The L-D Max

We are strategic energy managers in aviation. We just try and successfully defy gravity long enough to get to where we are going before we run out of steam. If we start to come up short on where we set out to go, a diversion plan has to be executed and resources have to be tightly managed. Energy is the most critical resource to manage. Not enough of it and you fall out of the sky. Too much of it and you still fall out of the sky, just at a faster rate.

Any airplane that pilots operate has performance manuals. These performance manuals are the engineering specs behind an airplane’s design. The design of the airplane is one knowledge bit that a pilot needs to resource when they are trying to successfully manage the energy of flight. There will always be a chart in an airplane’s performance manual that references what’s called the “L/D max”. Think back to geometry class and the use of parabola curves. When using two axes of measurement there is a point where two curves intersect and there are also points where the direction of the curves are polar opposite. Think of the “Y” axis as vertical energy,

and think of the “X” axis as horizontal energy. Positive vertical energy is referred to as “lift” and the horizontal energy is “thrust”. In the reciprocal, negative vertical energy is called “weight”, and the horizontal energy is called “drag”. This graph shows a pilot that, by airplane's design, the best point to manage controlled energy is at the parabola intersection – a point known as the “Lift to Drag” ratio, or “L/D max”. This is extremely helpful to know when your engine quits, and you are looking for a place to land safely in a borrowed amount of time. This L/D Max is the happy speed that pilots (or people) should glide at when “weight” is taking over and energy is a depleting resource. This speed buys a pilot the maximum amount of time to pick out a new and secondary landing spot and also an opportunity to learn and troubleshoot what problems they have encountered in hopes to correct the deficit before the deficit becomes the reality.

Can you relate operationally or theoretically to this management of energy on this graph of life, referred to in aviation as the “operating envelope”? Are you pushing too hard but not gaining enough speed and falling short of where you are trying to go? Are you moving too fast and headed for trouble because you overshot the landing point and forgot to respect

the details? Or are you living comfortably in the middle with respect to how things can get out of line easily but afraid to move forward, which is a moot point as well?

In faith we are called to walk with God, but not to walk blindly. We are called to “humble ourselves” and to “be still and listen” so that we can tune out our own voices and see and hear Him move around us. We are called to “be good stewards of what has been entrusted to us” so that we do not make poorly of our resources that he has given us. We are called to “walk in faith with Him”, not to sit and deteriorate in fear. It’s a lot easier for Satan to catch us when we aren’t moving or also when we run into his traps from moving aimlessly. And I’m writing these things just as much for myself to tangibly read as you are reading.

This is where our heart is at SouthGen. We try and manage energy to the best of our capabilities while navigating the air that carries us. We don’t make the air, and we don’t own the forces of nature that are always at play by His design. We are, however, entrusted with the knowledge and resources needed to reach the destination even though we haven’t arrived there yet. We strive to “help others steward resources well” which is our motto. In our aviation business that’s through helping report high-level data across a wide geography to our customers that helps them manage their expanse more efficiently. And similarly in our agricultural business, we help growers better utilize the resources they may or may not know they have available to them. Our approach is not to “woo” our customers with fancy jargon that may sound intimidating and expensive. Our approach is to get personal and walk with them through the understanding of what’ out there for them to utilize that can help them do better with what they already have. We have to manage our resources more effectively! We have to find the optimum energy for the effort that combats the forces of energy that can help or sink us if not properly managed! Don’t just shoot from the comfort zone of the middle of the operating envelope because the threats around that safety spot are real and constantly changing with the times even when you may not be adapting. We cannot control what is not under our control, but we can control how we plan and respond to the things outside of our control. We DO have control over our responses.

Give us a call at SouthGen and let us walk with you through your “resource management” plans and strategy to see if we can help you do better with what you have been entrusted with. If we aren’t serving you within the capacity in which we are called to do, then our labor will be in vain as well.