Aileron

My fiancée and I went out to get hamburgers today, but the burger location near our house was under renovation and a sign redirected us to another location, further out west. Not being the types to easily give up on the pursuit of juicy bison patties topped with fried onion strips, we made the trip out and, in addition to completing the burger mission, we found ourselves near one of the general aviation airports I've been contemplating as a flight school. We stopped by and I went into the office, asked about flight instruction, and scheduled a lesson for this Wednesday!

I'm not really sure what to expect and am a bit nervous. It's been a long time since I've felt nervous about something. There is a quiet fear that maybe, just maybe, I am horrible with airplanes, in the same way that I'm horrible with whistling, or jumping rope and, what then? I would have to reevaluate my whole life since I've always figured that some day I would fly airplanes.

Anyway, nervous but excited; will report back soon.

Let's start with some misconceptions of mine that have been dispelled since I started reading about aviation last fall.

Misconception № 1

An airplane wing generates lift because of its shape, Bernouli something, etc. This was fed to me in grade school and I now think the lesson was not on aerodynamics, but on questioning the questionable. Several simple observations don't jive with this explanation, e.g. (1) Airplanes can climb and descend on command; that is, lift can be altered in-flight rather precisely, yet the wing shape doesn't change. (2) Airplanes can fly upside down. If an airfoil was shaped to direct lift up, flying upside down should be impossible, but it's not. And (3) aerobatic wings are perfectly symmetrical. The shape theory would conclude that such planes are incapable of flight, but they fly quite well.

A better theory is that airfoils are designed so that air attaches to the airfoil surfaces as it flows around them. This allows the airfoils to guide and change the direction of the air, a process called flow turning. If air is directed downwards, the wings are forced upwards. The amount of redirection can be changed by changing the angle at which the airfoils meet the oncoming air (angle of attack).