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Old 16th May 2011, 14:21
  #35 (permalink)  
ShyTorque

Avoid imitations
 
Join Date: Nov 2000
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Clearly the POH or in this case handling notes and an AIL are the place to look for exact technique.


IMO, the only proper advice here. There's no such thing as a "general" correspondence course in spin recoveries covering all aircraft types.

During my time as an RAF QFI I read an interesting "AIRCLUES" article written by the Chief Instructor of the RAF's Central Flying School (Wing Commander Peter Moore).

He was current on all three types of aircraft then flown at CFS, namely Bulldog, Jet Provost and Hawk. All three had very different spin recovery techniques.

One day he was flying the Air Officer Commanding (i.e. one of the biggest RAF big-wigs) in the Hawk. The AOC had no experience on that type and asked to see a full spin and recovery.

As he put the aircraft into the spin, PM had a mental blank and couldn't remember the recovery procedure....... Thankfully it did come back to him just in time and they survived, but PM lost most of his hair on top with the stress of it (oh no, my mistake - that last bit happened before the event).

His message was.... don't become blase; mentally think about the recovery drill beforehand.

We used to be required to practice high rotational spin recoveries every month whilst instructing on the Bulldog (always 2 QFIs together). We used to brief the other QFI how we were going to enter the hi-rot. spin and how we intended to recover..... easier if you only fly one type but even more relevant if it's more than one.

As a student pilot I once badly messed up a stall turn in a Jet Provost (in those days I seemed almost impervious to G) and the aircraft flicked on me, going upwards. By the time I'd sorted it out I reckon it had tail slid, hammerheaded and spun rapidly in both directions and I was almost completely disorientated by the rapidly spinning horizon outside. I eventually went heads in and used the turn needle as I had been taught and recovered, but by then I had lost 10,000 feet plus and was below the minimum safe height for ejection... not that I was aware of the fact at the time; only on climbout afterwards.

Put me in good stead for when a UAS student of mine later inadvertantly did just about the same in a Bulldog, during workup up to his spin/aeros check (Bulldog could be one of the least forgiving types the RAF had).

The subsequent "antics" of the aircraft over the next few seconds resulted in the student actually screaming out loud! He was a big "ruffy-tuffy" rugby player at that. I made light of it but he was very embarassed about it

I lost a lot less height sorting out that one - but we both decided he'd had enough aeros for the day and so we went home to base for a debrief and to get the aircraft looked over by the engineers.
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