Bryan Wood
Well Known Member
With my BFR coming due by the end of this month I started looking for the right person to fly with me in my RV. My first choice was Mercedes of So. CA fame but our schedules just didn't seem to allow it to work out. My thinking was that an instructor that actually flys RV's would be better equipted to offer information and critique my flying in this breed of plane. Holding off until finding a person with RV experience I finally got this chore out of the way. Last Monday I met the CFI at the airport after work and we went about the business of keeping me legal. We talked for a bit and I told him that what I was looking for was a thorough review and even a lesson of sorts. Well he heard me loud and clear and 5 hours later he was signing my book. This was a barrage of information coming at me as fast as the words could leave his mouth and it has taken me days to recall and digest most of it. Here are a few of the highlights, but again there was so much information shared that I could almost write a book about it. For a measuring tool for anybody reading this the CFI has flown all of his life. He has 25,000 hours give or take a few, and he is a race pilot, an airshow pilot, flight school owner and he drives 747's on his days off from the small airport. He fly's all types of airplanes regularly from 20's and 30's era biplanes to doing first flights on Legacy's for other airline pilots.
THE OVERHEAD APPROACH- Yes to this, every time the opportunity presents itself for safety reasons. He talked at great length about the overhead and all the ways it is benificial. This subject has been beaten to death on this forum lately, but mostly dealing with formation overheads. Without rehashing that I am now thoroughly convinced of the virtues of the overhead and will make it a regular part of my flying. Here is one of many, and I mean many reasons that he used as examples for using the overhead approach. He asked me if I have ever flown into Pine Mountain Lake which is an airport at the gateway to Yosemite lying in the foothills. My reply was "Yes" and he asked if I did a 45 entry. "Yes" to that also. He said that the 45 puts you flying along a river bed, does it not? Okay, what's the point? He said that if you go down 1 mile out on the 45 at Pine Mountain Lake it takes 4WD rescue vehicles 4 hours to get to you. He stated that he knew of a case where this happened and that when flying into an area where access is somewhat challenging for rescue to always fly the overhead. Again, this is one of a couple of dozen examples, but he got my attention with the advice.
TURNING BACK-With the takeoff performance and altitude we can reach quickly on departure I asked about turning back if the engine fails. Basically, I wanted to work on this technique. While we didn't on this day, we are going to. I've been given homework of sorts to get ready for it because as he put it the "RV gives you a differing type of problem because of its performance." Because of the altitude a 180 degree turn will not work because likely you will to be to high to land downwind and will overshoot. There will not be enough altitude though to fly a downwind and land into the wind so we are arriving at our problem. The way back is a 270 followed by a 90 degree turn to land downwind. With this in mind I'm supposed to practice landings and record exactly how much runway I use! He wants this written down and practiced to consistancy and then the same for landing downwind. In other words how much distance do I need to land downwind in a 5 knot wind, or a 10 knot wind, etc. The reason for this is that it will become a regular part of my chores prior to taking off to see if with the current wind and conditions can I land downwind at this airport if I need to? If the answer is yes then at what altitude AGL can the turn back be executed and with a high probability of success. So after learning the technique and how much altitude I need in my RV to make a nose over, 270, and then a 90 degree turn the second part of the decision can be reached before ever taking the runway for departure. So after finishing this writing I'm going out to start on my homework and get ready for this training. He said there are statistics showing something like an 88% fatality rate for people that turn back, and well, you can do the math on what it is for the ones that go straight ahead. So without specific training on how to do this death is almost a certainty in an emergency if you turn back. The point, RV's are potentially more dangerous in this situation because of the additional altitude.
CARB ICE- What to do if you get it? The obvious carb heat, full throttle, and also to climb. Slower airflow allowing greater warming of the air and hopefully better results will come from the climb. If not you have more altitude to work with if things go bad. Here's the real gem on carb ice which makes sense, but I've never before this BFR thought about or been told about. "If the engine quits, trim for glide, pick a spot, etc., turn of the ignition off and let the gas build up for a few seconds or so and then ignition back on. The goal is to force a "BACKFIRE" to blow the ice out. If it doesn't work keep trying with pumping the throttle, boost pump, varying times with ignition off or whatever. Just try to force a backfire. He said "As distasteful as it is, try to make your plane run like Volkswagen Beetles used to" when you would see them around town.
