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Greetings,
Spurred by the recent tragedy and discussions, I went out this morning in my 320 MKII to re-collect glide ratio data and to show myself the extreme importance of taking the prop to coarse pitch (low RPM) and keeping the airframe clean (gear and flaps up) in order to extract max glide distance in the event of an engine failure.
The data is listed below and the spreadsheet is attached. It is amazing to me to see a 3x better glide ratio by cleaning up and going to low RPM vs. the conventional configuration used on approach -- a testament to how slippery these planes are in the cruise configuration!
Dan Olsen
| Config |
Flaps |
Gear |
Prop |
Decent Rate |
KIAS |
Glide Ratio |
| Cruise/low drag |
up |
up |
low RPM |
600 |
103 |
17.3 |
| Approach/low drag |
10 |
down |
low RPM |
1300 |
92 |
7.1 |
| Approach/high drag |
10 |
down |
high RPM |
1900 |
92 |
4.9 |
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| NOTES: |
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Test aircraft is Lancair 320 MKII, N320DK, owned and flown by Dan Olsen on 8/10/04 |
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Empty weight |
1142 |
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Pilot |
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195 |
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Fuel (36gal) |
216 |
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Baggage |
20 |
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Gross Weight |
1573 |
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Test altitude was 7500' - 9500' |
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Aircraft was flown with Jim Frantz's AOA Pro at the best glide AOA and KIAS was then noted |
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