or ground loop. The other is to cross control the airplane before landing to see if you can align the airplane with the runway. I prefer the second technique. 

When you use your rudder to align the airplane with the runway and the ailerons to move the airplane laterally over the runway, you are cross controlling the airplane. This is a technique not used often in flight, but a very useful one to master.

Some pilots advocate flying wings level in a crosswind and kicking the rudder pedal vigorously the instant before touchdown to get the airplane pointed in the right direction. I have even seen this technique described in how-to-fly books. But frankly, this is one of those ideas that sound good if you say them fast. With this technique, you just don't know if you can get the nose pointed down the runway until you land, nor do you know if the crosswind will blow you off the runway before you're on the surface and under control. So if your life insurance is paid up and you don't have an aviation exclusion clause, you might try the old kick-and-hope trick.

There is an exception. If you are flying a nose wheel equipped airplane with liftkilling spoilers - which means you are flying a heavy airplane, not a light plane - then you can deploy the spoilers fully the instant you touch down and let the plane swivel

toward the far end of the runway. I would refer you to that now famous Lufthansa crosswind landing. Its URL is http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z42fchrzhHY . As you can see, even that technique requires some rather precise timing. I have seen some videos of the A380 and some B474s successfully using this technique. They were flown by multi-thousand hour test pilots. I don't think it is in the cards for someone flying a light plane.

Passengers find cross controlling disconcerting. All of us like the floor to be directly beneath us and the seat to feel level. Cross controlling to align the wheels with their direction of travel requires that the upwind wing go down and that the pilot press -sometimes vigorously - on the downwind rudder pedal. Suddenly the floor is no longer level and the seat sits at an angle. This is all very upsetting to the passengers.What to do?

I recommend practicing entering the cross controlled state just as you start to raise the nose to land. This is the optimal technique and only requires slightly more skill than the procedure I describe a little further on. 

The wing loses lift when it is cross controlled raising the airplane's stall speed slightly. If the airplane cannot be cross controlled enough to get the airplane properly aligned, applying power immediately and returning to a wings-level, coordinated flying condition will lower the stall speed again and get the airplane climbing. This would not be a good time to botch a go-around.

This technique minimizes the passengers' exposure to cross controlled flight. Nevertheless, it is better to have a disconcerted passenger than a bent airplane. So if you are not the compete master of the cross control at the last minute technique, cross control while you are still in your pre-landing glide. If you cross control when you are a hundred feet above the surface, you have enough time to see if the airplane can be aligned with the runway before you have to start concentrating on the landing itself. If not, then you have plenty of time to smoothly transition back to wings level and execute an un-hurried go-around. This technique is the easiest and therefore the safest. But it is the most disconcerting to the uninitiated.

So let your passengers know before you do it, that this is a necessary and safe procedure. An important point here is that you should keep cross controlled all the way through the landing and during the roll out.

A lot has been said and written over the years about crosswind landings. It all boils down to having your wheels pointed in the same direction you are traveling before you touch down and knowing if you can while you have enough time, altitude and airspeed to easily make a safe go-around.

If you want to learn more ways to refine your flying skills and get a  *free report* on how even a PC-based flight simulator can help you fly better, ask his experts a question or just get the free report, click  here now => http://PrivatePilotTrainingOnline.org.

How to Walk Away from all Your Crosswind Landings

I was recently asked about the possibility of a wingtip strike when landing in a typical light plane like a Cessna 172 or a Cherokee. Specifically, I was asked about how much aileron control deflection is possible without hitting the runway when one of the main landing gear is on the runway after landing at near stall speeds.

I will admit that I have never tried to hit the runway with my wing tip and I don't know anyone who has. However, I don't doubt that it is possible. Perhaps a better question is: what crosswind landing technique will guarantee that the wingtip does not strike the runway?

I want to talk about landing techniques in a really strong crosswind before I tackle the issue of wingtip strikes. After all, wingtip strikes are not a credible issue except in crosswinds that approach the airplane's crosswind limitations.

To make controlled crosswind landings, you should master the skill of pointing your airplane in the same direction that it moves over the ground. If the airplane is pointed in some other direction when you touchdown, the best you can hope for is abrupt side forces on your landing gear followed with a swerve as the airplane swings in the right direction.

