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
Angle Of Attack
The Angle it Attacks
Angle of Attack, or AOA as we’ll call it going forward, is technically defined as such:
THE ANGLE AT WHICH THE RELATIVE WIND MEETS THE CHORD LINE OF THE WING.
Now, that sounds awful fancy, so let’s break it down a bit.
The Chord Line is the line that goes from the leading edge of the wing to the trailing edge.
Chord Line
To define AOA, we are looking for the difference between the angle that the “relative wind” is meeting the wing at, and the chord line. The difference between these two lines gives us our AOA.
AOA
At high angles of attack (around 16 degrees or so for most GA airplanes), the airflow begins to become turbulent over the top of the wing instead of smooth, and thus a loss of lift occurs since most of our lift comes from the low pressure airflow over the top of the wing.
Have a close look at the video in the next TOPIC to see this in action.