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.

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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.

FMI: Aero-Tips