How do you know he's not? Bob Hoover was a great pilot, one of the best. But how did he get there? Did he become that good by never pushing himself? I'm not advocating trying Bob Hoover stunts, but if a person takes baby steps to improve themselves, the sky's (literally) the limit.
"Flying the Feathered Edge". I highly recommend it.He wrote that his early days of test flying military aircraft as they were assembled — and all of the engine failures — were one of the reasons he knew his energy state so well, and that led to the Shrike Commander show.
Which, he dedicated later to the Space Shuttle... a gliding brick with wings.
Basically he was forced to fly things with engines that often blew up on the first flight.
..and up until now I was agreeing with most of your posts!! While the Aero Commander is high wing Ted Smith eventually came around and started moving the wings lower, see Aerostar
Yeah? But Bob flew the Shrike.
Can we agree that "dead stick" means the engine is not making any power?
Don, what exactly do you see in that blog post (link on post #44) that you thinks differs from the above? I just read it, and it looks consistent: a stopped prop has less drag (resulting in lower sink rate, better glide ratio) than a windmilling one.
Only the Altimeter, had two VSI (Variometers) that both worked fine.
I always liked the little whistling sound they make to show when you're going up or down
My bad. I got the "idle" and "mixture cut-off" reversed.
If I was trying to make it back to within swimming distance of shore (for me, I guess floating on my back to shore would be more like it), I'd stop it.
I didn't know either...hence the experiments.
I'm tempted to crack a joke about posting a NOTAM first, but with this crowd somebody is sure to take me seriously.
My bad. I got the "idle" and "mixture cut-off" reversed.
The good news is that the difference between a stopped prop and an idling engine with the prop in fine pitch isn't that much. So for training purposes, it's close enough.
What is very surprising (to me) is the difference between an idling engine with the prop in coarse pitch vs. a stopped engine with the prop windmilling in coarse pitch. I'm guessing that with the engine stopped, the windmilling doesn't generate sufficient oil pressure to get the prop all the way to the coarse pitch stops.
I don't buy that. You may be exactly right, but I just can't see how physics can explain that. I don't think the prop is creating more drag by moving. I do think that work is being done to turn the crankshaft and compress the air in the engine over and over again, and that work is creating more drag, but I don't see how that has anything to do with it being a flat circular plate. But this topic makes my head hurt, I don't pretend to understand it at all.
For what it's worth, the sailboats I used to crew on for races would leave the engine in gear during racing as the theory was a stopped propeller created less drag, than even one in neutral but spinning in the water (engine off ofcourse). The fancier boats either had props that folded together, or would feather
I don't claim to know either and would like to hear from an aero engineer. Intuitively it would seem you sort of answered your own question. The dynamic pressure available from the airflow can't, to my way of thinking, exceed that available from the area of the prop arc. The resistance to the prop turning depends on its RPM and the number of compression strokes, but I don't see how it can find more driving force than available from the arc area. So, the flat plate "rule" is an asymptote.
Ok, you restated exactly what I said. That has nothing to do with a flat plate.
Maybe my post was less clear than it could have been. I was supporting Adam's decision to do this in a controlled environment. When the real world scenario might unfortunately happen, it's not his first time actually flying and landing a plane without an engine, but he has some experience with how the added performance impact from a totally dead engine, and the pilot's mindset factors into the experience
This is why I at least in something with a parachute there's a 99% chance I'm going to pull.. I'd much rather be sitting next to the plane waiting for the Uber thinking "gee, maybe I could have glided and landed on this road" as upposed to wishing last minute I pulled as I hit the trees
Same here, but it took a while and some prodding from my CSIP to get to that mentality. If I'm over an airfield when it happens then I'll probably glide it in as a pull is not without risk but if there is any question, it will be pull.
