PPRuNe Forums - View Single Post - Physics removed from entry criteria by the Big Red (Merged)
Old 25th Jun 2007, 15:40
  #58 (permalink)  
AerocatS2A
 
Join Date: Jan 2004
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In that earlier post I gave an example of how a pilot with an appreciation of physics will tend to fly an aircraft more efficiently than one without. There would be many more examples than the one I gave. Now I have given an example of how an appreciation of the physics of motion can save more than just dollars.
Your example is wishful thinking.

I'll preface this by saying that I did high school physics and there is nothing I learned then that I didn't relearn during flight training that is of any benefit to how I fly an aeroplane.

You say an appreciation of physics would've prevented someone from turning to steeply on one engine? Crap. Two things will stop someone from trying to exceed the performance capabilities of their aircraft. One, the ability, learned during flight training, to monitor the flight instruments (and/or the real horizon when available) and correct unwanted deviations, combined with the ability to feel when you're getting slow. Two, paying some attention when your instructor taught you about the lift vector and the additional requirements for lift when in a turn, the affect that has on loading, and the subsequent affect that has on drag and stall speed.

Actually, now that I've written that, I do agree. An appreciation of physics does make a better pilot. The problem you have is that you assume doing high school physics will give someone an appreciation of the subject. It might for those who are interested, for the rest it's just in one ear, slosh around in the brain till exam time, then out the other ear, to be forever forgotten.

There are some supposedly well educated pilots who come out with the most ignorant crap about flying that you wonder how they ever survive. They live in fear of the stall, of low flying (watch that airspeed turning downwind!), of aerobatics, and anything else that actually requires them to fly the plane.

It aint rocket science, it's not even high school physics. It's a few very basic principles that any old dunce can learn.
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