Maintaining altitude

On May 17, 3:45*am, Mxsmanic wrote:
Dudley Henriques writes:
Generally speaking, you will establish level flight with pitch, adjust
the power, and trim the airplane. At this point level flight is
maintained by extremely subtle and ever constant "caressing" in pitch.

How sensitive is the trim? *I find myself wondering this as I adjust trim in
the sim. *The sim seems a bit coarse, although I'm doing much better at
holding altitude in the C182 (which has no altitude hold for the autopilot)
than I was doing a week or two ago.

When I leave the runway, the aircraft (C182 or C172) seems to climb very
briskly with take-off trim set. *After climbing a few hundred feet I find that
I must hold the stick forward and trim nose down significantly in order to get
the aircraft to level off a bit. *This is with full throttle (and pitch all
the way forward, in the C182). *I'm not sure if I should just continue
trimming to level flight with the throttle set forward, or back off on the
throttle substantially to maintain altitude. *I also don't know if this brisk
climb behavior (with full tanks but just me and equal-weight ballast in the
right seat) is typical of the actual aircraft (I have had mixed replies to my
various inquiries).

I know you are supposed to use the stick to adjust to the correct
altitude and then trim but I must admit to cheating a bit and just
playing with the trim only until I get the altitude nailed. And I am
very curious about what you use for ballast in the right seat Mx? Are
you using one of those "Skyguy" co-pilot dummies with the uniform
that you get from the pilot shop? I used to have one myself but it
was a pain carrying it around , so now I just use an 80 kg block of
lead, since it was the densest object I could find. Do you know of
anything denser so it wont take up as much room in my flight bag?
Thanks
Terry
PPL Downunder

terry writes:

I know you are supposed to use the stick to adjust to the correct
altitude and then trim but I must admit to cheating a bit and just
playing with the trim only until I get the altitude nailed.

With the stick I have on the sim, I usually use the stick first to get close
to the right altitude, and then gradually adjust the trim. There is no
changing control pressure in the sim, so I adjust the trim, back off on the
stick a little bit, and watch the result. Little by little I can get it
trimmed out, but I suspect the process is a lot slower than it would be if I
had proportional pressure on the stick that I could directly trim off. I
suspect the real aircraft is easier to fly, at least in this respect.

And I am very curious about what you use for ballast in the right seat Mx? Are
you using one of those "Skyguy" co-pilot dummies with the uniform
that you get from the pilot shop? I used to have one myself but it
was a pain carrying it around , so now I just use an 80 kg block of
lead, since it was the densest object I could find. Do you know of
anything denser so it wont take up as much room in my flight bag?

Depleted uranium is almost twice as heavy as lead. Osmium is about 20%
heavier than DU, but it smells bad (and the smell is toxic).

I've considered this issue, and decided that my ballast is jugs of tap water,
because I can empty or fill jugs as required to adjust the ballast, and I can
move individual jugs about the cabin as required. I put ballast on the
opposite side of the cabin and behind me, in most cases, to center the CG and
move it back a little (when I'm flying alone).

On May 18, 11:09*pm, Mxsmanic wrote:
terry writes:
I *know you are supposed to use the stick to adjust to the correct
altitude and then trim but I must admit to cheating a bit and just
playing with the trim only until I get the altitude nailed.

With the stick I have on the sim, I usually use the stick first to get close
to the right altitude, and then gradually adjust the trim. *There is no
changing control pressure in the sim, so I adjust the trim, back off on the
stick a little bit, and watch the result. *Little by little I can get it
trimmed out, but I suspect the process is a lot slower than it would be if I
had proportional pressure on the stick that I could directly trim off. *I
suspect the real aircraft is easier to fly, at least in this respect.

And I am very curious about what you use for ballast in the right seat Mx? *Are
you using one of those *"Skyguy" *co-pilot dummies with the uniform
that you get from the pilot shop? * *I used to have one myself but it
was a pain carrying it around , so now I just use an 80 kg block of
lead, since it was the densest object I could find. *Do you know *of
anything denser so it wont take up as much room in my flight bag?

Depleted uranium is almost twice as heavy as lead. *Osmium is about 20%
heavier than DU, but it smells bad (and the smell is toxic).

I've considered this issue, and decided that my ballast is jugs of tap water,
because I can empty or fill jugs as required to adjust the ballast, and I can
move individual jugs about the cabin as required. *I put ballast on the
opposite side of the cabin and behind me, in most cases, to center the CG and
move it back a little (when I'm flying alone).

