Remove Aileron Remove Crosswind Remove Tail
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The Ercoupe

Plane and Pilot

Many years ago, while working my way through college pumping avgas at the local airport, I discovered that one of our university deans owned a diminutive two-seat, twin-tailed airplanean Ercoupe. ERCO), Weick refined the design into the low-wing, twin-tailed beauty whose distinctive looks are unmistakable.

Rudder 105
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Game On!

Plane and Pilot

After a few seconds, Ill lift the tail and then add full power. Within a couple of seconds, I could feel that the tail was ready to come up, so I added just a touch of forward stick pressure. Within a couple of seconds, I could feel that the tail was ready to come up, so I added just a touch of forward stick pressure.

Knot 111
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Everything You Need To Know About Ailerons

Pilot Institute

At first glance, ailerons look like ordinary hinged panels on the wings, but don’t be fooledthey’re important for keeping an aircraft both stable and maneuverable. But theres much more to ailerons than just rolling left or right. Or how do modern airplanes reduce dangerous effects like aileron flutter or adverse yaw?

Aileron 90
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A Bristol Bulldog Biplane Fighter is Once Again in the Sky

Vintage Aviation News

Although it is sort of heavy on the ailerons,” Storo said. What you do is you sit up high for takeoff and as you add power and the tail comes up almost immediately, very quickly. The tail touched down hard, but to save the landing—and the airplane—Storo put power to it and went around for another approach.

Airplanes 124
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Wingtip Vortices and Wake Turbulence

Pilot Institute

As seen from the aircrafts tail, the vortex rotates in the anti-clockwise direction on the right wingtip and the clockwise direction on the left wingtip. When the aircraft encounters a vortex and its strong enough to induce roll, the pilot counters it by using the ailerons against the roll and tries to fly out of the wake as soon as possible.

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What Every Pilot Needs to Know about the Airplane Rudder

Northstar VFR

As air flows over it, a force like lift results, and the tail is pulled in the opposite direction of the deflection. But instead of an upward force of lift on a wing, it’s a horizontal force pushing the tail of the plane causing the nose of the plane to move left and right. This is especially vital during crosswind landings.

Rudder 52
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The Role of Newton’s Third Law in Aviation

Pilot Institute

Helicopters use a small rotor mounted on the tail that produces sideways thrust to counter the main rotors torque reaction. The tail rotor pushes air to one side ( action ), and the tail moves the other way ( reaction ). Other Designs The tail rotor is not the only way to solve the torque reaction problem.

Lift 52