Spins

Peter Dohm wrote:
"Dudley Henriques" wrote in message
...
Capt. Geoffrey Thorpe wrote:
"Bertie the Bunyip" wrote in message
.. .
wrote in
:

...
The typicl spin accident, if there is such a thing, is the famous
overcooked turn onto final.
I watched two guys die after doing that on a tight, low, turn to a short
final...

Geoff
What gets them isn't really the turn per se, but the way that turn is
flown. The combination of the increased stall speed due to the turn
coupled with some excess inside rudder causing a skid as the stall breaks
is a perfect pro-spin setup. The two ingredients for spin are present;
stall and a yaw rate coupled simultaneously .
You can get away with a tight low turn if it's coordinated and you feed in
enough power to offset the drag rise; or even better yet an unloaded tight
descending turn if some altitude and some radius need to be scrubbed
off,(I don't recommend doing these BTW :-) but it's that lack of attention
to the extra needed thrust as the drag rises in the turn and cheating a
bit with inside rudder to "force that nose around that will get you
killed.


--
Dudley Henriques

Since I probably qualify as hopelessly unqualified, and also since both of
you have already described this in different words, I should probably "keep
my mouth shut"; but from all I have heard, things happen much more suddenly
as part of an uncoordinated accellerated stall.

I never personally got to explore the accellerated stall portion of the
envelope, and only had an accellerated stall demonstrated to me once. That
once was by a pilot who was so proficient, smooth and coordinated that the
stall was a complete non-event and we simply flew out of it and continued
the turn as though nothing had happened. And, yes, this was in a Cessna 152
that was appropriately certified for that sort of work. However, viewed in
another manner, the guy (who was a high time instructor) would have been the
perfect candidate to train new instrucors to let their students kill them...

When I resume flying, as I plan to do, I also plan to more fully explore the
accelerated stall area of the envelope--in an appropriate trainer of course.

Peter



Good idea. Reason for this is that the majority of accidental stall
incidents will be accelerated. It takes a pilot seriously asleep to
gently allow an airplane to stall accidentally at power off and 1g.
Accelerated stall is an area of flight that all pilots should be
completely familiar with.
I spent MUCH more time with accelerated stall than simple power off
stalls at 1g with every student I taught to fly. I only wish all
instructors did the same.

--
Dudley Henriques