Good idea, you have got me thinking now, I could just use balloons,
which will weigh nothing and fit easily into my flight bag, then I can
fill them with water when I get to the airport. I'll check with the
flight school if its OK, they were not real happy about the lead block
anyway, they reckon it was wrecking the springs in the right seat.
Thanks
Terry

terry writes:

Good idea, you have got me thinking now, I could just use balloons,
which will weigh nothing and fit easily into my flight bag, then I can
fill them with water when I get to the airport.

Balloons are more likely to rupture. Flexible containers of some kind with
sturdier construction might work, and indeed they might be better than jugs
because they'd be less likely to roll around; you could just set them on the
floor and secure them slightly in some way and they'd be much more likely to
stay put.

In rec.aviation.student Mxsmanic wrote:
terry writes:

Good idea, you have got me thinking now, I could just use balloons,
which will weigh nothing and fit easily into my flight bag, then I can
fill them with water when I get to the airport.

Balloons are more likely to rupture. Flexible containers of some kind with
sturdier construction might work, and indeed they might be better than jugs
because they'd be less likely to roll around; you could just set them on the
floor and secure them slightly in some way and they'd be much more likely to
stay put.

Having a bunch of "slightly" secured containers ready to come loose the
moment you hit some serious turbulence is going to make your flying a
great deal more exciting than it really needs to be. Any ballast which is
not *well* secured is just asking for trouble in the form of flying
projectiles, jammed controls, and if you're using jugs of water, shorted
out electronics.

--
Mike Ash
Radio Free Earth
Broadcasting from our climate-controlled studios deep inside the Moon

On May 19, 12:21*am, Mxsmanic wrote:
terry writes:
Good idea, you have got me thinking now, I could just use balloons,
which will weigh nothing and fit easily into my flight bag, then I can
fill them with water when I get to the airport.

Balloons are more likely to rupture. *Flexible containers of some kind with
sturdier construction might work, and indeed they might be better than jugs
because they'd be less likely to roll around; you could just set them on the
floor and secure them slightly in some way and they'd be much more likely to
stay put.

Good point MX , another idea, I could get an inflatable copilot, like
in the Flying high movie, and fill this with water instead of air.
Then I could just buckle him in! and if I get thirsty I could
just.......no maybe not.... wonder if you can get girl inflatable
pilots?.
Terry

terry writes:

Good point MX , another idea, I could get an inflatable copilot, like
in the Flying high movie, and fill this with water instead of air.
Then I could just buckle him in! and if I get thirsty I could
just.......no maybe not.... wonder if you can get girl inflatable
pilots?.

I don't see any clear advantage to humanoid ballast.

Mxsmanic wrote in
:

terry writes:

Good point MX , another idea, I could get an inflatable copilot, like
in the Flying high movie, and fill this with water instead of air.
Then I could just buckle him in! and if I get thirsty I could
just.......no maybe not.... wonder if you can get girl inflatable
pilots?.

I don't see any clear advantage to humanoid ballast.


That's because you aren't human, moron.

Humanoids have several advantages:

1: They are self transporting and capable of strapping themselves in

2: If chosen correctly they are less likely to leak

3: If chosen correctly they are capable of cost sharing

4: They may be what some of us call "friends".

On a serious note, if weight and balance are not being compromised, an
empty seat is a lost opportunity to make a friend for general
aviation. In the entertainment business one 'papers the house' by
giving comps to mostly fill a venue, and we would do well to "paper
the airplane" when there's an opportunity to do so.



On May 18, 5:11 pm, Mxsmanic wrote:
terry writes:
Good point MX , another idea, I could get an inflatable copilot, like
in the Flying high movie, and fill this with water instead of air.
Then I could just buckle him in! and if I get thirsty I could
just.......no maybe not.... wonder if you can get girl inflatable
pilots?.

I don't see any clear advantage to humanoid ballast.

On May 19, 9:11*am, Mxsmanic wrote:
terry writes:
Good point MX , another idea, I could get an inflatable copilot, like
in the *Flying high movie, and fill this with water instead of air.
Then I could just buckle him in! * and if I *get thirsty *I could
just.......no maybe not.... wonder if you can get girl inflatable
pilots?.

I don't see any clear advantage to humanoid ballast.

Help scare off a potential simulated hijacker?

Cheers