On Wed, 07 Jan 2004 01:24:26 GMT, Mike Marron wrote:

"Keith Willshaw" wrote:
"John R Weiss" wrote:

What is a "stall turn"?

Pull up into a vertical climb in a light aircraft and you'll
soon find out

Pull up into a vertical climb in the (tailless) type of aircraft
I happen to fly and you'll probably die. Here is a horrific
little video that illustrates exactly what I mean:

http://www.pegasus-usa.com/tech/tumble.mpg

(Play it several times in slow motion and just imagine what
was going through the doomed pilot's mind at the time!)

A "stall turn" to me is a hammerhead stall (we can't perform
those either, without either dying or firing the ballistic chute).
Without a rudder, the closest thing to a hammerhead stall that
I can safely perform in the type of airplane I fly is a wingover.
But since a true wingover is a 90-deg. climbing turn followed
by a 90-deg. descending turn resulting in a 180-deg. change
in direction, technically I perform "wangs" rather than wingovers.
Trikes can't perform true wingovers because bottom rudder
is needed at the top of the climbing turn to keep the aircraft
coordinated.

In steady-state winds aloft, flying stationary (relative to the
ground), or even backwards and sideways is no problem,
however.

Ultralights are generally not considered "aircraft".

Al Minyard