Pitch for Speed
1. Best angle climb - obstacle clearance - most altitude over distance. Full power, level wing, set wing angle, hold nose, trim

2. Best rate climb - most altitude over shortest time. Full power, level wing, set wing angle, hold nose, trim

3. Cruise climb - most distance over time + altitude. Full power, level wing, set wing angle, hold nose pitch attitude same as slow cruise with reduced power, trim

4. Cruise - Most distance over time - select altitude carefully within 3000 feet above ground. Same as acceleration for takeoff, best glide at idle, slow cruise descent at 2000 rpm, power-on landing at 1500 rpm and approach, trim.  Accelerate to desired speed then reduce to power required to maintain selected speed.

5. Cruise descent - distance over time minus altitude. Reduce power but leaving trim alone will give level flight again just by replacing the proper reduction. Called economy of effort.

6. Power-off landing and approach. Not recommended unless engine is cooled down first. Run at reduced power in gradual descent.

Airspeeds
Indicated airspeed:
(common usage) What the airspeed indicator shows it is a raw value. The air pressing on the pitot tube is compared with the pressure on the static port and registered on a dial as miles per hour or knots per hour. (Post-1970 aircraft give performance figures (stall etc) as indicated airspeeds. Indicated airspeed can be used to obtain calibrated airspeed and then changed to true airspeed by correcting for temperature, pressure altitude and instrument installation error.

Indicated airspeed:
(uncommon usage) To get valid "indicated" airspeed you must know what the instrument error of a given reading may be. Airspeed indicators allow up to 5 mph error on installation as new. Indicators tend to hang up or ratchet with age. An ever increasing amount of friction is also expected with age. This also applies to people.

Calibrated airspeed:
Indicated airspeed corrected for installation errors. A chart for calibrated airspeed vs. indicated airspeed is in the Pilots Operating Handbook. (Performance Speeds of pre-1970 aircraft are given as calibrated speed.) The indicated airspeeds tend to be lower than calibrated airspeeds on the slow end and higher than calibrated airspeeds at the fast end. Most accurate in mid-ranges.

True airspeed:
Indicated airspeed corrected for temperature and pressure as different from standard. True airspeed increases with altitude. True airspeed can be calculated on the E6B or in the cruise performance table of the POH. At best this is a rough estimate. GPS will give the most accurate true airspeed if the speed is determined over two reciprocal flight courses. The spread between indicated airspeeds and true airspeeds increase with altitude. Only Indicated airspeeds are used in taking off or landing an aircraft.

Ground Speed:
True airspeed corrected for wind effect gives ground speed. Groundspeed is determined on the E6B wind correction slide. Most radar services can give you a ground speed read-out. (See DME, Loran, GPS) At high altitude airports as much as 20% more ground speed will be required for takeoff. The same 20% increase in ground speed will exist at touch down.

V- Speeds
These are the "Vital Velocities required for precision flight. Many V speeds vary with the aircraft weight and not always in the way you might expect. Va speed will decrease with weight, stall speed decreases with weight as does best glide speed and approach speed.

Va, Is the design maneuvering speed. This speed is thought of as having to do with control movement. Va, is the turbulent air penetration speed. A full deflection of the controls will cause the stall before it folds, spindles or mutilates. In normal category "clean" aircraft this load limit is 3.8 positive. Extended flaps have only 2.0 positive, don't use flaps to slow down in turbulence.. The load limit of an aircraft can be exceeded by a PIO (pilot induced oscillation) and turbulence in a seconds. Get to or below Va even if you must stall. Va is based on weight, the heavier the weight the higher the Va. Reduce the maximum gross weight Va by a percentage equal to half the weight reduction. 10% weight reduction reduces Va by 5%. I find that thinking of it as driving over country railroad tracks. The lighter the car the higher the bounce. Know your Va for gross from the POH and how to compute it otherwise. Once way to determine the approximate Va at below gross weights is to change the Va by half the percentage of weight reduction. Find the actual weight reduction below gross as a percentage of gross. Increase the published Va by half of the weight reduction percentage. A 30% reduction of weight would result in a 15% increase in Va. Don't even "think" about what happens to Va in over gross situations. Essential knowledge: Va maneuvering speed decreases with decreasing weight. Va maneuvering speed is determined by aircraft weight. Vb Is the seldom used design speed for maximum gust intensity speed.

The most likely way to bend or break an airplane is to fly at published Va for max weight when you are not at max weight. Maneuvering speed in normal category is about 1.95 of Vref stall speed, not POH stall speed. Stall speed is determined by your wing loading. As your wing loading decreases your stall speed decreases. Flying in turbulence at nearly double your stall speed means that the aircraft will stall at 3.8 g loading and not more. Any stall that occurs at a faster speed has the potential of folding some part of the aircraft structure first. At around four Gs you can expect things to break. A pilot should always know his present gross weight and fly at a speed adjustment for the Va.

At any speed below Va an aircraft will stall before exceeding limit load factor. By stalling at speeds above Va the load factor limit will be exceeded and damage will occur. Va is the maximum speed full deflection of a control will not result in damage. A different Va exists for every aircraft weight. The lower (lighter) the weight the lower the Va. Since most aircraft have POH's that list the Va of a gross allowable weight, it is important for the pilot to be aware than any flight below gross is going to be slower than the POH listed Va. gusts are not a factor is figuring Va. Manufacturers design a 50% safety factor into the aircraft to account for gusts.

Va (maneuvering speed) is a safety speed at which a deliberate stall will reduce the potential G-force damage before it occurs. Deliberately stall (unload the g forces) before damage occurs. Before starting a flight you should know what the weight of the aircraft is and what speed adjustments from the POH Va are required to determine Vref. The speed should be reduced by the square root of percent weight is below POH gross. At 70% of max weight you should fly at 85% of POH figures for all V-speeds.

When an aircraft flies at a constant speed a straight-line relationship between any increase in the angle of attack and the G-load applied. At higher speeds an aircraft can reach a higher angle of attack. With G.A. aircraft by the time the angle of attack becomes great enough to crunch the aircraft with G-load, it will stall. It will not break at speeds below Va. The aircraft that is flown in turbulence must fly at slower speeds, specifically Va or lower, so that abrupt G-loads produced by turbulence angle of attack changes will not exceed the structural capability of the aircraft.

When you fly slower you must increase your angle of attack to maintain level flight at 1-G. A 3.8 increase in G-load is about 3.8 times the higher angle required for the slow speed. The aircraft will stall before reaching this angle. Hence, the value of Va is in protecting the aircraft. Additional weight also requires a higher angle of attack for level flight at 1-G. So additional weight plus a slower speed compounds the G-load protection offered because they require a higher angle of attack. Flying lighter and faster decreases the protection. By reducing weight below gross by 2% we can reduced the Va by 1% .

In a descent from altitude it is very easy to exceed maneuvering speed. A sudden maneuver may peel the airplane apart. Airspeed is maintained with power or if you will airspeed is primary for power. Positive limit load factor for aircraft is +3.8Gs/-1.52 for normal category, 4.4 Gs/-1.76 for utility, and 6.0/-3 for acrobatic. When you consider that the 'zero' G is actually 1.0 the ability of an aircraft to take G-loads is nearly the same in either direction.

If you don't know the Va for a particular flight weight, a close approximation can be obtained by doing a stall and noting the configuration and speed at which the stall occurs. Double the stall speed and use that as your Va where you can expect a stall before destruction.

Vr Rotation speed
Allows you to use the wheel axle to raise the nose prior to lift off where you use the center of lift as rotation axis for setting climb speed.  This explains the change of takeoff attitude required when you takeoff.

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