OCR Text |
Show By G&picUn. Hesuvand Bnaakei BASIC FLIGHT INSTRUCTION LESSON NUMBER THREE Hank Sorry. Guess I'm so anxious to learn I did it unconsciously. Robinson Yeah? Well, remember if you want to go wool-gathering, an airplane's not the place for the job. Keep your mind on a single track! Now look down. Hank How strange things look from here the hangars look no bigger than shacks. Robinson That's something you'll have to learn to Identify buildings and places in spite of the strange look from above. See that highway over there? Hank Yeah, looks like a thin brown line. Robinson It's a good long, straight stretch of roadbed, and I am going to swing the plane into position to fly straight along the highway, keeping to the right Then I'll let you take the stick and put your feet on the rudder bar. Hank Gee! That will be great! Robinson All right Take hold of the stick, put your feet on the rudder rud-der bar, and keep the nose of the plane on the horizon. Keep the stick in neutral. Don't grab the stick or jam down the rudder bar just lightly, light-ly, easily, naturally. Now, see what you can do. That's fine! Look out the nose of the plane Is falling. Hey, your left wing is low you're sideslipping side-slipping inward. Pull the stick over the other way. Now look toward the highway you've got so far away you can hardly see it. That's because you were nervous and let the. plane get off course. Look at the altimeter. What does it say? Hank Reads 1500 feet. Robinson That's right How do you feel? Hank Fine as silk. Robinson Good! Now I'll take over. Going to set her down In a minute or two and I'll show how easy landing is. Hank But I thought that making a good landing is one of the most important impor-tant things for a pilot to know. Robinson It is. What I meant to say is that I'll show you how easy it is when you know how to land. But let's be more specific. There are three things Involved In making a landing the gliding approach to the field, leveling off over the field, setting set-ting the plane down, and guiding it slowly down the runway until it stops. Hank 7 didn't think it is as easy as you make it sound. Robinson But It is after you learn how. You see, Hank, you get all these things fixed In your mind so that everything becomes almost automatic. You'll notice that I'm heading into the wind for a landing. Hank noticed. Is that necessary? Robinson It is very necessary. Turning the plane into a head wind for landing means that the speed of the plane Is decreased by just the speed of the wind, and the more gently you can glide a plane Into a landing, the better. Hank But how can a fellow up here be sure of the wind direction? Robinson There's hardly a landing land-ing field that isn't equipped with a wind indicator In plane sight. But in case of an emergency landing, you'll be able to determine the wind direction by the play of the wind on trees, on water, on smoke from chimneys, or even from clothes Hank remember, you told me, but I just didn't look down. Robinson And where would you look if you were coming down? There's a plane on the field, right where I intended to land. A fixed rule of flying is that If a plane is taking off or landing, you stay off until the field Is clear for a landing. Hank So you are just circling until it is clear. Robinson Right And now we can put her down. First I cut the gun. Hank Cut the gun? Robinson That means , close the throttle. The purpose is to lose as much altitude as possible at the lowest low-est flying speed. That puts the plane Into a glide. The angle of the glide should be sharp enough to prevent stalling but not steep enough to cause an increase of speed. It should read now? Hank One thousand feet. Robinson You've learned to read the altimeter all right, and now I'm going to teach you how to keep the plane on a straight course. . . . Take hold of the controls no, no, don't grip just 6ort of feel them, until you get the idea. I just want you to feel what happens when I am handling the controls. I hardly move either the stick or the rudder. See how easily the plane responds? Now we're flying straight and level. Look at that barn over there! Honk 7 jee it. Robinson All right I am going to let you take over, and I want you to fly straight for that barn. Remember, Remem-ber, don't grip the stick just hold it easy. Now I'm taking my hands off. Jli 7"v Throllls forword ond bodeword StlcV tldtwoyi eon Ir oh right ond ltf ailerons ( pKSS NL IT J be Just what It says a glide: a long, easy, smooth approach to the field. Hank We seem to be coming down just that way. Robinson We are. And now we level off. We're about twenty-five feet off the ground, so, to level, I pull back the stick, and hold it See how she's losing speed? Hey, don't lean over the side of the plane your shifted weight will throw the plane out of balance! 