Once everyone has found the wind gauge...it's interesting to learn about ground effect. We had a cross country event out in Lancaster. The wind was blowing at a moderate clip. If you held the wind meter about 4' off the ground it was reading 8-10 mph.
Joe W. then took the meter and put it up to about 10' off the ground. I think he tacked it to a pole or something, I can't quite remember. In any case, the meter now registered 15-18 mph. This made sense with what our planes were doing up in the air (read going backwards). This also shed light on hot landings with ballasted planes. You're driving into the wind about 50' off the ground, you bring the plane down to the deck and the speed goes up, much higher than anticipated. JE -- Erickson Architects John R. Erickson, AIA RCSE-List facilities provided by Model Airplane News. Send "subscribe" and "unsubscribe" requests to [EMAIL PROTECTED] Please note that subscribe and unsubscribe messages must be sent in text only format with MIME turned off.
