![\"Judy](\"https:\/\/tailwheelersjournal.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/06\/Garland-Judy.jpg\")
Among the first things Whuffos take note of when looking over an airplane is its interior and instrumentation.\u00a0 In fact, if you want to see how experienced a \u201ctire kicker\u201d is, just look at where they go first when looking over an airplane.\u00a0 If they start in the cockpit or with their nose pressed against a window, the chances are that they are a tyro.\u00a0 The more experienced flyer will be looking at props, engines, control surfaces, landing gear and all the details that show on the exterior of the airplane.<\/h3>\nI guess that it\u2019s normal for those folks who don\u2019t know much about flying to go to the instruments first.\u00a0 Movies are partly to blame (picture actor Pat O\u2019Brien<\/h3>\n![\"O'Brien,](\"https:\/\/tailwheelersjournal.com\/\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/06\/OBrien-Pat-e1465045262379.jpg\")
“Pull up, Kid… Pull up!”<\/figcaption><\/figure>\nlooking upward and screaming, \u201cpull up, Kid, Pull up!\u201d as we keep cutting to a closeup of the airspeed indicator well over redline).\u00a0 And, if the truth be known, I\u2019m responsible for a bit of it myself in that regard. I remember blowing in a pitot tube while my brother and I were filming \u201cDawn Flight\u201d.<\/h3>\n![\"DSCN5358\"](\"https:\/\/tailwheelersjournal.com\/\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/06\/DSCN5358-300x225.jpg\")
Blowing in the Pitot tube to simulate high airspeed.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\nBut how should we regard those instruments? Probably to be far less dependent\u00a0 on them.\u00a0 I\u2019ve often given \u201clip service\u201d to the fact that only one instrument is really important and that\u2019s the oil pressure gauge. But I\u2019ve got to admit that the only instrument that\u2019s routinely covered in the 140 or the 172 is the turn coordinator.\u00a0 To be the best teachers we can, we really ought to examine how we introduce the student to the airplane.\u00a0 We really ought to be more like a mother bird, introducing her chick to the wonder of flight.\u00a0 Do you suppose she tells that chick to keep an eye on that airspeed indicator or altimeter?\u00a0 Of course not.\u00a0 He doesn\u2019t have one and she wouldn\u2019t refer to it if he did.\u00a0 We really ought to stop inculcating this over-reliance on instrumentation.\u00a0 We do what we do because it\u2019s easy.\u00a0 We also tend to go with the herd and teach maneuvers by both attitude and instrument reference.\u00a0 It\u2019s called \u201cintegrated\u201d flight instruction; a practice which I feel is a mistake.![\"DSCN5378\"](\"https:\/\/tailwheelersjournal.com\/\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/06\/DSCN5378-300x225.jpg\")
<\/h3>\nThose who invented flight instruments didn\u2019t expect that we\u2019d gaze on their inventions and replace our Mark One Eyeballs with them.\u00a0 They simply wanted us to have an accurate measurement of things like altitude, airspeed and vertical speed in order to \u201ccalibrate\u201d our eyeballs and bodies.\u00a0 Think about the airspeed instrument.\u00a0 If you always make a power off approach, it only takes once to compare the pitch attitude of the airplane with the desired approach speed.\u00a0 After that, it\u2019s really not necessary to look at the airspeed indicator during the approach again.<\/h3>\nYou know what I think we oughta start doing?\u00a0 I think we oughta start flying with virtually every instrument covered.\u00a0 Let\u2019s teach pitch.\u00a0 Let\u2019s teach the sound of the airstream.\u00a0 Let\u2019s teach how the world looks at 1,000 feet off the ground.<\/h3>\nFor flight instructors, there is another thing you can do:\u00a0 Tell the student that few have ever crashed with the horizon being visible.\u00a0 Or, when in doubt, put the nose on the horizon.\u00a0 That takes care of airspeed in a pinch.<\/h3>\nI learned a valuable lesson simply by watching one student\u2019s over-reliance on one instrument.\u00a0 And that instrument just may be the one I start with when I start covering all the rest of them (my turn coordinator has been covered for years).\u00a0 We were flying Jeff Stanford\u2019s lovely L2 in which I used to do Tailwheel Endorsements in St \u00a0Marys, GA.\u00a0 As we passed the point of intended touchdown on the downwind, he had the carb heat on and had closed the throttle.\u00a0 So far, so good.\u00a0 After trimming for normal glide, he turned base and then final.\u00a0 And that\u2019s when he disclosed his weakness.\u00a0 Sitting behind him, I noticed that the nose was much further down than it should be.\u00a0 By lowering the nose, he\u2019d changed the glide slope dramatically.\u00a0 He may have increased the speed, but he was heading for the swamp short of the runway in which a bunch of \u2018gators hung out, hungry for the flesh of dumb pilots.\u00a0 I was perplexed and amazed.\u00a0 Why were we heading for the swamp?\u00a0 I asked him.<\/h3>\n![\"Alligator\"](\"https:\/\/tailwheelersjournal.com\/\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/06\/Alligator-300x200.jpg\")
