Why don't we feel it when the airplane is tilted?

Question

When we are in the plane and the airplane is turning/tilting so it's wings are diagonal, why is it we can't feel it from our seats inside the plane??!

Answer 1

Gravity pulls you to the center of the tilt or what's called the axis. It's what is called centrifugal force.

Answer 2

Ok, forgetting about accelerating and decelerating (coz you'd feel that) and the use of throttle, flaps etc the movements made by a pilot to position a plane are Roll, Pitch and Yaw.
While in steady flight, all the forces, not withstanding very high winds, turbulance etc, that would cause one of those 3 movements are in balance.
A pilot could turn a plane simply by using Yaw (controlled by the rudder), but this would have the plane slewing all over the place and passengers meals in their laps etc.
So, the pilot adds a little Roll to the mix to allow the movement to be more of a slide. However, this is not enough as the plane's velocity is now lost in the angular momentum created by the turn and it starts to drop.
So the pilot adds a little upwards Pitch to the plane's nose to allow the aerofoil of the plane's wings to "bite" into the air a bit more and create lift.
A good pilot will be able to keep all the forces in balance for most turns and not have to play catch up as the forces change the dynamics of the flight profile.

Answer 3

for a shallow turn you should experience a reaction force from the side of your seat = m*v^2/r, the centripetal force needed to keep you and the plane on the circular curve: If r is large then this would mainly be supplied by the force of friction between your butt and the seat, just as it is when your car takes a wide curve. For high speed turns esp in vert dir at bottom of curve the centripital force can be several times that due to gravity. This is what made 'Nemisis' and the Lockheed SR 71 so much fun...

Answer 4

While turning, a plane is on a circular trajectory, so it banks in order that the resultant vector of the downward vector of gravity and the horizontal vector of centrifugal force is aligned with the vertical axis of the airframe. To a passenger sitting in a seat, sensations of "up" and "down" are aligned with that resultant vector. Because the magnitude of the resultant vector is greater than the magnitude of the gravity vector, the g force is greater, so you actually weigh more while the plane is turning. This is ordinarily unnoticeable in a passenger jet, but in a military aircraft turning in a tight radius, the g force becomes a problem with which the air crew must cope.

Answer 5

When the plane is tilted it is turning. Any change in direction (turning) requires acceleration. We feel gravity as acceleration, when the plane is turning, you are being accelerated into your seat and not necessarily towards the ground.

If you do a roll in an airplane you can feel the same phenomenon even while upside down you will feel as though the earth is up.

Answer 6

After takeoff, the pilot factors the airplane, organising a correction perspective into the wind with a view to maintain the required flightpath, exceedingly if there's a solid go-wind. If the pilot have been to easily objective straight away, the go-wind could push the airplane, changing this is flightpath.

Answer 7

Readalot is correct as far as "forces" are concerned.
All rests, in fact, in the abilities of the pilot...
The "angle of bank" while turning is caused by the ailerons, that "bank" the aircraft. If the pilot did just that, you would feel a centrifugal force pushing you toward the outside of the curve, instead of just a slight increase in "weight" toward your seat (the "vertical" for you). However, the pilot SHOULD compensate by using a bit of rudder and a bit of nose up, thus aligning the resultante force with your apparent vertical. This is called "keeping the aircraft in BALANCE".
If you feel a lateral movement (sideway), your pilot is not that good!

Answer 8

Weird!! I've flown a fair amount and always sense when the aircraft is tilted.... window seat??? More obvious there... maybe in a wide body aircraft sitting in the middle, you would be less likely to feel the tilt...

Answer 9

Centrifugal force. It's the same as swinging water around in a bucket really fast, the water won't come out. Also similar to riding a motorcycle through curves.

Answer 10

Because a commercial airliner doesn't make fast, tight turns, if they make turns at all they are wide and sweeping, meaning a slight bank as opposed to a radical one... do you feel it when you take a slight bank in your car? Probably not.