Ultralights
22nd Feb 2011, 09:53
after some discussion with fellow STOL operators, the discussion turned to canyon turns, or getting out of tight spots,
anyway i thought it would be interesting to see others take on such training.. and if such training is available in OZ, even though we really dont have the same flying environment for true bush flying..
Disclaimer:
Please do not jump to the concussion that this lesson was as easy as doing each step once as generally described below. If I were to list all the fumbled attempts this story would become boringly endless. The plane was a 63 C-180-F.
My introduction to the emergency “Canyon Turn” started out something like this. We first flew all sorts of speeds, flaps, prop, and power settings. These numbers were all recorded on a small reference chart. This was done so we would know ahead of time just how to set the plane up for any maneuver that was planned or needed.
Then there was the protracted session of slow flight. The instructor kept telling me, “Slow it down, slower, I don’t hear the stall horn yet! Ok, so ya got a horn. Now!, SLOW it down.”
I had a lot to learn about minimum controllable airspeed. The Old Man beat me up so bad about my lack of precise airspeed control that I was just glad the flap handle was bolted to the floor. Then I had to learn to be comfortable making turns with the airspeed below the slow end of the white arc. They felt more like ‘Float Arounds’ than turns.
Then…
O.M. Ok, now I want you to fly up along the side of this canyon up to that rock outcrop there on the right. It will be used as a reference point to start your turns.
Y.M. I don’t see any rock outcrop.
O.M. You could if you were on the SIDE of the canyon, which would put it in profile.
Y.M. Okay.
I made what I considered to be a bold move to the right side of the canyon.
O.M. Well, when you goin to get over to the SIDE of the canyon?
Y.M. Isn’t that where we are? Feels pretty close to me!
O.M. Here, let me show you. My plane.
Y.M. Your plane.
O.M. I have it.
Y.M. Okay.
The instructor flew us over, from my perception of a safe distance, to around five hundred feet from the canyon wall. It looked like we were going to fly straight into the trees before he turned back parallel to the wall.
O.M. Now do you see the profile of a rock wall sticking out?
Y.M. Yeah, I mean yes, I see it. I also see the wall at the back end of the canyon.
O.M. I want you to use that rock face as your reference to start your turn each time.
Y.M. Okay.
The back of the canyon was coming up at a rate of closure that was far from comforting. I noticed I was beginning to tense up with a slight flush feeling creeping up the back of my neck, my ears were getting warm, and I was developing a case of lockjaw. I was wandering how to put an end to this onward rush, to my perception, of an apparent date with death. I pensively said…
Y.M. I would never get this deep into a dead end canyon to begin with.
O.M. Yeah, that’s what we all said.
O.M. This first pass is just to set a visual reference against which to judge how well this technique works as I sequentially attempt improve your skill. Now, I want you to hold your normal cruise speed as we come up on that rock outcrop.
Y.M. Okay. 130 indicated, no flaps!
O.M. When we get up beside that rock outcrop I want you to do a regular, level, twenty to thirty degree banked turn at this speed.
Y.M. Okay, um, are you sure there is room enough between the rock outcrop and the back end of the canyon?
O.M. We’re Ok. Just relax.
Y.M. Okay. Yeah sure, just relax.
As I started the 180 degree turn I could not help keeping a nervous eye on the end of the canyon, you know, the dead end. The first turn took up most of the canyon width. It also took up more of the dead end than I was comfortable with. We ended up way over on the far side of the creek that ran down the center of the canyon. We probably used up eighty percent of the canyon width.
O.M. How does that feel?
Y.M. Okay. I guess. We came a lot closer to the dead end than I was comfortable with.
O.M. We will fix most of that pretty soon.
Y.M. Okay-. I hope so.
O.M. Now for the second pass I want you to just simply transition to your canyon cruise settings for ninety indicated. No other changes.
Y.M. Okay, 90 indicated, no flaps.
