ORIGINAL: siclick33
quote:
ORIGINAL: siclick33
Ok, i'll ask another question then.
When you fly a perfect loop in front of you (as if I do) why do the control inputs differ depending on where the wind is coming from?
As a former full-scale aerobatic competitor, this quite sensible Q is close to my heart.
The answer is that u are adjusting the path thru a moving body of air to make the loop LOOK round from your perspective. But what the airplane is actually DOING is not a rounf loop at all, it's flying an elliptical loop that has been ''squished down''. Note that the wind affects the VISUAL SHAPE of a loop from YOUR perspective as you remain fixed to the ground. The wind does not affect the ''feel'' or aerodynamics of the loop from the airplanes perspecive. It is YOUR PERSPECTIVE that is changed, not the aerodynamics :-)))
Draw a loop on a piece of paper. Then do it with your eyes closed till you can consistently make a fairlt round loop. THEN do the same thing as someone else slowly pulls the paper sideways.
And taking this to an extreme to try to explain my thoughts.
Assume flying at 100 knots in a 100 knot tailwind and pulling up for a loop.
The only way you will penetrate into wind over the top (to make a round loop) is to increase your airspeed. This is obviously an exagerated example but the same must happen to a lesser extent with normal windspeeds if your loop is to appear round.
I agree that the downwind turn myth is a myth, but am not sure that the same argument applies in the case of a loop flown fixed with respect to the ground.
Good thought, but I hi-lited the part where u went wrong. Ur thinking along the right path, but there is another way to make the loop "appear" round which u forgot: What we actually do is ease off of the elevator and spend MORE TIME in that portion of the loop than in the bottom portion. It's impractical to suddenly accel 20 kts at the top and fly over the top in the same amount of time (and many a/c don't have the power), so we fly that portion at the lower speed, pull less, and take longer.