User Guide

Learning To Fly with Rod Machado
101
7
Congratulations! You’re now on
the departure leg (Figure 5) of the
traffic pattern.
Crosswind Leg
Since you’ll remain in the traffic pattern for training, you’ll make a turn (most traffic patterns use left
turns) to the crosswind leg (Figure 6). Make this turn when the airplane is beyond the departure end
of the runway and within 300 feet
of traffic pattern altitude (TPA).
(TPA is the maximum altitude at
which you’ll fly the pattern.)
For this tutorial, I want you to fly
the pattern for this simulation at
1,000 feet MSL, which puts you
approximately 1,000 feet above the
ground. (In this case, above the
water too, so watch out for flying fish.)
Since Honolulu has a long runway, it’s likely that you’ll reach TPA before arriving at the departure end
of the runway. Therefore, continue to climb on the departure leg and level out at 1,000 feet. I
recommend you use 16 inches of MP for level flight, which results in a speed of approximately 90 to
95 knots. (You’ll see why I chose this speed later.)
1. Press P to activate the simulation.
2. Level the airplane at 1,000 feet, accelerate to 90-95 knots, then reduce the MP to 16 inches and
trim.
3. Make a 90-degree left turn to heading 170 and hold 1,000 feet (I
recommend 20- to 30-degree bank turns). Turn so the orange heading
bug is on the right wing of the heading indicator’s pictured airplane as
shown in Figure 7.
4. Press P when you’ve made the turn and rolled into level flight.
This portion of the pattern is called the crosswind leg because the flight
path is perpendicular to the runway and generally crosswise to the wind
direction.
Figure 7
Figure 5
DEPARTURE LEG
Figure 6
CROSSWIND LEG