In the second chapter, the book says that if you pull back on the controls, the nose goes up. That is only the whole truth if lots of things are true. For example, if you are banked to the right, the nose will go up AND you will turn right WITHOUT yaw. If you have been caught in wake turbulence, and you are upside down, the nose will go down and 3, 2, 1, you will die.

All of the text on that page in the book relates to the accompanying diagrams which clearly show the aircraft in a level attitude to begin with.

Hi. Thank you for answering my post. Naturally, I don't expect you to agree with me!

My point remains important because of the following. While the picture shows the airplane straight and level, the text does not indicate that if the wings were not level, then the text would apply. People learn things but they never really unlearn them - they can forget them, and they can learn additional things, but they never unlearn them. That means that people should, right from the start, learn that if you pull back on the controls, the nose will go towards where the top of the windscreen is, unless you are stalled or about to stall. That way, if they find themselves upside down, they have more chance of not diving into the ground. Also, pulling back on the controls, in the vain hope of the nose going up, and staying up, is a leading cause of fatal accidents. You know better than I do, someone overshoots the base leg, does a nonstandard, extra-tight turn, pulls back on the control column... and... the... nose... goes... down.

Also, when I was first thinking about this, I thought that pitch was another secondary effect of ailerons. I only realised later that the nose going down could occur without pitch. In other words, I wrongly thought that because weathercocking lowered the nose that it caused the aircraft to pitch down. I only realised later that that was wrong. Why is that relevant? Well, the only way that the text mentions to lower the nose is through the elevators. If the plane is banked, you can raise or lower the nose with the rudder, without pitch being involved.

* ... if the wings were not leve, then the text would NOT apply.

When you lower or raise the nose with rudder with the plane banked you are yawing

Please site the statisitics where that is the leading cause of fatal accidents

I said "a" leading cause, not "the" leading cause. I thought that stalling close to the ground , particularly turning on base or final, was up there with flight into IMC and engines stopping, but I might be wrong. You are right about the yaw. Thanks for the replies! If have read 6% of the PPL book so far. It really is excellent, in spite of me picking holes at it, BTW. The website with the forum and the electronic delivery of the book is great also. There might be just the same info as in the old days, but being able to read on the phone, and having access to a forum makes a HUGE difference.

Glad your enjoying it

Best of luck with your studies

Flying magazine has back issues in the ap store for free. If you look up page 25 of Ddcember 2009, there is an article about this. The article does quote a commercial training school, who would be talking themselves up, but it is interesting.