Spanish Airports and Air Navigation Call for Scholarships for the Basic Training Course for Air

Traffic Controllers, (2001).

CONSULTATION DOCUMENTATION FOR THE TEST OF BASIC

KNOWLEDGE ON SUBJECTS NOT SPECIFIC TO AIR TRAFFIC
CONTROL.
 ISSUE:

FLIGHT MECHANICS
INTRODUCTION

FLIGHT CONTROLS

§ Control of an aircraft is carried out by acting on the flight controls that

move the control surfaces.

§ Knowledge of the operation of these surfaces and the effect on the control
of the aircraft will allow the controller to have a better understanding of a
possible in-flight emergency, as well as provide the appropriate
response in such case.

SEE GRAPH (Page. 3)

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FLIGHT CONTROL SURFACES
RUDDERS
DEPTH
AIRPLANE AXLES

The figure shows the three reference axes perpendicular to each other and
intersecting the center of gravity.

Positive pitch
moment

N
l Positive yaw
Moment of moment
positive swing Z

Axis: & An axis is an imaginary line through the airframe,

around which movement occurs.

Ex is from him
§ The plane has three axles:
motion
^ Longitudinal: The origin is at the center of gravity and is located in the
plane of symmetry of the airplane and towards the nose. It is defined as
the OX axis. A rolling or rolling movement occurs around this axis.

^ Lateral: The origin is in the center of gravity and is perpendicular to the

plane of symmetry of the plane, its positive direction being towards the
right wing. It is defined as OY . Around this axis a pitch movement is
produced.

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^ Vertical: The origin is in the center of gravity, it is located in the plane of
symmetry of the plane and its positive direction is downward. This axis is
defined by OZ . Around this axis a yaw (yaw) movement occurs.

§ Three possible moments are generated around these axes, to which three
letters are assigned for identification.

^ The positive moment L around the longitudinal axis would produce

a balancing movement.

^ The positive moment N about the vertical axis would produce a

positive yaw motion turning the airplane to the right.

^ A positive moment M about the lateral axis would produce a pitching

motion that would tend to pitch the airplane.

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STABILITY AND CONTROL
Introduction § In the previous unit we have seen the forces that acted on the plane in
different conditions, ascent, climb, descent, etc. and how these forces
were in balance.
Sum of
moments § We now introduce another essential condition that must be met:

& The sum of the moments , produced by said forces, with respect to the
center of gravity must be zero .

Balance
& An airplane is in a state of equilibrium if the sum of all the forces and
moments at its center of gravity is equal to zero. This means that
there are no moments of pitch, roll or yaw.

Stability
& Stability is the ability of an aircraft to maintain balance and recover from
the effects of disturbing conditions, such as turbulence, gusts, etc.

Control
& Control is the responsiveness of an airplane to the pilot's commands.

§ In each flight condition, the airplane must be balanced and stability is

necessary to minimize pilot effort.

Example: Suppose a cruising flight at constant speed. If the airplane

suffers a gust that causes an increase in the angle of attack that would
produce greater lift and unbalance the force along the vertical axis, the
airplane, due to its stability, must react by reducing the angle of attack and
thus maintain the initial equilibrium situation. This is done by the plane
alone without acting on any command.

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STABILITY AND CONTROL (Cont.)

§ For an airplane to respond to control commands , its stability must be

altered, that is, the initial equilibrium must be altered to a new
equilibrium situation.

Example : Suppose the previous flight and we want to reduce the speed,
the plane must be in balance and to do so the pilot must alter the previous
balance to the new position through the action of the flight controls. In this
case with the elevator.

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PRIMARY CONTROL SURFACES

Primary control § The primary control surfaces with which the pilot achieves balance of the
surfaces airplane are basically three:

^ Elevators
^ Ailerons
^ Rudder
Elevator
§ Controls longitudinal pitch movement around the lateral axis OY.
^ The elevators are located at the end or trailing edge of the horizontal
stabilizer.
^ The elevators are operated by pushing and pulling on the flight control
or stick.

Ailerons

§ The ailerons control the roll movement around the OX axis.

^ The ailerons are located on the trailing edge of the wings.

^ The ailerons are activated by turning the stick left and right.

steering rudder

§ The rudder controls the yaw movement around the vertical axis OZ.

