Pilot's Life Blog

JANUARY 12, 2025

Understanding the Basics of Flight Principles of Flight: Lift, Weight, Thrust, and Drag Flying a plane for the first time requires a basic understanding of the forces that make flight possible. Lift is generated by the wings, counteracting the force of weight, which pulls the plane down.

Aileron

WayMan

MAY 25, 2025

These include: Fuselage Wings Cockpit Engine Propeller (in some aircraft) Tail Assembly (Empennage) Landing Gear Understanding how these parts interact is essential to grasping the basics of aerodynamicsand its one of the first steps in becoming a safe and informed pilot. Pilots learn to manage these systems as part of advanced training.

Lift

Pilot Institute

NOVEMBER 2, 2024

This can cause you to lose lift. So when you’re in the cockpit, you’ll know exactly what to do. Remember Bernoulli’s Theorem and how lift is created. The loss of lift causes the aircraft to stall and lose altitude. Landing flaps add a lot of drag; removing this notch will help the aircraft accelerate quickly.

Descent

Pilot's Life Blog

JANUARY 5, 2025

Cockpit Layout and Avionics The cockpit of the Piper Seminole is designed for ease of use and accessibility, with flight instruments arranged for quick scanning. Approach speeds typically range from 80 to 90 knots depending on weight and flap settings, while full flaps are often used to provide the necessary lift during landing.

Descent

Vintage Aviation News

MAY 2, 2025

Although the B-47A appeared structurally sound upon arrival, flight testing revealed notable shortcomingsparticularly buffeting issues that limited both its top speed and achievable lift. The drag chute was used on landings to help brake the airplane’s speed. The B-47A fuselage was 106 feet 11 inches in length. NASA Photo

Gross Weight

Plane and Pilot

JULY 22, 2025

I asked as I scoured the cockpit. Both cockpits are roomy, and comfortable. Both cockpits are roomy, and comfortable. The forward cockpit can fit two people. Although we were expecting the ceilings to lift, we were only able to climb to 1,300 feet agl before running out of proper cloud clearance.

Runway

Pilot Institute

JUNE 12, 2025

Key Takeaways Variable-sweep wings adjust in flight to balance lift and speed. Straight Wings and Swept Wings At low speeds, like when you’re taking off or landing, you can extend the wings straight out to produce more lift. This is because straight wings have a higher aspect ratio, which also increases the coefficient of lift.

Weight-Shift-Control

Fear of Landing

JULY 4, 2025

There was no cockpit voice recorder or flight data recorder installed. The pilot dragged the helicopter onto a helipad and removed the ground wheels, storing them safely before boarding the helicopter. CCTV footage showed the cockpit lights turn on and then the strobe lights started to flash. The main rotor began to rotate.

Cockpit

Pilot's Life Blog

JUNE 18, 2025

At Leopard Aviation , we teach this maneuver early on because knowing when and how to go around is a key part of good judgment in the cockpit. Landing gear is also retracted as the aircraft gains altitude to reduce drag and improve climb performance. Retracting flaps too quickly can reduce lift prematurely.

Air Traffic Control

Plane and Pilot

JULY 1, 2025

A witness reported that they saw the airplane lift off from the runway and remain in ground effect until it crossed the departure end of the runway. Glasair III Pahrump, Nevada/Injuries: None NTSB Report: WPR23LA272 According to the pilot, he detected the odor of fuel in the cockpit shortly after takeoff.

Density Altitude

Flying Magazine

MAY 30, 2025

When engines were weak and it was hard to get into the air at all, multiple wings were an obvious way to add lift without making the airplane much bigger. Early builders probably did not realize how great the drag of wires was. A notable later finding was that the drag of a round wire is equal to that of an airfoil 30 times as thick.

Drag

Simple Flying

JUNE 14, 2025

One of the most influential cockpit levers on a jet’s take-off is the flap handle. Hinged panels at the wing’s trailing and leading edges transform a sleek airfoil into a low-speed lift sail. Increasing camber, flaps propel an airliner to lift off at lower speeds, trading a little drag for a lot of lift.

Camber

Vintage Aviation News

OCTOBER 7, 2024

The unique cylindrical design of the fuselage allowed for a streamlined profile and reduced drag, increasing the overall efficiency. Additionally, the aircraft had low, fixed, spatted main landing gear and a tailwheel with twin open cockpits. The Stipa-Caproni in flight. Thus, the benefits in engine efficiency were canceled out.