\u201cHe may have increased the speed, but he was heading for the swamp short of the runway in which a bunch of \u2018gators hung out, hungry for the flesh of dumb pilots.\u201d<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\u201cWe\u2019re just too high\u201d, he replied and tapped the altimeter for emphasis.<\/h3>\nJeff and I had discussed that altimeter.\u00a0 We\u2019d both noticed that sometimes it kinda stuck as you descended, but after a few hundred feet it would become unstuck and quickly indicate the proper altitude.\u00a0 All it took was a tap on its face to make it loosen up and indicate correctly. But neither of us really cared. The student had just given it such a tap and suddenly the altimeter\u2019s needle swung counter clockwise and indicated the proper altitude.\u00a0 He squawked and pulled back, unknowingly returning the airplane to the correct glide slope, its airspeed suddenly indicating the desired approach speed as well.<\/h3>\nThe metaphorical light bulb that is permanently affixed to my think bump suddenly illuminated as I realized what had happened.\u00a0 He was actually depending on an instrument to tell him his altitude in the pattern.\u00a0 And this \u201cstudent\u201d was a flier with a Private Pilot Certificate in his wallet.<\/h3>\nTo this day, I have been telling all of my students to ignore the altimeter, once on downwind.\u00a0 You see, the human eye is actually more important than an altimeter.\u00a0 It simply needs to be trained.\u00a0 Just as the human body is as accurate as the ball of a turn coordinator and the human ear can recognize a change in airspeed.\u00a0 A magnetic compass may swing erratically in turbulence while a human eye can nail a heading by paying attention to a point on the horizon that\u2019s supposed to be dead ahead.<\/h3>\nSo if you show up at Tailwheel Town only to find that the only instrument on the 140 that\u2019s visible is the oil pressure gauge, you\u2019ll know that I took my own advice and that the days of instrument gazing are over.\u00a0 You\u2019ll also notice that, as in the \u201cWizard of Oz\u201d, when Dorothy says to Toto, \u201cI guess we\u2019re not in Kansas anymore\u201d, you may say to yourself, \u201cThis sure isn\u2019t the Acme Flying School\u2026. We must be in Tailwheel Town!\u201d<\/h3>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
One of the most famous movie lines is the one uttered by Judy Garland in \u201cThe Wizard of Oz\u201d.\u00a0 As Dorothy, she turns to her dog and exclaims, \u201cI guess we\u2019re not in Kansas anymore, Toto!\u201d\u00a0 You may have a similar epiphany if you fly at Tailwheel Town. Among the first things Whuffos […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":3864,"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":[35,38,67,91,92,174,177],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tailwheelersjournal.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3862"}],"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=3862"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/tailwheelersjournal.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3862\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tailwheelersjournal.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3864"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tailwheelersjournal.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3862"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tailwheelersjournal.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3862"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tailwheelersjournal.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3862"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
looking upward and screaming, \u201cpull up, Kid, Pull up!\u201d as we keep cutting to a closeup of the airspeed indicator well over redline).\u00a0 And, if the truth be known, I\u2019m responsible for a bit of it myself in that regard. I remember blowing in a pitot tube while my brother and I were filming \u201cDawn Flight\u201d.<\/h3>\nBlowing in the Pitot tube to simulate high airspeed.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\nBut how should we regard those instruments? Probably to be far less dependent\u00a0 on them.\u00a0 I\u2019ve often given \u201clip service\u201d to the fact that only one instrument is really important and that\u2019s the oil pressure gauge. But I\u2019ve got to admit that the only instrument that\u2019s routinely covered in the 140 or the 172 is the turn coordinator.