Question 314056
an airplane is flying an altitude of 10,000 feet. the pilot wants to make a smooth decent to the runway at a constant angle of 4 degrees. how far from the runway should the pilot begin the decent?
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His distance on the ground from the touchdown point is 10000*cot(4)
=~ 143007 feet =~ 23.52 nautical miles (planes use knots and nautical miles)
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The distance along the glide path = 10000*csc(4)
=~ 143356 feet =~ 23.58 nautical miles