PPL Flight Performance and Maneuvers 3 — Questions and Answers
Question 1: What is the best glide speed (Vg) used for?
- Maximum climb rate
- Maximum horizontal distance per unit of altitude lost (Correct answer)
- Minimum sink rate
- Maximum cruise speed
Correct answer: Maximum horizontal distance per unit of altitude lost
Best glide speed provides the greatest gliding distance for each foot of altitude lost, maximizing range in an engine-out scenario.
Question 2: During an S-turn across a road, what should the aircraft's ground track look like?
- Two spirals of increasing size
- Two half-circles of equal size on each side of the road (Correct answer)
- A straight line
- A single large circle
Correct answer: Two half-circles of equal size on each side of the road
Properly flown S-turns create two equal, semicircular ground tracks on opposite sides of the reference line.
Question 3: What primarily causes a spin to develop?
- Excess airspeed
- A stall combined with yaw (Correct answer)
- Too much flap extension
- High engine RPM
Correct answer: A stall combined with yaw
A spin results when one wing is more stalled than the other, producing autorotation from stall plus yaw.
Question 4: How does a headwind affect takeoff ground roll distance?
- Increases the ground roll
- Decreases the ground roll (Correct answer)
- Has no effect
- Only affects landing
Correct answer: Decreases the ground roll
A headwind reduces the groundspeed needed to reach liftoff airspeed, shortening the ground roll.
Question 5: What is the standard rate turn used in instrument flying?
- 1 degree per second
- 2 degrees per second
- 3 degrees per second (Correct answer)
- 5 degrees per second
Correct answer: 3 degrees per second
A standard rate turn is 3 degrees per second, completing a 360-degree turn in two minutes.
Question 6: When performing slow flight, what control input compensates for the reduced rudder and aileron effectiveness?
- Larger, coordinated control deflections (Correct answer)
- Reducing power to idle
- Retracting the flaps fully
- Increasing pitch aggressively
Correct answer: Larger, coordinated control deflections
At low airspeeds control surfaces are less effective, requiring larger and well-coordinated inputs.
Question 7: What is the effect of extending flaps on the aircraft's stall speed?
- Raises stall speed
- Lowers stall speed (Correct answer)
- No effect
- Doubles the stall speed
Correct answer: Lowers stall speed
Flaps increase the wing's lift coefficient, allowing controlled flight at a lower stall speed.
PPL Flight Performance and Maneuvers 3
What is the best glide speed (Vg) used for?