YouTube's ONLY Complete Private Pilot Ground Course (Lesson 1)
Summary
TLDRIn this YouTube video, Josh introduces a free Private Pilot ground course. Lesson one covers the four forces acting on an airplane: lift, weight, thrust, and drag. Lift is the upward force created by airfoil design and relative wind. Weight is the downward force from the aircraft's load. Thrust propels the plane forward, overcoming drag, which opposes movement. The video explains different types of drag and how they affect flight, emphasizing the importance of understanding these forces for controlling an aircraft.
Takeaways
- 🚀 **Introduction to Forces in Flight**: The script introduces the four fundamental forces acting on an airplane during flight: lift, weight, thrust, and drag.
- 🛫 **Lift Explained**: Lift is the upward force generated by relative wind and wing design (air foil) that counteracts the force of gravity.
- 📉 **Weight as a Downward Force**: Weight is the sum of all loads on the aircraft, including people, fuel, baggage, and the aircraft itself, and it acts downward through the center of gravity.
- ✈️ **Balance in Steady Flight**: In steady, unaccelerated flight, lift and weight are equal, maintaining the aircraft's altitude.
- 💨 **Thrust as Forward Force**: Thrust, created by engines and propellers (or rotors in helicopters), propels the aircraft forward and must overcome drag.
- 🔙 **Drag as Resistance**: Drag opposes forward movement and includes two types: parasite drag, which increases with airspeed, and induced drag, which decreases as airspeed increases.
- 📊 **Types of Parasite Drag**: Parasite drag is divided into form drag, interference drag, and skin friction drag, each affecting the aircraft differently.
- 🔍 **Importance of Aerodynamic Understanding**: A basic understanding of aerodynamics is essential for controlling an aircraft and understanding how adjustments to one force affect the others.
- 📈 **Lift to Drag Ratio (LD Max)**: There's an optimal airspeed where the aircraft experiences the least drag, known as the lift to drag ratio or LD Max.
- 🔄 **Forces Interaction**: Changes in one force, such as increasing thrust or lift, will affect the balance with other forces, causing the aircraft to climb or descend.
- 🎥 **Continuing the Course**: The script encourages viewers to continue with the playlist for further lessons on flying an airplane.
Q & A
What is the main focus of the video series?
-The main focus of the video series is to provide a complete and free Private Pilot ground course, teaching everything needed to earn one's wings as a pilot.
What are the four forces that act on an airplane in flight?
-The four forces that act on an airplane in flight are lift, weight, thrust, and drag.
What is lift and what causes it?
-Lift is the upward force that picks the aircraft up away from the ground. It is caused by relative wind and the wing design, which pilots refer to as an air foil.
How does weight affect an airplane and what does it include?
-Weight is the combined load of all the people, fuel, baggage, cargo, and the aircraft itself. It opposes lift and acts downward through the center of gravity.
What is thrust and how is it typically created?
-Thrust is the force that propels the aircraft forward. It is typically created by an engine and propeller working together or a rotor for helicopters.
What is drag and why is it important?
-Drag is a rearward force that opposes forward movement of the aircraft, making it difficult to move forward. Understanding drag is important for pilots to control the aircraft efficiently.
What are the two types of drag that a pilot should be concerned about?
-The two types of drag that a pilot should be concerned about are parasite drag and induced drag.
How does parasite drag increase with airspeed?
-Parasite drag increases exponentially with airspeed, which is why training aircraft cannot fly super fast due to the high parasite drag at high speeds.
What is induced drag and how does it relate to lift?
-Induced drag is created as a direct result of lift. As the wings direct the relative wind above and below the wing's surface to create lift, they also create induced drag.
What happens to the relationship between lift and weight when the aircraft is in steady, unaccelerated flight?
-In steady, unaccelerated flight, lift and weight are equal, meaning the aircraft is not climbing or descending.
How does increasing thrust affect the aircraft's flight when it is in level flight?
-When thrust is increased during level flight, the aircraft starts to climb because the lift becomes greater than the weight.
What is the lift to drag ratio and why is it significant for pilots?
-The lift to drag ratio, or LD Max, is significant for pilots because it represents the airspeed range where the aircraft can achieve the least amount of drag possible, which is crucial for efficient flight.
