This week we take on systems again! We use them all the time and hopefully, we can shed some light on what they do and why they do it. This week is all about flight controls! We check them before take-off and we share a lot of tips to help you make sure they are working correctly!
Primary and Secondary Flight Controls. Hopefully, you use all of them on every flight. Hopefully, you check them before every flight. Today, Bobby and Wally go into detail on what you should be checking, how they should be working, and a few best practices. Let us know what you think and please share the show with a friend. Thanks!
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What's up, Wally? Bobby, how are you? I’m good. This is another systems episode. last month We did the ignition system and magneto check, which has been listened to many times and we'll probably listen to many times in the future as people asked me questions and I point him back to that episode. this week We're going to talk about flight controls. And it's going to be a good show. It's going to be a little bit about GA flight controls. You're going to share some insights on some really big aircraft in their flight controls. So let's jump right into it. We're going to talk about primary flight. Controls and secondary fly controls everything from a private pilot. And what they need to know all the way up to a captain on a much larger aircraft and how those fly controls work all in the sense of trying to make better pilots. making you safer and making you fly more coordinated Primary flight controls those Those by the book are, And there's maybe more but we're going to keep this at a high level today: Ailerons, elevator, and rudder. We take those fly controls on a regular basis during run ups. I think every checklist say flight controls free and correct. What does that mean to you, free and correct, Wally?
Well, for free obviously means that they feel right aren't any kinks in the cable. and correct is they're going in the correct direction. You know you push the left Rudder the rudder in the back which you're sitting there you can see it is delayed deflecting to the left and Ailerons going in the proper direction. That sort of thing I. You know what I would say, One of my pet peeves on general aviation checklists, Is that the flight controls on The checklist is usually on the before takeoff checklist. Or the run-up checklist. and I've always told people I said you know; Let's just take an airplane that rents for one hundred and twenty dollars an hour. It's two dollars a minute paying for this airplane. and The economics of waiting till you're out at the end of the runway to realize the Ailerons have been put back on the airplane and they're backwards. Why not check that before you even start the engine of the airplane and take care of it before you even taxi out to the end of the runway? So, I’ve always wondered why that that was on the before takeoff checklist rather than before You even start the engine. If you’re paying two dollars a minute, Let's go ahead and check them right now. Remember: Checklists are checklists. and for the most part we use them as do lists read it and tells us to do something we do it. A checklist is a document That we use to make sure that A task has been done so. Can we get in the airplane right now and do the flight control check before we even We before we turn the master on and start that engine? absolutely and we get to the end of the runway and its flight controls. Check we say well. We've checked the flight controls.
Yeah, that's a good tip. I flew with someone recently. Who I was observing them as they were pilot in command. Doing the run up and going through this process and as they check the flight controls, They turned the yoked left and look to the left and they turned the rights to the right and they pushed on the rudders and they looked back as you can see that in a small GA aircraft and they said everything's good in civil which way which way is the left aileron supposed to go when you turn over there and they're like I don't really know the answer to that question. and I said well you saw move. Did it move Correct? the checklist essay free and correct. Instead, they were like. I'm not sure what that you know. You see that all of a sudden kind of clicked for them like I've really always been checking that They were free and moving. Because that can be really bad if you left the control lock in but it's really about you know. I have heard horror stories of cross cabling Ailerons being put the wrong way. That would be very awkward to try and turn left in the airplane and Go right, you know? They'll be very weird. Yeah, I think we would all struggle with that dynamic if I if we were wheels up in that happened. So, the tip that my instructor.
taught me was put. Put your thumbs up on the yolk if you turn the yolk towards the left your thumbs are up. That aileron should be up. If he turned to the right thumbs are up. That ailerons should be up. And what I think is important. And I try to teach people when I’m flying with them is when you do that, Don't just look right while your thumbs are pointing up to the right. You might want to look back to The left. Aileron is down right. that way You know that They're both working. I doubt it could happen but would be really bad if you did that. And they both went up where you went to the left and they both went up. That's probably going to be a very awkward feeling in an aircraft If you didn't have those moving in the correct direction.