\u00a0 To be the best teachers we can, we really ought to examine how we introduce the student to the airplane.\u00a0 We really ought to be more like a mother bird, introducing her chick to the wonder of flight.\u00a0 Do you suppose she tells that chick to keep an eye on that airspeed indicator or altimeter?\u00a0 Of course not.\u00a0 He doesn\u2019t have one and she wouldn\u2019t refer to it if he did.\u00a0 We really ought to stop inculcating this over-reliance on instrumentation.\u00a0 We do what we do because it\u2019s easy.\u00a0 We also tend to go with the herd and teach maneuvers by both attitude and instrument reference.\u00a0 It\u2019s called \u201cintegrated\u201d flight instruction; a practice which I feel is a mistake.<\/h3>\nThose who invented flight instruments didn\u2019t expect that we\u2019d gaze on their inventions and replace our Mark One Eyeballs with them.\u00a0 They simply wanted us to have an accurate measurement of things like altitude, airspeed and vertical speed in order to \u201ccalibrate\u201d our eyeballs and bodies.\u00a0 Think about the airspeed instrument.\u00a0 If you always make a power off approach, it only takes once to compare the pitch attitude of the airplane with the desired approach speed.\u00a0 After that, it\u2019s really not necessary to look at the airspeed indicator during the approach again.<\/h3>\nYou know what I think we oughta start doing?\u00a0 I think we oughta start flying with virtually every instrument covered.\u00a0 Let\u2019s teach pitch.\u00a0 Let\u2019s teach the sound of the airstream.\u00a0 Let\u2019s teach how the world looks at 1,000 feet off the ground.<\/h3>\nFor flight instructors, there is another thing you can do:\u00a0 Tell the student that few have ever crashed with the horizon being visible.\u00a0 Or, when in doubt, put the nose on the horizon.\u00a0 That takes care of airspeed in a pinch.<\/h3>\nI learned a valuable lesson simply by watching one student\u2019s over-reliance on one instrument.\u00a0 And that instrument just may be the one I start with when I start covering all the rest of them (my turn coordinator has been covered for years).\u00a0 We were flying Jeff Stanford\u2019s lovely L2 in which I used to do Tailwheel Endorsements in St \u00a0Marys, GA.\u00a0 As we passed the point of intended touchdown on the downwind, he had the carb heat on and had closed the throttle.\u00a0 So far, so good.\u00a0 After trimming for normal glide, he turned base and then final.\u00a0 And that\u2019s when he disclosed his weakness.\u00a0 Sitting behind him, I noticed that the nose was much further down than it should be.\u00a0 By lowering the nose, he\u2019d changed the glide slope dramatically.\u00a0 He may have increased the speed, but he was heading for the swamp short of the runway in which a bunch of \u2018gators hung out, hungry for the flesh of dumb pilots.\u00a0 I was perplexed and amazed.\u00a0 Why were we heading for the swamp?\u00a0 I asked him.<\/h3>\n\u201cHe may have increased the speed, but he was heading for the swamp short of the runway in which a bunch of \u2018gators hung out, hungry for the flesh of dumb pilots.\u201d<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\u201cWe\u2019re just too high\u201d, he replied and tapped the altimeter for emphasis.<\/h3>\nJeff and I had discussed that altimeter.\u00a0 We\u2019d both noticed that sometimes it kinda stuck as you descended, but after a few hundred feet it would become unstuck and quickly indicate the proper altitude.\u00a0 All it took was a tap on its face to make it loosen up and indicate correctly. But neither of us really cared. The student had just given it such a tap and suddenly the altimeter\u2019s needle swung counter clockwise and indicated the proper altitude.\u00a0 He squawked and pulled back, unknowingly returning the airplane to the correct glide slope, its airspeed suddenly indicating the desired approach speed as well.<\/h3>\nThe metaphorical light bulb that is permanently affixed to my think bump suddenly illuminated as I realized what had happened.\u00a0 He was actually depending on an instrument to tell him his altitude in the pattern.\u00a0 And this \u201cstudent\u201d was a flier with a Private Pilot Certificate in his wallet.<\/h3>\nTo this day, I have been telling all of my students to ignore the altimeter, once on downwind.\u00a0 You see, the human eye is actually more important than an altimeter.\u00a0 It simply needs to be trained.\u00a0 Just as the human body is as accurate as the ball of a turn coordinator and the human ear can recognize a change in airspeed.\u00a0 A magnetic compass may swing erratically in turbulence while a human eye can nail a heading by paying attention to a point on the horizon that\u2019s supposed to be dead ahead.<\/h3>\nSo if you show up at Tailwheel Town only to find that the only instrument on the 140 that\u2019s visible is the oil pressure gauge, you\u2019ll know that I took my own advice and that the days of instrument gazing are over.\u00a0 You\u2019ll also notice that, as in the \u201cWizard of Oz\u201d, when Dorothy says to Toto, \u201cI guess we\u2019re not in Kansas anymore\u201d, you may say to yourself, \u201cThis sure isn\u2019t the Acme Flying School\u2026. We must be in Tailwheel Town!\u201d<\/h3>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
