Part 61 Flight Training

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Lesson 4, To first solo

The four fundamentals

Flight: Out West

Practice area Pleasant Lake Gravel pits: west end of the Class D 10 NM Practice area Pleasant Lake Gravel pits: west end of the Class D 10 NM
FAA Detroit sectional, 29 OCT 2026 edition. For briefing, not for navigation: fly from the current chart. Tap the chart to open it full size.

Today's flight

Think of the person you named in lesson 2, the one you want to fly someday. The day you can bring them, you will want to show them Chelsea and the proving grounds: get there, hold a heading and an altitude while they look, turn smoothly where they point, and come home, all without straying into the Detroit Class B on the way out.

Today the instructor plays that friend, and you fly the sightseeing flight. Before you go, you decide from the chart where you will turn and at what altitude. In the air, the friend may ask to see something you didn't plan for.

Every flight

Before every flight

  1. Pilot. Am I fit to fly today? IMSAFE:
    • Illness
    • Medication
    • Stress
    • Alcohol
    • Fatigue
    • Emotion, and eating
  2. Aircraft. Is this airplane ready, and right for today? Documents, inspections and open squawks; fuel and oil on board; weight, balance and performance for today's load.
  3. Environment. What will today's flight meet? NWKRAFT, what 14 CFR 91.103 asks you to know before every flight, then the airspace and the route:
    • NOTAMs and TFRs
    • Weather, against your minimums
    • Known ATC delays
    • Runway lengths
    • Alternates
    • Fuel required, with reserve
    • Takeoff and landing distances
    • Airspace: the Class B limits from the current chart
    • The trip: heading, time, landmarks, wind and runway
  4. External pressures. What is pushing me to go today: a passenger, a schedule, a plan I don't want to cancel? Would I go without it?
  5. If it goes wrong. The takeoff emergency brief, out loud: an engine problem on the runway, after liftoff with runway left, and after liftoff without.
  6. Who flies. Who does what today, and how we hand the controls back and forth.

Who runs it today: You, with the instructor's prompts.

Deeper today: Airspace. For the first time you fill in the limits block yourself from the current chart: the Class B floor over KARB, where the edge is on the way west, the highest altitude you will use before the edge, and where you will turn back if something isn't right. Pilot goes deeper too: fatigue, stress and eating (the F, S and E of IMSAFE) slow your scan, so say how you are really doing.

Recall

From earlier lessons

  1. What documents must be on board, and where do you find them?

    Reveal answer

    The airworthiness certificate (displayed) and the registration (91.203), and the handbook with its limitations, markings and placards (91.9). In the airplane's document pocket and binder.

  2. An item on the squawk list is inoperative. How do you decide whether to go?

    Reveal answer

    If it is required (91.205, the equipment list, or an airworthiness directive), the airplane doesn't go. If not, it must be removed or deactivated and placarded, and judged not a hazard (91.213(d)). Not sure means not today.

  3. You find water in a fuel sample. What now?

    Reveal answer

    Keep draining until the samples are clean. If water keeps coming, the airplane isn't ready: squawk it and ask maintenance.

  4. The pitot cover was left on. Which instrument won't work, and which ones still will?

    Reveal answer

    The airspeed indicator needs the pitot tube. The altimeter and vertical speed indicator only need the static port, so they still work.

Why Every maneuver you will ever fly is some mix of straight-and-level, turns, climbs and descents.

Four forces, four fundamentals

  • Lift, weight, thrust and drag balance in steady flight.
  • Change one, and the airplane changes until they balance again.
  • Straight-and-level: wings level, nose at the level picture, cruise power.
  • Turns, climbs and descents: a deliberate change, then back to balance.

Why The horizon tells you what the airplane is doing; trim lets it keep doing it while you look outside.

Attitude, power, trim

  • Attitude: put the nose where you want it against the horizon.
  • Power: set it for cruise, climb or descent, from the checklist.
  • Trim: take away the pressure until the airplane holds it by itself.
  • The order: attitude, power, settle, trim. Glance at the instruments, don't stare.

Why A good turn is coordinated and level, and you know where it will end before it starts.

