manlymatt83
Filing Flight Plan
- Joined
- Jan 27, 2015
- Messages
- 28
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Display name:
Matt
I'm post solo and doing pretty well, in the cross country phase now. But for some reason I'm still having trouble with takeoff. Pattern altitude and landings feel great, and I'm confident in those. But for some reason, takeoff still feels really weird:
Does anyone have any advice? Are you supposed to switch to a cruise climb of ~90 knots by the time you turn crosswind so that you aren't pitched up so high? Or is this just a natural weird feeling and I should just stare out of the plane with periodic glances to the turn coordinator and ignore what my body is telling me?
Once I'm wings level and in a cruise climb (1000 feet AGL), it's always smooth sailing from there. Nothing seems weird to me, I trim up and things feel good.
Thanks for any help!
- I head down the runway applying right rudder pressure and rotate at 55 - no problem.
- I climb out at 75 which seems to make me feel like I'm pitched up pretty high. I've learned to not stare at the turn coordinator and instead focus on the nose (since I can't really see the horizon) and use my peripheral vision to watch the horizon on both sides of the nose.
- When it's time to turn crosswind, I never seem to know whether to release only a little bit of rudder pressure, all of the right rudder pressure, or apply left rudder pressure: it seems different in every plane. Some of the 172s I fly seem to need right rudder pressure to counteract left turning tendencies while also still in a climb AND turning left. All of this seems like a weird feeling to me, and it causes me to keep my crosswind turns relatively shallow, which my instructor mentions to me quite often.
Does anyone have any advice? Are you supposed to switch to a cruise climb of ~90 knots by the time you turn crosswind so that you aren't pitched up so high? Or is this just a natural weird feeling and I should just stare out of the plane with periodic glances to the turn coordinator and ignore what my body is telling me?
Once I'm wings level and in a cruise climb (1000 feet AGL), it's always smooth sailing from there. Nothing seems weird to me, I trim up and things feel good.
Thanks for any help!