About forward slips

Howdy!

In article ,
Mxsmanic wrote:
gatt writes:

Executing a forward slip, for its most basic flight-sim-type purposes,
involves lowering one wing with the aileron and using opposite rudder to
keep the aircraft oriented; it can be dangerous at slow speeds because the
crossed controls create a perfect condition for spin entry on a stall during
short final.

That statement is just flat incorrect. It's the skidding turn that
creates the dangerous condition. Crossed controls are not, per se,
risky. They merely set up a way to dump altitude without picking
up excess speed, or to make the airplane fly somewhat sideways, in
order to maintain alignment with a ground feature in a crosswind.

I worry that it might somehow lead me into danger, but some of the
stuff I've read claims that slips are very unlikely to produce stalls,
unlike skids, which supposedly are known for that. The FAA book even
claims that some aircraft have better stall behavior in a slip, if I
understand it correctly.

That's a pretty reasonably synopsis. Slips are less likely to degenerate
into a spin, while skids are much more risky.

In a skid, you are (ab-)using the rudder to try to yaw the plane more
quickly than you can with the coordinated turn you were in. That causes
outside wing to move faster (and the inside wing slower). If you get
too vigorous, you might slow the inside wing enough to induce a stall.
That causes the inside wing to drop rapidly, leading quickly to a
spin. This is Real Bad if you were trying to hurry that base to final
turn that you got a bit sloppy with...


Three basic rules about slipping on final are 1) Don't stall, 2) Don't stall
and 3) Don't stall.

And how do I avoid stalls while slipping?

Don't pull back too hard on the stick. Simply entering a slip won't
cause a stall. It may cause you to go down faster than you want,
but it won't lead to a stall. Slips are rudder-aileron drills.

yours,
Michael

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Michael and MJ Houghton | Herveus d'Ormonde and Megan O'Donnelly
| White Wolf and the Phoenix narrowwares
Bowie, MD, USA | http://whitewolfandphoenix.com
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