Page 15 - PDF_Flip_Book

Rod Machado’s Private/Commercial Pilot Handbook
5-24

Fig. 41

THE INSIDE OF AN ATTITUDE INDICATOR
Fig. 40

Gyro is in a sealed unit
an airplane in a nose-down pitch atti-
tude while in a right turn at 20° of bank.
Have you noticed that I have not
mentioned climbing or descending in
reference to pitch attitude? Even
though a nose-up pitch attitude is
normally associated with a climb,
there are occasions where it’s not.
For instance, Figure 40 shows three
different flight conditions associated
with a nose-up pitch attitude. The
airplane may either be climbing with
full power, cruising with limited
power, or stalling with no power. All
these conditions are associated with a
nose-up pitch attitude. When flying
by reference to instruments, the only
way you can tell what your airplane
is doing is to consult some of the
other flight instruments. You will
learn about this a little later on.
How does the attitude indicator (as
well as the other gyro-based instru-
ments) accomplish the mysterious
task of portraying attitude? It does
this through a gyroscopic principle Fig. 42