Over the fence throttle setting

[InFinRetirement]

The book that will teach you to fly has never been written.

And neither will it be written.

Listen to Chuck Ellsworth, he uses common sense as each good pilot does. Quoting this section or that section in either FAA or CAA rules is, to be frank, stupid. They are a guide of course but you cannot teach someone to fly by them - what value would they be? To use them as a guide to basic flying is sheer rot.

Each flight - ANYONE - makes will, in some small detail, or large, be different from the next and a student or professional will need to know that. Mother nature will be different, the aircraft will often fly differently to the last one you flew - even if it is the same type. YOU, yourself, might feel 'different' in some way physiological way. That is the way it is.

Chuck mentions using power to land, only after he knows that they guy he is with can do each approach and landing without it. Think about that. It is almost natural and certainly gives the student a lot of confidence when he knows in HIS own mind that he can control an aircraft, so where does 3 degrees come from? They use 5 degrees at LCY, so what? It would not be necessary for a light aircraft to use either. However, if you have an instrument rating you will follow the basics and that's that!

I have flown more than a 100 different types, many of them single seat singles. In the latter, no-one tells you that you should do this or do that other than speeds and other important pointers so you use your skills learned from doing things the right way - then you will feel confident when you get behind some real power built into a flighty type.

Its all a case of common sense skills and using them to pass on to someone else. Or to use yourself since a good instructor or check pilot will need hone his own skills for the benefit of others.

So, it is disturbing to see so much emphasis placed upon this or that section is some book or another - that is called 'book-airmanship", which has little to do with the ACTUAL flying - that comes from within and, as I said, it is all you need to to keep an aeroplane in the air and deal with it if it decides it no longer wants be there.

There is nothing very difficult about flying these days but I do recall instances when pilots thought they knew it all and I would have to switch over to my special demonstrations that no book ever mentioned. How to recover from an aircraft that bites when you are getting cocky. That usually did it.

I have not ventured here for some time but I am surprised DFC is still spouting off his rules and regs. That is something for a student to learn at home. You cannot read it in the air. As for instructors, there was once man called Bunny Branson, a man sometimes given to slight eccentricities, but nonetheless an instructors instructor. He would not tolerate BS but he would compliment good teaching.