Pilot's Life Blog

JUNE 18, 2025

Use ailerons and rudder together to maintain coordinated flight. Deploying flaps prematurely increases drag and shortens glide distance. Immediately pitch the aircraft to maintain the best glide speed. This is crucial to optimize your distance and control. Avoid steep banks that increase stall risk and reduce glide efficiency.

Pilot

Flying Magazine

JULY 22, 2025

When that big Hartzell prop flattens out, it produces a lot of drag that lets one nicely fine-tune speed and rate of descent. Preflight is conventional and gives one an opportunity to look at the excellent fit and finish of the airframe. We found that it is not difficult to go down rapidly and slow down, not always the case in a turbine.

Rudder

Flying Magazine

JUNE 30, 2025

Ailerons are actuated by pushrods that run through the wing struts, reducing aerodynamic drag and giving the responsive ailerons a solid feel. On takeoff, the NX fuselage is already level rather than in the high-drag, nose high position. The manual flaps have four positions, up, 16 degrees, 33 degrees, and 46 degrees.

Gross Weight

WayMan

MAY 25, 2025

Wings also include movable surfaces like ailerons (used to roll the plane left or right) and flaps (used to increase lift at lower speeds, especially during takeoff and landing). Training aircraft often use fixed landing gear, while faster, more complex aircraft use retractable landing gear to reduce drag during flight.

Lift

Pilot Institute

MAY 8, 2025

During certain phases of flight, you may retract the landing gear to reduce drag and improve climb performance. Keep the wings level and use rudder and ailerons to stay aligned. When the landing gear fails to extend, it forces the pilot to land the aircraft on its underside. But how does this happen?

Air Traffic Control

Plane and Pilot

JULY 22, 2025

It was a far cry from the sharp and snappier aileron movements I was used to. Whether you’re a pilot with a fresh tailwheel endorsement or someone that has spent thousands of hours dragging tail, TacAero’s UPF-7 checkout is designed to be enjoyed by almost anyone. The forward cockpit can fit two people.

Runway

Flight Training Central

SEPTEMBER 13, 2024

Shorter takeoff roll Higher induced drag Lower induced drag Correct! Aileron up on the downwind wing Aileron up on the upwind wing Aileron down on the upwind wing Correct! What condition applies when taking off at a high density altitude? What is the difference between a normal landing and a crosswind landing?

Density Altitude

AV Web

DECEMBER 3, 2024

A pair of aerodynamic researchers at the École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL) in Switzerland have created a raptor-inspired drone that uses its tail feathers to control bank, rather than wingtip feathers mimicked by ailerons on airplanes.

Tail

Aerotime

NOVEMBER 22, 2024

You might spot the spoilers popping up from the top of the wing and the ailerons deflecting upwards and downwards on the rear of the wing. To the uninitiated, this can be alarming yet is a completely routine action for any pilot, whether they are flying a two-seat microlight or an Airbus A380.

Cabin Crew

Pilot Institute

SEPTEMBER 30, 2024

The lift and drag imbalance between the left and right ailerons creates adverse yaw. The changes in aerodynamic forces that occur during aileron deflection cause adverse yaw. When an aircraft rolls, the ailerons travel in opposite directions. The differential lift and drag are the main causes of adverse yaw.

Aileron

Pilot's Life Blog

MARCH 15, 2024

Below are other critical pieces of the wings that help give the plane additional lift, reduce drag, or achieve lower speeds in preparation for landing: Ailerons: A French word meaning “fin” or “little wing,” the aileron helps control the airplane’s roll.

Horizontal Stabilizer

Pilot Institute

SEPTEMBER 18, 2024

In maintaining a properly coordinated steep turn, the pilot must use the opposite aileron to maintain bank. You may need to apply the opposite aileron to counter the overbanking tendency. Adverse Yaw Adverse yaw is when an aircraft tends to yaw towards a raised wing due to the aerodynamic forces of an aileron deflected down.

Lift

Flying Magazine

APRIL 26, 2024

The small aileron “tabs” were not doing a great job in crosswind ability. As is often the case with swept-wing jets, sometimes extra drag is required beyond gear and flaps. Hand flying the circuit, I blasted through the shear with ease, but the big wings made it even more noticeable in rolling motions and aileron slop.

