Nimbus 4 Accident

Er, I'm only a humble Nimbus 4 pilot (not an instructor),
so what do I know about things?

'I also understand that Nimbus 4s have a non-standard
spin recovery procedure, which further complicates
the issue. '

Derek, my Nimbus 4 flight manual says:

'a) Apply opposite rudder.

b) Hold ailerons neutral.

c) Ease control sick forward until roation ceases and
the airflow is restored.

d) Centralise rudder and pull gently out of the dive.

Recovery speeds are between 70 - 113 knots - depending
on the flap setting. If necessary, flaps must therefore
be reset at '0' or '-1' so as to avoid exceeding their
speed limits.'

Sounds to me very similar to what Mr Piggott taught
me all those years ago?


At 17:54 12 July 2005, Derek Copeland wrote:
Bert Willing wrote on 12th July.
You're point number two doesn't hold: At constant speed
(whichever speed), a

wing of a sailplane will never produce more lift than
corresponds to the
weight of the glider. Otherwise you would be climbing.

Your main original point is absolutely right.
--------------------------------------------------------------

Er, I'm only a humble gliding instructor, so what do
I know about things?

You are also right in that in steady flight lift must
equal the weight of
the glider. However in a spiral dive you are in accelerated
flight and the
glider could effectively weigh several times its own
weight, and the wings
(if not stalled) have to produce the equivalent extra
amount of lift to
balance this. If you are pulling more than 3.5 g at
high speeds, opening the
airbrakes could just be enough to finish things off,
due to the extra
bending load on the wings this entails. The correct
recovery from a spiral
dive is just to carefully reduce the angle of bank
while keeping the stick
fairly well back, by the way.

As an instructor I do lots of spins and spiral dives,
so can easily
recognise what is going on. Many good cross-country
pilots haven't done
either for years, so could be caught out should either
occur unexpectedly .
The recovery actions are quite different. I also understand
that Nimbus 4s
have a non-standard spin recovery procedure, which
further complicates the
issue.

Derek Copeland


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