Sloppy Piloting

wrote:
For the slow roll, it's execution is done in the shape of the capital
letter D; a normal D to the right and reversed to the left.
I'd assign myself a roll altitude slightly above where I was and use
that as my "pinned" altitude for the roll. I would do a pull to the roll
set and initiate the roll with the hundreds needle pinned on that
number. I would attempt to keep the needle pinned through the roll to
the second knife edge, then return the airplane back down to level
flight at exactly the initiating altitude.

That's rockin. What kind of plane?

Why not a barrel roll or two as well? Heh. Keep it interesting. I'm
very excited to get started on that stuff. Waiting to hear back from
my old flight instructor.

Most accurate in the Pitts, and dead on close in the P51. A little
harder to do in the Decathlon but doable.

Barrel rolls are fun but for display flying you need pinpoint accuracy
in the slow roll department where a dish out can really ruin your day.
Barrel rolls are pretty and easy to do but not the best maneuver when
considering precision on the roll axis.

Glad you're considering aerobatics. Take a good course with a good acro
instructor and if you never fly acro again, your general flying will be
greatly improved.

--
Dudley Henriques

Jay Honeck wrote:
For the slow roll, it's execution is done in the shape of the capital
letter D; a normal D to the right and reversed to the left.
I'd assign myself a roll altitude slightly above where I was and use
that as my "pinned" altitude for the roll. I would do a pull to the
roll set and initiate the roll with the hundreds needle pinned on that
number. I would attempt to keep the needle pinned through the roll to
the second knife edge, then return the airplane back down to level
flight at exactly the initiating altitude.

Hmmm... Maybe I'll forego using this particular technique, Dudley...

:-)

I had an interesting experience on a flight today that illustrates how
easily "sloppy" can creep in. The temperature today soared to 52
degrees (and, man, I am here to tell you that 52 never felt so good), so
-- after the morning's pea soup fog burned off -- we headed to the airport.

It was my turn to fly out, so I went through my usual routine -- unplug
the plane, pull it out, thorough preflight inspection. Once in the
plane, I followed my usual "geographic checklist" -- upper left to lower
right. I listened to AWOS, set the DG, set the altimeter to field
elevation, did my run-up, and off we went.

I was planning to do one touch & go and then depart the pattern to the
south. There were two guys in the pattern, so I timed my departure to
fit into the flow. Upon reaching my turn from crosswind to downwind, I
looked at my altimeter and was surprised to see I had overshot my
altitude by a full thousand feet! With the cool weather, and light on
fuel, Atlas climbs like a homesick angel -- but something just didn't
seem right...

I looked around and realized that my sight picture matched what 1000 AGL
*always* looks like. And it seemed unlikely that I had overshot my
altitude by *that* much -- so I tuned in AWOS again to check barometric
pressure.

Sure 'nuff, I had set the altimeter precisely 1000 feet wrong. I reset
accordingly, and continued the flight, chastened by discovering yet
another way to fly sloppy. (Mary just laughed. I had caught her doing
the exact same thing some years ago -- so now we're "even"...)

We flew to a nearby town, swapped seats, and Mary flew us back -- where
we met our son pre-flighting the rental C-150. Mary *finally* got her
"chauffeured ride" with Joe at the controls today!

:-)

You know, no matter how much we practice, and no matter how careful we
are as pilots, most of us will make this type of error. I've done it. I
think all of us have done it. What I used to do when it happened to me
was to take serious note of it and in that way try and keep that same
error from happening again.
It's a sobering feeling, especially when you've been flying a long time,
to have one of these "oh crap" moments.
I'm in fact involved right now with an international group of
demonstration and air show pilots working on exactly this type of thing.
We're doing serious research into what causes highly experienced pilots
to have "brain farts" for lack of a better term :-)
There will be a symposium in London at the End of the month where these
and other issues will be discussed openly in the hope of making our
community safer.
Anyway, I just wanted you to know you're not alone with this kind of
thing :-))

--
Dudley Henriques

Jay Honeck wrote:

These sheets really help because they eliminate more than a few things
to remember. As a new(er) pilot, I remember feeling like I was close
to mental overload when flying into complex airspace, and anything you
can do to minimize that load is definitely helpful.

One of the handiest "cheat sheets" you can find are the terminal
procedures, or approach plates. Even if I'm not flying IFR I
always bring a set with me. All the information you need to
know about an airport is on one piece of paper.

William Hung writes:

Two GPSes should keep you away from the charts, but I read somewhere
that the US military has the ability to turn off or set the sats to
send out false signals.

That capability is no longer used. The military now uses local jamming
techniques to deny GPS when required.

Unfortunately, they often test it in the U.S., and when they do, GPS within a
wide area may be unusable or unavailable.

Mxsmanic wrote in
:

William Hung writes:

Two GPSes should keep you away from the charts, but I read somewhere
that the US military has the ability to turn off or set the sats to
send out false signals.

That capability is no longer used. The military now uses local
jamming techniques to deny GPS when required.


No, they don't.


