Climbing during slow flight maneuvers?

Question

Hi,

I've been practicing this on my Flight Sim but I haven't been able to nail it. What I'm doing wrong is I'm chasing one instrument and compensating for trying to correct another thing. The hard part is maintining my altitude as I lower power. I'll be going to my flight instructor tomorrow and I'd love to have as much info from flight students who are probably just a bit ahead of me and have experience in this. I'm still not used to all the jargon yet so please explain with this in mind. Thank you!

Answer 1

In slow flight, you are on the "back side" of the power curve.  Its also sometimes referred to as the "region of reverse command."

What we mean is that in order to change airspeed or altitude, the normal controls are reversed.  Normally you would pitch for altitude and power for airspeed, however in slow flight, you must pitch of airspeed and power for altitude.  If you are climbing, simply reduce power.

Your best friend during this maneuver is trim.  Trim the airplane to maintain altitude once you have attained your desired airspeed, then adjust power as necessary.

Answer 2

it's a lot easier to do in the aircraft than on the computer simulator.  When you are in the aircraft, you hear and feel more, and the instructor can talk you through it.  I'm not sure that there is much more I can tell you that will help, but if you are established in slow flight and you want to climb, you will need to increase the power.  The power doesn't make you climb, but it keeps the airspeed from decreasing.  Pitch up slightly and increase power to climb.  

Usually, slow flight is done at a constant altitude.  Perhaps you are talking about getting back to your altitude if you get a bit low?  Just increase pitch and power, gently.  Hope this helps you.

Answer 3

I dont think you should worry, most people get the feel for it right away. The aircraft is much more controllable at low airspeeds than a simulator is going to be.

Im not sure how much slow flight you have done, but there is quite a margin between your stall horn going off and a stall, unlike simulators.

The real point of this is to slow down until your horn comes on and then apply power until you maintain altitude. There is a pretty fair amount of room for error, a few hundred extra rpms will only put you into maybe a 50-75ft a minute climb, and even full throttle doesnt make a startling increase in performance.

If you get too high just maintin your angle of attack and let a little off the throttle, you dont have to nose over, and if you do the horn will shut up and you will lose more altitude than you were expecting to. Changing you AOA at low airspeed has a much larger effect than engine power.

We both know that when you do a power on stall in most small planes you can hold the stick all the way back and it just noses over slowly, and thats the same way it acts in slow flight. If you intentionally release back pressure you are gonna lose a h**l of alot of altitude more than if you just decrease the power.

To tell you the truth, I sharpen my skills for steep turns in flight simulator X, the cessna 172 flies a h**l of alot like a real SP model, except the G1000 got buchered. I do a few steep turns and then Im ready to go. I havent been off by more than maybe 20 feet the last two times, So Im happy. It sure helps out a h**l of a lot that the G1000 is so accurate also, it makes flying so much more precise.

Answer 4

You will have to try it in an airplane.  Because computers don't fly, there is no way to get the feel of flight using a computer.

In fact if you want to become a pilot, most old pros will recommend you deep six the flight simulator until you become an experienced pilot.  It will cause you to develop bad habits.

Go fly!

Answer 5

there is a danger speed.  Just once you get below it speed up.

Answer 6

Talk to your instructor. For the most part, the responses above are messed up.

Answer 7

Remember pitch controls airspeed and power controls altitude. If you're climbing, reduce power.

In a real airplane your instructor is going to know a power setting that works. You'll use that for training and for your check ride.

Usually you gradually reduce power and pitch up (while maintaining altitude) until the stall warning horn comes on. Once the horn is on you may have to add just a little power to hold altitude and keep the stall horn on.

To address the answer before mine: Don't pitch up to climb! That will just stall the airplane and you'll have to recover from that. Instead, add just a little power. When you reach your altitude, reduce the power a bit but keep it a little higher than where it was before when you were sinking.

If you maintain your pitch and add power, you will climb. If you increase your pitch and keep the power the same you may climb as you bleed off excess speed, but what you're really doing is slowing down.

I think it's easier to do in a real airplane than on FS. Now that you're flying a real airplane I'd just skip FS.

Answer 8

flaps baby flaps