Airfoil

Flying Magazine

JULY 2, 2025

Those changes open up space in the cockpit and, per Skyryse vice president of design Peter Blades, make flying as “comfortable as driving a car.” “By By dragging sliders on the primary flight display, pilots can manage heading, speed, and altitude, enabling automatic takeoffs.

Pilot

Vintage Aviation News

JULY 23, 2024

This is consistent with the theory, as a displaced torpedo would have bulged the bomb bay doors, which wind resistance could then have pealed back – leading to a rapid increase in drag preventing the aircraft from gaining altitude at sufficient speed. The Helldiver’s wing center section at the crash site. photo via Kevin R.

Cockpit

Pilot's Life Blog

MARCH 15, 2024

Most Crucial Aircraft Components, From the Flight Crew to the Cockpit, Are in the Fuselage The body of an airplane is known as the fuselage. Pilots navigate the airplane forward in glass cockpits, which are located just over the aircraft’s nose. This long, metal tube connects all the main components of an airplane.

Horizontal Stabilizer

Pilot Institute

FEBRUARY 12, 2025

Proper AOA management affects lift generation and stall prevention. It is one of the main factors affecting lift, and airplanes need a constant source of lift to fly. As we stated a little while ago, understanding the angle of attack is fundamental to understanding aerodynamics and how lift is generated.

Lift

Airspeed Junkie

AUGUST 27, 2024

The common cockpit design allows pilots to transition between different Airbus aircraft with minimal additional training, enhancing operational flexibility. One of the standout features is its unique wing design with a high aspect ratio, which allows for improved lift and reduced drag, ensuring smoother and more efficient flights.

Ceiling

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. With thicker accumulations and irregular shapes, drag can get up to two times worse! When Does Icing Occur in Aviation?

Pitot Tube

Fear of Landing

MARCH 22, 2024

Glass Cockpit During the 1970s and 1980s, NASA created and tested the concept of an advanced cockpit configuration that replaced dial and gauge instruments with flat panel digital displays. Glass cockpits are in use on commercial, military, and general aviation aircraft, and on NASA’s space shuttle fleet.

Wind Shear

Pilot's Life Blog

DECEMBER 20, 2024

Ground school provides the theoretical knowledge needed to understand aviation principles, which youll later apply in the cockpit. Aerodynamics and Flight Theory : Youll learn the basic principles behind flight, including the four forces: lift, thrust, drag, and weight. Its a crucial part of becoming a pilot.

Pilot

Aerotime

MAY 21, 2024

The high-speed vertical lift X-plane concept developed by Aurora Flight Sciences has reached the preliminary design phase. It features a low-drag, fan-in-wing (FIW) demonstrator incorporated into a blended wing body platform.

Lift

Air Facts

JULY 22, 2024

The Four Forces of Flight (Lift, Thrust, Drag & Gravity) obey Newton’s Three Laws of Motion. irplane controls work per the Lever Principle, and a wing’s airfoil shape increases lift via the Bernouilli Principle and Coanda Effect. Like Moses and the Ten Commandments, aviation is limited by 10 laws of physics and chemistry.

Lift

Airspeed Junkie

AUGUST 6, 2024

The cockpit of the F-15 is furnished with cutting-edge flight instruments and avionics, delivering essential flight information compiled from assorted sensors and systems to the pilots. 1 Ability to accelerate vertically, overcoming its weight and drag with ease Climbing to 30,000 feet in just 60 seconds This is the power of the F-15.

Jet

Pilot Institute

JANUARY 7, 2025

Youll have to think about the risks for all factors at play before you get in the cockpit. Stress: Lifes pressures dont disappear when youre in the cockpit. It pushes you to consider these elements carefully before you even step into the cockpit. Icing: Ice buildup can reduce lift and increase drag.

NOTAMs

Vintage Aviation News

JUNE 24, 2024

Once the aircraft came to a halt, the pilot climbed out of the cockpit and waded to shore with the assistance of tourists who didn’t continue to film with their smartphones. The soft sand, now closed to beachgoers, would be insufficient to hold the weight of any crane with the capacity to lift the plane from the water.

Drag

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

Vintage Aviation News

DECEMBER 31, 2024

Unlike the Concorde, though, the aircraft also had two small retractable canards that would deploy from the just behind the cockpit to allow for increased lift at low speeds, such as during takeoffs and landings.

Pilot in Command

One Mile at a Time

JUNE 14, 2025

No thrust, no power, and/or no lift? However, it’s too early to conclude whether there was an actual loss of thrust or power, or whether there was just a loss of lift (which could happen even with full engine power). We know that the plane lost lift, but obviously we don’t know if it actually lost power, and if so, to what extent.

Thrust