{"id":2866,"date":"2014-05-22T06:46:56","date_gmt":"2014-05-22T13:46:56","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/tailwheelersjournal.mechadigital.net\/?p=2866"},"modified":"2021-08-26T20:37:56","modified_gmt":"2021-08-26T20:37:56","slug":"104-preston-foster","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/tailwheelersjournal.com\/104-preston-foster\/","title":{"rendered":"#104 Preston Foster"},"content":{"rendered":"
Y\u2019know the one part of a flying airplane that consistently causes the most problems\u00a0 affecting proper performance?\u00a0 Give up?\u00a0 It\u2019s the pilot.\u00a0 It\u2019s been proven over and over again that in many instances, letting go of the controls will result, at least momentarily, in a smoother flight.<\/h5>\n
I’ve often related the time when I asked CFIG Kat Haessler to help me get current in gliders.\u00a0 I was making little corrections like crazy in the old Schweizer 2-33.\u00a0 Kat\u2019s voice came to me from the front seat.\u00a0 \u201cWhat are ya doing, churning butter?\u201d\u00a0 I was working too hard and the old glider wasn’t even capable of answering the helm with all the little needless corrections I was giving it.\u00a0 It would do better if I did less.<\/h5>\n
\"OLYMPUS<\/a>I will never forget one scene of a famous old movie.\u00a0 In \u201cMy Friend Flicka\u201d, Preston Foster, who plays the dad to Roddy McDowell\u2019s character, tells the kid, \u201cif you\u2019re ever in trouble, just give Flicka her head and she\u2019ll bring you home\u201d.\u00a0 Later the kid is in a fix and we hear Preston Foster\u2019s line supposedly echoing in his head.\u00a0 He gives Flicka her head and, guess what?\u00a0 She brings him home safely.<\/h5>\n
Wolfgang Langewiesche, in his must-read treatise, \u201cStick and Rudder\u201d, compares the airplane to the horse and describes various \u201cgaits\u201d that an airplane assumes, just like a horse.\u00a0 Those who have taken instruction from me, know that I closely adhere to Wolfgang\u2019s use of \u201cgaits\u201d.<\/h5>\n
Maybe that\u2019s why I feel that Preston Foster\u2019s advice to Roddy McDowell should be heeded by every airplane pilot.\u00a0 Many times we need to \u201ccollect\u201d an airplane in order to assume the right gait for the maneuver to be performed.\u00a0 But often we can avoid getting behind the power curve, inadvertently stalling the plane and a myriad of other problems by simply \u201cgiving the plane its head\u201d.<\/h5>\n
Happy Swooping,<\/h5>\n

Brian<\/em><\/h3>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u201cif you\u2019re ever in trouble, just give Flicka her head and she\u2019ll bring you home\u201d. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":2868,"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":[35,67,113,171,178],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tailwheelersjournal.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2866"}],"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=2866"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/tailwheelersjournal.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2866\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tailwheelersjournal.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2868"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tailwheelersjournal.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2866"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tailwheelersjournal.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2866"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tailwheelersjournal.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2866"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}