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2017 Going out with a bang.....Flat Turns

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Winginit

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Jun 12, 2016
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I purchased some old magazines the other day and received them today. Since the weather is quite cold, I decided to read some of them. I found an article in one of them about the design and flight testing of .....of all things...a Slepcev Storch.As I read thru the article I came across specific information related to "Flat Turns". Now I took a lot of heat on this subject earlier in the year and the subject became quite vitrolic. Imagine my surprise when I read what I'm going to attach below and a noted aviation journalist virtually mirrored the message I tried to put forth.

To recap, I tried to state that the ability to perform a "flat turn" has mostly no apparent benefit other than demonstrating that this airplane can allow someone to make a dumb mistake and not spiral them into the ground...its very forgiving. There are instances where being able to change direction without banking a wing could prove beneficial.....such as being close to the ground and suddenly seeing an impediment in front of you. The ability to skid a partial or complete turn without banking a wing could help someone avoid that impediment. Its mostly something that helps a pilot thru a bad situation rather than something someone would want to do every time they attempt a landing.

Most airplanes simply cannot perform this manuever at landing type speeds, because their airplanes are NOT DESIGNED to cope with that situation. I get that, its a bad thing and will kill a pilot very quickly. That does not mean that an airplane cannot be designed to cope with that situation successfully. Its not breaking any laws of physics, but rather applying them in a more useful way thru application of its design features. To incorporate those features, the designer had to give up many common features or attributes that other airplanes have. It can't fly as fast as many airplanes, nor carry as heavy a load.

Now all I ask is that some of you take the time to read about this amazing airplane and what the designer did during testing. The article even makes a point of talking about how the designer configured the airplane to make flat turns easily, and survivably. I don't want to rekindle a feud again, especially with the start of a new year. I wish everyone on HBA a very Happy New year, and I hope maybe some will reconsider their opinions after reading the exerpt from the article.


Slepcev X6 001.jpg
 
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