Private Pilot Notes

Traffic pattern

• Upwind to crosswind turn

  • if staying in pattern, 700ft agl (1700 msl)

  • if leaving the pattern 500agl (1500msl)

• Downwind

  • Stay at pattern altitude (2000) and at 90kts along with 2300rpm

  • once parallel with landing point (numbers or 1000ft markers), begin configuring

  • Should remain 1 mile parallel from runway

    • The wingtip should be just touching the runway (though, better closer than farther)

• Downwind to base turn

  • configure

    • is setting rpm to 1600-1700rpm

    • Flaps 10 (first click)

    • 80 knots

    • At this point, hold pitch and let it naturally descend to 800ft agl (1800ft msl)

  • Make the turn when wing hits at a 45 degree angle with the runway (practice in msfs)

• Base

  • should have naturally decelerated to 800ft agl at this point, at 70 knots

• Final

  • A whole lot more than I can put here

  • Power idle when runway is made

• Standard temperature is 15º C/ 59º F

• Standard Pressure is 29.92 inHg / 1013 mb

The Aircraft

PA-28-161

N84400

N25510

V speeds

Vr - 60

Vy - 79 - rate

Vx - 63 -angle

Va -89 to 111

Vne - 160

Vno - 126

Vg - 73

Vfe - 103

Vs - 44

Vso - 50

Engine

• Lycoming 0320

  • 0 - carburetor (float type)

  • 320 - size of the engine (cubic inches)

• Lycoming 0320

• Horizontally opposed cylinders

• Air cooled

• Naturally aspirated

• Direct drive    

  • fixed pitch and prop is directly connected to crankshaft

• 2 mags 

  • Mags generate electricity for the spark plugs (there are two for redundancy)

• 8 sparkplugs

  • 2 per each cylinder 

Necessary instruments

• Altimeter

• Tachometer

• Oil pressure gauge

• Manifold pressure gauge (if applicable)

• Airspeed indicator

• Temperature gauge (for liquid cooled, or oil temperature for air cooled engine)

• Oil temperature gauge

• Fuel level gauge

• Landing gear position indicator (for retractable gear aircraft)

• Anticollision lights (for aircraft certified after March 11, 1996)

• Magnetic compass

• ELT (Emergency Locator Transmitter)

• Safety belts/shoulder harnesses

(only applicable at night)

• Fuses

• Landing lights

• Anti-collision lights

• Position lights

• Source of electricity

Fuel system

• Fuel Tanks: Each tank holds 24 usable gallons.

• Fuel Selector: Fuel from each tank flows to the fuel selector.

• Strainer: From the selector, fuel goes to a strainer.

  1. Fork in the System: After the strainer, the fuel path divides:

  • Priming Path: Fuel proceeds to the primer, which delivers fuel to cylinders 3 cylinders (which ones, who knows?)

• Main Engine Fuel Path:

  • Electric fuel pump.

  • Engine-driven fuel pump.

  • Fuel pressure gauge.

  • Carburetor (float type).

Required maintenance 

• Annual

  • 12 calendar months

• VOR check

  • 30 days

• 100 hours

  • commercial aircraft

• Altimeter and static port

  • 24 calendar months

• Transponder

  • 24 calendar months

• ELT

  • TO REPLACE

    • 1 hour of use / use half of battery

  • TO CHECK

    • 12 calendar month

Necessary documents (plane)

• Airworthiness certificate

  • indefinite if compliant

• Registration

  • 7 years

• Radio operating license

  • only necessary if flying internationally

• Operating handbook (pilot operating handbook)

• Weight and balance (calculations)

Technical information of plane

• 76 inch Sensenich propellor 

  • Fixed pitch (highest pitch is at hub of prop, lowest at tip)

