Principles of Flight - Section C - Aerodynamics of Maneuvering Flight

The three axes of flight pass through the airplane’s center of gravity.

Yaw movement about the vertical axis is produced by rudder.

Momentum will cause a brief increase in altitude, but airspeed will soon decrease.

An airplane climbs because of excess thrust, not excess lift.

Sustained climb

When an airplane is climbing, though, the force of weight consists of two components.

Glide angle is an angle between actual glide path of your plane and the horizon.

Best glide speed is a speed that results in the most favorable lift-to-drag ratio.

If drag increases, the angle between the lift vector and the resultant vector increases and, consequently, the glide angle steepens.

The lift to drag ratio can be used to measure the gliding efficiency of your airplane.

The glide ratio represents the distance an airplane will travel forward, without power, in relation to altitude loss.

Promptly establishing the correct gliding attitude and airspeed is critical.

Although the heavier airplane sinks faster and will reach the ground sooner, it will travel the same distance as a lighter airplane as long as you maintain the correct higher glide speed for the increased weight.

You use the ailerons to roll into or out of a bank and, at the same time, you use rudder to control yaw.

Before your plane turns, however, it must overcome inertia, or its tendency to continue in a straight line.

The horizontal component of lift, called centripetal force.

Centrifugal force acts outward from the center of rotation.

Adverse yaw is a tendency to yaw toward the outside of the turn caused by increase of the lift on the wing that is up during the turn.

Overbanking tendecy is caused by the additional lift on the outside, or raised, wing.

Load factor is the ratio od the load supported by the airplane’s wing to the actual weight of the aircraft and its contents.

For example, if you abruptly push the control wheel forward while flying, you would experience a sensation as if your weight suddenly decreased.

Sideward G’s are called transverse G-forces.

Stalls also can occur at unusually high speeds in severe turbulence or in low level wind shear

There are any number of ways to recognize that a stall is imminent.

Ideally, you should be able to detect the first signs of an impending stall and make appropriate corrections before it actually occurs.

A loss of revolutions per minute (r.p.m.) may be noticable as you approach a stall in power-on conditions.

In fixed-pitch propeller airplanes.

Torque effect is greatest in a single engine airplane during a low airspeed, high power flight condition.

The turning propeller of an airplane also exhibits characteristics of a gyroscope-rigitidy in space and precession.

In level cruising flight, P-factor is not apparent, since both ascending and descendinf propeller blades are at nearly the same angle of attack.

As the propeller rotates, it produces a backward flow of air, or slipstream, which wraps around the airplane. This spiraling slipstream causes a change in the airflow around the vertical stabilizer.

Another significant aerodynamic consideration is the phenomenon of ground effect.

This causes a reduction in wingtip vorrices and a decrease in upwash and downwash.

Power reduction usually is required during the flare to help the airplane land.