Cap 56,
I don't know that I'd get at all excited about distinguishing between couples (ie torques) and moments .... but I am intrigued by the suggestion that ..
"The position that gives you a bank angle equal to the deflection of the slip ball should be zero slip straight flight on the condition tha your heading remains steady."
It's a bit late at night here ..
.... but I would have thought that I could cause the bank/ball condition to occur at any bank angle of interest by simply banking .. and keep the heading straight by simply pushing on the appropriate rudder pedal .... and get all sorts of different slip angles depending on what bank I choose to use in the specific exercise ... provided that the end result is a steady state flight condition?
.. or is it just the case that it is a bit late at night here ?
I suspect that we are looking for a situation where -
(a) forces are in equilibrium (ie balance out) so that the aircraft stays at the same speed while not going sideways .. although a little bit of going up is desirable ...
(b) moments are in equilibrium (ie balance out) so that the aircraft doesn't spin slowly like a drunkard trying to find his way back from the pub to the marina late at night ...
And if, by some serendipitous sprinkling of pixie dust, that situation can end up with an aircraft under some modest measure of control with a tad spare performance after the initial surprise associated with the failure .. (excluding sim exercises where we are only surprised if the organist in the back forgets to fail the engine) .. then we ought to have a moderate content, assuming the hills and such are not an immediate concern to safety.
I, like B, have, as my first priority, staying blue side up ... and then worrying about whatever level of finesse I might be capable of on any given occasion to get some modest level of performance out of the wee beastie ..
Last edited by john_tullamarine; 18th Sep 2004 at 13:19.