TURNS- On departure at the beginning of the BFR I made a downwind to get us out of the area. On crosswind I saw him watching me out of my peripheral vision. When I started the turn to downwind he put his hand over the turn and slip indicator and said you just lost this for the rest of this flight. Then he said that "All you motorcycle guys fly the same as he chuckled." He said we are all dependent on that instrument to fly. Inquiring into how he knew that I ride motorcycles he said that motorcycle riders always tilt their head back up in a turn which transfers the weight to the side of their hip. He believes this keeps the pilot from feeling if the plane is in a slip or skid. We worked on keeping my head in line with my body in turns. This will take some work, but I'm supposed to be able to feel the turns if I can break this habit that I've been working on since my first Honda Mini Trail 50 when I was about 5 years old. Time will tell if I get anything out of this one.
Download over, time to go flying.
THE OVERHEAD APPROACH- Yes to this, every time the opportunity presents itself for safety reasons. He talked at great length about the overhead and all the ways it is benificial. This subject has been beaten to death on this forum lately, but mostly dealing with formation overheads. Without rehashing that I am now thoroughly convinced of the virtues of the overhead and will make it a regular part of my flying. Here is one of many, and I mean many reasons that he used as examples for using the overhead approach. He asked me if I have ever flown into Pine Mountain Lake which is an airport at the gateway to Yosemite lying in the foothills. My reply was "Yes" and he asked if I did a 45 entry. "Yes" to that also. He said that the 45 puts you flying along a river bed, does it not? Okay, what's the point? He said that if you go down 1 mile out on the 45 at Pine Mountain Lake it takes 4WD rescue vehicles 4 hours to get to you. He stated that he knew of a case where this happened and that when flying into an area where access is somewhat challenging for rescue to always fly the overhead. Again, this is one of a couple of dozen examples, but he got my attention with the advice.
TURNING BACK-With the takeoff performance and altitude we can reach quickly on departure I asked about turning back if the engine fails. Basically, I wanted to work on this technique. While we didn't on this day, we are going to. I've been given homework of sorts to get ready for it because as he put it the "RV gives you a differing type of problem because of its performance." Because of the altitude a 180 degree turn will not work because likely you will to be to high to land downwind and will overshoot. There will not be enough altitude though to fly a downwind and land into the wind so we are arriving at our problem. The way back is a 270 followed by a 90 degree turn to land downwind. With this in mind I'm supposed to practice landings and record exactly how much runway I use! He wants this written down and practiced to consistancy and then the same for landing downwind. In other words how much distance do I need to land downwind in a 5 knot wind, or a 10 knot wind, etc. The reason for this is that it will become a regular part of my chores prior to taking off to see if with the current wind and conditions can I land downwind at this airport if I need to? If the answer is yes then at what altitude AGL can the turn back be executed and with a high probability of success. So after learning the technique and how much altitude I need in my RV to make a nose over, 270, and then a 90 degree turn the second part of the decision can be reached before ever taking the runway for departure. So after finishing this writing I'm going out to start on my homework and get ready for this training. He said there are statistics showing something like an 88% fatality rate for people that turn back, and well, you can do the math on what it is for the ones that go straight ahead. So without specific training on how to do this death is almost a certainty in an emergency if you turn back. The point, RV's are potentially more dangerous in this situation because of the additional altitude.
CARB ICE- What to do if you get it? The obvious carb heat, full throttle, and also to climb. Slower airflow allowing greater warming of the air and hopefully better results will come from the climb. If not you have more altitude to work with if things go bad. Here's the real gem on carb ice which makes sense, but I've never before this BFR thought about or been told about. "If the engine quits, trim for glide, pick a spot, etc., turn of the ignition off and let the gas build up for a few seconds or so and then ignition back on. The goal is to force a "BACKFIRE" to blow the ice out. If it doesn't work keep trying with pumping the throttle, boost pump, varying times with ignition off or whatever. Just try to force a backfire. He said "As distasteful as it is, try to make your plane run like Volkswagen Beetles used to" when you would see them around town.
TURNS- On departure at the beginning of the BFR I made a downwind to get us out of the area. On crosswind I saw him watching me out of my peripheral vision. When I started the turn to downwind he put his hand over the turn and slip indicator and said you just lost this for the rest of this flight. Then he said that "All you motorcycle guys fly the same as he chuckled." He said we are all dependent on that instrument to fly. Inquiring into how he knew that I ride motorcycles he said that motorcycle riders always tilt their head back up in a turn which transfers the weight to the side of their hip. He believes this keeps the pilot from feeling if the plane is in a slip or skid. We worked on keeping my head in line with my body in turns. This will take some work, but I'm supposed to be able to feel the turns if I can break this habit that I've been working on since my first Honda Mini Trail 50 when I was about 5 years old. Time will tell if I get anything out of this one.
Download over, time to go flying.
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