Wondering: Who's flying the plane?

[MaggieL]

Originally posted by dhamsaic
Wow. That's pretty impressive - only 750 pounds. I've never seen one, so I was figuring something more like my dad's Cessna. Wow.

So, then, how fast does the aircraft ascend? That is, once it has actually lifted off the ground, how far (feet) would it take the champ to rise, say, 200 feet? I realize that this is determined by how much the pilot is trying to "make it go up" - so we'll define it as "the hardest ascension without stressing the plane or being in danger". Is 300-500 feet unusually short for a private plane?

Rate of climb in this situation would depend on a bunch of stuff, including what the trim was set for...hard to say. Going up 1000-1500 feet per minute with people on board is not at all unusual. When you ask "how far" rather than "how fast" you're asking "angle of climb", rather than "rate of climb", and angle depends on rate of climb and groundspeed, which in turn depends on airspeed and windspeed...as I pointed out with sufficient headwind, angles of climb of 90 degress (and more, in the "flying backwards" scenario. :-) ) are not impossible in some aircraft..
*Climbing* under power usually does not endager the airframe due to stress. (Although I remeber a high-performance takoff demonstration Lisa did once in my Cardinal that was quite a ride) Aerobatic manuvers once aloft (gaining speed by diving, ferinstance) are another story.