Shouldn't a certificated pilot know?

Are the 4 main factors (torque, pitch factor (p-factor), gyroscopic force, slipstream) that contribute to left turning tendency in an aircraft something that has only recently been taught in the FAA Private curriculum? Is it taught in other country's civil aviation certification curricula?

The reason I bring this up is because I ask this question in the registration form to prove the registrant is not a spam bot, and about 25% don't answer 1 of the above factors. I suppose it really doesn't matter as it's only an anti-spam measure, but come on!


Some answers I've gotten:

heavy left wing (I think this one was tongue in cheek If so, I laughed.)
up aileron
prop inertia
left rudder (clever)
wind
yawing
pitch
lift
angle of attack

Cue the political jokes.

I will take a stab at it.............. Most planes are in a slightly nose high attitude during the take off roll. The prop blade has a better angle of attack on the decending blade then the ascending blade has. so the one with the better bite into the air gets better traction and on a plane with a regular rotating engine that makes the blade on the co pilots side bite better, that pulls the front of the plane to the left... Make sense ???

Ben

I have been around equipment all my life and pick up on mechanical things fairly quickly.
The knowledge test is what I stressed about. Hope I was not in that 25%.

I will take a stab at it.............. Most planes are in a slightly nose high attitude during the take off roll. The prop blade has a better angle of attack on the decending blade then the ascending blade has. so the one with the better bite into the air gets better traction and on a plane with a regular rotating engine that makes the blade on the co pilots side bite better, that pulls the front of the plane to the left... Make sense ???

Ben

Or it could be the cyclonic effect of my butt sucking up the seat cushion when things are going awry that causes the Counter Clockwise rotation of the aircraft when viewed from above!

Stol wrote:I will take a stab at it.............. Most planes are in a slightly nose high attitude during the take off roll. The prop blade has a better angle of attack on the decending blade then the ascending blade has. so the one with the better bite into the air gets better traction and on a plane with a regular rotating engine that makes the blade on the co pilots side bite better, that pulls the front of the plane to the left... Make sense ???

Ben

Now to register at BCP in the last month you'd have to distill that down to a single term.

The point of my post was not really to quiz anyone, but to ask if this was part of your training. If it wasn't, where/when did you get your ground school?

Ground school??

Gezz...

Wasn't that lesson 101? Of course if you are flying one of those Commie engines, counter rotating props or a Rolls Royce turbo prop then is a another story.

Bob

Answer: Insufficient right rudder.

To answer your question. Left turning tendency was one of the first things my instructor discussed with me on my first flying lesson in 1984. The airplane was a nose wheel with a right hand propeller. I have never run across the question on BCP when logging in or anything but if I did my answer would be "Gyroscopic precession". That is the one I notice most often and was very pronounced when I transitioned from nose wheel with right rand propeller to a tail wheell with left hand propeller. On initial throttle it yaws right slightly, when the tail comes up it yaws hard to the right, and on climb out it yaws right slightly.

Gyroscopic pression in my C-180. stick pressure in my glider.

Seems like they asked me that question on every bi-annual flight review - which forced me to finally commit it to memory

Maybe I am missing something here? Other than Zanes question for spam control who cares about naming the 4 factors, we all know it takes right rudder under power.

Zane,

I learned to fly in 1969. The factors causing left turning tendency were hammered then just as now, perhaps more so.

MTV

Zane, how is that question worded in the registration form? Is it just "What causes left-turning tendency?" I can understand how that might make people wonder how to answer. There are lots of things that can cause a plane to have a left-turning tendency.

"Please answer this simple question to help keep spambots out:
Name one of the 4 contributing factors to left-turning tendency in an aircraft."

Maybe I need a new question.

Well considering other recent threads, people may simply have a problem spelling "torque." Fail.

1SeventyZ wrote:"Please answer this simple question to help keep spambots out:
Name one of the 4 contributing factors to left-turning tendency in an aircraft."

Maybe I need a new question.

How about "Name them there flat thingys sticking out the sides of the aeroplaney"?

...a flat left tire?

In my dad's ultralight I can turn by hanging either leg out into the relative wind.

mtv wrote:Zane,

I learned to fly in 1969. The factors causing left turning tendency were hammered then just as now, perhaps more so.

MTV

mtv,
Probably a dumb question, but why is that important to know what the "four" factors are? Important enough to ask about on a flight review? I am not saying it is not good to fully understand what exactly keeps us in the air, but more importantly the seat of the pants feel telling you more right rudder.