All procedures are GENERALIZED.
Fly the maneuver in accordance with the Pilot Operating Handbook (POH)
and/or current Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs)
Primary and Supporting Method:
- Specific principal instruments indicate pitch, bank, and power control requirements during maneuvers
- These are your primary instruments while those that back up these indications will be supporting
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Pitch Instruments:
- Attitude indicator
- Altimeter
- Airspeed Indicator
- Vertical Speed Indicator
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Bank Instruments:
- Attitude Indicator
- Heading Indicator
- Magnetic Compass
- Turn Coordinator
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Power Instruments:
- Airspeed Indicator
- Engine Instruments
- Manifold Pressure
- Tachometer
- Engine Pressure Ratio (EPR)
Basic Attitude Instrument Flying Skills:
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Cross-Checking:
- Human error, instrument error, and atmospheric changes make it impossible to establish an attitude and keep performance constant
- Cross-checking is the continuous scanning of flight instruments to the maintain desired attitude and performance
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Selected Radial Cross-Check:
- 80-90% of scan is focused on the attitude indicator
- The scan begins with attitude and branches out to various other instruments, but the scan always return to attitude before checking the next instrument branches will depend on maneuver
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Rectangular Cross-Check:
- Scan moves in a clockwise or counter-clockwise direction around the basic six-pack, thus creating a rectangular pattern
- Gives equal weight to each instrument
- Can lengthen the time between checking instruments critical for maneuver being performed
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Common Cross-Check:
- Common cross-check for a beginner is rapidly looking at different instruments without knowing why or what they are looking for
- With experience the common cross-check becomes a habit, you look at the instruments needed for the given situation, you know what to look for and how long to look
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Instrument Interpretation:
- Understanding the information provided by cross-checking
- Requires thorough study and analysis
- An understanding of both construction and operating principles is necessary
- The more a pilot knows about the instruments in his or her plane the better they will be able to understand the information being given to them
- By knowing trends and limitations of instruments a pilot will know what other instruments to cross-check to get the complete picture
- Such things as knowing what pitch attitudes to use for a given rate of climb or what power settings will give an approximate airspeed will reduce pilots workload
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Aircraft Control:
- Taking the instrument information that has been interpreted and making physical adjustments to flight controls in response
- When using instruments instead of outside references the control inputs are the same, but must be smooth and precise
- There are four components to aircraft control:
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Pitch Control:
- Controlling the rotation of the aircraft around the lateral axis by movement of the elevators in response to instrument interpretation
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Bank Control:
- Controlling angle made by the wing and the horizon, after interpreting appropriate instruments movement of the ailerons to roll the aircraft about its longitudinal axis
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Power Control:
- Interpretation indicates a need for adjustment in thrust
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Trim Control:
- Trim removes control pressure once desired attitude is attained
- Improper trim will cause a need for constant force need on the controls, this adds distraction and leads to abrupt and unintentional attitude changes
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Common Errors:
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Fixation:
- The tendency to stare at one instrument and negate the rest
- If off altitude, you may stare at altimeter until the desired altitude is regained
- While a change in the bank is occurring tendency will be to stare at heading indicator until reaching the desired heading, this will negate all power and pitch instruments
- The tendency to stare at one instrument and negate the rest
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Omission:
- Leaving a particular instrument out of scan
- In a climb, you may reference altitude, airspeed, and vertical speed but inadvertently omit altimeter
- Leaving a particular instrument out of scan
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Emphasis:
- Checking one or a few instruments more readily than the rest
- Generally the case with less experienced pilots because they may not understand an instrument fully, and tendency is to rely on what you know
- Students may be able to hold altitude well by use of altimeter but can not do so with only using the attitude indicator
- With low time pilots, there is a tendency to either not believe instruments because they do not agree with what they "feel" is right or the pilot will omit instrument errors
- With more experienced pilots, a standard interpretation error is the tendency to carry over knowledge from one plane to the next
- Example: flying a low-performance plane like a high-performance one
Airman Certification Standards:
Conclusion:
- Consider practicing maneuvers on a flight simulator to introduce yourself to maneuvers or knock-off rust
- Still looking for something? Continue searching:
References:
- Federal Aviation Administration - Pilot/Controller Glossary
- Instrument Flying Handbook