Andy Hawkins wrote in
:

Hi,

In article ,
Bertie the wrote:
There's a really cool one called eights on pylons. In those, you have
to pick two pylons and do a figure of eight around them. The wind is
blowing frm one pylon to the other.
But in these the bank angle is constant as you make the round part of
the eights. So, you have to adjust your speed around the figure to
make the groundspeed constant all the way around. You aren;'t allowed
to touch the throttle though, which means you climb and dive around
the figure to do that.
That's a commercial manuever.

Again, sounds like a good exercise in control, but I'm not sure I see
the practical applications. I suppose any 'better' control can only be
good. Trying to think of a similar manoevre you do on a driving test
that has little real world application. Reversing around a corner
perhaps (we do this in the UK)


No, nothing like that. This has definite benefits.
Tell you waht, you try them and the next time you fly with your
instructor after that see if he doesn't notice how much smoother you
are.
A better analogy woudl be juggling or riding a bike. If you can
introduce another ball into your routine the bits with the one bal less
will be that much easier and smoother.




Did you get it right though?

Haven't tried it. Maybe I'll give it a go on the sim.

(big grin implied there by the way!)

One thing it is definitely 100% useless for.

The theory is one thing. Doing them is another. Remember you have to
hold altitude, you have to keep your eye on the point and you have to
stay oriented. They aren't easy to do well.
This means you're not looking at your instruments much. You have to
constantly adjust your bank angle and this means you are constantly
adjusting the back pressure on your stick.
It's an introduction to a type of handling that is fluid and
intuitive, rather than stodgy and numbers based.
It also gives an essential awareness of how the airplane is behaving
in regard to it's track over the ground, which is indespensible when
you are manuevering low, as in a circuit, for instance. It also comes
in extremely handy when you're modeling ground track in your head
flying instruments.

Like I said above, I guess any increase in your ability to control the
plane and make adjustments based on the effect of wind can only be
good. Perhaps I'll try to give it a go when I finally get to do some
more flying.



Yeah good idea. Do them at about 1,000 ft agl. Ideally it should be
lower, but you might upset the neighbors and the CAA if you do.