Reverse Thrust Not To Affect Stopping Performance

Features
1

Reverse Thrust Not To Affect Stopping Distance

Hello!

I have a question for you. What is reverse thrust used for?
Now, I can almost Guarantee that 80% of you will say that it is used to help slow the plane down so it can stop in time.
Well, that is only half true. In Infinite Flight, at the moment, it should be completely wrong.

So, What Is Reverse Thrust Used For Then?

On a dry runway, which is obviously always the case in Infinite Flight, reverse thrust shouldn’t affect stopping distance. In other words, on a dry runway, reverse thrust will not slow the plane down. We’ll get to wet runways shortly, but first
Reverse thrust helps take some of the energy off of the brakes, which keeps them cooler. This is important because the hotter the brakes get, the less effective they are. If they get hot enough, they won’t do anything. Now as I am sure you can imagine, brakes, when bringing a 300 tonne metal tube to a stop on a finite amount of runway which touched the ground at 160 miles an hour, get a tad hot! So, the more reverse thrust that is used, the cooler the brakes get. It is hard to explain. Hopefully this makes some sense.
On a wet/slippery runway, which obviously isn’t ever the case in Infinite Flight, reverse thrust will reduce stopping distance. In fact, it might be the only thing bringing the aircraft to a stop! Like I said, this concept is very difficult to explain. Hopefully it makes sense!

Maybe Mentour Pilot can explain it better then I can…

This is why you may find that the aircraft in IF stop very quickly.

What Am I Requesting Then?

Simply, for reverse thrust not to effect stopping distance. Until we get a wet runway, this should be the case. Obviously, once wet surfaces are introduced, of course then it needs to be fiddled with a bit more.

Disclaimers

  1. Yes, I have tested to make sure that reverse thrust does impact stopping distance currently in IF. It does. If you touch down, don’t apply any braking, but apply a little reverse thrust, the airplane stops fine.
  2. This will only be affecting turbofan engines (e.g. B737, A320, etc), not tyrboprops.

So, What Do You Think?

If you like the idea, make sure to go up and click the vote button! Leave your thoughts below! By the way, yes, I know I haven’t voted for my own feature. I’m out of votes.

Thanks for taking the time to read this.

2

Is that why I am able to land an A380 in Lukla? Fair enough

7 Likes
3

Yeah, I think that’s why we can do stuff like that.

4 Likes
4

Honestly when landing at smaller airports w a TBM which is one of the few light planes that has reverse i love the reverse thrust because u can stop in a realistic way without having to put on ur parking brake and let the front of the plane almost tip over which is very unrealistic. I honestly have no problem w reverse thrust as of right now and personally i dont think something like this will be implemented. And also the speed brakes basically does nothing when it comes to stopping the plane on the ground when ur using it alone… my point is u will have to use ur parking brake to stop which is not really realistic. Yes ik u said i dont have to put full reverse thrust but then i will have to resort to parking brake and spoilers which are both unrealistic and ineffective

3 Likes
5

You know you can slide down on the rudder which activates manual braking. The mode you pull down, the more braking action you get.

1 Like
6

Yes im aware😂

1 Like
7

Wait. That’s not what I found.

20210214_202001
20210214_2020011080×1379 244 KB

8

Where is that from?
Edit, oh Wikipedia, sorry

Well… I’m not sure what to say other than Wikipedia isn’t exactly always the best source of 100% accirate information. If that was an aviation site I would be more believing. But anyone can edit Wikipedia, and they might not know the truth.

9

It’s a weird one this. In one way, you are correct - using reverse thrust does make life easier for the disc brakes.

On the other hand, reverse thrust is only used when needed. Using reversers, especially at high thrust levels, actually puts a lot of stress on the engines and pylons. Brakes will be relied upon as much as operationally reasonable to stop the aircraft on landing with the assistance of reverse thrust. This is why you will often hear the reversers being used on landing but rarely hear high levels of reverse thrust being used.

1 Like
10

Yeah, at least idle reverse is always used at a minimum, I do agree with that. It usually operationally specific, so an operator with faster turnaround times would usualy use more reverse thrust for brake cooling.
But either way, it still doesn’t impact stopping distance on a dry runway.

1 Like
11

Well this is from SKYbrary (aviation website) :

Screenshot_20210214-220033_Chrome
Screenshot_20210214-220033_Chrome1080×2400 241 KB

Screenshot_20210214-220045_Chrome
Screenshot_20210214-220045_Chrome1080×2400 329 KB

12

Might be worth discerning between reverse on a turbofan engine vs reverse on a turboprop engine. Beta range on a turbo prop actually has a huge retarding effect on both dry and wet runways.

Legally, an aircraft must be able to stop using just the brakes on a dry runway (i.e no reversers).

2 Likes
13

Yeah, when I made this post, I was basically only thinking about
Turbofan. That’s a good point actually. I’ll efit that into the OP.

1 Like
14

Well here is the issue. Infinite flight doesn’t have auto break. For it to take energy away from the breaks it has to be doing some of the stopping, but in a real aircraft it will release the breaks to take advantage of that. If you slam the breaks manually in an airliner (realistic or not that is what the vast majority of infinite flight players do) I don’t see any rationale for why you wouldn’t stop quicker with reverse vs without, unless of course it is totally useless but I don’t think anyone is arguing that. Same goes for the example you mentioned of only using reverse thrust. If it does anything to slow the aircraft then it would definitely effect stopping distance used alone unless I’m greatly misunderstanding this.

15

You know, you’re right actually…
I never really took the time to think about why it only helps reduces brake cooling time. You have a very good point, and until we have autobrake, this won’t work.

A moderator can go ahead and close this I think. Flagged it.

1 Like
16

I don’t mean to shut down your idea 😂

I’m hardly an expert, perhaps wait for someone with real knowledge of the system to chime in, I’m only trying to reason through it with what I know.

1 Like
17

OP requested closure.