Scudrunners

Congrats!

Like the guy going off the runway, in a 73 I think, he was trying to steer it with ailerons -- damn, and no, it didn't work!!!

There is so much unconscious pilot induced loss of control it's scary. I always and have told numerous F/O's over the years that with no autopilot and you want to look around or scratch your balls or do something that takes you away from flying the aircraft, let go of the yoke, do what you need to do and then grad it again when you are paying attention. I don't even want to count number of times I have been close to a spiral or at least drift many degrees off course because of unconscious inputs from someone doing something else whilst hands are on the yoke.

One of the people I taught to fly a Pitts, put this on the dash of his S-1C:



I may have exclaimed it to him, on occasion.

unconscious inputs

Exactly. I call it the "Bambi Death Grip" ... someone is paralyzed by fear
and frozen solid and is instinctively pulling back (for example) because they
are pointed at the ground, and don't want to be, any more. They want to
go up. I believe AF447 and Colgan 3407 both suffered from that phenomenon,
but four bars try to pretend they didn't, in order to not learn anything from
those accidents, so they can repeat them.

Often when you speak to people in that mental state, they don't even respond,
they are so traumatized. Their frontal lobes have shut down, and their tiny
lizard brain on the top of their spine is flying the airplane.

What could possibly go wrong?

Oddly, no one ever mentions this. I saw it a lot, though. Mind you, I remember
teaching a group of IFR-rated hot-shot Mooney PPLs to fly formation, and every
single one of them vomited when they were getting dual from me. Even the guy
with the PhD. A real PhD in physics, from Queens, not an aviation PhD. Nice guy.
His crankshaft broke later, but that's a different story.

The C172 manual used to have a procedure for VFR pilot descent
through clouds.

It was "hands-off", trimmed for a gentle descent, using only feet
for directional control.

Sound familiar? Nah.

Pilots are certain that if they pee in the stew it will improve the flavor.

https://www.barnstormers.com/classified ... atid=15818



Slightly out of my budget (for now) but it you have the means this thing looks like the most fun you can have with your pants on.

S-2C has wonderful ailerons. Does marvellous torque rolls and double hammerheads.

Colonel wrote: ↑

Thu May 21, 2020 5:20 pm

The C172 manual used to have a procedure for VFR pilot descent
through clouds.

It was "hands-off", trimmed for a gentle descent, using only feet
for directional control.

Sound familiar? Nah.

Pilots are certain that if they pee in the stew it will improve the flavor.

Isn't that a technique of establishing best glide speed? Let go of the damned yoke, stop pitching for some rudimentary speed (which is probably wrong for that given condition?) Set a nose up trim and let her rip...

I was teaching the autopilot to fly the other day (wife). She was over controlling the shit out of the plane, because of the turbulence, which was really pilot inducing oscillations. I told her to let go of the controls. The plane would pitch up from a bump, then it would correct itself and pitch down, then come back up. A great demo in positive dynamic stability. While it was still bumpy as shit, it was a "smoother" experience. I think it reinforced the mantra of not needing a death grip.

Don't get me started with helicopters... Letting go of the cyclic is doable, but the craft isn't positively stable. It's the devil and wants to crash. All of them. But, two fingers is all you need. Even in the most demanding phases of flight (loss of hydraulics EP) slope, dust landing... light on the controls will get you through it nicely.

Ever flown an R22?

Don't.

Ever flown an R22?

Yes, a lot I had one in my flight school for helicopter training.

Don't.

Why not?

I had a 30 minute trip in the R22. Stick was a bit to far aft in the hover for my liking.

Of course, that might have had something to do with the combined weight of the plugs in the cockpit...