MSP Hint of the Month for June 2011

This is the first in what will probably turn-out to be an irregular series of monthly postings for MSP pilots (and anybody else who is interested), intended to make your participation in SPA more realistic and educational. These are provided as suggestions In the unique SPA spirit of providing a menu of opportunities, in place of a set of rules and requirements. I hope you find them interesting and worthwhile and I'd appreciate your feedback.

This week we have had a dramatic demonstration of the importance of being able to "hand-fly" an aircraft without relying on the autopilot or anything other than the basic flight instruments. Among other things, this means knowing the correct aircraft attitude and throttle setting for any particular phase of a flight. I "fly" a variety of aircraft regularly, all the way from a simple Cat I aircraft like the DHC-2 Beaver to big complex Cat VII "pay-ware" aircraft like the PMDG Boeing 747-400 and I am always surprised when something requires me to kick off the autopilot and fly the airplane by hand. Today I've been flying Angel flights with my MilViz Cessna 310R and my first landing today wasn't very pretty. So, this evening I went back to my personal "home" airport (KTRM) and flew the pattern about eight times, each time trying to maintain heading altitude and airspeed within tight bounds and trying to put it down on the centerline and roll to a smooth, straight stop. Give it a try; it's remarkably hard to do. But, the big advantage is that you get the "feel" of the aircraft, and if you've been at this a while, you know they're all different. In the process you'll find it pays to learn the correct airspeed for each stage of the pattern, flap and gear setting, etc., and just how much pitch and throttle it takes to hold these speeds.

So whenever you start flying a new airplane, or one you haven't flow for some time, take an hour or so and fly patterns until you can control the aircraft by hand to your own satisfaction. You can use the map feature in MSFS to track your ability to repeat the same pattern over and over. Then just remember that any approach to any runway from any direction is just a matter of entering the right leg of the pattern and using the same throttle and pitch settings.

If you're new to flying patterns around an airfield there are scads of references. Here are a couple, from a long list:

www.flightsimbooks.com/copilot/page39.php

and

.

I have no idea if these are the best out there, but they're a place to start.

Mike