Dick Marron wrote:

> 
> Apparently this is not true. The honeybee beats her wings at the same 200
> 240 times a second no matter how fast she is flying.  
> 
> http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2006/01/060111082100.htm

 From the article:
When bees want to generate more power--for example, when they are 
carting around a load of nectar or pollen--they increase the arc of 
their wing strokes, but keep flapping at the same rate. That is also 
odd, Dickinson says, because "it would be much more aerodynamically 
efficient if they regulated not how far they flap their wings but how 
fast "

So the article confirms that distance flying expends more energy 
(think increased power), as would be expected. In fact, the article 
says that they are much less efficient when working compared to 
hovering, just what Jim stated. And Jerry. And the Germans. And basic 
physics. It takes more energy to move than to stay still.

Think vectors. I lay awake one night with them careening around my 
brain before a vector's final. Not pleasant.

Bill Truesdell
Bath, Maine

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