Gliding or the make it home "gouge" discussion

[DamnedRen]

We see a lot of folks asking questions like:

What happens when I just noticed I'm almost out of gas. Rats!...Ditch?
I just nearly missed an HO from some dude? But he got my oil. HO Dweeb! Wait a minute. Can I get home?
Opps! I dove into an enemy field to take down some of the flak. But the flak has been doubled and I end up taking damage to my fuel or coolant supply. What do I do now?

Everybody's been there. I can safely say I've been there too many times to count. Where'd all my gas go? I musta been having way too much fun and burnt through my DT's and 75% gas in my pony? Sheesh!
Durn field ack got my coolant system. It's amaziing how one bullet can create a leak. Ok, nuff of that...

Gouges! They've been around since planes have been flying. If you maintain 120 mph in a Pony, flaps and gear down, til you're over the numbers you can slow and land in the 1st half of the runway. If you hold her off until you get to the the hanger 3/4 of the way down the runway (like A24) you have more than enough time to slow and turn into the hot pad without having to taxi all day long. Those are gouges. The E6B is a gouge. You don't have to computer anything. Pony max cruise = 2400 RPM,  43 MP. Simple.

Here's a simple math gouge for just about any fighter in the game that will help you glide home. Here's how:

Just about every fighter in the game can glide at 1000 ft per min descent at approx 120 mph with the prop feathered.

Translated that means for every 2 miles you travel over the ground you will go down 1000 ft.
Right? 60 mph = 1 mile per minute. 120 mph = 2 miles per min. We've established the 1000 ft down.

Now, you also have a pretty good idea of your distance to home. Why? Each square (sector) on the map = 25X25 miles.
So you hit esc look at the map and see you're about 3/4 of a sector away from your home field. If 1/2 way is 12.5 miles then you can figure approx 19 miles (always go conservative) is how far to get home.

Ok, you've decided there is a need to retreat back to home plate. You should already be climbing toward home as you look at your map and begin your calcs. Don't forget there is one more piece to the puzzle. You home field is at 2k agl (2000 ft above ground level) so you will need to figure the descent to 2k not sea level or you might find yourself coming up short.

One last thing to think about is you do not want to arrive at the end of the runway at 0 feet agl when you get there. If you have the opportunity it's much better to arrive overhead between 1k and 2k.

Putting it all together you need to make sure you have a buffer of 2k over whatever alt field you are heading to.

Lets try one... you attacked field ack at an enemy field. You took hits to your coolant. You're coolant's not in the red and you have 3 kills you'd sure like to land. You get clear and immediately climb towards home and you're currently passing through 4k. You home field is 22 miles away and it's down by the shoreliine.

What is the minimum altitude you need to climb to so you can begin a feathered glide for home plate?

Note:  if you can glide then you allow the engine to cool which will give you power once you're overhead.

This question is not meant to trick anyone. It is put forth to get you to begin thinking that perhaps you CAN make it home and land kills iso ditching or crashing.

Hope this helps.

[RTR]

Actually 120 mph @ 1000 ft per minute isn't necessarily going to get you the most distance.

The best glide speed should be the same as the best rate of climb speed, which IIRC is pretty close to 160mph in the pony. ( I would check the number though).  

Lowest rate of descent doesn't automatically give you best distance. It's a balance between rate of descent and airspeed to get the most distance out of a glide.

Interesting post Ren. I've made it home many times by applying the math. Now If I could just get myself to the point where I'm not always nursing a shot up leaky motorless glider home I'd have it made

cheers,
RTR

[4deck]

11k wouldnt cut it for me

you gotta take into account for stick, which mine is very sloppy

[Scca]

I will think about the answer later, but how do you "feather" the prop?

[Murdr]

By lowering your prop RPM before shutting your engine off.  Defult map for RPM control are the + - keys on the keypad.

[Blagard]

Originally posted by RTR
Lowest rate of descent doesn't automatically give you best distance. It's a balance between rate of descent and airspeed to get the most distance out of a glide.

I totally agree.
When I was gliding the best distance covered by a glide was referred to as at best L/D speed. With no wind, sink or lift this would be the best solution to cover the most distance and it was always quite a lot higher speed than minimum rate of sink speed. No lift or sink to worry about in AH so the best L/D speed is what you need to go for. I agree this seems to be very close to the max rate of climb speed for AH aircraft so simply use default auto speed trim.

For further improvement a must is to change prop pitch on the dead engine. A damaged seized engine usually does something close to an auto feather in AH. But if you just run out of fuel or have stopped the engine before it siezes you need to get as close to the feather as possible. This is done by setting RPM to minimum which is a very course prop pitch. Play with the RPM settings on a glide to see the incredible difference it makes!

[bozon]

It is usually better to glide at a speed slight above the best climb speed.
To avoid unneccesery jumps and wiggles caused by the stick (curse you logitec) I turn on auto-angle and adjust using the trims.

Just as you are about to land, increase RPM to max on the prop. You'll need all the drag you can get in order to break before running out of runway.

If your fuel is hit, manualy switch to the leaking tank and use the fuel there before it pollutes the world (and is wasted). Got full throttle and wep, shallow climb, till it is dry.

IF you are low on fuel, reduce throttle and RPM. You'd be amazed how far you can go on ecconomical settings. Check the E6B for estimated range to see if you got a chance. If you are about to run out of fuel before getting home, leave a few drops in the tank, shut down the engine and try gliding. The last few drops of fuel are to get you a little extra distance if you are too short or allow you to taxi if you are off the runway.

[parin]

Alt + X   gives you just about best glide.

[Stoney74]

I use 180 in the Jug for a best glide speed.  I usually level out, and wait for the speed to drop to 180.  As this is happening, I change my auto-speed to 180 using the ".speed 180" command.  Once I hit 180 indicated, I engage alt-x, and that'll give me about the best distance/time glide I can get.  With enough altitude, I have glided almost 2 sectors with no engine.

[BaldEagl]

It seems to me that best glide speed for most planes is ~150 ias or someting close to best climb speed although there have been time's I've gone to 120 ias and I think it's heped get me in.

I always use auto pilot in a glide so I don't have to worry about stick movements sucking any of my possible distance out, only grabbing the stick on final approach.  Other than that I just use rudder and aileron trim to adjust direction.

[Stoney74]

I've got a website somewhere that was posted for experimental aircraft builders to develop Vspeeds for their homebuilts.  While I don't remember the process, I do remember that, "typically", best glide speed is above Vx and closer to Vy.  For instance, Vx in my Grumman is 75 mph IAS, and Vy is 90 mph IAS.  Best glide for my plane is 89 mph IAS.  I don't know if the "best climb speed" in AH is Vx or Vy, so I just pad it a little.  I guess I could run the whole profile as described on the website and see what I come up with to be sure.

[humble]

Originally posted by parin
Alt + X   gives you just about best glide.

This is what I always have felt is easiest. Point the nose toward home and hit wep and autoclimb. If you have a coolent leak run until you see engine temp start to climb to red then shut down....if you have oil leak run engine until you either have enough alt or get down to your last few pounds of pressure.

Either way you'll now have engine power (for a limited time) when/if you need it....on final. once you cut the power just let "autoclimb" keep you trimmed out for the ride down as well....

[Lye-El]

Originally posted by parin
Alt + X   gives you just about best glide.

Alt X and feather the prop is what I use.