Maneuvers to practice during solo
 

Hi,

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

Thank you

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. :)

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

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. :}

Straight and Level at Different Airspeeds
Steep Turns
Stalling

Obviously consult with your instructor first!

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?

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.

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.

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.

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

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?

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

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.

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!)

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.

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.

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.

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.

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!

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