Jaybird180
Final Approach
I would like to get my VFR flying to tighter tolerances. When flying visually, although I am within PTS, my instruments flying is MUCH tighter. What kinds of things can I do to make my visual flying more precise?
On heading, at altitude
- Thread starter Jaybird180
- Start date
TangoWhiskey
Touchdown! Greaser!
For heading, pick a prominent feature (road intersection, lake, mountain peak, tower, building, etc.) ahead of the airplane, and visually lock it into place on the windshield.
rottydaddy
En-Route
Yeah, this is a must for following a VFR course line... no matter how good your weather data is, you'll end up making adjustments as you go, to deal with drift. A visual landmark on or near your course is more useful than the DG or compass.
But don't stare at it... check it occasionally, while you scan for traffic.
Precision is a must for separation when flying IFR, but in VMC, a good scan is more important than 50-100 feet or 5 degrees. And aside from traffic, using visual conditions to be certain of your position (and weather conditions ahead) at all times is more important than staying on your intended path. If your plan is in error, slavishly following it can get you into trouble.
Graueradler
Pattern Altitude
Trim
On cross country flights in smooth air, I try to trim until I can fly by weight shift. If the plane is well trimmed. It isn't going to deviate quickly from altitude and heading conditions that you have established. I think of it as "participative management". Get the plane to want to do what you want instead of forcing it to with control input.
On cross country flights in smooth air, I try to trim until I can fly by weight shift. If the plane is well trimmed. It isn't going to deviate quickly from altitude and heading conditions that you have established. I think of it as "participative management". Get the plane to want to do what you want instead of forcing it to with control input.
kgruber
Final Approach
I find that I do better with a need for little down trim. Must be from flying Beaver floatplanes at 80 feet a long ago portion of my life.
jesse
Touchdown! Greaser!
How precise must VFR flying really be? Just pick something in front of the window and fly to it. Then pick the next thing. I'd focus more on being smooth then maintaining a heading or altitude to x value which has no significant difference on arrival time.
Graueradler
Pattern Altitude
If you use flight following, I think that ATC has a reasonable expectation that you will be doing somewhere near what you told them you would be.
jesse
Touchdown! Greaser!
One can fly with pretty incredible precision just by keeping their eyes out of the window. Most of the issues I see with pilots being all over the place while VFR is because they are spending too much time looking at instruments and lack instrument training.
p1l0t
Line Up and Wait
^ This. ^ The VFR panel is front windshield. I cover up the gyros or the altimeter or anything I catch a pilot staring at when not in the clouds. No good holding altitude and heading striaght into another aircraft or an antenna... Especially when the get started into the maneuvers where situational awareness is key.
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Piloto
Line Up and Wait
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Piloto
Engage the autopilot.
Geico266
Touchdown! Greaser!
Yep. Enjoy the time flying!
nosehair
Cleared for Takeoff
Cross-Check !
Cross-check, cross-heck, cross-check.
Not to detract from the importance of a constant outside vigil when in vmc, it is really very doable to learn a cross-check that is mostly outside but includes a trained rapid cross-check to altimeter and heading.
Actually, the 3 hours of hood time required for the PP isn't 'instrument training', you know. It is 'control and maneuvering by reference to instruments'.
Long long ago, when the FAA added the 'control by reference to instruments', the intent was to increase the training of the pilot to use the instruments for more precise control of the airplane in visual reference conditions. It was never meant to be the beginning of 'instrument training'.
The FAA approved lesson plans introduced the concept of referencing instruments in with each visual maneuver. When it is done in this manner, and the instructor coaches the student to maintain the outside scan, using the instruments as precision tools supplementing aircraft control rather than primary control, the end result is a much more smoother and aware pilot.
But it works. Speed up your scan. Keep you primary target outside, but check heading and altitude more rapidly and keep trimming.
Cross-check, cross-heck, cross-check.
Not to detract from the importance of a constant outside vigil when in vmc, it is really very doable to learn a cross-check that is mostly outside but includes a trained rapid cross-check to altimeter and heading.
Actually, the 3 hours of hood time required for the PP isn't 'instrument training', you know. It is 'control and maneuvering by reference to instruments'.
