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You’ll notice some colored markings on the ASI. The green

arc is the normal operating range; its lower edge is the speed at

which the airplane will stall with flaps retracted. The beginning of

the white arc, at a somewhat lower speed, is where the airplane

will stall with its flaps extended all the way; the top of the white

arc is the fastest you’re allowed to fly with them extended (any-

thing faster will put too much stress on them). The yellow arc,

which begins at the top end of the green one, is a caution range -

it’s okay to fly there if the air is smooth, but if it’s bumpy, you risk

over-stressing the airplane. (In the 172, about the only way you’ll

even get into the yellow is if you’re coming downhill with a fair

amount of power on.)

Finally, at the top of the yellow arc, there’s a redline, called

the “never-exceed speed.” That’s exactly what they mean: fly faster

than that, and you’re a test pilot. Make an abrupt control move-

ment above redline, or hit a good solid gust, and you could find

yourself literally “walking on air.”

THE ATTITUDE GYRO

At the center of the top row is the “other

single most important instrument,” certainly

the most important if you’re flying on instru-

ments: the attitude gyro, often also called

the “artificial horizon.”

This is the instrument you’ll use to

control the airplane when you can’t see out

the windshield. Without gyro instruments, even

the most skilled pilot can’t tell if the airplane is flying straight or

turning, flying level, climbing, or descending, unless he or she can

see the real horizon out in front.

At the center of the attitude gyro is a little symbolic airplane,

which always remains in a fixed position. The rest of the instru-

ment moves behind it. The blue portion represents the sky, the

black or brown portion the ground, with the division between

them showing the horizon. Thus, as you maneuver the actual air-

plane, you’ll see the horizon in the instrument move to show your

attitude, your position in space.

The scale at the top of the instrument reads actual bank

angle, with small marks every ten degrees up to 30 degrees, then

two more marks at 60 and 90 degrees.

INSTRUMENTS: THE “SACRED SIX”

Since you’ll be spending most of your time looking at the

six main flight instruments, we’ll cover each in detail. By the way,

this particular arrangement of them - two rows of three, with a spe-

cific location for each - is standard worldwide. You’ll find the

same arrangement in all the airplanes in FLY! that have conven-

tional round instruments - and even the Hawker Jet, with its all-

electronic display, presents its information in a similar order. The

information presented here is equally valid for all the rest of the

airplanes in FLY!, so feel free to refer back here if you have ques-

tions later on in your FLYing career.

THE AIRSPEED INDICATOR

At the top left of the flight instrument group is

what’s probably the single most important dial

in the whole airplane: the airspeed indicator,

often abbreviated ASI.

Functionally, it’s very simple: nothing

more than a pressure gauge, connected to a

small tube (the pitot - pronounced pee-toe -

tube) that’s mounted on the outside of the air-

plane, with its open end facing forward. The faster you fly, the

more air pressure is rammed into the pitot tube and indicated on

the ASI - which of course is calibrated, not in pounds per square

inch, but in knots. A knot is one nautical mile per hour, or 1.15

mph. We’ll discuss later why we use knots instead of miles per

hour - but since a knot already means “one nautical mile an hour,”

you’ll mark yourself as a dweeb if you ever say “knots per hour.”

Strictly speaking, the ASI is accurate only at sea level and at

a standard temperature (15 deg. C/59 deg. F, if you’re interested).

At any higher altitude or temperature, the speed you see on the ASI

(called indicated airspeed, and abbreviated IAS) is somewhat

lower than how fast you’re actually going (called true airspeed,

abbreviated TAS). This information can be useful for navigation,

but what does it have to do with how you actually fly the airplane?

Nothing. The same factors that affect the ASI also affect the air

moving over the wings and propeller. The airplane “doesn’t know”

the difference between IAS and TAS: you’ll lift off, maneuver, and

land your airplane at the same indicated airspeeds whether you’re

flying from Miami, at sea level, or Leadville, Colorado, at almost

10,000 feet.

Flight Instruction