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Old 12-20-2004 | 02:37 PM
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Siefring
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From: Owings, MD
Default RE: Trying to understand incidence

Great Discussion. I understand the definitions of incidence, but don't completely understand the effect of the "tail" incidence. First, can someone define "Angle-of-Attack" stability or "Balance"?

Next,
Based on some more calculations (after all he has gone through 4 years of college and 10 years experience and is supposed to know this stuff) the aero guy says for stability and trim he has determined that the tail needs to be at an Incidence Angle (IA) with respect to the wing of 6 degrees. .... then the tail must be at a -2 degrees.
Why -2 degrees? I assume for a cargo plane the cg is in front of the wing center of lift, so the tail has to push down when in level flight to keep the plane from rotating. Is that all there is to it?

Does the downthrust of the engine effect where the WL or FRL are in level flight?

Carl