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Originally Posted by protour73
That is just freaking CRAZY......doesn't leave much room for mistakes!!
Curtis, you're the pilot in the room.......I didn't think low level flight, THAT low was possible. I thought at some point you lose lift<--- maybe wrong term, or maybe that only applies to rotary winged aircraft? Help me out here!!  |
Ummm...okay.
Seeing as I am not an instructor and I'm horrible with explaining this kind of stuff, I borrowed this from Wiki. It pretty much sums it up for fixed wing aircraft.
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A wing generates lift, in part, due to the difference in air pressure gradients between the upper and lower wing surfaces. During normal flight, the upper wing surface experiences reduced static air pressure and the lower surface comparatively higher static air pressure. These air pressure differences also accelerate the mass of air downwards. Flying close to a surface increases air pressure on the lower wing surface, known as the "ram" or "cushion" effect, and thereby improves the aircraft lift-to-drag ratio. As the wing gets lower, the ground effect becomes more pronounced. While in the ground effect, the wing will require a lower angle of attack to produce the same amount of lift. If the angle of attack and velocity remain constant, an increase in the lift coefficient will result, which accounts for the "floating" effect. Ground effect will also alter thrust versus velocity, in that reducing induced drag will require less thrust to maintain the same velocity
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In other words...airplanes actually fly better at lower heights. How'd I do.
