Dan said: I have, and it definitely works. The difficulty is that you must not then try to climb again, and I have always had a hard time not doing that. I used to do it in my KR, and I have done in a C-150.
The reason most people fly slow this way is because of an old way of teaching flying where alot of CFI's were commercially trained or bound, so they preached that pitch controls airspeed and power controls altitude. I have shown many pilots that this is not true in cruise, although in certain flight regimes it is true due to the configuration of the plane. The fact that a change in pitch results in an immediate change in airspeed is more of a function of change in prop blade angle and increased or decreased drag, which changes up or down the available thrust. I have flown with several pilots where they continue throughout the flight to continually add elevator back pressure and slow, causing power settings to go higher, and airspeed to fall off, while when I am at the controls, I keep reducing back pressure as the plane's speed increases, which allows for faster cruise at the same power setting. The key to learning this is learning to hold altitude to within 50 feet, with a relaxed, but constant instrument scan. This also take a gentle touch no matter what airplane you fly, because at cruise a little bit goes a long way. I do not like my altitude to change more than 20 feet, and more than 50 feet, I get mad! It is just a personal standard that I was trained at during commercial training and never quit. We used to tell pilots at Safety Seminars to try to fly at higher standards, not to be a pain, but to strive for a safer better standard and level of achievement. It can be done in a KR2 or S also. It just takes patience and practice. If you can hold 50 feet in a KR you can hold any plane! Colin Rainey brokerpi...@bellsouth.net <mailto:brokerpi...@bellsouth.net>
