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Old 14th Jun 2011, 03:20
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Pilot DAR
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Join Date: Aug 2006
Location: Ontario, Canada
Age: 63
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Secondly, I will recommend;

FLight Testing Of Fixed Wing Aircraft, by Ralph Kimberlin, 2003, and published by American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronatics, ISBN 1-56347-564-2.

This book was provided to me during a flight test and performance course I took earlier this spring.

This book is the serious heavy math book, which handles all of the aspects of propeller (and some jet) fixed wing flight test. It certainly centers on the numbers and formula of flight test, with an emphasis on performance.

This book is not for the entry level pilot, and will bog down quickly if the reader does not have a good foundation of flight test analyisi.

That said, there is a lot of great information in there. The order of the information presented is great, and it is kept in context by the appropriate FAR standard being reproduced for clarity, in context.

A negative aspect I found was the extensive use of symbols. Though they are all quite appropriate, it does require a review frequently to determine what it stands of. Also, some symbols seem to change meaning chapter to chapter, where others do not. That said, if you could master all of this, you'd probably have it all well in hand. I did not!

I was given specific instruction in certain techniques, which are described in this book, and the book re-inforced well what I had been taught.

This is a book for a much more select audience, but I'm sure a mainstay of propeller powered flight test techniques.
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