How to fly a rectangular course

During your training, you will be introduced to the rectangular course and other ground reference maneuvers. Ground reference maneuvers integrate the fundamentals of flight and demonstrate that you have competence in manipulating the flight controls and applying control pressures to maintain a pre-determined aircraft course relative to objects on the ground. Applying this skill to the rectangular course is the basis for airport traffic patterns.

To begin the rectangular course maneuver, we’ll first select a prominent rectangular field bounded by four section lines whose sides are approximately equal to a typical traffic pattern. The field selected should be close to a suitable place to land in case of an emergency. We’ll complete the Pre-Maneuver Checklist and ensure the areas is clear of any traffic.

The airplane will be flown at 1,000’ AGL parallel to and at an equal distance from the field boundaries – about ½ – ¾ miles from the boundary as you would fly a traffic pattern. To maintain this equal distance on all legs of the maneuver, we will have to adjust bank angles during the turns and apply wind correction angles to prevent drifting toward or away from the field boundaries. The airspeed flown should be what’s recommended by the manufacturer, but at an airspeed not to exceed maneuvering speed.

The entry into the maneuver should be accomplished downwind as you would enter the traffic pattern where groundspeed will be the greatest. On the downwind leg, there should be no wind correction angle if the wind is directly behind us, but with any type of quartering tailwind, some drift correction will be necessary. The turn from the downwind leg onto the base leg is entered with a relatively steep bank angle since the groundspeed is greatest. The steeper bank angle is necessary in order to maintain the equal distance from the boundaries.

rectangular course

Enter the rectangular course maneuvers on a 45 degree angle to the downwind leg.

As the airplane turns onto the following base leg, the tailwind will decrease and becomes a crosswind. The bank angle should be reduced gradually with coordinated aileron and rudder input. The pilot should be prepared for the necessary crosswind correction and compensate by turning more than 90° angling toward the inside of the rectangular course.

rectangular course

The turn from downwind leg to base leg will be more than 90 degrees to compensate for the increasing crosswind.

The next leg is where the airplane turns from a base leg position to the upwind leg. Ideally, on the upwind, the wind is directly on the nose of the airplane resulting in a direct headwind and decreased groundspeed; however, some drift correction will be necessary for any type of quartering headwind. The pilot should roll the airplane into a medium-banked turn with coordinated aileron and rudder input.

As the airplane turns onto the upwind leg, the crosswind lessens and becomes a headwind, and the bank angle is gradually reduced with coordinated aileron and rudder pressures. Because the pilot was angled into the wind on the base leg, the turn to the upwind leg is less than 90°.

The next leg is where the airplane turns from an upwind leg position to the crosswind leg. The pilot should slowly roll the airplane into a shallow-banked turn (the shallowest bank of the maneuvers since groundspeed is the slowest into the headwind). As the airplane turns onto the crosswind leg, the headwind lessens and becomes a crosswind. To compensate for the crosswind, the pilot maintains an angle into the wind, toward the outside of the rectangular course, which requires the turn to be less than 90°.

The final turn is back to the downwind leg, which requires a medium-banked angle and a turn greater than 90° since we were angled into the wind and away from the field boundary on the previous leg. The groundspeed will be increasing as the turn progresses and the bank should be held and then rolled out using coordinated aileron and rudder input.

Throughout the maneuver it’s important to maintain positive, coordinated control at a constant airspeed, altitude and distance from the field boundary. It’s also important to continue to be aware of your surroundings by scanning for other traffic or obstacles.

To summarize:

Standards:

  1. Altitude: ±100 feet
  2. Airspeed: ±10 knots
  3. Bank: Avoids banking in excess of 45°

Procedures:

  1. Select an altitude of 1000’ AGL/or an appropriate traffic pattern altitude.
  2. Select a prominent rectangular field bounded by four section lines whose sides are approximately equal to a typical traffic pattern. The major axis of the rectangle should be approximately parallel to wind direction at flight altitude. The field should also be close to a suitable place to land in case of an emergency.
  3. Perform Pre-Maneuver Checklist and clear the area.
  4. Establish the appropriate cruise airspeed (not to exceed maneuvering speed) and enter the maneuver at a 45° to the downwind. The first circuit should be to the left.
  5. Establish the proper Wind Correction Angle to maintain a uniform distance from the field boundaries.
  6. Commence and complete turns abeam the field boundaries.
  7. Vary the bank angle (not to exceed 45°) to maintain a constant radius during the turns.

Common Errors:

  1. Failure to adequately clear the area.
  2. Poor reference selection.
  3. Failure to establish proper altitude, prior to entry. (Typically entering the maneuver while descending).
  4. Failure to establish appropriate wind correction angle resulting in drift.
  5. Gaining or losing altitude.
  6. Poor coordination. (Typically skidding in turns from a downwind heading and slipping in turns from an upwind heading).
  7. Abrupt control usage.
  8. Inability to adequately divide attention between airplane control and maintaining ground track.
  9. Improper timing in beginning and recovering from turns.
  10. Inadequate visual lookout for other aircraft.