I pulled the throttle back to the predetermined manifold pressure, dialed in the prop, let the speed settle down, trimmed off the pressure, and plowed ahead at ninety indicated. Now that we were slowed down a bit I was not quite so concerned about the dead end of the canyon. I knew enough to know that slower speed would give me more time.
O.M. This time I want you to do the same turn but at this slower canyon cruise speed.
Y.M. Okay.
The second pass only took about half of the canyon as we rolled out just outside of the creek, instead of way over on the far side. The back end of the canyon was no sweat this time. Slowing down was a big help. Each time we circled back to line up for another pass the Old Man would have me move a little closer to the side of the canyon.
O.M. What is that big smile all about?
Y.M. That was a pretty good reduction in the amount of room needed.
O.M Good, now for the third pass I want you to transition to your runway check out or approach configuration. Just slow it down to seventy. Don’t forget to put in the correct power, prop, and flap settings for the slower indicated airspeed.
Y.M. Okay, Where’s my chart?
O.M. You do plan to memorize your chart, don’t you?
Y.M. Tonight!
O.M. lets see, 16 inches, at 2350 RPM, 80 MPH indicated, flaps 20, and level flight.
Y.M. Okay.
It was nice to be able to see more terrain over the nose with this configuration. It was like a balcony seat in an old theater. On The third pass we finished well before the creek in the bottom of the canyon.
O.M. How was that?
Y.M. Impressive!
O.M. It’s supposed to be. The reason we are doing this in increments is so you will actually see the effect of just slowing down. In this terrain, speed can kill.
O.M. Are you ready for the meat of it?
Y.M. I don’t see where I would ever need to do anything any tighter.
O.M. You will tomorrow. This isn’t much of a canyon. It is more of a valley. I use it to start with because it leaves me room to salvage things in case you screw up.
Y.M. Okay. - Huh?
O.M. You notice that we have reduced the turn diameter by over fifty percent.
Y.M. Okay, I mean yes, this is almost fun.
O.M. Now, with this fourth pass we will begin to get serious about learning to do the Canyon Turn.
Y.M. Okay. How serious?
O.M. It means that we will see if you can handle major control changes while rotating around all three axis of flight.
Y.M. Okay.
I begin to get a sense of impending failure oozing out of me. Just how much is he planning to wring out of me in one session?
O.M. This time we will use the same flaps as last time, only slower with enough power to hold altitude and a flat prop. I want to see a steady sixty indicated before you start the turn. Then, this time I want you to add full power as you roll into the turn, and increase the bank angle up to at least forty degrees and slightly relieve the backpressure. You can let the airspeed go up a little bit.
Y.M. Okay.
Y.M. Wait, no level turn?
O.M. Not required.
Y.M. Huh?
O.M. You will be turning towards lower terrain, so you should always have some expendable altitude, if not, it is probably already too late.
Y.M. Okay. Oh! That’s right, turn towards lower terrain. I read about that.
O.M. Also, it is more important to NOT load the wing. Remember, as the bank increases, your stall speed is sneaking up to bite your ass.
Y.M. Okay.
Well, the fourth step did not go so smooth as the first three. The canyon swapped ends on me real quick. Adding full power while turning and attempting to relieve the backpressure upset any semblance of control on my part, much less precise control.
O.M. Watch your airspeed!
Y.M. What happened? Where’d the horizon go? …
O.M. I got it. You basically have no horizon down in these canyons so it is Ok to take a glance at the artificial horizon just as you roll in. Also, the addition of full power upset all your trim parameters.
Y.M. Okay. Wow! Sorry.
Deep breath – long exhale.
Several more tries at it and I was able to approximate what was supposed to happen.
The world seemed to rotate of it’s own accord while I was trying to retain some sem-blance of being in charge of what was going on.
O.M. How you feeling?
Y.M. A bit wrung out.
O.M. Well, we are not finished, there is still more.
Y.M. We, may not be finished, but I am about done in.
O.M. Well, there is still the last step. This time we will be getting REAL serious.
