Hi, my name is Josh Kallenberg and I'm here at the Van Nuys Airport in Los Angeles, California.
I've been flying professionally for about 13 years, and now I have the pleasure of flying
this Gulfstream G450 which is a lot of fun and exciting.
And today I'm going to talk to you about becoming a pilot.
How to take off an airplane?
The principles when you want to take off are pretty much the same.
Every airplane performs a bit differently so there are some nuances that you'd have
to become familiar with.
But just to give you an idea of what we're doing in here when we're taking off an airplane:
assuming we're lined up with the runway already, and we get clearance for takeoff, I'm going
to advance the throttles and engage the automatic function, and they will advance to their takeoff
point and we will start to accelerate.
I'll be looking straight down the runway and I will be steering using my feet - using the
rudder pedals which in this case is also connected to the nose wheel.
As we accelerate, we'll start to get more airflow over the wings and the rudder, the
rudder will become more responsive and therefore I will not need as much input to keep us going
straight down the runway.
We'll accelerate to a predetermined speed, that's based on our weight, temperature and
some other factors, and once we get to this, what we call a VR or rotation speed, I'll
move the controls - the yoke back to the desired pitch attitude, which just means the nose
above the horizon, and the airplane will lift off and we're off and flying.
At that point, we'll do things like bring the landing gear up which are the wheels,
and then we'll configure the airplane to go to a higher speed flight, and at that point
also I'll be able to use the yoke to make turns to the left and the right.
In this airplane I won't really need to use my feet at that point, in this mode, takeoff
when you're in a smaller single engine airplane you will be using your feet on your climb
out a bit more.
But that's the gist of how to takeoff an airplane.