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). Whether it’s rolling down a runway or taxiing to a parking space, the landing gear absorbs impact and supports the aircrafts weight.

Lift

Pilot Institute

MAY 8, 2025

During certain phases of flight, you may retract the landing gear to reduce drag and improve climb performance. Instead of rolling on wheels, the aircrafts underside makes direct contact with the runway. Depending on your options, you may be forced to land on a runway, a field, or even water. But how does this happen?

Air Traffic Control

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

Aerotime

NOVEMBER 22, 2024

Michael Derrer Fuchs / Shutterstock Once the pushback is complete and the engines are running, the crew will contact ATC again for taxi clearance, effectively asking the tower for the route they are required to follow and which taxiways to use to reach the active runway.

Cabin Crew

Flight Training Central

SEPTEMBER 13, 2024

What is the purpose of the runway/runway hold position sign? Denotes intersecting runways. Denotes area protected for an aircraft approaching or departing a runway. Denotes entrance to runway from a taxiway. Shorter takeoff roll Higher induced drag Lower induced drag Correct! lean the mixture.

Density Altitude

Flying Magazine

APRIL 26, 2024

The small aileron “tabs” were not doing a great job in crosswind ability. On the downwind to the westerly runway at LOWI, I experienced a lot of up and down drafts, shear, varying winds, and sloppy controls. As is often the case with swept-wing jets, sometimes extra drag is required beyond gear and flaps.

Crosswind

Northstar VFR

JULY 21, 2024

TAKEOFF We’ve been cleared for takeoff, and now you’re lined up on the centerline of the runway. Correct rudder use here is evident, because if you don’t apply right rudder you’ll see how quickly your plane wants to travel left and off the runway. As you approach to land, your eyes look down the centerline to the end of the runway.

Rudder

Pilot Institute

MAY 4, 2024

Not only must you fly unnervingly slow, but you also have to pick a spot on the runway and hit it. It’s a runway that is too short for a normal takeoff or landing but still usable with certain precautions. This allows them to safely operate into and out of these tight runways. You’re not alone.

Weight-Shift-Control

Pilot Institute

JULY 12, 2024

You can only begin improving the touchdown if you’ve mastered positioning your aircraft above the runway threshold correctly. For example, if you fly a high-wing aircraft such as a Cessna 172, you can use the point where the runway cuts the wing strut as a reference. See if the runway appears to move relative to the windshield.

Descent

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

Air Facts

OCTOBER 23, 2024

The base had switched runways from Runway 35 to Runway 17, so that when I came back into the base I was approaching the traffic pattern from the north. But I somehow had it fixed in my mind that I was approaching from the south, to Runway 35. The base should be to the right of the runway.” How can that be?

Runway

Pilot Institute

APRIL 5, 2024

When the wind is blowing across the runway instead of along it, things get more challenging. However, the wind rarely aligns perfectly with the runway. Touching down with the aircraft’s longitudinal axis aligned with the runway. If the pilot makes no corrections, the aircraft gets blown off the runway centerline.

Crosswind

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? Hofeldt told us that Garmin had licked the yaw issueand we found out that he was right.

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

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. Naming it Old Rhinebeck Aerodrome (ORA), Palen built a turf runway and got those old airplanes flying again. Over time, he built an extensive flying menagerie. A Bristol F.2B

Airplanes