Ask me your hardest checkride questions

Explain the aerodynamic reason Va is lower with lighter weight as it relates to AOA.

tex
What checkride is this from?
Seems to me a little above a general aviation pilot’s pay grade.
 
Explain the aerodynamic reason Va is lower with lighter weight as it relates to AOA.
Explain why everyone thinks Va is Vo. Va is an airspeed (singular), the *design* maneuver speed chosen by the manufacturer based on criteria in CFR14 part 23.335(c) and does not vary with weight. *Actual* maneuver speed/corner speed *do* change with weight.

Nauga,
overstressed
 
Explain why everyone thinks Va is Vo. Va is an airspeed (singular), the *design* maneuver speed chosen by the manufacturer based on criteria in CFR14 part 23.335(c) and does not vary with weight. *Actual* maneuver speed/corner speed *do* change with weight.

Nauga,
overstressed
Like so many things in aviation, it’s because right or wrong, we’ve always done it that way. Therefore we MUST continue. ;)
 
Explain why everyone thinks Va is Vo. Va is an airspeed (singular), the *design* maneuver speed chosen by the manufacturer based on criteria in CFR14 part 23.335(c) and does not vary with weight. *Actual* maneuver speed/corner speed *do* change with weight.

Nauga,
overstressed

Because that's what the FAA (and aircraft manufacturers) used to think until they realized they contradicted themselves and invented Vo in order to try to fix it.

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How long has Vo been around?
Fair question. Another one is how long Va has been defined as *design* maneuvering speed. I'm pretty sure that predates Vo by a considerable margin, despite the confusion/contradiction @dmspilot referred to.

The problem I see with crowdsourcing <stuff> like this is that I'm never quite certain any particular examiner is going to know the correct answer either. Cue the 'cause of lift' arguments.

Nauga,
and his load cases
 
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How long has Vo been around?

I'm not sure, I think sometime in the 1990s. The problem isn't so much how long Vo has been around, but how few aircraft have been certified since then. Most pilots have experience with aircraft that only have a Va, like the 172 snippet I showed above. Plus the FAA hasn't exactly gone on any sort of public education campaign about the topic. As far as I know all of the knowledge tests still ask questions about Va, not Vo.
 
Fair question. Another one is how long Va has been defined as *design* maneuvering speed. I'm pretty sure that predates Vo by a considerable margin, despite the confusion/contradiction @dmspilot referred to.
Va has been design maneuvering speed for over 40 years for sure…and the “stall” definition was provided to me at that time. And based on where I got it, that definition was probably around in the ‘60s.
 
Explain why everyone thinks Va is Vo…

What are you guys even talking about??? I graduated from a prestigious four year degree puppy mill (not that one) ((not that one either)) And “Aerodynamics for Naval Aviators” was not on the reading list.
Next time I’m at the airport I’m going to have to look for some Sport Pilot pay grades and ask them why I need to know this stuff.
 
What are you guys even talking about??? I graduated from a prestigious four year degree puppy mill (not that one) ((not that one either)) And “Aerodynamics for Naval Aviators” was not on the reading list.
Next time I’m at the airport I’m going to have to look for some Sport Pilot pay grades and ask them why I need to know this stuff.
If you never plan to be protected by those speeds, don’t worry about it.
 
Then it’s settled then - I will never fully and abruptly jam my stick forward into the instrument panel (at any weight), and I won’t have to worry about it.
 
Then it’s settled then - I will never fully and abruptly jam my stick forward into the instrument panel (at any weight), and I won’t have to worry about it.
And make sure to move it less when you’re slower. Or more. And don’t fly anything where Vb is Va.
 
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