Newsgroups: rec.aviation.misc,rec.aviation.military,news.newusers.questions,
	rec.aviation.homebuilt,alt.disasters.aviation,rec.aviation.rotorcraft
From: shafer@ferhino.dfrc.nasa.gov (Mary Shafer)
Subject: Re: Linda Finch World Flight
Date: Mon, 5 May 1997 18:40:22 GMT

On 4 May 1997 21:58:26 GMT, caf@agora.rdrop.com (Chuck Forsberg) said:

C> In article <5kia7u$vtu@ds2.acs.ucalgary.ca>,
C> Paul Siller <:-)siller@freenet.calgary.ab.ca> wrote:

>shafer@ferhino.dfrc.nasa.gov (Mary Shafer) wrote:

>>On the other hand, all the news coverage provided those of us in the
>>Los Angeles area quite a number of opportunities to admire her
>>splendid PIO when landing at either Burbank or Van Nuys.  I think
>>she only bounced three times, which was kind of surprising
>>considering how much porpoising she had going.

>I have read certain accounts that insinuate that Earhart wasn't
>exactly that proficient a pilot -- a bit rough on the landings,
>etc. Perhaps it was all in the name of re-creating the realism.
><evil smile>.

I would suspect that Earhart would have been less prone to PIOing the
landing, as she would have been more accustomed to the lower-bandwidth
aircraft of the day.  When all there was to fly was big,
slow-reacting, taildragger aircraft, people were very well-versed in
the appropriate compensation to use in the pattern.

When we were thrashing around after the ALT PIO, one engineer made the
remark that the easiest way to fix the Orbiter time-delay-induced PIO
would be to take away the astronauts' T-38s and give them DC-3s.  Most
of us agreed that this would work very well.

C> There is a simulation of Earhart's plane, complete with extra large
C> fuel tankage, for Microsoft Flight Simulator.  It is not difficult
C> to take off or land on the virtual PDX or HIO.  So much for
C> realism????

No matter how faithful the simulation, it's almost impossible to PIO a
simulator.  The pilot's gain is much too low.  Considering how hard it
is to PIO an extremely sophisticated moving-base ground simulator, I'd
say that it's almost impossible for anyone, even a non-pilot, to PIO
something like the Microsoft Flight Simulator.

This inability to PIO the ground-based sim is, in fact, one of the
main reasons that handling qualities people spend a lot of money and
effort on in-flight simulation.  At least then it's the real ground
that's rushing up at the pilot.  This does lend a certain urgency to
the pilot's attempts to control the aircraft.
--
Mary Shafer               NASA Dryden Flight Research Center, Edwards, CA
SR-71 Flying Qualities Lead Engineer     Of course I don't speak for NASA
shafer@ferhino.dfrc.nasa.gov                               DoD #362 KotFR
URL http://www.dfrc.nasa.gov/People/Shafer/mary.html
For personal messages, please use shafer@ursa-major.spdcc.com