New category

[Stef]

Here's a new category for you! I thought it would be a good thing to have a special place where we can conduct some practical eLearning... Where rookies can aks questions and the masters among you can share their knowledge (also among themselves of course). It's sort of a side-track to the "Aviation related topics" area. Rules for this category: there are no stupid questions.

[Plthijnx]

ok, i'll be first.....

i just landed a job with a major pipeline company here in houston and am going to have some extra $$ that i'm probably going to throw towards getting my sling wing add-on. question: do i have to take any written exams? will my headset work in the robinson r-22? how many "bad habits" am i going to have to "shed"? here is a link to Helicopter Services Inc. the school that i'm looking at for my training....Freddy

[Sleek-Jet]

What ever you do.... don't do this...

I've kicked around the idea of getting my swing wing rating.  There is a place here in town that advertizes a private for a fixed wing pilot for about 8000.  Don't know what's involved. 

[Plthijnx]

holy crap!! that's one lucky dude!

[Gulfstream Driver]

Wow.  Darwin runner up?

[Frank N. O.]

Nice forum-idea, especially with these nice guys and gals here

Regarding the award-winner then I think I've heard the story behind it, he just bought it at started flying, appearently with either little or no helicopter training, and as you can see it was right in the middle of aircraft parking, he was lucky, I wonder if he lost whatever license he may or not have had for that stunt. Btw, he flies just I do, except I do it in a flightsimulator program and would never fly one in real life, at least not as a pilot, although I have heard it's actually easier in real life than at least Microsoft Flight simulator 2004.

Has anyone here made a video showing normal taxi and take-off procedures done correctly, showing the control-movement? I'd love to see that.

Frank

P.S. I do know that for any simulator then what controls you use is paramount, and the stiff unprecise Logitech joystick I have to use is not good, not for fixed-wings either but a yoke is expensive, but I've got a plan to build my own.

[Stef]

I've seen this video before... This guy is not only lucky he didn't kill himseld, but also that he didn't kill innocent bystanders!! In my opinion he should go to jail for that!

@ Frank: Ah, another thing you want to build yourself? You should change your name into McGyver!   

[Gulfstream Driver]

The problem with sims is there's no "seat of your pants" feel.  I always flew IFR in the plane better than the sim.

[fireflyr]

What ever you do.... don't do this...

I've kicked around the idea of getting my swing wing rating.  There is a place here in town that advertizes a private for a fixed wing pilot for about 8000.  Don't know what's involved. 
[/quote

LMAO---omygod, Let's hope he can't reproduce!!!!!!

[fireflyr]

I'm with Gulfstream on the sims, the only time i've ever spun in IFR (obviously) was on a rented sim at the airport.

IMC is easy in a airplane compared to any sim I've ever flown and I believe that's why they're an excellent training aid.

I fly one every spring before I go down for my annual 135 ride, it does help.

[Plthijnx]

hehe, my friend today had to do a CAT3 approach this morning into IAH in the MD-11 he flies and now he has to go to Georgia to do a sim ride to stay current. the kick in the but is he only needed ONE landing and now he has to do a checkride! LOL! sucks for him but i get to raz him about it!

[Frank N. O.]

Stef: Lol, actually my friends just knows me as Frank and they know I have a ton of ideas spanning everything from planes, cars, computers, games, etc. I'm very versatile and creative, and I've been like that forever, I got it from my dad, he was like that too, a big kid, loved life (and the freedom of driving) and I got some logic from my mom so I don't waste all the few money I have, great combo
I also have a plan already laid out to build a frame with a real carseat and real carpedals for my driving-sim and hooking them up to my game-pedals so I wouldn't need to dismantle it and loose the programmed calibration, I plan on using early Ford Mondeo parts btw since they fit me well (aka Ford Contour and Mercury Mystique).

