VATSTAR

P2 Rating: Flight Fundamentals

(Part 1: Basics of Flight)
Lesson 7: Hailing a Taxi
Introduction

This Lesson will cover the basics of aircraft movement while on the ground.

Can I Skip This Lesson?

     Q: Which control is commonly used to steer aircraft on the ground?

                a. the rudder controls.
                b. the wheelbrakes.
                c. the nosewheel tiller.
                d. all of the above.
                e. none of the above.

If you answered "D", you can turn right and head to the next Lesson. Otherwise, you made a wrong turn; keep
reading, below.

What You Need to Know

Vocabulary

 taildragger: an airplane design in which the main gear are ahead of the center of gravity, so the plane rests nose-up
on them and the third wheel is mounted below the tail. These are harder to control on the ground than planes with
a tricycle gear design, which places the main gear behind the CG and a nosewheel up front. Because of the added
difficulty in controlling taildraggers on the ground and during takeoff and landing, it is definitely recommended that
students learn on tricycle-gear designs, then step up to taildraggers.
 authority: can mean legal approval to do something; but, in this sense, it refers to an aircraft's control surface having
enough airflow over it that its deflective force will affect directional control. Without adequate forward speed or a
blast of thrust flowing back from the propellor, there isn't enough rudder authority to make a plane turn, even at full
rudder deflection.

Concepts

 Taxiways are paved paths at an airport

which connect the gate or parking areas to
the runways. These are usually designated by
a letter ("taxiway B"), sometimes by a
doubled-letter ("taxiway AA"), a letter and a
one-to-two-digit number ("taxiway Y11"), or
two distinct letters ("taxiway WZ").
 Unlike automotive roadways, aircraft drive
along the centerline of taxiways as much as
possible. Taxiways can be used in either

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direction, but, only one direction at a time. They're not divided into lanes for two-way simultaneous traffic, like
roadways are.
 Taxi speed is usually subject to pilot discretion and sometimes local restriction. More strict guidelines often come
from an aircraft's manufacturer, particularly when turning. For airliners, usual parameters are 10-15 knots around
turns, 20-25 knots straight, and maybe 30-35 if there's an especially long striaght and no other traffic around. For
light planes, 5-10 around turns, 15 or so on straights.
 Common taxiway markings include a solid yellow centerline and a double-solid-yellow edge marker. Depending on
your simulator and scenery quality, the edge lines may not always be present. At night, blue lights mark the edges
and green lights illuminate the centerlines. The green lights may or may not be present but the blue edge markers
usually are.
 Taxiway signs are black and yellow. Information on a black background with a yellow border and text indicates which
taxiway you are currently on. Yellow backgrounds with black letters and arrows indicate intersecting taxiways, and
show which ones go in which directions.
 Ground steering on a recreational flight simulator is very often accomplished via rudder control. How realistic this is
depends greatly on the type of aircraft, how faithfully it is being simulated, and what flight controls you have on
hand. Sometimes, differential braking must be used instead of or in addition to rudder control; and sometimes the
aircraft's nosewheel is steerable and controlled by some other wheel or crank.

More Detail

Airports generally consist of three kinds of paved areas: runways, ramps/parking areas, and taxiways which are the paths
that connect the former to the latter. They are generally adorned with black and yellow signage which identifies each
taxiway. Most of these are designated with a single letter, but it's also fairly common to see a double-letter (i.e. the same
letter repeated); in a lot of newer, larger airports you also see a lot of taxiways designated with a letter and a number (for
example, at Atlanta Hartsfield International, the turn-offs from runway 8L are B1, B3, B5, B7, B11, B13, and B15). Even more
recent are two-letter designations where the letters aren't the same (such as at Houston George Bush Intercontinental,
where 33R is accessed by WN, WZ, WM, WL, WK, WJ, WH, WG, WD, WV, and WW).

(INTERESTING TIDBIT: as we cover in the P1, when working with Air Traffic Control about ground movement,
the letters are pronounced using "The International Radiotelephony Spelling Alphabet," a set of words and
names that are substituted for letters over the radio to ensure that one doesn't sound like another and that pilots
don't get confused over where they are supposed to be -- at least, that's the way it's supposed to work, but it doesn't
always! This makes for sometimes hilarious exchanges, as the following was once overheard on VATSIM at
Houston George Bush Intercontinental: "United 3215, runway one-five-left, taxi via Romeo-Bravo, Whiskey-Bravo,
Whiskey-Whiskey." The pilot, who wasn't familiar with the layout, answered back, "uhh, 15L via Romeo-Whiskey-
Bravo-Whiskey-Whiskey-errr, uhh, Houston Ground, I'm lost, I think you gave me one too many Whiskeys.")