Y.M. Okay. Huh? REAL Serious! What the hell is this last step?
O.M. This is the one where I see if you can fly and chew gum at the same time.
Y.M. Okay. What?
I made some smartass remark about how I have been chewing gum all day…
O.M. Well?
Y.M. Okay. You win. What is this last step?
O.M. Once again I want you to simply do the same as last time with one addition.
Y.M. Okay. What’s that?
O.M. This time, just after rolling into the turn, going to full throttle, and relaxing the backpressure, I want you to pull in full flaps. DO NOT let go of the flap handle. DO NOT let your airspeed drop. As you come around near the 180 degree point you will roll the wings level, flaps to 20, airspeed to Vy, recover your altitude, set your manifold pressure and prop numbers for a comfortable airspeed.
Y.M. Okay.
O.M. We’ll see.
Y.M. See what?
O.M. We will see if it turns out “OK” as you so fond of saying.
Well, I will not belabor you with my attempts at trying to put the whole thing together, gum chewing and all. I will only say that it took several attempts for me to even approach the quality of the demonstrated turns. The several steps were used to sequentially develop my competence, and confidence, with the potentially life saving Canyon Turn. It was amazing to end up being able to make a reversing turn within a few wing lengths. The claim is that it can be done in three wing lengths. That’s the claim.
After several attempts I began to get the idea of how this was supposed to work. I even began to relax and feel a bit of confidence, maybe a little too much confidence.
Y.M. While we are here, do you mind if I try one more unassisted?
O.M. Go ahead, just hope ya don’t mind if I stay close by. You know, just in case.
Y.M. Okay.
It is not easy to get most of these Idaho Backcountry instructors rattled, but I managed.
I started with all the confidence I could muster, and, apparently, too much muscle.
Y.M. Oh ****!
O.M. WHOA THERE!
Y.M. I got it!
Hard right! Throttle off! Level the wings! Airspeed! Flaps to 20! Airspeed! Recover. Airplane first! Then composure. Exhale-. Remember to breath.
O.M. Well, at least you did not pull up and stall it into the wall. If you had we’d be all covered in chlorophyll.
Y.M. Okay. I mean thanks-. Sorry.
Actually, it was more a case of “WE” had it. In my exuberance I had turned closer to 270 degrees and was headed back into the rock wall. The O.M.’s realization of what was happening was probably a mite quicker than mine. But, it did not take much for me to realize what I had done as I watched the roll out point flash by. We were now pointed slightly down and headed toward rising terrain, at an exciting rate of closure that made it look like I was flying straight down into the ground. Which, relatively speaking, I was. But, I had already recovered with that quick hard turn to the right.
O.M. That is enough for me! Lets’ go home. I’ve seen all of that rock I need to for one day. Tomorrow, instead of this “valley,” I will put you in a real canyon.
Y.M. Okay. Huh? How narrow?
O.M. Narrow enough to raise your responsibility levels.
The next day was back to a diet of humble pie.
It turns out that it was only a lack of training and exposure that caused any anxieties on my part. The training, which was done in a style of adding sequential steps in a controlled environment, caused me to come out of there a lot more confident if not yet competent to execute the canyon turn. Now to practice, practice, practice.
Now, keep in mind, this was all done in a relatively wide canyon, more like a valley so I was told, on a clear day, with no sun on the horizon, no smoke in the canyon, no heavy load, no density altitude problem to speak of, no ominous lowering clouds, no turbulence, no wind, no storm, no rain, no thunder, no snow, no rough engine, no smoke in the cockpit, no bad radio, no circuit breakers popping, no injured passenger, no panicked pets, no sick kids, no significant other screaming, “I new this would happen,” only a calm and excellent instructor on a beautiful, smooth Idaho morning. Even so…
I have had a few hours of Acro Instruction and it was nowhere as stressful as learning the canyon turn. In aerobatics you have lots of prescribed airspace, and the precision is more a matter of pride. The canyon turn can be a matter of life or death. Learn it right.
anyway i thought it would be interesting to see others take on such training.. and if such training is available in OZ, even though we really dont have the same flying environment for true bush flying..
