I've helped many pilots make the transition from four-seat, trainer-type airplanes into high-performance, retractable-gear airplanes and powerful light twins. If you've made that transition yourself, you probably remember zooming up through your desired (and perhaps air traffic control-assigned) altitude as you grew used to the new airplane, and the challenge of accurately transitioning to level flight from descents in an aerodynamically slick airplane.Have you ever come up on altitude so quickly you had to give the controls a good push or pull to level off? With experience you may be able to nail altitude this way, but it still results in a bad ride for your passengers ... people who sometimes you need to impress so they will tolerate your flying habit. What do you think of the crew when sitting in an airliner's cabin and feel some positive- or negative-g when the crew makes an altitude change? Right -- you're unimpressed with their technique. There's opportunity for "style points" on level-off from climb and descent, finesse that makes the final transition almost imperceptible to nonpilots along for the ride.Sometimes it seems that the airplane just won't accelerate leveling out of a climb, or you can't get it to slow down in descent and when leveling at approach or pattern altitude.Part of the transition's challenge is ergonomic. Differing seat mounting and cowling angles may mean the way level flight "looks" is different, which takes a little time to get used to. Higher power and the performance that brings obviously play a part in the ease of leveling precisely on altitude. (I'm sure I'd take some time to get precision out of a jet.) More often than not, however, imprecise level-off control comes (I think) from poorly learned habits -- or no habit pattern at all. Last month in Leading Edge #2 we talked about establishing standard operating procedures for various phases of flight. This month let's look at a specific SOP I use for precisely leveling off from climbs and descents. Maybe it's something you'd like to add to your own technique.
This is a companion discussion topic for the original entry at https://www.avweb.com/features/leading-edge-3-level-headed