Contact Flying

Teckair, I appreciate the feedback, but I am a little confused. We both used negatives and I'm not sure if you agree with dynamic proactive rudder to maintain longitudinal alignment on final approach. Or are you saying you use coordinated turns? I speak American English and hillbilly American English at that. There could be a language barrier. I also failed to read to page 17 before my comment. I saw my callsign at the bottom of page 1 and though I was at the end of the thread. I am old and not a savvy computer user. Way too much attention to detail required. Scares me to fly in airliners knowing a computer is driving. Contact

Ozzie nailed it. Yes we need forget the balanced stuff on final. There are certainly places for coordinated control usage, but there are also places for unbalanced. We coordinate or balance the rudder with aileron to counter adverse yaw. This rudder usage to counter adverse yaw in turns is so important that we instructors sometimes fail to point out there are times when balanced turns are not good. Straight and level, gun run, staying in the crop row, and directing the longitudinal axis (incorrectly called the nose) on final are some of those times. Dynamic proactive rudder control is second nature for the tailwheel pilot on the surface, but I have caught them using balanced turns of final with their nosedragger buddies. Once we make a balanced turn to final, we want to now forget the balance stuff until we park it. Dynamic proactive balanced turns get the longitudinal alignment sloopily done, but causes problems toward the bottom. We don't want a wing down near wires and obstacles and we don't want to land, especially a tailwheel airplane, in a turn. So if we have enough crosswind for the student to see what is going on, the crosswind landing using the side slip to counter drift teaches unbalanced turns (nose yaws) well. It is a rub our tummy while patting our head, unbalanced, uncoordinated thing. We hold the wing in the bank angle necessary to counter drift with aileron. Rudder has nothing to do with drift. We walk the rudder dynamically left, right, left, right, etc. to hold the centerline between our feet. Aileron has nothing to do with longitudinal alignment. We don't look over the nose or prop in side by side aircraft as this will cause us to touch down left of the centerline and crooked. Look at the tire marks at your local paved field. Now lets move on to the no wind, calm landing. We do the same thing as the side slip to landing in a crosswind. We hold the wing level (no crosswind drift) with static and reactive aileron. Rudder has nothing to do with it. We dynamically and proactively walk the rudder to maintain longitudinal alignment. Aileron has nothing to do with it. OK, now the catch. On the gun run, in the crop row, on the localizer, and in straight and level cruise flight, we use the rudder only to keep the wings level. Bugger. Actually we are dynamically and proactively walking the rudder just left, just right, etc. to maintain longitudinal alignment with the distant target and not the heading number on the gauge in the airplane where we don't need to be looking during contact flying. As Dr. Zoos has so elegantly pointed out, we instructors sometimes get balled up in our explanations. These are just words. What is important is what is happening outside your windscreen. Put these instructional words into that context. If you don't like what you see outside your windscreen, ask questions. Keep asking until that sight picture outside your windscreen becomes clear. You might have noticed that I never use V speeds or various numbers in my explanations. They show up inside where you need not be looking, not outside where contact flying takes place. I am an instrument instructor as well. It has its place. That place is instrument flight rules and instrument meteorological conditions where there is no visual horizon. The two IFR and VFR are dangerous when mixed. The school solution, integrated instrument training, was not so bad until the instruments took over. Now it is just a dangerous concept. Perhaps a little explanation of dynamic and proactive rudder movement. We are not trying to keep the nose (longitudinal axis) aligned. That would be static and reactive control movement and would muck it up as you boys say. We want to be just wrong alternately on each side of lined up. This is what the artillery boys called "burst on target." One long, one short, etc. The net effect is a round on target. It works well with the rudder and with the elevator. Because of adverse yaw, it just doesn't work well with the ailerons.