• Fixed tricycle landing gear

• Brakes are on main gear 

  • hydraulically actuated disk brakes

• Minimum 6 quarts of oil 

  • cleans

  • seals cylinder wall & pistons

  • cools

  • lubricates

• OLEO struts

  • filled with hydraulic fluid and nitrogen

• 12V battery with a 14 volt system   

  • if voltage is abnormally above, something is wrong with the reader

• 60 Amps

  • 0-60 normally

• Avionics 

  • G5 - EFD

  • G430 - nav and transponder

• Ram air at tip of pitot tube

• aneroid wafer expands and contracts based on air pressure, to show altitude on the altimeter

  • Kollsman window is where the pressure is seen

Pilot Information

Necessary documents 

• Govt issued photo ID

• Pilots license

• Medical

• logbook (if student pilot is soloing)

Safety Checklist

• Illness

• Medications

• Stress

• Alcohol

  • below .04

• Fatigue

• Eating/drinking

General checklist for safe flight

•     Pilot

•     Airplane

• EnVironment

•      External factors (Weather, TFR, etc.)

Concepts

• Adverse Yaw   

  • Per say in a left turn, the left aileron raises reducing its lift and drag.  The right aileron raises and gains lift.  Because its gaining lift, it must therefore gain more drag.  

• Relative wind is the direction of wind relative to aircrafts flight path

• AoA is the difference between chord line and relative wind

• Angle of Incidence is the angle between the chord line and longitude axis

• The idea of excess thrust allows for continuous motion @ the same airspeed (NOT inertia

• Gyroscopic instruments 

  • Heading indicator 

    • rigidity in space

  • Attitude indicator     

    • rigidity in space

  • turn coordinator 

    • precession

• Pitot-static instruments 

  • Airspeed indicator 

  • Altimeter 

  • Vertical Speed Indicator 

    • delay of 6-9 seconds 

• Region of reverse command 

  • casued by a dramatic increase in Induced drag

  • in high draghigh lift environments (slow flight, landing), the flight controls reverse:

    • pitch for airspeed 

    • power for altitude

Left turning tendencies

• Spiraling Slipstream

  • The air displacement caused by the propellor rotating spins around the plane and hits it on the left side 

• Gyroscopic precession

  • In the air, the planes engine acts as a gyroscope, and therefore has all the gyroscopic properties: rigidity and in space and precession.  Therefore when the force is applied, aka the elevator, it takes a full 90º for said force to be felt, which causes the aircraft to want to turn left

• P-factor

  • In high angle of attack situations, the right side of the blade (or the falling side) takes more air than the ascending side.  t

• Torque effect

  • 
    

Types of drag

• Parasitic

  • caused by any object moving through air 

    • Form drag - based on the shape of the aircraft

    • Interference drag - any point of opposing airflow (corners, wings, etc.)

    • Skin friction - friction caused by friction between air and the planes surface

• Induced

  • A byproduct of the creation of lift (wingtip vorticies)

    • Slow

    • Clean

    • Drag

    • 
      

Maneuvers

• Clearing turns

• Reference

• Airspeed/altitude

• Configuration

• Steep turns

  • put plane in 45º bank angle and make full 360º turn to original reference heading (without loosing altitude)

  • add power because your’e losing vertical lift

    • watch out for climbing

• Power on stalls

  • takeoff configuration    

    • fuel pump on / mixture rich / landing light on 

  • aim for 79 then pitch up until you stall 

• S-turns

  • pick a line ground reference point 

  • fly over the line and when its in your 45º rear, make a standard rate turn, and when the turn rounds out, one should be back over the line - repeat

• straight and level

  • fly without gaining any airspeed or altitude 

• slow flight 

  • put full flaps in, slow to 55, and attempt to hold altitude and airspeed

  • for climbs, full power will often be necessary 

  • for descents, be weary of overshooting altitude 

• turns around a point 

  • pick a point and attempt to make a perfect circle 360º turn around said point 

• 
  

The Airport

KPDK

• 21R is right traffic, 21L is left traffic

• 3L is left traffic,

• 
  

• 
  

• 
  

• 3R is right traffic

Solo

• 3 full stop taxi backs at PDK

• Add student solo at the end of first call

  • Peachtree ground warrior 84400 at clairimont with E requesting pattern work with full stop taxibacks student solo

