Princeton Airport Newsletter – June 2013

Every pilot should think about his or her flight experience and develop a personal minimums checklist regarding weather, night operations and other aspects of flight planning and operations.  Airline pilots have a staff of meteorologists, dispatchers and maintenance personnel to advise them before starting engines for a flight.  General aviation pilots must make those vital Go/No go decisions based on weather briefings, training, experience, and knowledge of a particular aircraft.

There are significant differences in the training, flight experience and retained knowledge among pilots.  Therefore each pilot needs to conduct a subjective analysis of his or her attitudes about risk and level of expertise in handling the potential challenges pin flight.

Flying the airplane at airspeeds below VFE (maximum flap extension speed – top of the airspeed indicator’s white arc), right down to stalling speeds (bottom of the airspeed indicator’s white and green arcs), must be mastered in order to be fully in command, no matter what airspeed the situation mandates.

The slower the aircraft flies, however, the more difficult it is to control. As the airplane’s airspeed is reduced, the pilot must maintain a balancing act between pitch, power, aileron, and rudder inputs, instrument interpretation, flap management, and maintaining a proper outside scan.

As the aircraft slows, it requires a higher pitch attitude to maintain altitude; the higher pitch attitude, in turn, will require right rudder inputs to stop the airplane from turning left of the required heading.

Minimum controllable airspeed is flying the airplane (fully within your control) on the verge of stalling. As with all air work proficiency practice, try to maintain airspeed within 10 knots, altitude within 100 feet, and heading within 10 degrees.

Walk-ins until 11:30.
IMPORTANT NEWS REGARDING MEDICAL APPLICATIONS!!