The worst is loss of directional control followed with a trip off side of the runway, possible ground loop, nose over, wingtip strike, or all of the above. Pointing the airplane it the direction it moves is a very essential skill, is not as easy as it sounds, and certainly requires practice before it can be mastered. In a nutshell, here is how to do it:

Point the airplane in the direction that it travels by turning the nose with your rudder pedals alone. Move the airplane from side to side by changing your angle of bank with ailerons. Control airspeed or height above the runway by changing your pitch attitude with your elevator. This lets you keep your wheels pointed in the direction the airplane is moving and keep your airplane directly over the middle of the runway.

This is exactly where you should be when you land. Landing in a crosswind, you touch the runway while cross controlled. This is a steady state condition. Your airplane is not rolling around its long axis. That is to say that it has a steady angle of bank. In a general aviation, production light plane, you cannot cross control far enough to touch the wing tip.

The technique that works best is to try to keep the downwind main wheel barely off the runway as long as possible after you have touched down with the upwind wheel. To hold the downwind wheel off, you must continuously increase aileron control defection until it reaches its limit. Eventually, as the airplane continues to slow down, the ailerons lose power and the other main wheel will settle onto the runway.

Finally in any well executed crosswind landing, the aileron control will be pushed to its limit. An important point here is that, just like any other aspect of good airmanship, you should move your controls smoothly and with the purpose of changing the airplane's attitude. A snap roll is the only situation where I deliberately move the controls violently.

Now, back to the subject: how could you strike a wing tip? I can think of two ways. Suppose you suddenly and violently slapped the aileron control all the way to its limit. Two things would happen: the airplane would no longer be properly cross controlled, and it would start to roll. Now the wing tip strike is possible. In other words, you would have just fouled up a perfectly good crosswind landing. You would put the airplane in a very difficult situation, one that would require a particularly skilled pilot to salvage. I don't recommend it.

The more likely situation is that you land in a strong crosswind with wings level. That is to say, not cross controlled. Here, the airplane is crabbed into the wind and the wheels are not aligned with the airplane's path over the ground. Because the airplane is not aligned with its path through space, the wheels will generate a very strong side ways force on the undercarriage when they touch the runway. With luck, this results in a sideways skid. Just like in a car, if the wheels are far enough apart, the airplane will skid until it either stops or straightens up. If the wheels are not far enough apart, you're unlucky. The airplane rolls over, striking the ground with its wingtip.The lesson here is: use proper crosswind techniques and you will not need to worry about wingtip strikes.

Private Pilot Training Online focuses on the little things that hold pilots back; dispels the myths that make learning and flying unnecessarily difficult; and makes the 'hard' subjects easy.

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How to Practice Landings – Without Airplane or Simulator

I was asked the question, "I'm having trouble with landings. Is there any practice away from the plane I can do?"

Well, yes there is. It is remarkably cost effective. I recommend it to all my students. Here it is:  Think about landings.

 This technique may sound pretty crazy, but twice in my life it worked miracles for me. One was learning to ski and the other was learning to land an airplane. In both cases, my instructor said something to the effect that he could not believe that I was the same student who he saw floundering during the previous lesson. Since then, I have discovered that it is used often in sports such as gymnastics and baseball, that require advanced motor skills. Here is how it helped me with landings and taxiing:

I was learning to fly in a 65-HP J-3 Cub and could not even taxi without driving off onto the grass. My flying was OK, but once on the ground, my directional control went in the tank. That night I couldn't sleep. I kept thinking about flying. I imagined that I was in the cockpit, moving my feet on the rudder pedals. I kept stomping on a rudder pedal too late and too hard. Then I would stay on the pedal too long. I replayed in my mind everything that I had done right and wrong. I discovered that I was moving my hands and feet as I visualized the airplane's response. I went through this mental exercise repeatedly until, in my mind, I had the airplane under control.

Amazingly, by the time I flew the next day, I new what I had to do. In a way, that should not have been surprising, my instructor had told me how, demonstrated the proper technique, told me what I was doing wrong and had me feel the controls as he flew. So it was all in my brain, I just had to get it all sorted out in my mind.

