Doh! The lift vector is tilted ‘backwards’ in a steady climb and its vertical component is foreshortened. The lengthened thrust vector (to maintain the steady climb) has a vertical component which outweighs the foreshortening of the vertical component of lift. Ergo: Up?
I’m not a fixed-wing pilot… is it possible to descend in a perfectly horizontal attitude, in which lift and weight remain the same as they were in level flight, and only thrust and drag are altered?
Pub User and ET: I think I was gazing out of the classroom window the day we did lift. But the reason we rotary chaps wiggle the collective thingy is to increase/reduce the pitch of the blades, thus increasing/reducing lift and going up or down. It’s easy for us, you see… personally I remain to be convinced that fixed-wing aircraft can descend at all.
[ 06 September 2001: Message edited by: t'aint natural ]