Hi Megzy,
Apologies that we haven't got to your post sooner. Bob and I were up at the Ingham airshow last weekend and now I'm sitting in Brisbane airport about to catch a flight to Frankfurt. Ah, the wonders of modern technology
The others have done an admirable job of answering your questions so there isn't much more to add. Aerodynamics is one of those funny subjects where it seems initially quite complicated but if you can get you head round a few basic concepts you can actually work most things out from first principles. Understanding the interaction of the four 'virtual' forces acting on an aeroplane is the basis of this.
Looking at your question on IAS and TAS, think about what happens to air as you ascend in the atmosphere. The air gets less dense. Now, the airspeed indicator tells you about the amount of force being created by the relative airflow, in other words the dynamic pressure. If you ignore the fact that the ASI is calibrated to show numbers , it really does nothing except indicate the amount of force produced by the airstream.
If the air gets thinner the amount of force it can produce at a given speed is less. So, to maintain the same amount of force you need to move faster.
The wing generates the lift force in order to offset weight. For a constant weight, you will need a certain amount of lift to support it. If you didn't support it, the aircraft would not maintain level flight. Also, the amount of lift you need is the same no matter the altitude. So somehow, you need to generate it.
At altitude we already saw the air is thinner so you will need to move faster to generate the same force from the wings as you would at lower altitude in thicker air. Your true airspeed through the air must therefore be higher but, since the ASI measures the force of the relative airflow, it will still read the same as it did at the lower altitude because even though the relative airflow is faster it is thinner and therefore exerting less force than you might expect.
Stalling speed at higher altitude: TAS is higher for same IAS
When you study the graphs you mention try and picture what is happening to lift, to drag and the thrust or power required at each point in the graph. If you can understand that, the overall shape of the graph begins to make sense and becomes easier to interpret (and also easier to memorise
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Uh-oh, got to dash, they're boarding now. Good luck with your study and thanks everyone for chipping in to help. This is what we hoped would happen with the forums - everyone getting in there and helping each other out. Great!
Cheers,
Rich