{"id":4517,"date":"2017-07-28T14:02:13","date_gmt":"2017-07-28T21:02:13","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/tailwheelersjournal.mechadigital.net\/?p=4517"},"modified":"2021-08-26T20:37:54","modified_gmt":"2021-08-26T20:37:54","slug":"186-practice","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/tailwheelersjournal.com\/186-practice\/","title":{"rendered":"#186 Practice"},"content":{"rendered":"

Written in June, 2017<\/p>\n

There may be no more important element to improving pilot skills than simply to practice.\u00a0 Sure, finding someone who can teach you advanced maneuvers will certainly help you to become a better flier, but I\u2019ve found that most of my teaching only introduces<\/strong> a flier to more advanced ability\u2026 it doesn\u2019t perfect that ability.\u00a0 Only practice will do that.<\/h3>\n

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\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 The Pawnee on short final for the runway after a short approach.<\/strong><\/p>\n

In thinking about a good example, I can\u2019t help but remember a time when I was spending a lot of time in the Piper Pawnee, towing gliders.\u00a0 I was descending many times per day, so I got a lot of practice in fast, engine-sparing descents.\u00a0 But there was one thing I decided to practice.\u00a0 That was the short approach.\u00a0 I was flying at an airport which had a river running on one side and a stable virtually across from the approach end of the runway.\u00a0 The stable hated the airport and some brilliant guy had decided that all airplanes should remain west of the river, which was west of the runway, on downwind. \u00a0\u00a0I poopcanned all of that and decided that I would gradually shorten my approach.\u00a0 If I observed all of the noise abatement procedures, I\u2019d be flying an Acme approach and that would take forever.\u00a0 So, gradually, I started to decrease the size of my pattern.\u00a0 I started by inching closer to the runway on downwind.\u00a0 Early on, I was still outside of the ramp and FBO building, but eventually I was so close to the runway that I was right between the FBO and the runway.\u00a0 The size of my pattern was really dictated by how small I could make a 180 Degree turn.\u00a0 I\u2019d practiced that turn at a relatively low airspeed and was amazed at how little space it took. \u00a0I think I ended up with a distance of about 150 feet between my downwind leg and the runway. \u00a0I was really delighted by how small my landing pattern had become, but eventually I took it back out.\u00a0 Why?\u00a0 Because I knew the Whuffos would complain eventually and I had accomplished my goal of finding out how tight a pattern I could fly.\u00a0 I\u2019d done it gradually, never getting in over my head and that\u2019s my point.\u00a0 No matter what pilot operation you feel like improving, the chances are that you can practice it gradually.\u00a0 And, as we all know, \u201cPractice makes perfect\u201d.\u00a0 The \u201cLanding in a Turn\u201d is a great example\u2026 it\u2019s not necessary to start with a turn that is so sharp that it requires a steep bank\u2026 you can do it with a mild turn and a very moderate bank, still landing in a turn.<\/h3>\n

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Taxiing back after a short landing.\u00a0 The Pawnee remains one of my favorite airplanes.<\/strong><\/p>\n

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And remember those complaining Whuffos?\u00a0 There is another thing they will do which will cause most pilots to stop practicing.\u00a0 They will accuse those pilots of showing off.\u00a0 That\u2019s very prevalent when the pilot is practicing taxiing with his tail up, even coming to a stop with the tail off the ground, the exact amount of power providing a sufficient amount of prop blast to stay in that level pitch attitude while he is not moving a bit.\u00a0 Very few pilots can do this\u2026 it\u2019s the kind of thing that airshow pilots do and, combined with the smoke on, it can be very impressive.\u00a0 It takes a lot of practice because the pilot has to learn to juggle elevator, brake and power.\u00a0 But the Whuffos will invariably confuse that practice with \u201cShowing Off\u201d and the properly humble pilot, who doesn\u2019t want to appear to be showing off will cease his practice and never perfect the technique.\u00a0 Too bad, huh?<\/h3>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

“No matter what pilot operation you feel like improving, the chances are that you can practice it gradually.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":4521,"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":[35,67,173,174,178],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tailwheelersjournal.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4517"}],"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=4517"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/tailwheelersjournal.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4517\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tailwheelersjournal.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4521"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tailwheelersjournal.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4517"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tailwheelersjournal.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4517"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tailwheelersjournal.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4517"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}