 

 

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New episodes of Sporty’s Pilot’s Discretion Podcast

Podcast logoConversations with unique pilots

Sporty’s Pilot’s Discretion Podcast has new episodes available with guests that include Dr. Mike Jones on why small airports are mismanaged; CFI-I, Ryan Koch, on keeping your instrument skills sharp; and helicopter CFI, Randy Waldman, talks about the similarities between music and flying.

Pilot’s Discretion brings you authentic conversations with some of aviation’s most interesting people. From honest discussions about flight training to fascinating stories from pilots, this podcast is for anyone who loves to fly.

Pilot’s Discretion is hosted by Sporty’s President, John Zimmerman. Have a question or a guest suggestion? Email us: [email protected].

Sporty’s webinar video: 20 questions to test your IFR knowledge

 

Sporty’s President and Air Facts Editor John Zimmerman for 20 questions on a wide variety of IFR topics. From departure procedures to weather to WAAS approaches, you’ll learn practical tips for safer instrument flying in this webinar recording.

Keeping One Step Ahead of ATC when flying IFR

 

The two most useful benefits have been ADS-B datalink weather and a real-time traffic display in the cockpit, delivered by the network of ADS-B ground stations in the U.S. These free services are available to pilots of all aircraft types (even drones) thanks to the widespread availability of inexpensive, portable ADS-B receivers and rapid developments in mobile app and panel-mount avionics technology.

There is a lot more to gain from these NextGen services than just being able to see the location of thunderstorm cells on your iPad in flight, or noting the location of an airliner passing 10 miles in front of you. When used strategically you can use this information to gain additional insight into what’s going on in the airspace around you and make more informed decisions on each flight, giving you an edge when dealing with air traffic control.

Until recently we had no other choice but to rely on ATC and Flight Service as the primary source of information. How is the weather developing? Call the controller or a flight service specialist. Where is the traffic? Wait for ATC to inform you of a potential conflict. What is the best IFR route and which approach can I expect? ATC will tell you when it’s convenient for them. 

These challenges and unknowns have always been a part of flying IFR, but with NextGen that’s starting to change. This new technology has eliminated many of these unknowns, providing pilots with the information needed to make more-informed decisions during every phase of flight, from preflight to shutdown.

Let’s start with the IFR route selection process. Gone are the days of making an educated guess on a route, only to have ATC respond with a full route clearance with intersections and airways. It now takes only a moment in ForeFlight, Garmin Pilot or FltPlan.com to enter a departure and destination airport and then see recently issued clearances to other aircraft flying the same route. They’re even sorted by altitude so you can find the option that best matches the performance of your airplane. File one of these routes and you’re almost guaranteed a “cleared as filed” from clearance delivery.

On that same topic, the need to “call” clearance delivery is no longer a requirement at all airports. Both ForeFlight and FltPlan.com offer GA pilots convenient access to the Pre-Departure Clearance system that the airlines have been using for years. After enrolling in this service, and when departing from one of over 70 approved airports in the U.S., your IFR clearance will be sent via email and text message 30 minutes before departure.

Currently, this works at airports served by airlines in busy Class B and C airspace where you’re also most likely to receive a complex IFR clearance. The textual clearance also includes a digital transcription of the current ATIS. With routine these tasks out of the way before you step foot in the airplane, you can devote 100% of your attention to programming the GPS and preparing for taxi instead of studying IFR charts and departure procedures searching for obscure waypoints and other gotchas.

After takeoff, you can use the datalink weather component of NextGen to stay ahead of ATC when flying near convective weather. Prior to ADS-B, you had to rely on the advice of ATC, Flight Watch and Flight Service to guide you around the storms and hold on tight if the ride got rough. Now you can easily identify thunderstorms, icing or turbulence threats hundreds of miles away and request to modify your route accordingly. The controllers prefer you handle weather avoidance in this manner as well with a predetermined route, as opposed to flying up to the weather and then making multiple heading requests.

On longer flights, the best time to start planning for the arrival and approach is when things are quiet during cruise and while several hundred miles from the destination. The problem is you may not be able to receive the ATIS at this range, so there’s no way to confirm which runway or instrument approach is in use to begin preparing for the approach. Don’t give up there – all it takes is a little detective work with the traffic layer in your mobile app to determine the active runway. 

First, make sure you have an unrestricted or unfiltered traffic layer enabled on the moving map, zoom into the destination airport, and turn on the extended centerlines feature. Now keep an eye out for traffic approaching and descending towards the airport and you’ll be able to see which runway is in use. I used this trick when flying into Nashville recently and was able to determine they were using the ILS or RNAV Runway 20L approach and using runway 20C for departures. All of this was observed by tracking another airplane’s final approach course on the map while I was still 250 miles southeast of the airport.

