EAA Sport Aviation - April 2012

COMMENTARY / PLANE TALK
LAURAN PAINE JR.
Therapeutic Flying
Do it for you

IN BETWEEN STRAIGHT-AND-LEVEL TRAVEL/sightseeing flying and competition/air show aerobatics flying is a place for us all to dwell, a place for us to spice up and more thoroughly enjoy our flying. It’s a place I go to often. In fact, I go there every time I fly alone. It makes me happy. Where is it? It’s a place in the sky; I go there to play. And it’s very good medicine.

Here’s how you play: You climb to a safe altitude in your favorite practice area, far from airways and cities, and do a couple of steep turns. That allows you to “clear the area.” But here’s the deal: If I don’t like the steep turns I did, I do them again. And again, as necessary, until I do them to the standard I’ve set for myself. And that’s the idea: Today we’re going to fly to our own standards, not someone else’s, not to some agency standards, but to the ones you’ve set for yourself. (Hint: Set your standards high.)

Lauran and his RV- 8 en route to his playground.

Okay, you get the idea. Now do some slow flight. Don’t do it to some vague reference from some training manual in your past. Do it like this: Start at 90 KIAS. Then slow to 80. Then to 70. Now to 60. And I mean do it; don’t just slop through it. Nail it! Whatever speed you are at, put the pointy tip of the airspeed indicator needle smack in the middle of the index marker on the airspeed indicator and keep it there. Settle for nothing less. And do not let the altimeter move, or the heading.

Can you always keep everything perfect? Of course not. But you should always be trying. And guess what? The more you do it, the better you’ll do it. Guaranteed. And note how the closer you hold your tolerances, the smoother you must be. That’s always a good thing, right? You’re not doing this for anybody else or for some checkride; you’re doing this for you. And the better you do it, the better you’ll feel about your flying. And that, exactly, is the point. Plus, it’s fun!

I don’t need to remind you to keep looking outside, right? Good. That’s part of the exercise, too. Don’t fixate on the instruments: feel the airplane, listen to it, note the position of the nose on the horizon. The better you read all the clues your airplane is giving you, the better off you are.