{"id":2198,"date":"2013-08-30T07:34:58","date_gmt":"2013-08-30T14:34:58","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/tailwheelersjournal.mechadigital.net\/?p=2198"},"modified":"2021-08-26T20:37:57","modified_gmt":"2021-08-26T20:37:57","slug":"77-porpoising","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/tailwheelersjournal.com\/77-porpoising\/","title":{"rendered":"#77 Porpoising"},"content":{"rendered":"

When we learn to fly, our heads are pumped full of information, some of which will affect the way we do things for the rest of our flying career.\u00a0 Some of this information and training is valuable, such as building the reflex to coordinate or learning the proper technique to maintain altitude.\u00a0 But wait a minute.\u00a0 A big thing was made about maintaining a constant altitude while cruising on a cross country.\u00a0 This is a valid skill and one a pilot should have.\u00a0 And if air was always stable, we could maintain our altitude somewhat easily while covering hundreds of miles.\u00a0 But we all know that air is rarely stable.\u00a0 Columns of air are constantly moving up and down as well as laterally in the form of wind.\u00a0 I have a hunch that a lot of pilots make a rule of maintaining their altitude no matter whether the air they fly through is lift or sink.\u00a0 So what happens when you attempt to maintain your altitude while flying through sink?\u00a0 You must climb in order to maintain your altitude.\u00a0 That climb results in a lower airspeed.\u00a0 You\u2019ve then sacrificed speed in order to maintain altitude. And because you decreased your speed, you stayed in that sinking air longer, thus increasing the time during which you were at a slower speed.\u00a0 \u00a0Did you need to maintain an altitude?\u00a0 It may not be important to maintain altitude at all times.\u00a0 Let\u2019s examine the idea of maintaining altitude and look at an alternative to sacrificing speed in order to do it.<\/p>\n

\"DSC04769\"<\/a>
Hooper Lansburgh and CFI Dale Masters hook up their 2-32 for an aero tow above Central Oregon<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

In a previous Tailwheeler\u2019s Journal article, guest writer Dale Masters described some great soaring techniques in \u201cThe Organic Variometer\u201d.\u00a0 It\u2019s occurred to me that there are a lot of techniques we can borrow from our soaring colleagues.<\/p>\n

Every glider pilot should know the technique of \u201cporpoising\u201d.\u00a0 Simply stated, it\u2019s the technique glider pilots use in order to travel greater distance in less time when going cross country.\u00a0 They pitch up to slow down when in lift.\u00a0 That way, they spend more time in lift and gain altitude which they can trade later for speed.\u00a0 When they encounter sink, they pitch down to speed up.\u00a0 They may lose altitude faster, but they also exit the sink sooner.<\/p>\n

\"Cessna<\/a>
We often use the porpoising technique when flying cross country in the Cessna 140 (photo by Bert Garrison)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Most power pilots are taught to carefully maintain their chosen altitude when flying cross country.\u00a0 The problem with that technique is that it slows down our progress when cross-country.\u00a0 By using the glider pilot\u2019s technique, we can arrive at our destination much sooner than we would have if we\u2019d have maintained our altitude.<\/p>\n

This technique can be used more than you think.\u00a0 Its only limitations are terrain, weather and ATC.\u00a0 You\u2019ll need to make sure that your porpoising flight doesn\u2019t take you within an uncomfortable distance from terrain and clouds or affect your ability to glide to a safe landing in the event of an engine failure.\u00a0 We\u2019ll assume you\u2019re VFR in a small airplane.\u00a0 If so, you may be utilizing flight following.\u00a0 ATC may have given you an assigned altitude.\u00a0 But they may very well have not.\u00a0 It\u2019s been my experience that, traffic permitting, ATC is happy to withhold any hard altitude assignment, freeing you up to use the porpoising technique.<\/p>\n

If, like me, you fly a little low-horsepower beater, you may very well want to consider porpoising.\u00a0 You\u2019ll get there sooner and burn less fuel.\u00a0 You can use the fuel you saved for\u2026<\/p>\n

Happy Swooping!<\/p>\n

Brian Lansburgh<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

“If, like me, you fly a little low-horsepower beater, you may very well want to consider porpoising.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":986,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mi_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[26,35,38,67,132,156,178],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tailwheelersjournal.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2198"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tailwheelersjournal.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tailwheelersjournal.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tailwheelersjournal.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tailwheelersjournal.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2198"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/tailwheelersjournal.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2198\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tailwheelersjournal.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/986"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tailwheelersjournal.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2198"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tailwheelersjournal.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2198"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tailwheelersjournal.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2198"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}