 In my case, having mastered directional control, landings fell into place. The essence of this technique is to imagine that you are in the pilot's seat, visualize the out-the-window scene, feel your hands and feet on the controls, hear the airplane in your mind and to the greatest degree possible, transport yourself into this virtual cockpit. Remember exactly what the outside world looked like when your instructor demonstrated a landing and visualize yourself in the same circumstances. Think about your botched landings; analyze them until you are convinced that you know what you did wrong and how you should have done it. Then mentally do it right and mentally recover from the botched landings before your airplane would have touched down.

One of the most difficult aspects of learning to land is learning to know how high you are off the runway. Yet you know what the world looks like when you taxi. Mentally add a foot to that, and that is what you should see before you land.

One final bit of advice about mentally landing that applies equally to the real thing. Don't land the airplane: let it land itself. I have had several students struggle with this concept. They believed that there was some specific action that the pilot did that caused the airplane to land right then.

Not so. It doesn't matter if you are doing attitude landings or full stall landings, the airplane lands when it is ready. If you try to make it land sooner, it will bite you.

So as you visualize your way to better landings, remember that you move the controls to attain and maintain the attitude you want. Your focus must be on attitude and certainly not control position. You must see the proper attitude in your mind or will not succeed in controlling the airplane when flying the real thing, so you certainly must see the proper attitude in the virtual world of your mind when you visualize landings away from the airplane.

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Flying through Thunderstorms

The old, grizzled pilot was asked, "How should I fly through a thunderstorm that I could not avoid?"

The answer he wanted to give was either, "You can't." or "Don't try."

But the question needed to be answered. Here is his advice:

Just about the only way to inadvertently get into a thunderstorm is by flying instruments in clouds with embedded thunderstorms and without either weather radar equipment onboard or ground-based weather radar available to your air traffic controller. Let's assume this is how Fate dealt you such a poor hand.

The biggest danger in a thunderstorm is structural failure. My advice is: don't do anything that helps the thunderstorm tear your airplane to pieces. When you realize that you are in trouble, the very first thing to do is to slow down. I mean not just to maneuvering speed but much slower than that. Slow to what is known as 'slow cruise' - the speed that you use in holding patterns. This will be fairly close to the best rate of climb airspeed for your airplane. Slow cruise is slow enough to minimize the adverse effects of turbulence and fast enough to keep your controls responsive. Consider putting your wheels down. This will help you stay slow. Most airplanes are not as strong with flaps out, so don't use flaps unless there is no restriction against it in your pilot's handbook for the airplane.

The reason to slow down is that the higher your airspeed, the greater force turbulence can impart on your airplane. That destructive force comes in the form of lift. Remember that lift is proportional to the speed of the airplane squared. Slow is good.

Too slow is not good simply because the last thing that you need is to stall and spin when you are in a thunderstorm.

There is an adage in aviation that says a pilot's priorities are aviate, navigate and communicate, in that order. I agree. Certainly your most important task is to fly the airplane. However, you need all the help you can get. So tell air traffic control (ATC) that you are in trouble and need help. Ask them to vector you out of the thunderstorm. Tell them that you cannot maintain the assigned altitude - because you cannot. Ask them to vector you away from high terrain. Be aware that your inability to maintain altitude can easily put you in a position where you cannot communicate with ATC for some period of time.

The intensity of rain in a thunderstorm can be truly phenomenal. Quite possibly your engine or engines can start to ingest a great deal of water. This water can turn to ice in your carburetor especially at high altitudes and low power settings. When you apply carburetor heat, the mixture enriches forcing you to lean the engine or risk fouling the spark plugs. Tuning the engine is an integral part of flying the airplane, your most important task.

The updrafts and downdrafts in a thunderstorm can far exceed a general aviation airplane's ability to climb or dive. So just ride them out. Don't start building airspeed by pushing your nose down to stay at your assigned altitude in a strong updraft. If you get caught in a strong downdraft, go to your best rate of climb airspeed at full power. You will still go down - just not as fast and not so far. When the downdraft subsides, you will start climbing back to your assigned altitude. If you have oxygen and perhaps if you don't, ask ATC for a higher altitude so you will have a greater margin of safety when you enter your next overpowering downdraft. If ATC will not grant you a higher altitude, do not be afraid to declare an emergency and tell ATC that you are going to a higher altitude.

