Learning to fly, or thinking of learning? Post your questions, comments and experiences here

Moderator: AndyR

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By FlightDek
FLYER Club Member  FLYER Club Member
#1635005
No apologies needed for any question

Full mixture for the climb aids cooling the engine as the excess fuel evaporates absorbing heat.

As for leaning - go with what your school teach you

Dek
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By David Wood
FLYER Club Member  FLYER Club Member
#1635006
Generally in an aeroplane you push everything forward to get max power (throttle, mixture, carb-heat, prop pitch). If in doubt, push it all forward.

To get maximum power (or to be more accurate, to run your engine at maximum power according to the maker's recommendations) usually requires the mixture to be fully rich. It might be (and I don't know if you've been taught to lean yet) that the mixture was previously set to Lean for cruise, in which case making it Rich again prior to asking full power from the engine is a good idea.

The process for leaning is a more complex answer to a simple question. If you haven't been taught how to do it then you should ask your instructor to show you. It's a little more complex than just pulling it out and you can do a lot of damage to the engine if you get Leaning wrong.

Hope that helps.
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By Rob P
#1635186
Stevefarn wrote:
Leveling out - pull button out ?



Just be clear, this is optional and is not part of the P-A-T process.

Leaning (pulling the button out to make the fuel - air mixture weaker) is a different topic.

Rob P
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By JAFO
#1635197
Levelling out - pull button out will give you a nasty surprise and mean that you can't level off for long if you pull it too far. As others have said, make sure it's pushed in to climb, ask your instructor about how to pull it out; so to speak.
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By Irv Lee
FLYER Club Member  FLYER Club Member
#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.
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By TopCat
FLYER Club Member  FLYER Club Member
#1635419
Irv Lee wrote:Ah, joy. Leaning in a ppl course! Made my day.

Are you saying it shouldn't be taught during the PPL?
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By Rob P
#1635421
I think he's astonished (and pleased) that it is.

Rob P
By TopCat
FLYER Club Member  FLYER Club Member
#1635432
Rob P wrote:I think he's astonished (and pleased) that it is.

Ah, I can stop sharpening my knives then ;)
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By Irv Lee
FLYER Club Member  FLYER Club Member
#1635546
TopCat wrote:
Irv Lee wrote:Ah, joy. Leaning in a ppl course! Made my day.

Are you saying it shouldn't be taught during the PPL?

Exact opposite.
PeteSpencer liked this
By TopCat
FLYER Club Member  FLYER Club Member
#1635569
Irv Lee wrote:
TopCat wrote:
Irv Lee wrote:Ah, joy. Leaning in a ppl course! Made my day.

Are you saying it shouldn't be taught during the PPL?

Exact opposite.

Glad to hear Rob was right. I guess that means a lot of schools don't teach it. I suppose I'm not really surprised :(

But for most typical trainers, how hard can it be to pull a knob out till it gets a little rough, and then push it back in till it' s no longer rough, and then a tiny bit more?
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By kingbing
FLYER Club Member  FLYER Club Member
#1637088
Leaning is usually above 3000ft, IIRC, and I don't think I ever got any higher than that in my PPL apart from the odd bit of stall training...