Figure 1.2: Energy Conversion -- Glide Fuel is being consumed to pay for drag and purchase altitude.
Figure 1.3: Energy Conversion -- Climb Fuel is being consumed to pay for drag. Altitude and airspeed are not changing much.
Figure 1.4: Energy Conversion – Cruise If you pull back on the yoke, the airplane will slow down and ascend. If you do it quickly enough, drag will not have time to consume very much energy, nor will the engine have time to convert very much fuel. Figure 1.5: Energy Conversion – Zoom Conversely, if you push forward on the yoke, the airplane will speed up and descend. Once again, if you do it quickly enough, drag and engine power will not affect the energy budget very much. Figure 1.6: Energy Conversion – Pushover During the early part of the takeoff roll, drag is negligible. There is no change in altitude, so virtually all engine power goes toward building up airspeed. Figure 1.7: Energy Conversion – Initial Roll An important conversion is the flare maneuver, which occurs at the end of every flight. It is possible to maintain altitude without using the engine, by gradually cashing in airspeed to pay for drag. Figure 1.8: Energy Conversion – Flare
Figure 1.2 through figure 1.8 show several examples of how one form of energy can be converted to another. We now investigate energy-conversion processes in a little more detail. 3