Air Excercises

[vanNostrum]

What  exercises provide the best '' bang for the buck '' to regain currency and proficiency for VFR flying  after a long hiatus ?
Steep turns and slow flight ?
Anything else?
Or watching few hrs of Flight Chops should do it

[Colonel]

You could watch some Porkchops videos, but then
you will probably poke out your eyes which will make
it difficult to pass your next medical.

My suggestion is to learn to fly slowly and accurately,
which will help your landings immensely.

A favorite exercise of mine is to cover up the dash of
the aircraft entirely with paper and go flying.

[b]Look outside[/b].  Ok, maybe don't cover up the ball until
you can relax enough to feel your spine twisting when
it's out of center.

Take off with no flight instruments.  Full throttle in your
trainer in the summer, put the cowl on the horizon.

Climb up to 3,000 AGL - altimeter not required - and
slow down, put some flaps down to keep the nose down
- airspeed indicator not required - and do some banking
around a point.  Use your feet to stop the yawing of
the nose.

Do some turns, at increasing angle of bank.  Get the
stall warning going.  Keep it on continuously as you
maneuver in turns, climbs and descents.  Learn to
use the throttle and pitch to keep the AOA at Clmax.

Use the rudders when the ailerons are displaced
from neutral.  You will require more constant right
rudder as the nose comes up, and more constant
left rudder as the nose goes down.

Do not panic if you momentarily exceed Clmax.  The
aircraft will not explode.  What you need to do is

[b]NOT FUCKING PICK UP THE WING WITH AILERON[/b]

and instead just let go of the controls, and rudder
to stop the yaw, and you will instantly recover from
the stall and avoid a spin.

If pilots stop helping, aircraft fly much better - see
Colgan 3407 and AF 447 which might have been
"learning experiences" but probably weren't "good jobs"
in today's lexicon.  The AF 447 pilot held the stick
all the way back for 3.5 minutes until they hit the
water.  Good job!  Too bad pilots insist on using
their lizard brains to perform complex tasks.

Be sure to trim so that you have a slight back pressure
in the stall, so that when you let go of the stick/yoke
the nose drops and you start flying again.

Anyways.  I'm a shitty pilot according to many, but
I was a flight instructor continuously for a quarter
of a century, so perhaps I have a clue.

Learn to fly slowly.  Any asshole can fly fast.

Today's Fun Fact:  At mach 3 in an SR-71, a
[b]ONE DEGREE[/b] pitch change results in a [b]3,000[/b]
FPM climb/descent.  See the lift equation.

[vanNostrum]

I printed your reply.
Thank you .
Great suggestions.

[David MacRay]

Part of why I use too much aileron after a long hiatus is because I keep driving so that makes me think of the yoke as the steering wheel. Plane starts turning left while stalling I feel the need to turn the yoke right.

Like the colonel said, don't. It's not a steering wheel. Think about it as a yoke and what it does. Visualize the function as often as you can between flying, it will help. And use the rudder but don't skid.

[vanNostrum]

When I started flying I had to make a very conscious effort about which pedal to press
Instinctively if the nose yaw to the left I would press on the left pedal for this is how I steered my soapbox cart when I was a child
However never had a problem picking up a falling wing as I tattooed in my brain ''step on high''

[ScudRunner-d95]

put your VNC up on the wall throw a dart at it and navigate to where it hits and back from your local airport without any aids just VFR and map reading olde school style.

This will save your bacon one day.

[Colonel]

Heading, time and the 1/60 rule ... lost in the mists of time.

[cgzro]

I a a big fan of a falling leaf. Get the plane stalled and just descend stalled and keep wings level with rudder and no aileron.