Aviator90 Episode 19

[intro music]

Chris Palmer: [0:31] Welcome back to yet another fun, exciting and educational
episode of Aviator90 from Angle of Attack. Today, we are going to
use what we learned last time about stalls and do a lead-in to slow
flight. Now, what is slow flight? It’s pretty simple. We are going
to teeter on the brink of stalling and, all the while, we will be
doing very shallow turns.
[0:56] Sounds simple, well actually not so much. I hope you have
your dancing shoes on, because this particular type of maneuver
takes a lot of footwork. And that’s actually the point. So let’s
get set up.

[1:09] This maneuver will be done at a particular altitude, and for
this lesson since we’re close already, let’s say 2,500 feet. Make a
mental note of that. Also, I want you to pay special and close
attention to keeping the ball in the middle of the turn
coordinator. This is going to be very, very difficult.

[1:29] One of the first things we’ll need to do is introduce flaps
to the aircraft. We’ll be doing this with full flaps. Basically, in
the landing configuration and we’ll be maintaining an altitude.
Now, during that time we’ll use power to get our altitude back. We
aren’t going to want to increase our pitch.

[1:48] So there’s the first notch of flaps. And we’ll just keep on
slowing it down, staying right at that altitude, adjusting trim.
All the while, there’s this second notch of flaps. Again, adjusting
trim, adjusting the pitch, getting all set up for this maneuver.

[2:15] Let’s bring in the last notch of flaps. Now, we’re going to
maintain a heading of south on this particular maneuver, and 2,500
feet, as I talked about before. So make sure to keep the aircraft
coordinated, and start pulling out the power and just let the air
speed bleed down to 40 to 45 knots in that area. Now, heading is
very difficult to maintain in this situation. It is definitely not
easy.

[2:52] So I’m 100 feet too low, I’m going to pull up a little bit.
I have a little extra airspeed to bleed off, so that will help with
that. And I just need to gain my altitude, here.

[3:01] All the while, I can kind of start this maneuver. So I get
back to my heading of south, and now that we are getting down to
this area around 40 knots here, as you see, the controls are going
to start getting really mushy. You can see there that the aircraft
just turned about 30 degrees, just because it’s almost like a
stall. It just wants to dive in that direction. So, like I said,
you need to be very, very commanding with the footwork.

[3:36] So right at 40 knots, keep the power you need. And we’re
going to stay on a heading of south. I need to get back to that,
and I’ve got to do it just ever so carefully. I can’t just turn the
aircraft over there like we would in a steep turn, or we’re going
to go into a stall. So it takes very minor, minor corrections,
under five degrees on your attitude indicator, to get back to your
headings, or to turn to any heading you want.

[4:07] So getting back to south now, finally. And when you roll out
it’s going to be a little squirrely here, so I’ll roll out on
south. We’re going to have to adjust with the rudder pressure
again. Keep it nice and straight and level. All right. So we’re at
40 knots. We are on a heading of south, roughly. We are right
around 2,500 feet. And we are just keeping the aircraft coordinated
in this very mushy and unstable situation. We want to make sure
that it can’t get away from us, so really stay on the ball. I know
it looks like it’s going all over the place here, but my feet are
moving like crazy to keep that ball in the middle.

[5:00] As you can see, the aircraft can try to get away from you
really quick. So what I’m doing here now is, I’m actually going
turn to a heading of west. So during this time, you’ve got to keep
the bank angle under five degrees, and you’ve really got to
coordinate the aircraft. This is where it can really get away from
you. And again, remember, if you are having altitude problems,
power is the problem, not pitch, in this case.

[5:33] And now, a heading of west, there, we get all stable on the
west. And to be honest, this situation is almost like instrument
flying. You are scanning just about everything. We want to keep our
altitude. We want to keep our bank angle correct, we want to keep
our airspeed. We want to keep the turn coordinates so we’re looking
at that. We’re looking at the heading. We’re even looking at the
vertical speed indicator every once in a while. And there are very
few times, even in instrument flight, where it will be this busy.

[6:06] All right. So were going to start a turn back to south,
another 90 degree turn in the other direction. So again, just very,
very shallow turns. Just be easy on it, because it will want to
just dive in that direction. But just be commanding with the
controls, especially the rudder. And I’m sure it’s making sense to
you now.

[6:35] So here we are, right on the brink of stall, and the
aircraft will still fly. It is still flyable, it’s just extremely
difficult. Now, this maneuver is great for building our skills,
because it really gets that footwork we’ve talked about all along,
the turn coordination. It really starts to build that part of your
control movement, that part of your brain that naturally just tells
the aircraft how to control.

[7:02] All right, so this is it for me, now. But I really, really
encourage you to do this maneuver. I know that some of the other
maneuvers may have been familiar to you. But even for me, this low
flight maneuver was extremely difficult to do, and I would
encourage you to jump in and try this out. It will definitely build
your skills, even if you’re a seasoned pilot.

[7:26] So next time, we are going to take a break from all this
stall stuff, and we’ll be doing some fun takeoffs and landings.
This is going to be one of my favorite sections to do, because I
love these types of maneuvers. So until next time, throttle on.

Transcription by CastingWords