Cessna 152 Take off Procedure
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mkqq, welcome to the peculiar world of Prune (or whatever you want to call it.
You will get some funny answers on here from people giving conflicting advice to various levels of personal abuse!
Overall it's a good place to be, virtually everyone has an interesting in flying and this common denominator holds us all together.
I find that as the years increase since I last owned an aircraft my knowledge has expanded to the extent that I know virtually everything about flying. I would suggest that I am not the only one on here in this situation ;-)
Good luck with your flying and now you have entered this arena please keep in touch. Tell us how you are progressing because we all had to learn once and we all have made the same stupid mistakes.
FF
You will get some funny answers on here from people giving conflicting advice to various levels of personal abuse!
Overall it's a good place to be, virtually everyone has an interesting in flying and this common denominator holds us all together.
I find that as the years increase since I last owned an aircraft my knowledge has expanded to the extent that I know virtually everything about flying. I would suggest that I am not the only one on here in this situation ;-)
Good luck with your flying and now you have entered this arena please keep in touch. Tell us how you are progressing because we all had to learn once and we all have made the same stupid mistakes.
FF
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So if you land and maintain that cruise setting of the Trimmer, when you want to take-off, you apply Full Power and the plane will naturally want to climb. All you have to do is give it one little pull on the column to get the friction of the wheels off the ground (when the speed is right.) It should then climb all on its own.
Stick back when taxiing? Yes, but please take the wind into account. It doesn't make much sense taxiing with the yoke or stick pulled fully back with a 20 knot wind from behind...
Use of controls on the ground on a windy day. "Climb into, dive away"
Previously. In the cruise, you have trimmed the aircraft for level flight at about 80% power. So you could fly 'hands free' if you wanted. The aircraft is balanced at that speed, power setting, and trim setting.
So if you land and maintain that cruise setting of the Trimmer,
So if you land and maintain that cruise setting of the Trimmer,
Enjoy your flying
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Me with a sensible hat on:
The secret of flying a training Cessna or Piper is speed and position. Be at the right speed in the right position and it will all fit into place, especially true in circuits and landing. Trim all the times if possible.
I started off in microlights where things are less precise and it took me a long time to understand the importance of the above points with group A aircraft.
The secret of flying a training Cessna or Piper is speed and position. Be at the right speed in the right position and it will all fit into place, especially true in circuits and landing. Trim all the times if possible.
I started off in microlights where things are less precise and it took me a long time to understand the importance of the above points with group A aircraft.
The secret to being a good pilot.
The most important lesson in your entire flying career up and including being a Captain on a Jumbo jet, is the first one; "attitudes and movements"
To be able to fly you must be able to recognize what attitude the aircraft is in. Attitude is the orientation of the airplane with respect to the earth (eg level ,tilted up, tilted down, on tilted to one side).
Most people think you do this by looking at the instruments but in fact the best way is to look at the natural horizon (where the earth and sky appear to meet) through the windshield. With a little bit of practice you can make a very fine and virtually instant determination of the aircraft's attitude by what you see looking ahead
Once you recognize the attitude you then need to know how to manipulate the controls to smoothly go from one attitude to another such as from cruise flight attitude to a nose up attitude when you want to climb.
Everything you learn after that first lesson of attitudes and movements will be applying those principals.
Make sure you understand the concepts and ask your instructor to revisit them if you are struggling to recognize what attitude the aircraft is in or how to move from one to the other
As a very experienced instructor I was frequently asked to help out students who were not progressing. The first thing I did for each one was to go back and review attitudes and movements. Invariably I found a weak or even non existent ability of the student to rapidly recognize what attitude the aircraft was in. This unfortunately was usually caused by instructors going through the foundation air exercises too quickly.
The most important lesson in your entire flying career up and including being a Captain on a Jumbo jet, is the first one; "attitudes and movements"
To be able to fly you must be able to recognize what attitude the aircraft is in. Attitude is the orientation of the airplane with respect to the earth (eg level ,tilted up, tilted down, on tilted to one side).
Most people think you do this by looking at the instruments but in fact the best way is to look at the natural horizon (where the earth and sky appear to meet) through the windshield. With a little bit of practice you can make a very fine and virtually instant determination of the aircraft's attitude by what you see looking ahead
Once you recognize the attitude you then need to know how to manipulate the controls to smoothly go from one attitude to another such as from cruise flight attitude to a nose up attitude when you want to climb.
Everything you learn after that first lesson of attitudes and movements will be applying those principals.
Make sure you understand the concepts and ask your instructor to revisit them if you are struggling to recognize what attitude the aircraft is in or how to move from one to the other
As a very experienced instructor I was frequently asked to help out students who were not progressing. The first thing I did for each one was to go back and review attitudes and movements. Invariably I found a weak or even non existent ability of the student to rapidly recognize what attitude the aircraft was in. This unfortunately was usually caused by instructors going through the foundation air exercises too quickly.
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mkqq: your thoughts on elevator position regarding defection to rotate and then centralise might be formed from flying a moveable stabiliser a/c. You deflect a small surface = elevator then trim out the whole horizontal stabiliser to zero force, and the elevator control return to neutral centre.