Disclaimer:
Please do not jump to the concussion that this lesson was as easy as doing each step once as generally described below. If I were to list all the fumbled attempts this story would become boringly endless. The plane was a 63 C-180-F.
My introduction to the emergency “Canyon Turn” started out something like this. We first flew all sorts of speeds, flaps, prop, and power settings. These numbers were all recorded on a small reference chart. This was done so we would know ahead of time just how to set the plane up for any maneuver that was planned or needed.
Then there was the protracted session of slow flight. The instructor kept telling me, “Slow it down, slower, I don’t hear the stall horn yet! Ok, so ya got a horn. Now!, SLOW it down.”
I had a lot to learn about minimum controllable airspeed. The Old Man beat me up so bad about my lack of precise airspeed control that I was just glad the flap handle was bolted to the floor. Then I had to learn to be comfortable making turns with the airspeed below the slow end of the white arc. They felt more like ‘Float Arounds’ than turns.
Then…
O.M. Ok, now I want you to fly up along the side of this canyon up to that rock outcrop there on the right. It will be used as a reference point to start your turns.
Y.M. I don’t see any rock outcrop.
O.M. You could if you were on the SIDE of the canyon, which would put it in profile.
Y.M. Okay.
I made what I considered to be a bold move to the right side of the canyon.
O.M. Well, when you goin to get over to the SIDE of the canyon?
Y.M. Isn’t that where we are? Feels pretty close to me!
O.M. Here, let me show you. My plane.
Y.M. Your plane.
O.M. I have it.
Y.M. Okay.
The instructor flew us over, from my perception of a safe distance, to around five hundred feet from the canyon wall. It looked like we were going to fly straight into the trees before he turned back parallel to the wall.
O.M. Now do you see the profile of a rock wall sticking out?
Y.M. Yeah, I mean yes, I see it. I also see the wall at the back end of the canyon.
O.M. I want you to use that rock face as your reference to start your turn each time.
Y.M. Okay.
The back of the canyon was coming up at a rate of closure that was far from comforting. I noticed I was beginning to tense up with a slight flush feeling creeping up the back of my neck, my ears were getting warm, and I was developing a case of lockjaw. I was wandering how to put an end to this onward rush, to my perception, of an apparent date with death. I pensively said…
Y.M. I would never get this deep into a dead end canyon to begin with.
O.M. Yeah, that’s what we all said.
O.M. This first pass is just to set a visual reference against which to judge how well this technique works as I sequentially attempt improve your skill. Now, I want you to hold your normal cruise speed as we come up on that rock outcrop.
Y.M. Okay. 130 indicated, no flaps!
O.M. When we get up beside that rock outcrop I want you to do a regular, level, twenty to thirty degree banked turn at this speed.
Y.M. Okay, um, are you sure there is room enough between the rock outcrop and the back end of the canyon?
O.M. We’re Ok. Just relax.
Y.M. Okay. Yeah sure, just relax.
As I started the 180 degree turn I could not help keeping a nervous eye on the end of the canyon, you know, the dead end. The first turn took up most of the canyon width. It also took up more of the dead end than I was comfortable with. We ended up way over on the far side of the creek that ran down the center of the canyon. We probably used up eighty percent of the canyon width.
O.M. How does that feel?
Y.M. Okay. I guess. We came a lot closer to the dead end than I was comfortable with.
O.M. We will fix most of that pretty soon.
Y.M. Okay-. I hope so.
O.M. Now for the second pass I want you to just simply transition to your canyon cruise settings for ninety indicated. No other changes.
Y.M. Okay, 90 indicated, no flaps.
