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Very frequently hard landings and airport-environment Loss of Control – In- flight (LOC-I) involve a heavily loaded air- plane or one in which the CG is toward the aft end of the envelope. Your conditioned response to these scenarios, reinforced in practice and instruction, may not be adequate for recovery from performance excursions under these conditions.
Perhaps we should all carefully load our aircraft near the aft end of its CG en- velope at the airplane’s maximum weight, and with an instructor experienced and current in that type of airplane go up and practice slow flight, stalls, go-arounds, and high performance (short- and soft- field) takeoffs and landings in this con- dition. If your airplane is one that has a large rearward movement of the cen- ter of gravity with fuel burn, you might also practice these maneuvers at lighter weights but with the CG near the aft limit.
Performing this exercise does three things for you:
1. It refreshes you on the process of computing aircraft weight and bal- ance, whether manually or by use of a loading app or other automated system. My experience is that very few pilots feel confident in making a loading calculation. This suggests that they rarely do so and are less likely to know when their airplane is loaded at the edges of the envelope – or even outside it.
2. You’ll gain an appreciation for the changes in airplane stability, perfor- mance and handling across its entire range of approved loading.
3. You’ll be better practiced and ready for a high-performance takeoff and landing, go-arounds and stall recov- eries in conditions more typical of the way you routinely fly your air- plane...conditions less represented by the way you’ve been trained and evaluated on these skills.
Ask your instructor to help you train
for common LOC-I scenarios and to avoid takeoff and landing crashes, by experienc- ing them at weights and load distributions more typical of how you fly the airplane. It might be a good focus of your next Flight Review or training event. One of the greatest capabilities of Flight Training Devices and f light simulators is their ability to mimic the airplane’s
performance at varying weights and center of gravity locations. If you’re not augmenting your f light training with simulation, you’re missing a great oppor- tunity. If you do attend simulator training, ask your instructor to let you experience normal and emergency scenarios at a wide range of weights and CG locations.
Thomas P. Turner is an ATP CFII/MEI, holds a master's Degree in Aviation Safety, and was the 2010 National FAA Safety Team Representative of the Year. Subscribe to Tom’s free FLYING LESSONS Weekly e-newsletter at www.mastery-flight-training. com.
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Think of changes in center of gravity location as the airplane’s stability distribu- tion. Learn and consider the characteris- tics of the airplanes you fly across their entire CG range. T&T
David Clark
1/2 Page Island aopainsurance.org
November 2018
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