Glide Ratios

My claim to fame is I had my Husky on Amphibs. Taxing around at the airport was like being in a MONSTER TRUCK. Cool on the lake too. (But a LOT of trouble taking those things on and off). Whew. Theres this lake in Canada, Nimpo Lake (near Anahim Lake) where I took it and explored the lakes (there are 1000 lakes within 100 mile radius). That made it all worthwhile...
 
RoscoeT said:
There are folks with lots of experience in a whole lot of different aircraft types, who have done a whole lot of different types of flying that don't necessarily include following the magenta line in bigger boring crap like Meridians or 421s or whatever else you have in mind.

I would wager YOUR experience is rather limited when it comes to many aircraft types and many other types of flying.
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I fly a larger single engine turbo prop, and I've never needed power on landing, can't recall crossing the threshold with power on in quite some time.

But I'm not Ron....

coloradobluesky said:
My claim to fame is I had my Husky on Amphibs. Taxing around at the airport was like being in a MONSTER TRUCK. Cool on the lake too. (But a LOT of trouble taking those things on and off). Whew. Theres this lake in Canada, Nimpo Lake (near Anahim Lake) where I took it and explored the lakes (there are 1000 lakes within 100 mile radius). That made it all worthwhile...
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NICE!

Mines still on the amphibs, not sure Ill take them off this winter, for the short hops I make with the plane I'm not sure I would get enough out of putting the 8.5s back on for the winter.
 
The other item is to land on the spot so you can make the taxiway without power or brakes. That ADDS a point.
 
Our old C182 was a whopping 7.04:1. Steinway-esque.

Diamond DA40 is around 12:1, Mooney is similar.
 
Silvaire said:
Having a "good" glide ratio doesn't necessarily mean you have a low rate of descent because it obviously depends on what your forward velocity is in relation to that descent rate. So a powerless airliner might be descending quite rapidly but it's also covering a lot of territory while doing it and therefore the ratio looks good.
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I take it you've never heard of the Gimli Glider?
 
Ron Levy said:
That's true, but as you move into heavier and faster aircraft, the descent rate goes up, the glide angle starts to get steep, and you need greater and greater precision for both for the point at which the flare is started and the rate at which the flare is accomplished (or you either fail to get the nose up enough and smash into the runway nose first or get on the back side of the drag curve before you touchdown and smash into the runway butt first). If you want to get an idea of what that's like, go sit near an F-16 training base and watch the simulated flame-out (SFO) approaches, or see the discussion (with pictures) here. Note that the SFO glide path for the Viper is 11 degrees compared to the normal 2.5-3 degrees.
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You linked to one of my favorite flight sims of all time, Falcon 4.0!

I spent countless hours trying to master that Viper. Thanks for the trip down memory lane:)
 
I added the Sportsman cuff so my glide should be over 10:1. I have not calculated it myself yet.

All I know is, you pull the power and they all come down too fast. :goofy:

I get sloppy and need power on some landings and none on others.:dunno: If it's a real short field like at the farm with trees on the approach or what I call a 'high alpha' approach, I may power it in until right over the treeline then cut power and let her dive into ground effect. Hold it off until the mains touch, then shove forward and get on the brakes and lift flaps. You can shove forward and get heavy on the brakes and the tail will not come over like some people think. Aerodynamics won't let it. You just gotta know when to ease up. It's a dance. :)
 
brcase said:
One of my pet peeves is pilots complaining about how steep of approach or how high their descent rate is with full flaps. That is sort of the point of full flaps.
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I now officially have a man-crush on Brian. LOL.

I've said this for years, but my primary instructor always said I loved full flap steep approaches and landed them better than any other type of landing, and always stayed high enough to pull them off in anything we flew once I had a feel for the sink rate.

I just enjoy pointing the 182 with flaps 40 at the numbers at idle, and waiting. Waiting. Waiting. And then flare and dissipate the .3 above Vs0 to 0...

Getting that right and landing our STOL equipped 182 really REALLY slow is a ton of fun. But it takes practice.
 
denverpilot said:
...I just enjoy pointing the 182 with flaps 40 at the numbers at idle, and waiting. Waiting. Waiting...
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I don't care what anybody says about Cessnas, you can't deny that there isn't anything else out there in the standard GA fleet that has flaps that are anywhere near as effective.
 
Silvaire said:
I don't care what anybody says about Cessnas, you can't deny that there isn't anything else out there in the standard GA fleet that has flaps that are anywhere near as effective.
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??? are you trying to say that nothing can approach as steep as a Cezzna? YGBFSM!
 
Clark1961 said:
??? are you trying to say that nothing can approach as steep as a Cezzna? YGBFSM!
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No I'm not saying that at all. I'm saying that there isn't anything else in the GA fleet (such as Pipers, Mooneys, Beechs, Grummans etc) that will have you hanging on the shoulder straps when you deploy the flaps like a Cessna will.
 
Yepper, you gotta admit, the Cessna's and their flaps slow you way down because I get comments from people all the time afterwards that the landing was scary as hell for them because they felt like we were going to drop out of the sky compared to cruise flight.
 
warthog1984 said:
Except for maybe a Pitts or Geebee with an engine out, name another GA plane that'll come in as steeply (without crashing) as a 100-series with flaps 40, engine at idle/off, and slipping.
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Stinson.

PA18

Flaps and slip and you're on a elivator strait down
 
txflyer said:
Yepper, you gotta admit, the Cessna's and their flaps slow you way down because I get comments from people all the time afterwards that the landing was scary as hell for them because they felt like we were going to drop out of the sky compared to cruise flight.
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Sure hasn't been my experience, but I'm used to a lot steeper decents that can be had with idle full flaps in a 172. About the only way to drop a 172 as steep as a Cherokee is to slow it down to the backside of the power curve, which is a fairly bad idea to do at pattern altitude or less.
 
txflyer said:
Yepper, you gotta admit, the Cessna's and their flaps slow you way down because I get comments from people all the time afterwards that the landing was scary as hell for them because they felt like we were going to drop out of the sky compared to cruise flight.
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Yes, scaring non-pilots is proof that your airplane is a real badass when it comes to steep descents. ;)
 
Sac Arrow said:
Sure hasn't been my experience, but I'm used to a lot steeper decents that can be had with idle full flaps in a 172. About the only way to drop a 172 as steep as a Cherokee is to slow it down to the backside of the power curve, which is a fairly bad idea to do at pattern altitude or less.
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I'm happy for you? :dunno:

RoscoeT said:
Yes, scaring non-pilots is proof that your airplane is a real badass when it comes to steep descents. ;)
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My airplane is a real bad-ass. :wink2:
 
Sac Arrow said:
...About the only way to drop a 172 as steep as a Cherokee is to slow it down to the backside of the power curve, which is a fairly bad idea to do at pattern altitude or less.
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You know that power curve is all about maintaining a constant altitude and it's really just a speed where if you want to fly SLOWER than that you have to ADD power so if you are at 800 feet with an ultimate goal of reaching 0 feet it really doesn't apply.

Now your Cherokee might drop like a wall safe, I'm not going to dispute that, but you can yank in full flaps and nobody's gonna feel anything whereas if you do it in a Cessna everyone onboard is gonna notice.

That's all I said.
 
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