Re: Balanced vs Uncoordinated

On Tue, 30 Sep 2008 18:55:16 -0700 (PDT), "Ol Shy & Bashful"
<selwaykid@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:

On Sep 29, 9:03 am, Stealth Pilot <notranspon...@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
wrote:
On Mon, 29 Sep 2008 04:30:24 -0700 (PDT), "Ol Shy & Bashful"

I'm fairly certain you aren't landing with the
longitidual axis all askew with sloppy rudder control?

you would kill yourself in a Tailwind if you did that.

secrets to a good landing:
1 longitudinal centreline of the aircraft paralllel to the direction
of flight.
2 no sideslip
3 no excess speed
4 no vertical speed at the point of touchdown.

crack all 4 at once and you will have a greaser.


Like you, (I'm presuming here) I've got a lot of tailwheel flying time
in a wide variety of aircraft in both single and twin engine aircraft.
Most of it is doing takeoff and landings rather than once every 2-3
hours.

I havent had access to as many aircraft as you have enjoyed.
I spent 5 hours or so doing my tailwheel training in and Auster J1
Autocrat. Soon after that I bought a share in a W8 Tailwind. I've
since bought out the other share holders. I've enjoyed over 350 hours
in the Tailwind.

As Dudley and others have pointed out, much of the recent discussions
seemed to have slipped into a quagmire of animosity and personal
attack rather than an exchange of information, techniques and
procedures.

we're in different countries. our countries safety culture is awash
with useless quirky questions designed to make students feel
inadequate. the questions have little relevance to competent flying so
these days I shoot the bastards down at every opportunity.
they are not contributing to safer aviation.
sorry but you looked like a rabbit when I was out shooting rabbits.

I'm still adamant that 80% of the pilots flying today don't know how
to use their feet properly while flying aircraft and could care less
if the ball is centered or not.

in the tailwind failure to keep the slip indicator centred will lose
you at least 5 knots off the optimum cruise speed.

in lots of turns, especially those made in the legs after initial as
you climb to circuit height, failure to keep the bat centred will mean
that you just wont turn. it isnt uncommon to need to apply right
rudder in a left turn to centre the bat. I put it down to the
aerodynamic effects of fuselage lift.

Is it any wonder they don't have any
idea why they have trouble in landings with a cross wind? Or how about
the ones who get into inadvertant spins and no clue how it happens?
And the undortunates who get into a spin while attempting to land and
get sloppy with rudder control causing them to become News At 9 and
all on board fatal?

much of that comes from confusing the hell out of students during the
learning process!
we have been aviating for over a hundred years now and most of the
aviation since the late 50's is what I'd call 'modern aviation'. In
the last 50 years there has been a lot of accumulated understanding of
how students progress economically and competently through the
learning process.

much of achieving competent aeronautical understanding comes from
progressing the student's knowledge from a competent understanding of
simple first principles, followed by some further experience, then
followed in stages by further teaching and further experience, until
the student has a robust and sophisticated understanding of the
complex theory. (the understanding of which is one of mankinds finest
achievements after computers)

there is no point in exposing students to questions arising in the
last stages of training when they are still in the first stages of
their understanding. all you do is confuse them.
a secondary effect is that they can give up and quit because it can
seem that no matter how much they've learnt they still dont understand
anything.

it is actually a hell of a problem for the very experienced instructor
because over time, as your own familiarity with the subject matter
grows, you lose track of the learning difficulties that the students
are experiencing.
first principle in teaching is that you can only teach at the pace
that the student is learning. ...that is if you are actually trying to
teach them.
modern teaching tries to counter the experience difficulties by
establishing as teaching goals what competencies can be expected of a
student at each stage and orienting the teaching toward achieving
those competencies at each stage of training.

I can see in your question the 'old instructor' problem :-)
it beat me and I gave up teaching because of it. no matter that I
taught experienced people to expertise, I found myself finding it
harder and harder to slow to the learning speed of the novices.
(I was teaching industrial control systems programming)

just take this as a gentle dig in the ribs and be more aware that
asking students esoteric advanced questions may not be helping them.
spend the time helping them to a competent understanding of the basic
principles and a lot of the modern malaise will vanish.

mmmv (my mileage may vary)
Stealth Pilot

Cheers
Ol S&B
( I hope I get to buy you a beer one day)
.

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