Aileron Center of Gravity Drag 
Pilot Institute
JUNE 4, 2025
The Weather Vane It mostly comes from the vertical stabilizer (fin) and the sides of the fuselage behind the center of gravity. This setup makes the wing less efficient overall, but it can reduce drag, weight, and cost compared to using a separate tail. On the flipside, a decrease in aspect ratio will result in higher drag.
Pilot Institute
FEBRUARY 20, 2025
At first glance, ailerons look like ordinary hinged panels on the wings, but don’t be fooledthey’re important for keeping an aircraft both stable and maneuverable. But theres much more to ailerons than just rolling left or right. Or how do modern airplanes reduce dangerous effects like aileron flutter or adverse yaw?
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Flying Magazine
JULY 22, 2025
Over the years we’ve flown a lot of aircraft with “aft-tending” centers of gravity—if you filled the seats, you were outside the aft CG limit, and the rear seats in six-place airplanes were unusable. When that big Hartzell prop flattens out, it produces a lot of drag that lets one nicely fine-tune speed and rate of descent.
Pilot Institute
APRIL 12, 2025
The reaction in the form of increased thrust allows the aircraft to overcome drag and accelerate or climb. Lets break down the main control surfaces and how they use action-reaction: Ailerons Ailerons are flaps placed on the wings trailing edges. They work in opposite pairs: when one aileron goes up, the other goes down.
Pilot Institute
NOVEMBER 1, 2024
And ice doesn’t just make things slippery, it messes with the airflow over the wings, cuts down on lift, and ramps up drag. This leads to a serious loss of lift and an increase in drag. This roughness adds to friction drag, which can reduce lift and increase drag by as much as 50% on a wing’s leading edge and upper surface.
Pilot Institute
NOVEMBER 11, 2024
Increased lift on the raised wing immediately creates more induced drag. What’s induced drag? Induced drag is the resistance that happens as a result of creating lift, caused by swirling air around the wings that slows the airplane down. The higher drag on the raised wing reduces its speed relative to the lower wing.
Pilot Institute
APRIL 5, 2024
Your ailerons and rudder will be neutral once you’re in the crab position. Simultaneously, we apply ailerons opposite the rudder input. The ailerons control our lateral position over the runway. We use just enough aileron input to prevent the aircraft from drifting downwind. We call this de-crabbing.
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