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Basic Private Pilot Ground School
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Lesson 1: Your First Flight6 Topics|1 Quiz
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Lesson 2: Maneuvers and the Traffic Pattern6 Topics|1 Quiz
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Lesson 3: Understanding the Wind and Turns6 Topics|1 Quiz
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Lesson 4: AOA, Stalls, and Other Scary Things5 Topics|1 Quiz
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Lesson 5: Ground Reference, Maneuvers, and FARs4 Topics|1 Quiz
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Lesson 6: Building Good Landings5 Topics|1 Quiz
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Lesson 7: The Less Busy Airspace: G, E, D3 Topics|1 Quiz
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Lesson 8: Class A, B, and C Airspace: The Busier Side of the Sky4 Topics|1 Quiz
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Lesson 9: Flying Blind and Performance Calculations4 Topics|1 Quiz
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Lesson 10: Soft and Short Field T.O.'s + Landings4 Topics|1 Quiz
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Lesson 11: Start Your Engines: Engines, Systems, and Instruments6 Topics|1 Quiz
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Lesson 12: Weight and Balance, Navigation Systems4 Topics|1 Quiz
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Lesson 13: Luck with Weather6 Topics|1 Quiz
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Lesson 14: Your First SOLO!2 Topics|1 Quiz
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Lesson 15: VFR Charts and Navigation5 Topics|1 Quiz
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Lesson 16: Weather Charts and Services6 Topics|1 Quiz
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Lesson 17: Aeromedical Factors, ADM, FARS5 Topics|1 Quiz
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Lesson 18: Flying at Night3 Topics|1 Quiz
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Lesson 19: Cross Country Flight Planning4 Topics|1 Quiz
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Lesson 20: Test Prep5 Topics|2 Quizzes
Lesson 11,
Topic 4
In Progress
Electrical System
Lesson Progress
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Gee, that’s shocking!
Let’s look a electricity in a new way. In this TOPIC, we’ll talk about electricity as if it was water flowing through pipes instead of electrons flowing through wires. Watch the video above, and then check out these quick cheat-sheet facts for you here:
- Airplanes are either 14 volt or 28 volt systems (with a 12 volt battery charged up to 14v, or a 24 volt battery charged up to 28v)
- Alternators (or generators, really the same thing for our purposes) act as a “pump” to pump electricity back into the battery as it is used by the electrical components on the airplane (lights, radios, etc.)
- Amperage is like “flow” of water, the higher the amperage the more electricity is flowing through the wires
- Voltage is like “pressure” or PSI of water, the higher the Voltage the higher the “PSI”. We all know what happens when you over pressure your pipes, they burst, and so do wires and electronics. Too much voltage and lights and radios start to fail as the small connections inside them “burst”
- The flow of amperage generates heat. More flow, more friction, more heat. Having too much amperage through a wire can build up so much heat it can cause an electrical fire. Bad news is wires in airplanes tend to be bundled together, and when one gets too hot and burns up, it likes to take out a lot of other wires with it. (when it rains it pours)