Steep Turns and Spirals

It's been 25 days since my last flight. The demands of home and work have been far too heavy for me take some personal time for flying. I canceled a precious booking with I2 for a Rig Trip up to Dawson Creek, BC (lovely scenery and got to hang out with my brother who drove down from Fort Nelson) and a second flight scrapped when I2 suffered a minor neck injury.

This was the last flight I had booked with I2. She's nearly impossible to get a flight with, even when booking a full month in advance. I was quite concerned that I would be brutal in the air due to the long layoff. I was slow getting my butt in gear this morning and as a result I showed up later than I would have liked. After reviewing the logs I ran outside for the walk around FIFA. For some reason I could not find her! I walked the entire apron twice searching for the aircraft. My fear was that someone had taken her overnight and not returned. I headed back for the dispatch area and when I asked where FIFA was no one seemed to know. Oh great! I peeked into the maintenance hanger and there she was. I still took my time with the walk around (from memory this time which I didn't expect I'd be able to do after 25 days) and quickly checked the weather and completed the weight and balance.

The briefing with I2 was quick because I had done my homework. A Steep Turn is one that exceeds 30 degrees of bank. The angle will result in the nose wanting to go below the horizon and thus a loss of altitude, so power and back pressure will be required to keep it level. With the increased load factor the stall speed will be increased. There was some math in the FTM that allowed you to calculate it but I couldn't recall it. The potential result of this is that you could stall the aircraft or over bank and end up in a Spiral Dive.

The Spiral Dive is a Steep Descending Turn, with a rapid increase in rate of turn, airspeed, and vertical rate (loss of altitude). If not identified and recovered from properly, the spiral can increase which will more than likely result in aircraft overstress as opposed to flight into terrain. The recovery steps once the spiral and turn direction are identified are:

1) Cut the power
2) Roll the wings level
3) Ease the nose up
4) Add power as required

One must be careful not to attempt to use the elevators before you have stopped the turn. I've also read that one should pause slightly after rolling out before pulling back on the yoke in order to decrease the chances of overstress.

We ran through the checklists quickly (never done that before) and I actually managed to start the aircraft myself (never done that before either, always an issue). The calls to ground went very smooth and my taxi to runway 34 was on the line the entire way. We briefed for the takeoff and I noted we would probably get the North Route to the practice area since we were in north ops (never done that either). My takeoff was smooth, fairly centered, and I handled the controls with authority. The speeds were bang on, I stayed on the runway heading, and turned on course without any issues. Heck - I could even see those power lines (never done that before).

During the climb out I2 had me level off at a number of altitudes and make a number of small turns. The checklists came out and were completed without any issues. When we entered the practice area I made that call too. Things were going very well and I felt very comfortable in control.

We started with the steep turns. Lined up with a road at 7000', I2 asked me to complete a 360 degree turn. She stressed the "picture" out the window and that I wanted to hold that picture of the horizon, which isn't easy to do since the entire western edge of the area is covered in mountains. She told me that if I could keep the altitude within 200' I would be doing a great job. I started into the turn to something I figured would be about 45 - 50 degrees and immediately added some power. As I applied back pressure I could feel the rate of turn increasing. I tried to keep my head outside on that "picture" the entire time but every now and then glanced at the altimeter to see if I was losing altitude. Before I knew it I could see the road at my 10 and I rolled out parallel with it. Adjusted my power back to 2300 RPM and kept it level. "Pretty good" I2 told me. "You kept the aircraft within 20 feet of 7000". I could not believe it ;) We did 5-6 more steep turns and most of them were within 50-100 feet of the altitude. I had some trouble on the first turn to the right because that "picture" was completely different when turning right (since I'm sitting on the left). Satisfied with that we moved on to Spiral Dives.

Not much to really say about it, I2 demonstrated two and we spoke about what was going on with the physics and the instruments. She then put the aircraft into a number of spirals of various degrees of seriousness and then would say "Recover". Most were automatically completed and with a lot of control authority.

From there I2 asked me if I knew what a slip was. Of course (I think). You roll in one direction with the ailerons and apply opposite rudder deflection which results in increased drag. The drag allows you to lose altitude rapidly without a gain in airspeed. You can also use them to compensate for a crosswind while on approach. At least that's how I understood them to work! We entered into a slip and I could hardly believe how quickly we were losing altitude - while at the same time our airspeed did not increase AT ALL. Finally we spoke about forced approaches while we climbed back to 7000. At this point I2 cut the power and said "OK we've lost our engine and need to land somewhere, what's the first thing we do?". I wanted to say "Cry and Pray" but instead said I'd configure the aircraft for best glide speed and start looking for a place to land. I mentioned that I thought the best glide for the DA20C1 was 72 knots but she corrected me with "73". I love how exact I2 is! Stable at 73 knots we selected a farmers field just off the edge of the practice area. We lined up for the field and I2 asked if we would make the field for a landing. I immediately noted that we were way too high so she entered into a number of S turns and even a few long 180s.

