Van's Air Force
Don't miss anything! Register now for full access to the definitive RV support community.
Return to runway after engine failure
- Thread starter L'Avion
- Start date
I'm really glad nobody asked whether it was possible for a sailboat to travel directly downwind faster than the wind...
Or better yet, for an iceboat to go 75 mph in a 20 mph wind..... (Talk about fun!!!)
But we are off topic....
At the risk of beating a seriously dead horse, the physics remain the physics, and in a constant velocity wind, the wind has no effect on a turning airplane.... Whether at 50 ft or 5000 ft.... This is not a theory, it is a cold hard fact....
I am not an Ag pilot, but as a surface level aerobatic waiver holder, I do "Duster Turns" at 135 degrees of bank, at low level during airshows and I know EXACTLY what everyone is talking about, and it is real, and it is the desire to extract the perceived acceleration caused by turning downwind.... And the result is the airplane feels like it is falling out of the sky, because it is, but it is because the pilot is pulling back on the lever, not because of the wind....
When a turn is made close to the ground, it becomes a ground reference maneuver, and the wind has a huge impact. Done close to the ground at high angles of bank, it can get very exciting or deadly....
The other issue is ground friction... in the bottom 50 to 100 feet of the sky the surface friction slows the wind. This means that a climbing or descending turn will encounter wind sheer, and that will have an impact on the energy state of the airplane..... This is most noticed on X-wind landings when the AWOS is reporting a workable wind, but at 200 ft, the nose is 40 degrees off runway heading and a landing looks impossible, but as you round out in the flare, it all becomes possible, because of surface friction reducing the velocity of the wind changing the direction of it. This too is very real, but it is not the "downwind turn" kinetic energy reason that people want to believe.....
Tailwinds,
Doug Rozendaal