There are two things that you should remember here. First, if the FAA issues a violation, it is better to argue in court that you needed that higher altitude than it is to have the surviving members of your family argue in court that the FAA should have cleared you to a higher altitude. Second, when you go high without oxygen, you get so stupid that you don't know how stupid you are. Having said that, when you are at 10,000 feet facing 12,000 feet peaks and a known thunderstorm behind you, the options start to narrow. For me, it is better to face hypoxia than certain death.

To sum it up: Plan your fight and check your weather well enough to know that you are not going into a thunderstorm.

If, by some fluke of nature, you end up in a thunderstorm that was not predicted and you could not see, then

1. Slow down.

2. Remember that flying the airplane is your most important task.

3. Get out of the thunderstorm as quickly as possible.

4. Keep going straight with wings level while you ride out overpowering up and downdrafts.

5. Tell ATC.

6. Ask for help.

 

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Do Dutch Rolls Help Pilots Land Airplanes Better?

Landing is the most challenging maneuver most pilots will ever perform. It is no surprise that landing is the most dangerous few moments of any trip. I stumbled on an exercise that shortened the time that I needed to teach landings and dramatically improved my students' landing skills far more than I ever thought possible. It has become known as the 'Slow Dutch Roll.'
A Dutch roll is a rhythmic maneuver that most instructors agree is about as useful as patting your head while rubbing your tummy. In contrast, the Slow Dutch Roll proved to be a very powerful tool.
When executing an ordinary Dutch roll, you keep the nose of the airplane pointed at a speck on the horizon while rapidly wagging your wings with your ailerons and holding the nose steady with your rudder pedals.
When you move the stick to the left, the nose wants to swing to the right forcing you to step on the left rudder pedal, but not quite as much as you would in a turn. Then, as the bank increases, you have to step on the other pedal to keep the nose steady. And so the exercise continues. But to what purpose?
My colleagues and I don't like this exercise for two reasons. First, aileron - rudder coordination should be focused on keeping the ball in the center. To put it differently, a good pilot could put a cup of coffee on the instrument panel and go through a series of turns in both directions without sloshing the coffee. He or she would have to coordinate the ailerons and rudder properly to succeed. During a Dutch roll, the coffee would be all over the cockpit. Our second objection is that, in addition to teaching bad habits, there is basically no region of normal flight where the pilot would execute a traditional Dutch roll. We view an ordinary Dutch roll as somewhere between worthless and counterproductive.
In contrast, the Slow Dutch Roll (SDR) teaches you skills needed in almost every takeoff and landing as well as some other very useful skills.
I don't hold a patent or copyright on the SDR. It wouldn't surprise me if some other flight instructor discovered it before I did. But it makes better pilots. I would like as many pilots and instructors as possible to know about it and use it.
SDR, much like the traditional Dutch roll, requires you to aim the nose at a point and keep it there while changing the angle of bank. By executing it very slowly, it teaches you, among other things, precisely controlled crosswind landings and takeoffs.
To get the maximum benefit from SDR, you should practice it at constant altitude and various airspeeds including slow flight with wheels down and flaps extended. Then do the same thing while gliding rather than at constant altitude, eventually practicing SDR at speeds just above a stall with the airplane configured for landing. Depending on your skill, you might start SDR practice by simply trying to keep the airplane's heading constant as you change the angle of bank slowly.
I recommend not only changing the angle of bank slowly, but holding bank constant for as long as 30 seconds or more. You might be surprised at what happens during these periods of constant bank. With a wing down but the airplane not turning, the wing's lift will start to move the airplane in the direction of the bank. As it accelerates to the side, the relative wind direction changes. This wind shift requires you to change the position of both rudder and aileron controls to keep constant bank and heading.
This continuous change in control position while maintaining a constant attitude is the added bonus of SDR. It teaches that essential skill that all good pilots have. To be a good pilot, you must be able to fly the airplane by putting it in the right attitude regardless of where the controls are. If you must move the controls continuously to maintain the proper attitude, you will neither know nor care; you simply focus on maintaining the proper attitude. With SDR, you can practice this skill at a safe, low-stress altitude rather than during landings.
Having mastered SDR, you have mastered 90% of the skill required to make safe, precise landings. In a light plane in particular, you must keep the airplane pointed at the far end of the runway while keeping the wind from blowing you off the runway. By mastering SDR, you have mastered the controlled sideslip required in the vast majority of landings. By mastering SDR you have also mastered the art of attitude flying. You have learned to put the airplane in the attitude that you want and hold it there regardless of wind shifts and diminishing airspeed - an absolutely essential skill in safe, smooth and precise landings.
Douglas Daniel, long time flight instructor, invites you to visit http://PrivatePilotTrainingOnline.org for more flying articles like this one. You may also fee free to contact Doug by visiting his website.

