AS495L ALL ATTITUDE FLIGHT

FLIGHT TRAINING SYLLABUS

Dr. R. Rogers

Safety Note: DON’T QUALIFY FOR THE DARWIN AWARD
Practice the following maneuvers only in a simulator. In particular, actual low level flight can be very hazardous and not infrequently involves violations of FARs. (Stop a minute to recall The many times you flew the simulator aircraft into the terrain while flying close to the ground.) Many pilots including Blue Angels and Thunderbirds have been killed due to inadvertent terrain contact during low level flight. Regrettably, it is likely that more pilots in all categories will be killed in the future. Many flying maneuvers are best learned through airborne experience. Flying into the ground is not one of these maneuvers.
Never attempt any kind of aerobatic or non-standard maneuvering in an airplane unless a flight instructor qualified to instruct you in aerobatic flight accompanies you. An Embry-Riddle student pilot was killed around 1990 at Daytona Beach while involved in unauthorized low level flight. He accidently flew a C-172 into his girlfriend’s house in Flagler County while making a low pass to impress her. Many other pilots, including a number of military pilots known personally to the authors, have lost their lives by ignoring simple safety considerations about unusual attitude flight. One of the most important of these safety considerations is that if you are a pilot, you are not nearly as hot a pilot as you think you are, and should act accordingly. A correlary to this idea is that you don’t really believe what you just read in the last sentence. Remember the famous aviation maxim: “There are old pilots, and there are bold pilots, but there are no old, bold pilots.”

IMPORTANT NOTE: the syllabus requires only eleven flights of about an hour each. However, this is a minimum time to master the skills and information the course hopes to impart. Students are encouraged to re-fly each syllabus hop until the maneuvers it emphasizes have been mastered. This is most easily done if you have a copy of Microsoft Flight Simulator 2002 Professional Edition running on a home computer capable of generating at least 15 frames per second. Access to the AS495L lab is possible during working days and hours (generally 0800-1700 on days when classes are scheduled) any time the computers are not in use for scheduled lab sessions. Apply to Dr. Rogers or the Departmental Administrative Assistant for entry to the lab if the door is locked.

Flight Syllabus Summary

Flight / Focus / Brief Description
Fam 1 / Sim and A/C Fam; Steep Turns / System Familiarization; Upright and Inverted Steep Turns
Aero 1,2 / VFR Acrobatics / Aileron Roll, Barrel Roll, Wingover, Loop, Half and Full Cuban Eight, Immelmann, Split-S with Visual horizon
Aero 3,4 / IFR Aerobatics / Aero 1 and 2 Maneuvers by Instrument Reference
Aero 5 / Aerobatics Check Flight / Precision VFR and IFR Aerobatics Check Flight
Upset 1 / Upset Recovery / Fighter Aircraft Upset Recovery Techniques
Upset 2 / Aircraft Fam; Upset Recovery / B767 Aircraft Fam; Airline Upset Recovery I
Upset 3 / Upset Recovery / Airline Upset Recovery II
Upset 4 / Upset Recovery Check Flight / Upset Recovery Techniques Check Flight

Microsoft Flight Simulator 2002 Selected Key Commands

Command /

Result

Simulator Controls
ALT / Toggles menu bar on/off at top of screen (flight is paused when menu is on)
SHIFT z / Cycles between various presentations of statistics at top of screen
p / Toggles between pause/fly simulator
F10 / Open Kneeboard and cycle through its four tabs. (Fifth F10 closes kneeboard.)
Aircraft Controls
. (Period) / Release parking brake when set; apply brakes when parking brake is released
F11 / Apply left brake
F12 / Apply right brake
CTRL . / Set parking brake
g / Toggle landing gear up/down
F5 / Retract flaps fully
F6 / Retract flaps in increments
F7 / Extend flaps in increments
F8 / Extend flaps fully
/ / Toggles spoilers (airbrakes) between extend/retract
View Commands
w / Cycle instrument through instrument panel presentations (including off)
s / Cycle views in the currently selected view window (must be in cockpit mode)
Slew Commands
y / Toggle slew mode on/off
SPACEBAR / Heading north; straight and level; cancel current commanded slew movement
Num Pad 5 / Freeze all slew movement
Num Pad 8 / Move forward
Num Pad 2 / Move backward
Num Pad 4 / Move left
Num Pad 8 / Move Right
F3 (or q) / Move up slowly
F4 / Move up quickly-
a / Move down slowly
F1 / Move down quickly
F2 / Freeze vertical movement

FAM-1

Purpose: Simulator, Aircraft, and Terrain Familiarization; Upright and Inverted Steep Bank Angle Turns at Constant Low Absolute Altitude

Aircraft: TA-45Location: Lihui Airport, Island of Kauai, Hawaii.Runway: 35

Wind: Calm.Initial A/C/ Position: Takeoff End Runway 35 Heading 348o

Configuration: Flaps and Speed Brakes (Spoilers) Up

Simulator File: Pilot’s choice of FAM-ACRO B (one forward, two spot plane views); or FAM-ACRO C (three forward, two spot plane views).

