Re: Re: what about gp
Absolutely wrong, sir. The center of thrust is displaced by mounting the engines to either side of the airplane. And if you fly a twin engine out at a high angle of attack you too, will soon be a statistic. Offset thrust, rudder authority, and torque are the determinants of VMC, P-factor has nothing to do with it.
Bill, sorry I have to disagree with you here.
I used to fly Piper Navajo airplanes. The Chieftan has identical engines. Another version, the CR, has engines which counter rotate. Now on the Chieftan the left engine is the critical one and on the CR there is no critical engine. The only thing that changes with counter rotation is P factor. It most certainly is the reason that the center of thrust is offset and why losing one can be more detrimental than the other.
I don't know why you seem to deny the reality of P factor when it comes to models. It's there, although nothing to be overly concerned with, and easily seen and compensated for. On a normal flight a model will see high angle of attack as well as low. Generally high at takeoff and landing or slow flight, and low in cruise. When at high angle of attack and with power on P factor is there.
I do agree that there are other things which cause airplanes to want to go left and are probably more evident than p factor.
It's a nice debate but there are many happy model fliers who have never heard of p factor, et al; they just move the sticks to make the model do what they want!
Enjoying the thread
Paul