Re: pteros have lift-off

[David Peters <davidpeters@att.net>]

> Only the important stuff here:
>
> and finally 3) does this work with a
> pterosaur with roughly a 3x longer wing.
>
> ......... There aren't any known pterosaurs with roughly a 3x  
> longer wing.

Yes, there are, in relation to torso length. Not absolute length.  
We're modeling here. So everything is to scale with a torso length as  
a more or less common unit.
> .......Well, in the example we've been using, the wingtips could be  
> directed straight down and the animal would still have about 3.4  
> feet of ground clearance.


> That's good. At the first downbeat, plenty of clearance.


> Unfortunately, that's really not where I'm looking for clearance.  
> Let's move the video back a few frames and see if there is this  
> thing called wing clearance much earlier in the launch -- closer to  
> where the hands are still only inches to feet above the ground and  
> rising quickly.

You mentioned the animal has .72 seconds to bring the wing to the  
beginning of the first downstroke. I'm wondering what the wing finger  
is doing at .1, .2, .3, and .4 seconds into the launch. At 30 video  
frames per second, I'm just interested in those first 20 frames. If  
you want to continue working with Q, as a model, that's fine. But  
remember there are (relative to torso length) longer winged pteros  
out there (in fact virtually all of them!)
>

David Peters
davidpeters@att.net