The orientation of safe maneuvering flight techniques is low altitude energy management. Trying to get up too quickly with engine power alone and total disregard of other forms of energy can put us in the place, and at the airspeed, that can make the three second delay in accepting that the engine has failed fatal. High cruise is the norm for most, but low powered airplanes spend a lot of time at low AGL in the mountains. Landing by definition is to quit flying. Vso is an out of ground effect V speed that has nothing to do with landing. The airplane does not quit flying at Vso in low ground effect. Stay up at 30 feet and slow to Vso and it will quit flying there, but it will not land there. It will fall.

1. Yes, we start with engine thrust. Mixture for best power, prop pitch etc., is important. We will also benefit by looking about us for extra free energy. We are not in an airplane so powerful that we have to declare, "game over," and jump out if the engine quits.

2. Slope. Don't takeoff up hill. Six degrees slope is max on a Colorado state road and trucks are really impacted by less.

3. Headwind component is free relative wind.

4 Flaps and slats as recommended or as found beneficial.

5. Either tailwheel on the ground pitch attitude or nosewheel on the ground friction will tremendously delay acceleration.

6. Main tires on the ground well after the wing will lift the airplane will tremendously delay acceleration. The design of the airplane is to fly; not to roll on the ground.

6a. High pitch attitude in ground effect tremendously delays acceleration. Dynamic proactive elevator movement will bracket level pitch attitude to stay off and accelerate properly in low ground effect.

6b. One foot over the obstruction is safer than than ten or one hundred feet over the obstruction if it will maintain DMMS and make the outcome of the maneuver not in question. Deteriorating Vx or Vy from too much pitch up statistically ends in falling or mushing into the obstruction.

7 Vy climb out is not the best pitch attitude for forward visibility and certainly is not the best maneuvering airspeed when too low to recover from a stall. Dan Gryder's Defined Minimum Maneuvering Speed is much safer. The delay in accepting that the engine has failed or just distraction is statistically deadly at Vy.

8. A climbing turn at Vy only makes it worse. There is no way this turn can end at Vy if we pull back on the stick to keep the nose from going down as designed for safety. At climbing turn or any maneuvering is possible and safe at DMMS.

9. Thermal and orographic lift can easily exceed 70% of the rate of climb in small airplanes. The smaller the engine, the more important is the natural lift of gliders.

10. Adverse yaw from coordinated turns to level the wing increases the disruption of turbulence where rudder only yaw to increase rather than decrease the speed of the down wing mitigates the disruption of turbulence. The use of aileron which cause the down wing to slow down increases light turbulence to moderate and moderate to severe.

11. Keeping the longitudinal axis, or our butt in a crosswind, directed/bracketed toward a precise target or heading (+or - anything unacceptable) with dynamic proactive rudder only (aileron is too sloppy) will keep the wing level in light to moderate turbulence. Coordinated turns to level the wing will sympathetically increase the disturbance of turbulence.

12. Winds aloft generally increase with altitude until well up. Low into headwind component and high with tailwind component is good wind energy management.

13. Attempting to maintain altitude in significant downdraft is futile and dangerous. We stay in the down air longer than if we pitch down to fly through it quickly and more importantly we can lose DMMS, the ability to maneuver.

14. Pitching up in updrafts is simply using the free rate of climb and altitude gain of the glider. Why give up that free potential energy of altitude which can be traded for kinetic energy of airspeed as needed.

15. Whether low and close enough to take advantage of the orographic ridge lift or not, following the ridge downwind of the valley (the updraft side parallel to the ridge) going up to the pass is safest because it provides immediate knowledge of and ability to turn to follow the drainage out of the mountains. Following ridge lift from plains or part all the way up to the pass is good wind energy management.

16, When glacier carved vertical ridges disrupt normal incline orographic lift and mazes of these flat bottomed troughs cause unreadable air drainage and down drainage is not identifiable, refer to MTV's and Butch Washtock's slow cruise, lead rudder in turns, test air drainage in intersections, type mountain training.

17. Crossing ridges in the mountains can be rough and can cause loss of situational awareness concerning down drainage egress. In US Rocky and Sierra mountains ridges go up to the pass and down to egress the mountains. Where are you going?

18. Cruise airspeed descent to destination is good potential energy of altitude traded for free airspeed used even by the airlines who have tremendous engine energy. Fuel is expensive. Airlines provide a long and comfortable ride, but still use Wolfgang's law of the roller coaster.

19. We don't want to land at a thousand feet up. Allowing the nose to go down naturally in all turns in the pattern is the safest way to turn and good energy management.

20. If we are the only one in the pattern, we don't have to make the more dangerous downwind base to final turn and turning base into a crosswind is good wind energy management.

21. We cannot land at cruise airspeed so 1.3 Vso from way out to short final makes energy management sense. Of course we want to land into the wind to decrease groundspeed. We may also want to angle as much as runway width allows into a strong crosswind given we are comfortable with deceleration on short final so as to be able to keep the throttle active as a glide angle and rate of descent control to precise touchdown slowly and softly on the downwind corner of the runway lined up with the upwind touchdown zone white square. Closing the throttle to round out and hold off here does not work and is poor energy management. Neither does this work with touchdown at Vso in a light crosswind. We need to touchdown much slower than Vso unless the headwind component is making groundspeed very slow at Vso. Ground effect allows the airplane to fly much slower than Vso.

22. Deceleration on short final is easy using the same maintenance of what appears to be a brisk walk that we use slowing to a stop at an intersection with our automobiles. Wind management is landing as much into the wind as possible given runway width or landing zone room. Deceleration below 1.3 Vso and observation outside is necessary. Somewhere inside a quarter mile the rate of closure will appear to speed up. We prevent this with elevator pitch up and control the resultant sink with throttle movement. If we don't sink or mush, we know we were too fast. Next time we will do better. If round out and hold off is necessary, we know we were too fast. Next time we will do better. If we are able to keep some power or even lots of power to touchdown, we know that we decelerated enough to maintain what appears to be a brisk walk on short final. Groundspeed in a headwind component, even with gusts, should not be higher than in a no headwind component situation. Throttle movement can mitigate gust effect ballooning and sinking.

Nice summary Jim; thanks!

Blue skies,

Tommy

Good Stuff!

Always enjoy it and your contributions to backcountry pilot keep me coming back again and again.

Richard

Thanks guys. I've got to get out to do some clinics soon. I'm really getting tired of this computer. I used the blackboard, now white board, the way Dan Gryder uses cardboard signs and Sharpie. Computers will let you down in the middle of the night. Since not using Word in years, I have no idea how to save when I write posts. The drive thing says it is working on it, but that's it. Lost a couple hours last nigh when I hit the curved arrow thing thinking i could just wipe out a long mistake. Wiped everything out. Computers don't take senility and dementia into consideration.

Yesterday's Russ Niles Aviation Web article, "Ghost Cub Flies 1.5 miles Before Crashing in Nebraska," illustrates good energy management from takeoff to touchdown. Except it didn't decelerate and flair on landing. It tried to wheel land a bit too fast. Same as back when they were the most popular crop duster, however. Gear went away, engine came back in the ghost pilot's lap, and if there had been DDT it would have gone up onto the ghost pilots back. That mechanic who propped it with the throttle open could tell us about a good low ground effect takeoff, DMMS climb out, streamlined ailerons not causing adverse yaw for perfectly level flight (leading edge of wing evenly crushed), pitched up in any updraft and pitched down in any downdraft, ghost pilot flew it all the way to touchdown, poor job on apparent brisk walk rate of closure for power/pitch short final to touchdown, however.

Excellent analysis