^ The rudder is located on the vertical stabilizer in the tail section and
near the trailing edge.
^ The rudder is operated by pressing the left and right rudder pedals.

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SECONDARY CONTROL SURFACES

Types of § Basically there are two secondary control surfaces:

secondary
control ^ Trim Tabs
surfaces ^ Flaps

SEE GRAPH (Page. 10)

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SECONDARY CONTROL SURFACES

ELEVATOR
INSIDE
ELEVATOR
ABROAD

HORIZONTAL PLANE OF
INTERIOR LINE (STABILIZER)
FLAP

OUTER EXTERIOR
FLAP SPOILER

AILERON
INSIDE

SPOILERS EXTERIOR
SLATS

INTERIOR
SLATS

RUDDER
UPPER SEGMENTS

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TABS & They are small control surfaces located near the edge of
output of elevator, elevator, rudder and ailerons.

§ The tab is deflected in the opposite direction to the primary control (of
which it is a part) and the primary control is brought to the desired
position without the pilot's effort.

u The working principle of the tab is as follows:

^ Deflecting the tab, pe downwards by increasing the curvature of that
part of the profile, an aerodynamic force is produced that gives rise to a
considerable hinge moment due to its distance from the hinge axis. This
moment tends to move the rudder upwards.
hinge
axis

& Hinge axis is the axis of rotation of the primary drive (eg elevator rudder).

§ In this way the effort on the lever to move the rudder is helped by the Tab.

§ The Trim tab or compensation tab is used to cancel the hinge moment on
the axis and therefore the force on the lever or flight control.

FLAPS & The flaps are surfaces located near the trailing and/or leading edge of
the wings in the center and towards their engagement with the fuselage.

§ Flaps are hyperlift surfaces or devices and among their main effects is
to increase the curvature of the wing.

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^ Used in takeoff and landing performances.
^ Deflecting the Flaps leads to an increase in drag, which favors the
descent maneuver.
^ Flaps are necessary to reduce the necessary takeoff and landing
speeds.
^ On takeoff we need to balance the weight at the lowest possible
speed, which would imply excessive angles of attack. For this, Flaps
are used, which achieve the same effect without having to increase
the angle of attack.
^ On landing the effect is analogous and the slope of the descent
trajectory is increased.
^ With Flaps it is possible to reduce the stall speed .
^ Higher flap deflection angle values are always used on landing than on
takeoff.
^ They are subdivided into trailing edge flaps and leading edge flaps

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LEADING EDGE FLAPS

TRAINING EDGE FLAPS

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SLATS & The slats are high-lift devices located on the leading edge of the basic
profile and that allow a slot to appear between them in order to blow air at
high speed onto the upper surface of the profile.

§ The mission of slats is to allow greater angles of attack to be reached

without stalling.

^ The slats can be fixed or mobile to allow the slot to be closed at small
angles of attack.

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SECONDARY CONTROL SYSTEMS FOR HIGH PERFORMANCE
AIRCRAFT.

Special § In addition to the aforementioned primary and secondary control surfaces

systems that all types of aircraft have, other special systems are used in high-
performance aircraft, among which we can mention:

^ Spoilers (breakers)
^ Steerable motors
^ Thrust reversers
^ Airbrakes
^ Parachute

Spoilers & Spoilers are control surfaces that consist of a plate that deflects at an
angle to the upper surface.

§ They usually have several positions , the one with the greatest angle
corresponding to their use as air brakes on the ground.
§ The main missions of the Spoilers are lateral control (along with the
ailerons) and airbrakes in flight and on the ground , increasing the
descent slope in flight and reducing the runway length on the ground.
§ The deflection of the Spoiler decreases the lift because it “breaks” the
flow in the upper surface and increases the resistance so it acts as an
aileron.
§ They allow a decrease in the size of the ailerons and more space for the
Flaps.

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 & Some airplanes have steerable engines that allow the thrust to be directed
Steerable in different directions.
motors and
thrust & Thrust reversers are gates at the rear of the reactors that redirect the exit
reversers or exhaust gases forward, achieving the effect of rearward thrust ,
decelerating the plane.

§ They are used in fighter aircraft and are extended during landing to reduce the
necessary runway distance .
Parachute

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