ORIGINAL: hugger-4641
ORIGINAL: cfircav8r
ORIGINAL: hugger-4641
ORIGINAL: rjbob
ORIGINAL: flythesky
ORIGINAL: Top_Gunn
ORIGINAL: flythesky
A plane will lose airspeed in a turn because of the increased drag from the deflected control surfaces. It will lose more in a downwind turn than an upwind turn because of the increased deflection of the control surfaces associated with downwind turns.
Am I right in thinking that by ''downwind turn'' you mean the turn from the downwind leg to the base leg (or to final, if you make a 180 degree turn)? If so, it's true, but this thread seems to be mostly about people thinking that turning
toward downwind loses you more speed than other turns, even if the control inputs are the same. That one's the myth.
You are correct. One problem with the thread was that there was never a definition of what a downwind turn was. A 90deg turn or a 180 deg turn or where in the circuit it was.
The bottom line, though, is that no matter what one's definition of a downwind turn (upwind to downwind or downwind to upwind), it is a still myth. Either way, the plane flies the same.
Ok, for clarification, what I and most people I know refer to as a downwind turn is represented by turn two in my example. Now, with that defined, what would happen to my airspeed in turn two if I forced the aircraft in the bottom example to have the same ground track as the top example?
If you look at my example in post 1020 you will see turn two requires a greater than 90 degree turn. This can be done one of two ways.
1. you can do a standard turn and hold it longer
2. you can increase bank angle to keep the time the same, this will cause you to loose even more airspeed due to the higher wing loading not the wind or inertia or any other erroneous reason.
Bingo! this is what I am saying happens to an Rc pilot when he makes a turn downwind, this is what I am saying is not a ''myth''.
Did you not read the part about holding the turn longer? You're maintaining that you can't accomplish your objective with the same control inputs. When someone tells you how to do it, you ignore it.