Stick and Rudder: An Explanation of the Art of Flying (1944)
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Re: Stick and Rudder: An Explanation of the Art of Flying (1944)
#2A true classic; I read (and re-read) the dead-trees version (a library copy, even!) many moons ago.
A similar and more modern take on these same fundamentals of flight dynamics titled "See How It Flies" is freely online at https://www.av8n.com/how/ — enthusiastically recommended.
/Acey
Re: Stick and Rudder: An Explanation of the Art of Flying (1944)
#3I have no idea how it ended up on the front page of HN, but this is an amazing book. Highly recommended for any pilot, especially those flying small airplanes. Don't let the date scare you, it holds up incredibly well. Wolfgang figured out how to describe things that good pilots do unconsciously in a way I've never seen matched.
I'd like to share one passage that because of a small aside in the middle of a sentence has stuck with me for years.
Of course it is conceivable that a perfectly maintained airplane, perfectly trimmed and flying in smooth air, might continue to fly straight ahead indefinitely simply because it would never be disturbed, would never get that first slight deflection from straight flight which starts the spiraling. But it is also conceivable that a pencil, stood on its point, might be so perfectly balanced and so completely shielded from all disturbances that it would stand on its point indefinitely. Both things are philosophically possible; both are so highly improbable as to be practically impossible. And anyway, the stability of a thing, just like that of a man, does not consist in its being shielded from all disturbances and thus preserving a precarious balance; it consists in the ability to recover from disturbances that inevitably will occur, and to regain lost balance.
Re: Stick and Rudder: An Explanation of the Art of Flying (1944)
#4I have a recent hardback version that I lend out to folks interested in flying or are going through their training.
While not to everyone’s taste, the style of writing is approachable and distils many somewhat technical concepts (for folks with a poor physics background) into very easily understandable passages.
The book is centred around on more how to fly an aircraft, rather than how an aircraft flies, but covers both equally well, and is quiet a refresher in all the current flight training manuals and regulations that one has to go through.
Re: Stick and Rudder: An Explanation of the Art of Flying (1944)
#5This is still (after 74 years) a hugely popular book among student pilots to understand the basics of fling. Technically, very little has changed over all those years. Popular training and GA aircraft like the Cessna 152/172 are built and powered in the exact same way as back then.
Re: Stick and Rudder: An Explanation of the Art of Flying (1944)
#6So happy to see a well-illustrated book endure the test of time. I still look for old texts on science, physics, chemistry ... even (especially?) electronics.
Re: Stick and Rudder: An Explanation of the Art of Flying (1944)
#7A true classic; I read (and re-read) the dead-trees version (a library copy, even!) many moons ago. A similar and more modern take on these same fundamentals of flight dynamics titled "See How It Flies" is freely online at https://www.av8n.com/how/ — enthusiastically recommended. /Acey
I've read through at least half a dozen times, and I'm re-reading it in preparation for my first real flying lessons. (I'm very excited.)
Re: Stick and Rudder: An Explanation of the Art of Flying (1944)
#8A true classic; I read (and re-read) the dead-trees version (a library copy, even!) many moons ago. A similar and more modern take on these same fundamentals of flight dynamics titled "See How It Flies" is freely online at https://www.av8n.com/how/ — enthusiastically recommended. /Acey
I really like SHIF, if you have a physics-y bent it's great.
Re: Stick and Rudder: An Explanation of the Art of Flying (1944)
#9This book is also available as a boxer set with Weather Flying Robert Buck and Instrument Flying by Taylor.
The first of those is almost as good as Stick and Rudder.
Re: Stick and Rudder: An Explanation of the Art of Flying (1944)
#10So happy to see a well-illustrated book endure the test of time. I still look for old texts on science, physics, chemistry ... even (especially?) electronics.
In the chapter on landing, there's a series of illustrations[1] of a giant building with white and gray horizontal stripes. They're used to show how you can tell how high you are when landing.
During a ground lesson, I'd show the student the picture and say "of course, it's not like you'll have a building like that actually next to the runway!." They'd agree, then I'd point out the window at this building[2], right next to the runway.
1. https://i.imgur.com/i4qlsYQ.png 2. https://i.imgur.com/vZXZOIp.jpg