One of the most famous movie lines is the one uttered by Judy Garland in \u201cThe Wizard of Oz\u201d.\u00a0 As Dorothy, she turns to her dog and exclaims, \u201cI guess we\u2019re not in Kansas anymore, Toto!\u201d\u00a0 You may have a similar epiphany if you fly at Tailwheel Town. Among the first things Whuffos […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":3864,"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":[35,38,67,91,92,174,177],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tailwheelersjournal.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3862"}],"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=3862"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/tailwheelersjournal.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3862\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tailwheelersjournal.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3864"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tailwheelersjournal.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3862"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tailwheelersjournal.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3862"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tailwheelersjournal.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3862"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
But how should we regard those instruments? Probably to be far less dependent\u00a0 on them.\u00a0 I\u2019ve often given \u201clip service\u201d to the fact that only one instrument is really important and that\u2019s the oil pressure gauge. But I\u2019ve got to admit that the only instrument that\u2019s routinely covered in the 140 or the 172 is the turn coordinator.\u00a0 To be the best teachers we can, we really ought to examine how we introduce the student to the airplane.\u00a0 We really ought to be more like a mother bird, introducing her chick to the wonder of flight.\u00a0 Do you suppose she tells that chick to keep an eye on that airspeed indicator or altimeter?\u00a0 Of course not.\u00a0 He doesn\u2019t have one and she wouldn\u2019t refer to it if he did.\u00a0 We really ought to stop inculcating this over-reliance on instrumentation.\u00a0 We do what we do because it\u2019s easy.\u00a0 We also tend to go with the herd and teach maneuvers by both attitude and instrument reference.\u00a0 It\u2019s called \u201cintegrated\u201d flight instruction; a practice which I feel is a mistake.<\/h3>\nThose who invented flight instruments didn\u2019t expect that we\u2019d gaze on their inventions and replace our Mark One Eyeballs with them.\u00a0 They simply wanted us to have an accurate measurement of things like altitude, airspeed and vertical speed in order to \u201ccalibrate\u201d our eyeballs and bodies.\u00a0 Think about the airspeed instrument.\u00a0 If you always make a power off approach, it only takes once to compare the pitch attitude of the airplane with the desired approach speed.\u00a0 After that, it\u2019s really not necessary to look at the airspeed indicator during the approach again.<\/h3>\nYou know what I think we oughta start doing?\u00a0 I think we oughta start flying with virtually every instrument covered.\u00a0 Let\u2019s teach pitch.\u00a0 Let\u2019s teach the sound of the airstream.\u00a0 Let\u2019s teach how the world looks at 1,000 feet off the ground.<\/h3>\nFor flight instructors, there is another thing you can do:\u00a0 Tell the student that few have ever crashed with the horizon being visible.\u00a0 Or, when in doubt, put the nose on the horizon.\u00a0 That takes care of airspeed in a pinch.<\/h3>\nI learned a valuable lesson simply by watching one student\u2019s over-reliance on one instrument.\u00a0 And that instrument just may be the one I start with when I start covering all the rest of them (my turn coordinator has been covered for years).\u00a0 We were flying Jeff Stanford\u2019s lovely L2 in which I used to do Tailwheel Endorsements in St \u00a0Marys, GA.\u00a0 As we passed the point of intended touchdown on the downwind, he had the carb heat on and had closed the throttle.\u00a0 So far, so good.\u00a0 After trimming for normal glide, he turned base and then final.\u00a0 And that\u2019s when he disclosed his weakness.\u00a0 Sitting behind him, I noticed that the nose was much further down than it should be.\u00a0 By lowering the nose, he\u2019d changed the glide slope dramatically.