![\"wingover\"](\"https:\/\/tailwheelersjournal.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/02\/wingover3.jpg\")
<\/a>The minimum altitude loss 360<\/b>.\u00a0 How much altitude will you lose in a 360 degree power off turn?\u00a0 What airspeed and bank angle should you use to lose the least amount of altitude in this turn?\u00a0 You must know this, so this is the first maneuver in the series which we will perform.\u00a0 We\u2019ll find that we lose the least amount of altitude if we use a steep bank and an airspeed that corresponds to Minimum Sink.\u00a0 That speed is lower than the usual \u201cbest glide\u201d speed that everyone is taught to fly.\u00a0 We will also see that coordination is of critical importance as we operate the aircraft at a steep angle of bank and relatively high \u201cG\u201d loading in order to regulate the speed.\u00a0 If you skid this turn, our carefully planned lesson in steep turns will immediately change to spin training.\u00a0 If you allow the nose to lower after entering the turn, you will lose altitude that you can never get back.\u00a0 You must drag the nose across the horizon at roughly the pitch attitude it was when you began the turn.<\/p>\n
The Circling Approach<\/b>.\u00a0 Now that we know how much altitude we will lose in a properly executed steep, power off turn, we can begin to practice the circling approach.\u00a0 Not to be confused by the instrument approach of the same name, this is a series of circles over the runway.\u00a0 It\u2019s been taught as the \u201cOverhead 360\u201d, but since we learn to do several circles, there are more than 360 degrees of turn involved.\u00a0 We might commence this approach several thousand feet over the point of intended touchdown.\u00a0 We\u2019ll simply circle down and make our landing out of the last turn.\u00a0 The most important part of this approach will be the pilot\u2019s judgment of how many turns he has left.\u00a0 That decision will be largely dependent on his knowledge of how much altitude he loses in that last turn.\u00a0 See, that first maneuver is becoming more important!\u00a0 Just as many good flight instructors cover the airspeed indicator, I often place a hand over the altimeter during the practice of this approach.\u00a0 I\u2019m convinced that we need to develop our sense of altitude without dependence on an instrument. There will be more about that subject in a subsequent article.<\/p>\n The Landing in a Turn. <\/b>The circling approach and the knowledge of how much altitude we lose in a turn has now prepared us to actually land in that turn. \u00a0<\/b>In an emergency landing with little altitude and only the most suitable of several lousy places to land, it may very well be that a pilot will need to be able to execute a landing in a turn in order to make it.\u00a0 We don\u2019t always have the luxury of enough altitude to make a downwind, base and final leg at the altitude we\u2019re accustomed to.<\/p>\n And speaking of choices, irrigation pivots, which dot the countryside, can be excellent choices for an emergency landing.\u00a0 But as smooth and nice as these fields are, they all contain a potential trap for a stricken airplane.\u00a0 These circular fields contain wheel tracks.\u00a0 Some of these tracks are quite deep and the untrained pilot, who can only land in a straight line, will be forced to cross one.\u00a0 If it\u2019s a deep track it\u2019ll catch his gear and turn his otherwise smooth landing into a disaster.\u00a0 But the pilot who can land in a turn can simply made his approach around the outermost part of the circle.\u00a0 He can then dismount from his un-damaged craft and take a bow. That\u2019s right before the irate farmer arrives to assess the damage to his crop.\u00a0 Always carry lots of cash.<\/p>\n The engine failure on takeoff is another time when the Landing in a Turn may well be the only option.\u00a0 You can go ahead and obey the rule of always landing straight ahead in the boulder field if you want, but I\u2019ll continue to teach my students to constantly analyze their options on every takeoff so that, if it\u2019s at all possible, they\u2019ll be ready to whip it around and land back on the airport.\u00a0 It may be that they will only have enough altitude to land in a turn.\u00a0 But when the dust clears, let\u2019s compare two results of that engine failure after takeoff.\u00a0 How did the \u201cAcme-trained\u201d guy do landing straight ahead in the boulder field as compared to the \u201cTailwheel Town-trained guy, who coasted to a stop on a taxiway or runway?<\/p>\n Because safety is the primary consideration in our selection of altitude in our landing pattern, we must be able to conduct a safe landing in the event of an engine failure at any time in that pattern.\u00a0 That\u2019s why we can fly such a lower downwind, which results in far more landings per hour and greater proficiency on the part of our graduates.\u00a0 The average pilot can\u2019t fly his downwind that low because he must have room to make a base and final.\u00a0 At their lower altitude, our students must make a landing in a turn if they lose power.\u00a0 It\u2019s a maneuver that they are comfortable performing. Do ya hear those chickens flapping as they settle to their roosts?<\/p>\n The Landing in a Turn is the critical third \u201cAmigo\u201d in this troika of maneuvers that are taught at Tailwheel Town.<\/p>\n It\u2019s fun for me to see a pilot\u2019s skill and confidence increase dramatically when we practice these three operations.\u00a0 I\u2019ve discovered especially that the Landing in a Turn is a real piece o\u2019 cake when the other maneuvers have been learned.<\/p>\n I\u2019ve also found that my courses, either the Tailwheel Endorsement or Stick and Rudder Master Class, are constantly changing and evolving.\u00a0 The practice of these three elements of a growing competence in accuracy approaches is becoming more of an important part of my curriculum.\u00a0 And one thing is sure:\u00a0 when you practice these maneuvers, you\u2019ll get a chance to participate in our trademark activity\u2026 Happy Swooping!<\/p>\n Brian<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" “You can go ahead and obey the rule of always landing straight ahead in the boulder field if you want, but I\u2019ll continue to teach my students to constantly analyze their options on every takeoff…”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":1323,"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":[20,29,35,102,171],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tailwheelersjournal.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5732"}],"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=5732"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/tailwheelersjournal.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5732\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tailwheelersjournal.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1323"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tailwheelersjournal.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5732"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tailwheelersjournal.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5732"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tailwheelersjournal.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5732"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}<\/a>