I will I'll confess on myself: I was Teaching if candidate Longtime ago. and we're in a Cessna one fifty and Again, this this gentleman was a commercial pilot at the time and Wanted to be a cfi and so he went out. He preflight the airplane. I went out and I hopped in the left seat. Because I was acting as the student he was acting as the Cfi. and we took off and As we were climbing out, he said The rudder feels funny. And I just I didn't I survive. It's fine. Let let's just keep going and probably about a thousand feet, he says no this is just didn't feel right. and so, I took the airplane and I put my feet on the rudder pedals and I went to move him and sure enough: Yeah, it didn't feel right. And I turned around and I could see out the back of the airplane and There's this big red flag trailing behind us that said remove before flight. so, he we had taken off with a rudder gust lock installed and I pointed to him I say Oh there's a problem right back there. We got a rudder gust lock installed and his comment to me is well. “What are we going to do?” And all I can think of is We can't go back to where we took off from because that would that would be embarrassing. So, we need to go to fly to another airport and go land there. And he wasn't really too happy with That idea was only about ten miles away. But I said well let me try something so I took the airplane and I just started kind of tapping on the rudder pedals and I could I could look back there and see that This gust lock was vibrating. And it was moving up as we did that. And after About twenty seconds of kind of tapping on the rudder pedals, we got this rudder gusts locked to fall out and it was all fine. and all I could just imagine this falling in Somebody's front yard and them looking at this Remove before flight thing and thinking: Well, I guess they didn't do that so anyway. It all turned out just fine but there is an example of obviously we Didn't check the flight control. We didn’t check the rudder and so That this particular flight school we had These rudder gust locks that we never used, but that day somebody used it and we missed it.
Yeah, and that while that's not good That's not the most unsafe thing you could do. I have heard horror stories of people getting all the way onto the runway using steering with their feet and not taking those flight controls in the actual control lock still being in the yolk And not being able to take off or not being able to control the plane once they were airborne Because they left that control lock and you would think how could it possibly happen. But I guess it could happen and you really want to would really want to make sure that doesn't happen as you. I learned so much more about these As I started working on my CFI ratings And I think I think at that level you start Maybe it's a private you learn what they do. And you learn how they work at a fifty-thousand-foot view. No pun intended on height there. But as a CFI candidate you're really learning like it's not just deflecting wind it's creating more drag than that drag creates other things to the aircraft that causes problems and how to the head of the ailerons work with the rudder to keep the plane coordinated through a turn and those sorts of things. I don't you wish you could inject all that to a private pilot I guess but it's just too much right. So, the years and years of teaching we do kind of educate the right stages and levels on those things but it is interesting.
Just how much happens when you turn that that Yoke in those ailerons deflect wind in a twenty-degree bank to the left. There's a lot going on between drag and thrust and Horizontal lift and vertical lift and lots of things that we don't teach private pilots, but is pretty important of the bigger picture as you get up in through commercial and CFI ratings. Yeah. I think I think what we have to understand is what a flight controls do. In very simple term they deflect air and maybe in a better term they deflect airflow. so, what we have to realize Is that at faster speeds The flight controls are more effective than at lower speeds I go back to a Boeing Seven twenty-seven. I flew that for many years Seven twenty-seven had the system on it called the rudder load limiter. and The hydraulic system on that airplane as in most modern Big transport category jets is usually around three thousand pounds of hydraulic pressure. On the rudder load limiter would it did is I guess when Boeing designed the airplane, they realized that the rudder did not need three thousand pounds of hydraulic pressure to be effective. So, they that they have done is in cruise flight in other words would the flaps up when the flaps are in the up position. The rudder load limit or limits the rudder pressure to eight hundred pounds of hydraulic pressure. When the flaps are out of the up position that pressure increases to twenty-four hundred pounds. And there's all the logic in the flap handle and all that kind of stuff. And I don't want to get into all that. But the bottom line on that airplane with the flaps not up you have more pressure to the lower rudder than you do with the flaps in the up position. I.e., you're going fast. You got a lot of airflow. You don't need that rudder to move as much and what I see with younger pilots I see this a lot on crosswind landings. They're used to using the rudders a little bit. And most of the time you know were in were climbing out. We’re saying okay Make sure your son or the ball and you step on the ball. You put whatever rudder Input is necessary center That ball. And I’m going to just talk in in terms of percentages but probably were not using that rudder more than about twenty percent. But on a crosswind landing we come in and We're crabbing into the wind and were saying okay You know line the airplane up with the runway and they're used to using twenty percent rudder. and at low airspeed in fifty-five sixty knots in across wind, You might need fifty sixty percent rudder. And I just find that the younger pilots reluctant to put that much Rudder input in. so oftentimes. I'll ask the candidate How much rudder do you need to line up the wrong way on a crosswind landing usually get the glazed overlook and the answer is whatever it takes. Whatever it takes to get the airplane lined up. We definitely don't want to land these airplanes in a in a crab it just puts a stress on the on the landing gear so and it makes it feel like a really rough landing
Yeah, I've been known to watch a few YouTubes on crazy landings of big jets, Wally, and a lot of times in big jets and in crosswinds It almost appears that they do landing in a little bit more of a crab. Is that Just a bad landing in a big jet or are they designed to take a little. No some airplanes for instance I apply the seven fifty-seven and that is one of the techniques to landed in a crab. You can do that. We have basically three different Crosswind landing techniques in that airplane and all three are acceptable. And it's really the choice of the pilot how he does. I personally Don't do that I like to use the you know aileron Basically lined with runway and you know one main will I and the other main will then the then the nose wheel so you.