You can use the nearby traffic depiction to expedite the issuance of a visual approach clearance too when flying into a busy towered airport. When the weather is VFR, it’s not uncommon to be vectored into a sequence behind multiple aircraft. The inefficiency occurs as ATC has to build in extra spacing between each airplane to ensure adequate separation, leading to time-consuming vectors. But here’s where your NextGen tools can help. After visually locating the airport, begin developing a mental picture of the preceding aircraft and try to find their location on the traffic display on your iPad. This should make it much easier to spot them visually, at which point you can let ATC know you have both airport and traffic in front and sight. If they’re on top of things, the controller can now clear you for the visual approach sooner since you have the airplane you’re following in sight.

This is just the beginning of what NextGen has to offer to make our flights more efficient and interactions with ATC more meaningful. The next 10 years will be even more exciting, as internet connectivity reaches the GA cockpit and ATC communications transition to digital messages. I’m personally looking forward to retiring the phrase “say again” and forgetting how to adjust squelch on analog radios.

ILS approach with Spencer Suderman to Jacksonville Int’l

The Instrument Landing System (ILS) is a precision approach and provides both lateral and vertical guidance to a runway. For most general aviation operations, it allows a pilot to descend to as low as 200′ AGL and assist a pilot in locating the runway in as low as 3/8 mile visibility.

In this video, Spencer Suderman demonstrates what it’s like to fly an ILS in a Cessna 172 with a Garmin G1000 avionics system, and how to use the runway approach lighting system to descend below the decision altitude and find the runway when the ceiling is less than 200′ AGL.

To take the next step, check out Sporty’s Instrument Rating Course, which includes 13 hours of in-flight HD cross-country and instrument approach video training and comprehensive written test preparation tools: https://www.sportys.com/instrument

You can learn more about the course, as well as find a large collection of new articles, videos, quizzes and podcasts all geared towards IFR flying at https://www.sportys.com/IFR

How to prepare for checkride day

checkride

No one enjoys being evaluated, but the checkride is a necessary step.

Checkride day is finally here – the end of one chapter in your aviation journey filled with many triumphs and challenges unique to flight training.  Only the satisfaction of putting your knowledge, skills and decision-making ability you’ve accumulated into the checkride remain.

While it’s important to understand, by virtue of your instructor’s endorsement, that you’ve met all of the requisite knowledge, experience, and skill elements to become a pilot, it doesn’t completely alleviate the inevitable checkride jitters. A good examiner will approach the checkride of the mindset that you’re a licensed pilot unless given reason to believe otherwise. This is an important distinction from the belief that it’s up to you to prove your worth.

I’m convinced no one actually enjoys the checkride environment. The thought of an examiner, who may be someone unfamiliar, carefully analyzing your every response, decision and input can rattle you to the core unless properly managed. There are those who possess more confidence, either through preparedness or ignorance, and those who naturally excel in the high-stakes checkride setting. But given the option between evaluation and not, suffice it to say we’d all retreat to safety and comfort.

But no matter the side of the coin you find yourself on, the checkride is the necessary and required step for certification so let’s look at what to expect, how to prepare, and how to settle the nerves.

examiner

Don’t wait until checkride day to meet your examiner.

1) Don’t wait until checkride day to meet your examiner. While the onus should be on your CFI or flight school to ensure you’re property introduced and briefed as to what to expect from the examiner, do your part and insist on learning as much as you can about the individual and the exam profile. No, this isn’t cheating. Quite the contrary. This is a wise, prudent step in preparing for the big day. Nearly all examiners have their “thing” they may wish to emphasize or teach and if it’s important enough to test, it’s important enough to teach and learn.

Does the examiner have a typical cross-country and diversion scenario? Does the examiner prefer to combine maneuvers? Is there an airport the examiner enjoys visiting? Does the examiner have a preferred emergency scenario? Will the examiner insist on examining aircraft logs? Does the examiner fully embrace your electronic charts? For an IFR checkride, what are the most likely instrument approaches?These are some questions you may consider answering in advance of the checkride.

2) Set the stage for success by ensuring the details are complete. This begins with a review of experience requirements for the certification itself. It’s wise to be versed in these requirements and know where the elements are documented in the logbook. Written test results should be in hand with an understanding of deficient knowledge areas. Be sure to have payment in an acceptable form at the ready. Sporty’s offers interactive checkride checklists within its online courses to ensure you’ve complete the details.

planning

Complete your performance planning before the checkride.

