Things learned about piloting...

[mar]

...but were never taught:

--The 'myth' of the Myth of the Downwind Turn.

I was actually taught that the downwind turn is not dangerous because the aircraft is 'one' with the airmass, only reacts to 'relative wind' and thus doesn't react to changing its position in the airmass.

In theory.

In reality, in my experience, when you're slow, heavy and banking in gusty conditions you will indeed suffer a performance loss.

The problem with the Myth of the Downwind Turn, as it's taught, is that it neglects one important factor: The inertia of the aircraft and the effect of 'shear' as you turn downwind.

Obviously you should always leave yourself enough margin above the stall and enough altitude above the surface when performing a max performance maneuver but let's be honest, the work-a-day pilot doesn't always have such luxory.

Aircraft are often loaded near limits (or unwittingly exceeded through the use of approved procedures like "average weights"); weather may be marginal at best and quickly changing; etc.

The time NOT to learn an important lesson is when you're down low, yanking and banking, doin' the Dew and trying to get the job done.

Unfortunately that's how many of us learn (if we're smart and lucky) and why I feel 135 night freight is probably one of the best jobs for a new pilot cutting his teeth.

I invite all pilots to submit a 'Lesson Learned, Never Taught' to help out our less experienced colleagues.

I might have a couple more if this thread dies a quick death.

Fly safe--and smart.

 

[dmspilot00]

In reality, in my experience, when you're slow, heavy and banking in gusty conditions you will indeed suffer a performance loss.

That's exactly right. However, the downwind turn myth, in order to be a myth, calls for steady and unchanging wind. With the wind constant there won't be any affect on the airplane and inertia does not play a role. Inertia is the reason why the aircraft is affected by gusty or differential winds.

 

[rchcfi]

Mar,

Not a new submission to your "lesson learned, never taught" but a kudos for bringing that myth of the downwind turn up.

While training for my CFI ticket the instructor grilled the "one with the airmass" theory into me, thus I transferred that malarky on to my students.

The theory in itself is 99% correct with relations to a wind velocity that is usually under 8 or so knots and is "STEADY". When you start encountering winds greater than 10 knots, there is going to be some gust factor. And when your flying in and around terrain that has a tad more geographic features than FL or KS, start factoring in the shears and rolling mechanical turbulence.

As for the lesson learned part; it took me having some pretty close calls with a fully loaded sled to realize that there are certainly times where a right quartering tailwind takeoff is much safer than a left quartering headwind takeoff when you have to make an immediate 90 degree right turn to miss the cliff off the end of the runway. So now you're in a bank which increases your stall speed while getting tailwind gusts allowing your airspeed to drop off to the point of saying a few prayers.

One of my collegues did exactly what I described this past summer and unfortunately didn't walk away from it. The link to this is: http://www.ntsb.gov/ntsb/brief.asp?ev_id=20030718X01149&key=1 Steve, may you R.I.P

 

[mar]

My condolences

rchcfi--My condolences for you and Steve's family.

This summer I'll be in Alaska nine years and I stopped counting at 10 the number of people I've known to buy the farm.

Under the category of Things They Don't Teach You:

Ice bridging: Myth or Fact?

Apparently there is no documented case of ice bridging except in a Gann novel (Fate is the Hunter?).

Does that mean the phenomenon doesn't exist? Not really.

Not all boots are created equal. Some of the older technology out there may form bridges. The newer ones are much more effective and are designed to be operated at the first indication.

In my experience, ice removal is affected more by the general condition of the boot (fresh wax), airspeed (the more, the better) and OAT (the warmer, the better).

I would always try to time my boot operation so that I was going as fast I could in the warmest temp.

Of course sometimes you just gotta blow the boots and sometimes sooner is better than later.

Thoughts?