Slips with flaps down? Taking the written test before your first hour of flight training? The biggest trouble area on private pilot oral exams? The most critical part of every flight?? All that and more on the docket as we tackle listener submitted questions this week!
Send us your questions at Facebook.com/BehindTheProp -- We'd love to discuss your topic on the next listener questions episode of Behind The Prop!
Clear prop! Number two following twin traffic on 3 mile final. JB using runway 25 on a 4-mile final.
This is Behind the Prop with United Flight Systems owner and licensed pilot, Bobby Doss. and it's co-host: major airline captain Designated Pilot Examiner, Wally Mulhearn. Now let's go behind the prop!
What's up Wally. Hey bobby how are you. I'm good this week. We're taking on our listeners questions. We've done a number of shows based on listeners. Asking us to talk about something. But this week is really a start of hopefully many episodes. where you, the listener. Get to ask us questions. And we're going to answer those questions for you. Maybe not in real time. But we're going to take a list of those questions and then try to fill in the answers over many weeks and this is the first episode. So let's jump right in. Alright Wally the question is can you slip an airplane with flaps down. I think I was. I was as I’ve said many times. I was probably fairly apprehensive. Student pilot little afraid of the aircraft lack of knowledge created created. Most of that for me but occasionally I could sense. A sense of urgency for my instructor would be a little high on final. He would say let's slip it. I'm looking at a placard right in front of me. The says avoid slips with flaps right and. I'm thinking this cowboy crazy son of a gun is going to hurt me right. Yeah says avoid slips with flaps. Can I slip with flaps is at saved a slip with flaps. What does all this mean. short answer is yes. Yes she can. And and Operative word on that placard is avoid. I've actually I think I’ve seen some that will say avoid prolong slips with flaps extended. What's the what's the definition of prolonged. I don't know I I would say anything I'm just thinking anything more than about eight seconds. That's my definition. Your definition may be anything more than two seconds. They're to rewrite the webster dictionary. Yeah exactly exactly so You know is there a problem with with putting the flaps down and just slipping the airplane for for minutes. Yeah there could be. There could be an issue with some some aerodynamics going on in the back of the airplane but No can we and in fact on a check ride You know on a private check ride That's that's one of the tasks that is required to be Tested is forward slipped to a landing so yes we can do it and we will do it. And so I think my chief described it talked to talk through with me as I was working on some of my see if I training it is possible to do it. It is safe to do it but there is something you might sense. In a Cessna we're not flight engineers. We're not test pilots But we have some experience and so really. What's happening per my chief. Instructor is with the flaps being down and being in a forward slip. The air is disrupted Coming across those flaps and then hitting the elevator so you might have some stability issues with the air. That's going across the elevator right. And you wouldn't want that low to the ground of course so That's why probably most manufacturers are saying avoid slips with flaps down But you can do it. It's just not probably something you want to do for more than eight seconds as well. I'm just kidding for a prolonged period of time. Yeah exactly great. Keep the questions coming. We love your questions. Another question we get is asking about efficiency of flight training in other words. Somebody wants to get their private pilot certificate and someone Wrote in and said well my my. My cousin was a private pilot and he said that. I need to take care of getting the written done before I even start. Flight training This is this is a controversial area that we agree on. But yes you've said we're. We are no doubt the minority. Yeah I do believe I. We are in the minority. We are totally insane. And and this We just started talking about this. One day bobby and I both believe that Trying to do the written before you even start flight. Training is probably not the way to go. I know for me personally. If I would have tried to do that. I probably would not have continued my my My career path to to be a pilot. Because I don't think I could have done it. I don't think I could have just read the book and and read the theory and applied it to a knowledge test and been successful.
