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What Gliders Teach Us (power pilots)


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One advantage with a glider is spoilers.Alan.

Yes; however the equivalent in a powered aircraft is side-slipping, which gliders don't do all that well. Or if you have a constant-speed prop., shut the throttle in fine pitch. These are tools one needs to know how to use. I particularly dislike powered aircraft in which side-slipping (or "forward" slipping, if you want to be pedantic) is prohibited with the flaps extended.

 

 

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I have to mention that closing the throttle in full fine pitch is hard on a Radial engine as the big end bearing is subject to high loads. Most jets have spoilers. Hard to stop them skipping if there are no spoilers on the ground and you would get a lot less braking too. The thing I notice with (later) gliders is how clean and little sink they have in still air. So little lift and you can keep flying, (when the sun is out). Nev

 

 

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Higher than at full power? The dive brakes on gliders are very effective, because their area is large in relation to the aircraft weight ( the effective area is that of the top and bottom surface bakes plus the frontal area of the wing in between them), but small in relation to the wing area - so they give a lot of braking for relatively little loss of lift. People often ask why light aircraft don't have them; it's because the loss of lift is higher, and the braking effect much smaller, in relation to the aircraft weight.

 

 

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Much higher load than full power. In a radial every second cylinder is on compression. The power pulses keep the whole rotating mass of conrods loaded inwards. With power off there is none of this to balance the massive centrifugal forces. It doesn't happen with in line engines. A radial on cruise is lightly loaded. Quite a few operators are not aware of this Dafydd and find out the hard and expensive, way

 

With my limited knowledge of gliders I cannot see how you would be able to land one without spoilers, unless you had a salt lake or such. Nev

 

 

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Much higher load than full power. In a radial every second cylinder is on compression. The power pulses keep the whole rotating mass of conrods loaded inwards. With power off there is none of this to balance the massive centrifugal forces. It doesn't happen with in line engines. A radial on cruise is lightly loaded. Quite a few operators are not aware of this Dafydd and find out the hard and expensive, wayWith my limited knowledge of gliders I cannot see how you would be able to land one without spoilers, unless you had a salt lake or such. Nev

Landing without spoilers is a standard part of training.

 

 

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G

 

Much higher load than full power. In a radial every second cylinder is on compression. The power pulses keep the whole rotating mass of conrods loaded inwards. With power off there is none of this to balance the massive centrifugal forces. It doesn't happen with in line engines. A radial on cruise is lightly loaded. Quite a few operators are not aware of this Dafydd and find out the hard and expensive, wayWith my limited knowledge of gliders I cannot see how you would be able to land one without spoilers, unless you had a salt lake or such. Nev

Good point.

 

 

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