Take off speed/climb

[Guest J430]

Just been reading the latest RAA mag and there is another good article in the Safety Feature about EFATO.

 

 

The point that has caught my attention most is one that I see far too many pilots ignoring, and that is the climb out speed and angle.

 

 

Sure when obstacle clearance is necessary climb at best angle and swing her off the prop, however in 99% of ops I think this is not necessary, yet at many airfields I see a large number of take offs conducted in this manner.

 

 

Some of you will argue height is your friend, and it is, however if the one thing you are most afraid of actually happens you may not get the chance to convert your friend into a controlled forced landing.

 

 

A friend of mine who is ex PNG bush pilot, and current airline pilot, who in his years of GA had a couple of engine failures after takeoff, has described to me that his being alive today is attributed to NOT climbing out at the best angle or rate of climb. Save that for what it is intended. His ability to control the forced landing was from rotating at the correct speed, accelerating and climbing at a speed allowing the plane to accelerate and climb such that when you do have an engine fail at 200AGL you do not have to nose it over violently and sink with bugger all airspeed.

 

 

Climb out at best angle only when really needed.

 

 

Climb out at best rate once you are at a height where your chances of making a recovery have become better and will not be affected by the delay in your brain working out what has happened, and the time it takes to nose over and accelerate again to a suitable control speed.

 

 

He is living proof, so can I encourage all of us to grab the mag and have a REALLY GOOD read of this article.

 

And to those of you who think its tough and MANly to show how hard you can climb out all the time..........STOP IT! You are only encouraging others to do the same!

 

 

Safe flying!!

 

J:wave:

 

 

[Guest Fred Bear]

Totally agree mate. I am amazed that people find it amusing to sit there straight and level after taking off, build up the airspeed and pull up like there is no tomorrow. You know what happens to them when the donk stops right? They end up crashing like a sack of into the ground! No prizes for that one. I always keep my departure real flat. If it takes me 10 min to get to 3,000ft I don't really care. Fair enough if you are flying something with a Continental or Lycoming in it but let's face it, our engines are nowhere near as reliable. The other danger in climbing steep is you do not see what on earth is right infront of you. My 2 cents.

 

 

[facthunter]

Climb technique.

 

If you don't have a need to climb over obstacles, then you get better (engine) cooling, the passengers feel more comfortable, you can see better over the nose, you have more control, and you are going faster. You are in the sky to go someplace, so why stagger along at 1.3 Vs once you are pointing in the right direction.

 

Performance aircraft climb at a speed which is slower than the normal cruise by a fairly small margin, percentage-wise, so with climb power set, you get a good balance between speed over the ground and Rate of climb.

 

In the circuit, any speed increase will increase the size of the circuit, so standard (minimum ) climb speeds are utilised generally, for that reason. These speeds are weight sensitive obviously. Nev...

 

 

[drifter_driver]

If it takes me 10 min to get to 3,000ft I don't really care.

I would have thought it takes us more like 30 min to get to 3000ft Darren courtesy of thermals-no I am not saying u r a big bloke mate may be you had a really big breakfast and the day was stinking hot

on a serious note take off speed is a major safety factor because of two issues

 

1. control of the aircraft in engine out situation as mentioned above and

 

2. control of the aircraft to counter any weather related phenomenon (sudden gusts, wind shear,turbulence etc). during take off the nose of the aircraft is high and it is flying close to stall speed to achieve best rate of climb and it the worst attitude to fly in close to ground if hit by strong turbulence. if you have enough speed you just cut through the chop with solid control authority.

 

 

[Mazda]

You now know my secret! That's how I've managed to beat faster aircraft from one field to the next. Cruise climb out maximising forward speed, and on descent keep the power up while allowing the airspeed to increase.

 

 

[Guest Fred Bear]

You now know my secret! That's how I've managed to beat faster aircraft from one field to the next. Cruise climb out maximising forward speed, and on descent keep the power up while allowing the airspeed to increase.

:thumb_up:

 

And...Sunny, I usually have big breakfasts before flying with you

 

 

[Guest Bubba]

So J, why would you not just let the aircraft accelerate to its best Rate of Climb speed?

 

Bubba ;)