77
votes
Accepted
How can pilots fly inside a cloud?
When aircraft fly inside clouds, they fly under "instrument rules". It doesn't matter whether the visibility is reduced (at night) or totally blocked (in a thick cloud), this mode of flying ...
- 68.6k
72
votes
Accepted
Can we replace an attitude indicator with a ball half full of liquid?
Nope. In a perfectly flown turn, the ball of liquid would appear to indicate level flight.
You might argue that it could replace the "ball" of a turn & bank indicator, but that's about it.
It ...
- 6,929
72
votes
Accepted
How could "aggressor" pilots fly foreign aircraft without speaking the language?
A couple of things come to mind that enable this:
you don't become a fighter pilot if you are not intelligent and highly motivated
you are not learning a new skill, just doing what you are already ...
- 25.8k
56
votes
Accepted
What do pilots landing on aircraft carriers do when the ship is not visible due to weather?
My experience is circa 1990s, but I can offer some perspective on US fixed wing operations.
Besides TACAN and ASR for non-precision approaches, there are (were) 3 precision instrument approach options ...
- 21.8k
51
votes
Accepted
What is this object in the cockpit of an ultralight?
It's an airspeed indicator for ultralights. The pitot inlet is at the bottom and the pitot air pushes a little red plastic disc up and down on a central rod, with a calibrated clearance between the ...
- 118k
51
votes
Accepted
What is the purpose of the Dash 8’s “TOUCHED RUNWAY” warning light?
The light is a tail-strike indicator.
Touched Runway system
The Touched Runway system provides a warning light in the flight compartment. It illuminates when the aft fuselage ...
- 1,244
48
votes
Accepted
Why do digital flight instruments seem to fluctuate/flicker during landing or takeoff?
In short:
The reason you see this is two-fold:
Usual CRT flicker by principle, CRT frames are not displayed in their entirety at any time, but this is not visible to the naked eye, due to the ...
- 68.6k
45
votes
How could "aggressor" pilots fly foreign aircraft without speaking the language?
You don't need to speak(1) fluent(2) Russian(3):
In fact you don't need to speak at all, just understand.
You don't need to be fluent, just understand enough to not crash the plane.
It's not about ...
- 5,645
42
votes
What are N1 and N2?
N1 and N2 are the rotational speeds of the engine sections expressed as a percentage of a nominal value.
It is similar to the revolutions per minute (RPM) of a piston engine, expressed in percentage ...
- 1,670
42
votes
Accepted
What do these instruments do?
For the panel image that you provided, I should be able to identify all major instruments:
A: Magnetic Compass - Pretty self explanatory. Note that in the real aircraft, A and K may have been ...
- 16.5k
41
votes
Accepted
What are N1 and N2?
Conceptually, N1 is the fan (or, fan speed) and is most related to your thrust (since the fan produces more thrust than the core on today's big motors). The N2 is the engine core, and the N2 gauge is ...
- 45.3k
41
votes
Accepted
How does the head-up display on a spitfire work?
It's not a head-up display, it's a reflector gunsight. (Follow that link to learn how they work.) It just displays a fixed reticle to aim the cannon, not any flight instrumentation.
Some (but not all)...
- 12.6k
39
votes
Why are cockpit instruments white on black dials?
For night flying the white on black scheme emits probably 1 or 2% of the light that a black on white display does. This will make a very significant difference in cockpit light levels and night vision....
- 1,244
39
votes
Low visibility spins and spirals: difficult-to-understand explanation of false perception
Your vestibular system can only recognize acceleration. Your brain combines that with visual inputs to produce spatial orientation. (If the two disagree, you may get motion sickness.)
When you are in ...
- 27.4k
38
votes
Accepted
What was the first flight instrument ever used in an airplane?
It's the yaw string:
The yaw string dates from the earliest days of aviation, and actually
was the first flight instrument.
Picture:
Source
- 29.3k
38
votes
What was the first flight instrument ever used in an airplane?
The Wright Flyer, arguably the first controllable aircraft, had three instruments:
A stopwatch to measure air time.
A crude tachometer to gauge engine speed
And an anemometer, to make an estimate ...
- 8,637
37
votes
Accepted
Why do airplane indicators start at 12 (o'clock), unlike cars that start at 7?
Most old-style indicators (RPM, cyl. head temperature, outside air temperature, oil pressure, etc.) are geared in such a way as to present their full operating range over a needle swing of 270 degrees....
- 19.2k
36
votes
How did planes measure their speed relative to the ground before GPS?
The other answers seem to make a simple thing way too complicated. Yes there are DMEs or TACANs, that are sometimes used to get a ground speed, but it's only accurate if you're tracking exactly to or ...
- 11.6k
34
votes
Why are the colors of the MiG-15's attitude indicator inverted?
That attitude gyro reacts in the opposite manner to pitch movement (pitch down = horizon line rolls DOWN) compared to the "conventional" manner (pitch down, horizon line rolls UP). This is ...
- 19.2k
33
votes
Is it normal for gliders not to have attitude indicators?
Yes, it is normal. With very rare exceptions, gliders are not allowed to operate in IMC (instrument Meteorological Conditions) and must remain clear of clouds. There are also powered aircraft that do ...
- 12.2k
32
votes
Accepted
Identification of this control panel for a four-engine plane
This is almost definitely the cockpit of a Short Stirling of unknown mark, a 4-engine British heavy bomber from World War II.
The RAF Museum's website has an (admittedly low-resolution) photo that ...
- 23.3k
32
votes
Accepted
How was altitude calculated before the invention of the altimeter?
In my opinion the measurement referred to in your question could have come from either an "aneroid barometer (or barograph)" and/or from a "triangulation calculation."
In this ...
- 26.3k
31
votes
Accepted
What is this INOP instrument and when is it safe to fly with INOP instruments?
It is a standby display, specifically a DDRMI (Digital Distance Radio Magnetic Indicator).
The aircraft can be dispatched with inoperative equipment. The process is controlled by a Minimum ...
- 18.5k
31
votes
Why do aircraft stall warning systems use angle-of-attack vanes rather than detecting airflow separation directly?
The short answer is that we want to warn the pilots about an impending stall well prior to an actual stall condition. From a safety perspective, waiting until the airflow starts to separate, or at ...
- 571
30
votes
Accepted
Why is the ball no longer centred in a multi-engine airplane with inoperable engine?
Asymmetric thrust means now you have more thrust on one side than the other. A yawing moment results.
You want to balance this yawing moment in order to still fly straight. This means the airplane ...
- 225k
29
votes
Accepted
Why does the speed tape on the Lockheed U-2 go the opposite way?
In essence, you are correct.
It was a conscious decision to do it that way:
- when the nose pitches up, you're "pitching" toward the slower airspeed on the tape...
- and you're pitching toward the ...
- 306
29
votes
How can pilots lacking instruments interpret vectors given by ATC?
14 CFR Part 25 describes the requirements for an airliner like the 737 to be certified by the FAA.
§25.1303 Flight and navigation instruments.
(a) The following flight and navigation instruments ...
- 70.6k
29
votes
What is that missing instrument on a Beechcraft 1900C?
Originally there was no instrument at this place, except for UE series with an electrically driven artificial horizon, where there was a fast erect pushbutton/indicator for the copilot gyro.
...
- 68.6k
29
votes
Accepted
How is a confusion possible between Western and Russian Attitude Indicators?
It's so easy to sit in our comfy lounge chairs and wonder how on Earth pilots get things wrong.
The error didn't happen without context. It was dark. There was little to no external visual reference ...
- 13.5k
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