this is the FAA part 107 remote pilot study guide 2025 and in this video we're going to be discussing aircraft factors this is a crucial topic for passing the part 107 exam and becoming a certified drone pilot the topics covered in this video will be center of gravity balance and stability load factors stall speeds angle of attack critical angle of attack and there will be part 107 questions at the end of this video with the answers all in detail let's start first by discussing the center of gravity and this is one of the most crucial factors affecting an aircraft's stability control and performance this location this point of reference the center of gravity is the exact place where the total weight of the aircraft is distributed evenly in all directions and to make this clear in your head if you took a string and glued it to the center of gravity on the plane and then held the plane up and suspend it in the air with the string the plane would be perfectly level in all directions and the reason why this is so crucial is because the location of the center of gravity significantly impacts an aircraft's stability and controllability during flight now a question does come to mind here who is responsible for calculating this center of gravity well I don't know if that question is going to be on the part 107 exam or not but I'm going to tell you it is the manufacturer of the aircraft that usually determines this center of gravity with their special scales and reference points but just to give you an idea before we get too deep the center of gravity is typically located slightly forward of What's called the center of lift we'll discuss that in just a few minutes now most people would probably tell you that the center of gravity is located near the wings of a fixed wi aircraft but that is not entirely correct you see the center of gravity is determined by the distribution of weight throughout the aircraft think about this you're the pilot you're flying the plane there are other factors such as fuel cargo passengers that all have weight distribution and you can't only just think about a fixed wi aircraft what about a drone that has batteries and is involved in an operation where it's carrying payload these are all factors that you must know about so now that you know this information let me ask you a question what would the center of gravity do to an aircraft if the center of gravity point was a little bit too far forward well of course it would make the aircraft become nose and opposite of that what if the center of gravity was too far aft or towards the tail well the aircraft will become tail heavy and by telling you all of this and asking you these questions I creatively put a visual impression in your mind that if the aircraft were to be loaded with people or cargo that somehow that center of gravity will need to be maintained now here's something that will be on the part 107 exam write this down changing the center of gravity beyond the limits of what the aircraft was designed for will negatively impact the performance of the aircraft and when they say negatively impact what they mean is that it will be more difficult to maneuver a higher takeoff and landing speed low stall speed less control of the aircraft and you can see why the center of gravity is so important and I have just segwayed gracefully into what is the next topic and that is called load factor and this is a critical Concept in aviation because load factor is essentially an aerodynamic concept that directly impacts an aircraft's performance structural integrity and safety this critical concept is what you will see on the part 107 exam and you will need to know how to calculate load factor I will show you how to do that in a few minutes now you should already have an idea that we're discussing fixed wi aircrafts in regard to load Factor but drones also have an application of load Factor we will also be discussing that as well now here's the definition of load Factor load factor is about how much force or G forces an aircraft experiences during Maneuvers the basic flight Maneuvers that I'm referring to are for example flying straight and level which is maintaining a constant altitude climbs which increases the altitude descents which lower the altitude and then we have turns which is changing direction by banking the aircraft now there's something I want you to put into your head right now load Factor does not have anything to do with how much weight weight you have on an aircraft in order to take off that is a completely different terminology called required lift or takeoff performance it involves what's called a lift to weight ratio that is a completely different calculation and is not considered as load Factor what we're concerned about is how does the aircraft feel in regard to weight when making flight Maneuvers and again I'm going to stress that this is critical because if the aircraft is making a banked turn at a steep angle there 's a possibility that the aircraft will stall in mid-flight and would you want to be sitting on that plane with a pilot who did not know how to calculate load Factor well I'm going to make sure that I bring this video on the plane with me and what you can do is hit that subscribe button now let me break down an analogy so you really