Tips for flying in the bumps

[lamercyfly]

Hi Folk.

About the turbulence thing, herewith a few thoughts of my own;

1. before you venture into a turbulent sky, KNOW WHAT IS UP THERE. ie is it Thunderstorm activity, is it just thermic with cloud base at about 3000AGL and vertical developement pegged at about 2 - 3000feet about cloud base or is it orographic on a cold winters day, overcast so no thermals but bad turbulence behind the mountain etc.,

2. Once you can safely assess what kind of turbulence you can expect, and whether it IS SAFE TO FLY, then prepare yourself to expect the bumps.

3. Believe in your craft. Like FF said, very few known structural break-ups have occurred while flying in standard daily turbulence. Once you believe in your craft, you can then start working on believing in yourself

4. I cannot, and I do not believe anyone can, tell you how to handle the wing in turbulence. I can show you, and so can others, but it is a practical flying lesson.

The advice given so far, is mostly correct, but until you have been exposed to it in a practical flying lesson, by an instructor who is KNOWN to give good advanced training ( I mean this, there are some instructors out there who are terrified of the smallest bit of turbulence).

As far as Demon's advice, I am afraid I don't agree Demon. I think that you - like those of us who comfortably fly in some really serious stuff - actually think we are hardly working the bar, and that we can actually just laze around. I beg you to reconsider. I believe that we have gleaned the art of subtle flying, wherein we delicately and so beautifully in tune with our wings, just 'nudge it here and there'. So, yes, it does feel to me like I just let the wing do what it wants, but in hindsight I have come to accept that this is not the case. I actually work the wing all the time, but it is such a delicate coaxing of the base bar, that it is hardly noticable.

So, to John and one or two others, please do NOT let your base bar go in turbulence. I believe that this can lead to a very bad situation which gets out of control very, very quickly, causing a huge almost uncontrollable left and right oscillation of the wing, which can lead to structural failure.

So, by all means let your arms work as shock absorbers - as said - and learn to anticipate the wing movements as a result of various kinds of input displacements, and BY EXPERIENCE KNOW HOW MUCH TO WORK THE WING AND TO WHAT DEGREE.

So, my advice is as follows:

1. Hook up with an instructor who is known to fly in turbulence, and go do some dual flying with them
2. Slowly, slowly fly in bigger and bigger skies until you will one day suddenly realise, "Hey, this is actually a lekka jol"
3. Learn to read the sky. You MUST be able to judge whether the turbulence will be a killer, or just 'kak'. If it is a killer like thunderstorm gust fronts etc, DO NOT FLY, AND IF YOU ARE IN THE SKY THEN LAND PRONTO!!! If it is not a killer, then go have fun...................

No offence Demon. I respect your experience. Just hate to hear John's laments when he lands after taking your advice and letting his bar go.................

later,

[DarkHelmet]

Thanks for the awesome feedback David! I have decided to go on an instructor "round robin" and will be asking many of the experienced folk around smoke city for some advanced mid-day flight training. I can fly, I can do bumps, they still scare me - I have respect and I know my envelope. I will push it with some knowledgeable hands to help me...

[Biggles]

Darkhelmet...

I also don't like turbulence which is an improvement from being terrified of turbulence. With instructor at the back I was fine with turbulence the moment I was solo in the GF and hit turbulence I though I was going to fold up and tumble out the sky... The first thing I tried to do was speed up. High wing loading equals more resistant to turbulance? And I was terrified that everytime the nose pitched up I was going to stall and everytime I pitched sideways I was hanging on the bar with a death grip because I thought I was going to fall out. I eventually tired myself out wrestling with the wing and gave up letting the wing do what it wanted because I couldn't fight it anymore... realised that the way to handle turbulance that suited me was to let the wing "run" but just catch it at the end to stop the pendulum starting and centralize the bar. Using this I noticed that you stay reasonably on track aswell.

my zim cents worth

[John Young]

Hi Dave,

I think that you read the posts at high speed …..

As far as Demon's advice, I am afraid I don't agree Demon.

No, Demon did not advocate letting the bar go. Rather he was using a “folded arms type position” along the bar and letting his elbows act as shock absorbers.

So, to John and one or two others, please do NOT let your base bar go in turbulence.