\u00a0 He may have increased the speed, but he was heading for the swamp short of the runway in which a bunch of \u2018gators hung out, hungry for the flesh of dumb pilots.\u00a0 I was perplexed and amazed.\u00a0 Why were we heading for the swamp?\u00a0 I asked him.<\/h3>\n\u201cHe may have increased the speed, but he was heading for the swamp short of the runway in which a bunch of \u2018gators hung out, hungry for the flesh of dumb pilots.\u201d<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\u201cWe\u2019re just too high\u201d, he replied and tapped the altimeter for emphasis.<\/h3>\nJeff and I had discussed that altimeter.\u00a0 We\u2019d both noticed that sometimes it kinda stuck as you descended, but after a few hundred feet it would become unstuck and quickly indicate the proper altitude.\u00a0 All it took was a tap on its face to make it loosen up and indicate correctly. But neither of us really cared. The student had just given it such a tap and suddenly the altimeter\u2019s needle swung counter clockwise and indicated the proper altitude.\u00a0 He squawked and pulled back, unknowingly returning the airplane to the correct glide slope, its airspeed suddenly indicating the desired approach speed as well.<\/h3>\nThe metaphorical light bulb that is permanently affixed to my think bump suddenly illuminated as I realized what had happened.\u00a0 He was actually depending on an instrument to tell him his altitude in the pattern.\u00a0 And this \u201cstudent\u201d was a flier with a Private Pilot Certificate in his wallet.<\/h3>\nTo this day, I have been telling all of my students to ignore the altimeter, once on downwind.\u00a0 You see, the human eye is actually more important than an altimeter.\u00a0 It simply needs to be trained.\u00a0 Just as the human body is as accurate as the ball of a turn coordinator and the human ear can recognize a change in airspeed.\u00a0 A magnetic compass may swing erratically in turbulence while a human eye can nail a heading by paying attention to a point on the horizon that\u2019s supposed to be dead ahead.<\/h3>\nSo if you show up at Tailwheel Town only to find that the only instrument on the 140 that\u2019s visible is the oil pressure gauge, you\u2019ll know that I took my own advice and that the days of instrument gazing are over.\u00a0 You\u2019ll also notice that, as in the \u201cWizard of Oz\u201d, when Dorothy says to Toto, \u201cI guess we\u2019re not in Kansas anymore\u201d, you may say to yourself, \u201cThis sure isn\u2019t the Acme Flying School\u2026. We must be in Tailwheel Town!\u201d<\/h3>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
One of the most famous movie lines is the one uttered by Judy Garland in \u201cThe Wizard of Oz\u201d.\u00a0 As Dorothy, she turns to her dog and exclaims, \u201cI guess we\u2019re not in Kansas anymore, Toto!\u201d\u00a0 You may have a similar epiphany if you fly at Tailwheel Town. Among the first things Whuffos […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":3864,"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":[35,38,67,91,92,174,177],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tailwheelersjournal.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3862"}],"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=3862"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/tailwheelersjournal.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3862\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tailwheelersjournal.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3864"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tailwheelersjournal.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3862"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tailwheelersjournal.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3862"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tailwheelersjournal.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3862"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
You know what I think we oughta start doing?\u00a0 I think we oughta start flying with virtually every instrument covered.\u00a0 Let\u2019s teach pitch.\u00a0 Let\u2019s teach the sound of the airstream.\u00a0 Let\u2019s teach how the world looks at 1,000 feet off the ground.<\/h3>\nFor flight instructors, there is another thing you can do:\u00a0 Tell the student that few have ever crashed with the horizon being visible.\u00a0 Or, when in doubt, put the nose on the horizon.\u00a0 That takes care of airspeed in a pinch.<\/h3>\nI learned a valuable lesson simply by watching one student\u2019s over-reliance on one instrument.\u00a0 And that instrument just may be the one I start with when I start covering all the rest of them (my turn coordinator has been covered for years).\u00a0 We were flying Jeff Stanford\u2019s lovely L2 in which I used to do Tailwheel Endorsements in St \u00a0Marys, GA.