| Lesson 8:
Date: Saturday 1/12/2008 Where: UZA Aircraft: Cessna 172 N64191 Instruction: 1.7/.2 hours (air/ground) Dual Instruction with Derek Alter Flying Slow: The wind was up today, and blowing almost perpendicular to the runway at a pretty stiff rate. People were still flying though, but the airport was quiet, and most of the aircraft had left for the weekend. I completed the pre-flight. The tanks still had plenty of fuel for our flight, so off we went. Apart from the wind, the weather was perfect - clear blue skies, and once we had taken off, the visibility was over 20 miles. We climbed up throughout the mildly turbulent air to an altitude of 2,500 ft. and leveled out, flying out towards Chester. Our climb out took us more or less directly over my house. We went into slow flight. Turn the carb heat on, pull the power back to about 1600 RPM, and pitch for an airspeed of about 55 KIAS (Knots, Indicated Airspeed). As the speed bleeds off, add flaps one notch at a time to increase lift, and decrease pitch angle to maintain airspeed with the drag from the flaps. The intention is to hold the altitude, airspeed and heading constant. With the nose pointing up, and the power level increased to compensate for the drag and to stop us from descending, the torque effect and P-factor from the propeller need some right rudder to compensate. Getting this right is important for takeoffs - it prevents us from shooting off to the left on takeoff. To resume our normal cruise speed and configuration, I had to put in the carb heat, apply full power, raise the flaps and bring the nose off level to allow the airspeed to increase. At about 90 knots, the power is pulled back to about 2200 RPM, and we are back cruising again. A few more tries at slow flight, and I'm getting better at holding my heading and altitude. Control effectiveness is certainly down when you do this. On the way home we practiced engine loss at altitude. This process was simple and not as alarming as it sounds. I simply slow the plane down to the best glide speed (the speed at which the plane will maintain altitude for the longest distance and period of time). This allows me to look for a place to land. I make a few turns and decide on a field. Once that�s done, I make a call, �MAYDAY MAYDAY, MAYDAY, this is Cessna 64191, we are 6 miles south of Chester and we have lost the engine. We have two passengers and are in a white plane with blue stripes. We are squawking 7700.� There, easy enough right? Derek tells me that I can now recover and I do by increasing speed and leveling off. Once we were in the pattern Derek showed me a simulated engine failure while on the downwind leg. He immediately made a turn towards the airport and made a radio call that he was doing a simulated engine failure. No problem, we were able to glide right to the airstrip and set the plane down without incident. Now it was my turn. Derek took off (short field takeoff) and I took over once we reached 500ft. While on the downwind leg, Derek pulled the power and announced we had lost the engine. I turned the plane towards the airstrip and made a radio call that I had lost the engine. I had the runway made and lined up for my flare. I drifted to the ground and Derek took over and flared just before touchdown. We taxied back to the hangar and tied down the aircraft for the day. Conclusion: Derek pointed out again about looking for traffic while we are on the ground. I need to get my scanning procedure in order (I've been making a point of looking outside anyway - they say people who have done lots of flight sim work tend to get preoccupied with the instrument panel). The most dangerous area when flying is the downwind, base leg and final approach of the traffic pattern as you get back to the airport as there's more aircraft concentrated around there. If you lose an engine don�t panic. Remember the Cessna can glide for a while. I'm getting more confident with the controls, and getting the feel a bit better. Each flight gets more enjoyable as I don't have to spend 100% of the time worrying about how much control input I need. It feels good! What I learned: How slow flight feels, and the consequent reduced control effectiveness. How to control the plane during an engine failure. I need to work on controlling the plane in slow flight. Throttle gives me altitude, pitch controls speed, and very slight aileron will give me a turn to a heading. |