Aero enterprises

first flight....

• Our first flight lesson begins with a pre-flight, then startup, and taxi. You’ll get reacquainted with where the flight controls should be pointed for different wind conditions—you may think that this may not be very important to the nose-wheel airplane (it really is), but it’s critical to the tailwheel airplane and pilot.

• You’ll quickly learn that to “stay ahead of the airplane” you’ll need to anticipate rudder use before it’s needed. Like much in life, timing is key. Applying timely inputs keeps things under control. It might feel like it’s out of control at first, but I won’t let you break anything (no guarantees on egos). In no time you’ll understand and be able to navigate the ramp and taxiways like a seasoned pro.

• You may have read about some of the forces that grow and are ingredients to the physics recipe once power is applied for the takeoff roll: Torque, slip-stream, asymmetrical blade effect (performance- or p-factor), and gyroscopic effect. All these combine to ensure the airplane does not go straight on its own. Each of these rascals becomes a player at different times during our ground operations. Armed with your new knowledge, you’ll see that judicious use of the rudder at key moments dampens these forces and allows you draw straight lines. 

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• Takeoff!

  If there is any crosswind component, you’ll be compensating with aileron. Full deflection when not in motion, that is, when lined up on the centerline. With the stick full aft, apply full power. A quick glance at the gauges tells us the engine is running fine. Directional control is maintained with rudder.  We’ll allow the airplane to tell us when the tail is to be raised. To do so, I relax stick back pressure  to the a neutral position. As speed increases, the amount of crosswind aileron is decreased, maintaining just enough to eliminate drift and maintain wings level. As the speed increases, the tail begins to rise. Pushing the stick forward to raise the tail effectively “loads” the main gear and can increase takeoff roll distance. With the tail up, we’ll add just a hint of forward stick pressure in the Decathlon to prevent premature rotation. At 65 mph, slight aft stick pressure and we’re off!

• air & Pattern Work

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• Getting to know the airplane and how control inputs affect flight is key in low-speed operations including landing. The Decathlon is one of the easier airplanes to fly. You’ll experience its predictable nature and generous manners up high, thereby building confidence that nothing unwarranted happens down low. We’ll stress rudder work at all times, wakening your feet to that very effective rudder at all airspeeds. After climb out to altitude, we’ll do some slow flight, letting you get used to how effective your new friend, the rudder, is at minimum controllable airspeed. The inclinometer becomes a good reference instrument, keeping you out of trouble.
  Back in the pattern. I’ll stress attitude flying, power, and aircraft performance (you do remember that attitude + power = performance, right?). The key to effective tailwheel landings is controlling the airspeed by adjusting the sight picture (attitude). We’ll find a nice long runway where we’ll fly those stabilized approaches and three point landings. “Why the three point landing?” Good question. Let me quote from Stick and Rudder:  An Explanation of the Art of Flying by Wolfgang Langewiesche (pronounced long-gah-vee-shay):  “The designer is anxious to make the landing of his airplane take place at about the slowest forward speed at which the ship, with its given wing and its given weight, is aerodynamically capable of flying.” And what is that ship’s attitude when it’s flying slowly? Yup, you got it, nose-high, slow flight! The very same attitude at which the airplane sits with all three wheels on the ground and the one we practiced in our air work. So what happens when you don’t put the airplane into the three point attitude, or you do, but don’t maintain it as the speed bleeds off? The dreaded bounce! “But that’s caused by those springy landing gear, right?” Nope. It’s potentially caused by a couple things:  1) The main gear contacting the runway first, followed by that aft-of-main gear center of gravity forcing the tail down, causing an increased angle of attack, creating lift where there was none before. 2) A high vertical rate of descent, left unchecked, will cause a similar response by the airplane; a high angle of attack, followed by increased lift, followed by the airplane heading skyward. Should the bounce happen, we know that we’ve increased the angle of attack and our speed is or will begin to decay. With a small bounce, one just continues to flair adding aft stick. A larger bounce is corrected by adding a little power at the apex of the bounce, thereby preventing the subsequent high descent rate and loss of airspeed; we simply land again (sorry, you can’t log it as two, or three landings). As you bring the stick back and contact the ground in the three-point stance, you move the stick full aft until it tickles your navel—and there you leave it, until the airplane is tied down, or until there’s a tailwind during taxi.  Let me repeat this, “…keep the stick full aft after touchdown.” The tricycle gear pilot tends to relax the back pressure once firmly on the ground, and as the center of gravity is forward of the main gear, it won’t get the nose gear driver into hot water. Not so with the tailwheel airplane.