understand what I'm talking about here imagine that you're cruising in your car down a straight highway at a constant speed you will not feel any forces that are pushing you from side to side right just a normal downward pull of gravity this is almost exactly the same as an aircraft flying at level flight with 1G normal weight of gravity now imagine that you're driving on that same straight road and you suddenly turn the steering wheel drastically to the right both you and your passengers will feel a sudden push to the left and you're still sitting in your seat but you feel as if you weigh more because you're being pressed against a car door didn't I just give you the Perfect Analogy for you to understand the increased load Factor well this analogy is exactly the same on an aircraft but I wouldn't say exactly because an aircraft can go in many directions up down side to side roll pitch but you understand the concept in aviation when an aircraft makes a steep banked turn the load Factor increases it's similar to how your body feels heavier when you're involved in a turn now let me impress you with another analogy if you're in your car and you're making a minor Lane change let's say a 30° turn then the load Factor will only increase slightly but if you make a sharp turn at high speed just like if you were exiting a freeway too quickly it would be like a 60° Bank turn on an aircraft and it would double the load Factor you see this isn't just about going left to right like you would in your car we're talking about an aircraft that has axes or angles where it can fly in all directions up down side to side whatever have you ever been on a roller coaster and a roller coaster is going up slowly and you feel okay you're at 1G gravity until the roller coaster gets to the top and it starts dropping just a little bit and your body starts feeling lighter this is load factor and then when the roller coaster takes that sharp turn or that dip your body feels heavy and it's pressed against the side of the roller coaster this is what's called load Factor but a roller coaster is on a track where it's relatively safe sometimes but on an aircraft an aircraft is suspended fly flying in the air that has no support So load factor is critical and now that I have your full attention let me show you how to calculate load Factor because this is going to be on the part 107 exam go to your Airman knowledge testing supplement and turn to figure two so you can find the load factor chart now look at this chart carefully do you see in blue it says the bank angle or angle of bank well the first one is 0° and I want to explain to you what these actually means so you become familiar at 0° Bank angle this means that the aircraft is completely level meaning that the wings are perfectly horizontal this is called straight and level flight and when an aircraft is flying perfectly straight Wings horizontal that puts the load Factor at 1G normal weight and I know what you're asking what does 1G normal weight mean well I'm going to explain it to you do you see the green column with load factor and right next to to the 0° says 1.0 that stands for 1 G or one Gravity Force and that means that the force acting on the aircraft and everything inside of it is equal to normal Earth gravity and I'll bet my lunch that no one has ever explained that to you in detail you see the load Factor whenever your aircraft is flying straight and level is equal to 1G just like the analogy I gave you previously in the video it's equal to when you're sitting in your car just driving on a smooth Road and you feel normal so now that I've just prepped you and you have a level of understanding let's look at 10° Bank angle a 10° Bank angle means that the aircraft is tilted 10° to turn either left or right it's a gentle turn in either direction and the wings are no longer level one is slightly lower than the other the load Factor as you can see on the chart is very close to to 1G at 1.015 so the impression that you should have right now is that a 10° Bank angle is really not significant in regard to load factor and that is provable when you look at the chart and you can see at 10° Bank angle that there's not much difference in the load Factor okay so now I'm going to get you primed and ready for the exam do you see on your chart that when the bank angle is at 0° that the load factor is 1.0 or 1 G well you tell me at what bank angle will that load Factor double and you're all looking around right now scrambling trying to figure out exactly what I'm talking about right but no 1.0 if you double that it equals 2.0 so therefore the bank angle at 60° means that the load Factor will double and I just inadvertently gave you the answer to one of the questions on the part 107 exam so here's another question based on what you've just learned learned when operating an aircraft the pilot should consider that the load Factor on the wings may increase any time a the center of gravity is shifted to the rear of the plane B the airplane is subjected to Maneuvers other than straight and level flight C the gross weight is reduced now I'm not going to give you the answer too quickly here I want you to think about what it is that we just discussed we're talking about load Factor so what would affect the load factor of an