Tristar
Pattern Altitude
While performing eights on pylons, many instructors teach to use a reference point off your wing tip. This was how I was taught and this is the way I explained the maneuver as I did it during my commercial checkride and was not corrected. In the airplane flying handbook they make a statement saying that using the wingtip is not always correct (p.6-12). The reasoning behind this is due to the fact that your reference point may not be parallel to the lateral axis of the airplane. A good example of this is when an instructor could potentially teach a student to line up the rivets on a low wing aircraft with the pylon when in fact those rivets do not line up with your line of sight but rather forward of it, therefor your aircraft will not be pivoting around your pylon. Other things may vary such as your position in the aircraft. The correct way to do it is to pretend the wing doesn't even exist and create your own invisible line of sight. If it goes forward of that line of sight, you're too high thus you descend, etc. So this brings me to my questions. If teaching to use the wing is wrong, why do so many instructors teach it that way? Is it for an easier reference and simplicity's sake? Also, would it be wrong to establish your own reference point off the wing instead of the instructor telling you what it is? Now I understand there are no tick marks measuring fore and aft of the wing tip but you could tell whether you're looking directly at the middle or just ahead of the ailerons, etc. I understand I can't teach it that way, I'm just curious why that variation would be wrong.
