Flying Hours Today 1:10, Total 11:25
We had planned to practice approaches leading up to actually landing. Unfortunately, as I've found so far in my flying career, things don't always go to plan and so we have to be flexible and change things at the last minute. Today it wasn't the weather but the airstrips we were planning to land at that had a problem.
Steep Level Turns
"A steep turn is a turn in which the bank angle exceeds 45°. It is a high-performance manoeuvre which requires good coordination and positive control."
From Trevor Thom's The Air Pilot's Manual 1 For various reasons both Full Sutton and Sandtoft were not available for our training exerise today and so we decided to move right on to Exercise 15: Steep, Level Turns and Spiral Descents.
We ventured into the chilly briefing room with a warm cup of coffee - it was about 6C at the airfield overnight and the heating had not yet been switched on. We covered steep, level turns at a 45 degree angle of bank which is what I will be examined on. We also touched on 60 degree angle of bank which we would do during the lesson to get a feel for this.
In summary, as we pass through 30 degrees angle of bank, apply 100-200rpm of power and maintain the nose upright as the aircraft will tend to descend nose down due to the loss of lift directly opposing weight.
Pull back further on the stick as we approach 45 degrees. Do much the same in reverse to return to straight and level flight, starting the roll out perhaps 20 degrees from the target heading.
It must be noted that balance plays an important part of this exercise, and examiners will be looking to ensure that balance is maintained. Remember that as the bank to the left begins, push down to apply left rudder and vice-versa for the right. Keep the actions synchronised.
If the aircraft is losing altitude and the angle of bank is greater than 45 degrees then it is imperative that you don't pull back further to raise the nose. At these angles the elevator will not raise the nose in the normal sense as it is now operating at a more vertical than horizontal angle - instead it will direct the nose into an even tighter turning circle, thereby reducing vertical lift and so accelerating the nose down attitude.
In these circumstances, revert to a lower angle of bank, re-ajust the attitude, then revert to 45 degrees (or more) angle of bank.
"A steep turn is a turn in which the bank angle exceeds 45°. It is a high-performance manoeuvre which requires good coordination and positive control."
From Trevor Thom's The Air Pilot's Manual 1 For various reasons both Full Sutton and Sandtoft were not available for our training exerise today and so we decided to move right on to Exercise 15: Steep, Level Turns and Spiral Descents.
We ventured into the chilly briefing room with a warm cup of coffee - it was about 6C at the airfield overnight and the heating had not yet been switched on. We covered steep, level turns at a 45 degree angle of bank which is what I will be examined on. We also touched on 60 degree angle of bank which we would do during the lesson to get a feel for this.
In summary, as we pass through 30 degrees angle of bank, apply 100-200rpm of power and maintain the nose upright as the aircraft will tend to descend nose down due to the loss of lift directly opposing weight.
Pull back further on the stick as we approach 45 degrees. Do much the same in reverse to return to straight and level flight, starting the roll out perhaps 20 degrees from the target heading.
It must be noted that balance plays an important part of this exercise, and examiners will be looking to ensure that balance is maintained. Remember that as the bank to the left begins, push down to apply left rudder and vice-versa for the right. Keep the actions synchronised.
If the aircraft is losing altitude and the angle of bank is greater than 45 degrees then it is imperative that you don't pull back further to raise the nose. At these angles the elevator will not raise the nose in the normal sense as it is now operating at a more vertical than horizontal angle - instead it will direct the nose into an even tighter turning circle, thereby reducing vertical lift and so accelerating the nose down attitude.
In these circumstances, revert to a lower angle of bank, re-ajust the attitude, then revert to 45 degrees (or more) angle of bank.
In a steep descending turn, or a spiral descent, the airspeed will tend to increase due to reduction in lift countering weight and also because power is still being applied to provide thrust. There is a danger that the airspeed will pass Vno - limit of normal operating speed in smooth airflow - and tend towards Vne - the Never Exceed speed limit for the airframe. If a spiral descent increases the airspeed too much then it is time to reduce power to idle immediately, then to level the wings and then to adjust attitude to return to straight and level flight. Reapply power only when the airspeed has dropped to around the 100kt mark.
Steep, level turns are included in the syllabus as a maneouver to quickly change heading to avoid a collision with another aircraft or obstruction on the ground. It is not generally a maneouver to be used in every day flying - however it can be used during circuits when turning from downwind to base leg.