• If I get lost, request progressive taxi

Maneuvers and checkride notes

CRAAAAAAAAAAAC

There is no time limit for checkrides, so bug EVERYTHING (altitude and airspeed). CRAC before all maneuvers

mentally remind whenever approachign taxiway/runway do clear left, clea center, and clear right. also, remind oneself that we’re clear to cross a runway if assigned

study cloud types

• Startup

  • lean out mixture until engine slows, then add a little bit, setting a new equillibrium

• Passenger Breifing

  • Follow SAFETY and DEMONSTRATE each item in the checklist

    • Seatbelts: unbuckle and buckle must be on during takeoff, taxi, and landing.

    • Air vents: open and close and show direction of movements

    • Fire extinguisher/flight controls: point to it and say if they get to it first thats fine. Explain a positive three way exchange of controls.

    • Emergency: explain emergency procedures and that we have 1 door. Physically show how to open the door (2 latches)

    • Talking/Traffic: Explain to limit talking during critical stages of flight (Taxi, takeoff, landing). Explain what sterile cockpit is and that its basically an aviation euphemism of shut up. Explain if you see anything outside (planes, birds, etc.) let me know because 4 eyes are better than two.

    • Y: Questions?

• Taxi to run up

  • perform brake check immediately

  • call out anticipated taxi breifing, mention hot spots

  • mention obstructions and potential engine failures. predict how the plane might climb based on density altitude.

  • remember crosswind taxi correction

• Run up

  • Go through full checklist, bug runway heading, yadayada.

• Takeoff brief

  • explain runway lengths, emergency procedures, yadayada

• Takeoff and climb

  • Dont drift, and assign a point on the horizon to use as extended centerline

  • Climb checklist when load dies down

• Simulated IFR

  • Declare an emergency and broadcast mayday mayaday mayday on 121.5

  • Make an immediate 180 turn

• VOR tuning

  • VOR radials are coming FROM the vor. So if asked to fly the 300º radial, one would tune to the 300 degree mark then fly until you intercept it

  • Make sure nav 1 is on during testing

• Unusual attitude

  • Blue power through (when pitched up, wings level and push nose down as applying power)

  • Brown power down (when pitched down, wings level, then pull power and lift nose up)

CRAAAAAAAAAAAC

• Slow flight

  • Landing configuration (full flaps, mixture rich, landing light/fuel pump on)

  • Speed you tell the dpe is 50 but youre actually flying 55. This gives ±5 buffer. do NOT fly over 60

  • be precise on entry with alt/heading/spd

• Power off stalls

  • Simulating a landing when someone flares too much too high

  • landing configuration (full flaps, mixture rich, landing light/fuel pump on)

  • Pull power for 66 knots and get in a stabilized descent of -500fpm

  • pull power to idle, and slowly pull up into first indication of a stall. Hold it level and bleed off the airspeed

  • Aim not to descent (so dont crash into ground)

  • dont dump last 2 notches of flight until positive rate is established

• Power on stall

  • over rotation on takeoff

  • Clean configuration (no flaps, mixture rich, fuel pump on, landing light on)

  • push down and build airspeed

  • biggest concern for power on stall is a spin because of left turning tendencies

  • keep nose at 20º

• Steep turn

  • cruise configuration

  • hold 45 degrees of bank

  • 95 knots

  • Maintain the entry altitude ±100 feet, airspeed ±10 knots, bank ±5°, and roll out on the entry heading ±10°.

  • dont overcontroll, keep it at 45 and let the power setting (2300) and pitch (5º) do the rest

• Simulated engine failure

  • Airspeed - 73

  • Best place to land - likely a field

  • Checklist - emergency landing checklist

  • Declare emergency - 121.5 mayday mayday mayday

  • ELT

• Emergency descent

  • pitch for 125 and maintain 35 degrees in the turn

  • throttle idle, mixture cut, fuel valve off

  • checklist

• Diversions

• Short field landing

  • full flaps and approach speed of 72 kias

  • If anything go LONG

  • As soon as touchdown, youre adding max breaks, and do max aerodynamic breaking

    • flaps are secondary to aerobreaking and breaks

• Short field takeoff

  • hold max breaks and max power on centerline at start of runway count to 3

  • roatate at 55, climb at 63, clear 50ft obstacle, then climb out at 79

  • 2 notches of flaps

Soft field landings

• come in on mains softly, then hold the nose up for as long as possible at that attitude

