"Bryan Martin" wrote

It's a bit more complicated than that. Assuming the suspension acts like
a spring, the force applied will increase linearly as the deflection
increases. So the acceleration will increase as the suspension deflects.
Of course you would design the suspension so that it won't bottom out in
the 19" drop test because things get even more complicated if that
happens.

Yeah, I know. I thought about that, and chose to ignore it. g 'Kinda like
the frictionless physics problems, you know. ;-)

I suppose if you wanted to, you could place limits on the shock absorbing, or
spring rates, and where it would bottom the suspension. Say something like the
force required to bottom the suspension of a 1300 pound plane is twice that of
the weight of the plane, and upon bottoming the suspension, the bottoming stop
only gives another one inch. That (to my simple math mind) sounds like some
really nasty calculus, and I wouldn't even know how to set up the problem, let
alone solve it. :-)
--
Jim in NC