You'll you fly the big ones just like fly The little ones. I do And the more I fly I realized it's all the same. I have found myself, in the big airplanes You know we don't get the number of landings that get in you know small airplanes. I mean if I get three landing four landings a month in a big jet.
That's a pretty good month for me. but I do find You know if I'm in a landing slump I have a couple of landings in a row. That aren't really What I consider good landings. Probably my problem is I'm not looking far down the runway. My aim point is to close in. And if I just shift my is up. And this is lots of landings lots of landings and I still have to remind myself. Look far down The run way far down the runway.
That's amazing. Maybe We'll do a show on just landings. We have a lot to talk about there, as well. So, we spent quite a bit of time on rudder and ailerons. Really what free and correct means and how that works. I think if you put those two together and you think about what Wally is saying at higher speeds and lower speeds you will learn how to control the aircraft A lot better. I can't remember even thinking about these things when I was a private pilot, I just knew The rudder was helped My longitudinal axis Stay on the centerline and help Keep the ball centered. And I don't think I put a lot of that. Those things together to help me better pilot, but you can do that. And then the elevator. I teach boy scouts sometimes on the weekends here while boy scouts group come the question that will always get them is what happens to. What happens to the elevator, Which way does it deflect When I pull back on the yolk. Right. but I think we can all say that as we learn about aircraft and planes the deflections probably opposite of what we think is going to happen right And it often catches a lot of ten-year-old boys that are in boy scouts and they picked the wrong direction But as I push forward on the yoke the elevator actually goes down to take the nose of the plane down right. So, it's deflecting the wind causing the entire aircraft to do something, right? Right. And so, as we use that elevator And we're going to check that elevator. We need to make sure it's moving in the correct direction as well I like to do that during preflight. Remove the control lock. I go back there. I don't grab the thin metal stuff please. Students don't grab the thin metal stuff but grabbed the there's a counterweight in that rudder and there's a big chunk of plastic on the side of that rudder. Now I’ll move that and make sure that the yoke is moving in the correct direction As I move that elevator. You want to make sure that things going in the right directions. Well, it's going to be a very valuable tool as you even come back to the airport. Yeah, for sure.
The probably one that we don't talk a whole lot about because it is It is one that moves not as often and once, we get in-flight probably not a big piece of what we're doing unless we're trying to change something dearest during a specific maneuver but that does kind of bring us the secondary fly controls. because on that elevator We have a trim tab and we use tram and trimtabs to help us fly and fly better and flaps. so, there's other secondary controls spoilers air brakes other things but will stick at a high level here and thing mostly GA aircraft. Talk to me a little bit about what you see Maybe on check rides as it relates to flaps. I'll tell a few stories. On what I see on the flight line at a flight school with flaps but you know. what are your thoughts around flaps as a big picture both pre flighting making sure they're working and that there may be clear from debris bird's nest those sorts of things. What do you think about when you're observing. Check ride student private student doing that. Walk around the first time. What are you really want to see them do with the flaps and the flap controls on a on a check ride, Wally, if you can share that.
Yeah, well as far as that goes, I've I have never really seen any problem Areas everybody is very diligent of course there under the watchful eye of they're. they're at their best. they're probably behaving Whether they do that in real world or not. I don't know. I do know that I have I have learned Special well Cessna high wing airplane. I have learned to watch my head because man. I banged my head on many a flap. Luckily, I don't think I’ve damaged any but I’ve probably killed a few brain cells. but Yeah, you just want to just make sure everything You know all the all the Connections just common sense Make sure everything is working properly. Obviously in a Cessna you're going to have to turn the master switch on to move those flaps to get him to come down in a piper or you know. An airplane has manual flaps.
