Learning To Fly: FREDA PATs The CAT

Flying Straight And Level
"Flying straight means maintaining a constant heading, and this can be achieved by holding the wings level with the ailerons, and keeping the aeroplane coordinated with the rudder to prevent any yaw.

Flying level means maintaining a constant altitude, which can be achieved by having the correct power set and the nose held in the correct attitude. Altitude is displayed in the cockpit on the altimeter.

Steady, straight and level flight, coordinated and in trim, is desirable for both comfort and good aeroplane performance. Accurate straight and level flying is one sign of a good pilot."

From Trevor Thom's The Air Pilot's Manual.

Hurrah! At last, a Sunday with flyable weather, and so I set off to Leeds Flying School once more. I'm really looking forward to lesson three which focussed on exercise 6 of the flying syllabus: straight and level flight.

Before arriving at the flying school, I stopped at Air Supply in Yeadon to pick up a flight computer (Pooley's CRP-1 - the 'whiz wheel'), for use when completing the exercises in the air navigation book I recently bought.

On to the lesson briefing: I was introduced to my new friend FREDA. FREDA is an acronym for Fuel, Radio, Engine, Direction Indicator, and Altimeter. It is a useful acronymn to know as you will use it regularly when you do your cockpit check drill continuously throughout a flight.

Obviously fuel is important, you don't want it to run out when you are not on the ground. You will have checked your tanks visually on the ground during the pre-flight check. All my instructors told me not to put faith in the fuel gauge - a visual check of the tanks wins every time.

During flight, on a aircraft like the PA28 with dual tanks, it is prudent to switch tanks every so often so that they remain in some state of balance. An easy to remember rules is to look at the minute hand of your watch. If it is facing to the right (0 to 30 mins past the hour) switch to the right hand fuel tank, if it is facing left then use the left hand fuel tank.

The radio check is to confirm that you are tuned to the right frequence and where applicable you have the next frequence or the emergency frequence ready to switch to. Also check the volume and squelch to ensure good quality audio.

Check the engine temperature and oil pressure. Make sure the indicators are 'in the greens' i.e. within the operating parameters of the aircraft. You will also need know what to do if they are not.

The Direction Indicator (DI) is a gyroscopic device that will drift over time and so give a false reading. It is good practice when flying straight and level to ensure the magnetic compass and the DI are aligned. If not, then adjust the DI. Some aircraft you fly in might have a Horizontal Situation Indicator (HSI) which is 'slaved' to a sensor in the aircraft which monitors the Earth's magnetic field and continually adjusts itself to maintain an accurate reading at all times.

Finally check the altitude you are at - not just to ensure you are flying where you expect to be, but also to ensure you are not violating any controlled airspace. You also check the barometric pressure that you have set your altimeter to confirm it is correct and as per information you may have received from air traffic controllers.

Now it was time to start the lesson proper and to really get to know what straight and level flight is all about.

We start with the unassuming formula: Power + Attitude = Performance.

For the PA-28 Warrior, my training aircraft of choice, we can assume that we will have an airspeed of 100kts when the engine is running at 2400rpm. If we meet this balance then we are doing straight and level flight.

Then we will move to 2600rpm for 110kts or so, and drop to 2000rpm to attain 80kts and so on. We will also cover the use of flaps to maintain straight and level flight at lower power.

It is now time to introduce more acronyms: PAT the CAT.

You will PAT the aircraft when you are changing the power - i.e. increasing or decreasing the engine RPM.

(P)ower - Adjust the power
(A)ttitude - Set the correct attitude for straight and level flight
(T)rim - Trim the aircraft to relieve control pressure

As an aircraft is quite dynamic, we will need to constantly be checking the situation:

(C)heck - Keep checking the power, and attitude
(A)djust - Adjust where required (fine tuning)
(T)rim - Trim once again...

And so out to G-BODD, our training aircraft for today. As I had my new PA-28 checklist handy it was time to follow the pre-flight checklist. All around external checks. Internal checks and then ready to taxi out.

We reviewed ATIS (Automatic Terminal Information Service - i.e. what the weather is like, which runway is in use etc.) and then the call to ATC to request clearance.

ATC requested that we hold at F3 - one of the many markers at an international airport such as Leeds Bradford. I got us there with my improving taxiing skills and completed the flight checks that could be done with a check list. I will need to memorise the remainder of the check list until we land!.

Clearance was received to transit the airfield to R27, but had to expedite our crossing of the main runway at LBA - the instructor took over for this - my improving taxiing skills aren't quite up to quickly crossing over active runways.

Once across the main runway I taxiied around the apron to the threshold of R27. Doing the final checks before take off we noticed that the DI wasn't functioning correctly, the flight instructure did some configurations and got it back on track, and we were ready for take off.

My second take off went very smoothly. Before I knew it we were up to 2000ft and heading North towards Harrogate. We found a wide open space and went through all the things we had discussed in the briefing.

The lesson went very well and I started to get a much better feel of the aircraft. For the first time I noticed that the air speed indicator was adjusted to cover temperature and pressure which meant that we read from and adjustable scale on the foot of the meter.

Before long it was time to land. A steep approach, power down to 1200rpm. Watching the instructor and following through the controls. We flared and touched down just as the stall warning indicated sounded. A short taxi back to Multiflight West by the instructor, parked up for refuelling and that was it.

A good lesson, the one thing I would like more time on is taxying - I'm still trying to "drive" the aircraft like a car and it is hard to get into mind that the pedals do the steering.