On Wednesday, January 23, 2013 4:35:45 PM UTC-7, Martin Gregorie wrote:

It stands to reason that you can't climb in a 90 degree bank because

there's no vertical lift vector unless, of course, you so much top rudder

fed in that you're climbing on lift generated by the fin and fuselage

sides.



However, a couple of times I've certainly been using around 70 degrees

bank and still going up like the clappers:

Precisely. 70 degrees is about 3 Gs, would give you a turn diameter of a little less than 200 ft (!) at 55 knots. But I doubt many pilots actually practice constant 70 degree banked turns, it's not as easy as it looks. Hard enough to get a lot of pilots to bank over 30 degrees - grrrr!

It sure is fun to rack it up when you find the right thermal - the harder you pull, the faster you go up! Do it with someone you know across the thermal and it gets really interesting...

Kirk
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