Taxiway Use

Taxiways do not usually have firm speed restrictions. There are generally no "speed limit" signs posted around airports for
planes to obey. A few airports do contain information on taxi speed limits in their terminal procedure publications but most
of the time it is left up to pilot discretion. However, where restrictions on taxi speed do more often come into play are from
aircraft manufacturers, particularly for turns. Turning too fast can place a great deal of stress on the landing gear, and in
severe cases, can snap them off! Some very highly-detailed add-on aircraft do simulate this effect, so, you might have to be
careful about how fast you turn your aircraft on the ground, to avoid damaging it! Despite the lack of firm regulatory control
over taxi speed, though, there are accepted norms for safety when handling an aircraft on the ground. Big jets typically taxi
at around 20-25 knots, and don't normally exceed that except maybe on a particularly long straight section with no other
traffic around, where they might push the speed to 30-35. Around turns, it's generally advisable to cut that in half; i.e. not to
exceed 10-15 knots through the turn. Light aircraft generally hold to about half of that; 5-10 knots turning and 15 knots or so
in a straight line.

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When on a taxiway, except in very rare circumstances, aircraft maneuver along the centerline as much as possible.
Unlike roadways for cars and trucks, taxiways are not divided into two separate lanes, one for traffic headed in your
direction and one for oncoming traffic. They are meant to be used in one direction at a time. If two aircraft find
themselved headed toward each other on the same taxiway, they should not attempt to pass one another like cars --
one will have to reroute onto a connecting taxiway to get around the other.

Taxiway Markings and Signage

The centerlines are marked with a solid yellow line. Edges are marked with a
double solid yellow line. Obviously, those are not meant to be crossed at any
time. In your simulator, it may depend on the quality of the scenery you have
installed as to whether all of the markings are present -- centerlines usually
are, but edge lines may or may not be. Additionally, at night, the edges are lit
up with a series of small blue lights, and the centerlines are sometimes lit
with green lights. Again, not all may be present at all airports, and what you
see in your scenery may or may not correspond to what is there in real life.
Usually, the blue edge marker lights will be there; the green centerline lights
may well not be.

In order to find your way around what is often a very complex network
of taxiways, they are marked with backlit black and yellow signage. On
each one, a black background with a thin yellow border and a large
yellow letter will indicate which taxiway you are sitting on. To either
side may be areas with a yellow background, and black letters with
directional arrows. These indicate intersecting taxiways, and the arrows let you know which way to proceed in order
to join the taxiway in question.

In the example shown here, the plane is facing due west on Taxiway Sierra, just before the intersections of Taxiway
Juliet and Taxiway Tango. Both Juliet and Tango proceed in both directions, left and right. To distinguish between
the two, the directional arrows show that Juliet is straight off to the left and right (the three-o'clock and nine-o'clock
positions), and Tango is ahead and to the right, or back and to the left (the one-to-two-o'clock and the seven-to-
eight-o'clock). As you can see on the corresponding map, Juliet does indeed intersect Sierra at more-or-less right-
angles, and Tango proceeds diagonally via a shallow right turn or a very sharp left. This way, if the controller
advises to proceed "straight on Sierra then right on Tango," the pilot has a quick-and-ready reference as to which
intersecting taxiway is the one he or she should be turning onto.

Ground Steering

Probably the most important question to answer about taxiing a plane is, how does one
steer it? And the answer can vary depending on the type of aircraft, how it's simulated, and
what control systems you as the simulator pilot have on-hand to operate it with.

There are three main subsets of aircraft as it pertains to ground steering, based on
two main distinctions.

One distinction is made based on whether the main gear are ahead or aft of the
plane's center of gravity. For most, the main gear are behind the CG, and the forward
weight is supported by a smaller gear under the nose of the plane -- called,
appropriately enough, the "nosegear." Planes of this variety are referred to "tricycle
gear" due to their basic resemblance to the wheel configuration of a tricycle you

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perhaps used to ride as a kid. The other kind are called "taildraggers," named as such because the weight behind the
main gear is supported by a small wheel which rests underneath the tail. When taildraggers taxi, the nose points a
few degrees up toward the sky, and the tail "drags" along on the ground behind it. That's a term of imagery; the tail
isn't really "dragging," but it's rolling on a very small wheel that pivots freely based on the direction of movement.

Among tricycle-gear planes, there's another distinction that creates the third subset: some planes, particularly larger
ones, are equippped with nose-gear that is steerable by some control within the cockpit. Others, usually smaller light
aircraft like single-engine piston planes, have a free-pivoting nose gear which turns like the front wheels in a
grocery shopping cart, again, based on the direction of movement.

