First flight experience

[KE093]

I just started my flight lessons down here at Melbourne,FL on Monday, and I have three hours logged so far. It's been so much fun to fly, except those rapid upward and downward movements of air in Florida during summertime. Anyway, I have a question for those VFR experts out there. I practiced rectangular course. I read from a book from FAA that you are supposed to make more/less than 90 degree turns when you turn from downwind or final, and crab. However, my CFI told me to fly straight and pararell to the runway. Then how am I supposed to correcto for the wind?

 

[TEXAN AVIATOR]

Do what the FAA book tells you, if you're not properly correcting for wind then you won't keep the desired distance from the runway.

Oh and congratulations on beginning your training, the fun has just began.

 

[KE093]

I guess that makes sense. Thanks for your help.

 

[Ted Striker]

I just started my flight lessons down here at Melbourne,FL on Monday, and I have three hours logged so far. It's been so much fun to fly, except those rapid upward and downward movements of air in Florida during summertime. Anyway, I have a question for those VFR experts out there. I practiced rectangular course. I read from a book from FAA that you are supposed to make more/less than 90 degree turns when you turn from downwind or final, and crab. However, my CFI told me to fly straight and pararell to the runway. Then how am I supposed to correcto for the wind?

Enjoy! Are you doing this for fun or do you want to make it a career someday? Make the wind corrections, otherwise you will get blown too far away/close to the runway.

 

[bobbysamd]

Wind correction angles

[M]y CFI told me to fly straight and pararell to the runway. Then how am I supposed to correcto for the wind?

The idea is to point the airplane into the wind so that you make good courses that are parallel to the runway.

This called maintaining a wind correction angle or crab angle, because crabs walk sideways although they track straight ahead. The same is true with your airplane. Although it may seem that the airplane itself is not pointing straight ahead, what matters more is the ground track it is flying is parallel and equidistant to the runway.

The best way to see it is to try it. Your downwind magnetic course is the reciprocal of your runway heading. If you fly your downwind at its magnetic course and you have a crosswind, you will drift either away from the runway or toward it, depending on if the wind is at your left or right. But if you turn the airplane toward the wind the right amount to correct for it pushing you to or from the runway, your airplane will maintain the correct ground track parallel to the runway.

In reality, the wind is seldom perfectly straight down the runway. You almost always have to establish wind correction angles on all four legs of the pattern (rectangular course) to make good straight ground tracks.

Hope that helps a little more. Good luck with your training.

 

[bobbysamd]

Crabbing v. banking

Is a crab just when you use bank to correct for the wind?

A crab, or wind correction angle, means you are simply flying a particular heading to correct for wind drift in order to make good a particular ground track.

In other words, let's say you are flying a downwind for Runway 17. Your no-wind downwind course will be the reciprocal of the downwind heading, or 350 degrees. Now, let's say the wind is not straight down the runway at all, but is a crosswind, something like 150 at 10 kts. You find by flying a course of 350 that your airplane is drifting toward the runway in a standard left downwind. However, you find that if you fly a course of 360 that your airplane is making good a perfect downwind, with no drift. All you are doing is flying a particular heading. The airplane is pointed toward the wind, but, relative to your desired course of 350, is pointed sideways, just as crab walks sideways. If you were banking in coordinated flight, the airplane would turn.

I always slip when I do my approaches.

You can do that. That is the wing-low method of stopping drift on final. You can also crab into the wind on final, switching to the wing-low method in the flare. Some people call that the "kickout" technique of crosswind landings.

Hope that also helps.

 

[atrdriver]

It's a crab when the aircraft is moving in a different direction than where it is pointed. You will find it is much more pronounced when you are flying slow. Look at the ground track, and you will find that rarely will it be where the nose is pointed. You will be flying your rectangular pattern with the wings level, not in a bank.


Correcting for wind with a bank is done in the landing flare, where you use the rudder to align the aircraft with the runway, and the only other control that you have to adjust for wind is the ailerons...

atrdriver

 

[KE093]

I never knew that you are supposed to compensate for crosswind during TO roll with yoke, not with your rudder. Also, it was really hard to slow down an aircraft without an airbrake on final apporach.... I guess I have a long way to go. And someone asked if I wanna fly for a living. Yes, I just wanna hop on left seat of 777 some day!