CG and spins
'Muscle Memory', as it is known but in reality is actually a memory of the brain, enables the efficient repetition of a physical skill or a task but that is all. I do not know of any evidence that supports the idea proposed. The stall and the spin are only predictable following a particular form when it is deliberately induced. Glider pilots of course spend much of their time close to the stall particularly when thermalling. This stall will be of no surprise therefore and is repetitively practiced. Non of this is the experience of the vast majority of powered pilots.
No, experienced contest pilots do not stall in thermals and do not practice stalls in thermals. Most know that even a small relaxation in stick back pressure will avoid the stall with no altitude loss. 55 deg bank with full ballast is routine flying in the desert SouthWest of USA. Anyone who could not thermal in those conditions without stalling would have few friends.
Strange how the brain can begin to dust off some of its old pages. I recall that the old Jet Provost 3 wasn’t allowed to be aerobatted or spun if there was any fuel in the tip tanks and if that was part of the sortie profile it was normal to take off with “half tips” so they would be empty by the time you climbed to minimum entry altitude. One of the pre spinning checks was to confirm that the main gauge reading had begun to decrease. At least I think that’s correct…..it’s 44 years since I last flew one and a year longer since I nearly killed myself by inadvertently flick rolling then spinning one inverted from a badly botched aerobatic manoeuvre (had I not previously recovered from one in a C150 as mentioned earlier I might not be here writing about it).
A similar cockup in a JP (Strikemaster in fact) may well have been a factor in the sad demise of an ex Harrier display pilot of my acquaintance, quite some years later.
A similar cockup in a JP (Strikemaster in fact) may well have been a factor in the sad demise of an ex Harrier display pilot of my acquaintance, quite some years later.
Ah, the memories of watching North Yorkshire spin quickly one way and then the other as I tried to stop the high rotational spin..
I have recently passed GST on an Ikarus C42 microlight which you are not allowed to spin - the recovery was talked about during the training but I feel my 40-year old experience of actual spinning is more valuable.
