Maneuvers to practice during solo

[ifresh21]

Hi,

I was just looking forward to suggestions of goodmaneuvers to practice during solo flight.

Thank you

[Pitts2112]

Could use a bit more context here. Are you a student, new PPL, experienced PPL looking for something else to do with your flying?

If you're a student, I'd say start with your instructor.

If you're a PPL, however, the list of possible and good things to practice becomes a little bit longer. :)

[ifresh21]

Student - I will confirm everything with my instructor if there is something he didn't say already and I would consider doing.

[flyinkiwi]

If you are a student, then I can't think of anything better to practice than landings. As they say, takeoffs are optional but landings are mandatory. :}

[fireflybob]

Straight and Level at Different Airspeeds
Steep Turns
Stalling

Obviously consult with your instructor first!

[Tarq57]

Manoeuvers to practice while in solo flight consist pretty much of what your instructor has briefed you to practice.

This may include circuit work, stalls, turns, simulated forced landings, etc.

You should not go trying out different manoeuvers if they are outside of your experience unless briefed to do that by your instructor, and that would usually involve some dual training in the exercise first.

Why do you ask?

[Heliplane]

Not strictly a manoeuver but it would be well worth making a point of getting used to following your position on the map so that you can pinpoint your map location at any time (and please don't use a GPS at this stage).

Make a point of identifying ground references properly (using other cues to ensure you have identified the right object) and be aware of what airspace is around you and the requirements/restrictions for operating within that airspace.

I get the impression that the ability to properly map read and navigate with one's eyes outside is a dying skill, which is a shame.

[mad_jock]

or you could go and get the important stuff practised like.

Trimming

Different speeds, different configurations, and moving between them climbing and decending and straight and level.

Know what attitudes/power settings to select for what you want to do.

Boring you might think but if you get good at it the rest of the exercise become a piece of piss.

[BackPacker]

Different speeds, different configurations, and moving between them climbing and decending and straight and level.

Here's a great exercise. Trim for cruise. And when I say trim, I mean sufficient for hands-off flying. Don't trim to reduce stick forces, trim to eliminate them altogether.

Now close the throttle. Let the speed decay to just above stall speed. Then open the throttle again and let the speed increase to "redline" speed - the highest speed you can get in level flight without the engine overrevving. Close the throttle again and let the speed decay to just above stall speed. And so on and so forth.

During this, make sure the ball is absolutely dead center throughout. And make sure you maintain altitude exactly - watch the altimeter like a hawk and don't tolerate even 10 feet of deviation. After maybe ten or so cycles, see if you can do this without watching the ball and altimeter, just by aircraft feel alone.

For added fun, you can also incorporate flap extension and retraction in your routine.

And be gentle on the throttle. Don't slam it open or closed. If you take about three seconds from closed to open and vice versa your flying will be much smoother. For proper engine operation and the prevention of shock cooling, you should even take much longer than that.

[Tarq57]

Don't forget to glance outside from time to time!

[VOD80]

Here's a great exercise. Trim for cruise. And when I say trim, I mean sufficient for hands-off flying. Don't trim to reduce stick forces, trim to eliminate them altogether.

Now close the throttle. Let the speed decay to just above stall speed. Then open the throttle again and let the speed increase to "redline" speed - the highest speed you can get in level flight without the engine overrevving. Close the throttle again and let the speed decay to just above stall speed. And so on and so forth.

Hi Backpacker,

I don't think that opening and closing the throttle will chznge the speed appreciably. All that will happen is that the aircraft will stay (more or less) on its trimmed speed and either descend or climb depending on closed or opened throttle.

Not so?

[Tarq57]

Read the post.
The idea is to manually hold altitude while the speed changes.

[mad_jock]

It is a good exercise if done looking out the window and briefly looking in. But the watching the altimeter like a hawk is a bad habit to get into.

As a instrument exercise it is a good un though.

[VOD80]

Oops!:\

In which case, learning to speed up and slow down may be better. That is trim straight and level at one speed, change engine revs a couple of hundred RPM and trim straight and level at the resulting speed, all the while maintaining altitude.

But that is just Mad Jock's power/attitude thing. Useful exercise though (IMHO, of course!)

[BackPacker]

But the watching the altimeter like a hawk is a bad habit to get into.

