Not having Margaret Thatcher on board
(The lady’s not for turning)
That made me smile, Capitaine 
Capitaine wrote:
Not having Margaret Thatcher on board
I never thought I would find myself writing this on a forum when it was actually relevant, but I used to fly her for a living.
Though it sticks in my throat to say so, and I found her politics abhorrent, as a person she was amazingly nice, kind, thoughtful and solicitous. She always asked after my kids by name, remembering what I had said last time (eg “I hope Simon has got over his cold” or whatever.)
However, you are quite right, controlling the aircraft with her on board was an issue, but mainly because we only had a right wing.
I’m really interested Timothy
Did she have her ‘own’ plane or did it change? What kind of destinations?
I suppose you won’t go far in politics (or anything else) if you don’t look after the people who look after you
How do you fly with only a right wing? Lots of power and very strong rudder control?
It was ad hoc charter of an HS125, and the destinations were the capitals of Europe, as you might expect. We did most of the rest of the Cabinet as well, and several of them were nicer than you might think (though we only flew Michael Howard at night).
The really funny thing is that we went on to fly Blair’s government, and it was still on the right wing…go figure 
I thought that a plane turns by a combination of (a) using the ailerons to create a roll angle and (b) using an UP elevator together, to create the desired curved path.
Those are the first-order effects, anyway.
No they aren’t. For turn coordination on a simple symmetric aircraft, no elevator is used, just aileron and rudder. Elevator is used for turn compensation in regard to altitude. Aileron and Rudder are your primary controls for lateral aircraft movement, elevator and thrust are your primary controls for longitudinal aircraft movement. There is a coupling between lateral and longitudinal movement, but this is secondary to the effect of your primary controls.
For the use of single controls in lateral aircraft movement, contrary to many forumists belief, rudder is perfectly suitable for sole initiation of the turn. The secondary effect of using the rudder is a bank into the direction of the turn, independend of dihedral (as a first approximation). Sole elevator initiation leads to an initial yaw against turn direction. This adverse yaw is used to enter a slip. If you intend to use just one control, make it the rudder. This is much more suitable than using just the aileron (as LeSving pointed out on the example of model aircraft). In fact, if you fly planes with much adverse yaw (e.g. classic aircraft, gliders, TMG or the Lake amphibs), you will be flying more coordinated, if you initiate the turn with rudder and correct the bank angle with the elevator.
All this should be minimal required knowledge for anyone passing a LAPL/ULM/PPL test.
(BTW: it would be nice, if the admin states where he edits posts.)
Timothy wrote:
we only flew Michael Howard at night
Ha! I’d forgotten about him. There was a PR stunt where he published his favourite recipe for garlic soup…
The reds are on the extreme left wing, which makes sense, but the greens are on the extreme right, which is just odd. (The whites are at the very back, not having been heard of since the Russian civil war)
Is ad hoc charter cheaper/easier than borrowing from the air force? There were plans for a ‘Blair Force One’ but looking now can’t find anything.
Also, on PR stunts, the current Labour leadership would fly commercially but be photographed sat on the floor :)
Timothy wrote:
Come on guys, be creative.
In Cessnas I always turn by leaving both doors trailing open and just pushing a little out on the door on the side to which I wish to turn.
Ok, the word “always” could be edited after a review. But what is absolutely true, is that in my 175kg motorglider (Stratos 300), in still air, I could turn by leaning left or right in the seat (and I could easily maintain altitude by nodding very slightly fore and aft).
When instructing, I can usually turn left by asking the student pilot (on the controls) to look at something on the ground to the left. Most times, he will unconsciously “lean” the wheel a little as he turns his head.
Peter wrote:
Ailerons, or the elevator?
Looking at the map is my most effective way of making the aircraft turn
