Le Chaud Lapin wrote:
Well, someone should have told me that Rob Machado and Barry Schiff
are not experts. I did read once that Rod Machado has a Ph.D. in
aviation science, and the foreword to Barry Schiff's book is by Ernest
K. Gann, whom I presumed from his credentials is highly respected in
field.

As far as I know, Machado, Schiff, and Gann are experts in piloting, not
aerodynamics. There is very large difference in having a degree in
"Aviation Science" and Aerodynamics. The former seems to typically
include only one course in aerodynamics and an associates degree can be
obtained in only two years. Since no calculus is required, the
aerodynamics presented is likely to be qualitative and not quantitative.
An aerodynamics engineering degree, on the other hand, is at least four
years and a couple years of aerodynamic courses. Calculus is required and
is intended to impart enough knowledge to a student so they could design
aircraft.

But what is in my Jeppensen book and
what Barry Schiff wrote is wrong.

It could also be considered incomplete, rather than outright wrong.

Now I could have gone to some university in the U.S., Germany, France,
and found someone with stratospheric credentials in aero-astro, but
after seeing one expert say that the other is wrong, and then seeing
an incorrect application of Newton's law (yes I still believe it's
incorrect), I had to put on the brakes.

I don't agree with your approach to how you handled the contradictions
you encountered. If you can handle the math and physics, I think you
should move on to that level, not "put on the brakes." The problem is not
one of piloting, but rather understanding the physics and aerodynamics,
so I'm not sure why you chose to post to a piloting group. I would
suggest you post a query asking for authoritative texts and material to
one or more of these groups:

sci.physics
sci.mech.fluids
sci.physics.computational.fluid-dynamics
sci.aeronautics

I guess the most important thing I learned from this experiences is
that, if it is true that the field of aerodynamics is fully-cooked,
the experts need to tell everyone else so that they stop printing (as
late as 2006) erroneous information in textbooks about the very
basics.

I do not the fault the experts. They have authored much material on the
subject. But it's a complex subject - just as complex as quantum
mechanics, for example. But some people insist on seeking easy to
undertand or otherwise "intuitive" explanations for systems where
multiple constraints are operating simultaneously. So when explanations
are reduced to comprehensible bits something has to give. I'm not sure
why you appear shocked by this.