Attn Spam Can drivers: Need MS FlightSim reality check...

I was taught to fly with "control altitude with the throtle, and
airspeed with the elevator." It made sense to me as my instructor
showed me how to do slow flight. We would get to a slow speed by
pulling back on the yoke until we got our desired speed and then would
set the throttle to whatever RPM was necessary to maintain our given
altitude. Setting up for a landing is basically the same
thing...throttle back (and if trim setting is not changed, altitude
decreases at some rate), back on the yoke (or stick) to get desired
airspeed and then adjust throttle for desired rate of descent (500 FPM
seems pretty standard)...

Scott
Corben Junior Ace

Well.... Perhaps some of the CFIs care to speak out...

IIRC, the FAA was concerned with departure stall/spin accidents and also
with approach and landing accidents. The reasoning went that both classes
of accident would be drastically reduced if pilots remembered to stabilize
their aircraft the recommended climb speed on departure and at the
recommended approach speed for the final aproach. Of course, that also made
powered approaches and BIG patterns popular.

Peter

Point taken I was thinking piston type engine since the original
post mentioned "throttle"...now in my years of glider flying, I don't
remember seeing a knob labeled throttle

Scott


T o d d P a t t i s t wrote:

Scott wrote:

If you don't bieleve it try to climb without power sometime. CFI is correct

Gliders do it all the time!


No we don't, we use power to climb, just like airplanes, we
just don't use an internal combustion engine to produce the
power, we use a thermonuclear fusion generator.

Well, I'm guilty of making postage size patterns I was taught to
keep 'er in close in case a piston decides to try and convert the engine
into an EXTERNAL combustion engine! I've been asked by towers where I
am when I call on downwind and I have to tell them I'm over the taxiway
'cause they're looking 3 miles out :O

Scott


Peter Dohm wrote:

I was taught to fly with "control altitude with the throtle, and
airspeed with the elevator." It made sense to me as my instructor
showed me how to do slow flight. We would get to a slow speed by
pulling back on the yoke until we got our desired speed and then would
set the throttle to whatever RPM was necessary to maintain our given
altitude. Setting up for a landing is basically the same
thing...throttle back (and if trim setting is not changed, altitude
decreases at some rate), back on the yoke (or stick) to get desired
airspeed and then adjust throttle for desired rate of descent (500 FPM
seems pretty standard)...

Scott
Corben Junior Ace


Well.... Perhaps some of the CFIs care to speak out...

IIRC, the FAA was concerned with departure stall/spin accidents and also
with approach and landing accidents. The reasoning went that both classes
of accident would be drastically reduced if pilots remembered to stabilize
their aircraft the recommended climb speed on departure and at the
recommended approach speed for the final aproach. Of course, that also made
powered approaches and BIG patterns popular.

Peter

"T o d d P a t t i s t" wrote in message
...
"wright1902glider" wrote:

If you hold a constant speed and pitch attitude, changing
the throttle changes altitude. More specifically, changing
throttle changes your rate of climb/sink, and there's a
single throttle position where the engine is adding as much
energy to the aircraft as it is losing from drag. If you
open the throttle, the engine will produce more power and
you'll gain altitude. If you close it, you will descend.

Throttle controls thrust.
Elevator controls pitch.

Keep it simple................Karl
"Curator" N185KG

karl gruber wrote:
"T o d d P a t t i s t" wrote in message
...
"wright1902glider" wrote:

If you hold a constant speed and pitch attitude, changing
the throttle changes altitude. More specifically, changing
throttle changes your rate of climb/sink, and there's a
single throttle position where the engine is adding as much
energy to the aircraft as it is losing from drag. If you
open the throttle, the engine will produce more power and
you'll gain altitude. If you close it, you will descend.

Throttle controls thrust.
Elevator controls pitch.

Keep it simple................Karl
"Curator" N185KG

Attitude + Power = Performance. You can't say that one
control does only one thing. There's too much reductionism in flight
training and it creates inept pilots.

Dan

Awww for crying out loud! The guy asks a simple question, and you either
confuse him with excess detail, or act like it's a stupid question, just
because YOU know the answer! Not very friendly!

Just to answer the question directly:

Your instructor is correct. Control altitude with throttle, and airspeed
with pitch. It sounds backwards, but that's what they teach. If you were to
take a Private Pilot ground school class tomorrow, they would have said that
in so many words before the end of the first week.

Of course, nothing is ever that easy in the real world, but you have to
start somewhere.



wrote in message
...
wright1902glider spewed this unto the Network:
If anyone out there will admit to driving a C-172, I have a question.
In MS FlightSim 2003, Rod the VR flight instructor tells me that I
should be controlling my altitude with the throtle, and my airspeed
with the elevator? Does that make sense?

Others have already answered this question.

In Microsoftland, I've got to constantly play with the throtle to hold
a consistant altitude. I don't recall ever seeing a pilot do that in
any plane I've ever flown in, but I could be wrong. Opinions?

Real pilots of aircraft that have elevator trim (such as the C-172)
tend to use it. In fact, if Rod's VR instruction was anything like
real flight instruction, he'd scold you for not "trimming out" the
aircraft. You should be able to completely let go of the controls
and have the aircraft stay at the same altitude. You should assign
two buttons on your joystick to operate the elevator trim.

In a real aircraft, the yoke will actually stay in the same position
when the aircraft is "trimmed out" (hence the references you'll hear to
"trimming away the pressure"), but in the simulator you'll have to
settle for the nose staying where you want it when the joystick is
centered.

Ron Webb wrote:
Awww for crying out loud! The guy asks a simple question, and you either
confuse him with excess detail, or act like it's a stupid question, just
because YOU know the answer! Not very friendly!

Just to answer the question directly:

Your instructor is correct. Control altitude with throttle, and airspeed
with pitch. It sounds backwards, but that's what they teach.

Ah. So if I want to cruise faster, I leave the throttle alone and
pitch downward.

Dan

On 17 Nov 2006 09:18:06 -0800, wrote:


Ron Webb wrote:
Awww for crying out loud! The guy asks a simple question, and you either
confuse him with excess detail, or act like it's a stupid question, just
because YOU know the answer! Not very friendly!

Just to answer the question directly:

Your instructor is correct. Control altitude with throttle, and airspeed
with pitch. It sounds backwards, but that's what they teach.

Ah. So if I want to cruise faster, I leave the throttle alone and
pitch downward.

Dan

Yes but if you want to maintain the same altitude you'll also have to
add throttle.

On Fri, 17 Nov 2006 04:48:32 -0900, "Ron Webb"
wrote:

Awww for crying out loud! The guy asks a simple question, and you either
confuse him with excess detail, or act like it's a stupid question, just
because YOU know the answer! Not very friendly!

Just to answer the question directly:

Your instructor is correct. Control altitude with throttle, and airspeed
with pitch. It sounds backwards, but that's what they teach. If you were to
take a Private Pilot ground school class tomorrow, they would have said that
in so many words before the end of the first week.

At a pilot proficency course the instructor showd me that either way
can work just as well. However even though it seems backwards the
pitch for airspeed, power for altitude apparently makes teaching
landings easier to start.



Of course, nothing is ever that easy in the real world, but you have to
start somewhere.
Roger Halstead (K8RI & ARRL life member)
(N833R, S# CD-2 Worlds oldest Debonair)
www.rogerhalstead.com