That One Tip

ifconfig said:
Ah gotcha.

I believe the 90-degrees talked about here is in reference, not to heading, but to the ground which of course doing so takes the wind into consideration.
Keeping that in mind, and with reference to the ground, the runway isn't moving, if that makes sense.
Click to expand...
Maybe... but if I understand what you just said, that doesn't actually work.

IOW, using the wing as reference for a 90 degree ground reference turn doesn't work.

I'm not a CFI but the easiest way to get a feel for wind drift in the pattern and for gauging the turn to base or final is to reference the target runway. The effect is often negligible for an evening flight on a nice day. Thirty knots at 1000' AGL screws that all up.
 
Here's a few not found in manuals...

Hand never comes off the tow bar attached to the airplane, or a fuel cap. If you let go of the tow bar, it's removed from the aircraft. If you let go of the fuel cap, it's to put it back in place, respectively.

Touch things during pre-flight. It's not a passive endeavor. Wiggle things, move things. Feel the airplane. Both outside and inside the cockpit.
 
denverpilot said:
Here's a few not found in manuals...

Hand never comes off the tow bar attached to the airplane, or a fuel cap. If you let go of the tow bar, it's removed from the aircraft. If you let go of the fuel cap, it's to put it back in place, respectively.

Touch things during pre-flight. It's not a passive endeavor. Wiggle things, move things. Feel the airplane. Both outside and inside the cockpit.
Click to expand...

Nice. I'm going to compile these in some document if I get enough and make it available here.
 
denverpilot said:
Here's a few not found in manuals...

Hand never comes off the tow bar attached to the airplane, or a fuel cap.

If you let go of the fuel cap, it's to put it back in place, respectively.
Click to expand...
So, what do you do with the fuel cap when you are fueling? You hold on to it with one hand and hold the nozzle and hose with the other?
 
“Suppose you're taking off to fly a left-hand pattern, but the runway has a right crosswind. Obstacle clearance will be enhanced if you first turn into the wind in the initial climb. A headwind has the effect of increasing the airplane's climb angle with respect to the ground. Where obstacle clearance could be a problem, the pilot should use the wind for maximum advantage.

Again, wind does not affect climb rate, it affects groundspeed. The reason why climb angle is enhanced in wind is that the wind reduces groundspeed while climb rate is unchanged. If groundspeed were reduced to nil during the climb, the angle would duplicate that of an elevator, which also has no groundspeed.”
 
ifconfig said:
... before turning, find a line that is 90-degrees to the left (if left base, of course) and parallels your plane's left wing which is, you guessed it, 90-degrees to the left!
Click to expand...

I guess my tip would be to turn off the autopilot and hand fly within 5 miles of the airport. Maybe 10 miles under certain conditions. Two reasons: 1) break the pilot out of the "autopilot coma" where the pilot is just a passenger, and 2) allows the pilot to set the heading bug to runway heading. This helps the pilot identify the right runway at a multiple-runway airport, and also defines the correct heading for downwind, base, and final courses where vision might be obscured (high wing). Or just plain hard to find like a turf runway in the summer. Easy habit to get into and I find it helpful... -Skip
 
MachFly said:
"Find an instructor that will teach you how to fly an airplane, not how to operate one. Look out the window, feel the airplane, feel what’s going on, and fly it. I see too many people that are taught to operate an airplane like a hunk of machinery. They’re not making the airplane an extension of themselves, and they’re going to get in situations they’re not going to be able to fly out of."
Rob Holland
Click to expand...
This is perhaps the best overall one.

Sadly, it wasn't until I was training in the DC-3 that I found an instructor who taught that way.
 
One good one I recall is when your landings are going to crap, it is probably because you are focusing on the touchdown area and not to far end of the runway.
 
Fearless Tower said:
So, what do you do with the fuel cap when you are fueling? You hold on to it with one hand and hold the nozzle and hose with the other?
Click to expand...


Oh don't be that pedantic about it. It's a tip. You're looking at it sitting there while the nozzle is in the hole. If someone else is fueling you don't consider the job finished until you get up there and check the cap yourself.

