olderndirt wrote on Dec 29^th, 2009 at 2:56pm:

Technically that's true... not to mention the maneuvers, low and slow, required to make an approach. 

But I like to practice MCA and stalls at altitude, also... going a bit slower and maneuvering more than I might in the pattern. Power-on  ("takeoff") stalls, also. Reinforces good habits.

My favorite, which I really never worked on until I got into soaring, is repeated, incipient accelerated stalls in a steep turn... you pull back a little more than you "should", let it buffet, then release the back pressure a little while still turning... then do a few more. Generally, pilots are trained to do a full accelerated stall, then recover to wings-level. I like this other technique, because it's more useful to be able to arrest the stall without abandoning the turn (could save your life in a box-canyon or sucker-hole type of situation).
  Gives you a very good feel for the "danger zone" in a particular plane, for those times you are low and slow and banking, but not paying attention to the ASI.  And unlike waiting until you really need to react quickly, if you screw it up, you'll have room to recover. 

In general, I think this stuff is just fun: recovery stalls (stall, then hold back pressure thru recovery and into another stall), falling leaf (get the plane "mushing" to the point where it's descending nose-high, then use rudder to lower and raise each wing). These exercises help me feel more comfortable (but not complacent) with the plane.

My aerobatic training was in the Decathalon. That little airplane will do just about anything...and it spins really well.

My instructor always told me, "If you see me leaving, try and keep up..."

Of course we had 'chutes on.

Hi,

Think about the spin, it's the stall of a wing that hasn't been recognised and stopped at the incipient stage.
With modern wings that are more likely to be a near perfect mirror image of the other, the amount of lift from both wings is going to be very close preventing one wing from dropping, you end up with the aircraft 'mushing' I think my instructor called it.
Bare in mind this was in gliders, in wood/fabric type the wings were unlikely to be perfect image of each other and all glass gliders, it could be prevoked more by having a more rearward CG.

Steve
Solo on K13 k21 K8 and K23's gliders in the 90's.

EVVFCX wrote on Dec 30^th, 2009 at 1:44pm:



An interesting observation, but it's possible to spin an airplane with perfectly-matched wings; people do it all the time, intentionally or by accident.

I practiced spin recovery with my dad in our Cub, so if you know someone that will teach, it would probably be worth it. It is true that most trainers nowadays don't spin easily, but it can happen, usually at low altitude, or in icing conditions. Avoidance can only work if you know what it is you're avoiding. You may not always be flying a trainer.

beaky wrote on Dec 30^th, 2009 at 4:33pm:


It's most likely to happen on base-to-final, when you are slow, with a high bank angle.

olderndirt wrote on Dec 30^th, 2009 at 10:05pm:


I was taught to do a canyon turn by just slowing down, putting out about 20 - 30 degrees of flaps (in a 185), and gingerly doing a tight turn with lots of power. Spinning it around seems like it would use too much altitude for it to be safe. However, that could be used as a last resort, I guess.

olderndirt wrote on Jan 6^th, 2010 at 1:52pm:


Sounds a lot like a wingover, which is itself a lot like a hammerhead without stalling the aircraft.  The point is to take the radius of the turn into the vertical dimension, to reduce the radius horizontally.

olderndirt wrote on Jan 6^th, 2010 at 8:57pm:


A 360? Sounds like someone failed math.