• come in a little faster - 72ish knots. Flare at 66

• When holding flare, should be idle

• Soft field takeoff

  • keep rolling with minimum breaking, and full power onto runway. then stay in ground effect until 63. climb to 63, clear obstacle, then climb to 79

  • add max back pressure, then RELEASE SLOWLY, lifting off at around 55ish then staying in ground effect until 63, climbing out at 63, clearing obstacle, then climbing out at 79

  • 2 notches of flaps

• Go Around

  • full power, flaps retracted, radio going around

• S turns

  • enter on downwind leg with a tail wind

  • Clean configuration (no flaps, mixture rich, fuel pump on, landing light on)

  • right after crossing the road, start turn

• Turns around a point

  • enter on downwind leg, ideally with a tailwind

  • Clean configuration (no flaps, mixture rich, fuel pump on, landing light on)

  • maintain uhhh good distance yk

• slips

  • slip into the wind

  • full flaps

  • 
    

Oral Notes

acronyms

Pilot

    IMSAFE

    SAFETY

    AIIMR

    HASH

Aircraft

    AVIATE

    ARROW

    ATOMATOFLAMES FLAPS

    UNOS/ANDS

    LHAND

EnVironment

    NWKRAFT

    PARE

    TTMPRAWNS

External factors

    PPPPP

Engine

Lycoming

Horizontally opposed

Air cooled

Naturally aspirated

Direct drive

Altimiter

Tachometer

Oil pressure gauge

Manifold pressure gauge

Airspeed indicator

Temperature gauge (liquid cooled engines)

Oil temperature gauge

Fuel gauge

Landing light

Anti collision lights

Magnetic compass

ELT (replace after 1 hour of cumulative use or 50% battery | check every 12 cal months)

Seatbelts (required during critical stages of flight)

Fuses

Landing light

Anti collision light

Position lights

Source of electricity

Pilot

Plane

Plan

Programming

Passengers

Hypoxic hypoxia - lungs

Anemic hypoxia - blood loses ability to carry o2 to brain (CO2 poisoning)

Stagnant hypoxia - high Gs

Histotoxic hypoxia - drugs/alc

Anti authority

Impulsivity

Invulnerability

Mmacho

Resignation

Seat belts

Air vents

Fire extinguisher

Emergency exits

Talking/traffic

Y - questions?

TFR - no

TRSA - legacy airspace that usually surrounds class D and grants greater assists without the strict, mandatory participation rules of Class C

MOA - you can fly through without permission, but probably not a good idea. call first

Controlled firing - good to fly through

Prohibited - no flying

Restricted - ask permission to fly in

Alert - high volume of traffic

Warning - can fly through but strongly discouraged

National security - no

SFRA - only with permission, depends on the airspace

Illness

Medication

Stress

Alcohol

Fatigue

Eating

Airspeed

Best place to land

Checklist

Declare emergency on 121.5 and squack 7700

ELT

Undershoot

North

Overshoot

South

Accelerate

North

Decelerate

South

Airworthiness - doesnt expire

Registration - every 7 years

Radio operating license - if flying intl.

Operating handbook

Weight and Balance

Power Idle

Ailerons neutral

Rudder opposite

Elevator foward

Annual - 12 cal months

VOR - IFR only - 30 days

100 hour - every 100 hours for commercial aircraft

Airworthiness Directives - active compliance

Transponder - 24 cal months

ELT - 12 cal months to check, 50% battery or 1 hour of cumul. use to replace

Static system and altimeter - 24 cal months and ifr only

Notams

Weather

Known ATC delays

Runway lengths

Alternates

Fuel

TO/LD distances

General notes to remember

• 16 volt alternator, 14 volt battery - constant charge

• Wind flows paralell to isobars and is caused by the uneven heating of the earths surface

