Aviator90 Episode 1

View Time= 5:51

This is the first episode of the “intro to flight” section. We’ll be talking about LIFT, one of the four forces acting on the aircraft. If you have ever wondered how an aircraft flies, this episode explains everything you need to know.

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Aviator90 Study Guide

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You should also visit the other links for further reading material on lift:
Wikipedia Lift Article
Wright 1903 Flyer, Nasa Article
Lift, Thrust, Weight and Drag

Please comment or ask a question! We would love to hear from you.

Jack

I took an aerodynamics class at uni which in hind sight really messed up the inital explanation … unlike how you’ve done it. The opposing forces are as equally important in the understanding as the particular force being discussed and you’ve done it very well.

Where does Center of Gravity come into this and does it have much effect on the 4 forces? Perhaps this is stuff for the next level.

Great Video

Jack
- http://www.flyaoamedia.com/ Chris Palmer
  
  Has a lot of effect! For example, if you had a far aft center of gravity, this will raise the nose (in most cases) and will increase drag on the aircraft. This would require more thrust and would also screw up your normal AOA.
  
  CG is mostly an issue when dealing with stall and flying characteristic.
roony

Awesome. I will looking forward to the next video as well
Donald Shepherd

Hi Chris! Glad to get back on line and to do a little flying. My old pc and I mean old finally crashed back in July. I finally got a new one and have it up and running thanks to my son in law. I lost everything I had on the old one so I am starting over. I am trying to download the Aviator 90 study guide but it said that I am already a member or something to that.Probably will need a little help geting it on the pc. Hope you had a great Thanksgiving and didn’t eaat to much turkey. Thanks, Don
chris1965

Hi Chris

Is it possible to download the Aviator 90 videos?
- http://www.flyaoamedia.com/ Chris Palmer
  
  Not directly, no. The members of AviatorPro are able to download them. It costs money to transfer, this is why we have to do it that way.
Les Appleton

Chris
Thanks for the course. I got as much from the discussion as from the video. I had questions about inverted flight plus about choosing which explanation of lift is better when each explanation has something to offer. After reading the discussion my questions were answered.
I recall my father telling me about him explaining to his father about lift and the bernoulli principle. After some thought his father replied that this was a lot of nonsense. My father was crestfallen after his long explanation and said ” Well, what does make planes fly?” “T’engine” said my grandfather. (He was a Yorkshireman, like me)

Thanks again

Les
Ammar

Thank you
- http://www.flyaoamedia.com/ Chris Palmer
  
  Welcome!
juanksv

Chris, just wondering if there is something to say about inverted flight

For me is only for jetfighters and acrobatic aircrafts…. but let me know if there is something to learn about this topic for a sport or commercial flight.

Thanks!
- http://www.flyaoamedia.com/ Chris Palmer
  
  From my understand, aerobatic aircraft have a uniform shape. The top and bottom are the same shape, making it easy to maneuver on either side. Otherwise you’d have some pretty odd pitch angles when inverted.
Xiaohe Deng

Thanks for creating so nice training materials.
CorkyNM

This is so very cool! I have been an armchair pilot for years but now I plan to settle down and do it by the numbers. This system of yours will also be a great help to my daughter who is planning on an Air Force career and wants to fly. My simming used to drive her nuts, but she has recently expressed an interest in joining in. I have a PC already set up for her complete with a Thrustmaster system. This really means a lot to me. Thanks very much!
Pedro

Just wanna thank you for creating such a simple and useful video lesson course! I’ve been using for a short period of time and I have to admit, this is great! I’ve passed it on to some friends and they are loving it as well.

Thanks! (and keep writing us e-mails to let us know what’s going on)
arb65912

Chris,

This is what always bugged me for years.
If the airfoil is symmetrical, how is the lift generated?
Air flow at the top and the bottom is the same unless you have the wing at some positive angle of attack.
How does it work?

Thanks for a great work on these videos.

