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.

FMI: Aero-Tips