• TAFs and METARs are a 5nm radius

• Pilotage is using visual landmarks, and Ded reckoning is time + GS

• Clear ice is most dangerous bc is most dense/heavy and hardest to see

• Chart Supplements update every 50 days

• Warm front/high pressure associated with steady continuous precipitation

• Spacial disorientation

  • visual - eyes

  • vestibular - ear pressure

  • somatosensory - G forces

• water is 8.34 pounds, oil is 7.5 pounds, fuel is 6 pounds

• 2 electrical buses on the aircraft

  • a bus is a central conductor where electricity is stored and distributed

  • Avionics and Main bus (Batt/starter)

• plane uses anti servo trim

• slotted, manual flaps

• voltage regulator controls how much energy goes to the battery from the alternator (to deal with the asymmetry of power produced by the engine vs what the battery needs

• 30 days to notify the FAA after moving

• magnetos go to the leads (wires) then go to the sparkplugs

• primer injects fuel into the intake ports

• Pressure altitude is Field elevation + (29.92-CA) x 1000

• Density altitude is PA + [120 x (OAT-ST)]

• types of airspeed

  • IAS - indicated airspeed, noncorrected

  • CAS - calibrated airspeed for instrument and position error

  • TAS - calibrated airspeed adjusted for temperature and pressure

  • GS - TAS corrected for wind

• types of altitude

  • Indicated altitude - what we see

  • pressure altitude - corrected for nonstandard pressure, middleman to density alt.

  • density altitude - corrected for nonstandard temp and pressure (what the airplane feels)

  • true altitude (MSL) - physical height above sea level

  • absolute altitude (AGL) - height above ground

• Left turning tendencies

  • P-factor - descening blade catches more air than ascending blade in high AoA scenarios, creating asymetrical thrust, turning the aircraft left

  • spiraling slipstream - air wraps around the plane and hits the left side of the vertical stabilizer, yawing the plane left

  • torque effect - prop tuens clockwise, so plane wants to turn ccw (left)

  • gyroscopic precession - the plane functions as a gyro, and precession states that a force is felt 90º late on said gyro, this (minorly) causes the plane to go left

• Stability

  • static - at a moment

    • positive - wants to return to orignial position

    • neutral- wants to stay in altered position

    • negative - wants to continue deviating

  • dynamic - over time

    • positive - wants to return to orignial position

    • neutral- wants to stay in altered position

    • negative - wants to continue deviating

• Drag

  • parasitic

    • form drag - The shape of the plane moving through the air and the friction is causes (wood block vs bullet)

    • skin friction - the microscopic impact of the wind against the surface of the object, and the drag it creates (walking area of wing vs smooth)

    • interference - the intersection of parts of the plane (wing with fuselage)

  • Induced

    • A byproduct of the creation of lift (wingtip vortices and such)

  • As airspeed increases, induced drag decreases and parasitic drag increases

  • L/D Max is Vglide and where the curve of induced and parasitic drag intersects

  • Slower than LD max is the region of reversed command.

• Instruments

  • pitot static

    • Airspeed indicator

    • Altimiter

    • VSI

  • gyroscopic

    • HSI

    • turn coordinator

    • heading indicator

• CG effects on performance

  • Forward CG (weigh concentrated towards center of lift)

    • highly stable

    • less efficient - lower cruise speed

    • higher stall speed, but easier to recover

    • heavy controls

  • Aft CG

    • less stable - very sensitive

    • lower stall speed, but harder to recover

    • more efficient and faster at cruise because of decreased induced drag (because the plane is more “balanced,” less lift is needed for level flight)

• Magnetic Deviation vs Variation

  • Variation

    • Difference between the north and magnetic north

    • East is least, west is best (subtract east add west)

  • Deviation

    • difference between magnetic north and compass needle; caused by electrical systems and is unique to individual aircraft

  • Magnetic dip

    • ANDS: on east/west heddings, accelerating turns the compass north, and when decelerating, the compass skews south

