Page 38 - OCT 19 TNT

I always pass this lesson on to my students, but I do it with an added twist to the word recognize. I teach them to recognize any maneuver we are about to undertake as an everyday aspect of flying. Let’s take the dreaded stall, for instance. The first time we approach a stall, I tell my student that what we are try- ing to accomplish is nothing more than a landing in the sky. The following series of stall maneuvers we practice effects a virtual landing that everyone loves to do: 1. Configure the airplane without losing altitude until you have configured Vso 10 knots above a stall; 2. Make your clearing turn (slow flight); 3. Point the nose 3 degrees down (glide slope) on a heading; 4. Pull the power; 5. Round off and hold the plane off the invisible run- way, watching airspeed bleed off until you hear the stall horn (squeezing right rudder for left turning tendency as speed slows) and squeezing back-pres- sure (flare) into the stall horn for a perfect landing (sorry, I mean coordinated stall). And what do you recover with? You guessed it: Pitch (push), Power (full), Gear/Flaps up (slowly with positive rate.) Takeoff Stalls, Steep Turns & Go-Arounds Here’s a situation where the power-on stall can be com- pared, quite simply, to an over-rotation during takeoff. It’s during touch-and-go that we see students pull back, regard- less of airspeed, and stall back to the runway. So, let’s use “recognize and recover” to simulate a takeoff with too much back pressure. With take-off configuration Vs 10 knots above a stall or rotation speed and without losing altitude, complete clearing turns (slow flight). Depending on your plane, add full power and pitch up 8-10 degrees (trainer) or pitch up 8-10 degrees and add 75 percent power (high performance.) You will recognize the stall warning and inboard wing stall shudder and feel the heavy pressure on flight controls, signs that tell you your altitude is dropping rapidly. This recover is simple: Pitch (push) to get the wings flying again. Steep turns are where the rubber meets the runway. If you can get your plane to stay at 45 degrees of bank and +/- 10 knots while siting the nose on the horizon with trim and a touch of power, take your hands mostly off the yolk while making minor inputs (nose rising, increase bank; nose drop- ping, decrease bank), thus maintaining altitude, bank, and airspeed. Congratulations, you PASS! This maneuver is mostly dependent on airspeed be- cause stall speed goes up with bank. If we can do a safe 36 • TWIN & TURBINE / October 2019 Covington Aircraft Engines