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How the Airplane Remains Airborne summarized from Rod Machado’s Flying School Book
You don’t need a Ph.D. in aerodynamics to be a pilot, but a moderate-to-decent understanding of why an airplane stays airborne will prove helpful and life-sustaining. That’s why this first ground school class is the longest. Don’t worry; you won’t need to have your eyeballs recapped after reading it. But I do want you to read it all the way through. In order to fly a plane, you must first fill your brain (with a little bit of information, at least). This class is the place to start. Read, and be happy because this is an investment that will pay off big-time.
May the Four Forces Be With You
No, the four forces isn’t a 1960s rock group. These forces are actually the things that pull and push on an airplane in flight. The four forces—lift, weight, thrust, and drag—are present any and every time a plane is airborne. Look at Figure 1-1, which shows the action of the four forces.
Lift
Lift is the upward-acting force created when an airplane’s wings move through the air. Forward movement produces a slight difference in pressure between the wings’ upper and lower surfaces. This difference becomes lift. It’s lift that keeps an airplane airborne.
It was the lift precisely equaling my weight, that kept me airborne. Wings do for the airplane —provide the lift to remain aloft.
Weight
Weight is the downward-acting force. It’s the one force pilots control to some extent by choosing how they load the airplane. With the exception of fuel burn, the airplane’s actual weight is difficult to change in flight. Once airborne, you should not be burning cargo or acquiring extra passengers (or losing them for that matter). lol
Thrust and Drag
Thrust is a forward-acting force produced by an engine-spun propeller. For the most part, the bigger the engine (meaning more horsepower), the greater the thrust produced and the faster the airplane can fly—up to a point. Forward movement always generates an aerodynamic penalty called drag. Drag pulls rearward on the airplane and is simply the atmosphere’s molecular resistance to motion through it. In plain English (which pilots and engineers rarely use), it’s wind resistance.
Thrust causes the airplane to accelerate, but drag determines its final speed. As the airplane’s velocity increases, its drag also increases. Due to the perversity of nature, doubling the airplane’s speed actually quadruples the drag. Eventually, the rearward pull of drag equals the engine’s thrust, and a constant speed is attained.
Maintaining a slower speed requires less power, since less drag exists. At any speed less than the maximum forward speed of the car, excess thrust (horsepower) is available for other uses, such as accelerating around other cars or perhaps powering a portable calliope if you are so inclined.
The same is true of airplanes. At less-than-maximum speed in level flight, there’s power (thrust) to spare. Excess thrust can be applied to perform one of aviation’s most important maneuvers—the climb.
With this introduction complete, I think it’s time for you to learn a little about the airplane’s flight controls.
Flight Controls
By use of the flight controls, the airplane can be made to rotate about one or more of these axes. The longitudinal, or long, axis runs through the centerline of the airplane from nose to tail. Airplanes roll, or bank, about their longitudinal axis. A good way to remember which way the longitudinal axis runs is to remember that it’s a long (as in longitudinal) way from the nose to the tail of an airplane.
The lateral axis runs sideways through the airplane from wingtip to wingtip. Airplanes pitch about their lateral axis.
The vertical axis of the airplane runs up and down from the cockpit to the belly. Airplanes yaw about their vertical axis. those vertebrae to kick in.
Now we’re ready to examine each of the three main flight controls that cause an airplane to move about its axes.
Ailerons
Ailerons are the moveable surfaces on the outer trailing edges of the wings. Their purpose is to bank the airplane in the direction you want to turn. When the control wheel is turned to the right, as shown in Figure 1-4, the ailerons simultaneously move in opposite directions
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The left wing aileron lowers, increasing the lift on the left wing. The right wing aileron raises, decreasing the lift on the right wing. This causes the airplane to bank to the right. When the control wheel is turned to the left, as shown in Figure 1-5, the left wing aileron raises, decreasing the lift on the left wing. The right wing aileron lowers, increasing the lift on the right wing. This causes the airplane to bank to the left. Ailerons allow one wing to develop more lift and the other to develop less. Differential lift banks the airplane, which tilts the total lifting force in the direction you want to turn.
