j.. Added safety in an emergency from greater glide time. Area for
landing increases as the square of the range
At 6,000' glide is about 7 minutes, 12.5 miles
At 12,000' glide is about 14 minutes, 25 miles
At 18,000' glide is about 21 minutes, 37.5 miles
If that would be this easy!! The gliding time unfortunately does not in
increase in linear fashion.
About a year or so ago there was a series of articles in Sports Aviation
dealing with the changes in flight characteristics as well as the relation
of speed and air pressure at high altitudes.
Generally since the air density decreases with increasing altitude you need
to fly faster in order to get the required lift, thus your mininum speed or
stall speed increases as well. In extreme cases your maximum speed is just
about were your stall speed is. Thus, your speed envelope is extremely
narrow.
For gliding, this means that you may have to glide at a higher speed than
what the best glide rate would be, thus loosing performance.
All in all though flying at higher altitude gains a lot of advantages. While
flying at 18,000 feet at 200 mph IAS you indeed fly about 300 mph or more
TAS, all because of the lower air density.
Wolfgang
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