S-turns across a road

[tech10002]

I'm having trouble mastering S-turns across a road. I understand the concepts of increased and decreased bank depending on whether the wind is blowing behind you or in front, but I'm finding it hard to actually apply these things.

When you did these maneuvers, did you actually think about when to increase bank and decrease bank? Or did you just do it by "feel?" I think I might be over-thinking it. I've done these before many years ago when I was going for my private and don't remember having this hard a time.

[glyn]

i would say it was feel. now there is a big difference between a windy day an calm winds. on a windy day you are going to be able to "feel" the wind push you and know what bank angle you will need. calm days are going to make you do smaller/tight turns because once you pass the road the wind isn't pushing you so you will go ahead and make a tight turn and level out on the road. your turns will basically never be the same because the winds always change. don't over think the situation. just fly it.
every time you fly. "feel" the wind. know where it is coming from before you leave the airport. once you get up and head in whatever direction, fly that line and feel the wind push you in whatever direction. practice the feel part ever time you go up.
this will help in the long run because when doing a cross country winds are going to change and therefore you need to change the way you are flying.

[tadel001]

When you set up for your s-turns, are you picking an object 90 degrees through the turn to act as your radius measurement? In other words, I cross the road wings level, then I begin my turn so that I am over a little house. They house is the same distance as the tree I will use on the other side of the road. By flying to these objects, you will force yourself to increase/decrease bank appropriately.

This is not something you pick up on the first try. By using the radius markers, you will begin to see how to bank the plane to reach your intended point.

The last trick is to talk through the maneuver out loud. By saying out load, you will be telling yourself about the bank and it will have the DPE focusing on what you say (a little trick). If you can conceptional figure out the right bank angle at the beginning of the maneuver, than talking through it should make it easier.

Good luck. Just practice. It will happen.

[CharlieTango]

a note on "feeling" the wind, you can only feel wind sheer, generally you will "feel" wind in this maneuver by noticing changes in ground speed.

downwind you will cross the road faster and upwind you will cross it slower. if you can sense the groundspeed difference then it is a clue. the fast / downwind road crossing means the steeper bank is needed and visa versa.

[Doss79]

Interesting that you are talking about this. Just yesterday we couldn't find a road perpendicular to the wind, so we just did turns around a point instead. I had trouble doing this because for one, it was damn cold outside and the Cub does not have any windows at the moment (aside from windshield), secondly, I couldn't understand half of what my instructor was saying since I had a bad headset that day. Thefore, I could not make out the "point" we were supposed to turn around to. After a while it started to click on me, but it was already time to head back to the airport.

[tech10002]

Thanks for the replies. It sounds like I am over-thinking it. That's a great idea about using other points like a tree or something to mark the outside of the radius. I was just trying to do it by the sight picture to the road and never could seem to make symmetrical radii. This was the first time I've done any of these in 15 years, but my instructor didn't seem too happy with my performance anyway. What's funny is I have no problem with a rectangular course or in the pattern which is supposed to be harder than S-turns I hear.

In general, these LSAs seem to be tough birds to master. I've had a lot more difficulty landing and doing maneuvers than I ever did in a 172 or Cherokee. I'm pretty disgusted with my performance so far. I really hope it gets better soon. I've got maybe 6 hours of dual in the Sportstar so far.

[scottj]

Do you have a GPS in your airplane? This is a great tool for visualizing what you are, or did, in your manuever. Use the track history to follow along or to review after the lesson. Even a hand held GPS on a string on your neck can be used for this purpose.

What is your altitude when you do these S Turns? Too high, and they are much harder to perform. I like 800 AGL for this.

Speed control? Are you going too fast/slow? Keep it under Va.

Timing? Are you counting to 3 One Thousand nice and slow before turning?

Find a good east/west road, and then repeat on a north/south road.

Have fun, and keep your ball centered.
Scott