Lesson 3

The Take Off Climb and Standard Instrument Departure

Having got our clearance and taxied to Runway 26 Left, we now have lined up on the runway for take off. Gently push the throttles forward this will help to stop the aircraft swinging. Gradually bring your power up to full power although most airliners normally take off with less. At 150 knots gently ease the stick back and let the aircraft climb away from the ground do not pitch the aircraft up beyond 10 degrees or your tail may strike the ground. As soon as you get a positive rate of climb on the vertical speed indicator and the altimeter starts rising bring up the landing gear as it will only cause drag. Normally I hand fly the aircraft until passing 1000ft and then switch on the autopilot. As you climb away from the airport you will notice the navigation instruments spring into life and  pick up Midhurst VOR and start indicating the direction distance  and course to it .

See the photo below

This picture shows the correct pitch after take off. You will see that Midhurst is 16.8 miles away the track to Midhurst  is slightly off to the right . If you now push the buttons on the autopilot and flick the three switches on the autopilot NAV ,IAS ,and ALT,  the aircraft will now lock onto the correct track, it will fly itself to Midhurst.  The throttles will automatically adjust themselves and keep you at the correct speed. Also the aircraft will now climb and level off itself and 5000ft. 

Examine the correct  pitch trim position for take off . One of the secrets of flying is having the trim set correctly at all times. You can then fly hands free. Remember that every time  you do something to the controls you retrim.  You will know when you are correctly trimmed as when you let the joystick go the aircraft pitch does not alter. I suggest you get the trimmer set up on your joystick buttons. The alternative way of navigating to Midhurst would be to engage you heading mode on the autopilot HDG BUTTON and get the little magenta bug on the bottom centre instrument set to 254 . As you turn the heading window with the mouse so the bug moves. (The heading window is on the autopilot ) The course window is your OBS switch for the VOR on the autopilot.

You should now start to retract your flaps until they are all the way up. Do this in stages. On the far right of the panel you notice the brakes were set for RTO rejected take off put this switch back to OFF. The bottom left instrument needle always points to the beacon tuned a little switch allows you to tune to either beacon 1 or beacon 2. Basically you turn so that the needle is running between twelve and 6 O clock. watch the mileage to see if you are flying towards or away from the beacon as you cross the Midhurst beacon the needle will swing 180 degrees. the VOR is the big needle on the gauge the other one is for NDB another type of beacon I will describe later.

As you cross Midhurst VOR  then you retune your radio beacons to Southampton on the radio box at this point we can switch over from radio navigation to global positioning system by switching the little GPS switch over at  the top left of the autopilot from NAV. If you make sure the Nav white light is on the aircraft will now fly all the way to Malaga without you doing anything. See the photo below.

In the above picture I have left the Midhurst VOR tuned on radio number 2. You will see that the needle is pointing back to Midhurst 7.4 miles away. After switching over to GPS a blue needle appears on the navigation instrument. All the time the needle is pointing at twelve O clock you are on course for the next waypoint.( which is Southampton). Air Traffic Control speed limit for all aircraft flying under 10000ft is 250 knots maximum .  After bringing your flaps in increase your speed to 250 knots. As our first level was 5000 ft. when you get to 4700 feet reduce your vertical climb to 500ft  per minute so the aircraft does not exceed the speed limit. when it levels out.  This also prevents the stewardesses from throwing Coffee all over the cabin as you level  off violently. 

Let us assume we are clear of inbound traffic we now can climb to 35000ft.  Set 35000ft on the autopilot. Now set your altimeter to 29.92 by using the mouse to click on the baro switch. As you pass 10000 FT Set your speed to 300 knots. On passing 24000ft switch the autopilot over from IAS to Mach. You will not be sure what your maximum speed will be. Look on your airspeed gauge, there is a small orange bug that moves on the side of the gauge. You use your mouse to click on the Mach or IAS window of the autopilot to move the bug. Do this until the little orange bug gets just below the red and white needle on the airspeed indicator.  Keep it there at all times. Aircraft use Mach at high altitude as indicated airspeed is unreliable. Mach changes daily with height and temperature.

Now we are safely in the climb it is time to end this lecture. Remember what I said about reducing the rate of climb in the last 250ft so as to level gently out at 35000ft . Please note the red and white needle on the indicated airspeed gauge will reduce as you get higher be alert to this. If you do ignore it,  you will get into a High Speed Buffet and the wings might break off at a later time thus ruining a good day and a personality change is assured.

                                                                

                                         Our next Lesson is Navigation and Routine on Route

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