ATPL (A) PERFORMANCE QUESTIONS - PITCH ANGLE
When describing aeroplane pitch angles all aircrew will start from a level attitude and then measure all angles from there. They will talk about pitch up and pitch down. If they want to descibe an aircraft that is increasing its angle of climb they will say that the aircraft is pitching up and when increasing it's angle of descent they will say that it is pitching down. Like everything in aviation it avoids confusion by getting the message across unambiguously. Like many others, I really don't understand why the CAA have chosen to cloud this very simple everyday terminology in their exams. If you want to get the answer correct you have to tick (b) decreases. This is a bit like a driving examiner saying that he would like you to decrease your turn angle when what he really means is that he wants you to turn left! Why are they trying to confuse us? In my view the correct answer should be 'increased pitch down attitude". After all the climb/dive angle numbers on the ADI are increasing in both directions from level, aren't they?
Last edited by WillieTonka; 25th November 2005 at 14:02.