Aeros: Downlines & Groundrush

[paulo]

I'm quite happy with inverted, rolling, uplines...

...but, oh blimey, downlines. I have an internal GPWS, but rather than go whoop whoop, it goes:

"Jeeses F$£%ing Christ" (PULL UP! PULL UP!)

Out with an instructor in an S2 last week, he quite happily set it on nice rock solid downline, just for a second or two, before pulling up. It was almost serene, perhaps because it wasn't me driving.

Anyone find that this is something they got used to? Or conversely, still have a problem with?

[Aerobatic Flyer]

I had trouble with it too....

I remember learning to fly stall turns. I was always shy of the vertical coming down, and tended to pull out too early. One time I was just about to pull out, when the instructor took control and said "That's not vertical - it should be like this!" and pushed on the stick to pitch us down. He then made me look at each wingtip in turn before recovering. I remember looking at them thinking it was the last time I'd see them still attached to the fuselage!

The wings didn't break off, of course, and we didn't even exceed Va in the pull out. If your downline follows an upline, you'll be starting it with a very low airspeed and you have lots more time than you think.

Takes a bit of getting used to, though!

[stiknruda]

I found that it only began to worry me significantly when I started practicing at lower altitudes.

At 4 000' agl a vertical downline for a couple of secs is no big shakes but intentionally entering a one and a half turn spin at 3000' was a little daunting..then entering the same spin at 2500' I noticed how big the trees were getting!

With practice it becomes easier but it is better to start off really high and work yourself down incrementally.

The hard deck for the BAeA standard sequence is 1 000' agl so at this stage I never see any need to be anything but S&L or gentle PPL turns beneath this altitude!

Stik

[paulo]

Generally I'm around 3,000ft, but I've just had a nose at the chart and there's an FL45 ceiling where I go to practice so I should be able to crank it up to 4,000ft (obviously reducing that for stall turns to allow for entry).

In the S2 last week we were nearer 2000ft. The trees were indeed a bit larger!