Pilot Signs of Fear and Loss of Control

World events can, in the commercial arena of flying can produce aberrant behavior when a pilot of an airliner suffered a breakdown. He felt the airline would explode in mid-air.

This is a carryover from headlines he read about an increase in terroristic attacks on commercial aviation. When a person is bombarded with negative input he/she will act out to warn passengers of an impending disaster.

This psychological background factors can manifest itself when a private pilot is thrust into a situation that he never experienced before. An example, flying into bad weather. In some cases training is forgotten and the pilot may put himself and the plane into great danger.

His proper training can return if he recognizes the signs of losing control of what he already knows to do in an emergency.

Here is a partial list:

Stop rapping your fingers.
Slow down your breathing.
Stop unnecessary chatter.
Concentrate on your instrument scan.
Fly the plane.
Radio to a controller that you are having difficulty.

There are more you and your instructor can discuss. The idea is to calm yourself down to bring back the training you already know to gain control.

In the case of the airline pilot the actions were beyond his control and force was used to prevent an accident.

It is always good to have a plan of action ready on any trip or flight where weather may occur.

Climbing and Level Flight Illusions

If you climb rapidly in a plane and then suddenly level off, the otoliths in your inner ear send amessage to your brain of tumbling backwards.

Your first impulse, if you are on instruments, is to push the plane into a nose down attitude. That reaction can intensify the illusion.

If you don’t recognize and ignore the illusion you may enter an outside loop with serious consequences to both plane and pilot. 

If you are not controlling the attitude of your plane, because of distraction, and you enter a climb, the plane attitude may set you up for the illusion when you discover your error and attempt to return to straight and level flight.

This illusion may occur when entering and exiting a series of cloud layers while you are climbing.

Your Instrument Instructor is a good source of a person who experienced some of the illusions and can aid the uninitiated 
learner.

Archimedes Principle - Bounancy - Balloons

The ground work story is an atom has mass and since molecules are made of atoms a molecule has mass. Liquids and gases contain molecules that are displaced, under certain conditions.

Liquids are first, since we swim in liquids, float things in liquids ...you get the point. When an object, you or a boat, is immersed in a liquid the liquid exerts an upward force which is known as buoyant force and it is proportional to the weight of displaced liquid.

For instance, you float better in salt water than fresh water since salt water's density is greater than fresh water. 

If you have a constant size object that weighs, let say, twenty five pounds, and it  is a toy boat with high sides, it will ride higher in salt water than fresh water. Why? The toy boat will have to displace more fresh water (lower density) with a buoyant (upward force) of twenty five pounds to match the twenty five pound weight, hence it rides lower in the fresh water. The boat will displace less salt water to equal the buoyant upward force of twenty five pounds.  The sum force acting on the boat, then, is proportional to the difference between the weight of the boat('down' force of twenty five pounds) and the weight of displaced liquid ('up' force of twenty five pounds), hence equilibrium buoyancy is achieved when these two weights (and thus forces) are equal. Wow!

Isn't that neat! Same thing happens to you when you first swim in fresh water and then go on a vacation by the sea. You discover it is easier to swim in the ocean.

Density (mass per unit volume in liquids) is important. Salt water is more dense than fresh water.

Lets turn to air. It is a gas rather than a liquid. Same rules hold for objects immersed in air as they are in a liquid. Now we get into balloons immersed in air. 

Why do they float? If a balloon doesn't displace its weight in air molecules the upward buoyant forces exerted by the air molecules isn't as great as the weight of the balloon and it sinks. Think of a Birthday Balloon that, at first, rises to the top of a room but, after a few days air leaks out and the balloon displaces less and less air. It sinks! (Another story is when the balloon is filled with helium!)

The Hot Air Balloons make for a wonderful scenic ride. They are a perfect example of a controlled displacement volume aircraft.

Since air has a relatively constant density, the balloon, as it fills, will swell and displace more and more air. When the balloon fills and finally displaces more upward buoyant force exerted by the air than the downward force of the weight of the balloon, its basket and passengers - it float and begin to rise.

The more you increase the size of the balloon the more it will rise. If you let air out of the balloon and the size of the balloon decreases it will begin to sink. That is where the phrase, controlled displacement volume aircraft originated.

