Welcome Guest. Sign in or Signup

1 Answers

Constant load factor, and a change in gross weight, What happens ?

Asked by: 3127 views , , , , ,
Aerodynamics

What effect does weight have on load factor ?

Eg. Constant 60 bank turn (2G's) increasing/decreasing gross weight, what would be expected ?

To be utility category for small light trainers (150,172,pa28) we need to be under a certain lb, but decreasing weight would also decrease Va speed, This seems conflicting..

 

I'm having a difficult time connecting these ideas in my head, any open discussion/information is appreciated!

Ace Any FAA Written Test!
Actual FAA Questions / Free Lifetime Updates
The best explanations in the business
Fast, efficient study.
Pass Your Checkride With Confidence!
FAA Practical Test prep that reflects actual checkrides.
Any checkride: Airplane, Helicopter, Glider, etc.
Written and maintained by actual pilot examiners and master CFIs.
The World's Most Trusted eLogbook
Be Organized, Current, Professional, and Safe.
Highly customizable - for student pilots through pros.
Free Transition Service for users of other eLogs.
Our sincere thanks to pilots such as yourself who support AskACFI while helping themselves by using the awesome PC, Mac, iPhone/iPad, and Android aviation apps of our sponsors.

1 Answers



  1. KDS on Nov 20, 2017

    It’s kind of two different things.

    The load factor is just a function of angle of bank. Expressed in g’s, a bank of 60 degrees will always result in a 2 g load factor.

    Va is the speed at which the airplane will stall before reaching its maximum design stress factor when the controls are suddenly deflected. The heavier an airplane is, the sooner it will stall. Stated differently, you can bend a light airplane at a lower speed than you can bend a heavy airplane.

    You’re definitely right that it doesn’t seem intuitively obvious.

    0 Votes Thumb up 0 Votes Thumb down 0 Votes


The following terms have been auto-detected the question above and any answers or discussion provided. Click on a term to see its definition from the Dauntless Aviation JargonBuster Glossary.

Answer Question

Our sincere thanks to all who contribute constructively to this forum in answering flight training questions. If you are a flight instructor or represent a flight school / FBO offering flight instruction, you are welcome to include links to your site and related contact information as it pertains to offering local flight instruction in a specific geographic area. Additionally, direct links to FAA and related official government sources of information are welcome. However we thank you for your understanding that links to other sites or text that may be construed as explicit or implicit advertising of other business, sites, or goods/services are not permitted even if such links nominally are relevant to the question asked.