\u00a0 As we passed the point of intended touchdown on the downwind, he had the carb heat on and had closed the throttle.\u00a0 So far, so good.\u00a0 After trimming for normal glide, he turned base and then final.\u00a0 And that\u2019s when he disclosed his weakness.\u00a0 Sitting behind him, I noticed that the nose was much further down than it should be.\u00a0 By lowering the nose, he\u2019d changed the glide slope dramatically.\u00a0 He may have increased the speed, but he was heading for the swamp short of the runway in which a bunch of \u2018gators hung out, hungry for the flesh of dumb pilots.\u00a0 I was perplexed and amazed.\u00a0 Why were we heading for the swamp?\u00a0 I asked him.<\/h3>\n\u201cHe may have increased the speed, but he was heading for the swamp short of the runway in which a bunch of \u2018gators hung out, hungry for the flesh of dumb pilots.\u201d<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\u201cWe\u2019re just too high\u201d, he replied and tapped the altimeter for emphasis.<\/h3>\nJeff and I had discussed that altimeter.\u00a0 We\u2019d both noticed that sometimes it kinda stuck as you descended, but after a few hundred feet it would become unstuck and quickly indicate the proper altitude.\u00a0 All it took was a tap on its face to make it loosen up and indicate correctly. But neither of us really cared. The student had just given it such a tap and suddenly the altimeter\u2019s needle swung counter clockwise and indicated the proper altitude.\u00a0 He squawked and pulled back, unknowingly returning the airplane to the correct glide slope, its airspeed suddenly indicating the desired approach speed as well.<\/h3>\nThe metaphorical light bulb that is permanently affixed to my think bump suddenly illuminated as I realized what had happened.\u00a0 He was actually depending on an instrument to tell him his altitude in the pattern.\u00a0 And this \u201cstudent\u201d was a flier with a Private Pilot Certificate in his wallet.<\/h3>\nTo this day, I have been telling all of my students to ignore the altimeter, once on downwind.\u00a0 You see, the human eye is actually more important than an altimeter.\u00a0 It simply needs to be trained.\u00a0 Just as the human body is as accurate as the ball of a turn coordinator and the human ear can recognize a change in airspeed.\u00a0 A magnetic compass may swing erratically in turbulence while a human eye can nail a heading by paying attention to a point on the horizon that\u2019s supposed to be dead ahead.<\/h3>\nSo if you show up at Tailwheel Town only to find that the only instrument on the 140 that\u2019s visible is the oil pressure gauge, you\u2019ll know that I took my own advice and that the days of instrument gazing are over.\u00a0 You\u2019ll also notice that, as in the \u201cWizard of Oz\u201d, when Dorothy says to Toto, \u201cI guess we\u2019re not in Kansas anymore\u201d, you may say to yourself, \u201cThis sure isn\u2019t the Acme Flying School\u2026. We must be in Tailwheel Town!\u201d<\/h3>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
One of the most famous movie lines is the one uttered by Judy Garland in \u201cThe Wizard of Oz\u201d.\u00a0 As Dorothy, she turns to her dog and exclaims, \u201cI guess we\u2019re not in Kansas anymore, Toto!\u201d\u00a0 You may have a similar epiphany if you fly at Tailwheel Town. Among the first things Whuffos […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":3864,"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":[35,38,67,91,92,174,177],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tailwheelersjournal.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3862"}],"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=3862"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/tailwheelersjournal.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3862\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tailwheelersjournal.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3864"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tailwheelersjournal.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3862"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tailwheelersjournal.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3862"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tailwheelersjournal.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3862"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