Turns

  • Look first: into the turn, behind, and above and below the wing.
  • Bank with the yoke and use rudder with it. The ball stays centered.
  • A little back pressure as the bank comes in keeps the altitude.
  • Lead the rollout a little before the heading you want.

Why You climb out and descend home on every flight, and level-offs are where altitude gets lost or overshot.

Climbs and descents

  • Climb: nose to the climb picture, power, trim, at your handbook's climb speed.
  • Level off a little early: nose to level, let it speed up, cruise power, trim.
  • Descend with power reduced, flaps up or out (your handbook gives the flap limits).
  • Clear below before a descent and above before a climb.

Why See and avoid is your job on every flight, and the practice area is shared sky.

Eyes outside

  • Scan in short steps, about a second on each part of the sky.
  • Most of your time outside, a few seconds inside at a time.
  • Traffic that doesn't move on the windshield is on a collision course.
  • Other trainers and Rossettie (75G) traffic use the same sky.

Why When you do see traffic, the rules say who moves, so both pilots don't turn into each other.

Who gives way

  • Converging: the airplane on the right has the right of way.
  • Head-on: both turn right.
  • Overtaking: the one ahead has the right of way; pass well clear on the right.
  • Landing: the airplane on final has it, and the lower one when both are landing.
  • Anyone in distress has it over everyone; balloons and gliders have it over us.

Why The Class B over Ann Arbor is the reason the practice area is where it is, and reading it from the chart is your first chart lesson.

Reading the Class B

  • Airspace for airliners into Detroit, with a floor that steps down toward the airport.
  • You need a clearance to enter it, and a student pilot needs extra training too.
  • KARB sits under a shelf, with the edge close to the west and north.
  • Read the floor and the edge from the current chart, never from memory.
  • KARB is inside the 30 NM veil: transponder and ADS-B Out required.

Why The limits you write down on the ground are what you fly in the air, when there's no time to read the chart.

Your limits block

  • The floor over KARB, from the current chart.
  • Where the edge is on your route west.
  • Your highest altitude before the edge.
  • Your turn-back point, and the landmarks that mark it.

A real accident

In May 2013 a Cessna 172S with a flight instructor and a student pilot, and a Piper PA-28-181 with two flight instructors, collided in flight about 3 miles west of Anthem, Arizona; all four were killed. Both were instructional flights from the same airport, in an area commonly used for practice maneuvers. Radar showed the two airplanes about a mile apart and about 100 feet apart in altitude, both heading north, when both turned at the same time, one right and one left, and their paths crossed. The NTSB found the probable cause was the failure of the pilots in both aircraft to maintain an adequate visual lookout in a known training area where multiple aircraft frequently operated. The decision point was before each turn: look in the direction of the turn, and behind, and say "clear" only when you have seen it. Today every turn starts with a look, and the practice area is treated as the busy, shared sky it is. NTSB report WPR13FA254

Your calls

Decision points

  • Where you will turn and at what altitude, chosen from the chart before departure and briefed to the instructor.
  • The limits block: your highest altitude before the Class B edge and your turn-back point.
  • The friend asks to see something new: can you find it on the chart and get there inside your limits?
  • Traffic in the practice area: who gives way, and whether you change altitude, move to another part of the area, or wait.
  • If the friend (the instructor) feels sick: gentler turns, or head home now.

The whole flight

Also on this flight

Part of the flightWho
Every-flight routineYou, with prompts
Limits block from the current chartYou; the instructor checks
Preflight, start, taxi, runupYou, with the checklist; the instructor checks
Radio callsInstructor
TakeoffInstructor; you follow on the controls
Climb out and departure past the Class B edgeYou fly, with the instructor
Straight-and-level with trim: at least two hands-off checks of a few secondsYou fly
Turns to a planned heading: at least four each way, until two in a row roll out within about 10 degreesYou fly
Climbs and descents with level-offs: at least three of each, flaps up and with flapsYou fly
Back toward KARBYou fly, with the instructor
Pattern and landingInstructor
After landing, securing, refueling, check inYou
DebriefBoth, you first

