How does a pilot change the angle of attack?

Question

I know that lift increases with increasing velocity, and that pilots keep lift constant as velocity increases by decreasing the angle of attack. Now my question is: how do they change the angle of attack?

Answer 1

Well, the short answer is "push, decrease angle of attack, pull to increase the angle of attack."

However you seem to be describing entering cruise flight, which would be adjusted by trimming the nose down (to decrease the angle of attack) That would be done by moving the elevator trim wheel up, or pushing the elevator trim thumb-switch up.

Trimming is often poorly taught, and it's good to know that you're actually trimming the airplane to maintain a certain airspeed.(angle of attack) If you have the airplane trimmed for level flight, and you increase power, the airplane will climb. Decrease power, and the airplane will descend. (maintaining that airspeed & angle of attack)

Angle of attack is also not the angle of the wing relative to the ground, but the angle of the wing to the relative wind. (it's airflow over the wing that's important, not which way the wing is pointing in space.)

A stall is simply attempting to fly beyond the critical angle of attack. (so, yes, increasing power can change the relative wind, and be the stall recovery.)

Hope that's not too much.

Answer 2

The simplistic answer is that in a conventional fixed-wing aircraft you generally use the elevator on the tail to raise and lower the nose (i.e. change the pitch attitude), which also changes the angle of attack of the wings, altering lift. However, without moving the elevator, just changing power settings (in a powered aircraft) or even the act of banking the wings or deploying various other control surfaces ultimately changes the angle of attack too, so the answer is not exactly as straight forward as it seems. A full analysis of the interplay between all forces involved can be quite complex, but the quickest and easiest explanation is to use the elevator.

These links may help:

http://www.aerospaceweb.org/question/aer...

http://www.av8n.com/how/htm/aoa.html

Answer 3

By using the elevators. You can also use the flaps and increasing or decreasing speed.

Answer 4

Hit the eject button

Angle of attack is just the the angle between the relative wind and the aircrafts wing. Therefore the angle of attack is changed by either raising or dropping the nose (using the elevators) hope that helps!

The elevators are controlled by the control column in the aircraft. You push the nose down (or the column forward) to decrease the angle of attack and you pull the column back (nose up) to increase the angle of attack

Answer 5

Angle of attack is just the the angle between the relative wind and the aircrafts wing. Therefore the angle of attack is changed by either raising or dropping the nose (using the elevators) hope that helps!

The elevators are controlled by the control column in the aircraft. You push the nose down (or the column forward) to decrease the angle of attack and you pull the column back (nose up) to increase the angle of attack

Answer 6

If you picture an old time by-plane you will notice in the back (aft) of the plane there is a small wing, called the horizontal stabilizer, or stab.  And on the stab. there are control surfaces, called elevators.  They move up and down on a horizontal pivot.  The elevators are connected by a cable to the elevator control lever in the cockpit, this is the joystick thing you see in the movies.  When the pilot pulls back on the stick the elevators move up and the air passing over the elevators push down on the back end of the plane.  We know from Newton that every action has an equal and opposite reaction, therefore making the back of the plane go down makes the front of the plane go up.

Answer 7

Mainly raising or dropping the nose is done with the elevator through the control column or stick but if you are flying in a straight line and want to maintain the straight line, and lower the nose this gets into angle of attack.

Angle of attack is basically the angle of which the wing slides through the air.  Thus the slower the craft flys the higher the angle of attack, or with more wing loading, the higher the angle of attack.  The pilot mostly only changes speed to change angle of attack, however flap settings and G loadings are also other factors to consider.

The nose is lowered in an aircraft when it starts to pick up speed as the wing needs less AOA to maintain the same lift as going at a slower speed.  Also you can lower the nose of an aircraft decending to land or taking off by applying flaps.  This creates a higher angle of attack along with more wing area to create more lift near the inside of the wings, in effect lowering the nose somewhat so you can see the runway better.   Most aircraft flap settings only should be set to no more than 20 degrees for takeoff because anything more will create more drag than lift and should not be used for takeoff but for landing when the drag is needed to help slow or descend the aircraft.  

In summary speed and flaps are really only the true way to change the attitude of the airplane in straight and level flight (raising or dropping the nose) unless of course you are flying a concord that the actually cockpit swivels so the pilots have better visibility.  

Answer 8

To raise the nose you'd pull back on the yoke and the elevator or stabilator would point up, thus causing a rise in pitch.

To drop the nose you'd push in the yoke and the elevator or stabilator would point down, thus causing a drop in pitch.

Hope this helps!