[intro music]

Chris Palmer: [0:31] We are back for yet another exciting episode of Aviator 90
from Angle of Attack.
[0:37] In this episode, we will discuss straight and level flight.
I know you had a lot of fun in the traffic pattern, landing and
flair sections, and I promise we’ll get to more landing later.

[0:48] But for now, we need to discuss this simple phase of flight.
Straight and level flight is something we have mentioned before.
During straight and level flight, our wings are level and we are
not climbing or descending.

[1:03] As you learned in the three forces section, all forces are
balanced in this situation. That means that lift equals weight and
thrust equals drag. We generally use straight and level flight when
cruising which, I guess, is perhaps the better term for this
particular setup which is cruise.

[1:24] There are three elements of staying straight and level. I
know they may sound boring, but here me out on this one.

[1:31] First, we must maintain a heading. This is simply done by
turning the heading indicator’s OBS knob on the heading you want to
maintain. This way you can target it. Well, actually lucky for you,
this aircraft, the Cessna-152 doesn’t have this particular heading
bug, so you’re just going to have to rely on your own concentration
to stick to that heading.

[1:58] Second is altitude. Now, I know reading the altimeter isn’t
something we’ve talked about yet, so while we have some time in
this somewhat of a mundane episode, let’s do that now. The
altimeter is broken up into several different parts. I’ll discuss
what each one is, and then we’ll look at how to read altitudes.

[2:18] The best way to think about the hands on an altimeter is to
think about the hands of a clock. The short and thick hand is the
thousands of feet, and the skinny and long hand is the hundreds of
feet. If you think about it in terms of a clock, the big hand is
the hours which is the bigger number, obviously. And the smaller
hand is the minutes.

[2:44] All right. So, for example, when the thousands hand is on
the five, it indicates we’re at 5, 000. When the hundreds hand is
on the five, it represents 500 feet.

[2:59] Now, there’s another hand called the tens of thousands, and
this one gives us an indication for those aircraft that can climb a
bit higher, say, they have an engine that can produce some better
performance.

[3:11] All right. Both hands together or all three, I suppose, give
us a reading, but generally for something like the Cessna-152 we’ll
just be using the thousands and hundreds hand. As you can see, it
will take a little getting used to if you’re not familiar with
altimeters. But it’s actually pretty easy.

[3:30] Now, if you have any questions about your altimeter
settings, say, you’re confused or you need more clarification, fee
free to ask us and we’ll give you our expertise.

[3:40] All right. Now, the last part of the altimeter is known as
the Kollsman Window. Here we set our local altimeter setting which
you’ll see in a startup procedure later in this series. But for
now, just know that without this setting set correctly, we will
have altitude errors. Later, we’ll learned where to get the correct
setting and what to do if you cannot get the correct setting on the
ground.

[4:05] The last thing I should note on the altimeter is that when
everything is set up correctly, this will be your primary
instrument for maintaining altitude. Now, the VSI will show you
some information as to how we’re climbing or descending, but it’s
just too easy to get focused too much on that. So our main focus
will be the altimeter. It’s much easier to maintain a perfect
altitude with the altimeter.

[4:31] If you’re trimmed up in the right place, your altitude
should be very simple to maintain with just light control inputs
based on the information the altimeter is giving you. There are
those little bumps and wind differences in the air that will get
your altimeter off just a little bit during cruise, but, like I
said, just light control input should be able to correct this very
easily.

[4:53] All right. So that does it for the second of the three which
was the altimeter. Now that you know the basic parts, let’s move on
to the last of the three elements we need for straight and level
flight.

[5:04] The last thing we need is trim. Yes, I know I’ve really been
harping on trim, but it’s seriously just very, very important that
you realize trim is like a co-pilot for you. It can really help you
out a lot. So I’m not going to discuss that any further, but just
realize that trim is very important.

[5:24] Now, as a side note the great thing about trim is that once
you get it in that stable state, it really allows you to enjoy the
views outside the window, something we could all use more of for
sure.

[5:35] All right. That does it for this episode. Remember that
straight and level flight consists of those three elements we
discussed, and you’ll be set.

[5:44] Until next time, throttle on.

Transcription by CastingWords