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Old 01-17-2012, 01:30 PM
Ataros Ataros is offline
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Join Date: Jun 2010
Location: USSR
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Quote:
Originally Posted by TomcatViP View Post
Zooming (like going full vertical) does not accelerate your time to alt. It simply
reduce the time for distance separation with an opponent that hve less E. But you hve to know that the maximum alt you will gain with a given state of E is in fact much less than using the above technique.

~S
I think theoretically it is better to zoom in case your speed exceeds your best climb speed because drag is proportional to speed square IIRC. Thus every second an airplane has speed higher than best climb speed it is wasting E due to extra drag. If it zooms it reduces time spent at speed higher than best climb speed and converts kinetic E to potential E. As soon as speed is dropped to best climb speed zoom can be stopped and changed to sustained climb at best climb speed. Just my understanding, may be be not 100% correct.

PS. And btw acceleration of a falling object does not depend on its weight, rather on weight to drag ratio IIRC. In vacuum 2 objects of different weight would fall with the same speed.

Last edited by Ataros; 01-17-2012 at 01:33 PM.
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