View Poll Results: Is Vy flight path angle greater than Vx?

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  • Vy flight path angle is greater than Vx

    1 11.11%
  • Vx flight path angle is greater tha Vy

    7 77.78%
  • Other opinion / no opinion

    1 11.11%
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Thread: Vy flight path angle greater than Vx ???

  1. #51

    Join Date
    Aug 2011
    Location
    Alabama
    Posts
    2,236
    I'm actually approaching this matter the same way I did CG - a max/min chart that has green for good. Bear in mind I have a single seat aircraft with no baggage. It's just the pilot and the fuel in a central tank.

    I've just about worked out that I need about 450 feet from the halt to clear a 50 foot object, given my 500 foot altitude on a normal (50-70 degree) day. So let's fudge that up to 700 feet and then just say 1,000 to be safe.
    The opinions and statements of this poster are largely based on facts and portray a possible version of the actual events.

  2. #52

    Join Date
    Oct 2011
    Location
    New Hampshire
    Posts
    1,342
    If you need an excuse to do some flying, you can do some simple testing. First make some simple markers by taking some brightly colored crepe paper, creating a pocket containing a few ounces of sand with tape, and leaving a couple of feet of tail. Balloonists use these to mark where they have been.

    At an airport with not much traffic and clear space on the end(s) of the runway, pick a day with as little wind down the runway as you can get. Crosswind is OK.

    Set your altimeter to zero at the end of the runway. Takeoff, lifting off as soon as airspeed allows, accelerate to Vy, climb, and at 50' on the altimeter, throw one of your markers out. Do this two or three times.

    Using a hiking GPS, mark a waypoint at the end of the runway where you started your takeoff roll, go out to where the markers landed. That's your distance to takeoff and climb to 50'. If you look at a Cessna/Piper/Mooney manual, in the performance charts you can see the percentage that they correct for headwinds and tailwinds. Since the laws of physics are pretty constant, you can use those same percentages to calculate corrections from your data for the same headwinds and tailwinds.

    So you will then have hard info vs a guess. And you can fly with more confidence that you know your airplane's performance.

    Best of luck,

    Wes

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