Spinning the SZD 50-3

On 28 Jan 2004 11:17:41 GMT, "Ian Johnston"
wrote:

On Wed, 28 Jan 2004 00:56:12 UTC, (Tim Shea)
wrote:

: After 4 or so rotations, the nose seemed to float up and the rotation
: *seemed* to slow considerably. I remember thinking that this is cool!
: Kind of like floating. When it was time for the recovery I applied the
: control inputs I'd been taught (as specified above) and much to my
: surprise, nothing different happened.....for a long time. I estimate
: that we completed another 5+ rotations nose high before it broke,
: rolled over and recovered.

I am told that a Junior oscillates nose up and down while spinning,
and that recovery is much much snappier nose down.


That's all in the POH. A Junior has three different spin behaviours
depending on cockpit load. IIRC the oscillation occurs with a light
pilot.

I'm in the middle group (180 with a chute) and it recovers
automatically after just over 2 rotations, even with the controls
still fully crossed. The last half rotation gets really slow. I was a
bit annoyed. Having just done Silver height and wanting down in a
hurry, I was after 3 turns and was intending to come most of the way
down in a 3-turn - recover - spin the other way sequence. Still, I
repeated the experiment in the other direction and with recovery by
merely centreing the controls and got consistent recovery after just
over 2 rotations.

Be sure to read the POH before attempting more than one rotation.


--
martin@ : Martin Gregorie
gregorie : Harlow, UK
demon :
co : Zappa fan & glider pilot
uk :