I don't think I could have done that. What I needed is the practical application of it. And even if you could memorize the answers really. What are you gaining. I mean. I don't know I don't know too many people that are taking flight training or want to take flight. Training asked some people what they should do and getting that answer. That aren't wanting to be a professional pilot. I mean it. It goes back to like really and truly. Are you learning the material or you memorizing the material. So it assuming the advice I always give is. Okay you're going to meet. Wally next Thursday for your check ride and you're going to have to sit down and answer Wally’s questions for an hour and a half to two hours and you sit down him. Do you want to talk to him about the questions. You missed six months ago that you took a written exam on before you were even anywhere near taking your practical exam or would you like to sit in front of Wally and answer some questions about the questions. You missed ten days ago when you took your written exam after you had been through all the practical training right really understood what winds and weather and airspace meant to you as you flew through all of those things and could practically sit down in front of a computer screen answer or whether theory question that you practically understood instead of the one you memorize right it just it absolutely makes no sense you will save no money you will probably not get near as good of a grade Wally and I might while we are the minorities. We're pretty confident we're right on when you should take your exam. Yeah this this. My controversy so If if you're on the other side feel free to write us and we'll we'll discuss it some more I would love to know the The practical sense of why for sure. Yeah this is a good question. One that Came to us oddly. Enough via linked message. What phase of flight are you most concerned and maybe concerns not the right words from the question asker. Maybe when you the most focused well. I'd like to sit here and say that we're both great pilots and were on out A game throughout every phase of flight. And we never miss single checklist item and were perfect. But that's probably not reality so the simple answer is takeoff and landing right. We we all know that those are the most critical phases of flight. And I would say for the most part most sir on a game No question but it's it's really out sure to for me and while love your feedback. But as I became a multi engine pilot and did all my training for twins. There's no question that. I probably whether it's right or wrong. Probably give better takeoff briefing than ever in a light twin. I talk about well. We're going to do On the go on while we're go and before we take off and as gear comes up. I mean there's four phases of just to take off that. I'm probably going to brief really really well. And I am on my game on those engine instruments and Really paying close attention. Because you don't want to get into a point where you're you're losing an engine on takeoff not ready for while it's not common for most. I'll say probably the real one that that I would answer for. Everybody is in the pattern on bass to final turns and probably when I’m not necessarily at the only operator the control so if I have a friend or someone that's learn how to fly and I’m flying with them or maybe even younger private pilot. Who has me to be a safety pilot with them as they do. Some some work on their instruments stuff. Then I mostly concerned about going base and then final. Because I had a great instructor who pounded into me. Don't get slow. And when you're low. And can I make the airport so I’m constantly watching are we overshooting. How fast we are. We overshooting his. I don't want them to pull up base or final When we're slow and stall that aircraft and hit the ground What are your thoughts on when you might be most concerned most focused in phases of flight. Well we're talking about Kinder gentler way of saying this. We're talking about not killing ourselves and what is going to kill us in an airplane. The bottom line is hitting the ground is what's going to kill us so the closer we are to the ground the more vulnerable. We are so just going back to take off and landing. I mean that's when you're close to the ground if I’m up at Nine thousand feet and We lose an engine. Let's just make the math really easy and let's say airplanes going to come down at at five hundred feet minute. It's po- probably going to come down a little bit at a higher rate than that but let's just use five hundred To make the math easy and nine thousand feet. I've got eighteen minutes. I've got eighteen minutes before. I'm going to impact the ground. I've got options. I've got time to pull out checklist.
