I'm Jason Schappert, and these are the fundamentals.
What's happening, MZeroA Nation?
Jason here, back in The Fundamentals series
and sharing now about a neglected segment of the ACS,
ground reference maneuvers.
Yet, ground reference maneuvers serve us so well,
not only in our landings, but our emergency procedures,
our ability to divert our attention inside and outside of the cockpit as well.
And, I apologize for the construction.
They're literally doing construction on this taxiway right here.
But, good videos never stop, despite them tearing up our taxiway.
You can check the NOTAMs, if you don't believe me.
Anyways, with us diving into ground reference maneuvers,
we're going to start, we're going to head to the airplane here in just a second,
and I'm going to start with turns around a point.
And, turns around a point, the mission is simple.
I want to maintain the same distance all the way around my point.
I can show you with a great animation that our production team has made.
And, I can maintain that same distance all the way around the point,
based on where the wind is coming from.
So, turns around a point are all about where is the wind coming from
and adjusting my bank angle accordingly.
So, that's great to understand ground track base for wind.
But then, there's a commercial pilot maneuver
that many of you private pilots don't get an opportunity to practice.
It's called eights on pylons.
And, the goal is similar.
You want to maintain the same distance from your point,
but you do it through something called altitude.
It's actually our pivotal altitude.
And, what you need to do is you need to take your groundspeed
and actually square it.
Now, if you're a miles-per-hour airplane like me,
you take your groundspeed squared then divide it by 15.
That gives you your pivotal altitude in miles per hour.
If not, you could divide it by 11.3 to actually get that in knots.
Now, you'll need to calculate two pivotal altitudes, a high and a low.
So, what's your slower groundspeed based on what the wind is doing?
For example, we'll be around 100 miles per hour or 670 feet,
is what our pivotal altitude calculates out to.
And, there's not a whole lot of wind today.
About 110 miles per hour will be our fast run.
We have a tailwind or 810 feet.
So, I'm going to bounce between these altitudes of 670 and 810,
and I'm going to use pivotal altitude, just altitude,
to maintain the same distance as I make a figure "8" around my points.
Think of it this way.
Think of it like when you're a kid
and you had that airplane on a string and you spin around.
The faster you spin, well the airplane heads up there.
But, it's always the same distance.
I slow down, the airplane descends.
And, it's a much bigger turn.
Did the distance of you to the airplane ever change?
No, it's attached to a string.
But, its altitude change from high to low, based on what?
Based on how fast the airplane was actually traveling.
And, that's what pivotal altitude looks to show us through our eights on pylons.
But, enough of me rambling, enough of you hearing this construction.
I apologize.
Let's go where there's no construction.
Let's head up to the air,
and not very high in the air, just 670 feet.
And, let me show you, first, some turns around a point,
a little higher than that.
And then, we'll go ahead and do our eights on pylons.
Alright, MZeroA Nation, up in the plane now.
Hopefully, you enjoyed that little ground brief and everything else.
I found the coolest point for our turns around a point.
There is a gentleman over here, or it could be a lady,
I guess, having a bonfire.
Hope they don't mind me run on their parade.
But, it actually perfectly illustrates where the wind is coming from.
Obviously, the smoke is quite low, just over the treetop levels.
So, there's not much wind,
but you can at least see which direction it's going.
So, we are going to do turns around a bonfire.
Somebody bring the S'mores, I feel like.
Alright, I have got
about my 800 feet AGL,
is about where I want to be.
Again, AGL, MSL about the same thing out here.
You'll be able to see this fire.
I don't know how well you'll be able to see it from the cameras.
Hopefully, they capture it.
One of them will capture it, for sure, you'll see.
If not, you'll see it around this turn and around this road.
I have a tailwind right now,
so we're going to do a quick turn around a point.
And then, we're going to show an eight on pylon, or eights on pylons.
And then, we will be done.
Alright, here comes our smoke, abeam my point,
abeam my turn-around-a-point point, my smoke.
Three, two, one, and put it right down,
the only time I say I'll put my wing tip down on the smoke.
Now, if you could see that smoke,
I am now starting to be pushed away from my point.
So, what should I do with my bank angle?
I should steepen it up a little bit.
Now, there's not a ton of wind that I'm dealing, I would say.
But, yes, I should steepen it up a little bit.
I want to always be dividing my attention outside here to my panel
and outside in front of me, always asking,
am I creeping in on that point?
Am I getting pushed away from that point?
And, working through that.
So, right now, I'm at the steepest point of my turn around a point right here.
Doing great on my altitude.
Everything else is looking really, really solid.
Bringing everything on around.
Now, as I enter into the wind,
with a little bit of wind coming over my nose,
there's a big tendency to climb up and balloon up right here,
we need to be mindful to not allow that to happen.
So, I'm watching for that, keeping my points coming around here,
staying nice and coordinated.