You get to move manually but I haven't I don't think I’ve ever really seen an issue with anybody. And I fly Cessnas more than I Fly piper aircraft slowing aircraft, and Somebody probably in my commercial timeframe, I was going through my routine of pre-fighting and put the flaps down and I watched I watched them both Go down the check. They're going down And then I probably reached over and put them up and moved on to other things and they were pretty diligent. This see if I was pretty passionate about watching them Go back up. Because if you think one's a little bit slower than the other that could create a real adverse effect on you as you might be changing the flaps on the on the go if he did ten degrees of flaps. And then you raise those flaps one comes up I that could create a really awkward feeling. so, Something that I've kind of stuck to sense as watching those Come up.
another tip that was given by another instructor That flew with me at some point was I went down; It was an aircraft that could go to forty. And I had taken those flaps all the way to the bottom so I could get in there and check all the connectors and make sure all the nuts were safety wired and all the stuff that I think is important and he goes, “Why would you go to forty” and I say: “Well that's what I was taught.” and he goes, “Can we take off with forty?” And I said no We can't take off with forty And he goes, What if we were remote airport? You do this every time and I thought it was an ingenious tip the said. Hey if you're on a remote trip maybe you're that ten minutes away on an airport on a training flight Stop and eat one hundred dollars hamburger, You might not want to check all the way to forty because you can't leave if they got stuck in the down position. but if you go to ten degrees you can take off. You can fly safely going to be a little slower but you can definitely get back to your home airport. So, I have incorporated that into my own preflight mechanisms That if I’m at a remote airport at home I always checked forty or the full flaps. Look really good at everything but on my return flight I never go past ten so that I can go back in the air and come on home. Just something to think about As it's related to flaps.
that that's an excellent point I got my seaplane rating up in Fairbanks, Alaska probably six seven years ago and the airplane. That I was flying in was a Cessna. One seventy-two on floats obviously and We used to go out to this area just west of Fairbanks probably thirty miles called Minto Flats and do our landings in this lake And they did do have a water runway at Fairbanks international airport and when we came back in, We determined that the flat motor had burned out Yeah, we did not have We didn't have flaps and obviously we came in and landed but we were discussing In in a one seventy-two on flat on floats you. You have to have flaps for takeoff and we were We're just fortunate that had happened where it happened. Because we'd been out there on the lake out of Minto Flats thirty miles outside of Fairbanks much out. There would have been a would have been a big hassle. No mechanic shops on the lake?
Exactly, exactly yeah. I thought that was a great tip They gave me. And I’ve used it ever since and I challenged people to put that into their tool kit for no better sense. Obviously, if you if you're concerned ticket full do the right thing. But if you've if you're on a short-day trip you might consider to do in ten degrees on you on your preflight comeback.
Yeah, and I incorporate that into an electrical system failure. I know we're kind of maybe getting off the flight controls but in a Cessna that has electric flaps, If you have an alternator failure and you're on the battery You know at some point that battery may fail and we might have a total electrical failure in might be a consideration to not doing full flap landing just for the standpoint is to put the flaps all the way down to forty, And you can't get into your airport and you have to go around. And then then you did have the total electrical failure You'd be stuck with flaps at forty so it might be a good idea to say Let's just make this one a no flap. Landing flaps ten landing or flaps. twenty something. that's a little bit more manageable If you had to.
good tips good tips. Another the secondary control The we're going to talk about is trim and the trim tab. Again, something that I don't think I was super proficient at pre solo. You know the I think I remember, I'm not sure
I'm not sure why made me so jealous but it at this airport you leave and you fly under a bravo shelf That's two thousand feet probably for about seven mile six hundred miles maybe ten totals. and you get out you get out there You climb your full power in these seventy Two's full power within a structure. Get to sixteen seventeen hundred feet, and they trimmed out in the plane to stays right seven feet. and I was so jealous of how well my instructor could do that. And it does come with time and experience but man I would be chasing that trim and they kept trying to teach me if you just get level first and then trim it, You'll get there. Boy, I just never could quite get it right. So, I was chasing this altitude all the way out of this bravo shelf And was so jealous how they could trim it and now of course fly with people who are like. How do you trim it so well and it. It is an acquired ability. Just can't teach you can talk about it all day but you just can't teach it but Trim is a is a beautiful thing. What you learn how to do it.
Well yeah, I watch applicants struggle without all the time. And you know it's pitch power trim so you level off you use pitch to level off and then after your level then you pull your power back then you trim, I see people You know as their leveling off they're pulling the power back and then in the airplane slows and they're just struggling. I would say that if I have an applicant who is struggling with steep turns Probably eighty percent of the time. It's because the airplane is not in trim. And I’m amazed when I’ll take the airplane to do unusual attitudes on private or Instrument check ride. I'll say okay. I have the airplane. They give the controls to me This airplane is totally out of trim. And I’m thinking what have you been doing You've been working way too hard. You shouldn't have to work that hard. You ought to be eligible to let go of things. and it is It's an acquired skill. It's not something that you're going to master on day one. I remember the first time. I start flying multi engine airplanes My instructor could just reach up there And just move his wrist around on those controls and sync up the props. And then I tried to do. It took me ten minutes to get the in sync with each other. exactly. So, it's something that that you will get better at just know that flying You should be able to let go at any point and the airplane. Not you know keep going the way you want it to go well.
