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Jere Lull

On 2007-10-16 09:07:42 -0400, (Richard
Casady) said:

On Mon, 15 Oct 2007 18:00:19 -0700, Stephen Trapani
wrote:

Getting the plane off the ground doesn't decrease it's resistance and
increase it's speed?

Unless the landing gear retract, there is not really that much difference.

Casady

The sign of a non-pilot. The difference doesn't seem large with
non-retractible gear, but it is extremely significant to a pilot trying
to get out of a tight spot, particularly if you add ground-effect (and
especially a sod runway) into the mix. It takes *energy* to spin those
little wheels up.

Short-field takeoffs depend upon getting the wheels off the ground
asap, even if the plane's not going fast enough to sustain free flight
at first. A short bit of level flight just above the deck increases
*acceleration* dramatically.

--
Jere Lull
Tanzer 28 #4 out of Tolchester, MD
Xan's pages: http://web.mac.com/jerelull/iWeb/Xan/
Our BVI trips & tips: http://homepage.mac.com/jerelull/BVI/