Crosswind

Pilot Institute

MAY 9, 2024

We correct for the overbanking tendency with aileron opposite the turn. The aileron on the right wing deflects down, increasing the camber and creating more lift. The left wing’s aileron deflects up, decreasing lift. While the tilting lift vectors are an important source of adverse yaw, drag also plays a part.

Rudder

Pilot Institute

MARCH 29, 2024

Drag : The aerodynamic force opposing the aircraft’s forward motion. This increases lift but comes at the cost of increased induced drag. Pilots must counteract the additional drag with more thrust to maintain altitude. Later flap stages add mostly drag. The gear adds lots of drag but zero lift.

Lift

Northstar VFR

JULY 21, 2024

When an airplane starts a turn, there is more lift, and therefore, more drag created in the raised wing. Because of the increased drag, the nose of the plane wants to yaw in the direction of the lifted wing. A pilot might have to use more aileron inputs, especially if it’s bumpy and the aircraft is getting moved around.

Rudder

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.

Pitot Tube

Pilot Institute

MAY 4, 2024

Full flaps are generally used since they lower approach speed and increase drag. The drag allows for a steeper descent, which is particularly helpful when avoiding obstacles. Use the rudder to keep the aircraft in line with the runway and apply aileron into the wind.

Weight-Shift-Control

Pilot Institute

JULY 12, 2024

Add any more pressure, and the wheel will stop rotating and drag along the runway instead. Keep the ailerons into the wind. This prevents directional control and creates flat spots on the tire. You don’t always need to apply ideal brake pressure, though. Use just enough braking as necessary.

Descent

Vintage Aviation News

APRIL 26, 2024

I disassembled one top wing panel and one bottom wing panel so we could compare the existing ribs, spars, and other parts to the blueprints – other than the ailerons, they were found to be identical, so I had a full set of new spars constructed. We include this photo in memory of Doris at the request of the Donner family.

Airplanes

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.

Crosswind

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.

Stability

Air Facts

OCTOBER 23, 2024

Now that T-38 would roll twice per second , a 720-degree-per-second roll rate, and I aileron-rolled it about five to six times right over the cloud deck, THE COOLEST SIGHT EVER, then rolled out. I deserved the taunting, doing aileron rolls like that, getting discombulated. My head was swimming from the rolling, my “gyros tumbled.”

Runway

Pilot Institute

OCTOBER 12, 2024

The lack of airflow over the ailerons results in a loss of control authority and mushy and ineffective controls. While takeoff flaps improve performance, they also add unwanted drag. Furthermore, you must immediately remove one notch of the flaps to reduce the wing’s drag. This applies to the elevator as well.

Stability

Flying Magazine

MAY 6, 2025

That required the creation of a redesigned, shorter span aileron that resulted in a markedly increased roll rate. In an airplane with a great deal of adverse aileron yaw that challenges a pilot each time the airplane makes a turn? Slow flight requires good rudder work to handle adverse aileron yaw when rolling at all aggressively.

Gross Weight

Plane and Pilot

DECEMBER 16, 2024

Planespotters note the F2’s separate ailerons and flaps, conventional tail. But you can see the change to separate ailerons and flaps is just one part of preparing the F2 to grow into a four-place airplanebuying aerodynamic benefits now to spend later on a heavier, more powerful model. Out back, theres an entirely new tail.

Rudder

Plane and Pilot

OCTOBER 3, 2024

Winging It Aside from the aforementioned desire for a greater aspect ratio for reduced drag, the one-piece Gweduck wing was developed for minimal weight, ease of construction and benign handling. Keeping drag corralled was emphasized as the Gweduck mission is foremost long-distance cruising. Maintenance room is generally very good.

Airplanes

Photographic Logbook

SEPTEMBER 22, 2024

Though renowned for its maneuverability, the Triplane struggled to pull away from the Camel, fighting against the fundamental drag of its triple tiered wings. In an effort to sidestep the Wright Brothers' patent on wing warping, Curtiss implemented ailerons as a practical solution for roll control that are still used by most modern aircraft.

Airplanes