Fly Patch Fly!

Flight Hrs: 1.4 / Total Hrs: 8.3
Aircraft: C-172 / Airport: KGEGWow. Today is the day I learned to trust my airplane. This was a major hurdle for me but it taught me a lot about the plane I’ve been flying.

Since the vast majority of aircraft accidents happen when you’re landing an airplane (2nd highest is during take-off), most of the lessons apply directly to this time of EVERY flight.

I know of some people who go through their flight schools program and never understand why they have to learn steep turns. So, let’s go over it here.

steep turns.

When you’re flying a pattern you’re not going to want to use a steep turn, but there’s always the possibility that one will be required. This prepares you to handle that time, should it arise. A steep turn is a 45 degree banked turn from a heading back to the same heading (360 degree turn) without losing or gaining much altitude.

At my request, my CFI and I flew to a high enough altitude for me to feel comfortable. As always, I made my clearing turns and then flew nice and level for a minute. My instructor waited until I was ready to go into the steep turn.

Once I was ready, I decided to turn to the right cause I didn’t want to bank over that much with me being in the inside of the turn (I’m still a little freaked out about falling out of the plane). It was very hard to put the plane in that steep of a turn. My CFI kept saying, you have to bank more, bank more. It just goes against your nature to turn that steep in an airplane.

As soon as I was in a 45 degree bank, I noticed I was losing a LOT of altitude. Wow, pulling back on that yoke was HARD. I was REALLY struggling to keep us at the right altitude. We came back around to our original heading and my instructor had me immediately go into a left-hand steep turn. Oh no, this is where I freak out. Well, truth is, I didn’t even have time to notice the ground just over my left shoulder.

Once that turn was over, it was time to learn how to make these easier. Ok, so what’s the trick? TRIM! My CFI told me to give the elevator trim three nice sweeps as I go into the turn and then fine tune it. He demostrated for me and basically put the plane into a steep turn, trimmed it out and showed me that you can actually take your hand off the yoke and be ok. The other thing he said I needed to do is get into the 45 degree bank and then find a spot on the cowling where the horizon is located. That way you don’t have to focus on the instruments the whole time. Apparently that’s not good when you’re on your checkride.

Ok, with my new found knowledge, let’s give it a try. I got straight and level and then proceeded into a steep turn. Three quick sweeps of the trim and WOW… it’s like magic. That plane was staying level without much effort on the yoke. It’s almost like the plane wanted to be in that steep of a turn. Wow. I like this.

As we came around to our original heading, my CFI said “ok, now you’re going to bank over to your left”. I started to level off and whoa… the plane started to climb and climb fast! That trim was still way up and I was now level. I pushed REALLY hard on that yoke and kept us fairly level. I got into the left-hand bank and it was back to easy again.

This is a difficult maneuver and one that I’ll definitely have to demonstrate during my checkride. My CFI said we’d have plenty of time to work on it before the checkride.

Thats good!

I’m going to write about the engine failure training in a separate blog entry. I don’t want this one to be any longer than it is already.