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Category Archives: Flight Instructing
Stretching It
Following on the heels of yesterday’s blog, I need to let you know how to “stretch it.” Now, let me explain: I am not talking about stretching a glide or your gas supply. What I am referring to is getting … Continue reading →
Posted in Aviation, Flight Instructing, Flying, Teaching
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Tagged airplane flying more efficiently, altitude, college students, cross country planning, glide, headwind, L/Dmax, power settings, skill and intellect, smart pilots, Stretching It, tailwind, thin air, Top Gun, University of Florida, winds aloft, “I feel the need for speed.”
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The Front Side and the Backside!
One of the more complex concepts for students or inexperienced pilots to grasp involves flying on the “front side” or the “backside” of the power curve. On the front side, everything seems to be working normally while on the backside, … Continue reading →
Posted in Aviation, Flight Instructing, Flying, Teaching
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Tagged aerodynamic control, flight instructor, flying, helping your students “get it”, inexperienced pilots, maximum endurance speed, motorists, mountains, pilots, region of normal command, region of reversed command, stall speed, steep hills, student pilots, Teaching Speed, the backside of the power curve, the front side of the power curve, the gas pedal, total aircraft control, young flight instructor
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5 Comments
Teaching Speed – The Basics
Yesterday, I wrote about the extremes – flying high or low, fast or slow. I like the extremes and feel as if the heart of the envelope could be, well, somewhat boring from the standpoint of flying. The main thing … Continue reading →
Posted in Aviation, Flight Instructing, Flying, Teaching
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Tagged aerodynamic control, flight instructor, flying, helping your students “get it”, inexperienced pilots, motorists, mountains, pilots, stall speed, steep hills, student pilots, Teaching Speed, the gas pedal, total aircraft control, young flight instructor
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1 Comment
The Cessna 150
If you go to an airshow featuring Naval Aviators, you may see one or two of the more experienced pilots walking around with patches on their flight jackets proclaiming, “1000 hours” or “2000 hours” in a particular tactical aircraft. … Continue reading →
Landings
There are some things magical and mystical about coming back to earth after flying. I can still hear Charlie saying, “Any monkey can fly, you can train a monkey to takeoff and fly. The first astronauts were monkeys. The person … Continue reading →
Coming Down
Want to be one of those pilots your friends and family will always want to fly with? Want repeat customers all the time? How do you do that? Well, you have to be smooth and one area in which smoothest … Continue reading →
Posted in Flight Instructing, Flying
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Tagged being smooth, Coming Down, cruise altitude, enjoying the ride, expensive engine repairs, getting the airplane down from altitude, how you treat your airplane, one of those pilots, Proper descent planning, repeat customers, “shock-cooling”
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The Cessna 170
One of the very best airplanes produced in the United States is the Cessna 170. Cessna manufactured more than 5000 copies of the model starting in 1948 until production ceased in mid-1956. The airplane came in three versions: the straight … Continue reading →
Posted in Aviation, Flight Instructing, Flying
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Tagged airplane you fly, an honest 100 knots, best airplanes ever produced, Cessna 120, Cessna 140, Cessna 170, Cessna 170A, Cessna 170B, Cessna 180, Cessna 185, Cessna 190, Cessna 195, Continental C-145, Continental O-300, crosswinds, four-seat airplanes, great family airplane, gyroscopic precession, recipe for disaster, taildraggers, takeoffs, The Cessna 170, three-point landings, useable fuel, useful load, “barn door flaps”
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3 Comments
Running on Empty
Many have said there are three useless things in aviation. One is the altitude above you, the next is a runway behind you, and the third is the air in your fuel tanks. I am one to believe a pilot … Continue reading →
Posted in Aviation, Flight Instructing, Flying
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Tagged a pilot can never have too much fuel, air in your fuel tanks, altitude above you, Cessnas, civilian pilot, come too close running out of gas, fuel margins, fuel reserves, fuel state, horrendous fuel consumption, military pilot, National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB), Part 91.151, Pipers, Running on Empty, runway behind you, Section 91.161, three useless things in aviation
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1 Comment
This Doesn’t Feel Quite Right
I am sitting in the airplane with a pilot new to our FBO. He has come to get checked out to fly with us, so we are about to go up and I am going to watch him perform the … Continue reading →
Posted in Flight Instructing, Flying
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Tagged a slight tug to the cable, carb heat control, carb ice, carburetor heat box, carburetor icing, grass runway, hot humid day, I guess it’s OK, If it doesn’t feel right it’s not right don’t fly, learned a great lesson, sense of relief, taking control, This Doesn’t Feel Quite Right, your call
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Night Flight
“You want to fly at night? Well, you just go over to Tampa International or somewhere else to fly at night. I don’t let my airplanes fly at night.” Charlie looks at me like I have lost my mind. “But … Continue reading →
Posted in Aviation, Flight Instructing, Flying, Life in General, Personal
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Tagged Charles Lindbergh, engine failure at night, flying checks, flying single-engine at night, Navy, Night flight, parachute, picking a good place to land, professional pilots, Tampa International, the old man’s admonition, The Spirit of St. Louis
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1 Comment
