Apologies to all for my impatience. I've chatted with several pilots
on this subject. I've come to the conclusion that most pilots
misunderstand the control inputs they are making to initiate a side
slip as opposed to a forward slip. This has resulted in misconceptions
about the forces at work while initiating and during a side slip, to
wit, that the banked wing counteracts the effect of crosswind.

This is not the right forum for me to develop what is essentially a
new way to understand side slips. I've started a power point
presentation to codify my ideas. I'll develop this into an article and
submit it to Soaring and to AOPA. If you are interested in peer review
during development of the article, drop me a note at oscar_charlie at
msn.com. Don't respond unless you are willing to put some time and
effort into the process (a couple of hours). I'll need well reasoned,
thoughtful criticism. Priority to the first three respondents, then
the next three based on credentials.

The more I look at this problem, the more certain I am that we've
happened onto something really interesting during the course of this
thread. I jumped into a few books over the past 24 hours, and none
offered a full explanation of the dynamics of the side slip... rather
their treatments featured application, either implying reasons, or
glossing over them without carefully explicating the process of
initiating a turn from base to final during a crosswind approach.

Good stuff.

OC

(Chris OCallaghan) wrote in message . com...
Yikes! I feel like I'm trapped in an argument with Cliff Claven. There
is no winning, so why bother to continue the debate.

Alas, I've broken my own rule against discussing subjects on the ras
that have life-threatening consequences. My apologies for inviting
such an outwelling of misconceptions and fallacies. I hope they don't
ultimately hurt anyone.

My last word, go back to your primers and make up your own mind.