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Some basic questions

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LearningToFly

New member
Joined
Nov 1, 2005
Posts
3
Hey guys I am a new pilot so go easy on me. I have a couple questions

Why do we lose a ton of altitude when we slip the airplane? Also why does the airspeed stay the same?

Does anyone know what the short field/ soft field approach and landing speeds in a 152/172/182rg are?

Why is it a bad habit to use full flaps when dealing with gusty cross winds?

Why do we go flaps, gear, flaps, flaps on a go around, recovery from a power off stall?
 
Last edited:
LearningToFly said:
Why do we lose a ton of altitude when we slip the airplane?

Slipping the aircraft increases drag considerably. Without additional power, the aircraft will decend.

LearningToFly said:
Also why does the airspeed stay the same?

Because the amount of air entering the pitot tube has remained the same.

LearningToFly said:
Does anyone know what the short field/ soft field approach and landing speeds in a 152/172/182rg are?

If you have 20 hours, you oughta be able to locate a POH and read it.

LearningToFly said:
Why is it a bad habit to use full flaps when dealing with gusty cross winds?

Because if you need to go around, the aircraft will not climb very well with full flaps.

LearningToFly said:
Why do we go flaps, gear, flaps, flaps on a go around, recovery from a power off stall?

Ask your instructor. There are different ways of doing the same thing. Especially in aviation.
 
Why do we lose a ton of altitude when we slip the airplane? Also why does the airspeed stay the same?

Yes, lots of drag. A/S only stays the same if you drop the nose. If you hold the aircraft at the same pitch attitude in a slip as you would on a regular approach, you could get yourself in a lot of trouble...slow and uncoordinated. Most light trainers want to stay at whatever airspeed they are trimmed at, so you are probably unconsciously lowering the nose every time you slip it.

Why is it a bad habit to use full flaps when dealing with gusty cross winds?

It's not necessarily a bad habit, but in very strong crosswinds, you need a lot of rudder effectiveness to get the longitudinal axis of the airplane aligned with the runway (get the nose pointed straight). Less than full flaps will allow you faster approach and touchdown speeds, increasing the airflow over the rudder.

Why do we go flaps, gear, flaps, flaps on a go around, recovery from a power off stall?

The sequence depends on the airplane, but what you are doing is reducing drag in order of greatest to least in order to regain airspeed. In general, the first 10-20 degrees of the flaps in Cessnas provide a lot of lift compared to drag. The rest of the flaps are a lot of drag and a little lift. The gear is all drag but less than the last couple notches of flaps. So...flaps, gear, flaps, flaps reduces drag as quickly as possible without sacrificing much lift until the a/s is back up into a safe range.
 
If you get a chance, simulate an approach to landing at a safe altitude (with your CFI of course), and try raising all the flaps at once in a simulated go-around. You'll find out real quickly why it's a bad idea to raise them all at once. I could tell you what happens, but that would ruin the surprise :D
 
LearningToFly said:
Also why does the airspeed stay the same?

You may not know what your airspeed is during a slip. The ASI may be innacurate due the the angle of the air entering the pitot tube and the location of the static port.
 
LearningToFly said:
Why do we lose a ton of altitude when we slip the airplane? Also why does the airspeed stay the same?

When you perform a side slip the nose is yawed away from the direction of flight. This allows you to expose a greater surface area of the aircraft into the relative wind. By doing so you create more parasite drag. This additional drag casues the aircraft to descend at a steeper angle without increasing the airspeed.

Does anyone know what the short field/ soft field approach and landing speeds in a 152/172/182rg are?

Not off hand. You'll find them in the POH.

Why is it a bad habit to use full flaps when dealing with gusty cross winds?

Less than full flaps permits greater control of the aiplane under gusty conditions.

Why do we go flaps, gear, flaps, flaps on a go around, recovery from a power off stall?

When going around, you want to get a climb rate going as quick as possible. This requires cleaning up (reducing drag) the plane in a methodical order.

The first notch of flaps that you remove is all drag. Depending on the POH, you may want to bring the gear up next. It all depends on how quickly you can shed the drag and what order does this most efficently. Normally, you should be at Vy before you take out the last notch of flaps after the gear has come up.
 
NYCPilot said:
When you perform a side slip the nose is yawed away from the direction of flight. This allows you to expose a greater surface area of the aircraft into the relative wind. By doing so you create more parasite drag. This additional drag casues the aircraft to descend at a steeper angle without increasing the airspeed.
Or, in other words, airplanes are not designed to fly that well sideways.
 
midlifeflyer said:
Or, in other words, airplanes are not designed to fly that well sideways.

Yup!

I hope that wasn't confusing for the original poster.

Drag is a retarding force that opposes forward movment. When you decrease the streamline chrateristics of an airplane normally flown with its longitudinal axis parallel to the relative wind, you increase the drag.

Also, slips are normally used when you've already taken power out. no sense in trying to lose altitude when you still have power. forward slips used to dissipate altitude may also be performed with full flaps as well. But this varies from aircraft to aircraft. Some advise against it with full flaps. In some Cessnas it is not entirely prohibted but not reccomended. This has to do with the alteration of aerodynamics that occurs and some associated buffeting.
 
Small correction, but the maximum flap extended position is not "...all drag" (my emphasis) although there is a lot of it.
 
Tinstaafl said:
Small correction, but the maximum flap extended position is not "...all drag" (my emphasis) although there is a lot of it.

Correct.

The last notch is more drag than lift.

Flaps up to the midpoint produce more lift than drag. After that a reversal takes place where there is more drag than lift being created with the extension of full flaps.

I suppose I was being less than precise. For all intents and purposes, full flaps will be considered as taking away from lift rather than contributing to it.
 

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