Lesson 2 - Straight and level.

29 May 2011 

(Photo : João Alcântara )

 

Forecast was for morning fog - luckily I woke up to clear day. Today we were taking out VH-TXH a 2009 Warrior III with a "Glass cockpit" for lesson number 2 - Straight and level flight.  I'd read all the theory and were keen to get back in the air again.

Out to the plane for the pre-flight inspection.  I'd gone through this in my head a number of times over the last week and was happy when I managed to do it without missing anything.  I hopped into the plane and run thought the pre-start checks and started it up.  After-start checks are all good and it's time for the dreaded taxing.    

Last week I'd snaked all over the place but after visualizing using my feet to steer over the week, today was a lot better - I only managed a couple of major "S" turns.   Run-up/ pre take-off checks go well and after Jason deals with the radio calls we taxi and hold at taxiway alpha 35R for the line-up checks

Once cleared, the take-off seems a bit smoother.  I'm holding the centreline better and rotate just after 60kts.  We climb to 500ft, turn of to crosswind up to 1000ft, turn on to down wind and continue to climb to just under 2000ft.  While we are within the Moorabbin class D airspace (3NMiles) we have to stay below 2500ft.  Once clear f class D airspace we switch to Melbourne Radar and climb to 4000ft in the training area.

Now the fun begins.  First we start with "Normal cruise" 2500rpm, 4 fingers between the top of the dash and the horizon, 105-110knots IAS.  Jason shows my and explains PAST - Power, Attitude, Speed, Trim.  Now it's my turn 

1. Set the power to 2500rpm - This seems to take forever and requires much more throttle  movement than I thought would be required.
2. Adjust my attitude to "4 fingers".  - Now the power seems to have change ?  so fiddle with that again.
3. Check airspeed (target 105-110kts) - this is were I started to come unstuck.  I tried to adjust the attitude to get my 105 -110kts and found myself see-sawing between 90-120.  Jason helpful tells me to look outside and get the "picture" right and stop chasing the airspeed indicator.   When I do this it finally settles down to 105kts
4. Lastly trim - Trimming the aircraft seemed to take Jason about 2 seconds.  It seemed to take me 2 minutes!!  I was using small movements, Jason was using "handfuls"

Next "Slow cruise". 2000rpm, 2 fingers and 80 knots.   So once again a demo by Jason followed by me trying it.  Once again I start to chase the airspeed until I remembered to look outside and focus on the picture again.  Once again trimming takes forever.

Third is the "Fast cruise" 2600rpm 5 fingers and 120knots.  Used if we are in a hurry   Each new throttle setting and attitude picture is taking a while to get right - I can only hope this is going to get easier.

Lastly the "Precautionary Cruise" 2200rpm + 2 stages of flaps, 4 fingers (same as normal cruise) and 80kts. (same as slow cruise).  Used when following a slower plane in the circuit while maintaining better visibility.

Once I've had a go at each one, Jason gets me to transition from one to another.  By now power and attitude setting are becoming a jumbled mess in my head.  I'm also consistently trimming for a slow climb.  Coming from paragliders, where climbing was good, this wasn't bothering me but Jason tells me it's not good and I need to be able to stay with +-100ft of a given altitude in Straight and level flight.

All to soon the lesson is over again.  Back to Moorabbin, land and taxi back to MFS.  A lot to think about - PAST, and the different power and attitude setting for the 4 different S&L configurations.  But on the plus side my taxing was better than last week, I remembered all the pre-flight inspection and I was getting quicker at setting up each configuration by the end.  

All in all another fun days flying.

Piper Warrior III VH-TXH,  Flight Time 1.1hr (Total 2.1hrs)