Of course. But the idea is to get used to the forces necessary to hold pitch at various speeds, trim settings and power settings. If you do this exercise while looking out the window and you glance in at the altimeter, you'll find yourself being 100s of feet off altitude. And you spend the rest of the time recovering.

So initially you will want to keep a close eye on the altimeter so that deviations from your altitude don't happen, with the aim of being able to do this whole exercise, eventually, with only short glances at the altimeter.

Which is the whole objective in the end: To know and feel what the aircraft is doing and to be able to correct for this, to an extent subconsciously. While being able to look outside for other traffic and only glancing at the instruments every now and then to confirm everything is allright.

Ideally you would want to do this with a safety pilot on board of course, but that is not allowed while you're still at the solo stage.

[mad_jock]

Well in that case then I would suggest its not really suitable for a solo practise session.

But I will grant you a good exercise for a dual sortie and one which I may use in the future.

[BackPacker]

mad_jock, related to this, another exercise would be to do a severe out-of-trim exercise. This is definitely a "dual" sortie exercise though.

Simply pretend you have an electric trim that has ran away. Wind the trim all the way up, or down, and then see if you can still fly and land the plane accurately.

[mad_jock]

Wouldn't do that one at PPL to be honest but would do it converting onto a type with electric trimmer. And its not an exercise we do in the sim on the bigger things. We have multiple ways of killing the power to the trimmer.

But I would give them to sort the trim out but wouldn't expect them to land in that condition.

I would imagine in the tommy quite a few folk wouldn't have the sheer brute strength to fly it for a prelonged period with the trim full in any direction and I would be also be worried about them breaking the clutch on the trimmer.

[moreflaps]

Here's a few ideas: Try steep S turns rolling in and out without yaw, stopping each turn after a desired compass heading is achieved (say <180 degree turns). Lose no height and predict and compensate for the turning error on each turn. We also have to do a slow flight demonstration, straight and level at <10k over stall speed (stall warning should be on). Learn how the plane responds on the backside of the power curve in slow flight, the mushiness of the controls should be obvious. Do a gentle (rate one) turn in slow flight, learn to handle the plane smoothly -use more rudder and see if you can keep wings level with rudder alone. (Be prepared for a wing drop if you manhandle the controls and make 'stepping on the ball' second nature in a stall).

You should talk these exercises over with your instructor first to make sure you are up to them.

Enjoy your free flight!

[ifresh21]

Thanks guys great suggestions and reminders of things I should do (but didn't do on my other solo).

I'll have to read through this a few times - Ill probably make a list of things to do when im up there. I kind of get lost in the awesomeness haha.


Btw, with the electric trim thing, you could just turn of the avionics master, pull the circuit breaker, and put the av master back on.


Thank you

[AdamFrisch]

Well, if I were an instructor I would probably not feel very comfortable if my student went up and practiced solo stalls first thing...

But maybe I'm being overly cautious...:ouch:

[BackPacker]

practiced solo stalls

Unless you're flying aerobatics or doing test flights, stalls are flight conditions that you need to avoid. You need to be able to recognise the signs of an impending stall and act upon them. And if worse comes to worst, you need to be able to recover from a stall but the recovery action from an actual stall is the same (in most aircraft) as from an impending stall.

During flight training, this is reinforced a few times by actually doing stalls and an instructor will not let you solo before you've shown that you can recognise a stall and execute a proper recovery. Likewise, during the flight test, and various subsequent checks after that, you'll be asked to demonstrate a stall recovery too.

But further than that, there's not a lot that you can practice about them. You cannot get "better" at stalls, perform them more accurately than the next pilot, or do them quicker or slower.

So I question the whole idea about "practicing" stalls, whether solo or dual, once you've shown that you can recognise a stall and recover from that.

There's a lot of stuff that you really can improve in, and some of these have been mentioned before. Rolling in and out of steep turns, slow/fast flight and transitions between them, landings, accurate heading/altitude keeping and so forth. Heck, even taxiing on the yellow line is a challenge sometimes. These are the ones that you can always strife for perfection for, and can really benefit from practicing.