Outlines
🚁 Understanding the Four Forces of Flight
In this introductory lesson of the free Private Pilot ground course, Josh and his father-in-law Mike explain the fundamental aerodynamic forces that act on an airplane during flight: lift, weight, thrust, and drag. Lift is the upward force generated by the wing's design and relative wind. Weight is the downward force resulting from the combined load of everything on board the aircraft. Thrust is the forward force created by the engine and propeller, and it must overcome drag, which opposes forward movement. The lesson also introduces the concept of parasite drag, which increases with airspeed, and induced drag, which is related to lift and decreases as airspeed increases. Understanding these forces is crucial for a pilot's training and performance on the written test.
🌪️ Balancing Forces for Optimal Flight
The second paragraph delves into the relationship between the aerodynamic forces during steady, unaccelerated flight, where lift equals weight and thrust equals drag. Josh demonstrates how changes in airspeed affect these forces, using a real flight example. When thrust is increased, the aircraft climbs because lift exceeds weight. Conversely, when the aircraft's lift is increased by raising the nose, airspeed decreases due to increased induced drag overpowering thrust. The concept of the lift-to-drag ratio (LD Max) is introduced, which is the airspeed where the least amount of drag is experienced. This understanding is essential for controlling the aircraft and is a foundational aspect of pilot training.
Mindmap
Keywords
💡Aerodynamics
💡Lift
💡Weight
💡Thrust
💡Drag
💡Center of Gravity
💡Parasitic Drag
💡Form Drag
💡Induced Drag
💡Lift to Drag Ratio (LD Max)
💡Trim
Highlights
Introduction to YouTube's free Private Pilot ground course
Teaching the four forces acting on an airplane in flight
Importance of aerodynamics for a pilot's training foundation
Explanation of the written test requirement with a 70% passing score
Description of lift as the upward force on an aircraft
Role of relative wind and wing design in creating lift
Introduction to the concept of weight opposing lift
Definition of weight as the combined load of everything on board
Discussion on the center of gravity and its balance
Explanation of thrust as the force propelling the aircraft forward
Thrust's necessity to overcome drag for forward movement
Differentiation between parasite drag and induced drag
Demonstration of how airspeed affects parasite drag
Types of parasite drag: form drag, interference drag, and skin friction drag
Induced drag's relationship with lift and airspeed
Concept of the lift to drag ratio (LD Max) for optimal airspeed
Practical application of aerodynamics in controlling an aircraft
Visual demonstration of how increasing thrust affects flight
Visual demonstration of how increasing lift affects airspeed
Encouragement to continue learning with the next lesson in the series
Transcripts
welcome to what I believe to be
YouTube's only complete and totally free
Private Pilot ground course throughout
this series I will teach you everything
you need to know in order to earn your
wings as a
[Music]
pilot what's up guys I'm Josh and this
is my father-in-law Mike and this is
lesson one on my totally free Private
Pilot ground course today we're going to
be talking about the four forces that
act on an airplane while it's in flight
this is a super important lesson because
if you have a basic understanding of
aerodynamics this is going to give you a
good foundation that you can start
building on throughout your training
plus these questions might be on the
written test oh I didn't mention that
there's a written test oh yeah there's a
written test and you've got to pass it
with at least a 70% but don't worry I
got you anyway let's take a look at
these four forces that affect our
airplane in flight as you can see these
forces are lift weight thrust and drag
now the first Force you should know
about is lift as you can see this is the
upward force that actually picks the
aircraft up away from the ground and
this is caused by basically two things
relative wind and the wing design now we
Pilots have a super fancy name for this
Wing design we call it an air foil but I
don't want to go into too much detail on
that right now cuz we're going to be
talking about that in more detail in the
next lesson the next Force we need to
consider when flying an aircraft is
weight now weight is simply the combined
load of all the people on board the
aircraft all the fuel any baggage or
cargo you might have and even the
aircraft itself it includes everything
on board the aircraft the other thing
you should know about the weight is that
it opposes lift and acts downward
through the center of gravity now we'll
discuss the center of gravity more in an
upcoming episode but the center of
gravity is basically where the average
weight of the aircraft and everything on
board is centered if you could hang an
airplane from a string and you were to
place a center of gravity directly
beneath the string the aircraft would
balance perfectly now here's something
that may not make a lot of sense yet but
it's important to know in steady
unaccelerated flight lift and weight are
both equal but we'll come back to that
here in just a second next we have
thrust and this is the force that
propels our aircraft forward thrust is
typically created by some kind of engine
and propeller working together or a
rotor for helicopter nerds out there now
