How Flying Machine works in Minecraft

 Introduction

Flying Machine in Minecraft is very useful for players. from bridging in the End to reach a far distance, or working asset in farms that require constant movement to harvest outcomes, like Bamboo, Sugarcane, or Kelp. Flying machines are really useful, and they are easy to build, But to make it a much better way you have to understand what are the key elements of the contraption that make it works.

Parts of Machine

It has 3 major parts that can run the entire machine which are key element parts. You can add more for further expansion. They are Sticky Block (Honey/Slime), Observer, and Sticky Piston.

Sticky Block (Honey/Slime)

They are important as they can hold all the blocks which are sticking to it on every side. And they are also able to send redstone signals from Observer to Sticky Piston. And If you are making a flying machine, make sure you use one type of Sticky Block, You can't use Honey Block and Slime Block together. Because they don't stick to each other.

Observer

This is the one that defines when to extend the piston. Observer works on a simple working mechanism. It will give 1 tick of Redstone but with 15 signal strength. And this only happened when a block is updated in the face of the Observer.

And the conditions are very simple, A block is placed or removed in front of the Observer, a block is powered by Redstone, Block is waterlogged, or vice versa, And Observers also work as rapid signals if they are faced against each other known as Observer clock. And Observer also gives a signal when the position of the Observer is changed.

Sticky Piston

It is the heart of the machine, It pushes and pulls the block. But a Sticky piston can push and pull only if the power has lasted more than 2 ticks as the game cannot update all the block positions at the same time. So a sticky piston can push or pull only if the power is long enough, But if it is given 1 tick pulse from the Observer, it behaves differently. On one tick pulse, Sticky Piston pushes the Block but won't pull it, And when giving pulse again to Sticky Piston it pulls it. And this is how it is useful for flying machines.

Over Simplified version

This is a very simplified version to build. You have to put an observer, then a sticky piston, then 2 sticky blocks. And the same repeat but flipped version. This is the only one-way thing we can build for traveling in The End dimension.

How it works

This is how step-by-step it works.

1. A Block is placed in front of the Observer located on the opposite side of the desired direction.

2. Observer gives the pulse to Piston and Piston pushes the other half including sticky blocks, the piston, and the observer.

3. The Piston pulls back but the other blocks stay in position.
4. The other half's Observer gets updated and gives a pulse to Piston.
5. Piston extracted and pulls the other half to itself.

6. The first Observer gets update and pulses and we are back on step 2.

Returnable Flying Machine Variations

There are 2 Major types of variations, Underwater returning Flying Machines and on Ground Flying Machine.

Underwater flying machine

This is used for Kelp farms mostly and you can use it in simple areas. To build this you need Trapdoors and Obsidian that can return the system, It doesn't use any Redstone dust or item that cannot be placed underwater. And to return the system trapdoor is used for waterlogging updates

This is how you can build the contraption.

On-ground flying machine

This one needs another observer that can send a signal to push the flying machine. And this also has 2 variants as well.

Trapdoor-based Flying Machine which uses Obsidian, Redstone Dust, and Repeter. This is the design shown in the image where Observers are set upside facing and Trapdoors are triggered when Observers block to update the returning contraption after 1 tick of delay Trapdoor opens and updates itself for the flying machine observer and this is how it returns on the ground.

Returning Flying Machine

Returning contraption

The second variant is the Repeter-based returning contraption, It uses Observer and repeater on 4 tick delay. When Observer noticed the Piston in front of it, it sends signals but the repeater is on 4 ticks it sends the signal late and it is noticed by Observer in the flying machine and it returns it.

Returning Flying Machine

Returning contraption

Cautions

Be careful about using the Flying machine. it can stuck in a big pile of blocks and can be stuck there until rebuilt again. A piston can maximum pushed around 12 blocks so also be careful if any block can stick to sticky blocks so try to fly on altitude so you don't feel like bumping into anything.