Long long ago, when the FAA added the 'control by reference to instruments', the intent was to increase the training of the pilot to use the instruments for more precise control of the airplane in visual reference conditions. It was never meant to be the beginning of 'instrument training'.
The FAA approved lesson plans introduced the concept of referencing instruments in with each visual maneuver. When it is done in this manner, and the instructor coaches the student to maintain the outside scan, using the instruments as precision tools supplementing aircraft control rather than primary control, the end result is a much more smoother and aware pilot.
But it works. Speed up your scan. Keep you primary target outside, but check heading and altitude more rapidly and keep trimming.
COFlyBoy
Line Up and Wait
Careful what you wish for. I made the short hop from Rapid City to Wall, SD (Wall is a hoot if you're ever in the area) at 4500 feet. I was following the magenta line of extreme precision and almost ran into another Cherokee going the opposite way on the same magenta line. Thank goodness for flight following, we climbed and didn't get a visual until we were on top of the guy.
I'm going to switch my gps to offset my flight path to the right by 2 miles when I'm VFR.
I hold my headings to within 5 degrees and alt to within 100 feet when I'm flying VFR cross-country. I think it helps keep the IFR precision sharp.
j1b3h0
Line Up and Wait
A laudible goal. You might also try to aggressively SMMOOOOTH. To quote the PTS for the ATP: "The pilot should be the obvious master of the aircraft, and the successful outcome of any manuever never in doubt." When you're good, it feels like the airplane is on rails.
zaitcev
En-Route
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Pete Zaitcev
Do you include altitude into this, too? I track like a cruise missile, but I often find myself inadvertently climbing or descending by more than 500 ft.
denverpilot
Tied Down
Yup. Tighten it up.
If I find myself 100' off on altitude in cruise VFR, I probably got distracted or the aircraft isn't really trimmed right.
Granted, there are times I'll let it wander just 'cause I want to gawk outside or something, but generally 100' is easy unless you're getting rocked by turbulence.
Keeping a proper VFR scan outside going and holding 25'+- during cruise is a good hard exercise that'll leave ya a bit tired after an hour of doing it.
Helps to have some other eyeballs on board looking outside for anything tighter than that. If you're staring at the altimeter that's bad, VMC.
Trimmed right, it's just fingertip pressures to almost "think" the aircraft the direction you want it to go, and if you hold the yoke with a death-grip you can't do it. You also can't do it untrimmed very easily.
If you get in the "zone" on a smooth day, the dials get that quintessential "painted on" look. They just don't move. You don't let them. Jedi mind trick. LOL!
If trimmed, I find that usually what you're doing with your fingertip pressure is "releasing" the friction in the elevator control more than you're "moving" it. The friction holds the elevator just barely where you don't want it and you've got a tiny climb or descent going.
Look at the altimeter for movement here, not the VSI. It lags too much. The altimeter starts moving before the VSI does.
If the needle starts to move, correct it, look outside for traffic, glance back in. If needle is still moving correct again. Compete with yourself in stable cruise.
After a while you note the rate at which it's moving and your muscle memory knows how much pressure it takes to stop that rate.
Once stopped, correct toward original target altitude and note rate. Look outside again, but know about how long it'll take to get to desired altitude.
At the appropriate time, glance back inside to see if you've hit it and simultaneously apply pressure to stop the rate.
After about an hour of this when you're new at it, you'll be both tired and usually around then it will "click". You've usually been chasing your tail a bit and you "wear out" doing that.
Then you stop over-controlling and apply just enough pressure to stop and reverse the trend.
After you're practiced at it, all it takes to get back in the groove is concentrating on the cruise level-off, on the beginning of a leg, and trimming accurately to remove the pressures after your cruise checklist.
That's enough of a warm-up that your muscle memory and brain start doing it again almost subconsciously.
The thing that'll tick you off and humble you is hopping into an airplane with a really good three-axis autopilot. Really good.
Watching it hold everything just nailed, shows that it can be done, and the autopilot really can do a better job than you can.
That's annoying enough for me to try harder, but to each their own when it comes to motivation.