(Edited: Not to say that you shouldn't be doing stalls whatsoever. Some people think stalls are fun, so if you want to do stalls for that reason, fine with me. In fact, in that case you should probably sign up for an Unusual Attitudes/Introduction to Aerobatics class. I'm just questioning the learning objective for doing stalls beyond the initial stall awareness/recovery stage.)

[CISTRS]

During my flight instruction, the club CFI told me that stall, spin, crash and burn was something I should practice solo.

Seriously though - becoming familiar with slow speed fight, incipient spins, wing drops at stalls, the back end of the lift/drag curve is very important. Do this by opposite rudder, and steering into the wing drop with the stick to reattach the airflow. Practice, practice, practice to minimize height loss. As a glider pilot, I find it's best to develop the right technique by keeping the throttle at idle during this. In real lfe situation - open the tap as well.

It is also very satisfying to practice high rate turns at constant altitude. Keep a good look out, and enjoy the kick of flying through your own slipstream. 360s and figure 8 turns both work well.

[moreflaps]

CISTRS: "Do this by opposite rudder, and steering into the wing drop with the stick to reattach the airflow" This sounds like a way to turn the plane upside down :eek: I believe it is more important to stop the yaw developing with rudder to stop the incipient spin. The wing can be leveled later.

Perhaps other more experienced pilots would like to comment -I'm not an instructor.

Cheers

[mad_jock]

You are right moreflaps that exercise is the imfamous keep it in the stall tap dancing on the rudder pedals which the CAA in the uk has been trying to stamp out for some years now.

The only thing that should be taught in the stall or very near near it is to reduce the angle of attack and then return to safe flight. All this faffing around with exercises just instills the idea that there are other things to do and it is normal to be back at this very dirty side of the drag curve.

[IO540]

I've just read the G-FORS report...

The instructor had almost no time on type.

I started my PPL training on the dreaded PA38 and spent a lot of time doing fully developed stalls where the rudder was used to keep the wings level. Usually the LH wing would drop, and quite rapidly.

It was fun and eventually I was doing it really well but it was quite pointless.

If you spin on the base to final turn you are dead anyway, and you should never get anywhere near a stall never mind a spin in any other phase of flight except possibly wind shear.

[Final 3 Greens]

Or possibly very late and violent avoiding action?

[moreflaps]

Mad_J, I was more concerned with the suggestion to use the stick to turn into the direction of the wing drop. (I've done falling leaf type things with rudder but never using aileron). I haven't snap rolled, but stalling one wing and throwing the aileron over would seem to me to be a way to snap the aircraft upside down.

Cheers

[Gav28]

or you could go and get the important stuff practised like.

Trimming

Different speeds, different configurations, and moving between them climbing and decending and straight and level.

Know what attitudes/power settings to select for what you want to do.

Boring you might think but if you get good at it the rest of the exercise become a piece of piss.


I was given this advice (or very similar) and it made all the difference for me. The rest fell into place very quickly.

[IO540]

Or possibly very late and violent avoiding action?

I think that, in cruise, you would probably pull the wings off a typical spamcan if you did that aggressively enough. But the plane is not going to spin off. Maybe it's possible but I have never heard of it happening at cruise speeds.

[mad_jock]

I have snapped rolled?? (proberly mis use of snap rolled) over in a steep turn.

Well I say I did the FII did. Steep turn and pulled to the buffet then used the aileron we went over the top into a proper spin in a C152 quite similar to a PA38 spin. So much of a proper spin the POH recovery method did not work and only the application of power saved the day.

The FII was abit shaken by it as well.

[Final 3 Greens]

Quote:
Or possibly very late and violent avoiding action?
I think that, in cruise, you would probably pull the wings off a typical spamcan if you did that aggressively enough. But the plane is not going to spin off. Maybe it's possible but I have never heard of it happening at cruise speeds.

I know someone, a professional pilot, who told me this happened to him when he was flying a light twin.

The only time he ever unintentionally departed.

[FREDAcheck]

"Maneuvers to practice during solo"

Spelling?

[moreflaps]

There's no art and work in "man-euver"...;)

Cheers

[Final 3 Greens]

FREDACheck

Maneuver is the correct spelling in the OP's country.

Maneuver - Definition and More from the Free Merriam-Webster Dictionary (http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/maneuver)

[FREDAcheck]

Maneuver is the correct spelling in the OP's country.
I stand corrected!