Andrzej
- http://www.flyaoamedia.com/ Chris Palmer
  
  This is why I like the ‘push’ method of explaining it a lot more, which I learned from a book called ‘Stick and Rudder’.
- Jordan Krushen
  
  Andrzej: Like Chris, I prefer the downwash explanation—from what I’ve read, it’s actually responsible for the majority of lift, and the curved airfoil just helps a little bit. In both cases, symmetric or not, the airfoil needs a positive AoA in order to provide enough lift for flight. You pretty much answered your own question.
arb65912

Jordan: I know that airfoil that is curved creates more lift but as you noticed, in case of symmetrical airfoil, it has to be some positive AOA and then everything falls in place.
I love Aviator90 episodes and I comments here are also a great thing.
Thanks for sharing them.
ViaDomus712

easy way to remember the principle of lift: Bernoulli SUCKS ,
http://twitter.com/ParisianZee Parisian Zee

Unfortunately (and fortunately for lots of economists and scientists) Bernoulli is also the father of various theories in statistics that have killed me all the way through college

Discovering your lessons while waiting for the 737 grounwork to begin, and loving it. Cheers.
Ryanyeap

Awesome work Chris. Just discovered the site. I think I am going to be a big fan.
- http://www.flyaoamedia.com Chris Palmer
  
  Awesome! Welcome aboard, Ryan.
Bthiago

This will master piece my flight sim knowledge.
Jorge Juan

Hello Chris, I have been going through the aviator90 series and the videos are excellent. I’m indeed having a blast. First things first, so THANK YOU for making such high quality material available for free. I really appreciate it
I have AoA 767 training and the PMDG 747 DVDs that I’ve had purchased a couple of years ago and I like those videos very much also, but I have noticed a much higher quality on your latest stuff.
I recently got the PMDG 737NGX and after I very quickly skimmed through the 3000 plus pages of documentation that come with the aircraft, I was browsing the web for more info and video training on that specific aircraft when I found your videos and your site where I subscribed. And here I am.
I have the Study guide and I have been following the links to the videos. I’ve started watching them yesterday, and have watched the first 30 already. I will probably watch all of them by tomorrow.
I will then watch them all again at least once more at a slower pace where I can follow along and practice.
I truly enjoy flying low and slow. I had successfully configured and tried Tileproxy. It is just beautifull to fly vfr coupled with real scenery. I fly the ultralight quite often, but I also like flying the big iron. I often fly the default 738 in FSX and manually execute the approach, as there really is no FMC in the default aircraft, in using a published STAR procedure for a given airport.
That brings me to a question for you; I either read it in the study guide or you mentioned it in one of the videos about having the saved flights available to download so that we can follow you along and practice the exercises at the same locations. Do you have that information, perhaps a link where I can download the saved flights?
I happen to have the PNW scenery with Darrington Muni and Stark’s Twin Oaks, the Carenado Cessna’s 152, 172, 185, 206 the BeaberX aircraft, and so on. I probably have just about every add-on there is for FSX. I also have Flight 1 EZDOK and TracIR, although these last two I haven’t had the time to set up yet even so I’ve had them for quite awhile now. After seeing EZDOK in action in yor videos, I think I will spend some time and configure it and start using it.
Thanks again,

Jorge Juan
Mrjstraw

Can’t watch it on my Ipad 8(
- http://www.flyaoamedia.com Chris Palmer
  
  Can you try now and tell me if it works? I just tried a different bit of code. Thanks.
TomG628

Hi Chris,
Great Job!
Is it possible to view Aviator 90 videos and the study guide on an iphone 4S? If so, how do I go about it?? Thanks. Tom
Mena

thanks alot to help me understand what mean by flight amd lift
Robert_1649

Found the vid easy to understand, not too long or too short. Just right for me,

Thanks!
Jetsanpets

That’s right, it is a miracle. NO ONE can deny it.
Bill417

Hi Chris,
You’r right the explanation is simple but will do. Lots of books around to explore the subject in depth.
- http://www.flyaoamedia.com Chris Palmer
  
  Too much time can be spent on some of these things. Could take up hours of training, but that wouldn’t really be practical.
Randy

The Bernouli idea about the air having to go faster above the wing to catch up with the air under the wing is totally false. Yes the air goes faster on the top of the wing, but it has nothing to do with there being a larger curve. Just look at the air flow in the video, you can see the air above the wing moves much much faster than the air under the wing.
- http://www.flyaoamedia.com Chris Palmer
  
