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Angela readies for the Flat Turn.\u00a0Her concentration will soon turn to joy.<\/strong><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" First a giggle, then a guffaw emanated from the front seat of the PA12 as Angela did the maneuver for the first time.\u00a0 She followed it with the same maneuver in the opposite direction with the same result\u2026 gales of laughter and delight at what the little Cub could do. What was the maneuver […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":4987,"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":[18,35,60,66,67,174],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tailwheelersjournal.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4980"}],"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=4980"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/tailwheelersjournal.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4980\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tailwheelersjournal.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4987"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tailwheelersjournal.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4980"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tailwheelersjournal.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4980"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tailwheelersjournal.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4980"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}It was the flat turn, and before we get into the maneuver itself, which is nothing more than a fairly sharp turn executed with the wings level instead of banked, perhaps we should introduce it by explaining why so few pilots are familiar with it!<\/h3>\n
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The Flat Turn is a skidding turn.\u00a0 It is done by depressing the rudder in the direction of the desired turn and keeping the wings level with aileron. I wrote about the Flat turn in an article for the Tailwheeler\u2019s Journal. \u00a0Here’s a link to it:<\/h3>\n
(https:\/\/tailwheelersjournal.com\/\/2013\/76-that-damned-flat-turn\/)<\/h3>\n
Does it have a useful purpose?\u00a0 No.\u00a0 But it does a couple of things that most maneuvers taught by Acme don\u2019t.\u00a0 It teaches precise control of rudder and elevator and familiarizes the pilot with less-than-coordinated flight. And it\u2019s a lot of fun.\u00a0 Does it have risks?\u00a0 Sure, it does.\u00a0 As a skidding turn, if you combine it with a stall you are asking for a spin.\u00a0 But at Tailwheel Town, you are assumed to have sufficient sensitivity on elevator, that you are not going to go tumbling into a deadly spin if the airplane bucks a bit.<\/h3>\n
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Angela is a talented pilot.\u00a0 Sure, she has some bad training baggage, but most Acme-trained pilots do.\u00a0 That\u2019s easy enough to overcome if a pilot has talent, which she has.\u00a0 But the reason that she is such a good example of the value of unusual maneuvers is precisely that she is interested in becoming the best pilot she can be.\u00a0 And that reason alone is sufficient to justify her practice of the flat turn, as well as the Falling Leaf, Turning Slips, Slaloms, Multiples and all the other goofy maneuvers that\u00a0 we teach at tailwheel town.\u00a0 And her reaction, the giggles and laughter, are precisely why the fun we have will be the major reason she continues to improve.\u00a0 Each chortle on her part is the reason I teach.\u00a0 I\u2019m grateful to her for those.<\/h3>\n