Low and Slow, what to do?

[Vance]

I recently had what I felt was a valuable learning experience. I had a low time client get both low (350’AGL) and slow (27kts) on down wind.

He was not comfortable lowering the nose to pick up airspeed because we were already low and he felt correctly we would lose more altitude so he added power to climb.

Because we were near gross weight and slow (behind the power curve) there was not much power available to climb so it was not an effective solution.

We were coming up on some 190 foot trees and there was some local turbulence causing some sink in that area of the pattern.

I teach cyclic for airspeed and throttle for altitude.

Because we were behind the power curve I felt we needed to fix airspeed first and then address altitude with the throttle.

The client was not comfortable with the altitude we would lose by lowering the nose. With a high thrust line gyroplane I feel it is best not to add full power at low airspeed because the horizontal stabilizer is a lot less effective as the airspeed goes down.

We had a discussion about it during our debrief and a call I received the next day let me know the lesson had sunk in.

I felt it was a valuable lesson so I am sharing it here.

If you don’t agree please explain what you would advise the client to do in this situation in a typical two place gyroplane.

 

[XXavier]

In my limited experience, if one is flying behind the power curve, the first thing to do is to get out of that condition, and fast, opening full throttle and dipping the nose.

An observation: you say you were flying downwind. Since you always fly with respect to the mass of air, that may move or not with respect to the ground, that is not relevant...

 

[Vance]

The gyroplane we were flying (The Predator) in near centerline thrust so adding power at low airspeed as he lowered the nose would work fine Javier.

In my opinion with a high thrust line gyroplane at low speeds it is best not to go to full power because the horizontal stabilizer is not very effective at low airspeed.

I want to teach my client to fly a high thrust line gyroplane because they are so popular so I teach not to add full power below 45kts indicated air speed and to get the nose back up once we are over 45kts before adding power..

We were flying the pattern so that is why I mentioned where we are in the pattern.

I was teaching managing airspeed, altitude and ground reference in preparation for his first landing.

One of the focuses of the mission was airspeed by sight reference to pitch using indicated airspeed to calibrate our site picture.

The higher ground speed on the down wind may have added to his getting low on airspeed and as we get lower we appear to be going faster over the ground.

 

[Brent Drake]

You have two friends when flying AirSpeed and altitude. You can kick one out but never kick them both out.
Either high and slow or low and fast.

 

[Vance]

You have two friends when flying AirSpeed and altitude. You can kick one out but never kick them both out.
Either high and slow or low and fast.

I agree Brent.

If I am practicing recovery from low air speed I do it at 1,500 feet above the ground.

I had an engine out practicing vertical descents with a CFI on board and we were both glad to have some altitude to give us more choices of a landing zone in the muddy fields. He decided I should do the landing.

If I am at five hundred feet AGL I like to see sixty knots.

 

[eddie]

My RAF has an excess of power,but even with that getting slow and low is uncomfortable,adding power to climb allows me to climb but

not increase my airspeed at the same time. So what I do is add power, and keep the nose level until airspeed comes back and then climb.

fortunately its a fast cure for the trap I have gotten myself into.

If I add enough power to climb and increase airspeed at the same time its a very I am on the edge feeling , being that slow and adding

full power is not a wise choice, I am not worried about nose over as I am about torque roll.