J.F,
I was once ' along for the ride ' - as you know I''m SLF or similar - in a light Piper twin we're both familiar with.
The pilot was an irregular, ex-Lightning pilot about to go to Saudi on export Hawks, kicking his heels and got the job of checking this aircraft's stall warning system, which had been U/S, now apparently rectified.
He was already the only pilot who has truly frightened me, flying the same aircraft so low that I could see the bolt-heads on a pig-sty, then through rather than over ( at less than gable height ) the farm near the end of the runway.
At the end of that flight, the very distinguished ex-Hawker Test Pilot flying with us as an observer ( and I think the said pilot was out to impress, HUGE mistake ) got out and never said a word, but I think there was a large bubble above him saying " Prat ! "...
We got to just about 2,000' directly over the airfield, when he throttled right back and pulled the nose up - unfortunately I don't remember watching the instruments apart from altimeter, and of course unlike a fighter there was no obvious A of A display, as I recall.
The aircraft was kept wings level, we ' mushed ' only for a very brief moment before a fairly violent ( to me anyway ) ' hammerhead ' ? stall, with steep nose down and a lot of throttle applied to combine to get us back up.
The stall warning hooter certainly went off at what I'd think was the right time, before mush & nose-down, but was this a correct test at that altitude ?
I'd tend towards the 'shudder to think' school of doing it on one engine, but you seemed to quite like that aircraft.
I realise this was very different from testing a prototype, and only checking the warning system, but to a pleb like me we seemed a bit low for such antics, & the pilot wasn't really used to that aircraft, especially if the thing hadn't stalled benignly, even then somewhat eagerly seeking Mother Earth ?!
DZ
Last edited by Double Zero; 9th Dec 2009 at 19:46.