40 Great Flight Simulator Adventures
by Charles Gulick
Touch and
Go
| North Position: 21377 | Rudder: 32767 |
| East Position: 6617 | Ailerons: 32767 |
| Altitude: 1289 | Flaps: 0 |
| Pitch: 0 | Elevators: 32767 (IBM only) |
| Bank: 0 | Elevators: 36863 (all except IBM) |
| Heading: 140 | Time: 13:30 |
| Airspeed: 112 | Season: 4-Fall |
| Throttle: 19455 | Wind: 8 Kts, 130 |
| Here's a good setup for
practicing landings-a picturesque final that needs you to add the touch
of class. You're approaching runway 15 at Renton Municipal, at the southern tip of Lake Washington. Renton is a city southeast of Seattle, population 30,612 before your arrival. Your approach is over Mercer Island, with Mount Rainier on the horizon. |
|
 |
You can make a normal landing,
of course. Or you can practice touch
and
go; a popular training maneuver in which you make a flaps-down
landing,
and as soon as you're definitely on the ground, adjust elevator, flaps,
power, and so on, and take off again, straight ahead. This obviates
having to taxi back the length of the strip, wait your turn, and go
through the whole takeoff procedure again. When you're renting an
airplane, those are precious minutes. And since landing is the maneuver
students usually need the most practice in, touch and go gets you more
for your money. |
 |
Remember to use carburetor heat
when you cut back your power on final.
It prevents carburetor icing, which can cause engine failure. There's
no reason not to leave the carb heat on all the way down. As old-time
instructors say, "When in doubt, pull it out." (Carb heat is normally a
pushpull control, which applies heat in the pulled-out position.) Then, of course, remember that taking off the carb heat is part of getting ready to go after you touch, else you won't have full engine rpm (you'll hear and see the rpm drop when you apply heat and pick up when you remove it). Remember to take off your flaps, too-and most important, to neutralize your elevators, which are probably almost all the way up when you touch down (or should be). To add still more spice, or at least variety, to this landing, set a nighttime hour. Just go into edit mode and change the 13 to 23 before you fly the mode. You have an alternative to making a landing, of course, if things don't look right-going around, that is, adding power, taking off flaps, and so forth, before you touch down, and then flying around the pattern to try another approach. One last note: When you touch and go, the idea is to fly the pattern for as many takeoffs and landings as you feel like making. Or until your money runs out. |
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