No, I can't see myself letting the bar go in severe turbulence. In fact, the opposite usually happens – the famous PPG [Pappegaai] Grip.

No offence Demon. I respect your experience. Just hate to hear John's laments when he lands after taking your advice and letting his bar go.................

Me too. Would sound something like “Now where is that +%$ing instructor – wanna rearrange some of his important pieces”.

Guys, just in case you don’t know, Dave & I know each other very well and no offence will be taken.

Davie, the point of my two short anecdotes was only that they made me think. If their trikes kept “flying and correcting themselves” then surely only limited input is required from the pilot so to speak – not continuous massive correcting.

Honestly, what I still don’t like very much is when the turbulence violently changes the pitch and you get the exaggerated feeling of looking straight down at the ground or up at the sky. I find in these situations that I am adjusting the throttle too much / often.

I would appreciate you comments on this. I think that you have about 3 days of rain coming, so please take the good opportunity to continue to advise us.

Kind regards
John ZU-CIB

[lamercyfly]

Howzeet John

Had a giggle.

About this bar thing, and letting it go, my comment was based more on the summary of the mail, which was a combination of letting your arms hang on the bar, and some instructor who told you about just letting it do it's own thing. So, a combination of the two is where I was afraid you might be heading. And that would without doubt lead to possible structural failure as a result of a huge left-right-left swinging of the wing. So, please do not let your bar go.

About some-thing else I have picked up not just from your mail, but also from flying with pilots who come and do a check-out with me to use my aircraft, and that is:

Guys, please DO NOT USE YOUR ENGINE POWER TO TRY AND MAINTAIN PITCH STABILITY. My advice is to hold power rather steady, and FLY THE WING.

ie, if your wing pitches up, use the bar - all the way to your guts if necessary - to get the nose back down to level attitude. Do not come off the power as this simply lets drag take over, and you end up stalling with your nose high. So, stay on the power, very slight reduction if you want, but stay on the power, and use the bar to get that nose down.

If your nose drops, please use power sparingly, as otherwise you will accelerate too much before the secondary effect kicks in and the nose comes up. If you do accelerate, then the next thing that will happen is that you are going to go into a secondary zooming climb. Man, this thing just gets out of hand.

So, hold power steady and FLY THE WING.

So, to summarise:

1. If nose pitches up, keep power steady and use primary bar in movement to get the nose down. Keep that bar in until the nose is back at level flight attitude. If you let the bar go before the nose is back at level attitude, then you will slow down and porpoising is going to begin. If you keep the bar in too long, and the nose drops below level flying attitude, then you are going to accelerate, and porpoising is going to begin.

2. If nose pitches down, maintain power setting and attempt using primary bar movement to pick nose up before speed runs away.

In summary, if you learn to be quick in primary bar movement, you will control pitch very effectively in anything up to thermals in the region of 5m/s(approx 900f/m). And I promise you that flying in anything more than that is not for the faint hearted, and you should not be flying in those kind of thermic or rotor turbulence conditions just because you knew no better!!!!!

This means that you can happily fly around in normal early to mid-morning thermic turbulence no problem. But if you see those Thunderstoms developing, please go land.

Later,

[John Young]

Hi Dave,

Thanks a mil. Will put this in my pipe and re-read it many times especially the ...

“My advice is to hold power rather steady, and FLY THE WING”.

Sometimes, I don’t think that I do this very well.

Regards
John ZU-CIB

[DarkHelmet]

I am not Dave - but I have been taught and hammered into that the prop causes lift. The prop does not make me go faster, more throttle makes me go up faster. Foot on the jucie and you climb. Foot off, you sink.

[Fairy Flycatcher]

I am not Dave - but I have been taught and hammered into that the prop causes lift. The prop does not make me go faster, more throttle makes me go up faster. Foot on the jucie and you climb. Foot off, you sink.

Hi DH. Control imputs on your plane have primary and secondary effects. The primary effect (only lasting a couple of split-seconds if you have flying speed, longer if you don't), of adding power is to accelerate you, and then you start to climb.

Putting power when your nose is pitched down, will initially have the effect of accellerating you down. This is BAD. Similarly reducing power when your nose is pitched up, will cause you to reduce speed with a high-nose attitude. Another BAD idea. (can lead to a very quick, very nasty stall)

If you are flying in gusty conditions, and coming in for landing, you can use bursts of power to accellerate you as you loose airspeed in a lull. If you try to pull the bar in to accelerate you back to flying speed, you will hit the ground HARD. Another BAD idea.

