PRINCIPLES OF FLIGHT

References:
 FAA-8083-25B : Pilot’s Handbook of Aeronautical Knowledge – Chapter 4 & 5
 FAA-8083-3B : Airplane Flying Handbook – Chapter 4
 Aeronautical Information Manual (AIM) – Chapter 7
 Objectives
 To gain knowledge of the elements related to the Principles of Flight
and develop an understanding on how these principles relate to
everyday flying.
 Elements
 Airfoil Terminology
 Aerodynamics
 Lift
 Drag
 Thrust
 Weight
 Stalls
 Spins
 Airfoil Design Characteristics
 Airplane Stability and Controllability
 Turning Tendency (Torque Effect – Left Turning Tendency)
 Load Factors in Airplane Design
 Wingtip Vortices and Precautions to Be Taken
 Airfoil Terminology
 Airfoil: A shape capable of producing lift.
 Leading edge: The front of the wing.
 Trailing edge: The back of the wing
 Chord Line: A straight line joining the centers of curvature of the
leading and trailing edges of an airfoil.
 Angle of Attack: The angle between chord line and relative airflow.
 Camber: The curvature of the upper and lower surfaces of an airfoil.
 Aerodynamics
 The four aerodynamic forces acting on an aircraft in flight are Lift,
Weight, Thrust and Drag.
 In steady, straight and level, unaccelerated flight, the sum of these
forces is equal.
 Lift
 Lift is the force acting perpendicular to the relative air flow.
 Lift is generated by a pressure differential between the upper and
lower surface of the wing.
 In level flight lift opposes the force of weight.
 The theory of this occurs is understood through the Bernoulli's
Principle.
Bernoulli's Principle
 Bernoulli's principle states that the pressure of a moving fluid (air or
liquid) varies with its velocity.
 This is practically understood by the Venturi effect.
 The air moving through the Venturi increases in velocity and its
pressure decreases because the area within the venturi decreases.
 This occurs the same way when an airfoil is moving through the air.
 The upper surface of the wing creates a venture effect with the
atmosphere above it, and as air moves above the wing, its velocity
increases and pressure decreases.
 This creates a pressure differential between the upper and lower
surface which in turn produces lift.
 Drag
 Drag is a force that acts against the forward motion of the aircraft and
opposes thrust in level flight.
Total Drag is divided into :
1) Parasite Drag: Independent of Lift. It varies directly with the square of
airspeed.
a) Form Drag: Generated by an aircraft due to its shape and airflow around
it.
b) Interference Drag: Generated due to intersection of airflow around parts
of an aircraft that intersect. This disrupts the airflow.
c) Skin Friction Drag: Generated due to roughness or any debris over the
surface of the aircraft that disrupts airflow.
2) Induced Drag: Result of lift generation. It is inversely proportional to
the square of airspeed.
 When an aircraft produces lift, air from below the wing (high pressure)
moves above the wing (low pressure).
 This results in the formation of wing tip vortices which rotate in a
circular manner around the wing.
 This causes a downwash over the wing which in-turn creates a
rearward component of lift which is Induced drag.
Airfoil Design Characteristics
 Simply put for an airfoil is a part of the aircrafts structure that is
designed to produce lift, i.e the wings.
 Wings have different profiles and characteristics as follows :

PLANFORM: It is the shape of the wing as viewed from above.

ASPECT RATIO: Aspect ratio is the ratio of wing span to wing chord.

TAPER: The Ratio of the Root Chord to the Tip Chord.

SWEEP : Sweepback is the angling of a wing rather than being
perpendicular to its longitudinal axis. It can be forward, but it is usually
backward
Some common wing planforms
 Elliptical Wing: Provides the least induced drag and best flow of air
but has unfavorable stall characteristics and is complex and expensive
to manufacturer.
 Rectangular Wing: Stable, simple and cost effective and provides
adequate stall warning and aileron effectiveness during a stall.
 Thrust
 Thrust is the force exerted by the powerplant (engine and propeller) to
allow forward motion of the airplane.
 Thrust opposes drag in straight and level flight.
 When thrust and drag are equal, airspeed is constant.
 When thrust is reduced, airspeed decreases and when thrust is
increased, the aircraft accelerates and airspeed increases.
 Increase and decrease of thrust also causes an aircrafts lift to increase
or decrease.

 Weight
 Weight is a force that pulls the aircraft downward to the centre of the
earth because of the force of gravity.
 It is directed vertically downward from the CG of the aircraft.
 In level flight weight opposes the force of lift.
 Ground Effect
 Ground effect is the phenomena created by air that is trapped between
the wing and the landing surface that acts an air cushion.

