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 10.29.06
If you don't own an airplane chances are you'll be flying in one
new to you fairly often. If you are fortunate enough to own an
airplane you still may have the opportunity to fly a different
airplane at times. If you're flying an airplane you don't have a
lot of experience with, fly well within the limits of its published
capabilities.
This assumes you are well checked-out in the aircraft, its
equipment and operation. I'm not talking about basic familiarity
with the type. I'm referring to familiarity with that specific
airframe.
Personality
Airplanes and engines are just machines, but each has its own
"personality", or if you prefer more objectivity, its unique
operating characteristics. Takeoff and climb performance are
affected by engine health and mechanical set-up. Cruise speed is a
function of engine characteristics and airplane rig-how clean it is
aerodynamically, affected by factors as diverse as the angle wings
and tail are mounted on the airframe to the size of its tires to
the number of bugs on the leading edge of the wing. Endurance is
affected by the cruise speed, and by fuel management technique and
the actual, not "book", capacity of each fuel tank Electrical
system condition determines how well you'll be able to fly it at
night. System outages and avionics quirks, unseeable before engine
start and sometimes not even then, contribute to safety, especially
at night or in instrument conditions.
Open the envelope
Inspect the airplane carefully, but even then open the flight
envelope carefully. Don't make your first flight in an airplane new
to you a night IFR cross-country taking off at maximum weight and
flying to the limit of the airplane's range. Deliberately plan the
first couple of flights in a specific airplane new to you so that
they take place at reduced weight, over shorter distances, in day
VFR conditions. The airplane is supposed to conform to its type
certificate (or at least it was supposed to when it was built, who
knows how many decades ago), but the only way you'll know for
certain if it really conforms is by flying it. To an extent, we are
all test pilots on every flight, verifying (or refuting) that the
airplane will perform as expected.
Aero-tip of the day: Open the flight envelope
slowly -- maybe a maximum-weight airplane this flight, next time an
IFR trip or at night, later adding flights to the limits of the
airplane's range.