This section is all about managing the airplane’s altitude and airspeed using an energy-centered approach. Energy management can be defined as the process of planning, monitoring, and controlling altitude and airspeed targets in relation to the airplane’s energy state in order to:
- Attain and maintain desired vertical flightpath-airspeed profiles.
- Detect, correct, and prevent unintentional altitude-airspeed deviations from the desired energy state.
- Prevent irreversible deceleration and/or sink rate that results in a crash.
Importance of Energy Management
Learning to manage the airplane’s energy in the form of altitude and airspeed is critical for all new pilots. Energy management
is essential for effectively achieving and maintaining desired vertical flight path and airspeed profiles, (e.g., constant airspeed climb) and for transitioning from one profile to another during flight, (e.g., leveling off from a descent).
Proper energy management is also critical to flight safety. Mistakes in managing the airplane’s energy state can be deadly.
Mismanagement of mechanical energy (altitude and/or airspeed) is a contributing factor to the three most common types of fatal accidents in aviation: loss of control in-flight (LOC-I), controlled flight into terrain (CFIT), and approach-and-landing accidents.
Thus, pilots need to have:
- An accurate mental model of the airplane as an energy system.
- The competency to effectively coordinate control inputs to achieve and maintain altitude and airspeed targets.
- The ability to identify, assess, and mitigate the risks associated with mismanagement of energy.