Binding: Unknown Binding Label: Whittlesey house, McGraw-Hill book company, inc Languages: Array Manufacturer: Whittlesey house, McGraw-Hill book company, inc Number Of Pages: 389 Publication Date: 1944 Publisher: Whittlesey house, McGraw-Hill book company, inc Studio: Whittlesey house, McGraw-Hill book company, inc
Editorial Review:
WHAT'S IN STICK AND RUDDER:
The invisible secret of all heavier-than-air flight: the Angle of Attack. What it is, and why it can't be seen. How lift is made, and what the pilot has to do with it.
Why airplanes stall How do you know you're about to stall?
The landing approach. How the pilot's eye functions in judging the approach.
The visual clues by which an experienced pilot unconsciously judges: how you can quickly learn to use them.
"The Spot that does not move." This is the first statement of this phenomenon. A foolproof method of making a landing approach across pole lines and trees.
The elevator and the throttle. One controls the speed, the other controls climb and descent. Which is which?
The paradox of the glide. By pointing the nose down less steeply, you descend more steeply. By pointing the nose down more steeply, you can glide further.
What's the rudder for? The rudder does NOT turn the airplane the way a boat's rudder turns the boat. Then what does it do?
How a turn is flown. The role of ailerons, rudder, and elevator in making a turn.
The landing--how it's made. The visual clues that tell you where the ground is.
The "tail-dragger" landing gear and what's tricky about it. This is probably the only analysis of tail-draggers now available to those who want to fly one.
The tricycle landing gear and what's so good about it. A strong advocacy of the tricycle gear written at a time when almost all civil airplanes were taildraggers.
Why the airplane doesn't feel the wind.
Why the airplane usually flies a little sidewise.
Plus: a chapter on Air Accidents by Leighton Collins, founder and editor of AIR FACTS. His analyses of aviation's safety problems have deeply influenced pilots and aeronautical engineers and have contributed to the benign characteristics of today's airplane.
Stick and Rudder is the first exact analysis of the art of flying ever attempted. It has been continously in print for thirty-three years. It shows precisely what the pilot does when he flies, just how he does it, and why.
Because the basics are largely unchanging, the book therefore is applicable to large airplanes and small, old airplanes and new, and is of interest not only to the learner but also to the accomplished pilot and to the instructor himself.
When Stick and Rudder first came out, some of its contents were considered highly controversial. In recent years its formulations have become widely accepted. Pilots and flight instructors have found that the book works.
Today several excellent manuals offer the pilot accurate and valuable technical information. But Stick and Rudder remains the leading think-book on the art of flying. One thorough reading of it is the equivalent of many hours of practice.
Customer Reviews:
Customer Rating: Summary: Understanding flying Comment: Having just started the pilot course, I got the advice to buy this book. Though I was surprised that it'd been authored a long time ago, it's written in a very comprehensible and enjoyable way. I didn't read it yet just skimmed through it but I look forward the free time to do that. I would recommend it to anybody who is excited about piloting. Customer Rating: Summary: excellent Comment: i haven't started flying lessons yet, but this book is excellent and I'm sure it will help a lot when I do start flying. It explains everything very well and clearly. Customer Rating: Summary: Fantastic! Comment: This book is simply fantastic. Yes, there are some old or simplified opinions, but as for tool for explaining how the airplane flies, invaluable. Customer Rating: Summary: My first and still favorite text on piloting a plane Comment: I remember reading and re-reading this text as a young boy--fascinated by everything and anything related to airplanes--flying imaginary airplanes in my head with the admonition to always 'watch my angle of attack'. When I finally got my pilot's license years later, I credit this book with doing the most to make me a safe and confident pilot (second only to my great instructor.) It dispels the popular belief in the general public that the rudder turns the plane and the throttle makes it go faster, and explains to pilots the reality of flight: the elevator controls angle of attack and hence airspeed, the ailerons control the turn, and the rudder is primarily a means of correcting for physical phenomenon such as adverse yaw. Even today the largest killer of pilots is the stall/spin, the result of hoping that pulling back on the stick will make the ground go away, or that more inside rudder will fix that overshoot on final. Yes, Mr. Langewiesche repeats the point again and again, but it's worth repeating: the stick controls the angle of attack, and if you don't exceed the critical angle of attack, the plane won't stall. If the plane doesn't stall, it doesn't spin either. It's that simple, and that profound.
Yes, the physics and writing style are outdated (read Smith's "Illustrated Guide to Aerodynamics" for a more complete yet still readable explanation of the physics of lift, and why Bernoulli's 'suction' and Langewiesche's 'downwash' are just two different ways of looking at the same phenomenon.) And if you're flying a modern unstable fighter or fly-by-wire jumbo jet Langewiesche's simple concepts break down. For today's modern GA aircraft, however, this is still the most readable text there is for explaining not how an airplane flies, but how to fly them.
Customer Rating: Summary: Beyond Informative! Comment: To begin, the entire Amazon experience was great. The product itself was the icing on the cake. Any aspiring pilots, or veterans, should consider this a "must read" publication. It clarifies many misled bits of advice, about flight, and makes knowledge of aircraft easily understood.