  It’s not totally false. There are a lot of theories. You’ll see a ton of replies in here about it. I don’t really like to argue the facts. All of them have some truth to them.
  - Randy
    
    Totally false is a little strong, it’s just an overly simplistic interpretation of Bernouli’s theorie. I don’t remember where, but I recently saw a video that explained how the “both air streams meet at the same time” is wrong, and a wing that’s symetrical behaves the same as a wing with more curve in the upper part of the wing.
    It is true that it’s a mixture of several forces that cause lift, but it’s much more complicated than you are led to believe.
    - Randy
      
      Here is the video I mentioned “How a plane wing really works”
      http://www.gizmodo.co.uk/2012/01/how-a-plane-wing-really-works/
    - http://www.flyaoamedia.com Chris Palmer
      
      That’s correct. For an engineer to want to explain it all, I’m very grateful for that. They design and build the airplanes. I fly the airplanes. I don’t need a perfect scientific knowledge of it. Just my opinion. I think the video is sufficient for getting the point across. Great video and great points, thanks!
- Randy
  
  http://www.gizmodo.co.uk/2012/01/how-a-plane-wing-really-works/
- http://www.flyaoamedia.com Jordan Krushen
  
  This will explain all: http://www.av8n.com/how/htm/airfoils.html
  
  Everything you wanted to know about Bernoulli, camber, AoA, symmetric airfoils, the ‘same time’ fallacy, etc. This guy definitely knows his stuff.
MA Telsa

I think both effects combine to lift the plane, Bernouli and Push. And I guess that out of the two, the Bernouli effect has a greater influence due to the “vacuum” that it generates on the top of the wing. It is like a “suction”.
http://www.facebook.com/mp.kroes Minh Phan

Is there any English transcription for this episode. I’m not so good at listening, sorry
Santossousa S2

How to download the videos?
- http://www.flyaoamedia.com Chris Palmer
  
  Hello! You can either buy the Aviator90 HD Downloads, or you can get it for free by signing up for AviatorPro.
- http://www.flyaoamedia.com Chris Palmer
  
  Hello! You can either buy the Aviator90 HD Downloads, or you can get it for free by signing up for AviatorPro.
- Vasil
  
  You can download it by installing a program called “Downloadhelper”
  which is a tool which will be installed to your web browser which will
  let you download whatever video you see, on every site. Works for me
  downloading these episodes.
  
  Heres the link: https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/video-downloadhelper/
  
  P.S I’m sure there are other programs like this avaible
Wayne

I think the explanation of Bernouli’s principle is the simplest way for me to understand. With the different speeds of the airflow under and over the airfoil creating a differential between the high pressure below the wing and low pressure above it – and voila you get lift. I still agree it is a miracle especially when you see the giants of the sky taking flight!
- http://www.flyaoamedia.com Chris Palmer
  
  It can be explained technically of course, but it is quite miraculous. There are some pretty solid principles behind it that we know of on a basic level. That works for me.
David

Interesting to hear various interpretations of lift. I think the elegance of Bernoulli’s ideas just stick in my head a bit more easily. A good illustration of this is to hold the back of a spoon just in front of the flow of water from a running tap and then move it slowly into the flow, at which point the spoon is sucked into the flow rather than pushed away.
Lovely looking site, I’m looking forward to exploring it – many thanks.
http://www.facebook.com/francisca.roele Francisca Roele

I like the push theory with Newton’s 3 laws of motion. It also explains to me why bigger planes (more mass) need more power.

Seeing that I finished this lesson, should I wait two days? Or can I just move on already
Alain

I was afraid to watch the video training because of English talking which is not my native language. But after watching and listening I can tell it’s very clear and understandable. Now I am going to follow the entire training with pleasure. Thank you.
- http://www.flyaoamedia.com Chris Palmer
  
  That’s fantastic news! Welcome aboard!
- Eddy
  
  Indeed his english is very clear and understandable for non natives
carlos

pongan ese higueputa video en español
- Ivars Boss
  
  learn the language of the modern world
NavalNatalie

I completely agree with the statement that while flight is the result of basic principles of physics and mathematics, it is a MIRACLE!