Prevention of a Secondary Stall

In instrument conditions recovery from a spin or inadvertent stall this technique may save your life or prevent unusual attitude motion sickness.

If you are in a recovery situation from a primary stall, and you have it under control, you want to return to straight and level flight. The vertical speed indicator is important to recovery.

When you recover from a primary stall I was taught to back off on power and apply forward pressure on the yoke. You are trying to reach a level wing flight attitude while keeping a continual scan of the vertical speed indicator.

As the airplane recovers you will see a decrease in the rate of losing altitude on the vertical speed indicator and corroborated by the altimeter. Your airspeed is higher, at this point, than your normal cruise speed.

Once the vertical speed indication indicates no rate of loss you will still experience resistance to keeping the nose of the aircraft from rising. 

This is important: When the vertical speed indicator stops moving upward or downward your airplane attitude is in level flight with greater airspeed that cruising airspeed. Keep forward pressure on the stick or wheel until the airspeed slows to your aircraft cruising speed. At this point the pressure on the yoke (wheel or stick) will abate to normal if you were properly trimmed before the stall ever began.

It is at this point you can slowly increase power to maintain altitude and cruising speed.

Note: while you were doing this the vertical speed indicator has remained at its neutral position that shows no rate of gain or loss. You are flying level.

You must return, even though the seat of your pants may disagree, to normal flight according to your instrument training. Your sensory input from your body may take a few minutes to agree with what your instruments are telling you about the correct attitude of the airplane - straight and level with respect to the earths surface at normal cruise speed.

Do Aircraft Plane - Yes

Newton's Laws; Bernoulli Effect or Both? Air is a gas made up of atoms linked together to form molecules of the different components of air. Atoms have mass, even though we can't see them with the naked eye.

For comparison think of a pair of skis planing over the surface of packed snow; a water board planing over the surface of a lake. Now you get the idea for a airplane!

Yes, airplanes do plane through the air and both Newton's Third Law and the  Bernoulli's  Effect are operating to produce the concept of Lift together. In special cases only Newton;s Law is responsible for the force that pushes a aircraft upward into the sky.

Wow. It isn't that difficult.  First, Newton's Laws are all about Force. Bernoulli's Principle is about creating a Negative Pressure area that allows nature to do its thing - namely to reduce that Negative Pressure. Remember, nature hates a vacuum. It has nothing to do with Force.

Lets talk Newton: His 3rd Law states that for every action there is a equal and opposite reaction. Think of "action" as a "force", like a pressure of air molecules measured in pounds per square inch. As the airplane skims across the air it pushes the mass of air molecules downward with a force that reacts upward on the bottom surface of the airplanes wings. If the sum total of all the reacting forces on the wings reaches or exceeds the weight of the airplane, in pounds, the airplane is flying.

Lets talk Bernoulli: His effect states that air flows, in this instance, faster on the upper surface of the wing than it does on the bottom surface of the wing and it creates a "negative pressure" region on the upper surface of the wings. It would seem the airplane is "sucked up" into the air. One additional example is a chimney  from a home. air passing over the top of the chimney creates a low pressure (or negative pressure) area above the opening of the chimney. The air pressure of the atmosphere is higher than the pressure just above the chimney. Net result pushes air(which is smoke)  up the chimney. We make use of pressure differentials when breathing. Beware, this is a very simplistic example and the mathematics is too complicated for this Blog.

Lets talk Newton and Bernoulli together: What Bernoulli accomplishes is making it possible for a airplane to move slower at a slightly increased "angle of attack" to create a reaction force to push the airplane into the air. Example, a small private airplane will takeoff and land at slower velocities that a similar more aerodynamically designed airplane. Another example is a interceptor jet airplane that performs best by reducing the overall drag on the airplane by using symmetrical wings. There isn't a "camber" that produces the Bernoulli Effect. Without that help the jet airplane must move much faster to achieve the upward force that equals its weight in pounds before becoming airborne. Lift, thrust, weight and drag are all involved in the design of a airplane and its ultimate purpose.

Lift is not just Bernoulli Effect alone or, except as noted, just as Newton's 3rd Law can't operate in lowered power airplanes without the Bernoulli Effect.