Pilot Institute
JULY 11, 2025
Why don’t they use Indicated Airspeed just like the pilots who fly slower aircraft? Key Takeaways Mach number is a dimensionless ratio of true airspeed to local speed of sound. That’s the speed your airspeed indicator shows based on ram air pressure in the pitot tube. Here’s why.
Plane and Pilot
JUNE 23, 2025
While it wasn’t a particularly hot day, Big Bear’s density altitude was reported as 8,200 feet, resulting in a higher true airspeed compared to indicated airspeed. Increasing true airspeed makes the turn radius wider, resulting in an overshoot. And it’s all so much harder in turbulence. Where is the wind?
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Air Facts
MAY 5, 2025
This particular 172 normally cruised at 120 mph indicated airspeed, but with the ice it would barely do 90 mph and that required full throttle! The general prognosis indicated no icing in the clouds, no turbulence and a quartering headwind from the west resulting in a mere five knots of headwind component.
Air Facts
OCTOBER 14, 2024
Turbulence Air Facts Journal Space is infinite in its complexity. And tampering our mental reserves with turbulent mischief. Turbulence is unpredictable. All three axis of an aircraft are subject to the vagaries of turbulence. Similar mechanics are at play in clear air turbulence. And there in lurks the adventure.
Pilot's Life Blog
APRIL 9, 2024
Static vents that measure static pressures are usually on the lower side of the plane, where the air stream isn’t as turbulent. True Airspeed vs Indicated Airspeed VS Equivalent Airspeed Since airspeed indicators use air pressure to measure speed, the indicated airspeed can be less than the actual airspeed at higher altitudes.
Flight Training Central
APRIL 8, 2024
If a flight is made from an area of low pressure into an area of high pressure without the altimeter setting being adjusted, the altimeter will indicate lower than the actual altitude above sea level. What does the red line on an airspeed indicator represent? Turbulent or rough-air speed. Airspeed indicator.
Air
MAY 21, 2025
It is a particularly insidious phenomenon that can be a prime cause of turbulence. Can cause sudden losses or gains in indicated airspeed (IAS), directly affecting lift. This rapid change can occur with height or across a horizontal expanse. Avoiding known microburst conditions is the key.
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