"Maxwell" wrote in message
...

"Dudley Henriques" wrote in message
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There's a great story about the crew of a Pan Am Stratocruiser I think it
was, who were low on fuel and a long way out over the ocean. They let
down to within a wingspan's distance over the water, leaned it back a
ton, played with the RPM, and made it home.
Can't remember the source of the story, but I do remember reading it a
long time ago.

Don't you have to be within half the wing span to benefit much from ground
effect?

Ground effect can be considered generally or more accurately for a specific
aircraft.
GENERALLY speaking, you can begin to consider ground effect a factor about a
wingspan's distance above the surface.
Dudley Henriques