quote:
ORIGINAL: Andrew McGregor
...Most RC pilots fly too much by ground reference, and not enough by attitude and power. The plane can't feel the ground OR the wind, all it notices is the relative wind where it is. So if you fly attitudes and power settings, and then adjust to create the path you want, you're flying much safer... like a fullsize pilot does.
THANK YOU!! I've been saying variations of this this for twenty years to whomever would listen. And the downwind turn controversy goes away entirely once this is understood...
Ok here is the deal with the downwind turn. Its more about momentum then airspeed. I TOTALLY agree that the airplane doesn't feel the wind when its in the air. And I made that argument with an astrophysicist. His thought here is when you have a airplane with a lot of mass and turn from a headwind to a downwind it has to accelerate. e.g. You take off at 100 kts indicated and there is a 20 kt headwind thats 80 kts groundspeed and instantaneously turn downwind you will still have that 80kts momentum pushing you and would have to accelerate to 120 kts groundspeed in the opposite direction to maintain that 100 kts of indicated airspeed. Grant it the wind does the acceleration but it can take a period of time which is increased the faster you whip the airplane around. Now I know that this can't be done "instantaneously, but it still shows what forces are acting on the plane. Point is that this is more pronounced in a 747 then it would be in an R/C model because of mass and surface area.