Instrument Flight
Constant Airspeed Climbs and Descents
You should realize that while operating under instrument conditions when any of the instruments are
inoperative, the task of maintaining any attitude and performance becomes difficult. The situation in which
one or both MFDs fail, or primary attitude, heading or performance indications freeze or are blanked is
referred to as a “partial panel” condition. If one MFD fails, select the HSI display on the operational MFD
and use the standby AI for attitude information. If both MFDs fail, you will have to rely on radar vectors
and a GCA for navigation. Practice under partial panel conditions is not only desired but mandatory if you
are to become an accomplished instrument pilot.
For the purpose of this course of instruction, consider partial panel flying as flight under instrument
conditions while controlling the aircraft with the standby attitude and performance indicators, and the
power instruments without the ADI display attitude reference or the HSI display in case of a GINA failure.
On any flight, failure of one or both of the multi-function displays (MFDs) could occur anytime. Therefore,
you must be ready to continue controlled flight while handicapped by the loss of the information from these
displays. In the event that you allow the aircraft to enter an “unusual attitude,” positive recovery methods
must be applied to return the aircraft to the desired altitude and heading. These recovery methods are
discussed in this FTI. You must apply yourself at this time to the fundamental procedures of basic attitude
instrument flight under partial panel conditions.
A review of Sensations of Flight under instrument conditions is suggested. A thorough understanding of
why you must correctly interpret and believe the instrument panel is mandatory. You should realize that to
discard completely those body sensations, indications of attitude through control pressure, etc., is not
completely warranted. However, because these sensations of flight can give you erroneous indications of
aircraft attitude, especially while flying partial panel, you should rely completely on the instrument
indication.
Necessary control pressures will be recognized through experience. Perfect trim technique is mandatory
when flying partial panel. All partial panel instruments have a tendency to lag. Therefore, overcontrolling
is an ever present hazard. To avoid overcontrolling, you must avoid large or rapid control movements.
After a correction has been initiated, time must be allowed for instrument indications to catch up to the
aircraft’s new performance; do not apply an ever increasing correction. In other words, smoothly set and
hold a specific attitude on the standby AI, allow time for the standby VSI and AOA to stabilize. Fine-tune
attitude as necessary with small changes.
The amount of stick movement which should be applied will depend on the attitude of the aircraft. With
too large a stick movement, there will be a rapid change of attitude; conversely, with a small stick
movement, only a small attitude change will result. There are no set rules which can be given as to the
amount of movement required; however, with experience, the amount of movement will become an
educated guess. At no time should an additional correction be initiated before the original correction has
had sufficient time to indicate the magnitude of progress.
Compared to full panel attitudes, partial panel attitude will be approximately 3-7 degrees higher. However,
calibrate your standby AI display by noting the attitude for level flight as a baseline to work from.
UNUSUAL ATTITUDE RECOVERY (PARTIAL PANEL)
Partial panel unusual attitude recoveries employ the same procedures as described above, except that
you will derive attitude information from the standby AI, altimeter, and airspeed indicator instead of the
ADI display.
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