AFH 4-14

Figure 4-13. Energy error management. The above approach-to-landing scenario is just one example illustrating the risk of mismanaging altitude-speed deviations. Pilots need to be able to identify, assess, and mitigate altitude and/or airspeed deviations during any phase of flight, including traffic pattern operations, take-offs and climbs, cruise flight, descending flight, and any procedure or maneuver involving turns. Clearly, skills for promptly correcting path-speed deviations can enhance flight safety but the pilot should also be aware of the risk of unrecoverable depletion of the airplane’s mechanical energy, especially as the airplane approaches the edges of its flight envelope where available excess power is zero. Preventing Irreversible Deceleration and/or Sink Rate During normal flight, the airplane experiences many instances of negative energy rates (negative specific excess power or PS < 0) while decelerating at a constant altitude or descending at a constant airspeed; these are intended energy bleed rates. However, one of the greatest dangers from mismanaging the airplane’s energy state is encountering unintended, excessive deceleration and/or sink rate coupled with little or no positive excess power available under a given flight condition. Failure to recover above a certain critical altitude results in depletion of mechanical energy. Regardless of what the pilot does past that point, the airplane will hit the ground. To help pilots understand the risk of unintended energy depletion, let’s take a closer look at Scenario 2 [Figure 4-10]. This flight scenario illustrates a situation that is all too common in general aviation: flying toward rising terrain and not being able to fly up and over it before impacting terrain. As shown in Figure 4-10, there is rising terrain all along the departure corridor. The scenario is as follows: