REFLECTOR: Riddle me this...

[Lawrence Epstein,MD]

You will always fly faster with an AFT CG.
 
 
 
-----Original Message-----
From: reflector-bounces at tvbf.org [mailto:reflector-bounces at tvbf.org] On
Behalf Of Hiroo Umeno
Sent: Wednesday, May 30, 2007 5:40 PM
To: Velocity Aircraft Owners and Builders list
Subject: REFLECTOR: Riddle me this...
 
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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