User:LoCall/LILO-LOWI-Adrenaline
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LILO-LOWI-Adrenaline
Climb from "Corna" to "Liscidini"
3/4 Clock Around "Santa Giustina Lake"
Intro - Where it all have started
The beginning is always a delicate matter. It has been true for each one of us debuting and struggling with our plane, the same it has been to design the LILO-LOWI-Adrenaline "parcours"[1] ... and the writing of this article just took several missed approaches ! We all have been at that point, is it not ? Landing ... We all did manage to bring the plane back on the ground ... But doing it in a way that leave us satisfied demand a bit more practice and knowledge too.
Never give up!
I did not give up and tried with patience many flying configurations, weather, weight... The results was continuing average. My search for explanation led me to find an amazing explanation by a retired flight instructor ! Crazy simple sketches and just a few words but very clear ! Of course, any student aerospace engineer will surely study the same with way higher detail. But pilots and engineers are different in this, and it is where Rob's explanation earn a strong point !
Landing is not continuing to descend until the ground - it is a controlled stall.[2]
My 1st reaction was : "...no... no ways !" But the doubt got quickly away ! Figure out a little motorboat changing direction : (view from top) blue - the wished direction ; red - the obtained track. · Ground : a car would obtain an almost immediate "turn". · Water : water is elastic, you "drift" to the "wished" track. · Air : even more elastic, more drift for the wished track.
(view from Side) Same rule, the plane do not "change immediately direction" because of the ground. The plane accumulate energy during the descent. When he touch the ground, the not completely "used" descent energy will tend to push the plane lower then the ground ! Is it bad ? Well, that is why you have gear shock absorbers... but : Gear shock absorbers cannot absorb any infinite amount of energy, they have limits. If the "remaining" energy is still too much : - or you have a crash and a belly landing ; - or a "bump bump bump" and then probably a crash too.[3] If this happen, FIREWALL! and Go Around ![4] If you do not, and you survive, you are going to be known the rest of your life as Captain Kangourou. Another crash will happen if you stall from too high. Gear shock absorbers can not absorb this.
The Proper way
Rob was writing something like ... : ---------------------------------- "This energy that in the air is your friend, on the ground become your enemy". Leave this energy there, exhaust it !" That is why we "round up", "we retard", "we flare". Landing is never direct. When descent energy is "ended" then you become able to land, brake, steer and control your plane...
So, what is the "proper height" to stall ?
"Any height that can be handled by the landing gear shock absorber." "But, ideally, from 'Zero' feet above RWY." The butter landing !
Conclusion
Stall is at the "edge" of the "flying envelope", not in the middle of the safe average. That is why my landings was not so good. Knowing the edge, the limits of our plane is crucial. And this led me to the idea of a place where we could try, discover and test our plane, going at the edge, to the limit. Very low level flight, at relatively high speed, we have tried, the Adrenaline is at the Rendez-vous !
LILO-LOWI-Adrenaline was born !
But why a challenge for small planes and not big planes or military planes ?
Does theses names from the real life are known to you ? : Robert (Bob) Pearson, Tadeusz Wrona, Jerzy Szwarc, Chesley Sullenberger, Jeffrey Skiles, Carlos Dardano and Dionisio Lopez. They should ! These are all heroes where with their outstanding pilot skills they have saved lives ! - "Gimli Glider, Captain Robert (Bob) Pearson, Air Canada flight 43, at Manitoba, zero loss and minimal damage to the plane ; - Captain Tadeusz Wrona (+officer Jerzy Szwarc) - belly landed the B767 with no injuries to anyone (LOT Polish Airlines Flight 16, Nov 2011) ; - Captain Chesley Sullenberger (+officer Jeffrey Skiles) accomplishing that controversial but impossible landing on the Hudson river (US Airways Flight 1549); - Captain Carlos Dardano (+officer Dionisio Lopez) achieve a dead stick landing on the grass levee at Michoud (New Orleans) May 1988 (Taca flight 110) ; There are of course several more of them. But what all off them have in common, is the countless hours of flight in small plane with the habit to take their small plane at the edge !
Rendez-vous at the Start !
Have fun, LoCall
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- ↑ [1]parcours - french word for track, journey, route, course and even of a new urban sport.
- ↑ [do not take this for an advice to really stall in real life. Stall is a dynamic situation, with a pre-stall, ...deep-stall, and there are several 3 stall types, accelerated stall and non-accelerated stalls. In RL the reference is your instructor. Here my invitation is only in simulator to go to gain experience on the edge, where the stall(s) lives.
- ↑ [2]Tortoise oscillations - Succession of quick oscillations where the plane will become quickly impossible to control and almost ever resulting in a crash.
- ↑ [3]"Firewall! Firewall! - Instruction/information given by one pilot to the other where the thrust lever is beaten at the physical edge, resulting in engines delivering the absolute maximum thrust power ! It is an extreme evasive maneuver that should only last a few seconds. (about 6 ~ 8 for most engines). It is one step beyond then the "unleash the beast" ! Engines must come back to normal thrust levels in order to avoid irreversible damages.