flyingcheesehead
Taxi to Parking
Hey, this VFR stuff can be really fun! 
I went flying in an Archer yesterday to practice some of the commercial maneuvers: Steep turns, steep spirals, and chandelles.
I headed out to the NW practice area and started with some steep turns. They weren't as good as last week, but I was just warming up.
Next, I moved to Chandelles. The chandelle is an altitude-gaining maneuver. 180-degree turn from crosswind to upwind to crosswind, using a constant 30-degree bank with steadily increasing pitch for the first 90 degrees, then constant 15-degrees-up pitch and decreasing bank for the second 90 degrees, leaving you just above the stall. Recover by leveling out and accelerating. In the Archer, I was gaining roughly 500 feet per chandelle.
Wind was out of the northwest (320@25) at 3,000 feet, and didn't change much up higher either. So, I started on a heading of 050 and did a chandelle to the left ending at 230, followed by another chandelle to the right ending at 050 again and so on. I ended up over a lake with a small almost-island in it (technically a peninsula, but the part joining it to land was much narrower than the rest) at about 7500 feet.
What to do with all that altitude? A steep spiral, of course! Just like turns around a point, only descending. Whee!
I used the "island" as my point and went down to about 2500 feet. Then, I did some steep turns followed by another chandelle series. This time, all the way up to 9500 and then fell out of the sky until about 4500 (there was another plane doing maneuvers below me at 3000-3500 by that point) and headed back in.
The only problem with doing steep turns and spirals at the same time as chandelles is that I was tending to overbank the chandelles! Some were messy, some were good. Some I did mostly on the instruments, some I tried to do 100% looking outside. I ended up eyeballing a 90 degree point before rolling in, and then a 180-degree point when I got to the 90-degree point. I can't see 15 degrees pitch up or an accurate 30 bank on the roll-in (especially after the steeper maneuvers as noted above.) It seems that the combo that worked the best was:
1) Stabilize at the entry airspeed
2) Eyeball the 90-degree point out the window
3) Roll in to 30 degrees on the AI and begin pitching up
4) Watch out the window while increasing pitch to the 90-degree point
5) Eyeball the 180-degree point quickly while approaching the 90-degree point.
6) Keep the yoke back as far as it was at the 90-degree point while rolling out
7) confirm the roll-out heading on the DG as it approaches (visual references obscured by the cowling)
8) Recover.
The first steep spiral was kind of messy too, as I wasn't holding the lower bank into the wind for enough time and I wasn't doing a good job of controlling airspeed (though I admit it was more FUN to let the nose drop in a 60-degree bank and get -2000fpm
). It's also very difficult to eyeball the point you're turning around at the higher altitudes while still keeping the turn tight. High wing would be helpful.
The second time, I used the Merrimac ferry's northwest landing as my point for the steep spirals which turned out much better - I was able to at least see the river, the road, and the nearby railroad bridge to help me determine where that point was even when I couldn't see it up high. I also refined my banking technique somewhat, so the second steep spiral turned out very nicely.
Anyway, the end of the flight was pretty routine, except for two things. Approach had me enter a left downwind for 32 and handed me to tower quite a ways out. Because I was so far out, Tower requested a report at midfield downwind. (not-routine #1) I cut power abeam the numbers to practice the 180-degree accuracy landing. Base, final, runway's made, pull the flaps, slip just a bit and... Probably the best touchdown I've ever had in a Piper, maybe the second-best ever (best was in a DA40). A great way to end a fun flight. 
I went flying in an Archer yesterday to practice some of the commercial maneuvers: Steep turns, steep spirals, and chandelles.
I headed out to the NW practice area and started with some steep turns. They weren't as good as last week, but I was just warming up.
Next, I moved to Chandelles. The chandelle is an altitude-gaining maneuver. 180-degree turn from crosswind to upwind to crosswind, using a constant 30-degree bank with steadily increasing pitch for the first 90 degrees, then constant 15-degrees-up pitch and decreasing bank for the second 90 degrees, leaving you just above the stall. Recover by leveling out and accelerating. In the Archer, I was gaining roughly 500 feet per chandelle.
Wind was out of the northwest (320@25) at 3,000 feet, and didn't change much up higher either. So, I started on a heading of 050 and did a chandelle to the left ending at 230, followed by another chandelle to the right ending at 050 again and so on. I ended up over a lake with a small almost-island in it (technically a peninsula, but the part joining it to land was much narrower than the rest) at about 7500 feet.
What to do with all that altitude? A steep spiral, of course! Just like turns around a point, only descending. Whee!
I used the "island" as my point and went down to about 2500 feet. Then, I did some steep turns followed by another chandelle series. This time, all the way up to 9500 and then fell out of the sky until about 4500 (there was another plane doing maneuvers below me at 3000-3500 by that point) and headed back in.The only problem with doing steep turns and spirals at the same time as chandelles is that I was tending to overbank the chandelles! Some were messy, some were good. Some I did mostly on the instruments, some I tried to do 100% looking outside. I ended up eyeballing a 90 degree point before rolling in, and then a 180-degree point when I got to the 90-degree point. I can't see 15 degrees pitch up or an accurate 30 bank on the roll-in (especially after the steeper maneuvers as noted above.) It seems that the combo that worked the best was:
1) Stabilize at the entry airspeed
2) Eyeball the 90-degree point out the window
3) Roll in to 30 degrees on the AI and begin pitching up
4) Watch out the window while increasing pitch to the 90-degree point
5) Eyeball the 180-degree point quickly while approaching the 90-degree point.
6) Keep the yoke back as far as it was at the 90-degree point while rolling out
7) confirm the roll-out heading on the DG as it approaches (visual references obscured by the cowling)
8) Recover.
The first steep spiral was kind of messy too, as I wasn't holding the lower bank into the wind for enough time and I wasn't doing a good job of controlling airspeed (though I admit it was more FUN to let the nose drop in a 60-degree bank and get -2000fpm
). It's also very difficult to eyeball the point you're turning around at the higher altitudes while still keeping the turn tight. High wing would be helpful.The second time, I used the Merrimac ferry's northwest landing as my point for the steep spirals which turned out much better - I was able to at least see the river, the road, and the nearby railroad bridge to help me determine where that point was even when I couldn't see it up high. I also refined my banking technique somewhat, so the second steep spiral turned out very nicely.
Anyway, the end of the flight was pretty routine, except for two things. Approach had me enter a left downwind for 32 and handed me to tower quite a ways out. Because I was so far out, Tower requested a report at midfield downwind. (not-routine #1) I cut power abeam the numbers to practice the 180-degree accuracy landing. Base, final, runway's made, pull the flaps, slip just a bit and... Probably the best touchdown I've ever had in a Piper, maybe the second-best ever (best was in a DA40). A great way to end a fun flight.
Certainly more wear and tear than straight and level, but probably not too overly bad.
