Mountain Flying Basics - getting maximum lift from the wing
As an instructor as well as a student of aviation and all things flight I am always interested in learning as much about aerodynamics as I possibly can, especially when it will help my flying.
One of the airplanes we operate here at Alpine Flight Training in Eagle Colorado is a Cessna Cardinal, the other is a Diamond DA20. The Cardinal has a significant load capability, but when heavily loaded the performance quickly diminishes. One of the challenges of flying the Cardinal is to accurately predict your climb performance prior to departure and then maximize that climb in flight, especially when more heavily loaded.
In talking to an aerodynamics guru I recently learned that generally speaking, ailerons are designed in a manner that when they are fully deflected in the down position the wing is in it's maximum lift configuration. While that fact is interesting about the aileron, what it also means is that if your plane's POH isn't specific about maximum lift flap setting, and easy way to determine this is to place the aileron in the fully deflected position and then lower the flap to match that angle. In the Cardinal, it turns out that maximum lift is a little less than the 10 degrees of flaps settings suggested by the POH for takeoff. As a result, I'll generally takeoff with 10 degrees, then retract the flaps slightly to maximize the climb.
