Aero-Tips!
A good pilot is always learning -- how many times have you heard
this old standard throughout your flying career? There is no truer
statement in all of flying (well, with the possible exception of
"there are no old, bold pilots.")
Aero-News has called upon the expertise of Thomas P. Turner,
master CFI and all-around-good-guy, to bring our readers -- and us
-- daily tips to improve our skills as aviators. Some of them, you
may have heard before... but for each of us, there will also be
something we might never have considered before, or something that
didn't "stick" the way it should have the first time we memorized
it for the practical test.
Look for our daily Aero-Tips segments, coming each day to you
through the Aero-News Network.
Aero-Tips 09.12.06
As I began instructing in central Missouri, the first cadre of
bomber pilots was moving into nearby Whiteman Air Force Base. These
pilots were the advance unit of what would become the first (and to
date, only) B-2 stealth bomber wing, the 509th BW. Most of these
pilots were coming out of B-52s; without airplanes yet to fly at
Whiteman and with no base aero club, several came up the road to
check out in our flying service's Cessna 172.
I remember a rental checkout with an Air Force major. Flying
down final approach for his first landing he had the Skyhawk's
flaps fully deployed, the nose pushed waaay down, and the throttle
nearly wide open to prevent a wild rate of descent. In this way he
was trying to force the Skyhawk to the runway. I coached him to
raise the nose and reduce throttle, and eventually called for a
go-around before demonstrating an acceptable Cessna landing
technique. He caught on quickly, but our debrief revealed the cause
of his strained approach.
The wing on the "BUFF" (Big Ugly Fat and, as we said in polite
company, Fellow), or B-52, is mounted with an unusually high angle
of incidence. This gives the B-52 an unique nose-down pitch
attitude, even on climbout-and a very low nose attitude on final
approach. The BUFF's narrow-chord, highly swept wing calls for full
flaps from a long way out also. These characteristics, and an Air
Force-inbred reluctance to fly any aircraft at less than about 120
knots, conspired to make our young major hang the flaps and point
the Skyhawk's nose down severely on his first approach attempt,
then do whatever he needed with the power to manage the rate of
descent. Had he continued to land this way he quite likely would
have come down very hard on the Cessna's nose gear…and the
172 has a long history of wheelbarrowing, wiping out the nose gear,
and totaling the airplane by bending the firewall when landed hard
on the front wheel.
My checkout student had years of flight in high-performance
military jets. It gave him a lot of experience that would serve him
well no matter what type of aircraft he was flying. But he had to
learn that each aircraft type, and even individual airframes, have
unique flying characteristics that need to be respected and managed
to fly successfully and safely. In short, he needed to fly the 172
like a Cessna, not like a Boeing B-52.
Aero-tip of the day: Employ the lessons you
learn flying other types of aircraft, but fly the airplane you're
in, the way it needs to be flown.
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