Lesson Plans

[Bede]

These are old lesson plans but my favorite.
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B3zLqP ... sp=sharing

Here is a procedures notebook I made up. I give this to each student when they start training. When I conclude a lesson, I tell them to read and understand what's in the FTM for the next lesson and tell them to memorize the information in this booklet.
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B3zLqP ... sp=sharing

Here is a syllabus I developed a while ago. I started this as a fresh instructor teaching air cadets and modified it over the years ot make it work better. I found that if a student flew a couple times a week and followed this syllabus, they could finish in about 50 hours. It's tough, but worked for me. https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B3zLqP ... sp=sharing

[rob-air]

I love the procedures notebook

Thanks, sharing is caring

[FL-510]

I like the booklet as well!! Very good idea, I might pass it on to some of my guys.

Just the Initiate a climb- Power, attitude , trim..... Please explain? I believe this is an error.
Apt climb
Pat descent

[captcrunch2013]

Thanks very much for posting,
much appreciated.

[Doc]

I like the booklet as well!! Very good idea, I might pass it on to some of my guys.

Just the Initiate a climb- Power, attitude , trim..... Please explain? I believe this is an error.
Apt climb
Pat descent

Bede has it correct

[Doc]

Following lesson plans (like SOPs) guarantee consistency. Very important.

[Shiny Side Up]

I like the booklet as well!! Very good idea, I might pass it on to some of my guys.

Just the Initiate a climb- Power, attitude , trim..... Please explain? I believe this is an error.
Apt climb
Pat descent

Bede has it correct

Actually no. While APT for entering the climb can sometimes be semantics, levelling off must always follow APT. IF you need to check, this is also how the FTM reccomends things. Specifically attitude must be established, power added, but then it qualifies that both may be done simultaeneously.

[iflyforpie]

For a student, it is much easier to keep the procedure for initiating and terminating a climb the same.... Attitude, Power, Trim.

Also, there is a possibility of overspeeding a fixed pitch prop by going full power first.

[Beefitarian]

Leveling off is a third thing. Certainly worthy of bringing up though.

Can it depend somewhat on how far you descended and if you followed the procedure for it as stated?

If you only wanted to descend a small amount like 1000 feet to change flight levels would it cause problems to just reduce power slightly then bring it back up once your there?

I'm thinking in terms of not being in any particular hurry to change altitudes. Maybe I was on a heading of 163 degrees and changed to 190 degrees. Because I am following the VFR route in the mountains or something. It's a very clear day and I can see no one else is in the area but I still want to fly proper altitudes and I'm at 9500' so I don't want to climb to 10500'.

Reduce the power just a bit, I should gently start to descend. As I get near 8500' still high in the pass I can bring the power back and should be close to trimmed nicely to continue my cruise. Maybe pull a slight amount of back pressure if I gained speed descending but if I'm not dropping the power much and keeping trimmed for cruise, I'm thinking my speed should remain fairly close to the same throughout.

Good, bad or a bit of both?

[Doc]

I like the booklet as well!! Very good idea, I might pass it on to some of my guys.

Just the Initiate a climb- Power, attitude , trim..... Please explain? I believe this is an error.
Apt climb
Pat descent

Bede has it correct

Actually no. While APT for entering the climb can sometimes be semantics, levelling off must always follow APT. IF you need to check, this is also how the FTM reccomends things. Specifically attitude must be established, power added, but then it qualifies that both may be done simultaeneously.

I'll buy "simultaneously", but pitching up, and THEN adding power seems kind of wrong to me. Going downhill however, I agree, reduce power comes before lowering the nose. Just a good habit to avoid blowing through rough air penetratin speed, or Vne in higher performance airplanes. We used to say "power plus attitude = performance". Do they still teach this?

[New_PIC]

I was going to ask why the circuit diagram showed a right hand circuit, but on second thought it might be a good idea. Advertisers seem to be doing this more lately too. If something is just a little odd, weird, out of place, or unusual, then you naturally engage a few more brain cells getting around it and it makes that much more of an impression. There's nothing wrong with a right hand circuit but, in my very limited experience, it's less common and I did look twice at the diagram.

[Doc]

For a student, it is much easier to keep the procedure for initiating and terminating a climb the same.... Attitude, Power, Trim.

Also, there is a possibility of overspending a fixed pitch prop by going full power first.

I guess, if you go full power and delay your pitch up, it could be an issue. Been a very long time since I've used full/max power to commend a climb.

[Shiny Side Up]

In the descent, PAT works because generally the airplane will always fly at the same speed that it is trimmed for. So if you reduce the power, the nose will neatly pitch down to maintain the same speed in the descent. With most small fixed pitch planes the rule of thumb being 100 rpm = 100 fpm. In this case the attitude is self setting, and so is the trim. On the other hand if you want to transition from cruise to an approach descent, reducing the power to what one will need is going to produce too much of a pitch down if one also wants to slow the airspeed down. Hence, after the reduction of power, one is going to set the desired attitude which will produce the desired descent speed, usually this will then require nose up trim to maintain.

This is one of those bits Stick and Rudder explains very well.

[Shiny Side Up]

For a student, it is much easier to keep the procedure for initiating and terminating a climb the same.... Attitude, Power, Trim.

Also, there is a possibility of overspending a fixed pitch prop by going full power first.

I guess, if you go full power and delay your pitch up, it could be an issue. Been a very long time since I've used full/max power to commend a climb.

Remember they're students Doc.

[Doc]

For a student, it is much easier to keep the procedure for initiating and terminating a climb the same.... Attitude, Power, Trim.

Also, there is a possibility of overspending a fixed pitch prop by going full power first.

I guess, if you go full power and delay your pitch up, it could be an issue. Been a very long time since I've used full/max power to commend a climb.

