ASTB Aviation and Nautical Information Selection Study Guide

Engine

(jet or props) generates thrust

Steady Flight Condition

(not a force) neither accelerating, decelerating, climbing, nor diving; here the forces that oppose each other are also equal to each other

Airfoil

(wing) shape of a wing or prop blade

Bernoulli's Principle

As the velocity of a fluid (air) increases, its internal pressure decreases

Thrust

Forward force; provided by the engine; thrust equals drag in steady flight condition

Wingspan

Max distance from wingtip to wingtip

Navigation Lights

Red light on left wingtip, green light on right wingtip

Turn & Bank Indicator, Turn Coordinator, or Turn Indicator

Shows the direction of turn; and rate of turn; rate of direction of roll

Landing Gear

Structure that supports an aircraft on the ground and allows it to taxi; undercarriage

Drag

a backward retarding force made by air resistance

Headings

a hard surfaced runway is numbered by its magnetic heading (compass); so runway 22 has a magnetic heading of 220 degrees ) takeoff or landing); the opposite direction is about 40 degrees; so it would be runway 4 (takeoff or landing)

Rotary Wing

a helicopter blade or tilt rotor (osprey) etc.

Ground Speed

a measure of the aircraft's actual speed over the ground

Thwart

a strut placed crosswise (left/right) in a ship or boat, to brace it crosswise

Segmented Circle

a traffic guide for an airport; shows wind and directions to turn (L and backwards L for direction)

Center of Gravity

all changes in aircraft altitude occur about the center of gravity

Longitudinal Axis

also called roll axis; imaginary line from nose to tail through the aircraft's center of gravity; moment of bank or roll occurs around it

Canard

an air-frame configuration of fixed-wing aircraft in which the tail section is ahead of the main wing; instead of having your vertical and horizontal stabilizers you have a horizontal stabilizer around the cockpit; there are lifting canards and control canards depending on the plane.

Slow down

arms out flapping up and down

Attitude indicator

artificial horizon; tells orientation of the aircraft relative to the earth (pitch, bank, & yaw); works through a gyro

Fuselage

body of plane; holds things together, carriers payload/fuel

Light signals or Aldis Lamp Signals

can be used in the event of lost communication between control tower and pilot

Wake Turbulence

caused by the higher air pressure under a wing "escaping" in an outward direction from the wing tip to the lower-pressure air flowing above the wing, this "escaping air will swirl upward causing vertices (swerving air) known as wake turbulence

Flashing green

cleared for taxi/return for landing

Steady green (ground/air)

cleared to takeoff/land

Big X on Runway

closed runway

Windlass

designed primarly for handling an anchor chain

Heading indicator

displays the aircraft relative to North; a compass with the aircraft in it

Airspeed Indicator

displays the aircraft's airspeed; typically in knots

Delta Wing

doesn't seem to need a horizontal stabilizer since the wings stretch so far back

Weight/Gravity

downward force pulling the aircraft down towards the earth; weight equals lift in steady flight condition

Alternating Red and Green

exercise extreme caution

Equivalent Airspeed

found by correcting calibrated airspeed for compressibility error; useful for predicting aircraft heading, aerodynamic loads, stalling, etc.

Slats

front edge of wings; changes lift

Cockpit

front of place; command and control

Wings

generates lift

Emergency Stop

hands above head crossing back and forth

Insert Chocks

hands out coming to sides

Come Ahead

hands up waiving toward face

Aileron

hinged control surfaces attached to the trailing edge of the wing of a fixed-wing aircraft. The ailerons are used to control the aircraft in roll; turn plane in air

Horizontal Stabilizer

horizontal wing-like part of the tail; controls pitch (up and down)

Angle of Bank

how far the plane is turning; how much it's banking; if you bank too much you will stall because you always need enough lift to support weight

Lateral Axis

imaginary line from wing tip to wing tip; moment of pitch occurs about it

Mach 1

is the speed of sound for a given air density; (about): 1,116 ft/s, 340 m/s, 761 mph

Port

left side of the ship (if driving); there is a red navigation light associated with it

Chord Line

line between leading edge and trailing edge of an airfoil (wing); any deflection makes aircraft move about roll axis; the tip chord is simply the end of the wings (cross section line); chord length is distance from leading edge to trailing edge

Mean Camber Line

line drawn halfway between the upper and lower surfaces of a wing; positive camber: means camber line is above chord line; negative camber: means camber line is below chord line; symmetrical airfoil; mean camber line coincides with chord line

Spoiler

located on top/middle of wings; changes lift and drag and rotates the body

Keel

main center line (backbone) of a vessel or the extension of hull that increases stability in the water

Beam

max width of a vessel

Altimeter

measures altitude of an aircraft

Vertical Velocity Indicator

measures rate of climb or descent of aircraft

Cleat

metal fitting on which a rope can be fastened

Winglet

more or less little vertical stabilizers on the wingtips that increase the lift generated at the wingtip, and reduce the lift-induced drag caused by wingtip vertices, improving lift-to-drag ratio

Elevator

on back of horizontal stabilizer; changes pitch (up and down); deflection makes the aircraft move about the pitch axis; pulling back on the controls defects the elevators upward into the air-stream, this pushes the tail down and the nose up and then you're climbing.

