Husband and I are slipping out of work today around 4 pm to go fly. He'll be PIC (of course!); all my talk of learning and practicing maneuvers has given him the desire to do a practice flight.
He's also going to do some forward slips. They're "fun" for him.
For me, I think I have a law of primacy defect: Cross-controls make me very, very nervous.
What I first learned of cross-controls is that that's what leads to spins and ultimately death. Ok, maybe that's an exaggeration but that's the basic idea, that cross-controlling the plane is bad.
I understand the concepts of forward slips. I do. I see why it works. But it still makes me nervous because (1) it involves crossed controls (and that's bad, m'kay), (2) it's done at low altitudes (reduced margin for error), and (3) it's done at low airspeeds (reduced control effectiveness). And there's the usual nervousness associated with it just being a "new" maneuver (in that I haven't really done it yet).
In combined lesson #6 & 7 Chuck introduced forward slips and I tried one very unsuccessfully -- we ended up far to one side of the runway. In the phase check Dan did it very abruptly when we needed to lose altitude on final for the practice emergency landing procedure. So I've seen it and I've tried it once, but there's obviously a level of "feeling it out" that has to happen.
We'll see how it goes.
I'm timid when it comes to practicing stalls, absolutely hate 'em, but forward slips I love, love, love!
ReplyDeleteLooks like you are doing great with the training, and I'm enjoying living it "with" you.
Thanks, Paul! :)
ReplyDeleteWe did some forward slips today and they didn't seem to be anything to sweat, so maybe I'll "love, love, love" them someday, too!
paul :
ReplyDeletestalls are scary the first time ... as can anything be that is new or different. Practice them often with an instructor ..at altitude, and maintain a healthy fear of them, but be prepared for them.
K:
A 172 is actually pretty difficult to spin. I had some spin training in one and have done some spins solo (at plenty of altitude).
When a 172 stalls from s&l, although the left wing will drop, the plane will not typically go into an immediate spin, it will usually start a spiral-dive, which you can tell from the airspeed greatly increasing.
I suggest you go up with your instructor and practice forward/side slips and all kinds of variation of cross-controlled flight until you are very familiar with how your plane reacts in almost any situation.
As I mentioned in another post, slips are an essential skill to have in the event of an (unlikely) engine failure, as you really want to make sure that in an engine out situation, you have plenty of altitude till very short final.
Have you done a simulated engine out over the airport right down to landing the plane at idle ?
Mike
Judging from Paul's site (Diary of a Private Pilot), he's well beyond the "first time" for stalls! But your advice is certainly good anyway -- if you're not comfortable doing something, do under supervision!
ReplyDeleteAs for slipping and spinning the 172, I have a hard enough time getting the dang thing to stall. I intend to get plenty more practice with slipping. We haven't done engine outs in the pattern under the premise of an emergency, but I have been pulling the power back earlier and earlier in my patterns and will at some point glide it in. We do practice the usual engine-out scenarios with hitting glide speed, picking a field, and doing the whole thing down to ~500' or so.
And tomorrow we're supposed to do short- and soft-field takeoffs and landings, so more pieces of that puzzle will be put in place.
I do think my fear of stalls comes from my original instructor, she did not like doing them at all and I think I picked up on that.
ReplyDeleteWhen I practice them these days they go ok but I always have a healthy knot of fear before I do :)