Flight Training - June 2013 - 16

PREFLIGHT»

SINCE YOU ASKED

BY ROD MACHADO

Fly low, fly high
What’s the right altitude?
Dear Rod:
I’m a low-time private pilot with a confession: I’m afraid of gusty winds. Nothing
makes me sweat more than hearing
“Ten knots gusting to 20” as I approach
an airport. I have opted for staying on
the ground on more than one occasion
because of nothing more than gusty conditions. —Charlie
Greetings Charlie:
Three of the most common reasons why
pilots fear gusty winds are: They’re afraid
of losing control of the airplane; they
don’t like the feeling of tipping sideways
when a gust lifts a wing; or they worry
about the wings coming off.
As a general rule, it’s extremely rare
for winds to bank an airplane beyond 60
degrees. I’ve been flying in California (big
mountains here) for more than 42 years
in some nasty turbulence and have yet to
have a gust induce a bank of more than 60
degrees. It’s also extremely rare for wind
to break a wing off an airplane in visual
meteorological conditions. It often takes a
radical loss of airspeed control to pull the
wings off an airplane, and that’s something associated with flying in the clouds.
Even in extremely gusty conditions,
you can keep an airplane lined up with
the runway all the way to touchdown as
long as you can do one thing: use rudder
and aileron in coordination. Without
good stick-and-rudder skills, you’re likely
to experience a fear of gusty winds. I’ll
bet if I put you on final approach in gusty
winds, the longitudinal axis of your airplane will move from side to side similar
to a samurai swinging a sword. Nearly
every pilot that I’ve flown with who had
a fear similar to yours overcame that fear
by learning pitch control and coordination skills. That’s a fact.
Find a good aerobatic instructor and
take a lesson or two. Have him or her turn
you upside down (turn the airplane upside
down, that is) and teach you how to turn

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yourself upright. When you learn how
to control an airplane in all different
attitudes, under higher G-forces, you’ll no
longer fear gusty winds during landing.
Dear Rod,
What altitude should I choose for a
cross-country flight? What is the distance
between departure and destination
airport that determines whether I should
fly at higher cruise altitudes or lower
altitudes? —Robert
Greetings Robert:
When I choose an altitude for a VFR
cross-country flying, I choose it on the
basis of obstructions, emergency landing
potential, comfort (i.e., weather, turbulence, temps), then fuel efficiency, in that
order. That said, if the destination airport
is 10 miles away, I’m not going to attempt
to climb to some higher cruise altitude.
I’ll probably fly within 2,000 feet above
the ground for that trip. If the airport is
100 miles away, it certainly makes more
sense to climb to a cruise altitude that
gives you better fuel efficiency.
As a general rule, I fly below 5,000 agl
on flights of 50 miles or less. For flights
more than 75 miles, I’ll often fly at higher
cruising altitudes where my airplane
would have greater fuel efficiency. For
airports in between these distances, it
depends on the type of flight I’d like to
have. Sometimes it’s just fun to fly lower
and give yourself more time to look outside while in straight-and-level flight.
Rod Machado is a flight instructor, author, educator, and speaker. He has been a pilot since 1970 and
a CFI since 1973.
Visit his blog (www.rodmachado.com).

http://www.catstest.com http://www.rodmachado.com http://FLIGHTTRAINING.AOPA.ORG

Flight Training - June 2013

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