Capt Pit Bull
I think we need to be pretty pedantic about describing how weight and lift are orientated.
For my money weight is the easy one as it only ever acts downward by definition. But this does mean that for an aircraft not flying level there will be an element of weight acting in the fore and aft axis – this has to be added to any thrust in a descent and added to the drag in a climb.
Where we need to be careful is over the orientation of the lift arrow. The lower pressure above a wing compared with the higher pressure below the wing produces a force that can only act at 90 deg to the chord line which we must remember is tipped leading edge up by any AOA. Surely it is this slightly rearwards (with respect to the flight path) inclination of the lift arrow that is what gives us our induced drag term? (ie the lift dependent drag)
Cheers
JF