Angle of climb at Vx and glide angle when "overweight": five questions

GC: I'd recommend a copy of *Aerodynamics for Naval Aviators* It's a
good start at explaining it all without getting too involved in the
math.

KL: Thanks for the tip. I seem to collect every book except the right
one!
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You don't seem to have any trouble with the math, so I'm not sure what
value that AFNA would have for you. You're looking for more intuitive
explanations than what the math provides, and that's really hard to
come by. Most aerodynamics books don't have a lot of interest in
providing what you want.

The minimum drag point is the point of least thrust required. But
that's not best L/D. For a glider, it's the speed for minimum sink
rate.

I vote with Peter. Minimum sink is least POWER required, not least
THRUST.

On Fri, 28 Nov 2003 at 16:59:43 in message
, Greg Esres
wrote:

I vote with Peter. Minimum sink is least POWER required, not least
THRUST.

But surely minimum sink rate is only relevant when there is no power or
thrust? It requires finding a minimum value of V*sin(theta) where theta
is the angle of climb (negative when descending).

As I recall for a gliding aircraft minimum sink comes roughly at the AoA
where (Cl^(3/2)/Cd is a maximum. This is normally at a higher AoA than
maximum Cl/Cd and is some cases is quite close to the stall.

Power is drag (or thrust) times velocity.
--
David CL Francis

Dunno if this has already come up in these threads, but John Denker has a
great geometric presentation of the interdependency of weight, power, speed,
and flight angle at http://www.av8n.com/how/htm/power.html#sec-power-curve.