Gene Lee of The HDPilot sent along this video, noting, “When’s the last time you gave some S-Turns-Across-A-Road, or Turns-About-A-Point a try? If you’re like me, it’s been a long time. Maybe even as far back as when you took your Private Pilot check ride.
I hope that you’ll come away both intrigued and inspired to try your hand again at the skills that earned you your Primate Pilot ticket.”
I was initially happy to see someone encouraging pilots to work on their fundamental flying skills. Steep turns and S-turns were flown while Gene was describing the objectives and results, and displaying the CloudAhoy graphics. These maneuvers when done correctly definitely help develop and maintain good flying skills. Unfortunately there were significant omissions and/or errors in how these maneuvers were explained and it is important to understand what is missing.
On the steep turns, there was no mention of coordinating the power to maintain airspeed and using the rudder to maintain coordination. These are exactly the elements missing or performed incorrectly during a base to final turn which results in a stall-spin. On the S-turns, the objective was described as keeping the turn tight on one side and wide on the other. This is incorrect and could result in failure to properly anticipate where a turn should be started (resulting in overshooting the runway). The correct ground track is to have the same distance on each side of a line where the wind is blowing across that line so you learn to deal with headwinds and tailwinds. And again, there was no mention of using the power to maintain a stabilized airspeed. This is especially noteworthy considering that so many loss of control accidents appear to result at least in part from lack of airspeed awareness.
Gene’s idea to practice these maneuvers is really good. Just be careful to thoroughly consult the FAA Airplane Flying Handbook and Airman Certification Standards to include all of the elements.
Very useful video segment — super production values & narration. Never had heard of “Cloud Ahoy” & what it can do. Like that you filmed from “hangar to hangar”.
It was funny & true haven’t really focused on practicing the basics since my “Primate Pilot Exam”!! (Your typo — but my flying seems at that level sometimes”!)