 Ground effect occurs due to the interference of the ground surface with
the airflow patterns about the aircraft in flight.

 As the wing encounters ground effect there is a reduction in the

upwash, downwash, and wingtip vortices.

 For the effects of ground effect to be prominent the height of the

aircraft needs to be at least half to quarter of the wingspan from the
ground.
 The airflow patterns get cut by the runway and lead to a reduction in
the wing tip vortices.

 This reduces the upwash and downwash over the wing and in turn
reduces the induced drag created by the wings.

 The reduction in induced drag increases the lift of the airplane and
requires less thrust to maintain the same angle of attack.

 During landing this effect is observed with the airplane floating over
the runway.
 An aircraft entering ground effect (landing) will:
 Require a decrease in AOA to maintain the same CL.
 Experience an decrease in induced drag and thrust required.
 An aircraft leaving ground effect (takeoff) will:
 Require a increase in AOA to maintain the same CL.
 Experience an increase in induced drag and thrust required.
 Adverse Yaw
 Adverse yaw is the tendency of an airplane to yaw in the opposite
direction of the turn.

 The downgoing aileron on the raised wing creates lift as well as induced
drag.

 This drag pulls the aircrafts nose to the opposite side of the turning
creating adverse yaw.

 Adverse yaw is countered by applying rudder in the direction of the turn,

which opposes the adverse yaw created in the opposite direction.
 Stalls
 A stall is a state of flight wherein the wings of an aircraft do not produce
adequate lift for it to sustain level flight.

 An aircraft stall results from a rapid decrease in lift caused by the

separation of airflow from the wing’s surface brought on by exceeding
the a particular AOA.

 An aircraft always stalls after exceeding this AOA which is called as the
critical angle of attack. Approximately 16-20 degrees.

 The stall speed of an aircraft depends on CG,weight, load factor and

density altitude.
 Spins
 A spin is an aggravated stall or a state of autorotation.

 A spin occurs when both wings of the airplane are stalled, with one
wing being more stalled than the other, wherein a yaw or sideslip is
acting on an airplane.

 The yawed state occurs from incorrect rudder application, adverse yaw,
turning tendencies etc.

 The rotation moment occurs due to equal AOA on both wings which causes
one wing to produce more lift than the other.
 Phases of a Spin

1) Entry

2) Incipient Spin

3) Fully Developed spin

4) Recovery
 Spin Recovery Procedure

 Power off

 Ailerons neutral

 Rudder full opposite and hold it until the spin breaks

 Elevator down as the spin breaks to then break the stall

 Neutralize rudder after breaking spin to stop turn in other direction

 Smoothly apply power and bring the nose back up to just above the
horizon and start a gentle climb.
Airplane Stability and Controllability
 A training aircraft is quick to respond to control applications, while a
transport aircraft feels heavy on the controls and responds to control
pressures more slowly.
 An aircraft’s stability, maneuverability, and controllability requirements
are tailored to the specific designs and needs of the aircraft.

 STABILITY
 Stability is the inherent quality of an aircraft to correct for conditions
that may disturb its equilibrium and to return to or to continue on the
original flight path.

 There are two types of stability :

1) Static Stability
2) Dynamic Stability
 STATIC STABILITY (SS)
The initial tendency/response of the airplane after its equilibrium is
disturbed.
 Positive SS: The initial tendency to return to the original state of
equilibrium after being disturbed.

 Neutral SS: The initial tendency to remain in a new condition after

equilibrium has been disturbed.

 Negative SS: The initial tendency to continue away from original

equilibrium after being disturbed.
 DS: Response of the aircraft over time after it has been displaced from a
state of equilibrium. This response is in the form of oscillations.
 Positive DS: The aircraft returns to its original state after a series of
oscillations which dampen.

 Neutral SS: Once displaced, the aircraft begins to oscillate and these
oscillations are do not dampen but remain constant.