Yes, power is used for climb, but first it accellerates you, then you climb (if parked on the runway and putting power, do you go up immediately?),

And yes, the bar is used to adjust your speed, but firstly it changes your pitch, which brings instantanious small altitude changes with it.

Come to our airfield some time, and see how we use pursts of power and large pitch movements to come in for landing in very turbulent conditions, so using power is very important in turbulence.

BUT! your most important control should be in pitch, so if you have a couple of feet to loose or gain (say, flying at 1000' AGL), keep your power steady, and make constant adjustments to your pitch. Playing with power in these conditions, can lead to severe porpoising, which can get out of control rapidly.

You have to know how to marry the two controls differently for different situations. This only comes with experience, and you can't teach it over the internet.

First prize, go to a school, with an instructor who is passionate about teaching people to fly in the bumps and knows these thing, and get some advanced training.

[alanmack]

Perhaps the following 4 Turbulence Questions for the experienced Musketeers may help to unpack this standard campfire matter.

Firstly > The "surges"
Returning from the Vaal Dam at midday I routed east of Suikerbosrant (sic) then just past Springs a tad to the East where there is a military base I had my VSI reading 1500 to 1600 ft pm. The wing was steady and maintained a straight and level attitude with the trike maintaining direction. Each surge seemed to last forever. Firstly I hoped that with my weight the seat would hold out and then I thought that a second seat belt may not be a bad idea. The thing that had me feeling quite relaxed about my condition was the fact that to my right a number of paragliders were flying with some a couple of thousand feet above me. I kept thinking that this must be fun or why else would the paragliders be taking off into it. The presence of the paragliders was comforting but I never even considered the idea of turning back for more when I got out of the "surge" zone. Are surges at these VSI's normally "calm?"

Secondly > The bumps/bashing & bar height
Flying in a gaggle from Barbeton back to Microland I noticed that my bar seemed to be higher than the trikes alongside. A couple of weeks later I took the time to uncover about 15 trikes at the club and then sat in them to find that the bar position varied considerably. In my trike the bar sat level with my "nipples" and cushioning the bumps was like doing a few hours of pushups. I acquired a cushion of high density foam about 15cm deep and found that it fitted into my seat cover thus dropping the bar about half way between my nipples and my belly button (by way of raising my seat). The effect is that with my arms extending down it feels more like coaching the bar with very much less effort than at the arms level (pushup) position. I also find that with being able to have one's hands lower one is able to "rest" on the bar which is not possible in the pushup postition. I have discussed this with others but consensus does not reign. Some swear by it with the negative being that if you shorten the pylon to drop the bar down to just above the knees then you cannot get the bar over the pod when derigging. This person felt it was a small price to pay for the inflight comfort. Any views on this?

Crosswind turbulence
Flying back from Kosi Bay to Durban in high winds (and light rain) I found myself for about 20 minutes overhead the Mtunzini area alternating between heading inland to heading out to sea as the gusts dictated direction. I went with the flow of things and flew the trike not worring about short term direction but the exercise was certainly not recreational! Tips from a fundi would be appreciated.

Too smooth to fly?
On a certain fly-away planned to route up the north coast we got to Ballito but decided to rather go to the Wild Coast as the headwind had us making little forward ground speed. Just past the Wild Coast Casino after an absolutely smooth flight we decided to land as our ground speed was getting into the 140/160 km per hr zone (double airspeed). The trike that landed after me went backwards after touchdown (negative ground speed)! Any ideas on max positive or negative ground speeds?

fly safe

[DarkHelmet]

I took the plunge and hopped in the backseat of Tobie's Airborne Wizzard at 11:30 yesterday morning.

We went up and started looking for thermals. He explained to me what to look for and demonstrated a bit.

Then it was my turn (from the back off course). I felt awefully clumsy! The fact that we were two up did not help too much either. It was still early and the thermals had not properly developed but Tobie did manage to get the message across.

Time for the glider-tugging! Tobie flies like and ace and does a textbook landing everytime. After a bit of towing there was a lull in the activities and Tobie took me up again.