aircraft do you remember the comp comparison of 0° straight and level flight and then 60° Bank angle so what is your answer B anytime an aircraft is making any type of maneuver other than a straight and level flight the load Factor will increase and that is on a part 107 exam now referring to the weight of an aircraft we also have to take into consideration the structural Integrity of an aircraft don't we especially if it's a heavy aircraft loaded don't we have to have a calculation for when it's banking or turning and consider the structural Integrity when it's required to support a certain weight how do we figure this out how do we calculate this structural support based on Bank angle or degrees and this is an important question because it's on the part 107 exam so you need to get this right I'm going to show you how to calculate the support weight based on a specific banking Angle now you may need to use a calculator for this and remember the FAA will allow you to bring a calculator to the exam as long as it's basic now to determine how much weight an aircraft structure must support when banking at a specific angle you'll need to calculate two things the aircraft's weight multiplied by the load Factor gForce this is the calculation that you'll use when you need to find the specific weight that an aircraft's structure must support so the key thing to remember here for the exam is if they are providing you with the aircraft's weight and the banking angle then you'll be able to find the total weight that the aircraft's structure must support let me show you how to do it now looking back at your chart let's think of a scenario how much weight would my aircraft be able to support if for example I was in a 40° Bank angle so when I hear a question like that I am immediately looking at the red line on the graph just above 40° do you see how I'm giving you an instinctive reaction to an exam question well this chart is providing us with the answer a 40° Bank angle will have an approximate load factor of 1.3 do you see how I'm marking that on the chart and it estimates almost at about 1.3 it's not exactly at 1.5 and for the exam you'll need to just guesstimate that value so now that I have the 1.3 as my load Factor well what was the aircraft's weight on the FAA part 107 question well let's just say it was 50 lb all you need to do now is multiply 50 lb * 1.3 and that will give you your answer the total weight that an aircraft weighing 50 lb must support when making a banked turn at 40° is 65b do you see how I did that so if I ask you a question now similar to what you'll get on the part 107 exam do you think you'd be able to answer it well let's try it out refer to fa- c-88 d2h figure two if an aircraft weighs 33 lb what approximate weight would the aircraft structure be required to support during a 30° banked turn while maintaining altitude and as you can see I've put the multiple choice answers on screen and I'm not going to give you the answer this time because this is an actual part 107 exam question and I promise you if you try to guess then you will get an incorrect answer so do the calculation and if you still can't get this one right just send me a comment and I will give you a detailed answer now let's talk about stall speed and what exactly is that and what does it mean and what exactly are the factors that would contribute to a plane just flying in midair and all of a sudden come to a stall and just so you know there are a few mitigating factors such as the weight of the aircraft The increased coefficient of lift the altitude and also the configuration of the Wings much more to elaborate but I'm going to discuss primarily what is going to be on the part 107 exam now in regard to stall speed there is a relative connection between what you just just learned load factor and stall speed they are somewhat relatable now what I'm about to explain to you may ultimately confuse you or you just may want to stand up and shout for Joy I don't know but I'm going to do my best to give you all of the details so here is the definition of an aircraft stall an aircraft stall happens when the airf flow over the wings of an airplane becomes disrupted causing a loss of lift and stall speed is defined as the minimum speed at which the aircraft can maintain level flight without stalling and do you see how I gave you both definitions at the same time write them down stalls are relatable to the wing of the aircraft and stall speed is relatable to the weight of the aircraft so here's the confusing part the more weight that you have on an aircraft the higher the stall speed so what does it mean when I'm saying the higher the stall speed here we go imagine this suppose you loaded an aircraft and it is a extremely heavy well in order to get that thing to lift off the ground you would have to go much faster as opposed to an aircraft that was extremely light it would not need to go fast at all to get off the ground so the heavier plane since it is flying much faster well it will have a much higher stall speed rather than the plane that's lighter and not traveling too fast will have a lower stall speed do you get that probably the first time that anyone has ever explained it to you that way and I'm going to put the icing on the cake by giving you a concise