The point of the tip is, you don't get distracted from the task at hand. If you do, the bar comes off. Or the cap goes on. And you start over when you come back.
 
denverpilot said:
Oh don't be that pedantic about it. It's a tip. You're looking at it sitting there while the nozzle is in the hole. If someone else is fueling you don't consider the job finished until you get up there and check the cap yourself.

The point of the tip is, you don't get distracted from the task at hand. If you do, the bar comes off. Or the cap goes on. And you start over when you come back.
Click to expand...
Got ya.
 
txflyer said:
Another tip is on final, watch the far end of the runway. It should not be moving up or down in your frame of reference.

If it's stationary, you're flying a recommended 3 degree glideslope.
Click to expand...

That does not compute.

1) Would you not end up landing at the far end of the runway?

2) 3° glideslopes are too shallow for typical VFR approaches single engine.

Unless I just misunderstood.
 
denverpilot said:
Hand never comes off the tow bar attached to the airplane, or a fuel cap. If you let go of the tow bar, it's removed from the aircraft. If you let go of the fuel cap, it's to put it back in place, respectively.

Touch things during pre-flight. It's not a passive endeavor. Wiggle things, move things. Feel the airplane. Both outside and inside the cockpit.
Click to expand...
That's real good stuff. I'm going to start doing the tow bar thing. I will have to try the fuel cap. That's a big one for high wings where the filler spot isn't visible from the cockpit. My low wing, not as much, but a real good idea.
Fearless Tower said:
So, what do you do with the fuel cap when you are fueling? You hold on to it with one hand and hold the nozzle and hose with the other?
Click to expand...
I'll be trying that actually though not for all A/C or pilots perhaps.
 
I just learned this from a YouTube video recently so I haven't had time to put into into practice but this makes so much sense to me: find ways to remind yourself of important things.

If you're on an IFR approach turn the landing light switch on when you receive your clearance to land. If that switch isn't on then double check your clearance.

Set the heading bug to your runway heading so that you can double check what runway you're taking off of or landing on. Heck, set your heading bug for anything. Wind direction, next heading you expect, final approach course, etc. (Same thing applies to altitude bugs, if so equipped)

If you need to remember something unusual, such you're being vectored toward something dangerous and you don't want to forget along with a controller, then put your approach plate (or something) in the way of your GPS or (something similar). Then, whenever you go "why is my approach plate there?" you'll remember it's because you're doing X and need to do Y soon.

Generally, the tip is that if you need to remember something that you don't want to forget then find some way to make sure you remind yourself of it. Scribble a big note to yourself on your kneeboard, hold your chart upside down, do something not normal (but not dangerous) and tell yourself "if I see that 10 minutes from now then remember that I need to switch tanks" or something similar.
 
Flaps up, nose up. Flaps down, nose down. :idea:
 
FastEddieB said:
That does not compute.

1) Would you not end up landing at the far end of the runway?

2) 3° glideslopes are too shallow for typical VFR approaches single engine.

Unless I just misunderstood.
Click to expand...




Keeping the threshold right above the glareshield, far end of the runway not moving up or down in the frame of reference, will put you on approximately a 3 degree glideslope.

Key word approximately. From flying magazine, not just me.

I guess if I said go full throttle on take off, you'd re-butt that too, since you have every tip I've given here and elsewhere. Fly however you like, OP too since he hasn't acknowledged any of them either. Peace. Out.
 
One thing I worked into my routine is to ALWAYS do a final 360° walk around the plane right before getting in.

That's after your preflight when you think you're good to go.

Takes about a minute, and eventually you WILL catch something you missed - cowl plugs or pitot cover in place, chocks nor removed, tiedown still fastened, camera or phone on the wing, that sort of thing.

Recommended by someone on the Cirrus Owner's website, and I think it's an excellent idea.
 
txflyer said:
I guess if I said go full throttle on take off, you'd re-butt that too, since you have every tip I've given here and elsewhere. Fly however you like, OP too since he hasn't acknowledged any of them either. Peace. Out.
Click to expand...

