Slow flight speed for training and checkride

[Tripod]

And, I thought the white arc was for flap extension.......

And I'm sure you know that the lower end of the white arc shows the stall speed with flaps extended. Right Steve?

-dave

[Cathy Pierce]

I did all my flight training and my checkride in a 160 hp Tripacer. My instructor made me look up the stall speeds before our first flight and we went out and did slow flight just above those stall speeds. It was very mushy and it took me a lot of practice to know just how much power to add to keep the same speed even while doing manuevers and keep the airplane from sinking. But, I did get better at it with practice. I did all my pattern work and my 360 degree turns at 90 mph. When I took my checkride last December, we did slow flight and stalls and I did them at what my instructor and I had been practicing all that time. The examiner just wanted to make sure that I had complete control of the airplane and was capable of doing manuevers at that speed.

[Tripod]

And, I thought the white arc was for flap extension.......

80 MPH is the max extension speed. 48 is the stall speed. You know you know this Steve. Quit trying to be difficult. LOL. We should have lunch.

-dave

[Troy Hamon]

Sometimes this required lifting up a chunk of carpet and looking through a small window.

For those of us without sufficient experience to parse this sentence...what does it mean? Sorry to be obtuse, but I can't make heads nor tails of it.

[Troy Hamon]

I did all my flight training and my checkride in a 160 hp Tripacer. My instructor made me look up the stall speeds before our first flight and we went out and did slow flight just above those stall speeds. It was very mushy and it took me a lot of practice to know just how much power to add to keep the same speed even while doing manuevers and keep the airplane from sinking. But, I did get better at it with practice. I did all my pattern work and my 360 degree turns at 90 mph. When I took my checkride last December, we did slow flight and stalls and I did them at what my instructor and I had been practicing all that time. The examiner just wanted to make sure that I had complete control of the airplane and was capable of doing manuevers at that speed.

Cathy, thanks for sharing your experience. I have been itching to get out and try some more slow flight ever since posting this thread, but the weather here has been atrocious. Today we hung out at 1.5 SM and 600 ft for most of the day...so I sat in my office and worked. I have been flying steep turns at 100 and pattern at 80 (indicated), I might experiment with your 90 setting to see how that feels for both. I'd especially like to see how that feels for steep turns. Prog charts claim weather tomorrow will be flyable, but the TAF doesn't seem to agree...so I may still be watching and wondering.

Tripod, If my airplane is flying 80 TAS at 87 IAS, do I go ahead and keep myself to the 80 IAS for flap extension? That's what I've been doing, though my instructor thought I might want to make it easier by using the 87 IAS since it is where the airplane is at the actual referenced airspeed.

Still got to get an open window test done, too.

Troy

[Tripod]

Sometimes this required lifting up a chunk of carpet and looking through a small window.

For those of us without sufficient experience to parse this sentence...what does it mean? Sorry to be obtuse, but I can't make heads nor tails of it.

It's a euphemism. My point was that the airline-pilot-examiner made the pilot-applicant demonstrate everything. In the case of "pull up the carpet" the applicant was told to demonstrate that he could confirm that the nose gear was down by observing it through a window in the floor of the [airline] aircraft. My point was that some examiners only talk about [whatever]. The examiner I know made them demonstrate it. I think that's much better than just talking about it. Same, same flight at minimum controllable airspeeds.

-dave

[Tripod]

[quote=Troy Hamon]

I did all my flight training and my checkride in a 160 hp Tripacer. My instructor made me look up the stall speeds before our first flight and we went out and did slow flight just above those stall speeds. It was very mushy and it took me a lot of practice to know just how much power to add to keep the same speed even while doing manuevers and keep the airplane from sinking. But, I did get better at it with practice. I did all my pattern work and my 360 degree turns at 90 mph. When I took my checkride last December, we did slow flight and stalls and I did them at what my instructor and I had been practicing all that time. The examiner just wanted to make sure that I had complete control of the airplane and was capable of doing manuevers at that speed.

Cathy, thanks for sharing your experience. I have been itching to get out and try some more slow flight ever since posting this thread, but the weather here has been atrocious. Today we hung out at 1.5 SM and 600 ft for most of the day...so I sat in my office and worked. I have been flying steep turns at 100 and pattern at 80 (indicated), I might experiment with your 90 setting to see how that feels for both. I'd especially like to see how that feels for steep turns. Prog charts claim weather tomorrow will be flyable, but the TAF doesn't seem to agree...so I may still be watching and wondering.

Tripod, If my airplane is flying 80 TAS at 87 IAS, do I go ahead and keep myself to the 80 IAS for flap extension? That's what I've been doing, though my instructor thought I might want to make it easier by using the 87 IAS since it is where the airplane is at the actual referenced airspeed.

Still got to get an open window test done, too.

Troy[/quote:3ci11va1]

Your flaps [and wing and airframe] only know true airspeed. 80 true or less is what you are looking for when you extend flaps. If your ASI indicates 87 when TAS is 80, then go ahead and extend flaps at 87 IAS or less. Don't why your ASI reads so high, but I would suggest getting it looked at. ASI's usually read a little low, and read lower as density altitude increases. A GPS would help nail down your ASI error [with no wind].

-dave



-dave

[Troy Hamon]

Don't why your ASI reads so high, but I would suggest getting it looked at. ASI's usually read a little low, and read lower as density altitude increases. A GPS would help nail down your ASI error [with no wind].

I hope to get it nailed down soon, but in 75 hours of flying I have exactly 1.2 hours in calm conditions. So at present we have a ballpark estimate of the error from use of a GPS during relatively steady winds, but haven't had a chance to dial it in better. The only calm weather I've ever seen was the day of my first solo, so I was a bit preoccupied then for trying to figure out speeds. As far as ASI, we'll definitely look into that now that everybody is telling me it may be an issue. We just thought it was because of the static vent being inside the cockpit, but we'll go back and see if we can verify that it is functioning properly. To make it more confusing, it appears to read accurately over 100 mph, but reads high at low airspeeds. But it also appears to be positioned to get more direct incidence at high angles of attack to the untrained observer (that would be me...).

Troy

[Cathy Pierce]

I have been flying steep turns at 100 and pattern at 80 (indicated), I might experiment with your 90 setting to see how that feels for both. I'd especially like to see how that feels for steep turns.

Troy

Let us know how things work out for you. Steve used to tell me all the time during my training...."you have to make the airplane do what you want it to do". It helped me to remember that while trying new things. Practice is always the best.

[Stephen]

And, I thought the white arc was for flap extension.......

80 MPH is the max extension speed. 48 is the stall speed. You know you know this Steve. Quit trying to be difficult. LOL. We should have lunch.

-dave

Damn.....