We managed to find a spot over Miracle waters and Tobie managed a steady climb/soar at 4000rpm. Being heavy it was hard to soar properly but we still managed to do it.

Need to go practice it solo! Thanks for an awesome day Tobie!

PS: Big D - please remind me next to to put some sunblock on - I look like a tomato today!

[Leprachaun]

In my early days of flying I had the experience of flying at midday nearBlapsfontein - Sit on your hand barked the instructor - sure scared the living daylights out of me for the first two minutes - suddenly I realised the plane flies itself -
Once on a trip back from Warmbaths at 97 miles per hour groundspeed , with only one buddy dissapearing in the distance I tied up and down , eventially giving up and trying to find a landing place only to give up once again - eventially landing at Microland , the guys had to help catch the trike as I went down like a chopper - arms lame hands red ETC - man the cold Windhoek made the day , as agent said earlier - experience cant be bought , you must earn it or as the wll known Gary Player said the more you practise the luckier you get - sometimes Im sure the guys mustof heard me pray , now a day its much easier , I put our students through similar experiences to get the experience - it works - and finally fly within the envelope that the plane can handle and always fly safely , Leprachaun

[DieselFan]

I took the plunge and hopped in the backseat of Tobie's Airborne Wizzard at 11:30 yesterday morning.

Need to go practice it solo! Thanks for an awesome day Tobie!

Well done DH! So when are you converting AXC to a tug

[DarkHelmet]

Tobie is harping me to buy a tug capable wing I might think of that - AXC is due for a new sail - dunno if she will make the test next year

[Ou Man]

I am a fresh MPL with just a few hours on the clock. Had a bad experience the other day.
Took of in a gentle Easterly and rooted North. At 1200 ft I felt the first of many bumps, but braced my self and just went with the flow. Climbing 2000 it all became very clear that I was in for something big.
At some stage it got so bad that I thought I was going to fall out of the sky, never mind out of my seat.
My gentle AeroTrike Safari with a trusty 503 cruises at +/- 42 MPH. In these turbulent spells I could first feel the change of wind direction on my body (Fullface helmet prevents me from feeling it in my face). The next thing, the airspeed would shoot op to 50 + and the trike would go into a nose high attitude that forced me to pull back on the bar to such an extend that I hit myself on the chest. Then I would find myself being thrown of course (30 degrees or more) just to be flung forwards again to look down at the ground, 2000ft below.
I was praying out loud and at one stage thought that “THIS IS THE END” that most of us are always dreading. My arms were so tired I could hardly hang on to the bar.
I really didn’t now exactly what to do and played around with the power setting , trying to ride the flow.
I tried to climb to 3000 ft, but it only got worse. The alternative was to try and get below this mess. On 800 ft it started to smooth out . Fortunately I was just about at my destination and crept on low level to the field . Being a private strip, I just went in to land, ignoring circuit procedures.
Needless to say, I am a bit shook up at this stage. Went up again after that, but am still waiting for that first bang !
Apparently what happened is that I was flying in a wind shear that was the result of a strong Northerly over the moderate Easterly.

Any suggestions from the forum on how to anticipate/ avoid this situation and how to handle it if you run into it?

Needless to say this all happened in the Fairest Cape

[Morph]

Ou man,

From lots of experience I can tell you, the worst possible winds to fly in the Cape is the easterly. All my really bad experiences including hitting standing waves twice was during these conditions . I now avoid flying in these conditions if at all possible even if there is a mild easterly blowing at ground level. Remember due to the coroilis effect, the wind direction is bent in a clockwise (when viwed from above, i.e. looking down) direction as it get's closer to the surface. The opposite is thus true, as you lift away from the surface the winds start moving anticlockwise, i.e. the easterly becomes North easterly.

Now look at you environment. To your east and north are mountains towering up to 6500ft and between 30 to 50 miles from you. In these conditions you get very high speed northerly and north easterly winds blowing over the top of the mountains. This causes significant rotors all the way across the western cape. Paardeberg and Kasteel mountains are even closer and thay add to the problem.

The solution. Take my advice and don't fly in easterley conditions.

See my post here regarding one of the instances. go right to the bottom and read about flying near Paardeberg during these conditions

http://microlighters.co.za/viewtopic.php?t=2464