[Question] Hand on the throttle at ALL TIMES?

DBrown said:
Arguably

I agree with you, I teach it that way, but I see it both ways, if a seats sliding and my hands off the throttle at V1 I reach my right hand to the seat adjuster, simultaneously yanking with my left hand that's already at the elevator stop, catapult myself forward, push stick forward and recover (had full power the whole time and extra time before a stall)

If your hand was on the throttle and it was pulled to idle
You lose that extra thrust and time

During takeoff and landing what else are you doing with your other hand anyway? If the answer isn't "nothing" you aren't prepared to land or takeoff

I taped a students hand to a throttle once because he just wouldn't stop flying 2 handed.
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By the time you've found the seat adjuster in your panic, you've probably flipped the plane on its back in a power on uncoordinated stall. Game over.

Hand on the throttle, you're doing a poorly executed power off landing. You might bend the gear but you're probably walking away.

Specific to the Cessna singles of course.
 
I've never had a seat slip back at rotation, but couldn't that be solved by NOT pulling the elevator all the way back with you, leaning forward in the seat to keep the nose at a normal climb attitude, then readjusting the seat?

There are other reasons to keep your hand on the throttle below 1000 feet besides increasing reaction time in case something goes wrong. It could keep a student from pulling the mixture or prop back by mistake on climbout/short final.
 
We had an instructor on the Saab who would grab the seat release just after rotation on a V1 cut. Having the seat go all the way back is not that big of a deal.

Had an Aztec go all the way back on me one time right after takeoff. Trimmed for climb, readjusted the seat and kept right on going. Nothing to panic about.
 
thevideographer said:
I've never had a seat slip back at rotation, but couldn't that be solved by NOT pulling the elevator all the way back with you, leaning forward in the seat to keep the nose at a normal climb attitude, then readjusting the seat?

There are other reasons to keep your hand on the throttle below 1000 feet besides increasing reaction time in case something goes wrong. It could keep a student from pulling the mixture or prop back by mistake on climbout/short final.
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Or just be tall enough to reach the controls with the seat all the way aft anyway. Solved. ;)

ctab5060X said:
We had an instructor on the Saab who would grab the seat release just after rotation on a V1 cut. Having the seat go all the way back is not that big of a deal.

Had an Aztec go all the way back on me one time right after takeoff. Trimmed for climb, readjusted the seat and kept right on going. Nothing to panic about.
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I've never been up front on the Saab, but I can do everything in the Bro (except maybe a V1 cut with how I adjust the rudder pedals) with my seat all the way aft.

I rock my tush back and forth before takeoff in any airplane I fly that has seat tracks to verify they're locked. Prevents both a possible dumb way to die and an unpleasant surprise.
 
If you've ever flown in an older plan with a throttle that creaps out you would know why you keep your hand there. I gradual decrease in power at Vx or Vy close to the ground can put you real close to a stall if your attention is diverted.
 
MEPilot said:
If you've ever flown in an older plan with a throttle that creaps out you would know why you keep your hand there. I gradual decrease in power at Vx or Vy close to the ground can put you real close to a stall if your attention is diverted.
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Then said older plane needs maintenance.

I used to have a problem with the throttle creeping back in my airplane. Got tired of it, squawked it during annual, new throttle cable, problem solved.

There is no excuse for flying around in an airplane that has a problem.
 
MEPilot said:
If you've ever flown in an older plan with a throttle that creaps out you would know why you keep your hand there. I gradual decrease in power at Vx or Vy close to the ground can put you real close to a stall if your attention is diverted.
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I got my ratings in airplanes that were all 30+ years old. When they weren't working like they were supposed to, I wrote them up and didn't fly them again until they were fixed. Pretty simple.
 
ctab5060X said:
Then said older plane needs maintenance.
...
There is no excuse for flying around in an airplane that has a problem.
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I wish I flew in your world. This is a list of squawks I wrote up on an airplane yesterday:

Tachometer unreliable Urgency: Medium
02/01/14 Me> The tachometer was unreliable at first, then wildly inaccurate, winding from 2400 around to the peg on the bottom of the instrument, which would be in excess of 4,000rpm. This performance was repeated several times, and large variations were observed throughout the flight.

Standby altimeter experiences large fluctuations Urgency: Low
02/01/14 Me> Oscillates through ranges of hundreds of feet continuously during flight.