The standard

Ready to move on when

  • You fill in the limits block from the current chart and fly the departure inside it without a prompt.
  • You hold a heading and altitude with the airplane trimmed, and can take your hands off for a few seconds without it wandering.
  • You fly coordinated turns both ways and roll out close to the heading you planned.
  • You level off from climbs and descents near the target altitude without chasing it.
  • You look before every turn, climb and descent without being reminded, point out traffic, and can say who gives way in each case of 14 CFR 91.113.
  • You can explain the Class B around KARB (91.131), the equipment needed in the 30 NM veil (91.215, 91.225), and the human factors that affect your scan, in the spirit of ACS tasks I.E and I.H in the Private Pilot ACS.

At home, before the next flight

Chair fly it

  • In Maintaining Aircraft Control (Airplane Flying Handbook, chapter 5), read these sections: Coordinated Flight, Slow Flight, Stalls, Fundamentals of Stall Recovery, Full Stalls Power-Off, Full Stalls Power-On, and Spin Awareness.
  • Read the club's Slow Flight and Stall Series sheet, and in your airplane's handbook, the limitations section and the stall speed chart in the performance section.
  • In Aerodynamics of Flight (Pilot's Handbook of Aeronautical Knowledge), read the Angle of Attack and Load Factors sections.
  • Chair fly a stall recovery from the handbook and the club sheet until it comes without thinking: reduce the angle of attack first, then power, then level the wings and climb.
  • Before lesson 5, check the squawks and the weather for your booked airplane.

After the flight

Debrief

You go first, then the instructor. Three points at most, and you write down one thing to work on next time.

  • Your first time the airplane flew hands-off because you trimmed it: what did that feel like, and when did it happen?
  • Where did your altitude wander, and what caught it?
  • How did you decide each turn was clear, and what would you change in the limits block next time?

Notes for teaching this lesson

Before the flight

  • Bring a current Detroit sectional and terminal area chart. Let the student find the floor and the edge; ask, don't point. Check their limits block against the chart yourself.
  • Pick a smooth day if you can: holding altitude in bumps is a later skill.
  • Background: Rossettie (75G) is about 13 NM west of KARB, a true course of about 263 degrees (FAA airport data). Scan technique is in AIM 8-1-6 (short steps of no more than about 10 degrees, at least a second each; about 4 to 5 seconds inside for every 16 outside). Right of way is 91.113(b) to (g). In the 30 NM veil, 91.215 requires a transponder with altitude reporting and 91.225(d)(2) requires ADS-B Out, surface to 10,000 MSL. A student pilot needs the 61.95 training and endorsement to fly in Class B; this course doesn't solo there.

In the air

  • Demonstrate each fundamental once, then let them fly it to the counts in the table. Talk less as they get it.
  • Common errors: staring at the instruments, flying with the yoke and no trim, uncoordinated turns (feet flat), losing altitude in turns, and ballooning through the target on level-offs.
  • Watch the departure: does the student know where the edge is and stay under the floor until past it? If not, ask where they are on the chart, before saying anything else.
  • Point out traffic and the landmarks the student chose, so the trip and the chart match. If they haven't found them yet, show the gravel pits (the west end of the Class D) and Pleasant Lake.
  • If it isn't working (altitude wandering everywhere), go back to straight-and-level and trim alone until it holds, then add one turn at a time.

Curveballs

All briefed before the flight: "As the friend, I may ask for a few things."

  • "Can we see Pleasant Lake?" (or another landmark not in their plan): the student finds it on the chart and plans the turn and altitude inside the limits.
  • Traffic called near 75G: the student says who gives way and what they will do.
  • "I'm feeling a bit queasy": gentler turns, or head home now.
  • A heading of your choice that points toward the Class B edge: the student says when they will turn.
  • A trim check: "Hands off for five seconds. What did the airplane do?"

After the flight

  • Debrief the limits block: did the flight match what they planned from the chart?
  • Ask how they felt (fatigue, motion sickness) and link it to the Pilot item of the routine.
  • End on a turn or level-off they flew well.