Pilot's Life Blog

JANUARY 5, 2025

The pre-landing check is the first step in ensuring the aircraft is ready for a stable descent. Additionally, configure the aircraft for a stable descent. Throttle adjustments, trim settings, and speed control are all important in setting up for a controlled, smooth descent to the runway.

Descent

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. Thrust, produced by the engines, moves the plane forward, while drag, or air resistance, slows it down.

Aileron

Pilot Institute

FEBRUARY 20, 2025

The problem is that the aileron can only be deflected to a point after which the drag becomes significant. The resulting loss of lift leads to a rapid descent by the aircraft. Adverse yaw is created due to the drag differential between the two sides of the aircraft. This creates drag. This is called having a wing drop.

Aileron

Flight Training Central

MAY 13, 2025

Apply carb heat if applicable, establish a descent airspeed (defer setting flaps until the base leg). Reduce your power, and set flaps to full to establish a maximum descent rate. Apply carb heat if applicable, reduce your power, set the flaps to their first setting, and establish your descent airspeed of 1.4

Approach

Flying Magazine

JULY 22, 2025

We experimented with varying descents from an emergency descent profile—from coming down at nearly 10,000 fpm to seeing if we could cure being high and fast on an arrival procedure. When that big Hartzell prop flattens out, it produces a lot of drag that lets one nicely fine-tune speed and rate of descent.

Rudder

Pilot Institute

APRIL 12, 2025

The reaction in the form of increased thrust allows the aircraft to overcome drag and accelerate or climb. Spoilers are panels on the top of wings that pilots can raise to spoil lift and increase drag. The mass of air and exhaust gases thrown ahead push back on the aircraft ( reaction ), effectively increasing drag.

Torque

Flying Magazine

JULY 3, 2025

ForeFlight indicated we could reach there with a 900 fpm descent rate. Full flaps are mostly about drag, not lift. A controller immediately gave us a lower altitude and asked our intentions. I told the controller we would keep going to Las Vegas. Once we got lower, we would be able to maintain altitude with one engine operating.

Knot

Pilot Institute

FEBRUARY 15, 2025

In seconds, an aircraft can be forced into an uncontrollable descent, leaving you with barely any time to react. An aircraft might experience a brief lift due to a strong headwind, only to be forced into an uncontrolled descent as the wind suddenly reverses. Keep wings level to prevent unnecessary drag or instability.

Wind Shear

Pilot Institute

NOVEMBER 16, 2024

In most flight schools, the practical flight training portion will follow a set progression: Basic aircraft control : Learning to fly straight and level, make turns, and perform climbs and descents. Airport operations : Mastering takeoffs, landings, and understanding traffic patterns. Navigation : Planning and going on cross-country flights.

Pilot

Flying Magazine

JULY 8, 2025

They include: Proper flight preparation procedures, including preflight planning and preparation, powerplant operation, and aircraft systems Taxiing or surface operations, including runups Takeoffs and landings, including normal and crosswind Straight and level flight and turns in both directions Climbs and climbing turns Airport traffic patterns, (..)

Wind Shear

Vintage Aviation News

FEBRUARY 11, 2025

Davis stating, “The pilot had about a 10 second lag when he wanted to go and about 2 seconds lag when he wanted to stop, with both thrust and drag being powerful and non-adjustable when they did occur.” The throttle controls also suffered from control lag, with Frank W.

Thrust

Plane and Pilot

FEBRUARY 20, 2025

With skill (and some luck) the hook catches, the plane roars up to not drag the fabric along the ground, and the whole assembly is hoisted into the air. The plane is tugging a lot of extra drag, resulting in flying near full power, just above stall speed, all at low altitude. The single-seat Pawnee is a great match.

Drag

Pilot's Life Blog

JANUARY 12, 2025

Most commercial planes cruise at altitudes between 33,000 and 40,000 feet, where the thinner air reduces drag, improving fuel efficiency. During ascent and descent, altitudes vary, and cruising altitudes may shift to avoid turbulence or traffic. What is the typical cruising altitude for commercial planes?

Weight-Shift-Control

Fear of Landing

JULY 4, 2025

The pilot dragged the helicopter onto a helipad and removed the ground wheels, storing them safely before boarding the helicopter. At some point, either to increase thrust while pitching up or to arrest the sudden descent, the pilot increased the engine power to full. hours total flight time.

Cockpit

Pilot's Life Blog

JUNE 18, 2025

Landing gear is also retracted as the aircraft gains altitude to reduce drag and improve climb performance. Reasons include unstable approaches (excessive descent rate or incorrect airspeed), runway obstructions (vehicles, other aircraft, wildlife), sudden wind shifts or gusts, traffic conflicts, or ATC instructions.

Air Traffic Control

Plane and Pilot

JULY 1, 2025

The airplane made a slow descent toward the east for about nine minutes, away from the destination airport. The airplane then turned west back toward the airport and continued a slow descent. Onboard data indicated the right engine’s fuel flow fluctuated for about 15 seconds.

Density Altitude

AV Web

DECEMBER 11, 2024

The last thing you want to do is make a normal descent and landing. From that perch, you can eyeball the airport and then execute a circling descent to both lose altitude and set up for the approach and landing. Both flaps and gear stay retracted until the runway is made, and only then do you add drag and land.

Runway

Vintage Aviation News

DECEMBER 26, 2024

Foust did everything in his training to try and recover from the spin, including deploying his plane’s drag chute. When all his actions proved fruitless, Foust ejected from his F-106 at 15,000 feet.

