Centaurus
1st Jan 2012, 02:23
The US website Air Facts, has had a long running blog on the question of stall and spin recovery training. It is still possible to hire an aircraft for practice spinning but there is not much call for this type of training now that it is not required by CASA.
On the other hand stall recovery training is still a GFT and PPL and glider training requirement; although most light singles at flying schools including LSA' do not readily stall unless extreme mis-handling sets them off.
There are flying school and RAA LSA instructors who abuse the aircraft to a ridiculous degree by using full flying control movements to place the aircraft into extreme attitudes that stress the airframe, in order to force a wing drop when the very design of these aircraft is aimed at making them safe to fly with no undesirably stalling characteristics. That is not good airmanship.
One instructive comment by author Gordon Switz in the Air Fact website blog, is worth reproducing here in Pprune. It concerns stall characteristics and I recommend Pprune readers keep that article in mind when hiring light aircraft from flying schools.
Author: Gordon Switz
Comment:
Not giving and taking stall training is the most foolish idea to be considered in flying. Many pilots do not realize the effect that the rigging of an aircraft has on its performance in a full stall. I have personally experienced aircraft that always instantly go inverted and straight toward the ground from a power-on full stall. Others, to varying degrees of severity, drop one wing or the other. Properly rigged aircraft proceed pretty much straight forward, although certainly down, with wings level. Not knowing this, with each aircraft you fly, puts your life in the hands of the mechanic, who (re)assembled the plane last, in a very unexpected and dangerous way. An inadvertent stall in the pattern is far safer in a well rigged aircraft than it is in a poorly rigged one. Know the aircraft you are flying. Learn to know it by stalling it at 2500ft agl or more, every time you fly an unfamiliar aircraft or after an aircraft has had one or both of its wings removed or re-rigged!
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Many years ago I flew a Cessna 152 from a Melbourne flying school. The purpose of the flight was refresher training on a grade 3 instructor who hadn't flown for a year. On carrying out a clean stall, the 152 left wing dropped exceedingly sharply and we lost 300 feet before recovery was effected. Another stall was tried this time with full flap and throttled back.
This time the wing drop was really serious and after losing 500 ft we finished up during the subsequent recovery, 180 degrees to our original heading. Despite careful airspeed control and smooth control movements leading up to each stall, the same wing dropped viciously and instant stall recovery action failed to reduce significant height loss before recovery was complete.
Having flown wartime designed military types I was well aware how to recover from sharp wing drops during stall practice. This 152 was bad news and I pitied any student who might hold off too high on a landing.
Although the defect was then promptly entered into the maintenance release (the 152 had been like that for months but never written up) the owner who was an LAME, chose to ignore the write up and the aircraft continued to fly like that without rectification. It wasn't until CASA were notified about this aircraft and chose to test fly it, was anything done by the owner. He quickly re-rigged the aircraft before CASA arrived to fly it and that fixed the problem.
The moral of that story is this. If you hire an an aircraft from a flying school and decide to practice a couple of stalls, then make sure you record in the maintenance release, any unusual stalling characteristics that may surface. Include comments that may help the LAME to locate the cause of the problem.
At least that way the next pilot to fly the aircraft is warned he accepts the aircraft at his own risk because the aircraft is likely un-airworthy and should not be flown until the problem is rectified.
Most light singles built in the past forty years are certified to have benign stall characteristics and that usually includes the ailerons being efficient below stall speed. Picking up a dropped wing with rudder is a myth that has been around for decades and mis-applied by many of today's flying instructors.
On the other hand stall recovery training is still a GFT and PPL and glider training requirement; although most light singles at flying schools including LSA' do not readily stall unless extreme mis-handling sets them off.
There are flying school and RAA LSA instructors who abuse the aircraft to a ridiculous degree by using full flying control movements to place the aircraft into extreme attitudes that stress the airframe, in order to force a wing drop when the very design of these aircraft is aimed at making them safe to fly with no undesirably stalling characteristics. That is not good airmanship.
One instructive comment by author Gordon Switz in the Air Fact website blog, is worth reproducing here in Pprune. It concerns stall characteristics and I recommend Pprune readers keep that article in mind when hiring light aircraft from flying schools.
Author: Gordon Switz
Comment:
Not giving and taking stall training is the most foolish idea to be considered in flying. Many pilots do not realize the effect that the rigging of an aircraft has on its performance in a full stall. I have personally experienced aircraft that always instantly go inverted and straight toward the ground from a power-on full stall. Others, to varying degrees of severity, drop one wing or the other. Properly rigged aircraft proceed pretty much straight forward, although certainly down, with wings level. Not knowing this, with each aircraft you fly, puts your life in the hands of the mechanic, who (re)assembled the plane last, in a very unexpected and dangerous way. An inadvertent stall in the pattern is far safer in a well rigged aircraft than it is in a poorly rigged one. Know the aircraft you are flying. Learn to know it by stalling it at 2500ft agl or more, every time you fly an unfamiliar aircraft or after an aircraft has had one or both of its wings removed or re-rigged!
............................................................ .....................................
Many years ago I flew a Cessna 152 from a Melbourne flying school. The purpose of the flight was refresher training on a grade 3 instructor who hadn't flown for a year. On carrying out a clean stall, the 152 left wing dropped exceedingly sharply and we lost 300 feet before recovery was effected. Another stall was tried this time with full flap and throttled back.
This time the wing drop was really serious and after losing 500 ft we finished up during the subsequent recovery, 180 degrees to our original heading. Despite careful airspeed control and smooth control movements leading up to each stall, the same wing dropped viciously and instant stall recovery action failed to reduce significant height loss before recovery was complete.
Having flown wartime designed military types I was well aware how to recover from sharp wing drops during stall practice. This 152 was bad news and I pitied any student who might hold off too high on a landing.
Although the defect was then promptly entered into the maintenance release (the 152 had been like that for months but never written up) the owner who was an LAME, chose to ignore the write up and the aircraft continued to fly like that without rectification. It wasn't until CASA were notified about this aircraft and chose to test fly it, was anything done by the owner. He quickly re-rigged the aircraft before CASA arrived to fly it and that fixed the problem.
The moral of that story is this. If you hire an an aircraft from a flying school and decide to practice a couple of stalls, then make sure you record in the maintenance release, any unusual stalling characteristics that may surface. Include comments that may help the LAME to locate the cause of the problem.
At least that way the next pilot to fly the aircraft is warned he accepts the aircraft at his own risk because the aircraft is likely un-airworthy and should not be flown until the problem is rectified.
Most light singles built in the past forty years are certified to have benign stall characteristics and that usually includes the ailerons being efficient below stall speed. Picking up a dropped wing with rudder is a myth that has been around for decades and mis-applied by many of today's flying instructors.