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Old November 19th 09, 08:19 PM posted to rec.aviation.aerobatics
AviatorGirl
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Posts: 1
Default Dumb question maybe re Stall Turn

Your friend is correct. The torque produced by helicopter rotors is
proportional to their length - just as if you were to use a wrench on
a nut with a very long shaft, the longer the shaft the greater the
torque. I assume you are talking of a single prop engine stunt plane?
These are light and the thrust needed to maintain a static hover as
you describe is not great, and coupled with the short rotor length the
torque produced would not necessarily overcome the inertia of the
plane

On Nov 18, 6:06*pm, Surreyrider wrote:
Need someone to settle an argument. I do not fly, so your answers need
to be in laymans terms and hopefully put simply.
I've occasionally watched aerobatic displays and seen a maneouver
called a stall turn. *Now, I more or less understand how this works,
but there comes a point, just before the aircraft "turns around" where
it is momentarily stationary in space, pointing directly to the sky..
Impressive stuff. *Now, here's the crux: *My mate reckons the pilot
could hold the aircraft in this "head-up" attitude almost indefinately
as the prop is acting like a helicopter's rotor and it could
effectively hover in this attitude. *I, however, maintain that the
aircraft would begin to spin on it's axis if held in this attitude.for
more than a second or two.

Can anybody tell me who is correct?

Thanks all,

Roy