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450knotOffice 450knotOffice is online now
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Join Date: Sep 2004
Location: Stuart, FL
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Wow, guys. You're coming up with some pretty far reaching explanations. They are fun to read though. Fingpilot has it right as far as I can tell. He knows what he's talking about, obviously. The inboard spoiler panel is up slightly and shouldn't be (could be for any number of reasons, but for the purposes of this discussion it doesn't matter why). This induces a slight rolling tendency left wing down. The autopilot senses this rolling tendency and corrects it with an aileron deflection. Equilibrium is achieved and the autopilot is "happy". However, this does lead to a little more drag and would therefore decrease the range somewhat due to the fact that the autothrust system is set to hold a fixed mach number and would obviously need to counter the slight additional drag with slightly more thrust.

On a side note, are fingpilot and singpilot one and the same? Hmm.
Old 12-17-2006, 07:21 PM
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