On Apr 25, 10:45*pm, Stefan wrote:
WingFlaps schrieb:

Itls a turn upwind to downwind. That involves 2 direction changes, one
to reverse course and the the other to line up the runway. If there's
wind there will be an effect on line up. Try thinking about more
factors that cost altitude OK?

All good and fine, and I'm thinking about a lot of factors, btw. also
about human ones which are usually the weak link, but you still have not
explained what you meant when you wrote: "Now we add in the energy
losses from having to accelerate with the wind."

Yes, I did. I'll explain it one last time. A direction change in a
plane is always due to acceleration (and that means more drag). That's
Newtonian physics. You go from up wind direction (takeoff is usually
up wind) to turn in the wind direction to land down wind. There's an
acceleration, it is a change in _velocity_ it creates drag, it costs
height and that's the important bit. Now do you understand -TURNS are
not free, they cost more height than the distance covered. Get it
now?

Cheers