Inducing a wing drop to meet a Part 61 requirement
Regarding the new proposed rules on spinning and wing drops at the point of stall.
A contributor to the recent CASA discussion panel mentioned wing drop recovery or induced wing drop recovery training. Presumably the term ”induced” covers the situation where a wing drop at the point of stall does not occur naturally because the design of the aircraft is such that stall behaviour is benign.
To induce a significant wing drop in aircraft that have benign stall characteristics, instructors are prone fake the manoeuvre by deliberately mishandling the aircraft into an unusual attitude which in itself is not only extremely unlikely but has the potential to weaken the aircraft structure in the long term. For example, by pulling the nose high with power applied then applying significant rudder to skid the aircraft into dropping a wing while it is not stalled but pretending to be stalled for the purpose of the exercise. Side loads can be significant and not considered by the aircraft designer.
Some instructors including those on ultralights are known to be quite violent with the flight controls as they attempt to force a wing drop in an aircraft that has already benign (by design) stall characteristics. Inducing a fake wing drop by deliberately placing an aircraft into an undesirable state but not actually stalled, is stretching the friendship a little too far merely to tick the box.
CASA needs to address this problem. Brief the actions to counter a wing drop at the point of stall by all means; but avoid playing silly buggers in the air.
Certification flight tests by qualified test pilots are not “rigged” to induce a wing drop at the point of stall if the aircraft already exhibits benign stall characteristics.