Originally Posted by Gusty
Hi Guys,
Thanks for your replies. I think you've helped me crack it. If I understand correctly, the feeling is that a heavy and a light aircraft will have the same glide angle if they fly at their optimum angle of attack. Right?
The only difference being that a heavy aircraft will require a faster speed to achieve this angle of attack, whereas a light aircraft achieves this best angle of attack at a lower speed.
So far it is right...
Originally Posted by Gusty
Thus, a light aircraft descending at the same airspeed as a heavy aircraft will actually be diving at a steeper angle. Right?
Does it precisely follow?
Logically, you could dive at a steeper angle by flying at any angle of attack and airspeed other than the optimum angle of attack.
Thus, you might glide either at lower than optimum angle of attack, at a faster airspeed, or at a higher than optimum AoA, at a lower airspeed...