Backpacker - agreed!
Fuji - I think that either somebody (not you) is taking the p*ss out of me as usual, or we are talking with wires crossed.
I have flown PA38, C150, C152, C172, C182, PA28 (various specimens of the foregoing, as found at a certain airport which you know about), TB10, TB20 (several ones), SR22, DA42, C421C, an RV6 (or RV8?) and maybe a few others I don't recall right now. None of them had static roll stability, meaning that you could just trim it for wings level, altitude not changing, and it could be left like that indefinitely (hours). My TB20 can go (I've tried it) for anything up to a few mins before it is entering the old spiral of death, which is highly stable and makes for very easy long distance manual flight, but that is a completely different concept from total static stability in which any reasonable departure from wings level will restore the wings level condition.
One can achieve total roll stability with a lot of dihedral, and/or other ways, and it's easier if the COG is below the centre of lift (as in high wing planes) and this is routinely done on model aeroplanes which often don't have ailerons - just a rudder, and in some cases not even an elevator.
I've just checked this out with some other pilots and also aircraft design experts so I am happy enough.
Last edited by IO540; 13th Oct 2008 at 16:20.