Greatful for this group

While conducting Airplane Commercial SEL Checkrides recently, we were down to the Power Off 180* Accuracy Landing. There was a strong headwind on Base Leg, and two separate applicants slowed to Best Glide Speed when they noticed the significant headwind. Needless to say it made their glide path worse instead of better. I thought to myself that a glider pilot would’ve sped up...

On Thursday, October 18, 2018 at 3:27:02 PM UTC-7, Richard Wilkening wrote:
While conducting Airplane Commercial SEL Checkrides recently, we were down to the Power Off 180* Accuracy Landing. There was a strong headwind on Base Leg, and two separate applicants slowed to Best Glide Speed when they noticed the significant headwind. Needless to say it made their glide path worse instead of better. I thought to myself that a glider pilot would’ve sped up...

Until they changed the min crossing altitude of the Julian VOR, on wave days, we routinely lost pilots or in one case while I was flying a glider in the same area an instructor and student. Pretty sure they got into serious down air, pulled back to best climb speed in their CE 172. I find the young airplane only guys I know are frightening in what they do not know. Don't know how to read clouds, don't understand wind flow in the terrain....

Until they changed the min crossing altitude of the Julian VOR, on wave days,
we routinely lost pilots or in one case while I was flying a glider in the
same area an instructor and student. Pretty sure they got into serious down
air, pulled back to best climb speed in their CE 172. I find the young
airplane only guys I know are frightening in what they do not know. Don't
know how to read clouds, don't understand wind flow in the terrain....
- - - - - -

Warning!!! - Philosophical riff follows...

When I was a wet-behind-the-ears, 150-hour, glider-only, tyro, flying nut, I
had the opportunity to ride along with a power flying buddy sucking
brain-knollich from a one-time Alaska bush pilot. At that time I'd ride with
anyone, greedily slurping through the knollich straw myself. To my (great)
surprise, perhaps 90% of the "generic mountain-centric" - i.e.
non-power-centric - words of wisdom proffered by the bush pilot was "stuff" I
was already aware of through glider instruction and continuing self-education.
(Mercy!)

Some years - and a whole lot of additional personal
mountain-soaring-experience later - a friend gave me a copy of Sparky Imeson's
"Mountain Flying" book...power-centric of course, information-dense, and (IMO)
well worth internalizing despite (for me) not containing very much
glider-centric new knollich/tidbits.

Fairly recently and many more years later (thanks to the web), I learned
Sparky Imeson "had killed himself" while (apparently) engaged in some
thin-margin, (at-least-semi-)mountainous-terrain flying in his
personally-owned airplane. Though I'd never met the man, it saddened and
(further) sobered me to the inherent, unavoidable, risks associated with
flight (of any sort) *near* essentially-immovable things to hit.

"What's your major point?" I hear impatient readers ask. I think I have several...
- It's entirely normal - unavoidable! - for Joe Pilot to progress *away* from
the state of "Beginner's ignorance" and *toward* "Experienced pilot," until
death stops piloting fun.
- That progression's gonna happen *regardless* of Joe Pilot's mindset (e.g.
curious or incurious, prudent or imprudent, etc.).
- It's entirely normal (IMO) for "more experienced pilots" to (eventually)
bemoan the state of affairs of "today's tyros"...but doing so (to me, anyway)
is (choose whichever you wish): more self-indulgent than meaningful?
kinda-sorta off-target?
- YOUR (i.e. Joe Pilot's) mindset *matters* to your continued-survival chances
inside the cockpit. Lots of aphorisms exist addressing this (non-obvious?)
truism (e.g.): Never carry a package by the string. Always have an out/Plan B
(and C and D). Flying is unforgiving of inattention or "general foolishness."
Ignorance can kill. Etc.

With winter approaching in the northern hemisphere, some easy-reading, daily
skimming of (e.g.) the (somewhat-funky/clunky) Kathryn's Report website (with
which I have zero involvement), easily/entertainingly/sadly shines
real-world-light on some of the above obvious (to me, anyway), aphoristic,
generalized, musings. In Joe-Pilot-centric terms, the "vast majority" of
(typically, entirely avoidable) piloting deaths are due to:
ignorance/poor-judgment/off-target or non-internalized training. "Kids, don't
DO those things!!! Your chances of continuing opportunities for additional
stick-hours will be increased by working really hard at having *ONLY* those
sorts of accidents that will fall into the category of, "Man! I wonder
what-in-heck underlies this particular set of fatal piloting circumstances?"

Bob W.

---
This email has been checked for viruses by AVG.
https://www.avg.com

Well, the "right answer" is probably not as clear cut as that. For example, the French "blue book" (the official glider training handbook in France) has stated for years that on final, you have to adjust the glide slope by changing the pitch of the airplane and you have to control the airspeed with the airbrakes. That is the exact opposite of what had been taught by the former editions of the book, and there was a storm of protest from most of the "old school" instructors when this was introduced.

The last issue I possess (issue 10) still uses wordings that stress the primary use of pitch to get to the right slope for the final approach, while using the brakes to keep the approach speed constant.

During a flight instructor course at Saint-Auban, we had to be able to apply this method. It works, but is certainly less intuitive than the classic approach. The main problem is that in every other fase of the flight, we don't normally use the airbrakes and are thus accustomed to control the speed by altering the pitch. It seems stupid to change that habit on finals.

That's probably why even in France, most instructors seem to go back to the classic approach when teaching in their club. So do I...

On Friday, October 19, 2018 at 12:30:44 AM UTC-7, wrote:
Well, the "right answer" is probably not as clear cut as that. For example, the French "blue book" (the official glider training handbook in France) has stated for years that on final, you have to adjust the glide slope by changing the pitch of the airplane and you have to control the airspeed with the airbrakes. That is the exact opposite of what had been taught by the former editions of the book, and there was a storm of protest from most of the "old school" instructors when this was introduced.

The last issue I possess (issue 10) still uses wordings that stress the primary use of pitch to get to the right slope for the final approach, while using the brakes to keep the approach speed constant.

During a flight instructor course at Saint-Auban, we had to be able to apply this method. It works, but is certainly less intuitive than the classic approach. The main problem is that in every other fase of the flight, we don't normally use the airbrakes and are thus accustomed to control the speed by altering the pitch. It seems stupid to change that habit on finals.

That's probably why even in France, most instructors seem to go back to the classic approach when teaching in their club. So do I...

Very interesting, thank you much for sharing! I think I will stay with stick for airspeed and airbrake/throttle for glideslope, works in fix wing or rotor wing.