IN AN EARLIER INSTALLMENT of On Instruments ("Basic Attitude Flying," May 2020 AOPA Pilot) I talked about basic attitude instrument flying, or BAI. It's an important subject, and another aspect of BAI has to do with how you manage the interplay of the control and performance tasks bound up in instrument flying. After all, controlling the airplane involves setting the proper power, pitch, and configuration for a given phase of flight. So, what do you do to achieve certain flight profiles, such as climbs, descents, and instrument approaches? You want to nail a specific airspeed and realize a specific vertical speed (descent rate, in the case of instrument approaches), so how do you do that consistently? Sure, on an approach's final approach course you'd reduce power and lower the nose, but by how much? Configuration-flap setting and landing gear position-are also parts of the equation.
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