 Negative SS: Once displaced, the oscillations get worse with time and
keep increasing.
Stability in an aircraft affects two major areas:

MANEUVERABILITY
 The quality of an aircraft that permits it to be maneuvered easily
and to withstand the stresses imposed by maneuvers.
 Governed by the weight, inertia(motion), size/location of flight
controls, structural strength and power plant

CONTROLLABILITY
 The capability of an aircraft to respond to the pilot’s control, with
regard to flight path and attitude.
 It is the quality of aircrafts response to pilots control application when
maneuvering regardless of stability characteristics.
AXES OF AIRCRAFTS
 The 3 axes of an aircraft are imaginary lines passing through the CG.
 LONGITUDINAL STABILITY (ABOUT THE LATERAL AXIS)
 Longitudinal Stability makes an airplane stable about its lateral
axis and involves the pitching motion.
 A longitudinally unstable plane tends to dive and climb progressively
steeper making it difficult/dangerous to fly
 Static Longitudinal Stability or Instability is dependent on 3
factors:
1) Location of The Wing in Relation to The Center of Gravity (CG)
2) Location of The Horizontal Tail Surfaces with Respect to the CG
3) The Area or Size of The Tail Surfaces.
 LATERAL STABILITY (ABOUT THE LONGITUDINAL AXIS)
 Lateral stability is the stability of an aircraft about the longitudinal axis.
 Positive lateral stability helps to stabilize the lateral or “rolling effect” when
one wing gets lower than the wing on the opposite side of the aircraft.
Factors that contribute to lateral stability are :

 Dihedral : It is the upward angle at which the wings are slanted from the root
to the tip.

 When a gust causes a roll, the airplane

tends to side-slip or slide downward toward
the lowered wing.

 Dihedral causes the air to strike the low

wing at a greater AOA than the high wing.

 This increases the low wing lift/decreases

high wing lift restoring the original attitude.
 Sweep-back
 A sweptback wing is one in which the leading edge slopes backward.
 When a disturbance causes an aircraft with sweepback to slip or drop a
wing, the low wing presents its leading edge at an angle that is more
perpendicular to the relative airflow.
 As a result, the low wing acquires more lift, rises, and the aircraft is
restored to its original flight attitude.
 Keel effect and Weight Distribution
 Depends on the action of the relative wind on the side area of the
fuselage
 Laterally stable airplanes: The greater portion of the keel area is
above and behind the CG.
 When the plane slips to one side, the combination of the airplane’s
weight and the pressure of the airflow against the upper portion of the
keel area rolls the plane back to wings level
 To Summarize: The fuselage is forced by keel effect to parallel the
wind
 DIRECTIONAL STABILITY (DS - STABILITY ABOUT THE VERTICAL
AXIS)
 Stability about the aircraft’s vertical axis (the sideways moment) is
called yawing or directional stability.
 The principle is based on that of a weather vane.
 The area of the vertical fin and the sides of the fuselage aft of the CG
contribute to the stability.
 Vertical Fin – the vertical fin acts like a feather on an arrow in
maintaining straight flight
 Turning Tendencies
 The left turning tendencies are made up of 4 Elements which Produce a
Twisting Motion around the planes vertical axis.
They are:

 Torque Reaction

 Corkscrew / Slipstream Effect (Spiraling Slipstream)

 Gyroscopic Action of the Prop (Gyroscopic Precession)

 Asymmetrical Thrust (P-Factor )

 Torque Reaction
 Newton’s 3rd Law– For every action there is an equal and opposite
reaction
 The engine parts/propeller rotate one way; an equal force attempts to
rotate the plane in the opposite direction
 When airborne, this force acts around the longitudinal axis, resulting in
a left rolling tendency
 On the ground, during takeoff, due to the left rolling moment, more
force is placed on the left landing gear which causes greater left turning
tendency.
 This turning moment to the left is corrected with proper use of rudder
 The Strength of this moment is dependent on engine size/hp, propeller
size/rpm, plane size and ground surface.
 Corkscrew/Slipstream Effect
 The high-speed rotation of the propeller sends the air in a
corkscrew/spiraling rotation to the rear of the aircraft
 The air strikes the left side of the vertical tail.
 This exerts a strong sideward force on the vertical tail causing a left
turn around the vertical axis
 Gyroscopic Action
 Precession - When a force is applied to a spinning disk (propeller) the
resultant of this force is felt 90 o ahead in the direction of rotation.
 This resultant force causes a yawing moment.
 This most often occurs with tail wheel aircraft when the tail is being
raised on the takeoff roll.
 This creates a force on the propeller which yaws the aircraft to the left.
 Asymmetric Thrust (P Factor)
 When flying with a high AOA, the “bite” of the down moving blade is
greater than the up-moving blade.
 This means that the descending blade is at a higher angle of attack than
the ascending blade and hence produces greater thrust/lift.
 This moves the center of thrust to the right of the propeller disc area
pulling the aircrafts nose to the left and causing a yaw.
 Load Factors in Airplane Design
 Load factor is the trigonometric ratio between lift and weight and is
measured in terms of Gs placed on an aircraft.
 It is the amount force exerted on an aircraft to produce a stress on the
structure.
 An increase in the bank angle, increases load factor.
 EXAMPLE: A Load Factor of 3 means that total load on the structure is
3x its gross weight; expressed as 3 G’s.
 Subjecting a plane to 3 G’s would result in being pressed into the seat
by 3x your weight.
LOAD FACTOR AND AIRPLANE DESIGN
 How Strong an Airplane Should Be Is Determined Largely by The Use It
Will Be Subjected To.
 The problem is to determining the highest load factor that can be
expected in normal operation under various operational situations –
These are ‘Limit Load Factors’
 Planes must be designed to withstand Limit Load Factors with no
structural damage

