Wake-Up Call

I learned about instructing from this.

- MR. BOOTS

I was providing flight instruction toward a commercial rating with a student whom I had recently helped obtain her instrument rating. We were flying my own Cessna Cardinal RG, and we had already flown together a great deal. In fact, she actually handled the airplane better than I did in most cases, especially landings. Because she was getting close to the check ride, every takeoff and landing was either a simulated soft field or maximum performance one, since those would be check ride items.

With most aircraft, max-performance takeoffs call for rotating at a specific airspeed, then climbing at V X until all obstacles are cleared, and pushing over to VY and continuing in a normal climb. That’s not the case in a Cessna Cardinal RG, though. The POH shows V X to be 72 knots and V Y 82 knots. However, the maximum-performance takeoff calls for rotation at about 55 knots, then climb at 62 knots until all obstacles are cleared, which is a full 10 knots below V X and feels close to V SO. Then push over to 72 knots, clean up the airplane and continue to 82 knots, then normal climb out. It also calls for 10 degrees of flaps and leaving gear down until all the obstacles are cleared and obtaining 72 knots.