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Old 16th May 2017, 11:56
  #21 (permalink)  
PDR1
 
Join Date: Nov 2015
Location: Mordor
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But it's not that simple, is it?

A helicopter "Avoid curve" tells you when you can autorotate down and land on flat ground below you - it assumes that there will always be flat ground below you and you can haul a handful of collective to flare it to a stop before touchdown if the ground ain't that smooth.

The equivalent for a fixed wing aeroplane would need to also account for current heading, available runway headings and distance to that runway (even if the runway is a field it needs a piece that is long enough to accomodate a landing from that heading). It would essentially be a set of 3-dimensional maps overlaid on the terrain with one for every few degrees of heading. The map would have riges over every tree, house and rough-ground feature.

I can see this as a potential (very complex) database add-on for a navigation system, but it's not really something you could get in a simple 2-dimensional graph in a flight manual AFAICS.

€0.03 supplied,

PDR
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