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Chapter-3 Climbs and Descents-V20_Sport Pilot Handbook 8/30/2021 5:47 PM Page 5

Chapter 3: Climbs and Descents 3-5

pressure to keep the airplane moving straight ahead (keep its heading constant), as shown in Figure
5. Do this by looking directly over the cowling for heading and pitch control. If your airplane has el-
evator, aileron and rudder trim, then you’ll trim the elevator first, rudder next, followed by aileron
trim last.

Leveling Off From a Climb
No doubt there’s a country western song with an aviation theme titled, I’m High Over You Because
I’ve Been Climbing Forever. In the real world, you can’t climb forever. Eventually, you climb to a
specific altitude and then level off.
Beginning the Level Off To do so, you use the same principle of A+P=P. Keeping
in mind that the airplane is a large piece of machinery
Lead your level with considerable inertia that doesn’t change status
off by 10% of
your climb rate. instantly, and also keeping in mind that the
goal is a graceful transition for you and your
passengers, you need to start leveling off be-
fore you reach the final altitude. This is called
2 leading the level-off.
The general rule for leveling off is to take
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3 10% of the climb rate (shown on the VSI) and
use this as your altitude lead. If you’re climb-
ing at 700 feet per minute and want to level
Leveling off from a climb:

Lead altitude by 10% of off at 5,000 feet, then you’ll lead the level-off
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climb rate shown on VSI by 70 feet, meaning that you’ll begin the level

Reduce pitch attitude off when the altimeter reads 4,930 feet (Figure
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Fig. 6
Let airplane accelerate at full power 6). Yes, I know that “five out of four people”
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have trouble with math, but finding 10% of some-
thing is pretty easy, right? Then again, in most of the small airplanes that you’ll typically fly, using
a 50-foot lead for leveling off works just fine. That’s what I do in small airplanes. I wait until I’m
within 50 feet of the correct altitude, then apply slight forward pressure, timing this properly to stop
the altimeter needle at the target altitude. It really doesn’t take
Leveling Off much practice to get good at this.
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Dont’ reduce power To complete the level-off from a climb, you’ll
until reaching the lower the nose to the attitude for straight and
desired cruise speed.
level flight (remember your dot?) by applying
forward pressure on the yoke. Since your
1 climb speed is slower than your typical cruise
speed, you should leave the throttle set at full
1 power until the airplane accelerates to the de-
sired cruise speed. As the airplane accelerates
in level flight, apply an initial twist of nose-
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down trim to help relieve the forward pressure
you’re using on the yoke.
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When the airplane reaches the correct cruise
speed, reduce power to the value recommended
Reducing power for the level off: by your POH. If you don’t have a recommended

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Maintain attitude for level flight power setting, then just set the power for the ap-
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Accelerate to desired airspeed
Reduce power to desired RPM Fig. 7 proximate value needed to maintain the selected cruise
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Trim for level flight speed (Figure 7). Take your best guess at what this setting
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