PPRuNe Forums - View Single Post - Constant radius turns around a ground feature
Old 19th Feb 2006, 21:41
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Flingwing207
 
Join Date: Jul 2002
Location: Denver, CO and the GOM
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It's a bit non-intuitave, this bank-angle vs where on the turn thing, but a little time spent with some graph paper will make it clearer. First draw (or imagine) a birds-eye view of an helicopter orbiting a windsock with the wind coming from the south - you are keeping a zero airspeed station over the center of the orbit's circle while the orbiting helicopter keeps a constant angle of bank. The path of the helicopter would look like a perfect circle while the windsock would seem to travel in a staight line to the south. (Imagine the orbit starting at the 12:00 position with the helicopter facing E - a CW orbit).

Now draw/picture you are holding a zero groundspeed station over the windsock while the orbiting helo does the same constant-bank circle. Now the path of the orbiting helicopter would look like the number 6, with the windsock sitting near the base of the 6.
Keep this in mind...

Now draw/envision the same helicopter doing "s" turns along an E-W road, with the same wind out of the south. Image the helicopter at its direct downwind (going N), crosswind (E), upwind (S) and crosswind (E) points, while holding a constant radius on either side of the road. Draw the required wind correction at each of these points, and figure the bank angles required to hit these WCA's. Finally transpose these diagrams to the original circle.
Or just take Shawn's word for it, 'cause he's right!
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