[NSRCA-discussion] Airplane angle of attack

[george w. kennie]

Fortunately the modern pattern ship has evolved to a force arrangement that minimizes optical perspectives. As Mike references, his turtledeck slopes downward rendering the visual perspective of a low tail, but if you have something like a P-51 where the aft lower fuse slopes upward and the stab is at the top surface of the fuse, these two aircraft can be flying at the identical AOA and present totally different visual perspectives. 
So I guess the answer is to get a fuse shape that meets your criteria of what looks right/good to YOUR eye and go from there.

I, personally, design around a datum and use just a whisker more positive in the wing than what is usually accepted as the norm. Of course the stab has to be set to compensate for this, but the end result yields a satisfactory flight angle and gives me a K.E. mix of 2% up on one side and 2% down on the other (pitch), which I call neutral despite criticisms to the contrary by those who try to tell me that I have a misaligned stab. I acquiesce to the misaligned stab producing a rolling moment (of which I have none), but point out that the roll effect would be in the same direction with both Rudder Inputs and should not impact pitch.

So there !
G.
P.S.  I'm giggling guys, I'm giggling.



  ----- Original Message ----- 
  From: CHV69 at aol.com 
  To: nsrca-discussion at lists.nsrca.org 
  Sent: Thursday, October 04, 2007 10:42 AM
  Subject: Re: [NSRCA-discussion] Airplane angle of attack


  My opinion is, level looks best.

  In a message dated 10/4/2007 10:35:23 A.M. Eastern Daylight Time, chris at ssd.fsi.com writes:
    Do you gentlemen think an airplane presents better in the pattern with a setup that looks:    a) on the step (tail slightly high) faster appearance.

                                                                                                                                        b) level  

    c) tail slightly low, slower appearance.

     

    If this is a dumb question I apologize in advance for my curiosityJ







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