Flight Training - September 2013 - 51

REVEAL THE HIDDEN VALUE

Every maneuver tells a secondary tale
» By Rod Machado

WHEN YOU ASK an experienced
martial artist if he has ever used his
training, don’t be surprised if he
says, “I use it every day.” He’s not
talking about kung-fuing intruders
or bad drivers. He’s speaking about
how he uses the hidden value of his
training—self-discipline and awareness—in his daily life.
Most of the basic flight maneuvers students are required to learn
also have hidden values. Your job is
to make sure your student sees and
understands those hidden values.
Take, for instance, steep turns. Yes,
the FAA says that the objective of
the steep turn is to “develop the
smoothness, coordination, division
of attention, and control techniques
necessary for the execution of maximum-performance turns when the
airplane is near its performance
limits.” There’s nothing wrong with
that. But it doesn’t speak to the
essential value offered by studying
this maneuver.
Steep turns teach you what
happens when the stall speed rises
to meet the airplane, instead of
the airplane slowing to meet the
stall speed. Stall recognition is as
important as stall recovery, and the
steep turn provides students with
an extended exposure to the clues
that precede an accelerated stall:
the large rearward draw on the
elevator, higher stick forces, and
the sustained sense of being forced
down in the seat by an increase in
load factor. Steep turns performed
with the throttle at flight idle allow
you to demonstrate how easy it is
to approach the critical angle of
attack with the nose pointed below
the horizon. The steep turn is one
of the few nonaerobatic maneuvers
that provide experience with these
pre-accelerated-stall clues.

Turns around a point is another
maneuver with a hidden value student pilots often don’t recognize.
This maneuver allows your student
to make a highly accurate assessment of wind direction without
using any sort of ground wind
indicator (for example, a wind
sock, wind tee, blowing trees, wave
crests, or smoke). Students are
able to evaluate the wind’s direction as they maneuver to maintain
a constant turn radius about a
ground reference. What we often
fail to point out is that the airplane
continues to fly perfectly without
stalling while turning from upwind
to downwind to upwind and so on.
It turns out that more than a few
pilots believe that turning downwind (especially in strong winds)
results in the airplane experiencing
a loss of airspeed and stalling. Yes,
an airplane can stall when turning downwind in the presence of
massive negative wind shear, or
if the pilot interprets an increase
in groundspeed as a sudden rapid
descent (followed by an aft pull on
the elevator that results in a stall).
Airplanes, however, don’t stall
because they turn downwind. Turns
around a point is the perfect demonstration for disabusing students
of the idea that an airplane can
somehow sense the wind’s speed
and direction once it leaves the
ground.
Flight at minimum controllable airspeed (MCA) is another
maneuver whose hidden value
helps students understand how
power influences stall speed. You
can demonstrate this by having
your student enter MCA with the
stall horn just barely audible. Then
instruct her to reduce power while
maintaining the same attitude. She

should hear the stall horn instantly
whine louder. This demonstrates
that the airplane can fly at a slightly
slower airspeed before stalling with
power applied than with power off.
Even straight-and-level flight
has a hidden value that often goes
unmentioned. It’s the perfect
maneuver for demonstrating how
deviating from straight flight
reduces the vertical component of
lift, resulting in the airplane pitching nose down. For example, place
your student in straight and level
flight and trim for that condition.
Now have him or her apply just
enough rudder to bank the airplane
to the right about five degrees. The
results are immediate and clear. As
the vertical component of lift tilts
sideways, less of it acts vertically.
Weight is now greater than lift and
the airplane pitches nose down in
an attempt to balance these two
opposing forces. Roll the airplane
back to straight flight, and the
airplane eventually returns to level
flight as the force of lift once again
acts entirely vertically. This is the
hidden value of straight-and-level
flight that allows you to accelerate
your student’s understanding of the
need to apply elevator backpressure when entering a turn.
Not everything is as it seems to
be. Sometimes, it’s more. This is
especially true of the maneuvers we
teach our primary students. There
are hidden values in nearly all
elementary flight maneuvers, and
it’s the instructor’s job to identify
them and share these with his or
her flight students.
Rod Machado is a flight instructor, author,
educator, and speaker. He has been a pilot
since 1970 and a CFI since 1973. Visit his blog
(www.rodmachado.com).

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