It would seem to me that certain things SHOULD scare us when we fly airplanes and helicopters.\u00a0 And certain things SHOULDN\u2019T scare us.<\/h3>\n
As someone who teaches both those who should know the difference and those who haven\u2019t had a chance to learn the difference, this fact has stared me in the face more than once and now I realize how important it is.<\/h3>\n
Those who have flown with me before have heard my dissertation on the spin which occurs on the turn from base to final and seems to kill someone every year.\u00a0 They\u2019ve heard me state that the usual victim was told by his flight instructor, \u201cNever make steep turns close to the ground\u2026\u201d and they\u2019ve probably seen me disprove that ridiculous admonition which has served as the fatal advice to the undertrained.\u00a0 It may very well echo in their mental ear right before the crash which kills them.<\/h3>\nThe Tailwheel Town 140 on the way to practice the landing in a turn at a nearby airport. \u00a0Lana Tollas flying, Brian napping.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
It was brought home to me just the other day as I was checking out an \u201cAcme Trained\u201d flier of very low experience in the Outlaw 172.\u00a0 I was proud of the recent performance of a teenaged student (and Cessna 140 polisher) who, on her fourth flight lesson was performing a landing in a turn followed by slaloms.\u00a0 Flushed with that accomplishment of hers, I gave the young man a demonstration of what she had done and, coincidentally, what so many commercial pilots and CFIs CAN\u2019T do.<\/h3>\n
On final for that initial touchdown, we were skimming a few feet off the ground, approaching the runway from one side with the grass whizzing by underneath our tires.\u00a0 I was explaining to the young man that one of the most common errors in performing the landing in a turn was failing to get low enough on that 45-degree final.\u00a0 Because, if we are still trying to get down for the touchdown as we cross onto the runway, we will STILL be trying to get down when we should be working on the smooth touchdown.\u00a0 His words in my headset were clear as a bell.\u00a0 \u201cYou\u2019re scaring me, man!\u201d<\/h3>\nJanet grabbed this shot of Lana in the Tailwheel Town 140 on short final for the landing in a turn. Janet’s in Steve Harris’ Bearhawk (Janet gets to ride in all the cool planes!).<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
Huh?\u00a0 Why should a person be scared during a demonstration of that very fundamental maneuver?\u00a0 And then it hit me:\u00a0 That fright is very normal\u2026 if you\u2019ve never been close to the ground before.\u00a0 If you don\u2019t understand the relationship of speed to gliding distance in the event of an engine failure, if you\u2019ve always treated the normal landing as something on which we must concentrate because it is SO flippin\u2019 difficult!<\/h3>\n
And, BINGO!\u00a0 There it is!\u00a0 It is the fundamental truth upon which is based so much of what we do here at Tailwheel Town.\u00a0 Fear begets panic.\u00a0 Understanding begets competence.\u00a0 My old skydiving instructor, Zimmo, used to say, \u201cWe learn by doing.\u201d\u00a0 (Of course, he also used to say, \u201cFear dispels knowledge\u2026 or is it the other way around?\u201d).\u00a0\u00a0 By performing maneuvers such as the Landing in a Turn, Flight around the Irrigation Pivot, introduction to Mountain Flying, we fly close to terrain.\u00a0 We do it in a way which makes avoidance of that terrain a very simple task.\u00a0 There should be no fear, simply respect for the closeness of hard ground.\u00a0 If a flyer understands that he is simply managing energy and that there can be plenty of that energy with which he can avoid the terrain whether he is on short final for a landing in a turn, approaching a ridge while mountain flying, or simply rounding an irrigation pivot, then there is nothing to be afraid of.\u00a0 But without the knowledge of that energy, there may be fear.\u00a0 As my pal Jerry so often has said, \u201cIf you\u2019ve got flaps down AND are adding power, you\u2019ve made a mistake.\u00a0 These things are so fundamental\u2026 and fundamentals are of paramount importance in learning to fly.\u00a0 There should never be an occasion when the appropriate thing to exclaim is, \u201cYer scarin\u2019 me, Man!\u201d<\/h3>\n
And I haven\u2019t even mentioned the dead stick landing yet\u2026<\/h3>\n
“As my pal Jerry so often has said, \u201cIf you\u2019ve got flaps down AND are adding power, you\u2019ve made a mistake.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":3589,"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":[35,38,173,174],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tailwheelersjournal.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4230"}],"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=4230"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/tailwheelersjournal.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4230\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tailwheelersjournal.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3589"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tailwheelersjournal.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4230"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tailwheelersjournal.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4230"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tailwheelersjournal.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4230"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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