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Flying Training

Lesson 43: Instruments 2

Saturday 3 March 2007, 4.00pm in Citabria WKM. Instructor: Neil Tucker.

Weather: warm (35°C). Wind NNE at 8 knots gusting to 11 at 4.30pm; 10 to 13 at 5.30pm.

Rob was unavailable so Neil Tucker was my instructor for the first time since lesson 12 on 27 December 2006. We'd already agreed to use the instrument-equipped Citabria, WKM, and I found it at the bowser, so I fuelled up (to 60 litres each side) and did the preflight there. The anti-collision light was u/s, as was the landing light (no fuse) and tail light, and the flaps didn't return completely to the up position without manually pushing them up (Tim told me the airflow will straighten them out in practice). I should have noticed the wobbly knob on the carby heat - more later.

Neil said the previous student reported problems with the intercom too, and so it proved. What I missed on the taxi out, though, was the turn co-ordinator.

Since the wind was noticeable, I swung into the wind for the run-up, which meant a sharp left turn to re-enter the taxiway. I found that I needed a lot of throttle to give me enough rudder authority for the turn, and a stab of left brake too.

At the hold point I called "Camden Tower, Citabria Whisky Kilo Mike ready runway 06 for crosswind departure to the training area." but forgot to add the ATIS code. They didn't pick me up on it, just cleared me for take-off. The take-off run could have been improved, as the aircraft darted to the right after I raised the tail. This could have been because the asymmetric blade effect disappears when the tail is raised, and the rudder becomes more effective. Anyway, my correction was quick enough and we climbed out on the centreline.

At 800 feet I turned onto crosswind as usual, and Neil passed the hood over and asked me to climb to 2500' maintaining a northerly heading. The elastic band felt mighty tight, especially over the headset, and began to give me a headache almost immediately. However I had plenty to distract me from the pain, what with setting up a scan of the instruments, and trying to figure out what Neil was saying over the very crackly intercom. I quickly found that I'd missed the DI while concentrating on attitude, height and rate of climb, and wandered off heading by 20°.

At the next airspace step Neil asked me to climb to 4500', and make a rate one turn climbing turn to the west. This was when I discovered that the turn co-ordinator wasn't working. I had a balance ball, but the little aircraft's wings stayed resolutely level. This is why it's useful to know the approximate angle of bank for a rate one turn at different speeds. See here for the calculation, but basically 15° is approximately right for 100 knots. For the future, remember to check the turn co-ordinator while taxiing!

Once at 4500' Neil asked me to make a full 360° rate one turn to the left, and then to the right. This was simple, and we carried out a few other turning exercises (including climbing and descending turns) before moving on to something new. This was to carry out a stall and recovery on instruments.

Remember Kerry said months ago, about WKM dropping a wing in a stall? Well, it's true, but I didn't think I'd be experiencing it for the first time under the hood. The procedure for stalling on instruments is exactly the same as for visual flight, ie carby heat to hot, throttle back, stick back to hold the altitude steady while keeping straight with rudder (watching the AI). The stall warning gave a quick beep and then the right wing abruptly dropped. I made a very quick recovery, with minimal loss of height (in fact I was at 4600' when I checked) so perhaps this was just an incipient stall.

The next stall was full-on, with the stall warning blaring and the right wing falling away towards a spin. I pushed the stick forward, throttled up, carby heat to cold whereupon the knob flew off, bounced off something below with a metallic Ting! and disappeared. (This was about where I made the comment that WKM was not exactly the pride of the fleet.) Neil wasn't completely happy with my recovery sequence so he said, "Next time I want to see you straighten it with rudder before putting the stick forward", and this time it all came together. Straighten the yaw with rudder, stick forward and then throttle up (with carby heat to cold using what was left of the control) and raise the nose to the horizon. Total height lost in the last two stalls was 300', ie 150' each, which is not too bad.

Next came steep turns. First Neil had me do a 360° turn to the left at a 30° angle of bank, then an immediate 360° turn to the right at the same angle. Obviously this required a little extra throttle, and I found that as you straighten up to wings level you need to shove the stick forward to hold the nose down, then pull it back again once you're established in the turn in the opposite direction.

Finally I did 360° turns in both directions at a 45° angle of bank. This involves non-trivial G forces and I was conscious that it was a manouevre that could become a spiral dive if the dot is not held on the horizon. In fact this exercise finished me off as I found myself fighting a rising wave of nausea that took me quite by surprise. Neil had me pass back the hood, take over the controls, and set course for The Oaks (which I identified by its square shape) but in a couple of minutes he had to take the controls while I made use of the little bag again. How embarrassing. However, Neil did say I flew the turns well.

Feeling better now, I headed for Camden tuned the radio to 120.10 and made a CTAF call (as it was now 5.40pm and the tower was closed): "Camden Traffic, Citabria WKM at The Oaks, 2,300, inbound." Neil confirmed that it was not possible to make a straight-in approach, so we aimed at reducing height to 1800 feet for an upwind leg just to the right of runway 06, descending to 1300 for the crosswind turn. I found as we approached that I was heading left to compensate for the crosswind, and was pleased to realise that this is beginning to become automatic.

There was nothing else in the circuit, just a Pitts and a Cessna both taxiing clear of the runway. so it was a relaxing normal circuit. On final Neil had me put in a sideslip which both lost a little excess height and set me up for the crosswind landing. It looked like a perfect approach, heading straight for the numbers, but at the last minute I raised the nose too high and went for a bit of a balloon. I gave it enough throttle to consider a go-around, but then realised that my attitude was fine and the runway was long, so I throttled back again and made quite a nice landing, in time to turn off at the normal taxiway.

Once parked outside the hangar I did the ROARS checks, but I can't recall turning the switches off. I hope I did. I did find the carburettor heat knob, though, down by the flap lever, and screwed it on tight.

So, that was one hour, with 0.6 hours instrument flight, and money well spent except for the airsickness. I now have 1.5 hours' on instruments, and I need another 0.5 hours, which will be partial panel work. This can probably be combined with either crosswind circuits or a flight around the training area. I suppose I could even finish off the spin lesson that was so rudely interrupted in the same way as this one.

P.S. No tailwheel shimmy so I must have had the aircraft pointing straight on touchdown!

Photos

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