I learned a valuable lesson simply by watching one student\u2019s over-reliance on one instrument.\u00a0 And that instrument just may be the one I start with when I start covering all the rest of them (my turn coordinator has been covered for years).\u00a0 We were flying Jeff Stanford\u2019s lovely L2 in which I used to do Tailwheel Endorsements in St \u00a0Marys, GA.\u00a0 As we passed the point of intended touchdown on the downwind, he had the carb heat on and had closed the throttle.\u00a0 So far, so good.\u00a0 After trimming for normal glide, he turned base and then final.\u00a0 And that\u2019s when he disclosed his weakness.\u00a0 Sitting behind him, I noticed that the nose was much further down than it should be.\u00a0 By lowering the nose, he\u2019d changed the glide slope dramatically.\u00a0 He may have increased the speed, but he was heading for the swamp short of the runway in which a bunch of \u2018gators hung out, hungry for the flesh of dumb pilots.\u00a0 I was perplexed and amazed.\u00a0 Why were we heading for the swamp?\u00a0 I asked him.<\/h3>\n\u201cHe may have increased the speed, but he was heading for the swamp short of the runway in which a bunch of \u2018gators hung out, hungry for the flesh of dumb pilots.\u201d<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\u201cWe\u2019re just too high\u201d, he replied and tapped the altimeter for emphasis.<\/h3>\nJeff and I had discussed that altimeter.\u00a0 We\u2019d both noticed that sometimes it kinda stuck as you descended, but after a few hundred feet it would become unstuck and quickly indicate the proper altitude.\u00a0 All it took was a tap on its face to make it loosen up and indicate correctly. But neither of us really cared. The student had just given it such a tap and suddenly the altimeter\u2019s needle swung counter clockwise and indicated the proper altitude.\u00a0 He squawked and pulled back, unknowingly returning the airplane to the correct glide slope, its airspeed suddenly indicating the desired approach speed as well.<\/h3>\nThe metaphorical light bulb that is permanently affixed to my think bump suddenly illuminated as I realized what had happened.\u00a0 He was actually depending on an instrument to tell him his altitude in the pattern.\u00a0 And this \u201cstudent\u201d was a flier with a Private Pilot Certificate in his wallet.<\/h3>\nTo this day, I have been telling all of my students to ignore the altimeter, once on downwind.\u00a0 You see, the human eye is actually more important than an altimeter.\u00a0 It simply needs to be trained.\u00a0 Just as the human body is as accurate as the ball of a turn coordinator and the human ear can recognize a change in airspeed.\u00a0 A magnetic compass may swing erratically in turbulence while a human eye can nail a heading by paying attention to a point on the horizon that\u2019s supposed to be dead ahead.<\/h3>\nSo if you show up at Tailwheel Town only to find that the only instrument on the 140 that\u2019s visible is the oil pressure gauge, you\u2019ll know that I took my own advice and that the days of instrument gazing are over.\u00a0 You\u2019ll also notice that, as in the \u201cWizard of Oz\u201d, when Dorothy says to Toto, \u201cI guess we\u2019re not in Kansas anymore\u201d, you may say to yourself, \u201cThis sure isn\u2019t the Acme Flying School\u2026. We must be in Tailwheel Town!\u201d<\/h3>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
One of the most famous movie lines is the one uttered by Judy Garland in \u201cThe Wizard of Oz\u201d.\u00a0 As Dorothy, she turns to her dog and exclaims, \u201cI guess we\u2019re not in Kansas anymore, Toto!\u201d\u00a0 You may have a similar epiphany if you fly at Tailwheel Town. Among the first things Whuffos […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":3864,"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":[35,38,67,91,92,174,177],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tailwheelersjournal.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3862"}],"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=3862"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/tailwheelersjournal.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3862\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tailwheelersjournal.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3864"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tailwheelersjournal.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3862"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tailwheelersjournal.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3862"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tailwheelersjournal.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3862"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\u201cWe\u2019re just too high\u201d, he replied and tapped the altimeter for emphasis.<\/h3>\nJeff and I had discussed that altimeter.\u00a0 We\u2019d both noticed that sometimes it kinda stuck as you descended, but after a few hundred feet it would become unstuck and quickly indicate the proper altitude.\u00a0 All it took was a tap on its face to make it loosen up and indicate correctly. But neither of us really cared. The student had just given it such a tap and suddenly the altimeter\u2019s needle swung counter clockwise and indicated the proper altitude.