A tight turn takes less time so during a busy circuit this will give more time to allow the pilot to focus on other things in the base leg of the circuit.
So time to go and fly. I did the check out first of all, calling ATC at Leeds / Bradford to request a local book out. The information they require includes:
Steep, level turns are included in the syllabus as a maneouver to quickly change heading to avoid a collision with another aircraft or obstruction on the ground. It is not generally a maneouver to be used in every day flying - however it can be used during circuits when turning from downwind to base leg.
A tight turn takes less time so during a busy circuit this will give more time to allow the pilot to focus on other things in the base leg of the circuit.
So time to go and fly. I did the check out first of all, calling ATC at Leeds / Bradford to request a local book out. The information they require includes:
- Exiting the zone via Harrogate (our VRP today)
- G-BODD, PA28 (registration and type)
- 2 PoB (people on board, me and the instructor)Instructors name as captain
- Training / exercise flight (as details)
- Estimated time of departure
- Whether the flight is VFR or IFR
- Expected altitude / flight level
- Registration callsign and type
- Zone exit VRP
- Destination and route
- Time en-route
- Endurance
- PoB and experience of person in charge
I was left with the responsibility to do this for the first time. By the time he returned I had the prop turning and reduced to idle to allow him to board.
I'm now getting much more confident with my R/T and completed the preliminary conversations with ease. We taxied to Lima 1 via Golf in order to use R32. QNH was high today at 1033mb. Turning into the wind on the taxyway meant using the full width of the surface to turn at right angles to the yellow line.
All checks completed and a BMI jet bound for either Heathrow or Edinburgh passed us as it backtracked down R32. We were given immediate clearance to go and so made full use of this and I took off with an immediate turn right to clear the airspace then the BMI flight was given clearance as soon as we were out of the runway centre line.
The exercise was much less challenging than expected, and no where near as bad from a motion sickness point of view. I'd been told that steep turns were not the instructor's or others favourite exercise. But I managed to pick things up very quickly. Keeping the angle of bank good, maintaining altitude well. Doing a number of left and right 360 degree turns and at one point I felt a slight bump. It was us intercepting my wake from the earlier turn - which in still air proves that we had maintained our level flight.
There was a lot of other traffic today - the most I've seen in all my flights. Probably due to the relatively fine weather. It was good to be able to be practising my flying over Fountains Abbey with spectacular views and also being able to provide some of my brain power to listening into the ATC and being aware of look out and spotting the other aircraft.
Following 30 degree and 45 degree turns we moved into the spiral descent. This was also much easier to recover from than anticipated. So we moved onto 60 degree turns which create something like 2G. I've never really felt g-force for any prolonged period (i.e. more than a second or so on a fairground ride) and it wasn't the most comfortable feeling to hold the position for quite a few seconds.
We headed towards Wetherby, doing some simple navigation along the way. Using the cooling towers of Eggborough, Drax and Ferrybridge as reference points for triangulation.
En-route we passed through what could only be described as wisps of cloud, nothing like a fully fledged cloud. The turbulence was quite shocking for such a small amount of vapour. I made a mental note never ever to venture anywhere near a towering cumulonimbus! Turning right we were heading directly for the Eccup Reservoir VRP and I made the call to Leeds Approach requesting entry into the Zone.
Remembering to state what we require (entry to the zone), where we are (2 nautical miles south of Wetherby), and who we are (G-BODD). I had become lazy and was using Delta-Delta as the call sign, I must remember to continue with Golf-Delta-Delta.
Permission was granted to enter the zone not above 2000ft, with a QFE of 1009mb. We also switched to Leeds tower and requested and were granted permission to land on R27 - and I must remember to state two-seven rather than twenty seven!
As our approach was from such a distance, i.e. from Eccup we were proceeding too slowly so we pitched down to increase airspeed but then also applied power to maintain height. This combination of power and attitude adjustment made for not the most perfect long approaches but we were making good headway to the runway numbers.
Flaps were down, the pre-landing checks made, then as we crossed the threshold the instructor told me to fly down the runway, gradually losing height as we flew almost parallel to the ground. My hand on the throttle gradually dropping the power until, with a bit of a thud, we touched down. My first landing! I hadn't expected to do that today, and at a major airport like Leeds Bradford too. An excellent end to today's lesson.
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