PaulH wrote:
: Interesting question - answers will be all over the map. But most of
: us fly for pleasure. Sometimes I fly 65% instead of 75% just to
: prolong the flight. Under these conditions, an extra knot isn't worth
: anything.

... unless you turn that knot into less GPH. Of course, you'll never make
your money back, but it might help. If you were to add enough speed mods to get the
same speed at 65% you used to get at 75%, it translates into more enjoyment for less
direct cost.

: People who buy speed mods generally just enjoy spending money on their
: airplanes; the purported speed gain is only a rationalization.

Amen to that. If you want a faster airplane, sell what you've got and buy one
that's faster. If you add speed mods, you're not going to get much. Even if you bolt
on a bigger engine, it'll burn more gas, not go appreciably faster. Drag power goes
as the cube of the speed. Changing the drag coefficient (read: speed mods and usually
a few percent at most) changes the required power linearly with speed.

-Cory
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* Cory Papenfuss *
* Electrical Engineering candidate Ph.D. graduate student *
* Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University *
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