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Chapter VI.--ELEMENTARY MANEUVERS

STRAIGHT AND LEVEL FLIGHT

It is impossible to emphasize too much the necessity for forming correct habits in flying straight and level. Too many instructors and students are prone to believe that perfection in this fundamental will come of itself with experience and the practice of others. Such is not the case. Perfection will not be obtained in a few hours or even in fifty if conscientious effort is not applied. It is not uncommon to find a pilot who just misses doing everything well and on analyzing the reasons for his shortcomings to find it is because he is unable to fly straight and level properly.

Such pilots are apt to feel highly insulted and be very critical of the advice when told to go back to the fundamentals and learn how to fly straight and level to improve their entire technique. However, a thorough understanding of the principles involved and careful analysis of errors more often than not show this device to be sound.

On the first flight the student should be given each control individually until he has mastered the principles of its action. The pressures required and the reactions of the ship and himself to its action should be learned as previously explained, before giving another, and finally combining all three.

Vision is undoubtedly the most important of the senses used while flying. It is the master sense that correlates and allows the correct interpretation of all the kinesthetic sensitivity and hearing. However, vision alone is insufficient, kinesthesia must be developed acutely and its interpretation become subconscious under the control of vision. From the very beginning the student should be encouraged to develop this "feel." This cannot be done unless the student is at ease in the air and relaxed so that he is receptive to the sensations of all types received while flying.

The student should not be allowed to sight along the nose to the horizon with a fixed stare but should look in such a way that, while he is conscious of all details, his vision encompasses the entire normal field; that is, the nose, the wings, and the horizon all at the same time. The inability to do this indicates that the student is under tension or a victim or overconcentration on some small details, and either difficulty should be promptly eliminated. It is very important that the student give the proper attention to details but he must not be allowed to pick out a few to the exclusion of all else.

Straight and level flight requires adjustment of the aircraft in three ways; vertically, laterally, and horizontally.

Vertical adjustment is, of course, by means of the elevators moving the position of the ship around its lateral axis and along its longitudinal axis.

Lateral adjustment is by the ailerons around the longitudinal axis and along its lateral axis.