I've got time to to call Atc to to let them know we have an issue. And maybe we're going down. I also have options of my my radius of where I can fly. The airplane is greater. so I’ve just got more more options so Certainly the lower yard of the ground You know I could That that's why we have minimum altitudes to to do maneuvers You know we're not going to do stalls at three hundred feet above the ground we're going to go up to the appropriate Safe altitude To give us a little little cushion if You know I stall airplane at nine thousand feet. I got lots of time to recover. I can spin an airplane at nine thousand feet and don't have any issues whatsoever in being able to recover now. Five hundred feet not so much. Yeah no question all right. That's a great answer. We get One question that I’ve gotten from multiple sources is. What is the number one problem area on the ground portion of a private pilot. Check ride and I this is. This is easy to answer. All of them. Yeah now this. This has three three answers to it. Systems systems and systems. And we've alluded to this before but I I think I do believe part of the problem. And this is just a a victim of our Society that we're in now. I mean we all drive cars. That are really good. The see the cars that are made today are really good and they don't break down a lot so You know back when. I was learning to fly. I had the hood of my car up a lot. I was changing sparkplugs. I always changing the oil. I was adjusting carburetors. I was doing stuff to it and so It was a. I was able to transfer over to the airplane. My car had a carburetor. The airplane had a carburetor while most people who drive cars today. Don't drive a car with a carburetor. Their car is fuel injected. And so now. They're getting into an airplane. That's got a carburetor so it's a a system that they've maybe never even heard about so it's not really their fault it's were victim of our own success. If you will. So I think I think there's a lack of systems knowledge And and part of it just goes back to maybe not really reading the book Because it's it's all in the POH is pretty good systems description And we're you know we're not just talking about engine. We're talking about the environmental system. The heater the the vacuum system what how the how the instruments work the gyroscopic instruments electrical system Most it's all there. Yeah it's all there. So yeah I would say Systems lack of systems knowledge. In anything else that you would tell them that they need to do. Other than just read the POH well. I mean you know there's there's all kinds of The Airplane flying handbook pilot book of 'aeronautics knowledge. There's some there's some great generic systems descriptions in those. But also you know go to your your flight school or your FBO. And and when you see an airplane out with cowling off get out there. And and look around and I’ll bet you I would bet good money that if you asked the the the person working on the airplane to help explain some things to you. They would be more than happy to do that. Yeah they would point the fuel pump and magneto and it would just make so much more real what. You're reading in books that I think that's probably the best way to do it. Yeah all right great answer. This is a question that I used to always ask. Fine structures as I flew with them for the first time as a student or instruments student or whatever phase of training. I was in and it was the first time I with an instructor. And we're heading out to the practice. Area was coming back from the practice. Sorry I would say when. Have you been most scared in an aircraft. Obviously with them. I'm asking with a student. And I’ve heard some pretty hairy stories and I think I think everybody's got that moment that they were really really really scared. Mine Wally we've talked about it. It was my near-miss obviously an episode. Four go back and listen to that one I was. I probably should should have died that day and got really lucky that I didn't But that's not practical. Everybody's not going to have that and for me it was On my lap well was supposed to be my last long cross-country solo.
I was flying an aircraft this flight. School and the shammy dim dampener. Which is this little itty-bitty piston looking hydraulic thing on the front wheel that prevents it from having the wobbles kind of keeps it aligned up and That device must have broken or lost. It's fluid or something on the go. I had the wobbles much like you might have seen a motorcycle with the front wheel. Wobbling and that wobbles started turning me to the left which is into a water runway at the airport. And I just was I panicked. I may. I can remember my heart racing. What if that would have happened at one of the other airports. my life flash before my eyes is a related to that cross country and Think my training kicked in. I just pulled the power. Pull the throttle and I aborted the takeoff and taxing back was really no big deal Without a lot of power. But I can remember going home and telling my wife you know this was a big deal. She was panicked. But I thought each one of these little experiences is making me a better pilot. I'm I’m learning so much by having this little incident or this little thing happen But I can remember as a young low time pilot. that was one of those men. I was really really scared. How about you all. I I would say the first time I found myself Getting a little scared in the airplane. Who is a solo cross country. As a student pilot. this would have been Probably about January of nineteen eighty two January February timeframe of nineteen eighty-two and I was flying from Monroe Louisiana to noshes Mississippi I believe it. Sixty-six nautical miles and the border between Louisiana and Mississippi is the Mississippi river and I was in a tomahawk piper. Tomahawk and I’ve I distinctly remember. The was a clear day. It was cold and I was at thirty-five hundred feet and I remember Beginning to cross the Mississippi river. And I promise that engine started running rough. I promise it did. And I don't know there must there's a. There's got to be a camera on the bottom on an airplane that saw water down there and all of a sudden started running rough. I remember looking down at the Mississippi river and for those of you who have not been over the Mississippi river. It's it's really wide. But I was at thirty-five hundred feet. I could've easily made it to either side but I remember looking down at the water and just noticing how fast it was flowing and I remember thinking. It's got to be cold. And I really. I promise you that engine started running rough and I started going through My emergency landing procedures. And and I got to the other side and there's the noshes airport now went in and landed and everything was just fine but I go back to that a lot. I talk about flying a single engine airplane at night The a very good friend of mine. Clay dean who is the airport manager up at in Cleveland Texas where I keep my airplane. He jokes with me all the time. He says that that airplane doesn't know when it's night and I said my airplane does because that that engine makes different noises at night So anyway that. I hear the wind different going over the wings. Isn't that something. Yeah I’m on high alert for. Yeah yeah but that was mine. Oh flying over the Mississippi river and I still remember I. I remember my heart rate going up if you have a scary moment in an aircraft that You want to share with us. Shoot us an email Bobby@behindtheprop.com or both us Wally@behindtheprop.com. We would love to hear your story while we talk a lot about weight and balance and I think often every example that I hear for the most part is weight related. We very rarely talk about balance right. And I guess in the real-world real mission flying that I do Balanced becomes a problem and it. I guess it's when you're doing other things taking other passengers taking other Payload that you may. You may run into this. But because I don't ever remember it being a problem when I was a student pilot but Let's talk a little bit about what effect is moving. The center of gravity has on the airplanes handling and maybe more specifically moving forward For these these single engine aircraft that we fly most of the time. And I I’ll share when we added a twin at this school and in the first thing my chief did was put one hundred and fifty pounds in the nose Storage area of that aircraft. I was shocked.
