Aviation Training Handbook - Proficiency Level 3

Flashcards related to aviation, level 3 proficiency.

Stability

The tendency of an aircraft in flight to remain in straight, level, upright flight and to return to this attitude, if displaced, without corrective action by the pilot.

Static Stability

The initial tendency of an aircraft to return to its original attitude, if displaced.

Dynamic Stability

The overall tendency of an aircraft to return to its original attitude.

Positive Stability

The aircraft is able to return to its original attitude without any corrective measure.

Neutral Stability

The aircraft will remain in the new attitude of flight after being displaced, neither returning to its original attitude, nor continuing to move away.

Negative Stability

The aircraft will continue moving away from its original attitude after being displaced.

Longitudinal Stability

Stability around the lateral axis and is known as pitch stability.

Lateral Stability

Stability around the longitudinal axis and is called roll stability.

Directional Stability

Stability around the vertical or normal axis.

Atmospheric Pressure

The pressure of the atmosphere at any point due to the weight of the overlying air.

Pressure gradient

The rate of change of pressure over a given distance measured at right angles to the isobars.

Veering

A change in wind direction clockwise relative to the cardinal points of a compass

Condensation

A process by which a gas changes into a liquid by becoming denser.

Sublimation

A process by which a gas changes into a solid without first becoming a liquid.

Dew point

The temperature to which unsaturated air must be cooled, at a constant pressure, in order to become saturated.

Relative humidity

The ratio of the actual amount of water present in the air compared to the amount of water which the same volume of air would hold if it were saturated.

Convection

Air over a warm surface becomes buoyant and rises, allowing cooler air to move into the vacant location. This vertical current of air distributes the heat to the higher levels.

Advection

Horizontal movement of cool air over a warm surface allows the cool air to be heated from below.

Compression

The air pressure increases as the air mass moves further down, compressing the air mass. This compression forces the particles together, creating heat.

Radiation Cooling

At night the temperature of the earth decreases with terrestrial radiation and cools the air in contact with the ground.

Advection Cooling

Air from a warm region moves over a cold region and cools the air.

Adiabatic Process

As air is warmed it will begin to rise and as it rises it will expand and cool. In a rising current of air, the temperature decreases at a rate that is entirely independent of the surrounding, non-rising air.

Drizzle

Precipitation in the form of small water droplets which appear to float. In temperatures near freezing, water droplets may freeze on contact with objects. This is known as freezing drizzle.

Rain

Precipitation in the form of large water droplets. Freezing rain will occur when water droplets, which have retained their liquid form in freezing conditions, make contact with an object and freeze.

Hail

Formed in clouds, which have strong vertical currents (such as thunderstorms), hail is the result of a water droplet which has been prevented from exiting the cloud by the vertical currents, until it has reached a particular mass.

Snow Pellets

If the water region where the cloud is receiving water from is shallow, then the droplet will not form the hard shell that a hailstone would have. The pellet falls as a soft pellet of snow.

Snow

Snow is the result of sublimation. Flakes are an agglomeration of ice crystals and are usually in the shape of a hexagon or star.

Ice Prisms

Created in stable air masses at very low temperatures. Ice prisms are tiny ice crystals in the form of needles. They can form with or without clouds. Sometimes it is confused with ice fog.

Ice Pellets

Ice pellets are raindrops, which are frozen before contacting an object (as opposed to freezing rain, which freezes after contact with an object). They generally rebound after striking the ground.

Graticule

A graticule is a three-dimensional geometrical pattern of intersecting circles.

Parallels of latitude

Parallels of latitude are imaginary circles on the earth’s surface, which lie parallel to the equator.

Meridians of longitude

Meridians of longitude are imaginary circles on the earth’s surface, which intersect at the true or geographic poles, and join the poles of the earth together.

Nautical mile

A nautical mile (nm) is 6080 feet and is the average length of one minute of latitude.

Statute mile

A statute mile (mi) is 5280 feet.