Pitot Tube

Fullthrottle Aviation

FEBRUARY 19, 2022

The question came up on a group on social media where a student was asking the community how to perform the Emergency Descent maneuver (PA.IX.A). Establish and maintain the appropriate airspeed and configuration appropriate to the scenario specified by the evaluator and as covered in POH/AFM for the emergency descent. PA.IX.A.S4

Descent

Flight Training Central

MAY 7, 2024

Straight-and-level flight, turns, climbs, and descents. The four forces acting on an airplane in flight are lift, weight, thrust, and drag. Take this quiz to test your aerodynamics knowledge. Select the four flight fundamentals involved in maneuvering an aircraft. Starting, taxiing, takeoff, and landing.

Longitudinal Axis

Aerotime

NOVEMBER 22, 2024

Once in the air and with airspeed building, the crew will note “ Positive Cimb ” and raise the landing gear and retract the flaps to their fully stowed position, making the wing profile an efficient shape for flight and decreasing drag. Part two will soon be available on AeroTime. Be sure to keep a good look out for it.

Cabin Crew

Plane and Pilot

SEPTEMBER 6, 2024

For example, in a 200-feet-per-minute descent, a typical light plane will only gain a little speed. And in a plane, aerodynamic drag will keep it from going any faster. How does a pilot trade off a thousand feet of altitude for more speed? How much more speed does a pilot get trading off 1,000 feet versus 2,000?

Airplanes

Air Facts

JANUARY 6, 2025

Light icing in the descent, we had briefed the increased Vref speeds as we had many times before. As the icing rapidly accumulated, we could tell the drag was multiplying at an alarming rate. The nose was covered from tip to windscreens in the same rough textured drag inducing accumulation.

Drag

Pilot Institute

OCTOBER 2, 2024

Your wings don’t create as much drag as they would at higher altitudes, which gives you extra lift. Key Takeaways Ground effect increases an aircraft’s lift and decreases drag. Secondly, drag decreases due to the ground disturbing the wingtip vortices, causing induced drag. It’s not magic—it’s ground effect.

Ground Effect

Fear of Landing

SEPTEMBER 20, 2024

The crew acknowledged and said that they were at the ideal point of descent and waiting for clearance. This signifies a significant increase in drag which is causing the airspeed to drop by 15 to 20 knots. The approach controller instructed the crew to continue to wait for the descent clearance. The flight crew confirmed SANPA.

Knot

Plane and Pilot

AUGUST 27, 2024

Our friends at the Flight Safety Foundation take the definition of a stabilized approach a bit further and specify that all briefings and checklists have been completed, sink rates are no more than 1,000 feet per minute (for jets), and only small changes in pitch, power, and heading are required to maintain the planned descent and touchdown point.

Stability

Pilot Institute

JULY 12, 2024

Learn to use aircraft references to establish a stable descent rate and pitch, ending up in a smooth roundout and flare. A quick way to estimate the correct descent rate for a 3-degree glidepath is to multiply your groundspeed by five. 60 x 5 = 300 feet per minute is your recommended descent rate. Flying at 60 knots?

Descent

Pilot Institute

MAY 4, 2024

Any substantial changes to speed and descent rate will destabilize the landing. 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. Power controls the rate of descent, and pitch controls airspeed.

Weight-Shift-Control

Pilot Institute

MARCH 26, 2024

However, the increased drag might make it impossible to take off again. High-wing aircraft might need more power or pitch to arrest the descent. This does two things: it keeps the load on the wings and increases drag. Overcorrecting for a high descent rate will cause the aircraft to balloon.

NOTAMs

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

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

Air Facts

JULY 1, 2024

I put the gear down one dot above the glideslope and let the drag bring the aircraft down at its 550 foot-per-minute descent rate. Upon returning for the ILS approach, I called out the power settings of 18 inches of MP and 2400 RPM. I did not touch the flaps.

Knot

Pilot Institute

MAY 9, 2024

It’s just S-turns with climbs and descents, right? While the tilting lift vectors are an important source of adverse yaw, drag also plays a part. Any time a wing creates lift, it creates induced drag. In our example, the right wing has more lift, and thus more drag, than the left wing as the airplane rolls.

Rudder

Airspeed Junkie

AUGUST 2, 2024

This system includes modes for: roll pitch heading vertical speed altitude hold approach These modes allow for a steady rate of descent, ascent, and consistent speed and altitude ranges. One of the standout features of the Cessna 172’s cockpit is its digital autopilot system.

Knot

Charles Ryan's Flying Adventure

MARCH 28, 2024

On the day of departure Even though we had plenty of time before our flight departure, we decided to head to the airport early as dragging our cabin baggage across the footpath was not ideal. At this point, we started our descent into LHR airport. Although the weather looks good, it was also another windy day. The last ray of light.

Turbulence

Plane and Pilot

SEPTEMBER 27, 2024

Be familiar with what an idling engine and slow gliding speed sound and feel like, what the clean descent rate is, how much altitude is lost during a 180- or 360-degree turn, and what minimum agl altitude you’ll want to have when you arrive abeam of your landing spot.

Drag

Photographic Logbook

OCTOBER 11, 2024

I was initially flummoxed by the drag strip extending southward from the east end of runway 28 and flew downwind with a big offset from the runway to avoid flying over massive bleachers packed with hot rod enthusiasts. With a drag strip next door, at least noise complaints about airplanes seem unlikely.

Runway