I love sims, and have spent many long thoughts on how to bridge the gap between sitting in the real thing and sitting in front of a monitor so I could maximize the use of the simulator and controls is the big problem, especially with flightims since you have to use key-combos and mouse-clicks to use controls and levers you'd use by hand in a completely different way in real life, and I'm very practical minded in terms of learning controls so sims don't do much good in advanced planes that have several controls and when using navigation and radio-systems, but then again as you said yourself, there's no seat-of-the-pants feel so small planes won't be simulated proporly either, or cars for that matter. I have a force-feedback joystick but flying the Cessna in FS2004 didn't seem realistic at all for me, when pulling back I had constant backpressure unless I pushed it rapidly forward and then pulled back again, then it would be kept back. I haven't flown wildly in real life but that doesn't seem realistic compared to how the plane mouvred in the air and thereby how the airflow would affect the control-surfaces.

For a real-life question though, I'd like to know how effective it is to have an adjustable propeller (called constant-speed right?) and what the trick is to adjust the engine-power together with it, with either a piston or gasturbine engine. Also, how come a piston engine has a manual mixture control but a turbine doesn't?

Frank

[Gulfstream Driver]

First, on your flight sim, you might be able to trim the plane so your force-feedback stick doesn't give you any trouble.  I assume you have the realism turned up...

Adjustable pitch (or constant-speed...same thing) props allow the pilot to select engine RPM separate from engine power.  They are more efficient than fixed pitch props because they are adaptable to each phase of flight. Generally, you want to adjust manifold pressure (power) so that it is equal or lower than engine RPM so that it's easier on the engine.  Throttle (black) controls manifold pressure and the Prop Lever (blue) controls RPM.  I found a pretty good website that explains a lot of physics behind the concept.

http://www.auf.asn.au/groundschool/propeller.html#prop_theory

I'm not sure about jet engines...I know basically how they work, but we never discussed why there isn't a mixture handle.  I do know that higher is better with jets.

Piston engines have a mixture lever because the engine burns fuel most efficiently at a 15:1 air to fuel ratio.  More than that, and your just dumping extra fuel out the exhaust manifold.  Less, and the engine runs rough.  The ideal amount of fuel actually going into the engine is going change depending on altitude, so you need to be able to adjust the mixture.

[Sleek-Jet]

A constant speed propeller is an adjustable pitch propeller, but an adjustable pitch propeller is not necessarily a constant speed prop.

A constant speed prop's pitch is determined by a govenor that supplies oil pressure to the hub of the prop.  A set of fly weights and springs adjusts the pitch to maintain the selected RPM. 

An adjustable pitch prop can either be changed on the ground (most are this way) or the blade pitch can be made in flight using a cable controll.  They will not hold a selected RPM however, and behave like a standard fixed pitch prop in flight. 

The best way to set power is to adjust the throttle to the desired manifold pressure (most of the altitudes that I fly at makes that wide open throttle), then adjust the prop controll to the desired RPM.  Finally, lean to best power or best range... or however you run the engine. 

I always find what RPM the engine runs smoothest at (the "sweet" spot) and then find the manifold pressure for the desired power output. 

[Frank N. O.]

Thanks for the link, I should however have re-phrased part of my question, being a car-enthusiast and having my dad work on his own cars since he was young then I know about lambda-1 (14.7:1), however I don't know why all piston-engined airplanes I've ever heard of have the mixture controlled manually when, as you said yourself, there is only 1 optimum setting and why gasturbine-engined planes doesn't have such a control, although judging from real and simulated cockpits from a Caravan it seems to have two or three other types of fuel-controls besides the throttle (Emergency Power, fuel cut-off switch and some other fuel lever next to the throttle on the other side of the emergency power).

To my understanding then a variable propeller is sort-of like a gearbox on a car, to allow running the engine at lower rpm while maintaining thrust, I didn't know there was more than one type of variable propeller though, but now I know why it's called constant speed. While on the subject, just to confirm, feathering a propeller means adjusting the pitch to minimum drag, normally only in case of engine failure correct? Although then I wonder why the Caravan's cockpit have thrust-reverse controlled by the throttle lever and not the prop lever. Ah so many questions

Thank you both for the replies, and thanks for the link Speaking of teaching material, can anyone recommend the private pilot book by Rod Machado? I was thinking of buying it (even though a pilot license isn't exactly in the cards anytime soon).
Frank