Exercise No 5/ Attitude and Power
Aim: To teach how to change power and show effects on Attitude and
airspeed
Airmanship:
LOOKOUT
Location - where is the airfield, land marks
T&P’s, Fuel ,Warning Lights
In this exercise we discover the relationship between the attitude of the aircraft as in
what we can see out of the window and the power needed to maintain and change
that attitude. It is very important to understand this relationship as attitude
determines whether the aircraft is flying straight and level. Maintaining the correct
attitude and holding the appropriate power setting will hold the aircraft straight and
level. We call this attitude flying. It is amazing that so many pilots even with many
hours find straight and level flying so difficult. The reason for this is that in their
early stages of flying they concentrated too much on the instruments and not
enough on the attitude. The problem with that is that the instruments only have a
certain tolerance for accuracy and normally also have a lag or delayed reaction. We
encourage you to get the attitude right first and then the instruments second. You
should do this as 80% outside at the horizon and 20% inside at the instruments. Its
just like driving a car, you only look inside at the speedometer to confirm what you
can see outside.
Below is a picture of an aircraft level to the horizon
There may be minor differences
depending on your height and therefore
eye line with the horizon so your
instructor should establish a straight and
level attitude so you can judge your level
with reference to the compass.
Level flight
Accelerative
Decelerative
We will talk more about straight and level in exercise 6 where we cover level flight
and climbing and descending. For exercise 5 we will cover accelerating and
decelerating.
Air Exercise
Select – Hold – Adjust
Speed Changes: cyclic & pedals
Increase Speed 60 – 80 Kts
Decrease Speed 80 – 60 Kts