Originally Posted by
On-MarkBob
In any aircraft it is important to use your airspeed indicator while side-slipping. The pitot tube, for the best part, and being in the direction of normal airflow, will in fact influence the airpeed indicator so that it tells you the component of airflow over the wings in the normal sense. During the side-slip you would, thus, expect to see the airspeed drop if the deck angle remains the same. Nose the aircraft down and recover the airpeed to your approach speed. What the airspeed indicator tells you is what the wings are getting in the normal sense, the tail should not be affected or 'balnked' if you have the correct airspeed reading.
I have not heard an intructor-pseudo-explanation-babble of this calibre in quite a while. In a side-slip, like in high AOA maneovers, the airspeed indicator is not reliable. In no case is the airspeed indicator capable of telling you the "component of airflow over the wings in the normal sense". A pitot tube becomes inacurrate once the airflow is more than a few degrees off the angle of the pitot tube (Check the CAS vs IAS chart in your POH for an example). On the other hand there is very little effect on the lift produced by a wing with a much bigger yaw. In no way will a "correct" airspeed reading have anything to do with whether or not the tail gets "balnked". In fact it will get you dangerously close to Vfe.
On a serious note: Yes, in many high wing airplanes full flap and an aggressive sideslip will produce a small bit of buffeting on the tail. While there is a small oscillation in pitch, there are no control problems. This is not a dangerous manuever, and i have never seen a flight manual prohibiting it, though as already stated many of the cessna manuals have a precautionary statement about this. I have never seen any remarks whatsoever in the limitations section with regards to flaps and sideslips.