    • UNOS: when turning from north headings, the compass needle will lag, as when turning from south, the compass overshoots

• Atmosphere is coposed of 78% nitrogen, 21% oxygen, and 1 percent other gases

• wind is caused by the uneven heating of earths surface

• The three classiifications are cirrus, alto, and stratus. High to low

• Turbulance is the irregular, chaotic, motion of air

  • light - slight altitude loss

  • moderate - moderate altitude loss

  • Severe - momentus loss of control

  • extreme - structural damage

• Unstable atmosphere facilitates vertical motion

• fly 20nm away from thunderstorms (at least). If need to fly near fly upwind

• Frost forms on wings overnight due to deposition

  • water vapor turns into ice with full saturation

• If encounter icing, decend, turn on carb hear, pitot heat, and advise ATC

• Load limits

  • 3.8g and -1.52g

• emergency airworthiness directives

  • immediate action/short time period

• AHRS(altitude heading reference system)

  • provides info to gyroscopic instruments

• Vacuum system provides information to gyroscopic information

  • engine driven pump creates suction and spins rotors

• Magnetic oscillation is the combination of deviation and variation

• Isogonic lines are the lines of magnetic variation

• Oil cleans, cools, seals, and lubricates

• Sparkplug fouling is caused by carbon buildup

• OLEO struts are oil and (nitrogen)

• PGA is the radius of skydivers

• The fuses in the PA28161 are the circuit breakers

• dont need permission for MoA

• low pressure is up, ccw and inward

• high pressure is down, cw, and outward

• Vglide changes slightly with weight

• a ceiling is a large layer of broken or overcast clouds

• convective activity is the transfer or energy

  • from warm to cool and cool to warm

• an occluded front is colder air catching up to warmer air

• Cyanosis is a symptom of hypoxia

• dead reckoning is calculating a current position by advancing a known past position with groundspeed, time, and heading.

• 5 Cs of being lost

  • climb

  • confess

  • communicate

  • comply

  • conserve

• GPU is mounted on right side of pa28161

• Carb ice generally occurs below 70º F and above 80% humidity

  • can go as high as 100º F and as low as 50% humidity

FACEPIP

• Flight review

  • flight review/checkride in past 24 cal months

• Aircraft docs

  • ARROW

• Currency

  • 3 TO/LD past 90 days (full stop for night) — carrying passengers

• E

  • equipment. 91.213 to KOEL to 91.205 to AD then placard inop and deactivate if possible. ONLY A&P CAN REMOVE

• Performance and weather

  • weight and balance, performance calculations for runway, weather minimums

• inspections

  • Annual (12cal), 100 hr (hire) ELT within 12 cal months (replace if at 50% or used for 1 cumul hour), transponder within 24 cal months, pitot static within 24 cal months for ifr

• Pilot

  • certificates, medical, logbook, photo id,

Airspace

• Class B

  • Solid blue

  • ADSB, mode C transponder, Two way radio, direct clearance to enter

  • busiest airports

• Class C

  • Solid magenta

  • ADSB, mode C transponder, two way radio

  • Inner ring is 5nm radius with SFC to 1200, outer ring 10nm and 1200 to 4000 (AGL everything)

• Class D

  • Dotted blue

  • Two way radio

  • 4nm radius, surfact to 2500 agl (depicted in MSL, ex. PDK at [35]

• Class E

  • for ifr traffic, as class E is techincally controlled airspace

  • no equipment requirements

  • 3152 below 10000

  • 5111 above 10000

  • normally starts at 1200

  • dashed magenta means class E begins at surface

  • magenta vignette class E begins at 700 agl

  • blue vignette class E begins at 1200

  • class E teeeechnically starts at 14500, but that blue vignette covers most of the US, so the places to note are the areas where the vignette faces OUT, indicating that the airspace inside the box is actually class G to 14500msl

• Class G

  • uncontrolled airspace

  • 1sm visibility and clear of clouds day vfr

  • 3152 night vfr

  • normally goes up to 1200

  • when above 1200 (irregular situation), weather minimums are 1sm of visibility and 152