Look at that.
Coming around, about to give you a really, really pretty sunset
as we come around.
And, now, I'm getting pushed towards my point.
This is the shallowest portion of my turn around a point,
as we take a look at that pretty little sunset there.
And, I shallow out my turn,
and we enter all the way back around
and complete our 360-degree turn around a point,
diverting attention to three areas.
Out my window, at my panel, out in front,
because there are towers, there are obstacles,
there are issues out here that I need to always be mindful of
and watching for.
So, let's discontinue.
I would bring us out over here.
And, I've already picked out two great points
for our eights on pylons, next.
What is Ocala, Florida known for?
Well, we are known for horses and horse tracks.
And, out here in front of me, I've got two horse tracks.
I'm going to use dead center,
just called the middle of each of these oval horse tracks
out in front of you here,
dead middle of those two horse tracks, as my points.
So, I am working to come on through.
I am going to split these two points here in the middle,
and I am going to use my pivotal altitude, my highest point, and my lowest point,
as I work my way on around.
So, I'm entering right in between my two points.
Again, this picture, dead middle of these two tracks here.
This one has a fence through it, which will be helpful.
This one kind of has a retention pond in the middle of it,
which will also be helpful.
Okay?
Here we go, dead through the middle of my two points.
You could get yourself in trouble if the point's too close or too far apart,
these feels, maybe, a tad bit on the close side,
but it'll be good.
We roll into it here.
And, as we come on through,
we are going to maintain the same distance all the way around
our points by using what?
By using our altitudes.
So, as I come around to this point now, what is actually happening?
I'm going into the wind, I'm at my slowest actual point here.
So, where do I need to actually be?
At my slowest actual point, adjusting my altitude accordingly,
just like we spoke about on the ground.
Now, as I come back around, I'm making those adjustments.
I'm adjusting my pivotal altitude.
In this case,
I'm working my way on up, just like we saw on that animation,
coming all the way around, initiating,
working my way on through as I push towards that tailwind.
We're coming up, adjusting our altitude accordingly for that.
Bringing this point all the way around.
Picturing yourself like you're the airplane on the string.
Hopefully, that animation earlier helped you with that.
I get back to cutting through to making that perfect figure "8" back to,
roughly, the altitude that I started at,
as you can see here, waiting for my next point.
You should have about five seconds in between your points.
That tells your points are about right.
And, I'd say--
I talk a lot, but that was about five seconds.
Eights on pylons this direction now.
Alright, working the wind back behind me now.
So, what am I doing?
Where am I taking my pivotal altitude?
I'm at my fastest speed, as you can see now.
So, I'm making my adjustments down and through.
And then, as I turn into a headwind working towards my slowest possible speed
and adjusting my pivotal altitude accordingly,
as that comes on through.
And, if you could see outside, I don't have a camera this direction,
but we are maintaining the same distance
all the way around our two points,
again, as if we are an airplane on a string.
Eights on pylons,
perhaps, one of my favorite ground reference maneuvers
because there's two points involved, it's a lot of back-and-forth around,
a lot of moving the head.
And, it's so cool, just continue here,
it's so cool to see how we can use something like altitude,
which I'm going to go gain some more right now.
I'm not a big fan of flying down low just for fun.
Climb back up.
It allows you to divert your attention inside and outside the cockpit.
Now, you say, "Jason, what?
You've done episode one, episode two, episode three."
You're wondering why are we doing all these things?
I promise, we're going to bring it all together here.
We're actually going to put a nice ribbon on all this, too,
on March 30th at 8:00 p.m. Eastern Time.
I want you to go to MZeroALive.com and get signed up,
so I can get you in for our livestream.
We're doing a livestream via Zoom this time,
not the usual YouTube and Facebook.
I want to see your smiling faces.
So, we're doing it via Zoom.
Go to MZeroALive.com to register for that.
There's no charge for the event.
Also, go there if you want the recording,
if you can't make it at that time for some reason,
if you have family or work obligations.
I understand completely.
But, go there and check that out.
But, MZeroA Nation, you are such a blessing to us.
Again, as you're doing these flights,
don't try to go or do all of this in one flight.
I want you to have at least two or three days between these flights,
from the landing flight to the flight maneuvers,
to the basics, the ground reference maneuvers.
I want three days in between each of these, a week most.
So, maybe, you can stretch this out over a month,
whatever that really takes for you to do.
But, I don't want you trying to do this all in one.
That's the opposite of what we want.
I want you to work to space these lessons out.
So, MZeroA Nation, have a blessed, wonderful rest of your day.
Can't wait to read your comments below this video
on Facebook, on YouTube, on MZeroA.com.
I enjoy reading those.
We read every single one of them.
Have an amazing day.
And most importantly, remember,
that a good pilot is always learning.
Have a great day, everyone. We'll see you.