Mooney drops into my backyard

Dave Butler wrote:

The instructor took me deep into a stall, something I've never tried in
a Mooney. Now in my Cherokee, I could hold the yoke full back in my lap
for as long as I wanted to (or until I hit the ground, I suppose) and
keep the wings level using rudder, descending at a pretty good clip, but
completely under control.

Yes, that's been my experience in both the 172's I trained in and my
Warrior. It's probably because they're trainers: the manufacturers designed
the controls so that you just cannot pull the yoke back far enough for a
full stall, unless you enter from a steep turn or whip the yoke back very
quickly into an accelerated stall.

Not so with the Mooney: the wing drop in the
stall was too fast to correct for with rudder and I found myself
oscillating left-right in roll and unable to synchronize the corrections
with the diversions. If we had continued, I'm sure we would have been on
our backs in short order.

That may just be the cost of the Mooney's speed, though I'm just guessing --
less wing twist would mean less drag, but also less control around the
stall; more elevator travel is probably necessary for a plane with a bigger
speed range.


All the best,


David