149
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Did we get closer to another plane than we were supposed to, or was the pilot just protecting our delicate sensibilities?
From the flightradar24 playback, it appears to have been an encounter with Etihad Airways 171.
Your flight (Alaska) was at FL360, while the opposing was at FL370. Therefore, there was 1000 feet of ...
- 947
139
votes
Accepted
What is this plane flying in overlapping circles pattern doing?
It's acting as a television broadcast relay for the 2020 Tour de Wallonie cycling race, taking place in Belgium from August 16 through August 19.
The flight paths you posted correspond roughly to the ...
- 14.1k
56
votes
Accepted
Why do airplanes bank sharply to the right after air-to-air refueling?
Fighter jets are very maneuverable, so they may make anything from a shallow bank to a breakaway maneuver. The breakaway is a standard way for fighter jets to exit a formation. It provides a way to ...
- 71.8k
53
votes
Did we get closer to another plane than we were supposed to, or was the pilot just protecting our delicate sensibilities?
It's unlikely. Because of RVSM, Reduced Vertical Separation Minima rules, the vertical distance between airplanes passing each other is only 1000 ft. If you were in the flight deck so you could see ...
- 125k
44
votes
Why do airplanes bank sharply to the right after air-to-air refueling?
Doesn't really look all that aggressive to me, either way the fighter and the tanker are very vulnerable while refueling. Usually there is more than one aircraft waiting to refuel, so the goal of this ...
- 36k
38
votes
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Can a plane bank without turning?
Yes it can. The steady-heading sideslip (SHSS) maneuver is used in flight testing to demonstrate static lateral/directional stability (similar maneuvers exist as sideslip approach in crosswind, or ...
- 11k
35
votes
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What is the difference between a barrel roll and an aileron roll?
The difference between an aileron roll and a barrel roll is that an aileron roll's centre of rotation is very close to or on the aircraft. A barrel roll has its centre of rotation around a point ...
- 11.9k
29
votes
Why did my LGA-ORD flight make an S-shaped turn round the time it was passing a storm?
I find it hard to believe that this was a holding pattern of some sort.
Believe it. An hour before landing would be about the point at which the aircraft will start its descent to its destination. ...
- 3,606
29
votes
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Are 0g pushovers in a C172 safe/legal?
When doing "bunts", it's about the oil, not the fuel. The airframe doesn't care; it's in a ballistic arc and is completely unloaded, like some trash you launched into a neighbor's yard with ...
- 125k
27
votes
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What is the difference between a forward slip and a side slip?
There is no difference aerodynamically. The only difference is in intention and presence of the wind. The airplane does not care about the ground track, all it feels is the movement through the air. ...
- 2,469
26
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As a plane gets slower, why does a certain bank angle make you turn faster?
Rate of turn is dependent on the following two items:
The horizontal component of lift (centripetal force)
The tangential velocity of the aircraft (true airspeed)
The rate or turn is directly ...
- 71.9k
24
votes
Accepted
Which Provides a Faster Turn - A Horizontal Turn or a Vertical Loop?
Bottom line: you need to keep the aircraft as close as possible to its "Corner Velocity", which is the highest point on its energy maneuverability diagram. (Note, all this comes from an ...
- 5,556
23
votes
What is the difference between a barrel roll and an aileron roll?
In a barrel roll, the aircraft rotates both in its longitudinal and lateral axes, while in case of aileron roll, the rotation is only about the longitudinal axis.
A barrel roll, image from ...
- 99.9k
22
votes
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When does the use of afterburners save fuel?
If such a pair of states does exist it ought to be straddling a Mach boundary (I think)
e.g. A subsonic & B trans-sonic. Or A trans-sonic & B supersonic etc.
Reasoning: To get from any ...
- 8,416
21
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How will a prolonged series of steep turns produce a stall in subsequent level flight?
A prolonged series of steep turns will not produce a stall in subsequent straight and level flight.
"after perhaps twenty turns have been completed, it will stall: stall, mark you, out of level ...
- 37.3k
21
votes
Why did my LGA-ORD flight make an S-shaped turn round the time it was passing a storm?
Based on your provided flight info, I looked up the track history on flightradar and did see some potential traffic conflict that might have tempted the controller to route your plane that way.
The ...
- 39.6k
20
votes
Accepted
Is it possible to "take a bullet [missile]" for another plane as shown in the movie Air Force One?
Possible and Plausible are two different things.
Is it possible to fly a fighter jet between a missile and another aircraft, and either (a) confuse that missile so it follows the fighter instead) or (...
- 68.2k
20
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As a plane gets slower, why does a certain bank angle make you turn faster?
Another way of explaining it in simpler terms would be:
Two vehicles, driving at 10m/s and 100 m/s respectively, both execute 180 degree turns to the left.
The catch is that each car must do the ...
- 301
19
votes
Is it possible to perform a spin recovery in IMC?
I do not want to speak for civilian training here, and I do know that each aircraft has its own set of emergency procedures. Those procedures will depend upon the instrumentation that you have ...
- 4,288
19
votes
Why is Russian super-maneuverable thrust vectoring more prevalent than American?
This is a case of divergent design, and you can't know the answer without asking why current aircraft are designed they way they are.
Following the work of Col. John Boyd in the 1960's in developing ...
- 191
19
votes
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Why is this plane flying a circular track?
A recent article in Aviation Week showed a modified Bombardier Global 6000 with a "canoe" type fairing underneath the fuselage which typically houses a variety of radar or electronic intelligence (...
- 407
19
votes
Accepted
Can TCAS and GPWS work at the same time?
Yes they can work together. It's not particularly sophisticated. Essentially there is a priority list for all alerts.
For TAWS/GPWS and TCAS, the TAWS/GPWS alerts will take precedence over a TCAS RA (...
- 18.9k
17
votes
Accepted
What is this turn called and how is it performed?
The maneuver is called a "breakaway maneuver" or simply a "break", it's also sometimes colloquially referred to as "peeling off" in the context of aircraft leaving formation. You can see it more ...
- 68.2k
17
votes
Is it possible to perform a spin recovery in IMC?
Entirely possible, although it is the turn coordinator not the artificial horizon that is primary -- to determine the direction of the spin. Nose-down elevator, rudder opposite the spin, the when ...
- 48.3k
17
votes
Can a plane bank without turning?
Yes, it's entirely possible. You can use the rudder to oppose the turn induced by the roll, and thus fly straight. However, doing so means that your nose is pointed off at an angle from your direction ...
- 12.8k
16
votes
Accepted
How can an aircraft hover almost vertically?
The aircraft in the video is a remote-controlled (rc) airplane. Why it can "hover" is simply:
The thrust generated by a big fan / rc-jet-engine is much higher than the weight of the plane.
...
- 3,777
16
votes
Accepted
Why is Russian super-maneuverable thrust vectoring more prevalent than American?
Part 1 - TVC
Perception
The US also ran several programs with TVC:
F-15 STOL/MTD and ACTIVE.
F-16 VISTA / MATV. AVEN:
F-18 HARV (High Alpha Research Vehicle)...
- 3,994
16
votes
Why do airplanes bank sharply to the right after air-to-air refueling?
Different air forces may operate with different conventions, but right from basic flight training the RAF classifies banked turns of 20 degrees as "gentle," 40 as "medium" and 60 as "steep," and the ...
- 3,010
14
votes
Accepted
How do pilots make rudder inputs during negative G flight?
The short answer is that at negative 2 G, the airframe limit for the A7-E, it took little effort to keep your feet on the rudder pedals.
In controlled flight there are aircraft limitations on both ...
- 4,288
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