Questions...

Bob246 wrote:

What is the significance of the runway elevation? And how does it affect your approach and landing?

What techniques and procedures are used to control the plane when a stall occurs?

What techniques and procedures are used when landing or taking off in strong winds?

Thanks

1) Runway elevation is the height above sea level of a specific point on the airfield. When you are making an approach into an airfield with an elevation of 1000ft, then when your altimeter reads 3000ft on approach (providing your altimeter subscale setting is QNH) then you are actually only 2000ft from the ground, so when you descend then you need to make sure that you have taken into account the runway elevation or you'll hit the ground. Also, in extreme circumstances, airport elevation affects aircraft performance - i.e. high altitude areas such as Denver.

2) A stall occurs due to disrupted air flow over the wing where the wing ceases to create enough lift. The standard procedure is pitch down attitude with full power to build up speed and lift without losing too much altitude.

3) It depends on where the wind is coming from.

All aircraft and their captains prefer to take off into the wind to benefit from increased control surface responsiveness and added lift of the wings - the same is true of landing aswell. Aircraft rarely takeoff in tail winds purely because there is no need, similar for landing.

For crosswind takeoffs rudder and maybe differential brakes will be used to keep the aircraft on centerline. In small GA aircraft, opposite aileron might be applied to decrease the chance of strong winds tipping the aircraft.

On landing in a crosswind, aircraft may use "crabbing" where the rudder points the nose of the aircraft into the wind to stop the wind affecting the ground track of the aircraft and pushing it off approach. A "wing-down" approach might also be made where the wind that is closest to the direction of the wind is lower than centered (using aileron) so wind can't get under the wing and cause asymmetric lift and push the aircraft off approach.

Hope that helps a bit 😉

I never feel the need to use my rudder and yaw trim dials and wonder if these only come in to play during windy conditions?

I understand that weather centres have someone monitoring wind shear severity around airports and relay this info direct to the flight crew. Can windshear be detected and planned for any other way?

You can probably guess that I have no experience flying in wind although I learnt the crabbing technique to stay on track and minimise drift.

Jamie4590 wrote:

I never feel the need to use my rudder and yaw trim dials and wonder if these only come in to play during windy conditions?

I understand that weather centres have someone monitoring wind shear severity around airports and relay this info direct to the flight crew. Can windshear be detected and planned for any other way?

You can probably guess that I have no experience flying in wind although I learnt the crabbing technique to stay on track and minimise drift.

Rudder trim can be used on a windy crosswind approach but it is unlikely unless the wind is strong and constant. On landing, you have to correct your track to runway heading anyway so would have to center the trim. Rudder trim is probably used most in asymmetric thrust circumstances. Often an engine of a 747 stops functioning, and they carry on their flight to the destination. With double the thrust on one side, constant rudder will be needed so unless you want a numb foot for 10 hours, then you'll use rudder trim.

Windshear is just the sudden change of velocity of wind. Some airports, where windshear is a great problem, have special windshear detectors, so they can detect windshear and report it to the pilot. As far as I'm aware, windshear can't be picked up on aircraft monitors (which is why it poses such a threat) and isn't generally a significant problem in Europe.

😉

Man, you are knowledgable if you arent a real world pilot, how do you know all of this? what do you do for a living?

I know hes like an insttructer my trubuites to u 99jolegg for being so knoledgable about aviation

Alandd5 wrote:

Man, you are knowledgable if you arent a real world pilot, how do you know all of this? what do you do for a living?

I'm not a real world pilot - I'm training for my PPL and IMC rating in a few weeks. I've just turned 18 so don't do anything for a living. I've learnt through this forum, through FS95 - FS04 simulators and from reading books and articles on the internet.

😉

wow