Aerospace engineers are familiar with your thoughtful and perceptive question.Does anyone have any info/experience on what is the optimum/most economical speed vs batt life for a P3P? For example at 90 in my car I am burning more fuel per mile than at 60...
For instance, if I were to plan a mission on Litchi mission planner, say at 30 mph, I would expect a shorter flight time than at 20 mph, however it would take longer to complete the mission at 20 mph. There must be a sweet spot in there somewhere for max distance vs batt life...
Thx!
Let's review the factors involved:
1. In subsonic aircraft twice the speed requires four times the power. Higher speed means less range, but not always.
2. In hover mode range is zero.
3. Enter the velocity versus speed graph.
4. For aircraft, there does exist the sweet spot speed you mentioned called "Maximum Lift Over Drag Ratio". <--- the most lift for the least amount of power.
You can write down how much power you use versus speed at several different speeds to determine L/D Max.
In addition, always consider the wind.
If you fly 30 MPH into a 30 MPH headwind your ground distance covered versus power is zero!
Generally it's best to fly 10% faster into headwinds.
Now, after covering these factors, the Phantom can not fly very fast so differences will be less compared to big airplanes.
BUT! To answer your question answer the questions below.
How long can you hover?
How far can you fly at 1/4 speed?
How far can you fly at 1/2 speed?
How far can you fly at 3/4 speed?
How far can you fly at max speed?
The answer is in the experiment above...
Good luck and let's find out.