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I guess the real answer is that the pressure differential between top and bottom is the bottom line on creating "lift", but after flying aerobatics in a small biplane that was really nothing more than a seatbelt with a big motor, conventional thinking leaves a lot unanswered. I guess the best part of that little airplane was the sensation that throttle had more to do with airspeed than pitch attitude. It would go from 60 to 160 faster in level flight opening the throttle than it would closing the throttle and pointing it straight down. From 180 it would knife edge all the way down a 4000 ft runway without losing a foot of altitude. Once you slowed to about 120 you ran out of enough rudder to maintain altitude. The only thing making that fly was prop and momentum. I had some people tell me that it would snap like crazy from knife edge. But one wing has to be flying to snap or spin. It takes a LOT to make an airplane snap from knife edge. I don't know if much of this translates to safer point a to b, but all knowledge is good for something. I think the reason for alot of mishaps is the fact that most factory airplanes are so docile that it is hard to not get complacent or even to learn some very basic aerodynamics that aren't real obvious in something you can fly with your feet flat on the floor. Like the 60 degree, 2 g turn raising stall speed. Yes, if you're maintaining altitude, but the 1 g stall speed doesn't change with bank angle if you're not loading up the wing more than 1 G(descending turn). But you can't teach that in a syllabis because some might load the wing on a late turn to final by pulling the plane around. So for common (and prudent) teaching an airplane pulls 2 Gs and stalls faster if it is banked 60 dgrees. I'm not advocating changing flight training to include spins or the like as I think a little information is usually only dangerous. But discusions like this do add little pieces to a big abstract puzzle. Beside that, with all the time pilots spend hanging around an airport, what else are you going to talk about? Beats watching Operah.
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