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Winfield Churchill
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 Posted: Thu Jun 23, 2005 6:09 am Post subject: Why ask the mach number? |
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A question for commercial pilots.....why do controllers ask you to "say
your mach number?" If they are trying to balance traffic, wouldn't they
want to know ground speed? Since the mach number varies with altitude,
temperature and pressure how does it help the controller with anything to
do with velocity state relative to other aircraft?
Inquiring minds want to know!
Winfield
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Shadin
Junior Member
Joined: 17 Sep 2006
Posts: 2
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| Posted: Sun Sep 17, 2006 3:41 am Post subject: Mach # |
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Hello Winfield:
Everything is relative; if two aircraft fly within the same air mass within a short time span the ground speed should be relatively the same or balance out with equal IAS or Mach #.
Your Ground speed will constantly change as it obviously varies with the wind. You have just traveled 30-90 miles approaching a destination while changing altitudes; imagine how difficult it would be to maintain a given ground speed for ATC spacing- Not possible.
Cheers,
Tom |
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