So, as I sit here reading magazines and listening to the wind howling between the houses rattling my vinyl siding, I wonder how a heavier plane would be effected by gusty winds. My wife asks if a Cirrus Sr20 would be flying.
So, my PiperSport has a wing area of 141.6 sqft. Legislated gross weight of 1320#s gives a wing loading of 9.3#/sqft. An Sr20 is 22#/sqft, a C172 is 15#/sqft. I'm light but so what?
F=ma
Which can be juggled around to be:
a=G/Ws
where G = gusts and Ws is wing loading. Therefore my PiperSport is impacted twice as much by a gust as an Sr20. It really is LIGHT sport.
The Sundowner is @ 17#/sqft. No matter what it's not fun getting beat up in that kind of wind! :)
ReplyDeleteGreat blog. I'm happy to have found it. I own an LSA (Flight Design CTLS) as well and have flown 1,400 hours on it in 4 years. I've flown to 8 countries and 20+ states. Its a great plane.
ReplyDeleteThe Aviation Safety Magazine, September 2011 edition stated the following Wing Loading (lbs/sq.ft) for the following aircraft:
Sportcruiser = 9.98
Cessna 150 = 10
Cessna 162 (Skycather) = 11
Remos GX = 11.18
Flight Design CT = 11.37
Piper Cherokee 140 = 13.4
Cessna 172 = 15.4
Beech A36 Bonanza = 20.2
Cessna 310 = 30.73
As you can see the magazine gave the Sport Cruiser a rating a bit higher then your calculation....which is a good thing !
As you can see all LSA designs have wing loadings similar to a Cessna 150........so they will all have similar wind characteristics.
Anthony
I think it is a function of the FAA assigning a maximum stall speed to LSA. That forces the manufacturer to design a wing that will stall below 45kts at gross weight.
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