I was flying a Ka 7 in a very strong wind condition. At stall speed up wind
it appeard to have no forward ground speed. At 900ft above ground i started
my circuit and at about 700 ft on downwind i passed the start of the runway
and did a base and finals in a slow turn. At finals i looked down to the
start of the runway at about 45degrees. The wind blow me past the runway
(downwind) aprox 300 meters. I realized that i would not make it back at my
rate of decent and forward motion.Before me was nowhere to land as it was
only threes . I decided to change my alltitude for speed and out of the
headwind and into ground effect. The last few moment was nailbiting as i had
to get over 2 fences and a road but made it. My point: If there is no
headwind it will be better to approach at beast glide angle as ground effect
will be slightly cancelled by profile drag due to higer speed. If you have a
strong head wind it will help to get out of the wind and use ground affect.

Regards

Andre

"CV" wrote in message
...

First a disclaimer: I understand the security issues involved
in the following and would not encourage anyone to try this
at home, but I am interested in the theoretical side of it.

Imagine you get things wrong and are caught out low on final,
still a fair distance out, and it looks marginal whether you
are going to reach the runway or not.

One technique I have sometimes heard described is to dive for
the deck and complete the remaining distance in ground effect.
For the sake of the argument we can assume fairly flat ground,
free of obstacles, though not necessarily landable.

The advantages claimed are usually better glide performance in
ground effect and less headwind and absence of downdrafts close
to the ground.

On the other hand you'll be travelling at higher than optimal
airspeed for most of the distance.

I am wondering how much truth there actually is to this
technique. Would it significantly increase your range and
improve your chances of reaching the field or not ?

Would it perhaps work better against a strong wind gradient
(as I suspect it might), and maybe not help a lot in calm
conditions ?

I'd be interested in any hard data/analysis or otherwise
enlightening comments on this.

Please note though, that I am not talking about high-speed
competition finishes, rounded off with a beatup and a sharp
pullup and all the dangers and other issues involved in that.

Cheers CV