It's not that I hate math, yes I got poor grades, but I hate the misconceptions caused by the over emphasis of math in contact flying. Vy is mathematically the airspeed that, other things being equal, will cause the greatest altitude gain over time. Other things like wind energy are not equal. We get both increase and decrease in relative wind, shear, and both rising air and descending air. The misconception becomes that since Vy is the fastest up, Vy is the safest up. It is not always the fastest up, given fluid conditions, and almost never the safest.

Because most pilots spend the vast majority of their primacy time in the pattern, there is little thought of the safest use of the real (kinetic) rather than potential energy of altitude. And even potential energy of altitude is thought of as a high altitude concept. Potential energy of altitude gets a lot of pilots landing too fast, but real energy of altitude can make the pattern much safer. It can be used to replace the precious airspeed lost in attempting to stay level or climb in pattern turns. The safe use of the potential energy of altitude is to "really" just let the nose go down a bit in turns in the pattern where stall is fatal. This simply makes safe use of the potential energy of altitude. Too low? Bull. Crop dusters make use of the 200' AGL potential energy of altitude (plenty of altitude) in the return to target turn.

When low and slow, the automatic reaction to weakening climb or to bank should be to relax back pressure on the elevator. Perhaps that is why I neither use nor teach the default use of trim. When weakening climb begins either from downdraft, shear, or just too aggressive climb, the automatic reaction should be to relax back pressure on the elevator.

+1

Love this thought process. Easy to understand, easy to teach.
Sent you a PM

Take care, Rob

Yes, Rob, in the flight reviews I gave, even power was seldom used to replace the speed lost in level turns. In the low powered piston airplanes I sprayed with, power was full coming out of the field and until altitude was traded back for kinetic energy in the return to target. Add to that pilots had little concept of how wind energy was contributing to maneuverability or hurting maneuverability. Math is so pure, and unrealistic. We don't really need to calibrate ground speed, we just want to make the turns to target safe.