Unfortunately, they often test it in the U.S., and when they do, GPS
within a wide area may be unusable or unavailable.



So what;'s it to you? You have the local dumpsters marked on your Garmin?

Bertie

I'll admit to sloppy flying this weekend, and I hope I learned my
lesson. I recently joined a club that flies a C150. I transitioned
into it from a Cherokee. One of the biggest differences I noticed
other than where the wings are is the climb out. It's not exactly
robust. I've also been grilled to be very careful to make sure I use
the Carb Heat in my landing pattern. Well, I was doing pattern work
and wasn't using a checklist between landing and take offs. On the
last T/O I neglected to put the carb heat off, which was a carry over
from neglecting to fully clean up my ship after exiting the runway.

After lift off, which took a bit more runway than usual, the plane
just felt anemic. I realized something was wrong and looked at my
RPM's which were 200 less than what I needed. I checked the throttle,
that was correct, mixture ok flaps ok then I saw my carb heat was on.
DOH!!!!!!

If there had been any significant sink I would have been in deep
Kimchee. Had I been using my checklist this wouldn't have happened.
I was a sloppy pilot and a classic example of a few dumb errors that
combined could have put me in real harms way. It's very easy to kill
yourself if you aren't on top of your game. Sloppy is a great way to
describe it.

Doug

If there had been any significant sink I would have been in deep
Kimchee. Had I been using my checklist this wouldn't have happened.
I was a sloppy pilot and a classic example of a few dumb errors that
combined could have put me in real harms way. It's very easy to kill
yourself if you aren't on top of your game. Sloppy is a great way to
describe it.

Switching planes is a great way to make sloppiness apparent.

I had recently transitioned to a Cessna 172, and I was on final approach for
Rwy 9 at Sylvania Field (C89) in Wisconsin. This airport had a 2300 foot
by 30 foot wide runway, with Interstate 94 just a few dozen feet off the
departure end of the runway.

Precision was rewarded.

I was approaching somewhat high and fast when another plane -- apparently
NORDO -- pulled onto the runway. I immediately firewalled the throttle --
and slapped the flap selector to the "up" position. Big mistake.

I was used to Cherokee flaps -- one click of the Johnson Bar up or down --
and was surprised to find my now-becoming-flapless plane sinking toward the
runway -- and I-94. I quickly put in a click of flaps, which arrested the
descent, just in time to clear the trucks on the freeway.

It was a great lesson to learn, if you lived through it.
--
Jay Honeck
Iowa City, IA
Pathfinder N56993
www.AlexisParkInn.com
"Your Aviation Destination"

"Jay Honeck" wrote in
news:jpDgj.290305$Fc.40223@attbi_s21:

If there had been any significant sink I would have been in deep
Kimchee. Had I been using my checklist this wouldn't have happened.
I was a sloppy pilot and a classic example of a few dumb errors that
combined could have put me in real harms way. It's very easy to kill
yourself if you aren't on top of your game. Sloppy is a great way to
describe it.

Switching planes is a great way to make sloppiness apparent.

I had recently transitioned to a Cessna 172, and I was on final
approach for Rwy 9 at Sylvania Field (C89) in Wisconsin. This
airport had a 2300 foot by 30 foot wide runway, with Interstate 94
just a few dozen feet off the departure end of the runway.

Precision was rewarded.

I was approaching somewhat high and fast when another plane --
apparently NORDO -- pulled onto the runway. I immediately firewalled
the throttle -- and slapped the flap selector to the "up" position.
Big mistake.

I was used to Cherokee flaps -- one click of the Johnson Bar up or
down -- and was surprised to find my now-becoming-flapless plane
sinking toward the runway -- and I-94. I quickly put in a click of
flaps, which arrested the descent, just in time to clear the trucks on
the freeway.

It was a great lesson to learn, if you lived through it.



You're a real hero


Bertie

"Jay Honeck" wrote

Switching planes is a great way to make sloppiness apparent.

I had recently transitioned to a Cessna 172,

What???

Why were you making a change from a manly low wing airplane, to a sissy high
wing airplane, with such a un-manly little engine?

Isn't Atlas going to be jealous?

You had better make sure the door to Atlas is kept closed, so he can't see
you flying this new mount, and take a shower and wash up real good after you
fly the 172, before you get near Atlas again. If he smells the 172 on you,
there is going to be hell to pay!

;-))
--
Jim in NC

"Jay Honeck" wrote
I immediately firewalled the throttle -- and slapped the flap selector to
the "up" position. Big mistake.

I was used to Cherokee flaps -- one click of the Johnson Bar up or down --
and was surprised to find my now-becoming-flapless plane sinking toward
the runway -- and I-94. I quickly put in a click of flaps, which
arrested the descent, just in time to clear the trucks on the freeway.

I went from Tomahawks to C150's when I moved town. Did almost exactly the
same thing after a couple of hours in the Cessna, total hours ~15, and 17
year old.

Since I survived I will never make the same mistake again.



David


--
If everything seems to be going well, you have obviously overlooked
something.