Vg - Weight Question

MichaelC

Well-Known Member
An instructor buddy of mine was asked if weight affects Vg. After doing some research, he concluded that weight does make a change of Vg. If that is the case, why does an aircraft like the Cirrus has a glide speed range (SR20 = 87-96kts) that is dependent upon weight?

He already found the answer here. Very interesting read if anyone is interested!
 
Yup. The speed changes, and the entire glide polar just shifts to the right.

This is exactly why gliders load up with water ballast when racing in stronger conditions.

I didn't know that Cirrus posted different VG speeds though, that is cool. I always teach speed-to-fly concepts to my students.

http://www.5c1.net/Glider Performance Airspeeds.htm = A great website to learn even more
 
Thanks! Awesome website!

I agree that is a great find. When I was teaching in a single engine airplane, our Dash-1 had us fly a few knots above best glide (the theory was, I believe, to keep us at a slightly better position in the ejection envelope in case the glide to landing didn't work out so well... not really a factor in most GA planes!).

Anyway, students would frequently slow down to L/D max when it looked like they were not going to quite make the field to "stretch out the glide." Of course, usually the reason they were not going to make the field was due to a headwind, and I sometimes had the hardest time convincing them that faster than L/D max actually gave a better glide range given the wind conditions.

I finally settled on this example: L/D max speed=105 knots (assume IAS=TAS, which is a good approximation at low altitude and low airspeed). Now imagine you are in a 105 knot headwind. What's the glide distance? 0 of course.

What happens at 106 or 107 knots? Well, at least you move forward a little, even if it is a couple of feet. Glide distance improved by flying OFF of L/D max.

Once they get that concept the rest is gravy.
 
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