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What is a phugoid?
There is an oscillatory mode of motion that a pilot will subconsciously dampen out. It is an exchange of altitude for airspeed. The aircraft pitches up and climbs while slowing down, and after it reaches its peak, it pitches down and accelerates. This mode is usually very lightly damped, which means it will continue for a long time before dissipating, as you can see in this video.
One of the most surprising characteristics of the phugoid mode is that the period is inversely proportional to L/D. Aircraft like gliders with a high L/D ratio have a very short period.
Visualize the phugoid in a simulator.
3 References on Phugoid Motion in Aerodynamics
1. Lecture on Phugoid Motion
2. Excel spreadsheet for reducing and visualizing phugoid data
3. Cornell lecture notes on dynamic stability
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This post summarizes references and #FTT tweets from the previous Friday. What is #FTT Friday?
#FTT Friday
Each Friday, @FlightTestFact will deliver examples, definitions, and explanations of flight test techniques for the entire day. You can view these tweets by searching for #FTT and #flighttest as depicted below. You can also click on the picture below to be taken to the twitter search results. What FTT would you like to know more about?
For more information, you can read the post What is an FTT? or check out the alphabetical index or the FTT blog category for several examples, test cards, and videos of FTTs.
In his latest book, the 15 Laws of Growth, John Maxwell recounts an anecdote from the life of Richard Feynman. The noted physicist was burned out on physics.
“I used to enjoy doing physics. Why did I enjoy it? I used to play with it…It didn’t have to do with whether it was important for the development of nuclear physics, but whether it was interesting and amusing or fun to play with. When I was in high school, I’d see water running out of a faucet growing narrower, and wonder if I could figure out what determines that curve…I didn’t have to do it; it wasn’t important for the future of science; somebody else had already done it. That didn’t make any difference: I’d invent things and play with things for my own entertainment.
So I got this new attitude. Now that I am burned out, and I’ll never accomplish anything…I’m going to play with physics, whenever I want to, without worrying about any importance whatsoever” (Richard Fenyman).
I see a similar burnout in STEM and aerospace–in pilots and flight test professionals and mathematicians and computer scientists.
Maxwell continues the story by pointing out that shortly thereafter, a moment of playful curiosity planted the seeds for Feynman’s Nobel prize winning work in physics.
I am forced to ask myself, have I lost wonder?
What areas of flight test, of engineering, of data sciences that I find in my daily work would I enjoy more if I had less purpose and more playfulness?