summary heavier plane traveling faster so the stall speed will be high a light plane traveling slower so the stall speed will be low and remember when a plane stalls that means that it has reached the lowest possible speed when it can no longer maintain altitude so here's an FAA exam question for you you're operating a small unmanned aircraft system suas under part 107 regulations how does the increase of your aircraft's weight affect the stall speed now I'm smiling because after that amazing explanation I just gave you you should already know the answer B stall speed increases as the weight increases now let's move on to a topic where I am extremely passionate about explaining and it is called critical angle of attack and this is one of the most important Concepts in aerodynamics and before I tell you about critical angle of attack let me give you a great analogy for how you can remember exactly what it is that this actually incorporates now imagine that you're running up a hill on a steady Pace at first the slight incline is very gentle and you keep running without much effort but as the angle of the Hill starts to increase and it gets steeper it takes more effort to keep moving forward and if the hill becomes too steep no matter how hard you try your legs will not be able to generate enough Force to keep running this is similar to critical angle angle of attack on an airplane I'm going to explain critical angle of attack is the maximum angle between the cord line of the aircraft's wing and the relative wind before the wing stalls once an aircraft exceeds this angle the airflow over the wing separates causing a loss of lift and this results in a stall now the important thing to remember here is that the critical angle will always remain the same for a given aircraft and it's typically around 17 to 20° but here's the most interesting thing about this regardless of air speed regardless of weight regardless of altitude that critical angle of attack will always remain the same and what I mean is that if you're going really slow or if you're just flying really fast or if you have excessive weight or if your aircraft is super light or if you're at high altitude or if you're flying at low altitude it does not matter the critical angle of attack where your airplane will St will occur at the same exact angle and that is very interesting to me isn't it to you so continuing with this let me ask you a part 107 exam question what happens when an unmanned aircraft reaches or exceeds the critical angle of attack a the aircraft will experience a sudden lift B the aircraft will enter into a stall due to the airflow separation or C the aircraft will automatically recover by reducing its angle of attack well by the examples that I just gave you you should already know the answer but I'm going to give it to you anyway the answer is B the aircraft will enter a stall due to the airflow separation let me show you an interesting diagram of what actually happens to an airplane wing when it reaches the critical angle of attack you can see the top diagram is indicating a smooth air flow that means the air both above and below is following the shape of the Wings smoothly creating a pressure difference low pressure at the top and high pressure at the bottom and that difference in pressure is what is generating lift now the diagram in the middle is showing you that the angle of attack has increased and what's happening here is that the air flow at the top of the wing must speed up in order to maintain lift and as the air flow increases it struggles a little to stay attached to the upper surface of the wing because of the increased angle of attack you can see in the diagram how the air flow is beginning to separate from the wing now the diagram at the bottom is indicating that it is a stall and you can see clearly that the wing has now reached its critical angle of attack the air has now separated from the upper surface of the wing and now it has become turbulent under this condition lift will rapidly decrease drag will dramatically increase so what you have here is an aircraft that has no lift and a lot of drag almost like if somebody hit the brakes in midair and what makes it even worse is that at this point it no longer has the ability to counteract gravity so guess what's going to happen now the critical angle of attack is what every pilot needs to know because if you exceed that critical angle of attack then the aircraft will inevitably stall now the only thing that you need to remember in regard to the part 107 exam is that they will have a question that will ask you what will happen when an aircraft exceeds the critical angle of attack it will stall or they will ask you what is a condition that will incur a stall on an aircraft and the answer will be it is exceeding the critical angle of attack and if this is all that you remember from this video you will answer that question correctly now I'm in the process of finishing another video for next week this is going to be about CRM single pilot Resource Management risk management risk and Hazard human factors decision-making process and a whole bunch of stuff that you're going to need for the 107 exam stay tuned to this Channel next week you'll see that upload and until then we'll see you on the next one