This week: turbulence. Some degree of turbulence is almost always present in the atmosphere and pilots quickly become accustomed to slight turbulence. Moderate or severe turbulence, however, is uncomfortable and can even overstress the airplane. Today we’ll talk about its causes and share some best-practices when encountering turbulence. Words and pictures have been excerpted from […]
By ASA
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Posted in Ground School, Weather
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Tagged airplane, angle of attack, avoid turbulence, clear air turblence, cloud, FAA, feature, fly, flying, flying in turbulence, jet stream, learn to fly, mountain wave, pilot's license, stall, turbulence, weather, what is turbulence, wind
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This video is an update to the FAA’s Runway Safety Area Improvement Program and Runway Incursion Mitigation Program. The majority of the discussion in the video is in reference to commercial-use airports, typically those Class B and C airports in which commercial air traffic operates. However, I believe anyone can benefit from the information presented […]
It’s been a while since we’ve talked about procedures and airport operations, so today we’ll introduce three visual approach slope indicator (VASI) systems. Visual glideslope indicators provide the pilot with glidepath information that can be used for day or night approaches. By maintaining the proper glidepath as provided by the system, a pilot should have […]
Yes, Yes, Yes, exciting times and change are right around the corner in Airman Testing! I am sure that by now many of you are well aware that the implementation of the Airman Certification Standards (ACS) for both Private and Instrument Pilot Airplane will be happening in just a few weeks. I know, this may […]
Today we’re focusing on your airplane’s turn and slip indicator. This instrument shows the rotation around the yaw axis (via the ball) and around the roll axis (the miniature airplane or needle), and can be used to establish and maintain a standard-rate turn (3° per second, or a complete circle in two minutes). Today’s post […]
Today’s discussion is on torque. An airplane of standard configuration has an insistent tendency to turn to the left. This tendency is called torque, and is a combination of four forces: reactive force, spiraling slipstream, gyroscopic precession, and P-factor. Reactive force is based on Newton’s Law of action and reaction. A propeller rotating in a […]
Back to basics this week on the Learn to Fly Blog. Today, we’re talking about landing gear. This post is excerpted from the Pilot’s Handbook of Aeronautical Knowledge. The landing gear forms the principal support of an aircraft on the surface. The most common type of landing gear consists of wheels, but aircraft can also […]
On Tuesday the FAA published a new video to FAA TV, NextGEN: See, Navigate, Communicate. If you are not familiar with NextGEN, it is simply the modernization of the National Airspace System (NAS). The short 6 minute video discusses the current challenges to the NAS and how NextGEN is overcoming these challenges with a total revamping […]
We’ve talked a lot about communications so far on the Learn to Fly Blog. Today we’ll get into communications at towered airports. This post comes from the latest edition (twelfth!) of Bob Gardner’s essential flying textbook The Complete Private Pilot. Airspace around an airport with an operating control tower is Class D airspace (unless it […]
