Stick and Rudder

I've been looking for a good conceptual description of aerodynamics and airplane systems. The presentation in my Jeppesen textbook doesn't quite go deep enough, and it's written like, well, a textbook.

So I stumbled upon Stick and Rudder, a book written in 1944 but still one of the more popular treatments of basic aerodynamic forces and how a properly flown airplane exploits these forces in flight. The author's style is a bit like myth-busting...explaining thoroughly how the lay person's (which is to say the student pilot's) conception of things is often wrong. He is definitely reinforcing what Joel has been teaching me: the elevator (operated by moving the control wheel forward and back) is not the "up/down" control, but the airspeed (angle of attack) control, and the throttle is not the "fast/slow" control (as it is in an automobile) but the altitude control.

I'm also finding it enjoyable to see the slight difference in how people described airplanes sixty years ago...the elevator surfaces are called "flippers" and the airplane, occasionally, a "ship".

Lesson tomorrow, but we're supposed to have light snow here in Olympia, so we'll see if VFR conditions prevail. Joel is still off work for a bit so I'm with a new instructor, Russell. I'll post if I go.