Throttle friction lock weak Urgency: Low
02/01/14 Me> At maximum friction setting, friction lock provides little resistance. At anything other than maximum friction, engine controls move loosely.

OAT gauge inoperative Urgency: Low
02/01/14 Me> Read -20 on the ground, -50 in flight. Was cold. Was not that cold.

FS-450 shows zero fuel flow during takeoff Urgency: Low
09/05/13 Other Pilot> The FS-450 Fuel Flow Monitor consistently showed zero fuel flow during takeoff and during initial climb. The instrument recovered during cruise.
09/07/13 MX> Test flight required for verification, not primary instrument, FS450 should be set up before flight for accurate readout.
09/27/13 Second pilot> Fuel Flow reading (gph) intermittent and unreliable. Variously showed e.g. 25 gph at idle and 0 gph at cruise power. FS450 was set up correctly before flight.
02/01/14 Me> Fuel flow functionally inop. It randomly will show fuel flow at times, but usually shows zero.

This is an airplane that's in relatively good shape, in a club that is pretty good about maintenance compared to many I've flown at.

-Fox
 
ATN_Pilot said:
I got my ratings in airplanes that were all 30+ years old. When they weren't working like they were supposed to, I wrote them up and didn't fly them again until they were fixed. Pretty simple.
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Those airplanes are probably the same ones people are still getting their ratings in.

-Fox
 
Acrofox said:
I wish I flew in your world. This is a list of squawks I wrote up on an airplane yesterday:

Tachometer unreliable Urgency: Medium
02/01/14 Me> The tachometer was unreliable at first, then wildly inaccurate, winding from 2400 around to the peg on the bottom of the instrument, which would be in excess of 4,000rpm. This performance was repeated several times, and large variations were observed throughout the flight.

Standby altimeter experiences large fluctuations Urgency: Low
02/01/14 Me> Oscillates through ranges of hundreds of feet continuously during flight.

Throttle friction lock weak Urgency: Low
02/01/14 Me> At maximum friction setting, friction lock provides little resistance. At anything other than maximum friction, engine controls move loosely.

OAT gauge inoperative Urgency: Low
02/01/14 Me> Read -20 on the ground, -50 in flight. Was cold. Was not that cold.

FS-450 shows zero fuel flow during takeoff Urgency: Low
09/05/13 Other Pilot> The FS-450 Fuel Flow Monitor consistently showed zero fuel flow during takeoff and during initial climb. The instrument recovered during cruise.
09/07/13 MX> Test flight required for verification, not primary instrument, FS450 should be set up before flight for accurate readout.
09/27/13 Second pilot> Fuel Flow reading (gph) intermittent and unreliable. Variously showed e.g. 25 gph at idle and 0 gph at cruise power. FS450 was set up correctly before flight.
02/01/14 Me> Fuel flow functionally inop. It randomly will show fuel flow at times, but usually shows zero.

This is an airplane that's in relatively good shape, in a club that is pretty good about maintenance compared to many I've flown at.

-Fox
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And most if not all of those grounded the aircraft for a minimum of one day which is lost revenue in the flight schools eyes
 
Dump the mechanical tach and pick up a P1000 digital tach. They never go out of calibration and never break.
 
Roger Roger said:
Dump the mechanical tach and pick up a P1000 digital tach. They never go out of calibration and never break.
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We have a lot of MX Hobbs in our aircraft. Some are tied into ASI airspeed inline switch, some are a physical air switch on the nose, regardless, most of them from time to time have issues.

Then again we put at leaaast 100 hours on a plane per month (for the most part, December/January aside)
 
elmetal said:
Why is that? How does it measure rpm?

#drinking/not reading
#yepiputtwohashtagsinone
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Electrical pickup off the ignition switch. We had 6 of them and over the time I've been here out probably 15000 hours on those 6 tachometers, the only problems we've ever had were related to loose connections.
 
elmetal said:
We have a lot of MX Hobbs in our aircraft. Some are tied into ASI airspeed inline switch, some are a physical air switch on the nose, regardless, most of them from time to time have issues.

Then again we put at leaaast 100 hours on a plane per month (for the most part, December/January aside)
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We use the Avalaska airspeed switch on our Hobbs meters, the only problem we've ever had with them has been the Hobbs meters failing which I think we've had happen once in probably 20,000 aircraft hours. I would guess that a speed switch is actually more reliable than a squat switch because you're not dealing with wires in the landing gear well (which is a nasty environment for wiring due to all the movement that goes on)
 
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