Wonderful reading - also thanks JF for your stall explanation. I think we were a bit amateur in those days, despite having a lot of time on type. Certainly we did not approach a practice stall at a measured rate but nor did we pull it straight up to make it stall faster. But your point is well taken. I do know that the powered on wing drop was a well known characteristic found by many squadron check pilots.
At one point in my life I was flying 737's for a living and doing the odd moonlighting trip on night freight DC3's. It was common practice then to engage the autopilot while taxying to help stop the rudder from flailing with a tail-wind or crosswind. It meant having to use differential brakes to keep it straight down the taxyway. The rudder became rock solid with the autopilot engaged. Probably not good airmanship in retrospect but better than risking breaking various cables which could happen if the rudder was allowed to inadvertently bash from one side to another.
During a crosswind landing I had barely touched down in a tail-high wheel landing and was just correcting for a slight swing when the rudder locked up. It was a bit dramatic because without rudder one had to use quick brake application to keep straight. The gear warning horn sounded a couple of times as brake correction was made to stop the aircraft going off the runway into the crosswind. Having slowed down and being unable to apply any rudder, I looked down and was astonished to see the autopilot knob engaged.
I asked the other pilot (an old and bold with a squillion DC3 hours) what the hell was going on? He said that he thought I might like to have the autopilot on after landing to stop the rudder from swinging about. So the silly old ****** had leant down and engaged the autopilot without saying anything when I had just got the thing on the ground.
Another time a couple of CFS pilots were practicing asymmetric flight at altitude. After closing down one engine and feathering the propeller, the shut down drill was continued by pulling the firewall shut-off handle which cut off fuel, oil, and hydraulic fluid.
After a bit of manoeuvring here and there, the engine was restarted and a few minutes later, the other engine was throttled back to zero thrust while the previously feathered engine was used to do a single engine go-around at altitude.
Shortly after take-off power was set on the live engine all hell broke loose when the engine seized and threw the propeller into the fuselage. It passed less than a foot behind the co-pilot cutting the fire extinguisher bottles in half (they are situated immediately to the rear of the co-pilot's seat) - and climbing up the fuselage leaving a huge gash. The cew immediately applied power to the remaining engine which had been at zero thrust - only to find that the departing propeller had also cut through the engine instrument lines resulting in crazy readings on the live engine temps and pressures. The aircraft was landed safely.
Investigation revealed that when the firewall shut off handle from the previous feathering drill had been pushed down and reset, the geometry of the cables was such that the hydraulic and fuel shut-off lines had reset but that the cable to the engine oil did not. Thus it was not long before the engine seized at take off power with no lubricating oil supply.