77ani But how can you tell how far above the ground the plane is? Robinson Sit straight in the seat and look ahead just to the side of the nose. Now we're coming to the stall. I pull the stick back farther and farther, to keep the plane from nose diving, and that raises the elevators ele-vators as high as possible. Now we're only bout three feet from the ground. Could let her drop now, but we'll ease her down and down and now we're only a foot from the ground. Now with the stick 'way back we make a perfect three-point landing both wheels and the tail skid down on the ground at the same time. 77ont Gosh, Bill, but that landing was a beauty smooth as glass. Robinson That's the kind of landing land-ing to make, Hank. But remember, even the best of pilots once in a while will turn in a bumpy landing. Robinson Be here at ten o'clock tomorrow morning. If the weather is decent we'll take off. Hank Okay. So long until tomorrow. Robinson Hello, Hank! Hank Good morning. Looks like it's good flying weather or would I know? Robinson It's splendid flying weather. Got your helmet and goggles? gog-gles? Hank Right here. i v Sliti forword ond backward tvddot pedals control rudder, I'vSl' rlahl ond left ff-JV'"" hanging on a line. If the wind is fairly brisk you can glide in at a steeper angle than if you are coming In on almost dead air. ... Of course, a landing on a well-laid-out field is much simpler than one where you've been forced down in somebody's pasture pas-ture or wheatfield; but you always have to remember that a pilot never knows when something will go wrong and he'll have to land in the most impossible places and under the most unfavorable conditions. . . . So you have to plan your landing before you start to make it. You want to know in advance that you can make the landing spot that there are no obstacles in the path. And try not to pick a landing spot just beyond some tall obstruction. In that case you'd probably have to come down at too steep an angle. . . . But on a wcll-lald-out field, we'll do it this way. Hank Why did you make a circle instead of landing? Robinson Didn't jrou see a plane on the field? Hank No didn't notice. Robinson Have you already forgotten for-gotten what I told you about keeping keep-ing your eyes open, and looking in all directions at the same time? Robinson Good. Climb up, and we'll get going. Fix your safety belt. Hank It's fixed. Robinson We're going to do some real flying this morning. All right, Casey. Casey Switch off and throttle closed. Robinson Switch off and throttle closed. Casey Contact Robinson Contact Here wre go, Hank. Put on your earphones. Hank Gee forgot that. Robinson You'll have to stop forgetting. for-getting. Hank, if you're going to make a pilot You've got to go over and over in your mind the things to remember, until you'll remember them without being conscious of it. But I think you'll learn all right Hank Well, I sure will try. Robinson You'll make the grade all right Now the air's so still that it doesn't make any difference which way we take off, but we'll go this way because it gives us the longest run. All set? Hank All set. Robinson Okay here we go. I'll keep the controls until we get altitude alti-tude . . . What does your altimeter 1 You go ahead and see what you can do. . . . Doing fine, Hank. Watch the nose. Pull the stick back a little. lit-tle. Keep the nose on the horizon that's the best guide for level flying. If you happen to get into fog and can't see the horizon, you'll know when you're nosing down the revo-lutions-per-minute instrument will show an increase of speed if the nose is down. . . . Keep the nose on the horizon. That's good. Now we're over the barn and we want to turn 'round so that we'll fly in the opposite direction. direc-tion. That means that we must bank to the left. . . . First gently apply pressure on the stick forward and to the left At the same time apply pressure on the left rudder pedal until un-til the proper degree of bank and radius of turn are obtained. As the ship begins to bank, a slight backward back-ward pressure is also applied to the stick. Release left rudder pressure, allowing the airflow from the propeller pro-peller to streamline the rudder to the radius of the turn already obtained. Still holding back pressure, bring the stick back to neutral position. This is the complete control action required re-quired to make a turn to the left or right . . . The recovery to straight and level flight is accomplished by exerting pressure to the right on the stick and rudder and easing off the back pressure of the suck. As the wings return to level position release all pressures from stick and rudder pedals, . . . And now we've made the turn and you did a swell job for a first try. Next time you'll do better. We'll try it again. Rememberput Remem-berput the stick over and the rudder rud-der in the direction you want to go. That's it! Now apply back pressure on the stick! Good! But don't hold the stick so tight. You don't havo to use force just sort of lead the thing. Now you're doing fine. And of course, if you want to go in the opposite direction you do just the opposite of what you've just done. Shall we try a right bank now? llanltYll try, but I don't think I can do that so well. Somehow it doesn't feel just right to me. Robinson I know. A right bank isn't easy for a lot of fellows at first, but you have to be able to bank right as well as left if you're going go-ing to be a good flier. Now bank to the right right stick and rudder. . . . We sure fell out of that one. I'll take control. The reason we went into o'dive was that you didn't apply bock pressure on the stick. The engine pulled the nose down. . , . Now, try it again and don't get excited. I'll take over if you don't get it just right but you'll make it Now, let her go. That's fine. Couldn't do better than that myself. . . . Now do another to the left This time put the stick over a little farther, far-ther, and when you get her well on her side put on the top rudder and pull the stick 'way back. . . . See how fast you turned that time? To come out of a bank, after you get 'round, move the slick a moment before the rudder, past the central position, to the opposite side. After you get the rudder in central you return the stick to vertical. Now, do you think you can do a really fast bank and turn? Hank 7 don't knotv but I can try. |