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Thread: Downwind Turns
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Old 22nd February 2004 | 17:48
  #36 (permalink)  
cwatters
 
Joined: Dec 2001
Posts: 1,389
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From: England
The bit I can't get my head around, is the forces in the turn. The Super Cub at ZERO groundspeed has NO momentum to overcome. Here centrifugal/centripetal forces don't apply. Therefore, with the aircraft banked, the horizontal component of the total reaction is unbalanced!!!
Only for an instant. An unbalanced force implies an acceleration - so the instant it banks it also begins a turn and the balance is restored.

Remember that acceleration is changing velocity. Velocity has speed and direction components. Therefore even turning at a constant speed implies an acceleration.
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