Polar with spoilers extended?

On 22 Oct, 22:33, John Smith wrote:
Brian wrote:
Frightening? Really? It actually works very well with a bit of head
wind. Backcountry power pilots occasionally use this technique as
well.

It's a completely different thing in a power plane. (Although I wouldn't
recommend it with power planes, either.)

A short look at a typical glider polar is all that is needed to
understand why your "technique" is a no-no. If you continue using it,
then it's only a question of time that we'll hear about you in the news.

Anyone tried option 4?

Stuffing the nose right down for 3 or 4 seconds will easily lose you
50m or more with only a small increase in airspeed since Newton gets
involved in the exercise. A bit of increased spoiler will overcome
that increase quickly. What's more you are playing with the safe side
of the energy curve!

To the poster who said that condor may not be a good tool to test
this. I suggest you try a copy. It really is a great sim and the
flight dynamics are superb. I believe that Lasham gliding club took
one ab-initio student right to solo standard on a sim before one or
two real circuits to get him away. Sims have come a long way.

Ian M

On Oct 23, 6:30 am, nimbusgb wrote:
....snip...
To the poster who said that condor may not be a good tool to test
this. I suggest you try a copy. It really is a great sim and the
flight dynamics are superb. I believe that Lasham gliding club took
one ab-initio student right to solo standard on a sim before one or
two real circuits to get him away. Sims have come a long way.

Ian M

I am planning on buying a copy and for general flying and basic
training I see great value in simulators. But the original posting
was about doing a flight test to determine performance such as descent
rates with spoilers extended, turns back to the airport, etc. Any
such data requires that not only does the simulator have all the right
aerodynamics models, but that it has complete and accurate data for
your specific model of glider. I doubt that Condor has test flown
every glider model extensively enough to confirm the accuracy of their
results.

BTW, I program flight simulators for SIkorsky AIrcraft. One of my
bosses has a rule "all simulators are guilty until proven innocent"

Todd Smith