Sorry.

Did not mean to be contentious.

I was just always taught that, on approach, if your intended touchdown point on the runway was moving up in the windshield, you'd come up short unless you added power. If it moved down, you were overshooting, and needed to adjust for that. And if it remained stationary, and just got bigger and bigger, well, that was where your flare would begin.

So I can't picture using the far end of the runway as that reference to keep stationary.

But I suspect something is being lost in translation.

And Peace Out to you as well!
 
Doesn't make me an ace but I always pull the auto-squelch off and verify I have the volume up and the headset working before I key the mic for the first time on a radio. Seen my fellow pilots embarrass themselves by not doing that, too.
 
txflyer said:
Another tip is on final, watch the far end of the runway. It should not be moving up or down in your frame of reference.

If it's stationary, you're flying a recommended 3 degree glideslope.
Click to expand...

Huh?? If the far end of the runway is not moving up or down, you will not be landing.
 
txflyer said:
… Fly however you like, OP too since he hasn't acknowledged any of them either. Peace. Out.
Click to expand...

Sorry pal, I didn't think it needed an ACK. In passing, I was thinking it was strange about the end of the runway not the start. Everyone's welcome on this thread, the more the merrier believe me. I need as many inputs on this as possible.

Cheers!
 
“As everything is taught backwards, you are told to remain coordinated by centering the ball, this balances the forces and maintains your heading. Try it the other way. If you hold your heading with the rudder while climbing out and hold a ground reference with the nose, you will always be balanced. The ball will never wander from the center …”
 
Remember that airplanes are designed to cruise, not to land. The greatest contributing factor to the perfect landing — is luck.
 
I haven't seen a lot of risk mitigation here ... so ...

"Imagine what the accident report will read like."

After a bazillion years, I am finally a plane owner, and when I'm flying in a simple airplane on my own dime, I am pretty particular about the weather conditions I am willing to get out and fly in.


Brian
 
txflyer said:
Another tip is on final, watch the far end of the runway. It should not be moving up or down in your frame of reference.

If it's stationary, you're flying a recommended 3 degree glideslope.
Click to expand...

Umm, the far end of the runway should ALWAYS go up on the windscreen or you're going to overrun.

The near touchdown point (NOT usually the threshold or the edge of the pavement) should be stationary regardless of glideslope.
 
handy said:
Agreed. The first paragraph should contain the phrases "flying at low altitude, the aircraft collided with a shovel."
Click to expand...

Sounds much better than "pilot applied full power for a go-around, due to insufficient rudder deflection the aircraft impacted terrain on the side of the runway."
 
ifconfig said:
What makes you think I'm being flippant? I was asking a question out of genuine curiousity.
Click to expand...

The CAS/IAS conversion is in every POH written after 1977, and many before that. While I don't think the question itself was flippant, I'll suggest getting the answer to that is much more important than you thought. And not just from some guy on the internet. Never bet your life on the reliability of anonymous and unaccountable data.

If you study your POH carefully, you'll find that even if you correlate the landing checklist to 1.3 times the published dirty stall speed with identical conditions, you'll find they don't match. This is why.
 
Last edited:
handy said:
Agreed. The first paragraph should contain the phrases "flying at low altitude, the aircraft collided with a shovel."
Click to expand...
I knew a guy who had a midair with a deer, and it was not associated with a takeoff or landing nor near a runway. Also, given the season, it was not named Rudolph, Dasher, Dancer, Prancer, Vixen, Comet, Cupid, Donner, nor Blitzen.
 
Last edited:
txflyer said:
Fly it and try it before you deny it. B)
Click to expand...

Maybe, but if you hold the approach end at constant height in your windscreen, the amount the the far end will move will vary with your approach slope. There is no definite indication of slope beyond "That looks about right". And it is will vary with runway length. Further, there is nothing magical about 3d when flying VFR and I am not interested in coming in VFR that shallow anyway.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top