The tighter turn works for gliders after a rope break, so I'm thinking (as did
Paul B), it would work for the P51 pilot.

There is an optimum bank for minimizing the loss of altitude (and he did have some
altitude). Had he turned tighter (about 40 degrees typically), he would have made
it further around the turn than making a wide turn. Yes, initially he would be a
bit lower, but his greater turn rate would more than compensates for that, and he
can get back some of the that altitude when he stops turning and slows down.


wrote on 8/2/2020 11:10 AM:
I must be missing something. He has no excess altitude to convert to speed.. He has no engine to add thrust. So, exactly how is he supposed to increase speed?

On Sunday, August 2, 2020 at 11:46:24 AM UTC-5, Eric Greenwell wrote:
He could safely turn tighter by letting the speed increase as he banked more; put
another way, maintain his angle of attack (NOT the airspeed) as he increases the bank.

res wrote on 8/2/2020 8:34 AM:
He mentioned multiple times that he was low energy - low altitude, low airspeed. In another portion of the interview he mentioned the machine guns were whistling, which is a well known indicator that your angle of attack is critical. Turning tighter would increase wing load, which increases stall speed, which increases the chance of a low speed stall/spin. My guess is that was a top concern at the time.

On Sunday, August 2, 2020 at 5:39:36 AM UTC-5, Paul B wrote:
Great video, there are couple of questions I would ask though.

1) Why did he not turn much tighter to return to the airfield, one looses much less height in a tight turn that a shallow one? From a tight turn he might have been able to land downwind. Of course I do not know what the winds were, or how feasible is to land P-51 downwind.

2) Why did he cross the highway, surely he could have turned base halfway down the strip and have enough runway to stop.

Whilst I appreciate that he did not do it under the pressure of the situation, I was surprised however, that it did not come up in the discussion..

Cheers

Paul

On Sunday, 2 August 2020 03:05:48 UTC+10, Martin Gregorie wrote:
On Sat, 01 Aug 2020 08:29:13 -0700, jfitch wrote:

This is slightly off topic, as its about an engine failure in a P-51, but
is well worth watching because the majority of it is concerned with the
pilot talking us through a video shot from the aircraft followed by a
very interesting discussion as he and the interviewer unpick his thought
processes. Here's the link:

https://youtu.be/BBpqvPujZgM

FWIW the URL was posted in a club heads-up about power loss in a tug or
TMG.



--
Martin | martin at
Gregorie | gregorie dot org



--
Eric Greenwell - Washington State, USA (change ".netto" to ".us" to email me)
- "A Guide to Self-Launching Sailplane Operation"
https://sites.google.com/site/motorg...ad-the-guide-1



--
Eric Greenwell - Washington State, USA (change ".netto" to ".us" to email me)
- "A Guide to Self-Launching Sailplane Operation"
https://sites.google.com/site/motorg...ad-the-guide-1