The Art of the Touch and Go First of all, what are these touch and go’s everyone talks about? Basically, the idea is to land the airplane on the runway (touching down) reconfigure for takeoff while still rolling down the runway, then add full power and takeoff again without stopping (the GO part). Why do… Continue reading Touch and Go’s
Topic Category: Student Pilot
Go Arounds
If at first, you fail, then GO AROUND and try, try again. There’s no shame in realizing your approach down to the runway isn’t looking so great (in fact its a true skill to be able to realize ahead of time when things aren’t going so hot), and electing to Go Around and try again,… Continue reading Go Arounds
Aiming Points
Something to Aim For Whether shooting a bow and arrow, or landing a plane, it’s always important to have something to aim for (aim small miss small). When aiming to land on a runway, if you aim to simply land somewhere on the big piece of pavement, you will probably accomplish just that, but not… Continue reading Aiming Points
Low Approaches
How Low Can You Go? Well that’s the million dollar question isn’t it? Hopefully low enough to put the airplane on the runway, but not below it! At this point in your flight training you’ve already been practicing flying the airplane straight and level at safe altitudes, now you just have to do the exact… Continue reading Low Approaches
Highspeed Taxiing
Time to Fly! (almost) Highspeed taxiing is the same as regular taxiing, simply done on the runway, with a little more power, and moving faster to get you used to the control feel at higher speeds you will eventually be landing at. While you perform this during every normal takeoff, the point of this maneuver… Continue reading Highspeed Taxiing
Reading the Weather – TAFs
Terminal Aerodrome Forecasts TAFs are very similar to METARs in the sense that they use the same coding abbreviations and a very similar structure. Obviously the main difference between a METAR and a TAF is that the TAF is a forecast while the METAR is just a quick snapshot in time, and is instantly old… Continue reading Reading the Weather – TAFs
Reading the Weather – METARs
METARs METARs are a snapshot in time, a simple observation of what the weather was doing at a particular moment. They are an excellent tool to tell you if the weather is okay right now, but offer no forecast into the future. REMEMBER: They are a direct observation of what is happening at and over… Continue reading Reading the Weather – METARs
How To Practice Stalls
The Fun Part! How to properly practice stalls in the real airplane. Hopefully after watching the video above you will have a better understanding of the process of actually stalling the airplane, and realize it really is a gentle and safe maneuver to practice with your CFI. Remember: Choose a safe altitude (recommended that you… Continue reading How To Practice Stalls
Stalled Airflow
Check out the video above to have a look at what actually happens to the airflow over the wing of an airplane when it stalls. Some important stuff: Two important things to notice from the diagrams above: You do generate more lift at higher angles of attack (however with more lift you generate substantially… Continue reading Stalled Airflow
Angle Of Attack
The Angle it Attacks Angle of Attack, or AOA as we’ll call it going forward, is technically defined as such: THE ANGLE AT WHICH THE RELATIVE WIND MEETS THE CHORD LINE OF THE WING. Now, that sounds awful fancy, so let’s break it down a bit. The Chord Line is the line that goes from… Continue reading Angle Of Attack