I can state with complete certainty that all military and civilian aircraft that I have flown and displayed in bygone days used accelerometers of a type that Rainboe is not familiar with, and they do indeed read less than 1G while in any steady state of climb, and precisely zero G while climbing (or descending) in the vertical.
Rainboe, think of it this way. Imagine you have a set of scales under your bum while seated in whatever airplane you fly. While in straight and level flight the scales would read exactly your weight, ie 1G, but while climbing in the vertical plane all of your weight would be acting towards your seat back, and not on the scales. The scales would therefore read zero. While in a steady state climb, they would read somewhere between the two extremes. The accelerometer we use in aircraft act in a plane aligned exactly as the scales I have just described, and they are in no way used for measuring the acceleration forces one may observe while braking after landing, or while accelerating along the runway during take off roll. For the gague to do this it would have to be laid flat on the aircraft floor!
You do however correctly point out (in my lesson of the day) that the accelerometer will indicate temporary accelerations caused by pitching moments. It will also indicate the constant acceleration (greater than 1G indication) throughout any duration of a balanced erect turn - or less than -1G while in a balanced inverted turn. For display pilots the accelerometer is used not only to measure the stresses on an aircraft, but also as a guide to determine when the aircraft will stall.
That much I did not have any misconception about, but I am confused when it comes to the relationship of wing loading and lift. Surely if the G force is reduced, so must the wing loading. As we have not in anyway reduced the wing area, how is it possible that the lift cannot reduce also?
Over to the scientists....
Last edited by fullyspooled; 18th Oct 2008 at 23:19.