Jeanie
Pattern Altitude
I've been teaching a rancher in one of the family's 182s-his primary training. I go up tues Wx permitting and we work together thru Thursday then I drive the 115 miles home on Friday morning through the mountains-it's a beautiful drive.
We spent time Wednesday afternoon making checklists for each phase of flight. On Thursday morning I went into our "classroom" in the lodge ( it's a BIG hunting and cattle ranch) to review what he wrote to make sure it was clear and complete and have my coffee before we flew. Well, on the list for the power on stall this is what I read:
Clearing turn
Carb heat on
Power 12"
Slow to 70
Prop forward
Pitch nose high
Power 20"
Carb heat off
Heave till it gives
Fix it
Return to slow cruise
Hmmm, "heave till it gives". I just cracked up when I saw that. I asked him so what does "fix it" mean and he said you know, pick up the wing if it drops and pitch for climb.
When we returned from Pecos, 40 NM away, where we go for lots of TO/L practice and the hope of traffic we don't have an altimeter setting at the ranch strip so he just estimated 1000 ft AGL and we set the altimeter for that then when we land we could see how close he was. On downwind I threw a towel up over the instruments and said just fly the plane. Well, he flew a good pattern, made a great landing just past where the numbers would be and when we checked he was only off the altitude by 50ft. I would've solo'd him if he had a medical... We are going over to Monahans next tues so he can get one. His homework was to plan the XC for that trip.
He has about 15 hrs and I'm real proud of how he's doing. Just wanted to share the heave till it gives notion.....
We spent time Wednesday afternoon making checklists for each phase of flight. On Thursday morning I went into our "classroom" in the lodge ( it's a BIG hunting and cattle ranch) to review what he wrote to make sure it was clear and complete and have my coffee before we flew. Well, on the list for the power on stall this is what I read:
Clearing turn
Carb heat on
Power 12"
Slow to 70
Prop forward
Pitch nose high
Power 20"
Carb heat off
Heave till it gives
Fix it
Return to slow cruise
Hmmm, "heave till it gives". I just cracked up when I saw that. I asked him so what does "fix it" mean and he said you know, pick up the wing if it drops and pitch for climb.
When we returned from Pecos, 40 NM away, where we go for lots of TO/L practice and the hope of traffic we don't have an altimeter setting at the ranch strip so he just estimated 1000 ft AGL and we set the altimeter for that then when we land we could see how close he was. On downwind I threw a towel up over the instruments and said just fly the plane. Well, he flew a good pattern, made a great landing just past where the numbers would be and when we checked he was only off the altitude by 50ft. I would've solo'd him if he had a medical... We are going over to Monahans next tues so he can get one. His homework was to plan the XC for that trip.
He has about 15 hrs and I'm real proud of how he's doing. Just wanted to share the heave till it gives notion.....
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