My next few lessons built on the things we covered in the first lesson and introduced Climbing, Descending and Medium level turns. There is not too much to say about these, other than a lot focus is given to learning the correct attitude of the aeroplane for each. When climbing like in the straight and level lesson you are taught look at where the horizon cuts across the windscreen and maintain this, which gives a consistent attitude of climb. Importantly you also need to ensure the airspeed is maintained at the optimum for the climb. We climb on full power and at the correct attitude our speed is 60 Knots.
What I do remember about the lesson on turning was when banking without using the rudder the aeroplane rolls and then the nose moves in the opposite or wrong direction before coming back to where you want it, this was explained as “adverse yawl” and given as the reason we add rudder whenever we use the ailerons which will keep the plain in balance.
Adverse yawl I found interesting as when we were back in the club house Mike got out his whiteboard pens and explained what was happening. It went something like this:
Adverse yaw is a secondary effect of the ailerons. When the ailerons are moved, one of its effects is increase lift on one wing and to decrease lift on the other which is why the aeroplane rolls. However the secondary effect of increasing lift is to increase drag, this slows the wing and causes the aeroplane to yaw towards the wing generating the lift and most drag. The result is that when rolling an aircraft for a turn, the aircraft will have a tendency to want to yaw in the opposite direction of the roll. This is corrected by feeding in some rudder in the direction of the turn.
