Great fuel available/range tip from the past.

[Resasi]

See no reason why this would not work for a gyro, for those of us with minimal instrumentation and wanted to go as far as we could on the fuel we had available in the tank

Wolfgang Langewiesche in his classic Stick and Rudder made an interesting and valuable observation on high altitude flight, and how to select the optimum altitude for maximum efficiency in cruise.

"You know what your particular air-speed indicator reads in a normal glide. Add 5 mph or so; that is the Speed of Best Distance, power on ie the flight condition in which your airplane will make the most miles per gallon.

That is the mark at which you want to keep your air-speed indicator.

If at any given throttle setting, your air-speed indicator in level flight indicates higher, you are not yet at your best altitude for that throttle setting and you can still gain in miles per gallon by going higher.

If at any given throttle setting your air-speed indicator indicates lower, you have too much altitude for that throttle setting …"

[Trez]

Gosh, Leigh, pretty soon you'll be using Pressure-Pattern Nav!........

[GyroDoug]

This may sound kind of like a smartalec question, but it is not. I really would like to understand the principle here. So perhaps someone can explain this to me.

So how do you figure out what a "normal glide" is in your gyroplane? It seems to me that a gyro will "glide" or descend at any speed from 0 mph to 80 mph. If you cut the power and keep pulling back on the cyclic it will slow until you have 0 airspeed. You will be descending but you are still in full control. And to increase your speed you simply push forward on the cyclic, lower the nose and speed will increase. So where is the normal glide speed?

[Chuck Roberg]

So where is the normal glide speed?

The speed at which you lose the least amount of altitude while traveling the furthest distance over the ground. This has to be confirmed thru testing at different airspeeds taking into consideration wind direction/velocity.

[StanFoster]

Chuck has it nailed...but another glide speed that is very close to the the maximum distance speed is the maximum endurance speed. This is the speed that can be shown on your VSI...as you glide get your speed to the lowest feet per minute and that will give you your maximum time aloft. It is a little slower than the maximum distance speed

Chucks speed is for getting the most range....Maximum endurance is getting the most time.

The slowest descent speed is at the bottom of the power curve.

The greatest range speed is a line that starts at the 0/0 and is tangent to the curve.

Stan

[C. Beaty]

Here’s the curve Stan was talking about. Speed for maximum endurance (the speed of minimum power), is typically 45 mph for an open frame gyro and considerably higher for one with low drag enclosure.

[Passin' Thru]

Another interesting point about those two speeds is;
the speed of minimum power required is also your best ANGLE of climb speed (Vx).

The speed of maximum glide is your best RATE of climb speed (Vy).

[StanFoster]

Another thing to add to Petes last post. That line that is tangent to the power curve starts at 0/0 at the lower left corner. You can use the bottom line for either a headwind to the right of 0/0 or a tailwind to the left. You start the line at the headwind or tailwind speed...and draw it tangent to the power curve line. If its starting at the bottom to the right with a headwind...this line is tangent to the power curve at a higher airspeed....and you would need to glide at that higher airspeed for maxi distance with a headwind. Likewise a tailwind starts the line at a shallower angle at intersects the power curve at a slower airspeed that would get you the farthest distance with a tail wind. Stan

[ckurz7000]

Or you could just go the whole nine yards and make yourself a real McReady speed-to-fly ring for your vario. Here is how: http://www.worldclasssoaring.org/images/documents/speedtoflyring.pdf

-- Chris.

[All_In]

This is a great tip Leigh.
One of my instructors taught me this long ago and it works.