Monday, May 16, 2011

flying: pitch and power

Attitude meter:

1. pitch angle: up and down
2. bank angle: left and right

A properly trimmed plane or a configuration wherein Vx (airspeed) and Vy (vertical airspeed)are sorta constant.

Add time component as well.

point A: (Vx1, Vy1, t1)
point B: (Vx1, Vy2, t2)

Case 1: No power change, pitch up, what's the relationship between V's?

Vy2 > Vy1; Vx2 < Vx1, where Vy2 is positive. Case 2: No power change, pitch down, how V's change? Vy2 < Vy1; Vx2 > Vx1, where Vy2 is negative

Note: Vy is +ve during the climb, -ve during the descent.

Can you climb forever without touching throttle?

No, you reach a certain point, then you loose the lift.

Can you descend forever without touching throttle?

Nope, you reach a certain point, you gain the lift.

In other words, by playing with pitch, you end up doing sinusoidal zigzag motion. That's the reason, you should keep Vy = 0 and then trim up.

We can talk about stalls some other time.

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