On the C152, and other spam-cans, the elevator stays deflected via the trim stab for zero force. Because the control is connected by cables the control column will stay in that deflected position. Also, the rate of pitch change will depend on elevator deflection + the speed. Hence you will not loop with a fixed deflection because the speed will decay and the rate of pitch will decay as well.
It's interesting, but surely you must have known all this before entering the jet world, and are now re-learning the basics. It's interesting because it is necessary to teach cadets in a jet sim just the opposite. i.e. allow the control column to centralise once the attitude or bank angle has been achieved and trimmed. It is common to see cadets holding a 'pull force' on finals because they feel the control column go forward (to neutral) when they release it after going through flap extension and associated attitude changes. They needed to look at the attitude & V/S to be confident that a nose forward control column when released did not result in a death dive.
On the C152, and other spam-cans, the elevator stays deflected via the trim stab for zero force. Because the control is connected by cables the control column will stay in that deflected position. Also, the rate of pitch change will depend on elevator deflection + the speed. Hence you will not loop with a fixed deflection because the speed will decay and the rate of pitch will decay as well.
It's interesting, but surely you must have known all this before entering the jet world, and are now re-learning the basics. It's interesting because it is necessary to teach cadets in a jet sim just the opposite. i.e. allow the control column to centralise once the attitude or bank angle has been achieved and trimmed. It is common to see cadets holding a 'pull force' on finals because they feel the control column go forward (to neutral) when they release it after going through flap extension and associated attitude changes. They needed to look at the attitude & V/S to be confident that a nose forward control column when released did not result in a death dive.
Big Pistons Forever,
I am glad someone agrees with my earlier statement that "power +attitude = performance"
Too many people are overcomplicating the basics here. The original poster was a total novice asking a basic question and people went into too much detail.
What he needs to know is "look out the window and move the primary controls to achive the correct picture for whatever stage of flight he is in. Set the appropriate power and the aircraft will perform as expected."
I am glad someone agrees with my earlier statement that "power +attitude = performance"
To be able to fly you must be able to recognize what attitude the aircraft is in. Attitude is the orientation of the airplane with respect to the earth (eg level ,tilted up, tilted down, on tilted to one side).
What he needs to know is "look out the window and move the primary controls to achive the correct picture for whatever stage of flight he is in. Set the appropriate power and the aircraft will perform as expected."
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the rate of pitch change will depend on elevator deflection + the speed. Hence you will not loop with a fixed deflection because the speed will decay and the rate of pitch will decay as well.
On the C152, and other spam-cans, the elevator stays deflected via the trim stab for zero force. Because the control is connected by cables the control column will stay in that deflected position.
But.... before a new pilot gets all tangled up with stick force per G, stick fixed stability, stick free stability, and phugoid... just learn to fly the plane!
See what the plane's attitude is, and understnd what is required to make it what you need it to be. To do this, look out the windshield, and learn to feel the control forces (they are there for a reason). When you want to pick up a glass from the counter, your brain does not think about what muscles to move in your arm, or even where your hand should go, and fingers grasp, you just think "glass", and it goes where you need. The same with the plane. Keep your learning very simple at first, just fly the plane!
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I'm suddenly confused by something that I thought I knew all these years.
This was the opening line by the questioner. Without thinking too much I thought he was an older jet pilot who was wanting to relive memories learnt 40-50 years ago and had forgotten. It might seem I could be mistaken, perhaps?? Am I?
This was the opening line by the questioner. Without thinking too much I thought he was an older jet pilot who was wanting to relive memories learnt 40-50 years ago and had forgotten. It might seem I could be mistaken, perhaps?? Am I?
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I can recall trenching with my excavator years ago. I was very satisfied that I had learned the coordination to operate two levers in four directions to control the motion of the boom and bucket. I could dig a decent trench. Then, as I paid more attention to the bucket actually digging the trench, I realized that although my hands were moving the levers, it was my mind moving the bucket. The bucket was digging just as I intended, but my hands were moving seemingly on their own. I watched my hands and the levers moving all over, and the bucket digging just as I wanted, and knew that one does not operate a machine with their hands (and feet - please!), they operate the machine with their mind, and hands and feet are just a part of the circuit. Then I more appreciated the complement paid me once: "You're not flying this plane, you're wearing it.". I'll keep working on my skills, in the hope of hearing such a complement again, but in the mean time, I understand it!
So look out the windshield, and observe the plane's attitude, motion, and projected path. Have your mind control the aircraft as you require. Your hands and feet will figure it out.
So look out the windshield, and observe the plane's attitude, motion, and projected path. Have your mind control the aircraft as you require. Your hands and feet will figure it out.
Have your mind control the aircraft as you require. Your hands and feet will figure it out.
Step Turn,
Very true. I know I'm not aware of the control and throttle movements I make when in the circuit, but to be fair to mkqq, i remember in my student pilot days, that my actions were somewhat mechanical and by rote.
Concerning "mind control", I once had an "out of body" experience, where I felt someone else was flying the aircraft, but I wouldn't want to admit that to my AME!
