I suspect this is true of anyone who has ever flown. It is certainly true for me.
There have been many times while in flight when I have looked out to my wings with the knowledge that air flowing over that carefully shaped structure allows for pressures to hold me aloft.
The power of lift is undeniable. Yet it is invisible. Even the sharpest vision of a perfect human eye cannot detect it. Still all available evidence tells us it is there.
The physics of flight fascinates me.
I make no secret of the fact that I was a solid C and D student throughout my school years. My three kids, all grown now, are well-aware of my youthful lack of enthusiasm for formalized education. I took the easy road. The easiest I could find, anyway. Algebra and geometry were attended grudgingly. I passed both classes, but just barely.
Science was never a favorite subject for me. Biology was a required class, but my interest in Ellen, my assigned lab partner, far outweighed any curiosity I had about a dissected frog or measuring the calorie count of an individual peanut.
All in all, I found my years in school to be something of a challenge. I’m sure many of my teachers would say the same about me. However, that is not to say I did not have an active mind.
A great many young people may find themselves in similar circumstances. Their thought processes are intact. Their imaginations seek out a spark that will light their intellectual fire.
Have faith, y’all. That spark exists. Each of us walks a different path. Hopefully we will stumble upon that combustible idea somewhere along the way.
The FAA defines four specific levels of learning that serve as a staircase, leading our minds to be more and more adept at processing and using the information we are presented with.
Rote learning is the first and lowest step in the process. Unfortunately, it is in far too many cases the goal of the teacher or an underperforming learning institution. Rote can be employed to pass a test. Other than that, it is of limited use. Memorization can only take you so far.
Understanding comes next, followed by the ability to apply the information learned, which leads ultimately to correlation.
Rote, understanding, application, and correlation.
Correlation is where I want to be. That is where knowledge has real power. It is the ability to recognize a new situation as being connected to a previously learned lesson. It allows a concept to be applied to a new situation to affect a solution to a problem.
That’s a somewhat long-winded way of saying that correlation is the stage of learning when you really get it. It describes the moment when Archimedes leapt from his bath shouting, “Eureka! I have it.” He had correlated a previously learned truth to a seemingly unrelated problem, coming up with an entirely new solution in the process.
When a concept becomes clear, our ability to act with confidence in an ever-wider arena of endeavor is open to us. Life gets better.
Recently, I found myself sitting in the front seat of a 1940 Piper J-3 Cub on straight floats. My new buddy Ken sat in the back seat. We had just performed a glassy water landing on a central Florida lake that was very nearly glassy in real life. The wind was two knots or less. It was variable, wandering this way and that, or dying completely for a brief period of time.
Our water rudders were still up since we had no particular place to go. Ken and I chatted amiably while reviewing the steps of the landing I’d just demonstrated. We were both enjoying the peaceful nature of the moment.
Bobbing on the surface of the water buoyed by Aqua 1500 floats behind an engine limping along at idle, it would be easy to imagine that nothing much is happening.
But something was happening. Something fascinating.
The seaplane did not sit quiet and still on the water as an idling boat might. It continued a slow but steady turn to the left. As Ken and I sat talking, the seaplane rotated 360°. It continued unabated. Slowly, steadily, with no input from Ken or myself, the landscape kept rolling past the windshield as the nose drifted inexorably to the left in a circle that would not end unless one of us took action to stop it.
The physics of flight was at play. Unannounced and invisible as it was, this might very well be a new experience for a land plane pilot. Because this exact scenario tries to act out on all airplanes as they idle on the ramp. The turn to the left never reveals itself however, due to the friction of tires on asphalt preventing that motion. But the forces are there. You can believe that.
Torque, P-factor, and a lazy but spiraling slipstream all conspire to turn the airplane to the left. Always. Even at idle. We see and feel it at high pitch and high power, during takeoff for example.
On land the effect is canceled out by the greater power of friction — another force we can’t see. It takes a seaplane, a calm day, and a few minutes of casual observation with no control inputs to see all these forces come into play in slow motion.
Yes I was a lousy student. But I would wager that I am not nearly as dumb as some of my teachers suspected I might be. Nor am I a genius.
I do have the power to learn, however. I also have the ability to observe the world around me. Those two skills help me to achieve correlation, which might be considered a super-power.
I encourage you to take flight to see if you don’t experience a similar expansion of your understanding of the world.
All good stuff! Practical experience is paramount! For those who haven’t read his book, General Chuck Yeager was one of the greatest pilots that ever lived. But what he knew; he learned from airplanes. Not books!
The greatest human art is the art is making the most of the self and its career!
The greatest human science is the science of practical, individual culture!
Dave Stevenson
Great Article, but simple correlation is NOT causation… That’s the next step in learning. Although statistics tend to be greatly misunderstood, a mechanism/model is still necessary to provide accurate predictions of performance (or correlation til your eyes bleed). Something the vaulted AI lacks. Wish you continued diligence in your endeavors. From a flight test engineer….
Yeah, the 1st time I experienced this in a seaplane was a huge “ah- ha” for me, too!!
I grew up at the old Rhinebeck Aerodrome spent my youth avoiding school and getting through it by the skin of my pants . A great article i raised three girls and only one has this natural instinct as do I . But a man named Cole palen gave me this understanding of flight and I’m still fascinated by it I became a c-5a crew chief and fly large rc airplanes which is a challenge not only can you not feel the affect of lift, pitch and roll axis but you need to see it ahead of time . Thank you for sharing this article with the world. Jim
I am also a learn by doing type. I always explained that to whatever instructors I had. Once they understood and seen the way it worked all was good. There are many people like us. We have to see and hear then do.
Very interesting discussion on learning! Thought provoking! I was actually a lousy student-couldn’t concentrate! Math and physics came to me naturally, however, and saved my bacon. In Jamie’s float plane example, the only “left turning tendency” would be prop air swirl, since the plane is level!
Amen to the learning explanation. I am an example of rote learning and getting through school only to really learn in the real world. I hated the study stuff learning to fly. But, boy the joy holding onto the yoke.
Unfortunately the difference between true comprehension and rote performance is something most instructors themselves are not equipped to differentiate.
Administered testing is one thing, what one does in a real situation is another.