Remember they're students Doc.

This is something I tend to forget. If I was to renew my instructor rating ( no intentions to do so BTW ) I would be teaching new PPL candidates, which would be a total waste of my experience. I'd be far better at doing MEIFR, but that's not how the system works.....which is foolish....instructors should teach to their strengths......better for all involved?

[Big Pistons Forever]

Leveling off is a third thing. Certainly worthy of bringing up though.

Can it depend somewhat on how far you descended and if you followed the procedure for it as stated?

If you only wanted to descend a small amount like 1000 feet to change flight levels would it cause problems to just reduce power slightly then bring it back up once your there?

I'm thinking in terms of not being in any particular hurry to change altitudes. Maybe I was on a heading of 163 degrees and changed to 190 degrees. Because I am following the VFR route in the mountains or something. It's a very clear day and I can see no one else is in the area but I still want to fly proper altitudes and I'm at 9500' so I don't want to climb to 10500'.

Reduce the power just a bit, I should gently start to descend. As I get near 8500' still high in the pass I can bring the power back and should be close to trimmed nicely to continue my cruise. Maybe pull a slight amount of back pressure if I gained speed descending but if I'm not dropping the power much and keeping trimmed for cruise, I'm thinking my speed should remain fairly close to the same throughout.

Good, bad or a bit of both?

If you are cruising from A to B and want to descent to a lower altitude I tell my students to leave the power where it is and set a nose down attitude that will give you a 500 FPM descent (reducing throttle as required to maintain cruise RPM as you descend). When you reach the desired altitude level out and the aircraft will deaccelerate to cruise. Trim, check the RPM mixture and you are done. This is the most efficient way to go.

It bothers me when I see the automatic reaction in a licensed PPL is to reduce power (and go full rich mixture ) for every descent even if they are 25 miles form the airport and have 8000 feet to descend. Obviously you have to pay attention to maneuvering speed in this scenario but on many days you can make up most of the time lost in the climb.

[Shiny Side Up]

But you don't need your rating to teach MEIFR. One would only assume that if you went through the trouble to get your rating back it was because you had some sort of masochistic desire to be teaching ab initio again.

[Beefitarian]

I didn't go full rich but fair point.

Since I have been in the circuit mostly last year I always wanted to slow down before/when descending. Bring back my Power, pressure back to keep the Attitude around the same until my speed is lower and stable then Trim when it is.

Habitual mixture shoving is probably a good way to develop a bad habit.

[rob-air]

Obviously you have to pay attention to maneuvering speed in this scenario but on many days you can make up most of the time lost in the climb.

Not obvious for me, why would you not go past VA in the decent?

[iflyforpie]

The reason not to exceed Va is if you are in turbulent conditions. This ensures that if you hit a patch of rough air the plane will stall rather than bend or shed a wing.

Actually, on really rough days I will fly as slow as I can to mitigate the bumps. I remember hearing a PIREP from an RV that left our airport heading to Calgary and thinking he was probably zooming along at 200 MPH in a very light aircraft when he hit rough air.

I followed him in the 206 a few hours later and going half the speed it was still rough, but nowhere near rough enough to warrant a PIREP.

[Big Pistons Forever]

Obviously you have to pay attention to maneuvering speed in this scenario but on many days you can make up most of the time lost in the climb.

Not obvious for me, why would you not go past VA in the decent?

From the C 172S POH.

Vno: Maximum structural cruising speed (ie top of the green arc, 129 kts). Quote "Do not exceed this speed except in smooth air, and then only with caution" unquote.

Va: maneuvering speed. Quote "Do not make full or abrupt control movements above this speed" unquote.

There is no published Vb (ie turbulence penetration speed) for the C 172 (as is the case with most light aircraft). I do not see any reason why you would not fly within the green arc under most conditions. Obviously if it is bumpy you should slow down, if only for pax comfort reasons. In very rough air maximum airframe margins will be obtained at speeds at or below Va; but I reject the idea that descending at a speed at higher than Va in smooth air is in any way unsafe.

[rob-air]

Ok got that but on on the 172 and especially on a lightly loaded one, VA is buried well within the green arc and 15 to 20 kts under and ok cruising speed, It would be a rough ride if a full abrupt pull on the CC is needed to correct for turbulence, over VA bend the wings, under stall it pulling a good amount of gs, so bad day for flying. I guess pretty much anywhere in the green is safe unless it gets insanely bumpy where you would just get spit out of the sky

[photofly]

Looking through 14 CFR 23, it's pretty complex, but Vno is (with various caveats and exceptions) the speed at which the aircraft can fly at gross through a vertical gust front of 50fps (positive or negative) without damage. 35fps for older aircraft certified under CAR3.

I don't know what a 50fps or 35 fps gust front feels like; anyone have any clue?

EDIT: 50 fps if sustained is 3000fpm - that's a fairly heavy up/downdraft.

[Shiny Side Up]

I don't know what a 50fps or 35 fps gust front feels like; anyone have any clue?

You don't ever want to know.

EDIT: 50 fps if sustained is 3000fpm - that's a fairly heavy up/downdraft.

That's thunderstorm and mountain wind territory, see above.

[xiz]

Just looking through the lesson plans and notes ... firstly, they are excellent and extremely well put together. Secondly, I suddenly realized that I recognized the handwriting and the name ... not to mention the Voyageur Airways logos.

Bede .. I think you may have been my CFI when I did my PPL with the Air Cadets. I was one of the gang in North Bay in 1985, one of the best summers of my life. I think you did my pre-solo, pre-cross country and pre-flight test, as well as sign off on my license.

PM me if you want further info .. but if it was you, thanks. I remember you as an excellent CFI, and good mentor for both us cadets, and the instructors