In fifty years and thousands of hours I have found U.S. manufactured light training airplanes to all fly very much the same. But there are certification requirements that have to be met. They basically have to fly like the already approved airplane to be approved. Those standards have been eased with really modern and light sport airplanes. Cub, Campion, Citabra, Taylorcraft, Cessna 120, 140, 150, 170, 172, 180,182,175, Cardinal, Cutlass, 210, Piper Pacer, Tri-Pacer, Colt, Cherokee, Pawnee, Comanche, Twin Comanche, Apache, Aztec, Stinson, Callair A5, A9A, A9B, Gruman Lark, AA1A, AA1B, Tiger, Air Tractor, Stearman, Baby Ace, Mooney, Beachcraft, and several homebuilt airplanes built to these standards, all fly very much the same. At least the controls work the same to the extent there are no surprises. The Ercoupe, what Wolfgang Langewiesche calls the safety airplane is different. It won't stall, spin, or kill you quickly. It was very unsuccessful here. No macho. It also was a good airplane and easy to control. I use the same approach in any of these airplanes. I use the apparent brisk walk rate of closure approach. I explain the apparent brisk walk rate of closure approach in "Safe Maneuvering Flight (Low Level) Techniques, which I have posted in this forum. I use the same takeoff in any of these airplanes. I use the basic low ground effect takeoff, which I also explain in "Safe Maneuvering Flight Techniques. When I teach new students in simple trainer aircraft, I concentrate on manipulation of the controls to get the exact desired effect. V speeds and Pilot Operating Handbooks (Airplane Manuel) are more applicable to large aircraft (over 12,500 US pounds.) After teaching a new student to fly, I would turn him over to the professional instructors at the airport for preparation for the various flight tests. Our Practical Test Standards for the Private Pilot Flight Test is heavily reliant on numbers found on the various instruments on the panel. Those numbers on those instruments have very little to do with contact flying.

Dan, Congratulations on doing well. There is no problem with early solo. It is important to solo before the first learning plateau. This natural slowdown in rate occurs for most around ten hours. I had no problem with young farm boys going into Ag. Almost all soloed a Champ or Cub tailwheel trainer around the sixth hour. That was without ever having used an airspeed indicator or any instrument, glass or otherwise, inside the airplane. The trend toward learning everything first to satisfy operator and insurance is bullshit. If the education of the student does not come first, we are in the wrong training facility. Beware of schools that have all new equipment. They will protect that equipment to your disadvantage. Failure to solo students when first ready will lead to many learning plateaus before solo, time, and money. Again, if money is their game, look elsewhere. Best regards, Jim

Sean, The airplane is a very simple machine. When paying for time you want to manipulate the controls, not pay to observe an instructor manipulate the controls. Move them. That is the only way to see what they do. As long as your control movements are dynamic and proactive, it doesn't really matter how far you move them. I start tailwheel students out alternating putting the rudder to the stop, right, left, right, left, etc. dynamically and proactively to keep the longitudinal axis (look between your legs in side by side aircraft) going down the taxi line. The slower we go the more grossly we move the controls to get much effect. The faster we go the finer our movement, but the pressure is greater. This to the stop rudder movement gives the student empirical knowledge of where the stops are, very helpful to prevent ground loop. It also forces the student to taxi slowly, like us old guys. That said, how can we cheaply get this feel for the controls? We learn to ride a bicycle with gross dynamic/proactive control movement (step this way and lean that way, step that way and lean this way) at first. That will help. Why yes; it is a little more complicated than an airplane. Any hydraulic control on a dozer, backhoe, combine, etc. will require dynamic proactive control movement. Static reactive dozer blade control movement will just kill the engine when the blade first goes too deep. If you can run a backhoe smoothly, without awkward do this then do that movement, I can teach you to hover a helicopter in twenty minutes. If not familiar with equipment, go to the job site or farm and volunteer. Rent a little backhoe and dig a ditch. Simulators teach us to become comfortable with the instrument flying procedural track. Any kind of equipment, simple machines, teach us about manipulation of controls. No; they are not like a joystick. Yes, we old instructors have a hard time teaching young pilots the value of seeing and avoiding other aircraft and seeing and realizing what the effects of control movement (not pressure for beginners) are. The computer screen poorly simulates contact flying and we shouldn't text and fly anyway. I am old, retired, and bored. Feel free to question me at any time. Good luck, Jim