the important thing to know about thrust
is that in order to move the aircraft
forward you must first overcome drag
which we depict here as a rearward force
but really this Force just opposes
forward movement and that drag makes it
difficult to move the aircraft forward
and there are two types of drag that you
should be concerned about as a pilot
parasite drag and induced drag what
happens when you stick your hand out of
the window of a moving vehicle the wind
pulls your hand back doesn't it the
faster you drive Drive the more your
hand gets pulled back this is what we
call parasite drag and just like it does
when you stick your hand out of a moving
vehicle parasite drag increases as air
speed increases as you can see from this
chart it increases exponentially with
faster air speeds that's one of the
reasons why we can't fly super fast in
our training aircraft there's way too
much parasite drag holding the airplane
back at high air speeds now there are
actually three different types of
parasite drag and the first one is form
drag in a nutshell form drag is wind
that goes around the shape of the
aircraft how much form drag do you think
an aircraft of this shape would produce
probably a lot right it's not a smooth
round shape that can allow air to
smoothly flow around it another type of
parasite drag is interference drag this
one might be a little bit harder to
understand but this type of drag occurs
when different streams of air flow
create little pockets of turbulence at
different places on the aircraft and
this restricts the smooth air flow
around the surface of the aircraft next
we have skin friction drag this type of
Paras it drag is drag that's caused by
the surface of the aircraft if we were
able to zoom in with a microscope and
look at the skin of the aircraft what
you find is that it's actually not as
smooth as it looks wind can still act on
these little microscopically rough areas
and reduce the speed of our aircraft as
you might have noticed we typically
paint or polish the exterior surfaces of
an aircraft to reduce skin friction drag
but it's never completely eliminated
induced drag is the other type of drag
that affects our aircraft it's created
as a direct result of lift I'm going to
explain this more in the next episode
but our wings direct the relative wind
above and below the surface of the wing
and this creates lift but it also
creates induced drag now induced drag is
kind of weird as air speed increases the
wing gets more efficient and because of
that induc drag actually decreases
here's what's interesting if we were to
look at these two types of drag on a
chart what you find is that parasite
drag increases exponentially with air
speed but induc drag decreases
exponentially with air speed because of
that there's a magical little air speed
range on every aircraft where we can
achieve the least amount of drag
possible when we're out flying around
and a lot of air speeds you're going to
be flying are directly related to this
air speed Pilots often refer to this as
the lift to drag Ratio or LD Max you
might be wondering why it's called the
lift to drag ratio and not the thrust to
drag ratio well just like lift and
weight in steady unaccelerated flight
thrust and drag are both equal but all
these forces are directly related to
each other you're probably wondering why
the heck we're learning about aerody
Dynamics today you just want to get into
the plane and start flying but if you
understand this concept it's going to
help you understand how to control the
aircraft anytime I make an adjustment to
any one of these forces it's going to
cause a change in one of the other
forces now we said that during steady
unaccelerated flight lift and weight are
both equal now that I've got my airplane
trimmed out for for level flight let's
see what happens when I increase my air
speed by increasing my thrust all right
so I'm I've got the airplane all trimmed
out I'm at 1,600 ft uh somewhere around
85 knots watch what happens when I just
increase my thrust Just Watch What
Happens
here I don't have my hands on the
controls but notice the airplane
starting to
climb so thrust and weight are no longer
equal as you can see my wings Start
creating more lift when we accelerate
when I increase my thrust my lift
becomes greater than my weight and the
opposite is true when I decelerate okay
now I'm trimmed out for level un
accelerated flight again at this point
thrust and drag are equal but what
happens if I increase my lift watch my
air speed as I raise the nose of the
aircraft and I'm flying at 80 knots I'm
at 2,000
ft okay so watch my air speed when I
raise the nose of the air L up so I'm
increasing lift right now watch my air
speed yeah that's right the air speed is
bleeding off I made a change before I
increased my lift we were in steady
unaccelerated flight when I increased my
lift I also increase my induced drag and
this caused my drag to be stronger than
the thrust which slowed down my aircraft
understanding these basic principles is
probably the most important step to
learning how to control an airplane and
now that you've watched this video you
haven't understand understanding that
most Pilots don't get in their first
ground lesson if you want to continue
learning how to fly I recommend starting
the playlist where you'll be picking up
with lesson two and there you can binge
watch the series when you take a break
you can pick up right where you left off
thanks for watching see you
[Music]
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