I pulled the throttle back to the predetermined manifold pressure, dialed in the prop, let the speed settle down, trimmed off the pressure, and plowed ahead at ninety indicated. Now that we were slowed down a bit I was not quite so concerned about the dead end of the canyon. I knew enough to know that slower speed would give me more time.
O.M. This time I want you to do the same turn but at this slower canyon cruise speed.
Y.M. Okay.
The second pass only took about half of the canyon as we rolled out just outside of the creek, instead of way over on the far side. The back end of the canyon was no sweat this time. Slowing down was a big help. Each time we circled back to line up for another pass the Old Man would have me move a little closer to the side of the canyon.
O.M. What is that big smile all about?
Y.M. That was a pretty good reduction in the amount of room needed.
O.M Good, now for the third pass I want you to transition to your runway check out or approach configuration. Just slow it down to seventy. Don’t forget to put in the correct power, prop, and flap settings for the slower indicated airspeed.
Y.M. Okay, Where’s my chart?
O.M. You do plan to memorize your chart, don’t you?
Y.M. Tonight!
O.M. lets see, 16 inches, at 2350 RPM, 80 MPH indicated, flaps 20, and level flight.
Y.M. Okay.
It was nice to be able to see more terrain over the nose with this configuration. It was like a balcony seat in an old theater. On The third pass we finished well before the creek in the bottom of the canyon.
O.M. How was that?
Y.M. Impressive!
O.M. It’s supposed to be. The reason we are doing this in increments is so you will actually see the effect of just slowing down. In this terrain, speed can kill.
O.M. Are you ready for the meat of it?
Y.M. I don’t see where I would ever need to do anything any tighter.
O.M. You will tomorrow. This isn’t much of a canyon. It is more of a valley. I use it to start with because it leaves me room to salvage things in case you screw up.
Y.M. Okay. - Huh?
O.M. You notice that we have reduced the turn diameter by over fifty percent.
Y.M. Okay, I mean yes, this is almost fun.
O.M. Now, with this fourth pass we will begin to get serious about learning to do the Canyon Turn.
Y.M. Okay. How serious?
O.M. It means that we will see if you can handle major control changes while rotating around all three axis of flight.
Y.M. Okay.
I begin to get a sense of impending failure oozing out of me. Just how much is he planning to wring out of me in one session?
O.M. This time we will use the same flaps as last time, only slower with enough power to hold altitude and a flat prop. I want to see a steady sixty indicated before you start the turn. Then, this time I want you to add full power as you roll into the turn, and increase the bank angle up to at least forty degrees and slightly relieve the backpressure. You can let the airspeed go up a little bit.
Y.M. Okay.
Y.M. Wait, no level turn?
O.M. Not required.
Y.M. Huh?
O.M. You will be turning towards lower terrain, so you should always have some expendable altitude, if not, it is probably already too late.
Y.M. Okay. Oh! That’s right, turn towards lower terrain. I read about that.
O.M. Also, it is more important to NOT load the wing. Remember, as the bank increases, your stall speed is sneaking up to bite your ass.
Y.M. Okay.
Well, the fourth step did not go so smooth as the first three. The canyon swapped ends on me real quick. Adding full power while turning and attempting to relieve the backpressure upset any semblance of control on my part, much less precise control.
O.M. Watch your airspeed!
Y.M. What happened? Where’d the horizon go? …
O.M. I got it. You basically have no horizon down in these canyons so it is Ok to take a glance at the artificial horizon just as you roll in. Also, the addition of full power upset all your trim parameters.
Y.M. Okay. Wow! Sorry.
Deep breath – long exhale.
Several more tries at it and I was able to approximate what was supposed to happen.
The world seemed to rotate of it’s own accord while I was trying to retain some sem-blance of being in charge of what was going on.
O.M. How you feeling?
Y.M. A bit wrung out.
O.M. Well, we are not finished, there is still more.
Y.M. We, may not be finished, but I am about done in.
O.M. Well, there is still the last step. This time we will be getting REAL serious.
Y.M. Okay. Huh? REAL Serious! What the hell is this last step?