Like why would we want to put one hundred thousand there and through education and reading and learning the that twin is so aft-. Cg that CG’s more back that you don't want that in a light twin when you're training doing VMC demos and other things you want. You want that to be nose heavy. Well the engine's not in the nose on a twin so The weight in their helps with the training aspects of what. You're trying to do and learn. But it's on the checklist. We checked to see if that's there for taking the plane on a trip etc. but Let's talk a little bit about that. What are your thoughts as it relates to CG or the the balance of an aircraft I think most people think that a forward CG is good at cg is is bad in general. I mean we're talking about within within the the the envelope And the fact of the matter is there are advantages to an aft. cg You move the cg aft and the airplane is going to become less stable. It is still as long as you're within the envelope. There are some advantages to that. Because you move the cg aft and you're going to get a higher true airspeed And that's going to equate to better gas mileage if you will and A a young man Several weeks ago we were talking about this and His comment was well. First of all. I'm trying to build time so A higher airspeed. I don't really care about if it takes me longer to get there. That's fine because I’m putting time in my logbook and not miles. And he says and I’m renting the airplane from the flight school and and I’m I’m paying an hourly rate so I I don't I don't really care if I save fuel or not and I said okay. Okay yeah I I understand that I said well suppose were getting to our destination and for whatever reason we can't get into our destination An unplanned event. The weather we're supposed to be great or or let's say we get there. The weather is good but there's a disabled airplane on the runway. Now we have to go to our alternate or an alternate we. You know were the VFR flight so Technically we didn't have an alternate but we need to go somewhere else. Well geez if if maybe we only burned twenty-two gallons on that flight rather than twenty-eight gallons. Wouldn't you like to have that ever an extra six gallons and your your back pocket. And his comment was gee. I never really thought of it. That way so yeah. Aft C g Higher true airspeed and you are going to get better better gas mileage if you will is it going to be is the the stability going to be compromised a little bit. Yes but If you're within the limit if you're within the envelope You still should be within an acceptable range. I mean every time we get an airplane. We’re taking a risk if someone says I want you to guarantee me that we will not have an airplane accident today. The only way you can guarantee that is to not get an airplane. Yeah and so. The envelopes key in. That should be something. You should be able to calculate. Know whether you are in or out of balance. I think we more often than talk about that. Fifty-pound piece of luggage were bringing Maybe where that's put maybe play with where that's put in your calculation. See what would it take to get you out of the envelope because in the real world and real flying you're going to have to make some decisions about CG Maybe the benefit us a relates to fuel consumption or true airspeed or just where to put this bag so that I can take it with me as always thanks for listening. Please share with a friend. Please give us five stars. Wherever you listen to podcasts. We have earned it and there's always stay behind the prop.
Thanks for checking out the Behind The Prop podcast. be sure to click subscribe and check us out online at BehindTheProp.com behind the prop is recorded in Houston, Texas. Show creator and host is Bobby Doss. Co-host is Wally Mulhearn. This shoe is for entertainment purposes Only. and not meant to replace actual flight instruction. Thanks for listening and remember: fly safe!