Forum: Modern Military Aircraft

hehehe.... must admit that's not me in the pic, I am behind the camera. Just for fun we did install Falcon 4.0 on the sim, that was pretty rockin... Razz

Another "quote": "okay line up for your approach to Red Square..."

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they have an L-39 at that club in livermore also...not sure about the price. I'm not familiar with clubs out where you are, but it might be worth taking a trip somewhere to fly some of these planes, see what you like and then make a decision and shell out the bucks and effort to get lisenced and maybe buy a share in one of them. A Pitts is definately affordable and a whole lotta fun.

I haven't flown an L-39, but it won't compare to the MiG or Viper as far as speed and Gs...however, most of the acro maneuvers you can do will be the same in all those jets. (e.g. you'd do a 5G loop instead of an 8G loop).

In the end, in my opinion, if you're gonna go fly single ship acro you can have more fun in an unlimited prop plane than in a jet.

best of luck!

snaproll 21, in a previous email you said that flying a pitts or 300 would be easier on the body then a jet. if you're are pulling a 5g maneuver in a pitts wouldn't it be the same on the body if you did the exact move on a jet? I guess the big difference is speed but I would guess 5g is 5g so the aircraft shouldn't matter.

oh, the 5G loop was in reference to the L-39. A Pitts can pull +6G but it will be pretty much instantaneous, meaning you will lose so much energy in the pull that you will not be able to sustain the Gs. A loop in the Pitts will usually start with about 4Gs, through about 30-40 degrees nose high, then bleeding down through 3 and 2Gs until over the top right around .5 or 1G and then building up again on the backside. Pretty tame.

In an L-39 it'd probably be 5G initial pull for about 70 degrees and then down to 3ish over the top and back to 5. But remember, a loop in a Pitts probably takes 10-15 seconds while a 5G loop at 450KIAS takes, no kidding, 40 seconds.

To answer your question, yes, 5Gs is 5Gs. A jet can sustain Gs far better (because of all the excess power) but both the Pitts and L-39 can put 6Gs on the meter. Speed will be a big difference between flying a MiG-25 or an Extra, but 600 knots at 35,000ft and 200 knots and 10,000 really don't feel too different.

i think that answers my question. so, let me see if I have this right. a pitts and an f-16 both can perform a 9g manuever. the big difference is that an f-16 can hold the maneuver longer because it has more energy going into the maneuver? physics was never my strong point. if I try to compare this to car racing, a faster traveling car will perform more g's when it enters a corner. I guess i'm trying to understand what difference's a person feels performing a 9g in an f-16 versus a pitts.

well a Pitts tops out at 6Gs...regardless, the difference between a jet and prop plane is power. when you pull a lot of Gs you are putting a huge amount of drag on the wings (ref. "induced drag"). an F-16 has enough power to overcome that drag, thereby not decelerating, while a Pitts has very little power, so it will quickly decelerate (since the force of drag is far greater than the force of thrust) causing the aircraft to slow to a speed where you can no longer attain 6Gs.
for example, say a Pitts and an F-16 are both doing 300 knots (almost realistic) and they both start pulling 6Gs. the Pitts will almost immediately slow down to, say, 200 knots...where the pilot can only pull 4Gs, then to 150 where he/she can only get 3Gs...and then say 10 seconds later you're down to 100 knots and holding 2Gs. the f-16 on the other hand can easily hold 300 knots and 6Gs without slowing...so that pilot could theoretically pull 6Gs until running out of gas...the difference being only that the F-16 has enough power to overcome the drag created by pulling 6Gs while the Pitts does not. make sense?

it won't really compare to driving cars, because turning in a car doesn't cause you to slow down in the same way that turning in an airplane does.

makes sense. thanks for the course. i'm still trying to locate an outfit near the atlanta area that offers aerobatic rides in either a pitts or extra. so far i've only been able to find one company that offers aerobatic rides and that is in a super decathalon. go with the super decathlon or wait for either pitts or extra? also, aircombatusa will be in tha atlanta area during october. has anyone every done one of their courses? prices are around $1,000. worth it?

super D is a cool plane. that would be enough to get an idea of aerobatics and see if you like it.

Forum: Modern Military Aircraft

Frustrated fighter pilot wannabe - commercial (jet) flights?