Flaps

on back of wings adjacent to fuselage; they change lift and drag; when fully extended will generally produced more lift and more drag; so that the plane can descend or climb at a steeper angle or slower airspeed

Bulkhead

one of the straight upright portions dividing a ship into compartments

Rectangular Wing

or straight wing

Variable-sweep wing

or variable geometry wing is a wing that may be swept back and then returned to original position during flight; it is swept back at high speeds to reduce drag and extended for slower speeds

Big Arrows on Runway

pointing to emergency overrun (only); taxi, takeoff, and landing aren't allowed (threshold area)

Elliptical Wing

probably the same as a tapered wing; no corners, curved all the way around life a flattened oval or an ellipse

Pitch Angle

refers to the angle between the extended fuselage of the aircraft and the horizon; if the plane is flying straight up it would have a pitch angle of 90 degrees, if it's flying straight and level then it has a pitch angle of 0 degrees

Flashing white

return to starting point on airport/not used by FAA

All Clear

right hand up

Starboard

right side of the ship (if driving); there is a green navigation light associated with it

Propeller

rotates and powers a boat forward or backward

Pitch axis

runs from wing tip to wing tip, passing through the plane's center of gravity

Vertical Axis

runs straight up and down through center of gravity; the moment of yaw occurs in it

Tachometer

shows speed at which the engine crankshaft is rotating

Rudder

sits on the back of the vertical stabilizer; controls direction of the yaw (side to side) about the aircraft's vertical axis

Trim Tabs

small control surfaces that permit the pilot to balance control forces in steady flight to relieve pressure on the aircraft's controls and thus, pilot fatigue; trim tabs are primarily used on the elevators but often exist on the ailerons and/or rudders

Vortex

spinning air, more or less; planes create them behind themselves, vortices can cause both wings of a trailing aircraft to stall

Threshold Line

start of usable portion of runway for landing; marked by a couple of fat lines

Steady Red

stop/give way to the other aircraft and continue circling

Flashing Red

taxi clear of runway in use/airport unsafe do not land

True Air Speed

the actual velocity of an aircraft traveling through the air

Angle of Attack

the angle at which the wing meets the relative wing

Angle of Incidence

the angle between the wing's chord and the longitudinal axis of an aircraft (a fixed value).

Angle of Deflection

the angle of a control surface (rudder, aileron, etc.) relative to the airstream; how hard is the control surface deflecting

Camber

the asymmetry between the top and the bottom curves of an airfoil in cross-section; this shape causes the air to travel faster over the top portion of the wing and therefore causes lift; there is upper and lower camber above and below the chord line

Calibrated Airspeed

the corrected airspeed taking into account instrumental error

Compass Deviation

the error of a magnetic compass due to local magnetism

Bow

the front section of the ship

Stability

the inherent ability of a body, after its equilibrium is disturbed, to develop forces or moments that tend to return the body to its original position; the ability of an airplane to return, of its own accord, to its original condition of flight after it has been disturbed by some outside force, such as turbulent air, makes the airplane easier to fly and requires less effort to control

Indicated Air Speed

the instrumental indication of the dynamic pressure of the airplane during flight

Galley

the kitchen compartment of the ship

Vertical Lift Component

the lift acting upward and opposing weight

Yaw

the motion of the longitudinal about the vertical axis; redder contd: push right rudder pedal moves rudder control surface into the wind steam to the right; this pushes the tail of the aircraft to the left and the nose to the right, and vise-a-versa

Hull

the outer walls of a ship, the main body of the ship

Stern

the rear section of the ship

Forecastle

the section of the upper deck of a ship located at the bow

Horizontal Lift Component

the side ward force that forces that airplane from straight flight and causes it to turn; it opposes inertia or centrifugal force

Frame

the skeleton of the boat; the frame

Empennage

the tail; vertical and horizontal stabilizers and aft section of fuselage

Stem

the very most forward part of a boat or ship's bow and is an extension of the keel itself and curves up to the wale of the boat. The stem is more often found on wooden boats or ships, but not exclusively

Gunwale

upper edge of a vessel's side

Lift

upward force; a wing makes lift from relatively positive air pressure below the wing's surface and negative air pressure above the wing's surface, this happens because the top of the wing is curved and the bottom of the wing is flat, more or less; the air flowing over the top travels a little father than the air flowing along the flat bottom...

Vertical Stabilizer

vertical wing-like part of the tail; controls yaw

Relative Wind

wind travel equal in magnitude and opposite in direction to flight path

Sweptback wing

wings like you would see on a commercial jet