Flight Training - Three Lessons From Steep Turns

I was asked the question, "Why can't I keep my bank angle and speed steady in 45 degree turns?"

While this question looks quite simple, it is a very good one. There are several very useful concepts you can learn by understanding what happens in a constant altitude, constant airspeed 45° bank.

Let's assume that you enter a left turn by coordinating your aileron and rudder. As your angle of bank increases you have to pull back further on the elevator control. Once the bank approaches 45°, you once again coordinate your aileron and rudder movement to stop the roll and maintain a constant bank but you must continue pulling back on your elevator control.

1. Where you look now is very important. Most important is that you notice where the horizon cuts the top of the instrument panel. A quick glance at the artificial horizon will verify that you are indeed at 45 degrees. In most airplanes, that tiny white ball in the center of the artificial horizon instrument will be just slightly above the instrument's horizon. But be careful: don't stare at that instrument.

Now glance at the altimeter quickly. Is it moving? Verify that the ball has been centered. Before you move any controls, look out the window straight ahead. Then adjust your angle of bank and pitch attitude. One more time take a quick scan of the instruments. Keep this scan going. But spend most of your time looking outside.

Notice that I did not include the airspeed indicator in your scan. It is not important. If you hold altitude and bank constant, your airspeed will settle down and quit moving.

Interestingly enough, your aileron and rudder controls are to the right of neutral even though you are in a left turn. When you turn left your right wing inscribes a bigger circle through the air than your left wing. So it must travel faster. Since it is going faster, it produces more lift. Of course, when the right wing produces more lift than the left wing the airplane wants to roll to the left. So you must deflect the left aileron down and the right aileron up. In other words, you must keep the aileron control slightly to the right of neutral in a left turn.

2. Now you know that airplanes are unstable in roll. The fact that it wants to increase its bank once a bank has been established and the airplane is turning tells you this. So it requires your input to keep the bank from increasing.

It may not be obvious but you are in a slight pitch up angle of attack. This is because your airplane must lift 141% of its weight. The increased angle of attack causes P-factor. Just as you must compensate for P-factor in a climb, you must compensate for P-factor in a steep turn. That is why you must push on the right rudder pedal. So there you are: turning left even though you are keeping the rudder and aileron to the right of neutral. Steep turns to the right are not exactly symmetric to steep turns to the left. P-factor persists. More often than not you will find that you are pushing on right rudder pedal in a right turn even though your aileron control is slightly to the left of center.

Steep turns, like any other realm of flying, require that you move the controls to adjust the airplane's attitude. You should not move your controls to some pre-conceived position but only to change attitude.

3. The absolutely most useful lesson to learn from tight turns is to fly the airplane by controlling its attitude not by moving its controls to some preconceived position. By comparison, the facts that you eventually put the controls in a position opposite to the direction of turn to maintain a steady bank and that an airplane is unstable in roll are just curiosities.

Executing steep turns is an important and useful skill to master. It is also an essential exercise when becoming familiar with an airplane.

Doug Daniel is a long time pilot, flight instructor, software engineering manager and author. His department developed the software for the out-the-window-displays for the space shuttle, F-117, RS-71 and numerous other exotic airplanes. His writing focuses on flying techniques designed to make flying easier and safer. If this was interesting, visit his website at http://PrivatePilotTrainingOnline.org.