3) Know the certification standards which are the examiner’s guidebook. Have a thorough understanding and even a copy of the standards with you so it may be referenced if necessary. Don’t panic if you haven’t spent much time in the certification standards. Your instructor will have been teaching to these standards along the way, but it would still be a worthy investment of your checkride preparation time, to familiarize yourself with the guidance.

4) Have aircraft logbooks and/or records available. Many examiners will expect the pilot to demonstrate aircraft airworthiness with a review of the aircraft logbooks. While you may be able to recite, chapter and verse, the required aircraft inspections, you may be asked to take it a step further by locating those required checks in the aircraft and engine logs. Don’t make checkride day the first time for opening an aircraft log.

5) Complete weight and balance, performance, and cross-country planning. A basic expectation of any checkride is flight planning. You may be asked to prepare a cross-country flight plan. Suffice it to day, weight and balance and performance data should be a part of this preparation. Check and double check your work and be prepared to explain how the information was derived especially when using flight planning apps. Most examiners will use the flight plan as a means to exploring other areas of the certification standard typically contained in the oral phase. Even if you’ve transitioned to the flight phase of the checkride, oral questioning can and likely will continue.

6) Take charge and be in command. Transitioning to the flight phase, consider that part of the examiner’s evaluation includes your ability to make safe, sound decisions and be the pilot-in-command. Take control (command) of the situation and make your own definitive go/no-go decision and carry this mantra all of the way though your flight. If you don’t like how a situation is unfolding, take action. Perfection is not a passing requirement, but good decisions are.

ipad

Review the required ACS maneuvers so the procedures are fresh.

For your checkride, DO:

  • Learn the examiner ahead of your checkride and study the expected profile.
  • Complete the details – 8710 application, logbook, written exam results, flight plan, payment all in order.
  • Review all of the airspace and chart symbology along the cross-country route ahead of the checkride to ensure that it is understood.
  • For an IFR checkride, review all likely instrument approach procedures
  • Study your aircraft’s limitations and memory items. Examiners are fond of using these elements as starters for many of your oral questioning.
  • Relax in between maneuvers and don’t rush.
  • Be the PIC and fly as you’ve trained.
  • Review the appropriate ACS to ensure that you are comfortable and familiar with what is to be expected.
  • Review popular oral exam questions. Sporty’s offers oral exam flashcards as part of its checkride preparation module with questions and answers of likely oral exam questions. Review a sample from the Instrument Rating Course below:

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[q] Do the airworthiness and federal registration certifiates for the aircraft expire?

[a] The airworthiness certificate does not expire, but the registration expires seven years after the last day of the month in which it was issued.

 

[q] What can a pilot do to improve the effectiveness of vision at night?

[a] Allow 30 minutes for eyes to adjust, avoid bright lights, utilize off-center viewing and be aware that depth perception is degraded.

 

[q] To exercise the privileges of BasicMed, what additional documents must the PIC have?

[a] A current and valid driver’s license, the completed CMEC checklist and documentation of completion of the BasicMed course.

 

[q] When tracking in bound on the localizer, which of the following is the proper procedure regarding drift corrections?

[a] Drift corrections should be accurately established before reaching the outer marker and completion of the approach should be accomplished with heading corrections no greater than 2°.

Drift corrections should be small and reduced proportionately as the course narrows. By the OM, drift correction should be established accurately enough to permit completion of the approach, with heading corrections no greater than 2°.

[q] (Refer to the figure below) ATC has cleared you for the ILS 6 approach to BDL. The ceiling is reported at 400 feet AGL and visibility is 1 mile. After intercepting the glideslope, ATC notifies you that the approach lighting system is inoperative. How should you proceed?

[a] Increase the visibility minimums to RVR 4000.

The approach chart indicates that Runway 6 features ALSF-2 approach lighting. The top left of the chart states to increase the RVR to 4000 when the ALSF-2 lighting system is inoperative.

[x] If you found this helpful, Sporty’s Instrument Rating Course  has flashcards for all topics on IFR flying.
Sharpen your skills or prepare for the knowledge test with Flashcard mode in Study Sessions.

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For your checkride, DON’T:

  • Study obscure regulatory or AIM entries searching for the needle in the haystack.
  • Memorize answers. Learn the material, not someone else’s summary of the material.
  • Cram up to checkride time. Once you’re within a few hours of the exam, put the books down and relax.
  • You can always be better and no one expects perfection. When your CFI says you’re ready, go for it.
  • If you make a mistake, own it and move on.
  • Depart from your routine. Begin and end your days as you ordinarily would.
  • Second guess. Your first instinct is usually correct.

Examiners have a job to do, but they are people and pilots just like you. If there is some question of what is being asked, ask for clarification. Communication is key to the examiner understanding your thought process and decision making. Checkrides have plenty of emotion and pressure that will hopefully allow you to excel. Don’t bring unnecessary pressure or emotion to the flight by overreaching or trying to do too much. Fly like you’ve trained and be the PIC.