Friday, October 1, 2010

Turns, Turns, Turns

Today I practiced steep turns, turns around a point, and s-turns.

Steep turns are a little more difficult than I remember the last time I did them at Charleston. I had trouble maintaining bank angle, staying coordinated, and maintaining altitude. I think the problem was that at Yeager, I did my steep turns with mostly instrument reference. Today, I tried to do them with mostly outside reference, and that was a bit more difficult.

I actually did pretty well with my ground reference maneuvers, considering that it was my first time. You're supposed to understand the primary wind direction, and turn shallower with a headwind, and steeper with a tailwind. However, I could mostly judge the angle of bank I needed without mentally calculating wind direction. It just felt natural.

I also practiced emergency engine failure. The first thing I'm supposed to do is pitch for 65 knots. Then I must look for a suitable landing place (I found a nice little mountaintop removal project nearby). Then I have to check the fuel selector, mixture, throttle, pull out carb heat, check the magneto switch, and make sure the primer is fully in. If none of that works, I must squak 7700 and contact ATC and let them know I'm going down, and then land in my chosen field. Of course, we were just pretending, and as I started to get very close to the nearby mountains I aborted the simulation by applying full power and climbing away. After all, FAA regulations state that I cannot come within 500 feet of the ground, and I was damn near close. But if it were a real emergency, I could just toss the rule book out the window.

All in all, except for being windy and turbulent, it was a pretty good lesson.

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