On Tuesday, March 1, 2016 at 5:50:58 PM UTC-5, wrote:
On Tuesday, March 1, 2016 at 3:07:03 PM UTC-5, wrote:
Can anyone point me towards literature on this subject?
I wonder if anyone has done simulations, calculating the cost of those 6.5G pulls for example.

Wil Schuemann wrote an article for Soaring Symposium back in the late 60s called "The Price You Pay for Flying McCready Speeds". He did a monumental amount of calculations comparing dophin technique pulling and pushing to match the STF according to McCready vs flying simply at two selected airspeeds. Over a cross country flight, choosing to fly at the two selected speeds equated to a much better flight in terms of speed achieved. I once had a discussion with a world class pilot who stated that the drag incurred by pulling and pushing the stick is much greater than most people appreciate. Read the literature in the Soaring Symposium on Competitive Flying authored by Wil Schuemann. Indirectly, that may also validate the use of flaps as being more efficient than using the stick (elevator).

The Price You Pay for McCready Speeds: http://www.betsybyars.com/guy/soarin...a/72price.html