Loading & Performance Flashcards
What are the four forces on an aircraft?
Thrust pushes it forward – drag pulls back – lift pushes up – weight drags the aircraft to the earth
How is lift created with an aircraft wing? What type of pressure is created on the bottom and top of the wing? What is the wing shape called?
the wing is an airfoil shape – there is more surface area on top which leads to a fast roll off of the air and a low pressure system above the wing and a HIGH pressure system below the wing
What is the critical angle of attack?
When the air can no longer flow smoothly over the wing
How does a stall happen?
When the wing exceeds its critical angle of attack – this removes low pressure above the wing which removes lift
How can you fix a stall?
Make sure to keep the nose falling to increase airspeed and the angle of attack to decrease which restores normal flight
What is stability?
An aircraft’s ability to recover from a maneuver and come back to straight and level flight
What is a G force?
Measures the amount of added weight that is felt when centrifugal force is acting on an object
What is load factor? How is it measured?
How much weight the aircraft actually feels – measured in G force
What is bank angle?
The location at which the lift from the wings during a turn is no longer lifting the aircraft straight up but rather the lift is distrubted upwards and to the side
How do you calculate how much weight an aircraft can handle during a banked turn? – ex: 33 lb aircraft at a banked angle of 30degrees
refer to the chart – but 30 degrees is a G force of 1.154 – just multiple the g force by the weight of the aircraft (33 x 1.154) which gives a max weight allowed of 38 pounds