Helicopters and crop dusters are supposed to operate away from those flying the normal circuit in the US and are to give way to all other aircraft. No radio is required at our airports with no tower controller. That doesn't apply to this situation, but I found that waiting on all others didn't really slow me up that much. There is nothing more comforting than landing with no other aircraft ahead or behind, especially behind. This won't work, of course, if all hang back. Try hanging out there and doing a little flying while things clear next time. See if you like it. I did. s

djpacro, I am not popular with those in positions of power here either. As instructors, we are obliged to justify what we teach. Finding it in a manual somewhere is not sufficient. If what we are teaching is not consistent with what is actually happening, we owe it to our students to find a technique that will address their concerns and physical reality. Because the techniques used by we who work low level every minute of every hour don't fit comfortably with the school solution taught at the airport, we crop dusters and pipeline patrol pilots have become, to the Federal Aviation Agency, "those of whom we do not speak."

I don't have access to Rob's article so forgive me if he has already covered this. We instructors need to teach good rudder usage countering adverse yaw in coordinated turns. In 31 years of teaching flying, however, I have found that students and flight review (every two years in US) pilots do have problems with keeping the longitudinal axis aligned with a target in cruise, on the localizer, and on the final to landing visually in a no wind or with the wind right down the runway landing. First, why does this longitudinal alignment problem not come up as often in a side slip to a crosswind landing? Is this a clue to what is being done wrong in calm air. Too many pilots try to make coordinated turns on final. This causes the snaking Poteroo mentioned. Engaging a target, enemy on the ground, numbers, distant true course feature, centerline on takeoff, etc., requires that we align the longitudinal axis of our aircraft with the target using rudder only. The use of coordinated aileron is what is confusing the issue and causing snaking. Just like in the side slip to counter drift with a wing banked into the wind, we hold the nose (between our legs in side by side aircraft) on the centerline with rudder. It is like patting your head while rubbing your tummy. Or like using a backhoe effectively or hovering a helicopter. This rudder control, except in an upset by gust or whatever, needs be dynamic and proactive. If we just push a rudder and then release, static and reactive, the wing opposite the rudder pushed will speed up in the yaw and rise a bit. That is not a problem, in smooth air, if we move the rudders to make the nose go just left of target, just right of target, repeatedly all the way off in takeoff or all the way down final and rollout in landing. It is this dynamic, proactive rudder or anti-torque pedal movement while locking the wing or tip path plane level with aileron or cyclic, this uncoordinated control usage, that makes us a pro on takeoff, keeping the wing level in cruise or on the localizer, and on landing.

I did that. Check to make sure I got it in the right place.

In 17,000 hours flying/teaching Army helicopters nape of the earth, crop dusters at one meter, and pipeline patrol C-172 at 150 meters, I have come up with some techniques that have saved my life more than once and have been useful to my students. I wrote a paperback text, Contact Flying complete with war stories to illustrate need and Safe Maneuvering Flight Techniques covering just the techniques. I am retired so feel free to ask questions, make comments, or critique the techniques. I am not real good with computers so rattle my cage if I don't answer right away. Help me get to the right place here. SAFE MANEUVERING FLIGHT TECHNIQUES PDF.pdf SAFE MANEUVERING FLIGHT TECHNIQUES PDF.pdf SAFE MANEUVERING FLIGHT TECHNIQUES PDF.pdf

I'm likely in the wrong place because I clicked in the wrong place. I was given the url to this site by one of yours who had read my e-book, "Safe Maneuvering Flight Techniques." I told him to make it available, by forward, to anyone. In the United States maneuvering flight, what you guys call low level, is taboo. Never mind that I have legally spent 17,000 hours below 200' above ground level conducting Nape of the Earth training in Army helicopters, crop dusting, and patrolling pipelines. I am attaching "Safe Maneuvering Flight Techniques" if that is OK. I am retired so feel free to contact me at any time with questions or comments. My email is [email protected]. If this is not appropriate, ask question here and I will learn to navigate the site. I am old and not so good with computers. SAFE MANEUVERING FLIGHT TECHNIQUES PDF.pdf SAFE MANEUVERING FLIGHT TECHNIQUES PDF.pdf SAFE MANEUVERING FLIGHT TECHNIQUES PDF.pdf