Ok, I've been putting off asking this question here for awhile, but I need to get some input on this. It is a private pilot type of question coming straight from a private pilot, so bear with me here.
So, everyone learns in private pilot ground school that you should land and takeoff within 'the bowl' for wake turbulence reasons, as the wings of an aircraft (as told by my instructors and text books) are not creating lift until the point at which the aircraft is either rotating on lift-off or when the nose gear touches down (more or less speaking).
My issue is with the validity of that 'fact' regarding when lift actually begins to generate and cease. Everyone seems to tell the story as if to suggest that lift basically 'shuts off or on' at these two critical moments in flight, and that there is nothing in between.
I contest that wings are
always generating lift so long as
any amount of air is moving over the wing, forward to aft, regardless of whether the wheels are on the ground. Any why not? Why should a wing care if another separate part of the airplane is touching the ground in order for its aerodynamic functions to work? Physics, right?
You have two identical airplanes moving in parallel: Airplane 1 is flying at 120kts just off the deck, gear up, at the same altitude it would be at if it were supported by its gear. Airplane 2 is rolling on the ground on its wheels at 120kts. By what I've been "taught", Airplane 1 is the only airplane generating lift, due to the 'facts' listed further up at the top.
So where is the truth??
Ends filibuster.