OK. That makes sense.

mike

"Gary Drescher" wrote in message


You need to look at the acceleration, not the velocity. If you're
descending at a constant vertical velocity (zero acceleration), then the
forces are the same as with constant altitude, so you still get a 2G turn
with a 60-degree bank. (Emergency-descent spirals are often flown that
way.) If you accelerate downward though, you get less than 2G during the
acceleration.

This is a special case of the Galilean/Newtonian relativity principle that
there is no absolute frame of reference for velocity--no detectable
difference (except relative to other objects) between being at rest and
being at (constant) motion. Here, we're just applying that principle to
the vertical component of motion.

--Gary