Lesson 4 – The Traffic Pattern

In this lesson, we get to one of the most important parts of any flight; the traffic pattern, which includes the landing and takeoff portions of the flight. The traffic pattern has 5 elements to it and they are labeled as shown in the diagram above. The first leg is the departure leg which is also known as the upwind. At a lot of airports, this consists of flying on runway heading until reaching a specified point or as directed by air traffic control. At Palo Alto airport, there are houses on a 308 degree heading from the runway so we have to observe noise abatement procedures. This consists of a turn to the right after takeoff to follow the power lines to the Dumbarton bridge. I am sure there is an exact heading mentioned in the departure procedures but my instructor hasn’t told me what it is, I just follow the power lines. We are also flying at the Vy climb speed at this stage which is 70 MPH. The Vy reference speed is the speed which gives you the best climb rate over time. This is different from the Vx climb speed which is the speed that gives you the best climb rate over distance. You use Vx climb when there is a tall object at the end of the runway that you need to clear in a short distance. For all the other times, you use Vy.

Since we are staying in the pattern, we do not continue on to the bridge but instead start the next phase of the traffic pattern which is called the downwind leg. The rule of thumb is to turn downwind upon reaching pattern altitude minus 300 feet. The pattern altitude for right traffic at Palo Alto is 800 feet so subtract 300 from that and we get 500 feet as the altitude in which we turn to the downwind leg. Now, savvy aviators will note that I skipped a leg and that is the crosswind leg. Since we are over water at this point, we don’t really want to get too far away from the airport at low altitude in case our engine dies because we may not make it back to solid ground and would have to land in the water. So, we skipped the crosswind leg and instead did a nice easy turn from the departure leg to the downwind leg.

At about the time we complete the turn to downwind, we reach the pattern altitude of 800 feet. At this point we throttle back to 2000RPM which lowers the nose and gives us about an 80 MPH speed with level pitch. At this point, it is helpful to pick out a heading reference in front of the plane to use as a heading guide so that you can correct for any crosswind that may be pushing you closer or further from the runway. At approximately half way down the runway length, we start our before landing checklist. My instructor has an acronym called CGUMPS to remember what to do for the pre-landing checklist. I am not good at remembering acronyms so I remember it by position. I start my hand at the top left console inside the cockpit and check that the landing lights are on. I also check that we have sufficient fuel to finish our pattern and make it back to the runway. I then move down to the throttle console and check that the carburetor heat is turned on. I then move over to the mixture and make sure it is set to full rich. The next item is to test the brakes to make sure they feel solid and have not leaked while we were in the air, and the last item is to make sure everyone’s seatbelts are fastened.

By the time that is complete, the tower will have usually issued us a clearance to land or a sequence number to land. In one instance they forgot about us so I requested our sequence after I had flown well downwind of the runway. Most of the time, they issued me the information I needed at the exact time I needed it which was nice given that I am still learning how to deal with everything at once. If we are cleared to land then we cut the throttle to 1500 RPM and fly downwind until the runway is roughly at a 45 degree angle behind us. With the throttle down we will start a 500 feet per minute descent at 80 MPH. Once we are roughly 45 degrees to the runway, we begin the next leg which is the base leg. Now, since we did not have much of a crosswind leg, then there is not much of a base leg either. I would complete the turn and then look to the right to spot the runway and judge when I needed to turn onto final.

Once we have turned to final, if everything went well, we are pointing directly at the runway. Now is where the challenging part begins. Once on final, we pull the nose up to slow down to 65 MPH. This is our approach speed with no flaps since the Citabria does not have flaps. Once a pitch is established that gives you the 65 MPH speed, you do not have to worry about using the pitch at all on the descent. Instead, you control your rate of descent through the use of power. If we are too high then we lower the power and if we are too low then we add a little power. This is nice because it is one less thing to worry about. So, how do you tell if you are too high or too low? Well this is where the simulator has really helped me because after doing so many landings, you develop a feel for it and it is not hard to judge whether or not you are high or low.

A more scientific approach is to pick an aim point on the front of the runway. If you focus a fixed object on that aim point, in my case it was a smudge of dirt on the windshield, then you can tell if you are high or low based upon how the spot you are focusing on moves in relation to the aim point on the runway. If you are high then the smudge will move down the runway, if you are low then the smudge will move off the front of the runway. This works for lateral movement also. I know this sounds corny but it works every time. As long as you maintain your approach airspeed, if you keep that smudge right on your aim point then you will hit that aim point. Now since at the point you do your flare and hit ground effect, you won’t actually land at that point but you will land a short distance past it.

We did about 7 or 8 takeoffs and landings and for pretty much every landing, my approach was very good. Granted, it was not easy because we had a decent crosswind and a lot of turbulence at times so the little plane was bouncing all over the place. I would get the airplane lined up and stable and just hold it where it was and then a big gust would kindly place me 20 feet off center in a matter of seconds. Despite this, I managed to cross the runway close to the centerline every time.

Since my approaches were good, I wish I could say that the following landings were all good as well. In reality, I think I only had one or two landings that I would actually call good landings. On two landing I managed to bounce, in which case we performed a go-around. The other landings were a mixed bag, from being a little hard because I flared too early, to being off the centerline because the crosswind was blowing me to the side in the flare. The two good landings we taxied off the runway and for all the others, we performed a go-around. Technically, we could have pulled off the runway on a couple of them but it is quicker to go around instead of clearing the runway, taxiing back, waiting for clearance from the tower and then taking off again. Also, my instructor wanted me to get used to performing a go-around. He made me agree to initiate a go-around on my own if we either bounced or started the flare a few feet to the side of the centerline. I was a bit tentative in doing this as I was determined to fight through my landings to the end which was why I ended up initiating only one go-around and my instructor did all the rest.

All in all, it was another good day of training. This was my first real try at doing full takeoffs and landings in the Citabria so I shouldn’t expect too much but by the time I was done, I felt pretty confidant about it. We are going to focus on this again in the next lesson and then my instructor wants to teach me slips at a higher altitude first before we do them on approach to land.

The day also started out with a pleasant surprise. As I was performing the pre-flight of the airplane, a couple with a 4 year old girl approached me and asked if the girl could look inside the airplane. I, of course, said yes and opened the door so she could take a look. She was fascinated and wanted to sit in the seat and pretend to steer the plane, so I let her. I could see the curiosity and interest on her face and was glad to provide her with a moment of excitement. Her father talked to me for a while about flying and how to get started. I could have talked about flying all day but we were interrupted by the big, noisy fuel truck which screamed up in front of the plane to fill me up with gas. The truck scared the girl away and her parents followed. But hopefully it helped to get two more people interested in aviation and I may one day see them in the air. Hope to see you there also...