Method for determining the speed at which an aircraft breaks free of the ground effect

1. A method for determining the ground effect release speed of an aircraft (AC) provided with at least one piloting stick ( 14 ), a main landing gear ( 11 ), ailerons ( 6 G, 6 D) and depth moving aerodynamic surfaces ( 7 , 9 G, 9 D), wherein, during take-off, while said aircraft (AC) is rolling down on a take-off runway (RW), accelerating with said main landing gear ( 11 ) compressed by the mass of said aircraft and by the ground effect and with said ailerons ( 6 G, 6 D) having a partly deflected position (α D ) downwards for maximising the fineness ratio of said aircraft, said method comprising:

tilting said piloting stick ( 14 ) in the nose-up direction, to deflect said depth aerodynamic surfaces ( 7 , 9 G, 9 D) upwards for giving said aircraft the attitude (θ TS ) for which the tail ( 13 ) thereof is brought to strike said take-off runway (RW);

continuing acceleration of the aircraft, in the tail strike attitude position (θ TS ), until full ballasting-up of said main landing gear ( 11 );

noting the speed of said aircraft upon said ballasting-up, wherein such speed is the desired ground effect release speed; and

after said deflection upwards of depth aerodynamic surfaces ( 7 , 9 G, 9 D) for giving said aircraft the tail strike attitude (θ Ts ) and while said main landing gear ( 11 ) is still compressed, deflecting said ailerons ( 6 G, 6 D) fully downwards (α M ), symmetrically, from their partly deflected position (α D ) downwards.

2. The method according to claim 1 , wherein said full symmetrical deflection downwards of said ailerons ( 6 G, 6 D) is only allowed beyond a tilting threshold (Sβ) of said stick ( 14 ) in the nose-up direction.

3. The method according to claim 2 , wherein said tilting threshold (Sβ) is at least equal to the take-off tilting (β 0 ) usually used upon regular take-off.

4. The method according to claim 1 , wherein said full symmetrical deflection downwards of said ailerons ( 6 G, 6 D) is only allowed beyond a nose-up attitude threshold (Sθ).

5. The method according to claim 4 , wherein said nose-up attitude threshold (Sθ) is at least equal to the attitude maximum value (θ 0 ) imposed to said aircraft in order to avoid a tail strike upon rotation in a regular take-off.

6. The method according to claim 1 , further comprising, after ballasting-up of said main landing gear ( 11 ), bringing said ailerons ( 6 G, 6 D) back from the fully deflected position downwards (α M ) to said partly deflected position downwards (α D ).

7. The method according to claim 3 , for implementation in the flight control calculators of said aircraft (AC) provided with information relating to the tilting (β) of said piloting stick ( 14 ) and the attitude (θ) of said aircraft (AC), further comprising:

setting a stick criterion (Cβ), having a value of 0 below said shifting threshold (θ) and having a value increasing from 0 to 1 between said tilting threshold (Sβ) and the maximum nose-up threshold (β M ) of said stick;

setting an attitude criterion (Cθ), having a value of 0 below said attitude threshold (Sθ) and having a value increasing from 0 to 1 between said attitude threshold (Sθ) and said tail strike attitude (θ TS ); and

on the basis of the greater of these two criteria (Cβ, Cθ), setting an aileron deflection criterion (Cα) is set, which smoothly increases from a value (α D ) corresponding to the partly deflected position downwards to the value (α M ) corresponding to the fully deflected position downwards, when said greater criterion switches from the value 0 to the value 1.

8. The method according to claim 7 , wherein said flight control calculators are provided with information related to whether the aircraft is on the ground or not, further comprising:

setting a ground criterion, which has a value 0 when the aircraft is flying and a value of 1 when the aircraft is on the ground; and

multiplying said greater of both criteria, that are the stick criterion (Cβ) and the attitude criterion (Cθ), by said ground criterion, before setting said aileron deflection criterion (Cα).

9. An aircraft, implementing the method according to claim 1 .