  1. Make a full thrust flaps up takeoff, rotating smartly at 140 KIAS to 10o nose up. Liftoff will be immediate. Retract the landing gear as soon as you are safely airborne. Climb straight ahead to 1000’ MSL. Level off and accelerate to 450 KIAS on runway heading.
  2. At 450-500 KIAS, fly along the coastline around the island of Kauai, maintaining 1000’ AGL or lower. Stay near the coast (no more than 5-10 miles inland at most). Practice altitude changes and heading changes of 90o or more, but on average parallel the coastline in a counterclockwise direction. As you become familiar with how the simulator handles, descend to a low absolute altitude and practice upright steep turns up to and including 90o of bank. Adjust throttle as need to maintain airspeed (about 88% should suffice for straight and level flight at 450-500 KIAS). When you are comfortable with upright steep turns, practice inverted steep turns with heading changes of 90o or more. Fly as close as you can to the ground without contacting the terrain.
  3. From time to time, pause the simulator give you time to analyze how stick input is affecting the flight path of the airplane. Also, use the pause time to examine the pulldown menu entries. (ALT reveals the menubar.)
  4. Observe and become familiar with topography, elevation, and similar terrain features as you circumnavigate the island. You will overfly a paved airfield on the southwest coast of the island. You should arrive back at Lihui heading north in about 20-30 minutes, depending on how much maneuvering you do and what average airspeed you maintain. (Actual time to fly around the island without delay is about 10-15 minutes.)
  5. When you arrive back at Lihui, turn inland and fly through the canyons of the Wiamea Valley (located on the west end of the island). Practice upright and inverted steep turn on your way back to the valley. When time expires, pause the simulator and exit the flight.

Things to Keep in Mind

  • The simulator is set to tolerate crashes. If you impact the terrain (and you probably will), you can usually fly out of the crash by getting the nose back above the horizon. Sometimes it is necessary to center the stick and then reposition it appropriately to raise the nose and climb out of a crash. If you stay on the ground very long after terrain impact, airspeed will drop off, and you may not be able to get airborne again. In that case, you can reset the flight and continue, which requires you to make a second takeoff. To get airborne quickly if you have to reset the simulator, you can use slew mode. For that matter, you can slew out of a crash if you are unsuccessful in flying out of it.
  • When you fly into the ground, analyze what happened carefully so that this activity—invariably fatal in an airplane—is less likely to occur the next time.
  • The faster you fly, the smaller the stick movement required to create a desired aircraft response.
  • As you roll into a steep bank from straight and level upright flight, the nose starts to drop. Counter this with back stick to increase angle of attack and lift. This will increase the vertical component of lift and prevent your losing altitude in turns at steep bank angles.
  • Read AGL altitude on the radar altimeter.
  • Inverted flight at constant altitude involves G forces no larger than –1.0 G. (Negative G forces increase in constant altitude constant bank inverted flight turns; e.g., in 60o bank inverted turn, -2.0 G’s are developed, corresponding to the 2.0 G force required to make an upright constant altitude 60o bank turn.)
  • One way to lower the nose in upright flight is to push the stick forward. This creates a G force less than 1.0. (Pushing forward on the stick to lower the nose in a real airplane would produce high negative G, which almost every pilot finds aggravating, and which will cause “red-out.”) A better way to lower the nose is to roll into a steep bank and let the nose fall through.
  • A corollary to the previous idea is that you should fly the simulator as if it were an airplane, not a computer game. In computer games, you jockey the joystick rapidly and freely in all directions to navigate where you want to go. However, a pilot in a real swept-wing airplane rarely or never pushes forward hard on the stick, and almost never moves the stick quickly. (An exception to this rule is in recovering from a nose down inverted upset when terrain impact is imminent.)
  • In upright constant altitude flight (positive G), dropping a wing causes you to turn in the direction of that wing. For example, if you drop the left wing in upright flight, the aircraft turns left, i.e., counterclockwise on the RMI. In inverted constant altitude flight (negative G), dropping a wing also causes you to turn in the direction of that wing. However, since you are inverted, the direction of turn on the RMI is opposite what it would be if you were upright. For example, if you drop the left wing in inverted flight, you will still turn to your left, but the direction of turn on the RMI will be clockwise.
  • If the nose is dropping toward the ground at high bank angle, you may not be able to stop this movement using pitch control alone, i.e., by increasing angle of attack to increase lift. Instead, roll to a shallower bank angle, raise the nose, then revert to the steeper bank angle. Note that this is analogous to what you do when recovering from a nose low unusual attitude: first roll in the shortest direction to level the wings, then raise the nose to the horizon.
  • If you pull enough G’s to induce a blackout, you may well have overstressed the aircraft.
  • When cresting a ridge at low altitude with the desire to “hug” the downhill terrain on the far side, roll inverted and pull through to lower the nose of the aircraft. As you approach the nose attitude, roll upright and continue flying close to the terrain.
  • In maneuvering through canyons, banks angles in excess of 90o may be required to stay close to the ground without flying into it.
  • Sustained G above 5.0 will cause a “blackout,” obscuring the terrain but not the instrument panel. Reduce G to restore your vision, using the gauges in the meantime to control the aircraft.
  • When flight time expires, if the computer is not scheduled and you wish to return to the field to land, feel free to do so. However, the intent is for you to practice maneuvering until your lab time runs out, then pause the simulator and exit the flight wherever you happen to find yourself. This course is about all attitude flight and upset recovery, not about how to take off and land an airplane, something you are already expert at doing.

