thanks I never pulled the toolbar panel larger and so did not realize i could change COG with the slider. I knew it increased the loads but since since the pilot and seats behind were both being changed the same ratio, I could not really tell about the COG was behaving. So I adjusted it in the .cfg file (which takes me about 2 minutes including finding the right file).
But as you wrote, and I now realize, you can just drag the slider and watch the icon move in the toolbar panel.
Thanks!
EDIT: One reason planes arenât designed a little more nose heavy and therefore more stable, is that it reduces fuel efficiency. And cheaper fuel will sell a lot more aircraft. Price and pollution concerns. (When you trim the plane with the elevator trim whee, it will yield less lift on the wings if the COG has previously been moved more forward. Because the wings are forward of COG. And so it takes more fuel to create that lift that has been lost)
The explanation isnât quite right, it is true that an aft CG is more fuel efficient but it is not the prime concern when establishing the CG limits. The CG limits are based on stability and controllability, too far forward and the aircraft becomes too stable, requires high stick forces to manoeuver and at some point dives uncontrollably as the horizontal stabilizer isnât effective enough to compensate for the nose down pitching moment. Too far aft and the longitudinal stability is insufficient, theoretically also increasing fuel consumption as more control inputs are required to maintain the correct flightpath. Under certification standards an aircraft needs positive static stability which is the determining factor for the aft CG limit. So an aft CG decreases fuel consumption only up to a certain point after which it starts increasing again.
The reason why an aft CG causes lower fuel consumption: in normal flight, on a conventional aircraft the CG is located in front of the wing center of pressure and the aircraft therefore has a natural nose down tendency, the further aft (therefore closer to the CP) the CG is, the smaller the nose down pitching moment becomes (and vice versa). The nose down moment has to be compensated for by the horizontal stabilizer + elevator, this causes a âdownforceâ on the horizontal stabilizer which basically is negative lift or can even be considered as weight. The wing has to compensate for this stabilizer downforce by creating more lift and therefore, all other factors being the same, a higher AOA is required for straight and level flight for a forward CG as compared to an aft CG.
Result: more lift required means more induced drag, the increased deflection of the elevator and downforce cause an increase in trim drag, the increase in drag (induced + trim) causes higher fuel consumption, lower range and endurance, lower climb rate. The required increase in AOA causes an increase in stall speed.
I could not agree more. Some of the comments on the forum are mind-boggling in their inaccuracy and could make you wonder who mankind ever managed to achieve powered flight. There is a reason why it takes years of studies to become an aeronautical engineer or a licensed pilot.
I said it before and I gladly say it again: despite itâs present shortcomings, FS2020 (particularly in VR) is the closest thing to real flight I have ever come across (apart from a 1h experience I once had in a Lufthansa 737NG full motion flight simulator).
Glide ratio and the floating in ground effect is not completely unrelated, there is an overall lack of drag in the sim, especially on prop planes. This causes unrealistic glide ratios and cause the aircraft to keep floating for miles in ground effect without running out of energy.
Why? Unless there is some extenuating circumstance like gusty winds or perhaps a wet runway where you want to plant it, why on earth would the stall warning horn during the flare be âtoo farâ? I donât understand. The goal of landing is to stop flying.
Its a mickey mouse technique to hold the aircraft off as long as possible until having the stick fully back into your stomach and having the stall warning activating. Sure there are certain aircraft types where this is appropriate (e.g. taildraggers), or certain conditions requiring this (e.g. soft field landing). In all other cases it serves no purpose and all it does is lengthening the landing distance. The landing flare only serves two purposes:
Bringing the aircraft into the landing attitude, i.e. landing on the main gear before the nose gear.
Reducing the vertical rate before touchdown.
Holding the aircraft off until having the correct landing attitude, then aiming for a smooth touchdown within the touchdown zone without delay and start braking is the correct technique outside of the exceptions mentioned above. It serves no purpose to prolong the flare past that point, it only eats up more runway. The PPL technique also isnât transferable onto bigger aircraft.
In professional flight training (I have been involved with ATPL and MPL training for many years) we have moved away from that long time ago. Same as with the âblack-and-whiteâ pitch = speed, power = glidepath approach. Works on a Cessna but isnât transferable onto anything bigger than that. As not to induce negative training we donât teach it like that anymore.
In the King Air, I have cut full power to the engines, unfeather both props, stall the plane to lose some altitude, then forward slip to lose some more, and I still overshoot the runway by a mile
I often thought that the British term roundout is more accurate then our flair .If I ever heard the stall warning just before touchdown I most certainly would need to change my underwear.
Itâs not the flare that eats up that runway, but I digress. Let me put it this way, if youâre flying a thousand feet down the runway in a takeoff attitude and the plane keeps right on flying, your problem is not the flare. Your problem started a long, long time before that. And take a look at the rate of LOC accidents after touching down on pavement.
Flare is indeed not the best term to convey what youâre trying to accomplish, but why the stall horn would make you nervous before touchdown is beyond me.
If I was setting up for a short field or knowingly flying just beyond stall speed the horn would be expected .In a normal landing is just that and I was taught 50 years go just as Ninjnte91 has posted.
Hearing the stall warning is not big of a deal! It certainly is on a turboprop or jet, but not on a GA aircraft. It just usually is a waste of runway to keep holding off the aircraft for that long. During high crosswind I would certainly not go that far.
It certainly is the flare which eats up the runway, holding off or using aerodynamic braking is multiple times less effective than braking. Iâm not saying you should land the aircraft with too much energy either, the post you are responding to (from 2020) was about the argument whether you should land the aircraft in a âfull stallâ, apparently this is more a matter of definition and US people seem to use this term to describe touching down on the horn. I wouldnât call that a full stall, a full stall would mean passing the critical angle of attack with airflow separating. I argue that its unnecessary to hold the aircraft off until you have the stick fully into your stomach until you canât hold it off any longer. Its a waste of runway. When landing attitude is reached (whatever that may be for a particular aircraft type) there is no point in holding off, touch down with a safe vertical rate, de-rotate and the aircraft is not flying anymore.
When I started flying the Bonanza which was my first low-wing a/c, I also started flying with a new instructor, and that was one of the first things he told me: Forget about those Cessna-specific landing techniques and fly the aircraft onto the runway.
The Cheroke series with" The Hershey Bar wings" had a tendency to float The T tail Arrow handles a little bit different then the straight tail. Never was lucky enough to fly the Bonanza either V tail or straight.I do have a few hours in a plane without rudder pedals the Ercoupe .Proper technique is a transferable skill and I will admit to some dumb just donât tell anyone.
Where did you read that?
This