PPRuNe Forums - View Single Post - CFIT
Thread: CFIT
View Single Post
Old 24th Oct 2009, 20:03
  #45 (permalink)  
englishal

 
Join Date: May 2001
Location: 75N 16E
Age: 54
Posts: 4,729
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes on 0 Posts
When I stall my C172 it will mush down at about 500ft per min which is roughly 5.7 miles an hour. Intuitively this sounds within the capabilities of the under carriage although I have no data on its performance specification to confirm this. Certainly I suspect there would be a better chance of survival from a vertical 5.7 miles an hour impact than CFIT into a valley wall at the typical cruise speed of 95Knots.
Sounds a bit low to me. I think I calculated that our Rallye had a vertical descent rate of about 15 mph in a full stall, and that is nicknamed the "tin parachute". Still 15mph is survivable and there is a story going around of someone running out of fuel at night in a Rallye and doing just that....

Don't forget though that when stalled you still have forward velocity, so could be travelling 30mph+ forward when you touch down.

I wouldn't fly around high mountains with "mountain obscuration" at the tops, when the MSA was > 9-10,000'. If the IMC was low down, say topping at 6k then I'd climb on top, or land...
englishal is offline