\u00a0 He squawked and pulled back, unknowingly returning the airplane to the correct glide slope, its airspeed suddenly indicating the desired approach speed as well.<\/h3>\nThe metaphorical light bulb that is permanently affixed to my think bump suddenly illuminated as I realized what had happened.\u00a0 He was actually depending on an instrument to tell him his altitude in the pattern.\u00a0 And this \u201cstudent\u201d was a flier with a Private Pilot Certificate in his wallet.<\/h3>\nTo this day, I have been telling all of my students to ignore the altimeter, once on downwind.\u00a0 You see, the human eye is actually more important than an altimeter.\u00a0 It simply needs to be trained.\u00a0 Just as the human body is as accurate as the ball of a turn coordinator and the human ear can recognize a change in airspeed.\u00a0 A magnetic compass may swing erratically in turbulence while a human eye can nail a heading by paying attention to a point on the horizon that\u2019s supposed to be dead ahead.<\/h3>\nSo if you show up at Tailwheel Town only to find that the only instrument on the 140 that\u2019s visible is the oil pressure gauge, you\u2019ll know that I took my own advice and that the days of instrument gazing are over.\u00a0 You\u2019ll also notice that, as in the \u201cWizard of Oz\u201d, when Dorothy says to Toto, \u201cI guess we\u2019re not in Kansas anymore\u201d, you may say to yourself, \u201cThis sure isn\u2019t the Acme Flying School\u2026. We must be in Tailwheel Town!\u201d<\/h3>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The metaphorical light bulb that is permanently affixed to my think bump suddenly illuminated as I realized what had happened.\u00a0 He was actually depending on an instrument to tell him his altitude in the pattern.\u00a0 And this \u201cstudent\u201d was a flier with a Private Pilot Certificate in his wallet.<\/h3>\nTo this day, I have been telling all of my students to ignore the altimeter, once on downwind.\u00a0 You see, the human eye is actually more important than an altimeter.\u00a0 It simply needs to be trained.\u00a0 Just as the human body is as accurate as the ball of a turn coordinator and the human ear can recognize a change in airspeed.\u00a0 A magnetic compass may swing erratically in turbulence while a human eye can nail a heading by paying attention to a point on the horizon that\u2019s supposed to be dead ahead.<\/h3>\nSo if you show up at Tailwheel Town only to find that the only instrument on the 140 that\u2019s visible is the oil pressure gauge, you\u2019ll know that I took my own advice and that the days of instrument gazing are over.\u00a0 You\u2019ll also notice that, as in the \u201cWizard of Oz\u201d, when Dorothy says to Toto, \u201cI guess we\u2019re not in Kansas anymore\u201d, you may say to yourself, \u201cThis sure isn\u2019t the Acme Flying School\u2026. We must be in Tailwheel Town!\u201d<\/h3>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
So if you show up at Tailwheel Town only to find that the only instrument on the 140 that\u2019s visible is the oil pressure gauge, you\u2019ll know that I took my own advice and that the days of instrument gazing are over.\u00a0 You\u2019ll also notice that, as in the \u201cWizard of Oz\u201d, when Dorothy says to Toto, \u201cI guess we\u2019re not in Kansas anymore\u201d, you may say to yourself, \u201cThis sure isn\u2019t the Acme Flying School\u2026. We must be in Tailwheel Town!\u201d<\/h3>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
One of the most famous movie lines is the one uttered by Judy Garland in \u201cThe Wizard of Oz\u201d.\u00a0 As Dorothy, she turns to her dog and exclaims, \u201cI guess we\u2019re not in Kansas anymore, Toto!\u201d\u00a0 You may have a similar epiphany if you fly at Tailwheel Town. Among the first things Whuffos […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":3864,"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":[35,38,67,91,92,174,177],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tailwheelersjournal.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3862"}],"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=3862"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/tailwheelersjournal.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3862\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tailwheelersjournal.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3864"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tailwheelersjournal.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3862"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tailwheelersjournal.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3862"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tailwheelersjournal.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3862"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}