Stawell crash
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Stawell crash
Thread Starter
Updated ABC
Unless I am mistaken, these are RAAus registered aircraft. Thought CASA and ATSB were not interested in RAAus.
According to the Civil Aviation Safety Authority (CASA), the single-engine Bristell S-LSA plane was registered with Soar Aviation, a flight training school based in Moorabbin in Melbourne's south-east.
Already sounding eerily similar to the same aircraft type in August last year at Clyde, south east of Melbourne that caused serious injuries to the instructor and fatally injured the student.
http://www.google.com.au/amp/s/m.scm...-after%3famp=1
http://www.google.com.au/amp/s/m.scm...-after%3famp=1
Soar has a combination of RAAus and VH registrations. Given the Bristells are the "complex" type Soar uses for CPL, I'd say it's VH registered.
Join Date: Feb 2008
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A lot of aircraft with a similar design (sport cruiser, Bristell etc) all suffer from rudder airflow shielding in a spin and wont come out according to overseas and local accident reports. The rudder is ineffective in any sort of spin that's anywhere near flat. I thought most of these had a ballistic parachute. I hope the guys recover quickly

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Let us all hope that the two drivers can shed some light as to why this happened so that those that follow them in this type of machine can learn something to perhaps prevent this from happening again. Gods speed to getting well quickly:-)
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A lot of aircraft with a similar design (sport cruiser, Bristell etc) all suffer from rudder airflow shielding in a spin and wont come out according to overseas and local accident reports. The rudder is ineffective in any sort of spin that's anywhere near flat. I thought most of these had a ballistic parachute.
To my concern, even the Factory Pilot Notes have a dubious Spin Recovery checklist.
.
Unintentional spin recovery technique:
1. Throttle - idle
2. Lateral control - ailerons neutralized
3. Rudder pedals - full opposite rudder
4. Rudder pedals - neutralize rudder immediately when rotation stops
5. Longitudinal control - neutralize or push forward and recovery dive.
.
Unintentional spin recovery technique:
1. Throttle - idle
2. Lateral control - ailerons neutralized
3. Rudder pedals - full opposite rudder
4. Rudder pedals - neutralize rudder immediately when rotation stops
5. Longitudinal control - neutralize or push forward and recovery dive.
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That ABC News report linked above quoted a witness saying he saw the aircraft in a flat spin.
You’ve described a commonly taught, but very incorrect technique for most aircraft.
You must use the manufacturers technique - for an upright spin this generally this would be:
- close the throttle
- ailerons neutral
- maintain stick back (forward stick may blanket the rudder)
- identify the direction of rotation, then apply opposite rudder
- after ruder input, pause momentarily, then progressively ease the stick forward until rotation stops
- as soon as rotation stops, centre the rudder and recover from the dive.
I cannot stress highly enough that you must use the manufacturers technique as some differ from that I’ve described. Obviously the use of elevator is reversed in an inverted spin and the only reliable way to determine the direction of the spin is to sight down the nose and look for the yaw. Inverted, the roll and yaw are opposite as viewed by the pilot. ie - upright: spinning right, rolling right, inverted: spinning right, rolling left. It’s very disconcerting at first and it’s easy to use the direction of roll to incorrectly identify the required rudder input.
You must use the manufacturers technique - for an upright spin this generally this would be:
- close the throttle
- ailerons neutral
- maintain stick back (forward stick may blanket the rudder)
- identify the direction of rotation, then apply opposite rudder
- after ruder input, pause momentarily, then progressively ease the stick forward until rotation stops
- as soon as rotation stops, centre the rudder and recover from the dive.
I cannot stress highly enough that you must use the manufacturers technique as some differ from that I’ve described. Obviously the use of elevator is reversed in an inverted spin and the only reliable way to determine the direction of the spin is to sight down the nose and look for the yaw. Inverted, the roll and yaw are opposite as viewed by the pilot. ie - upright: spinning right, rolling right, inverted: spinning right, rolling left. It’s very disconcerting at first and it’s easy to use the direction of roll to incorrectly identify the required rudder input.