AEROBATICS-1 & 2

Purpose: Acrobatic maneuvering under visual meteorological conditions.

Aircraft: TA45Location: Lihui Airport, Island of Kauai, Hawaii.Runway: 35

Wind: Calm.Initial A/C/ Position: Takeoff End Runway 35 Heading 348o

Configuration: Flaps and Speed Brakes (Spoilers) Up

Simulator File: Pilot’s choice of FAM-ACRO B (one forward, two spot plane views); or FAM-ACRO C (three forward, two spot plane views)

  1. Take off and proceed to a suitable acrobatics area. The low-lying area on the south coast of Kauai is ideal: reverse course after takeoff and fly along the south coast to these flatlands.
  2. Practice constant heading rolls—aileron roll, 4-point roll, perhaps 8-point roll—for 5 minutes.
  3. Practice loops, Immelmanns, and Split-Ss for 15 minutes.
  4. Practice half and full Cuban eights for 10 minutes.
  5. Practice barrel rolls and wingovers for 20 minutes (these are the most difficult simulator maneuvers to perform to a high degree of precision).
  6. For each of steps 2-5, pause the simulator from time to time and analyze what has been happening. Observe carefully and understand clearly the relationship between airspeed, attitude, heading, and vertical speed changes , and readings on the corresponding aircraft instruments.
  7. When time expires, pause the simulator and exit the flight

Things to Keep in Mind

  • The class notes and lectures address how to perform the aerobatic maneuvers required on this flight.
  • Start aerobatic maneuvers at a low even thousand-foot altitude, or right on the deck if you are flying over the water. (In actual aerobatics instruction, you would use a minimum altitude of 10,000’ to allow time to recover from inadvertent unusual attitudes.)
  • Simulated aircraft responses to control stick backpressure are not very realistic in the transition from high G to low G flight. In a real fighter, you must keep stick back pressure to create high positive G; if you relax back pressure, the G force immediately drops. In the simulator, you may actually have to use a little forward stick to get the G force to return to around 1.0. This is especially true in overhead maneuvers such as the loop.
  • Fighter type aircraft are very responsive to control stick movement. This is true in the simulator as well. Use gentle stick movements to avoid over controlling the airplane.
  • In the simulator—much more than in a real airplane—you quickly lose sight of the horizon as the nose rises above the horizon. (This is because in a real airplane you can swivel your neck to see up, down, and to either side. The simulator does not currently support this ability gracefully.) Once you lose sight of the terrain in a wingover maneuver, you must use instruments to control your aircraft until the terrain once again comes into sight. This is especially true in overhead maneuvers such as the loop.
  • Even when the terrain is in sight, a pilot performing aerobatics uses available instruments to ensure the airplane is describing the desired flight path.
  • It is very easy to overstress the airplane by pulling back too hard at the outset of a loop.
  • A common error in overhead maneuvers is too much G in the first 90o of pitch and too little G in the transition from nose up vertical to inverted wings level with the nose on the horizon. To keep the rate of pitch change constant, you must increase stick back pressure as the airplane progresses to inverted with the nose on the horizon, since airspeed is constantly decreasing and more horizontal tail movement is required to induce the same pitch change.
  • The airspeed for starting a split S should be low, about the same as the final airspeed in an Immelmann. If you begin at a high rather than low airspeed, significantly more altitude loss will be required to achieve constant altitude upright flight at the bottom of the maneuver. If you start with a high airspeed at the same altitude you reached after performing an Immelmann, and the Immelmann began close to the ground, you have a pretty good chance of digging a grave for yourself and your airplane. Or you can pull hard, avoid flying into the ground, but induce such high G that the wings come off the airplane. A third alternative is high G, accelerated stall, and terrain impact due to failure to halt rate of descent: you can’t recover from a nose-down accelerated stall without releasing back pressure on the stick. If you doubt all this, try starting a split S at high airspeed to confirm the claims are true. Better to learn hard truths in a simulator than in flight. Most mistakes in an airplane are learning experiences. Terrain impact due to pilot error in a real jet airplane, however, teaches you the last thing you will ever learn.
  • Excessive positive G causes “blackout.” Excessive negative G causes “red out.” Both can cause structural failure of an airplane and sudden flight termination in both real and simulated flight, but this feature has been disabled in the simulator as we use it.

AEROBATICS-3 & 4

Purpose: Acrobatic maneuvering under instrument meteorological conditions.

Aircraft: TA45Location: Lihui Airport, Island of Kauai, Hawaii.Runway: 35

Wind: Calm.Initial A/C/ Position: Takeoff End Runway 35 Heading 348o