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by Gordonjcp 1279 days ago
Over what sort of range of height and pressure?

It's just about observable with very light and very aerodynamic aircraft at ground level if you can get them cold enough.

1 comments

It's well beyond "just about observable". Here's a sample landing distance performance chart: https://www.ascentgroundschool.com/~ascentgr/images/ct80802e...

At -10°C/14°F, with no other adjustments, in the hands of a test pilot, that aircraft will have a ground roll of around 1000' and clear a 50' obstacle and come to a stop in around 1500'.

At 30°C/86°F, with no other adjustments, in the hands of a test pilot, that aircraft will have a ground roll of around 1150' and clear a 50' obstacle and come to a stop in around 1750'.

Flying in and out of 2000'-2500' strips with trees, it's impossible to not notice the performance difference with temperature. Perhaps the pilots who can't notice those differences don't fly into anything other than very long runways, but I don't think very many pilots miss the differences.