>>>Take a 51 or Spit up, get to level flight, and kill the engine, watch how long they glide, stay level, Maintain Speed.
Repeat and just throttle back.
Almost no difference.<<<
Actually Downtown, that may be correct, believe it or not a prop turning at idle can have more drag than a stopped engine.
When a prop is being driven by the slipstream, it has a drag equal almost to a plate the size of the diameter driving through the air the hard way.
when the prop is stopped the drag is just the blades of the prop. That is why props are feathered (it even further reduces the drag, but the main thing is to stop the rotation of the engine). It is better to sieze an engine than have a windmilling prop from a drag point of view.
If you had to ditch your cessna for example, if you were high, it is better to pull your nose up and get WELL below best glide speed, till the prop stops, then dive, recover the speed, and resume best glide speed. Must longer glide is achieved that way, if you have enough time to make up for the prop stop maneuver.
In the DC-3 (I flew those for several years, same as the C-47) pulling an engine back to idle created FAR more drag then a feathered prop, to simulate a feathered (stopped) prop with a running engine required a suprising amount of manifold pressure (about 20 inches over 2000 rpm....)
I have issues with other area's of the sim but that one issue aint it...
Bohica
[This message has been edited by Bohica (edited 10-02-1999).]
