- #1
MotoMike
- 30
- 2
Hi
Once again the intricacies of flight seem to be escaping me.
I have taken up model flying as I think I mentioned in my "Lift- more complex than Bernoulli?" thread. So far I have been flying models with wingspans in the 60 to 70 inch range. When choosing airplanes, I noticed that in planes of this size wing loadings of 18 to 23oz per square foot were more manageable than those with higher wing loadings. That I could land them slower giving me more time to react.
I recently read an article about a large model with 110 inch wingspan and wing loading of 60oz per square foot. My initial thought was that the airplane would be unflyable for all but the most experienced pilots, if at all. Of course it is for a more advanced pilot, but clearly many of them are out there being flown every day. The author made mention that on a smaller plane this wing loading would be a problem, but with the size of his plane it was nothing to be concerned about.
Of course this has led me to discuss it with other pilots who are ill prepared to describe why it is different. One told me that it had to do with Wing Cube Loading, but could not really explain what it was and how I could estimate if a plane will "fly light" or "fly heavy"
Any discussion on this topic would be appreciated.
Kind regards,
Mike
Once again the intricacies of flight seem to be escaping me.
I have taken up model flying as I think I mentioned in my "Lift- more complex than Bernoulli?" thread. So far I have been flying models with wingspans in the 60 to 70 inch range. When choosing airplanes, I noticed that in planes of this size wing loadings of 18 to 23oz per square foot were more manageable than those with higher wing loadings. That I could land them slower giving me more time to react.
I recently read an article about a large model with 110 inch wingspan and wing loading of 60oz per square foot. My initial thought was that the airplane would be unflyable for all but the most experienced pilots, if at all. Of course it is for a more advanced pilot, but clearly many of them are out there being flown every day. The author made mention that on a smaller plane this wing loading would be a problem, but with the size of his plane it was nothing to be concerned about.
Of course this has led me to discuss it with other pilots who are ill prepared to describe why it is different. One told me that it had to do with Wing Cube Loading, but could not really explain what it was and how I could estimate if a plane will "fly light" or "fly heavy"
Any discussion on this topic would be appreciated.
Kind regards,
Mike