Load Factor Is Important to the Pilot for Two Distinct Reasons

1) The obviously dangerous overload that is possible for a pilot to
impose on the structure
An excessive load factor can result in the structural failure of an
aircraft
2) An increased Load Factor increases the stall speed and makes
stalls possible at seemingly safe speeds.
LOAD FACTOR IN STEEP TURNS
 It has been observed that the load factor increases at a large rate after
bank angles of 40-50 degrees.
 At 60 degrees it the load factor is 2Gs whereas at 80 degrees it is 5.76Gs.
 The wing must produce lift equal to these load factors if altitude is to be
maintained.
 It is important to know that the maximum bank for general aviation
aircraft's to maintain coordinated, constant altitude turns is 60 degrees.
Thereafter the load factor increases by 1G for every 10 degrees of bank.
LOAD FACTOR AND STALLING SPEED
 An aircraft’s stalling speed increases in proportion to the square root of
the load factor.
 This means that an aircraft with a normal unaccelerated stalling speed
of 50 knots can be stalled at 100 knots by inducing a load factor of 4 Gs.
 A pilot should be aware of the danger of stalling the aircraft by
increasing the load factor, as in a steep turn or spiral.
Vg Diagram
 The flight operating strength of an aircraft is presented on a graph of
velocity versus load factor called the Vg Diagram.

A: Normal Stall Speed B: Accelerated Stall Speed C: Maneuvering Speed

D: Max Structural Cruise Speed E: Never Exceed Speed
 Wingtip Vortices and Precautions
 Whenever the wing is producing lift, the pressure below is greater than
the pressure above.
 Thus air from below the wing (high pressure) moves above the wing
(low pressure) and results in the formation of wing tip vortices which
rotate in a circular manner around the wing.
 As the air curls upward around the tip, it combines with the downwash
to form a fast-spinning trailing vortex.
 The intensity or strength of the vortices is directly proportional to the
weight of the aircraft and inversely proportional to the wingspan and
speed of the aircraft.
 The heavier and slower the aircraft, the greater the AOA and the
stronger the wingtip vortices.
 Thus, an aircraft will create wingtip vortices with maximum strength
occurring during the takeoff, climb, and landing phases of flight.
 These wingtip vortices produce a dangerous flight hazard called
wake turbulence.
VORTICES BEHAVIOR
 Sink at a rate of several hundred fpm, slowing/diminishing the further
they get behind an aircraft
 When vortices sink to the ground they tend to move laterally with the
wind
 A crosswind will decrease lateral movement of the upwind vortex and
increase movement of downwind vortex
 Be cautious, this could move another aircraft’s vortices into your path
 A tailwind can move the vortices of the preceding aircraft forward into the
touchdown zone.(Light quartering tailwind requires maximum
attention)
AVOIDANCE
 Avoid flying through another aircraft’s flight path.
 Rotate prior to the point at which the preceding aircraft rotated when
taking off behind another aircraft.
 Avoid following another aircraft on a similar flight path at an altitude
within 1,000 feet.
 Approach the runway above a preceding aircraft’s path when landing
behind another aircraft and touchdown after the point at which the other
aircraft wheels contacted the runway.
 A: Landing behind a larger aircraft on the same runway

B: Landing behind a larger aircraft on a parallel runway closer than

2,500 feet

C: Landing behind a larger aircraft on an intersecting

runway
 Conclusion
 Lift, weight, thrust and drag are forces that act upon all aircraft in flight.
Understanding how these forces work and knowing how to control
them are essential to flight.
 A pilot must have a firm understanding of the forces which act on the
airplane, what the advantageous use of these forces, as well as the
operating limitations of the airplane.
 A thorough understanding of load factor and methods of wake
turbulence avoidance will lead to safer flying.
 The End

Thank You