O.M. This is the one where I see if you can fly and chew gum at the same time.
Y.M. Okay. What?
I made some smartass remark about how I have been chewing gum all day…
O.M. Well?
Y.M. Okay. You win. What is this last step?
O.M. Once again I want you to simply do the same as last time with one addition.
Y.M. Okay. What’s that?
O.M. This time, just after rolling into the turn, going to full throttle, and relaxing the backpressure, I want you to pull in full flaps. DO NOT let go of the flap handle. DO NOT let your airspeed drop. As you come around near the 180 degree point you will roll the wings level, flaps to 20, airspeed to Vy, recover your altitude, set your manifold pressure and prop numbers for a comfortable airspeed.
Y.M. Okay.
O.M. We’ll see.
Y.M. See what?
O.M. We will see if it turns out “OK” as you so fond of saying.
Well, I will not belabor you with my attempts at trying to put the whole thing together, gum chewing and all. I will only say that it took several attempts for me to even approach the quality of the demonstrated turns. The several steps were used to sequentially develop my competence, and confidence, with the potentially life saving Canyon Turn. It was amazing to end up being able to make a reversing turn within a few wing lengths. The claim is that it can be done in three wing lengths. That’s the claim.
After several attempts I began to get the idea of how this was supposed to work. I even began to relax and feel a bit of confidence, maybe a little too much confidence.
Y.M. While we are here, do you mind if I try one more unassisted?
O.M. Go ahead, just hope ya don’t mind if I stay close by. You know, just in case.
Y.M. Okay.
It is not easy to get most of these Idaho Backcountry instructors rattled, but I managed.
I started with all the confidence I could muster, and, apparently, too much muscle.
Y.M. Oh ****!
O.M. WHOA THERE!
Y.M. I got it!
Hard right! Throttle off! Level the wings! Airspeed! Flaps to 20! Airspeed! Recover. Airplane first! Then composure. Exhale-. Remember to breath.
O.M. Well, at least you did not pull up and stall it into the wall. If you had we’d be all covered in chlorophyll.
Y.M. Okay. I mean thanks-. Sorry.
Actually, it was more a case of “WE” had it. In my exuberance I had turned closer to 270 degrees and was headed back into the rock wall. The O.M.’s realization of what was happening was probably a mite quicker than mine. But, it did not take much for me to realize what I had done as I watched the roll out point flash by. We were now pointed slightly down and headed toward rising terrain, at an exciting rate of closure that made it look like I was flying straight down into the ground. Which, relatively speaking, I was. But, I had already recovered with that quick hard turn to the right.
O.M. That is enough for me! Lets’ go home. I’ve seen all of that rock I need to for one day. Tomorrow, instead of this “valley,” I will put you in a real canyon.
Y.M. Okay. Huh? How narrow?
O.M. Narrow enough to raise your responsibility levels.
The next day was back to a diet of humble pie.
It turns out that it was only a lack of training and exposure that caused any anxieties on my part. The training, which was done in a style of adding sequential steps in a controlled environment, caused me to come out of there a lot more confident if not yet competent to execute the canyon turn. Now to practice, practice, practice.
Now, keep in mind, this was all done in a relatively wide canyon, more like a valley so I was told, on a clear day, with no sun on the horizon, no smoke in the canyon, no heavy load, no density altitude problem to speak of, no ominous lowering clouds, no turbulence, no wind, no storm, no rain, no thunder, no snow, no rough engine, no smoke in the cockpit, no bad radio, no circuit breakers popping, no injured passenger, no panicked pets, no sick kids, no significant other screaming, “I new this would happen,” only a calm and excellent instructor on a beautiful, smooth Idaho morning. Even so…
I have had a few hours of Acro Instruction and it was nowhere as stressful as learning the canyon turn. In aerobatics you have lots of prescribed airspace, and the precision is more a matter of pride. The canyon turn can be a matter of life or death. Learn it right.