REFLECTOR: Riddle me this...

Hiroo Umeno humeno at microsoft.com
Wed May 30 16:39:32 CDT 2007


I put the wheel pants on and went out for another morning of flying.  As sky was severe clear, I took it up to 7500ft altitude (9300DA) and let the plane fly full-bore.  I clocked 165KTAS burning 11.5GPH but had to pull back as my #6 was getting too hot again.

Here is when thing turned "interesting".  I backed down to the power settings that I "thought" produced 150KTAS a few days ago and found that I was getting only 140KTAS or so.  Since I put the pants on, I would have thought I would see some gains.

The only thing I can think of is the fuel burn.  By then, I had 1/3 tank left on both tanks and the plane should be quite a bit lighter.  So, would a lighter plane fly slower?  Would CG have impact on my top speed?  I noted that I had to keep a bit of "down" trim during cruise (about a finger's worth at the elevator tip).  So part of me believes that when the nose gets lighter, the plane gets slower (to a point) because I am fighting the lift the canard makes to keep going straight.

But the other part of me thinks that's bunk since how, given the same power input at the back, a heavier object can travel faster...

Now I am totally confused...

Hiroo
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