Princeton Airport Newsletter – July 2013

You have all heard instructors say that you need “to be ahead” of the airplane.  Just what does that mean?  How do I get my brain to stay ahead of where the airplane actually is?

It all has to do with the brain.  After all, it doesn’t take a lot of muscle to control the airplane.  Aviating is about 98% mental and 2% physical.

A few examples might help to see where I am headed.  Radio frequencies while enroute need to be changed as each flight following agency hands you off to the next sector.  In your preflight planning, you can note the approach control frequencies that you will encounter and can anticipate when a particular frequency will come up next.  Setting it into the standby frequency will keep you ahead of the airplane and ready for the next change.

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When I was a student, I learned the golden rule of standard traffic pattern entries: Always enter the downwind leg on a 45-degree angle and at pattern altitude. This is the best and safest entry, because it enables you to see other pilots in the pattern and enables those in the pattern to see you. It also allows you to establish yourself about a half-mile from the runway on a downwind ground track, which puts you in a familiar position from which to complete the pattern and your landing.

Everyone agrees that this is the way to do it, the question is how? How do you safely position yourself to make that 45-degree entry to the downwind leg at a non-towered airport, take the wind and terrain (airport advisories are not always available and you can only discern so much from a sectional) into account, and get a good look at an unfamiliar airport? Just use your heading indicator (HI), which some pilots call the directional gyro (DG), and think in three dimensions.To fly a specific heading, you turn the airplane until the desired heading is under the lubber line at the top of your heading indicator. You’ll align it to the magnetic compass before flight (and periodically during flight). When you enter the runway and prepare to take off, the heading indicator should match the magnetic alignment of the runway you’re using.

Most HIS also have tick marks every 45 degrees. They are used when intercepting VOR radials, for example. You can also use them to accurately fly 45 degrees away from the desired runway, and then to reverse your course to give a perfect pattern entry every time.

READ ON

Congratulations, Chris Almonte