The way from secundary school to the flightdeck!

Hi,

Just 1 mission left before the solocheckride! Looking forward to that.

As for today, I've tried my best to make a small demomovie with Microsoft Flight Simulator 9. It is recorded at EBZW, the airfield where I used to glide before I started my flight training at SFA. I'll try to describe a part of the things that should be done in a traffic pattern according to the POH (Pilot Operating Handbook) of the DA20, and my personal experience.

1. Climb-out. At KFFZ, we have noise abatement procedures. Up to 300ft AGL (above ground level) we have to climb at Vx (speed for best angle of climb). The fieldelevation is 300ft more or less, so we'll have to fly at Vx up to an altitude of 600ft. As for Vx I have used 65kts in this demo. When passing through 600ft AMSL (above mean sea level (=altitude)) we can accelerate to Vy (speed for best rate of climb). Vy is 75 kts in the Da20. The next step is to turn at 500ft AGL (800ft AMSL) onto the crosswind leg. A climbing turn is 15° of bank maximum. Before turning we call out 'L / R free'. Finally, we level off at 1000ft AGL (1300ft AMSL). The speed in the traffic pattern is 80 kts, so we wait with pulling back the throttle until we have almost reached 80 kts. During the climb on the crosswind leg, we do the "after take-off flow" ("fuel pump on, landing light on, flaps up in a pattern").

2. Downwind. When entering downwind, we do the descent/approach flow (in a pattern it is only "DG set, engine instruments checked, warning lights push to test"). We maintain 80 kts. The next step is when we are abeam our touchdown zone. We check the speed, put flaps on 10° and maintain 75 kts.

3. At 45°, we can do a level turn onto baseleg, and start to descent when we roll out. The speed on baseleg is 70kts. We do the landing flow ("mixture full rich, flaps as required").

4. On final, we put the flaps in landing position (20° on the movie) and reduce the speed to 60kts. We try to maintain a 3° glide slope, keep the aimingpoint fixed on the windscreen and make sure that we stay on the centerline or a bit upwind. a 3° glideslope at 60 kts should give us a descentrate of 300fpm.

5. Landing. Overhead the threshold, we idle, give opposite rudder and put the stick into the wind. we wait until we are low enough and start to flare to try to put the aircraft on the ground as smooth as possible. After ALL wheels have touched down, we pull the stick back and start to brake.

You might notice that I have made some mistakes as well. For example my descentrate is way too high on final, which means that I had a glideslope of more or less 5° instead of 3° (no PAPI's). My speed was a bit high when I was turning onto baseleg. The last mistake I had noticed is that I've slightly overshot the centerline when turning onto final.

If you see some more mistakes, please let me know!! Feedback is always welcome. :-)



You might want to download the movie from rapidshare. It is (only) 55mb. The quality will be waaay better.

http://rapidshare.com/files/258172954/FS_pattern_EBZW.wmv.html

See you next time!