Pitch and Power

Richard

Richard

Final Approach
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Ack...city life
Here is an nice article I came across.



You’re cruising along, thousands of feet above your destination and several miles out--time to descend. How do you initiate the descent? Adjust pitch or power? How do you fly your desired descent profile? Pitch or power? At the speed you want? Pitch or power?

Now you’re nearing your destination on a straight-in approach. How do you maintain your desired descent profile while you simultaneously reduce speed so you can extend the gear and flaps? Pitch or power?

You’re on final approach. The gear and flaps are down. You want to stay on profile while you slow to final approach speed. Pitch or power? What if you find yourself slow or fast or above or below profile? What do you do then? Pitch or power?


The rest of the article can be found at http://mysite.verizon.net/res0cs5r/index.html
 
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Heh - I'm one of those "I just do it" and it seems to work. I probably need to work on that.
 
If you have a fairly slick retract with limited gear-drop speed, you learn really quickly that pitch controls airspeed and power controls altitude. In a rapid or prolonged descent above max gear operating speed, the only way to quickly get the airspeed down is to pitch up.
 
sure you lower the collective at 700 feet, but if you dont adjust the cyclic as well you will never arrive at the spot you want with the speed that you want.
 
So which is it? Pitch or power?!?

Just kidding. However, I am slightly irritated by the article. Someone better tell the Marine Corps they've got it all wrong.

My entire flying career has been a waste.

Am I the only one who has found (despite what he claims) that on a stabilized approach and/or on a glideslope pitching for airspeed, power for "altitude" is much easier?

On other maneuvers it may be the opposite.

So the "both" thing rings true to me in that aspect.


His points about coordinated flight are excellent.

But what the hell do I know. Those who have taught me have never been able to resolve that question either. :rolleyes:
 
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I am reminded of the joke from years ago, supposedly a true story, an airline type gets into an argument with the FAA examiner about pitch and power, airspeed and altitude and what controls what,

when he gets to the checkride, he turns onto the runway and begins pumping the control column back and forth, he then turns to the first officer, tells him, "when i get this thing to V1, advance the power levers to T/O power and we will get some altitude.

one without the other is useless, they need to be used together in a coordinated manner, to arrive at the desired destination
 
SkyHog said:
Heh - I'm one of those "I just do it" and it seems to work. I probably need to work on that.
Click to expand...
Why? If it works for you there's nothing wrong with that. :)
 
wesleyj said:
I am reminded of the joke from years ago, supposedly a true story, an airline type gets into an argument with the FAA examiner about pitch and power, airspeed and altitude and what controls what,

when he gets to the checkride, he turns onto the runway and begins pumping the control column back and forth, he then turns to the first officer, tells him, "when i get this thing to V1, advance the power levers to T/O power and we will get some altitude.

one without the other is useless, they need to be used together in a coordinated manner, to arrive at the desired destination
Click to expand...

HAHA - that joke is awesome. I WILL remember that.
 
Richard said:
You’re cruising along, thousands of feet above your destination and several miles out--time to descend. How do you initiate the descent? Adjust pitch or power? How do you fly your desired descent profile? Pitch or power? At the speed you want? Pitch or power?
Click to expand...


Yes.

Hard to make it through that article without saying "I don't want any! Go away!" :rolleyes:
 
flyingcheesehead said:
Yes.

Hard to make it through that article without saying "I don't want any! Go away!" :rolleyes:
Click to expand...

The flip side is to pull the mixture at a save altitude and tell the pilot "Let's see you control airspeed with the throttle now". The real answer to which controls airspeed and which controls altitude is "both".
 
Let's see. Need to descend. What do I do? I pull the power, and since the plane is trimmed out for a certain airspeed it will pitch itself to maintain that speed. The best way to sum all that babble up is with one small image:

yinyang.gif
 
wsuffa said:
...pitch controls airspeed and power controls altitude...
Click to expand...

I choose to descend with power from altitude. Simply trim for 500 fpm down and leave the power alone. I'll ease the throttle back as the CHT allows. That's the main instrument for my descents. Averaging about 1"/1000' or so. Closer to the airport, a level-off is usually required. This is when most of the airspeed is bled off. My power is set for approach by then so just by arresting the descent, I'm able to drop gear and flaps or whatever's necessary. Once on the final approach course, pitch controls airspeed and power controls altitude. Just keep trimming, just keep trimming, just keep trimming, trimming, trimming. :D Of course, this isn't always the case on an IRF flight. You may not get to descend as soon as you would like or you may be asked to descend and maintain. More of a step-down arrival. Anyway, I like to baby my engines. Keep them happy. Watch those CHT's and fly smart.
 
hmmmmmm
i always thought it was pitch for airspeed, airbrakes for glideslope on final. for takeoff just keep the towplane in position. in between then, slow waaaaaay down in lift and go fast in sink. :)

on the serious side, very good article. excellent insights.
 
Problem i run across too often, When descending, I pick up too much speed, and with the turbulance, id hate to rip a wing off. So I have to answer both.
 
If I heard it once ,I heard it a thousand times during my training...
Pitch for airsped, power for rate of decent.
 
Do whatever it takes to make the airplane do what you want.
 
SkykingC310 said:
I choose to descend with power from altitude. Simply trim for 500 fpm down and leave the power alone. I'll ease the throttle back as the CHT allows.
Click to expand...
That works very well with CS props, but generally will overspeed (i.e., spin it past redline) a fixed pitch installation unless you fly at unusually low power settings. I find that when cruising my FP Tiger at 75% in the 7000-9000 foot range, I'm so close to redline already that I have to pull the throtle back 50-100 RPM to keep it under the redline.
 
Ron Levy said:
That works very well with CS props, but generally will overspeed (i.e., spin it past redline) a fixed pitch installation unless you fly at unusually low power settings. I find that when cruising my FP Tiger at 75% in the 7000-9000 foot range, I'm so close to redline already that I have to pull the throtle back 50-100 RPM to keep it under the redline.
Click to expand...

Oops...I should have mentioned I was flying a CS prop. I agree with you Ron.
 
I didn't see the article has saying it's either/or. I think Ed Fred summed it up nicely.
 
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