I'm lucky to get to fly a beautiful one Eighty-two t on a regular basis at this school and try to have people fly with me. Ride with me on trips that I take in that thing because it is a treat. but I do like to have people watch how the auto pilot flies the aircraft. Because if you think about us and if we try to hold heading unless we've got hundreds of hours, we probably don't hold a heading we can't hold heading near as good as an autopilot. And we find ourselves moving the controls in big swaths right which deflects more winds which means We're trying to get back to where we were. but you can take and turn off the autopilot in one eight t. That's here and the plane will start to drift. And then I can just hit autopilot again if you watch What the yoke and trim do, It's not much right. it's really not much. The yolk might move to three degrees and the trim tab might move up less than an eighth of an inch to get it back and it might go might wobble a little bit but the gets it. and I try to tell people that are private students or young pilots when they fly with me in the one Eighty-two honestly. This is how you should move the controls as well. Right. to get back if you if you lose as you've talked about one dot of deflection on ILs. You probably don't need twenty degrees to get that back exactly and the autopilot knows that. And we're not at stooped to that. But I I do find it interesting to let people see like put the nose down even on the one eight two maybe. We got a ball of deflection on the horizon. Artificial horizon and. I'll say I’ll put it back and say hold outs too and you watch what that trim does and it doesn't do much it doesn't really fight to jump to get all that back it's slowly and steadily gets it and comes right back out on its altitude. So, it's a pretty cool way to let people see how autopilot fly’s aircraft. Because I think if we would all fly use those fly controls in a similar manner, we would be a little bit more stable and not be chasing things as much.
Yeah, I would just say one little flight control kind of funny story when I was getting my seaplane rating up in Fairbanks. Basically, in big jets you fly with your feet on the floor. You don't you Don't use a whole lot of rudder input and big jets unless you have an engine out. Obviously, that Comes into play and then you lose us a whole lot rutter but anyway so I was just getting back in general aviation airplanes. And I had a one seventy-two I thought I knew everything I needed Know about a one seventy-two and. so here we are flying this one seventy-two It did have one hundred and eighty horsepower. Engine had power flow exhaust so as far as one seventy twos go it was It was kind of a hopped up One seventy-two. but my instructor Craig Kenmonth, Great guy as we climb out you know and the performance was in great on this airplane with these huge floats hanging down below but As we climb out especially on climb out, he loved to look over at me and he always called me Captain. Because he knows I’m an airline pilot up there and he would say captain Your ball is not centered. and He loved that phrase. And I just would look at them and I would look down at a press The appropriate rudder to sender My ball but I just him saying that Over and over and over again. I don't know what it is about that phrase but he loved to tell me captain your ball is not centered. so it but it was a really good reminder. I kept just using the excuse: Oh well and big jets. We don't you know And his comment was captain. You're not in a big jet today so We had a good time but it was. It was a real good learning experience for me and so now I'm much more aware of that.
And I’m sure I don't, I haven't flown commercial a lot this year. But the I think I could feel even in a jet if it was uncoordinated; big plane. I think I could feel if it was uncoordinated. I think in a smaller plane. If we fly regularly, I think our bodies feel it being uncoordinated. and now for sure If I’m not in control of the controls I can really feel it And I can just look at that ball or that slip indicator and I know: Oh my gosh. we're way out of coordination. And but I don't think I knew early on in what I try to coach people on today. As you know you're creating a ton of maybe not a ton a lot more drag if you're uncoordinated and you’re flying straight and level and you're wasting fuel wasting time if you can just get coordinated, Trim everything out really. Well, if you got rudder trim use it if you don't keep your foot on the pedals and keep that ball centered. It's going to make a big difference in a long cross- country. Yeah, on just how much fuel you burn and how much time it takes to get somewhere.
And the small airplanes on one seventy-two is probably set up to where it's coordinated in cruise. so, Because that's where you spend most of your time, You know, I guess in theory. so, it's probably going to require rhetoric and put in the climb this for sure all right.
Well, that's our show for the day. Primary secondary flight controls a good little systems Course for anybody who wants to learn more about those controls. hopefully enjoyed the show as always fly safe and stay behind the prop. Thanks for listening.
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