AOPA Pilot Magazine - January 2015 - 85
But flight instructors (and other nags)
have good reasons to insist on precisely following the centerline. First, just because
the runway at your home airport is as wide
as a prairie doesn't mean all the runways
in your future will be. If you ever want to
drop in on narrow backcountry airstrip or
visit remote locations, prepare yourself now.
Every takeoff and landing is a prelude to all
the others that will follow, and the time to
develop the skills that will allow you to
fly with confidence everywhere begins at
home. Also, tracking the centerline with
precision will help you in crosswinds, on
slippery runways, in tailwheel aircraft, and
other situations where directional control
can be hard to maintain.
In a crosswind, adhering to the centerline allows you to notice small amounts of
lateral drift. If your airplane drifts two feet
left or right, you'll notice the movement
immediately and correct it before the situation becomes critical. On slick surfaces,
these subtle corrections help avoid dramatic control movements that can lead
to skids and pilot-induced oscillations. In
tailwheel airplanes, holding the centerline
helps avoid ground loops, the damaging loss
of directional control that comes when the
airplane's center of gravity shifts outside its
wheel base and it pivots-or worse.
If you're adventurous and seek out
remote and rugged areas to fly, it's a certainty that sometime, somewhere, you'll find
yourself challenged by a narrow airstrip, a
strong crosswind, or an unforeseen situation in which precision really does matter.
That's the time you'll be glad you focused on
accuracy in preceding flights.
Refine your skills to the point that putting your airplane exactly where you want
it becomes a habit. You'll notice small deviations while they're still small, and correct
them promptly. You'll know you can meet
your own high standards, even-perhaps
especially-in difficult conditions.
So the next time you're taking off or
landing at your home airport in calm winds,
challenge yourself. Do your best to keep
your airplane's main landing gear astride
the white stripe. It's just a game. But someday it's going to be for real.
AOPA
EMAIL dave.hirschman@aopa.org
www.aopa.org/pilot AOPA PILOT | 85
http://www.hiltonsoftware.com
http://www.aopa.org/pilot
AOPA Pilot Magazine - January 2015
Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of AOPA Pilot Magazine - January 2015
Contents
AOPA Pilot Magazine - January 2015 - Cover1
AOPA Pilot Magazine - January 2015 - Cover2
AOPA Pilot Magazine - January 2015 - Contents
AOPA Pilot Magazine - January 2015 - 2
AOPA Pilot Magazine - January 2015 - 3
AOPA Pilot Magazine - January 2015 - 4
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AOPA Pilot Magazine - January 2015 - 6
AOPA Pilot Magazine - January 2015 - 7
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AOPA Pilot Magazine - January 2015 - Cover3
AOPA Pilot Magazine - January 2015 - Cover4
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