I was surprised how much time and control of the aircraft we had without any engine power. When we finally rolled out on "final" I again noted we were a bit high and she entered into a slip that quickly lined us up nicely for the "middle" of the field (so we had lots of room for error). When we put our flaps down to landing position I noted that the flap indicator lights didn't appear to be working and she asked me "so what do we do?". I honestly had no idea, but recall that when doing the walk around we extend the flaps all the way down and then move them up one notch at a time. This gives us an indication of what they should look like when active. So I simply said "bring the flaps up all the way and put them down one notch at a time while we observe". Seemed to satisfy her. It was simple to do and before i knew it we were somewhere in the neighborhood of 400 AGL and I honestly thought we would land in the field. I asked "Do the farmers mind if we do this?". "Some of them don't like it at all". I immediately formed a picture in my mind of a farmer running out of the house below with a shotgun.

Finally - I2 blasted the power and we climbed back out. Time to head back to the airport, so where is it and how do we get there? She's always challenging me with this stuff. I noted exactly where the airport was out the window though I couldn't see it and mentioned that since we were this far north we were better off flying over Cochrane lake and checking in. She gave me control and I IMMEDIATELY noticed traffic crossing about 500 feet underneath us from our right to left. She hadn't even seen it. We made a call on the CTAF without response. Interesting - the aircraft was going the other way so we didn't worry about it.

Checking in with the tower over the Lake they noted traffic at our seven and I automagically turned my head in that direction while they were saying it and spotted a skyhawk. With the winds at our backs we could easily outrun that bird so I responded as such to the controller when asked if we could keep our speed up. The pattern entry and approach went very well. I was amazed at how much I had remembered from the month earlier and more so that I was able to pull out and complete the landing checklists while battling the quarter crosswind. I2 said almost nothing during the approach as I kept calling reminders out to myself. "1500 RPM, flaps to landing, 60 knots, crab left a bit, picture looks good, speed is low so a bit nose down, etc.". On very short final I started reminding myself "Keep the nose down, Keep the nose down, Keep the nose down" as we crossed the threshold I cut the power and said "nose down, nose down, nose down, ease up slowly, hold it off, bleed of the speed, hold it off, right rudder right rudder, ease it off, ease it off". Low and behold we touched down GENTLY just to the left of the center. I immediately put the rudder into play to keep it straight. Wow.. what a great landing.

When Tower asked us to exit right on runway 7/25 I recalled that we had to stay on the runway before entering the taxiway unless he told us otherwise. He sent us immediately to ground so I asked I2 "I can't enter the taxiway until I get permission right?". "Right!". The taxi in was down the centerline and I managed to pull us up on the line pretty nicely for some fuel.

After the flight I2 noted that everything had come together for me. The exercises I demonstrated today would have easily passed a flight test. My radio work was excellent. My takeoff, climbout, altitudes, and headings were all bang on. I knew when and how to lean, rich, add fuel pumps, warm the engines, and check/reset my gauges. The situational awareness was also great. The approach and landing were better than expected at this stage in my training. Wow - what a glowing report from I2. I could hardly contain myself.

On the way into the office I thought about the flight. The thing that I couldn't get over was how comfortable I felt working the aircraft. I am not talking about an overconfidence of "this is easy". What I mean is that somewhere a transition occurred where in the past I was always "fighting the aircraft" to do what I wanted, and today I was "controlling the aircraft". I knew where everything was and I knew how and when to use them. My hand and foot movement required to control the stick, power, mixture, and rudder were all instant and with authority. More than anything, I seem to have lost my "fear" of weird attitudes. Well - I shouldn't say "weird" attitudes, I should "Attitudes that are weird to ME".

My smile quickly faded as I recalled that I had felt extremely happy about other flights which resulted in the NEXT flight being a slap in the face due to lack of concentration. My goal now is to make it two good flights in a row.

Next flight is air exercises for forced approaches and slips. After that we start with the circuit training. I can hardly wait!

11.1 Hours and counting...