What the Remote Pilot in command will need to know about sUAS performance

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What the Remote Pilot in command will need to know about sUAS performance

Aircraft performance is another big part of being a pilot – remote pilot, private pilot, it doesn’t matter, across the board. No matter what aircraft, performance is always a big deal. You have to understand the performance of your aircraft, loading of your aircraft, how it’s going to perform in the different environments, such as pressure changes, temperature changes, and so forth.

Performance is a term used to describe the ability of an aircraft to accomplish certain things that make it useful for certain purposes. The primary factors most affected by performance are the takeoff and landing distance, rate of climb, ceiling, payload, range, speed, maneuverability, stability, and fuel economy.

You can see there are a several things that are important about your aircraft’s performance. Since weight, altitude, and configuration changes affect excess thrust and power, they also affect climb performance. Climb performance is directly dependent upon the ability to produce either excess thrust or excess power. Weight has a very pronounced effect on aircraft performance.

In aviation, we do weight and balance figures all of the time for all flights. Weight is a big, big part of this. If weight is added to an aircraft, it must fly at a high angle of attack (AOA) to maintain a given altitude and speed. This increases the induced drag of the wings, as well as the parasite drag of the aircraft. Increased drag means that additional thrust is needed to overcome it.

This means that less reserve thrust is available for climbing. Aircraft designers go to great lengths to minimize the weight since has such a marked effect on the factors pertaining to performance. An increase in altitude also increases the power required and decreases the power available.

Therefore, the climb performance of an aircraft diminishes with altitude. To provide a common reference, the International Standard Atmosphere (ISA) has been established. Pay attention here because I’m sure you going to see these numbers on your written test.

These standard conditions are the basis for most aircraft performance data. Standard sea level pressure is defined as 29.92 “Hg and a standard temperature of 59 °F (15 °C). You will need to know this. Atmospheric pressure is also reported in millibars (mb), with 1 “Hg equal to approximately 34 mb. Standard sea level pressure is 1,013.2 mb. You need to know this. Typical mb pressure readings range from 950.0 to 1,040.0 mb.

Surface charts, high and low pressure centers, and hurricane data are reported using mb. Since weather stations are located around the globe, all local barometric pressure readings are converted to a sea level pressure to provide a standard for records and reports. To achieve this, each station converts its barometric pressure by adding approximately 1 “Hg for every 1,000 feet of elevation.

For example, a station at 5,000 feet above sea level with a reading of 24.92 “Hg reports a sea level pressure reading of 29.92 “Hg. By tracking barometric pressure trends across a large area, weather forecasters can more accurately predict movement of pressure systems and the associated weather. For example, tracking a pattern of rising pressure at a single weather station generally indicates the approach of fair weather. Conversely, decreasing or rapidly falling pressure usually indicates approaching bad weather and possibly severe storms.

What the Remote Pilot in command will need to know about sUAS performance

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