So, the method of ground steering can be different based on which of the three above categories your plane falls
into:

 For aircraft with free-pivoting gear (nose- or tail-), steering is generally accomplished by rudder control at higher
speed. At lower speed, though, the small amount of airflow over the rudder probably does not give it enough
authority to cause the plane to turn. So steering free-pivoting-gear planes at lower speeds is usually supplemented
with differential braking: that is, applying wheelbrakes asymmetrically, with more force on one side than the other.
If, for example, the left side is braking harder than the right, the right will want to "pass" the left, and as the right
side of the plane carries further forward, the plane will pivot to the left. That is, it will pivot toward the side where
the greater brake force is being applied.
 For aircraft with steerable gear, there's often a control in the cockpit somewhere, separate from the rudder and
yoke, called the nosewheel tiller -- for starters, in maritime terms, the "tiller" is the stick that the boat rudder or the
outboard motor is attached to on the aft end of the boat, to pivot the rudder or engine with. So since so much of
aviation is derived from boating, the term "tiller" is used to describe the stick or crank or handle that airliners have
which controls the nosewheel steering. In some aircraft, the nosewheel steering is tied into the rudder pedals -- that
is, the pedals operate both the control surface on the tail, and the steering of the nosegear, simultaneously (at least
while the landing gear are extended).

The caveat to both of the above is that not every recreational sim pilot has (a) a set of USB rudder pedals with
wheelbrake action or (b) a separate tiller control they can plug in. With that in mind, most simulated aircraft will
behave as though the rudder controls will always steer it, regardless of how that same aircraft is steered in the real
world. Free-pivoting-geared planes behave as though the rudder always has sufficient authority to make the plane
turn, regardless of airflow. Planes with steerable nose-gear will act as though the steering is linked to the rudder
controls, or will have the user's rudder control act upon both the simulated rudder pedals and the simulated tiller.

So the upshot is, the vast majority of the time, your rudder controls will steer the plane, regardless of whether that's
real-world accurate. However, there are cases where certain add-on planes enact a more faithful simulation of
ground steering, so you might have to consult the documentation that comes with it to be sure what you need to do.

(SIDE NOTE: because the center of gravity in taildraggers is behind the main gear, a slight bit of sideways motion
can get them out of balance and pilots must correct aggressively to keep them tracking straight. Because of that,
they are notoriously harder to control when taxiing, taking off, and landing; so if you're a new student pilot flying
light planes, it's much easier to start with a tricycle-gear and master that first, then start taking on the added
intracacies of maneuvering a taildragger. The good news is that once they're airborne, there's no significant
difference in their handling.)

Summary

Taxiing is driving an aircraft along on the ground, generally on taxiways which connect the gate and parking areas to the
runways. They are most often designated with a single letter but can also be a double letter, two different letters, or a letter

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followed by a number. Unlike roadways, aircraft use the entire taxiway and therefore generally navigate the yellow-striped
centerline. At night, taxiways are marked with blue border lights and sometimes also green centerline lights. Pilots should
exercise discretion when determining taxi speed and generally not exceed around 25 knots. Turning in simulated aircraft is
generally accomplished by rudder control, but planes with free-pivoting gear would really turn more by differential braking
at lower speeds. Larger aircraft may have a separate nosewheel tiller but most flight simulators will simulate nosewheel
steering via the rudder controls.

Additional Resources

 YouTube: "VATSTAR VATSIM Pilot Rating P2 Course Lesson 7" -- VATSTAR's companion video for this Lesson.

Quiz

     1: Which of the following is true about taxiway speed limits?

                a. every airport has its own regulations restricting it.
                b. each aircraft has a maximum safe taxi speed as determined by its manufacturer.
                c. it is almost always left up to the pilot's discretion.
                d. all of the above.
                e. none of the above.

     2: Which of the following is true about taxiway markings?

                a. they are designated with single letters, two letters, or a letter followed by a number.
                b. at night, blue lights mark the boundaries, and if equipped, green lights mark the centerlines.
                c. the centerlines are marked with a solid yellow stripe.
                d. all of the above.
                e. none of the above.

     2: Which of the following is true about taxiway signs?

                a. black background with yellow text indicates which taxiway you are on.
                b. yellow background with black text indicates an intersecting taxiway.
                c. black arrows indicate the direction to turn to join an intersecting taxiway.
                d. all of the above.
                e. none of the above.

     ANSWERS: 1. C ... 2. D ... 3. D

Back to Section Table of Contents

Rob Shearman, Jr. (cfi@vatstar.com)

Chief Flight Instructor, VATSTAR
DISCLAIMER: all information contained herein is for flight simulation purposes only.
revised February 2018

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