Stick and Rudder
Publisher's Note: Products purchased from Third Party sellers are not guaranteed by the publisher for quality, authenticity, or access to any online entitlements included with the product. 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.
Stats for nerds
19recommend
28mentions
25people
2010–2025years
71% recommend29% neutral
Mentions per year
What Hacker News says
- It's the "too much information" style of writing. The subject has to be worth it. I've read his "Basin and Range" (geology), "The Deltoid Pumpkin Seed" (aircraft design), and "The Curve of Binding Energy" (nuclear weapons). Only the last is worth reading. He went off on a years-long geology tangent, interesting only if you're really into geology.
William Langewiesche had a similar style. He died recently, and leaves behind some good writing on aviation. He was the son of Wolfgang Langewiesche, known for writing "Stick and Rudder", a very well written book for pilots on how airplanes really work.
- As the article notes, besides his own extensive career as an author of aviation literature and analysis, he is he son of Wolfgang Langewiesche, whose book “Stick and Rudder” probably provides the most layperson accessible explanation of aircraft stability and control.
https://www.docdroid.net/IevViY7/stick-and-rudder-an-explana...
- I knew I recognized that name. Stick and Rudder is a great book for aviation nuts. I enjoyed the hell out of it.
- I love old, well-written technical books, like these. There is something about the language, directness, innocence (for lack of a better term) and careful arguments that I find incredibly satisfying. They are not afraid to go technical and deep, when needed. They have humor and feel personal.
Somehow, I rarely find this in modern technical books, but it is hard for me to figure out why. Maybe something is lost in the "pedagogy" of many modern textbooks.
I'll read such books about pretty much any topic just for pleasure. An all-time favorite is "Stick and Rudder" by Wolfgang Langewiesche, although a very different topic, obviously.
- I get a similar feeling looking at instructional videos from that era[0][1], or reading books like Stick and Rudder[2][3], or even the simple brilliance of the visual design of the London Underground[4]. There's a pervasive sense that despite the reams of progress that has been made in the science of human factors, simple straightforwardness is becoming an endangered species.
[0] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JOLtS4VUcvQ [1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yYAw79386WI [2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stick_and_Rudder [3] https://i.stack.imgur.com/7YAxo.jpg [4] https://i.redd.it/iav0ejncor7a1.jpg
- Flying a real airplane is easier than flying a simulator, because you have so much more sensory input available. Because of this, you are likely to teach yourself bad habits in the simulator that will be expensive to unlearn in a real airplane. If you insist on doing it, read "Stick And Rudder" first: https://books.google.com/books?vid=ISBN9780070362406
As other comments have observed, the most motivated students tend to be the ones who go to the extra trouble to use simulators: it is possible the simulators are useless, and students who would otherwise be successful just tend to seek them out.
