Sun Sep 02, 2018 9:24 am
#1635223
Ah, joy. Leaning in a ppl course! Made my day.
On the apt/pat, not sure, but although i am all for mnemonics usually, i might be the only person who doesn't like apt/pat.
It seems to work ok during the course if lessons are frequent enough, but i have seen enough qualified pilots who are not flying often. The pat is ok as they know they need power to climb, but quite a few rusty pilots reduce power as they start to adjust attitude when levelling out, then they trim... ie they have forgotten which way round it is and chosen the wrong one. They then spend the next few minutes leaving the selected level, regaining it, and retrimming.
They are not thinking what they are doing, and instructors have never mentioned the lift equation. The pilots are just following a mis-remembered mnemonic. Once i tell them to forget the letters and think:
Climbing at say 70kts with full power to level for Cruise at say 90kts:
If you reduce power at top of climb, as attitude adjustment starts, what will accelerate the aircraft quickly towards 90 knots once level? (Nothing, it will slowly accelerate under less than full power).
What is the effect of being below cruise speed for a while but at cruise attitude? As lift is proportional to speed squared, levelling off whilst and staying under cruise speed without full power to accelerate is not going to produce enough lift to maintain level flight at cruise attitude.
Once they forget the apt/pat and start thinking what they are actually doing aerodynamically, problems of maintaining level flight after climb solved by thinking rather than parroting.
Irv Lee - (R/T & Flight Examiner)
Deconfusion & Preflight Aide-Memoire:
http://tinyurl.com/pilotpalUK GA Twittering not Tw@ering: @irvleeuk