see below:
Brett Jaffee wrote:
>
> Lincoln Ross wrote:
> >
> > No. It doesn't work that way. Consider the case of an Apogee (numbers
> > per design spec) where you are downwind, trying to fight a 4M/s wind to
> > get back to the field, and your best L/D is at 4M/s airspeed. Wouldn't
> > it pay to speed up, even if you came down faster? Unless you like
> > bushwacking of course.
>
> No, I don't understand this. L/D is a measure of how far you can go through an
>airmass with the amount of >altitude you have. I don't see how the the wind factors
>into it. The bottom line is that I want to convert >my altitude into a horizontal
>distance through the air in the most efficient way possible, so I can go as far
>>horizontally through the air as possible. I don't see how the wind factors in.
That's fine if you're flying from a balloon. It definitely maximizes
distance thru the air, but that air is moving. If you have to make the
field you have to go over the ground, as well as thru the air. Read it
again. Just to hold still you have to make 4M/s. That amount is
subtracted from any speed you are making over the ground.
How fast would you row to go upstream in a 2 knot current?
> >
> > It also turns out that if you go faster than your best L/D you will get
> > out of sink faster.
>
> Okay, but I'm just talking about dead air, or a constant horizontal wind (however
>realistic that case may be), as that was the original example. Lift or sink will
>obvisouly change the situation.
Yup. Sorry about that.
>
> Brett
--
Lincoln Ross
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