OK well you say potato, I say the other thing. In the context of the incident we are talking about, you yourself said "from my comfy chair he just had a high sink rate as he ran out of energy extending the glide", so you clearly agree that he was running out of energy. The point on which we differ is whether he stalled or whether he somehow developed a high sink rate for some other reason. As there is no evidence that I can see that there is any reason for a high sink rate to develop, I'm going to go for the stall scenario as it seems a lot more likely. Neither of us are ever going to to know for sure. The main point is that he did run out of energy (and control) before he flopped it on.
Running out of energy extending the glide basically means he ran out of altitude, as the force of gravity pulling the aircraft down the slope provides the forward airspeed. Run out of Altitude and you run out of airspeed ie energy. The actual aeroplane has plenty of potential energy, if the engine started it could climb away, if there miracualously was a giant cliff he could continue to glide.
In terms of what we see he exchanges Airspeed for angle of attack trying to stretch the glide and gets the cherokee on the back of the drag curve. Due to the increased drag and increased lift in this configuration he develops a high sink rate and bangs it on the ground.
Cloud Basher
You're on the money, the only thing I don't agree with is the aeroplane being stalled, if he raised the nose anymore then I believe he could have very easily. Don't forget he did not have any flap lowered and as such can have a much higher nose attitude without the subsequent stall.
Quote:
Good to see they at least taught you a sense of humour
You have to have a sense of humour when explaining
aviation to Ozmates, otherwise you go mad...
Back at you fella