German pilot killed in Polish air show

[gearlever]

German pilot killed in Polish air show
RIP

You Tube

Polish air shows victims
- 2011, one pilot
- 2009, two pilots
- 2007, two pilots

Video:
Holy crap, 4 or 5 people only a few meters away....

[pontifex]

Looks like a perfectly normal spin from which he actually recovered but far too late.

[Andrewgr2]

Strange that the rudder does not appear to be hard right for recovery? Pilot incapacitation? There seemed to be plenty of time to recover from the spin.

[The Ancient Geek]

Not a normal spin, more of a spiral dive. Recovery did not start until he got the nose down.
It is very difficult to recover from the flat attitude, the golden rule applies - Nose Down, Full Opposite Rudder.
I would not expect an experienced show pilot to make such a mistake, it certainly looks like some form of incapacitation or maybe a control jam.

[michaelbinary]

Um make your mind up, one minute its a spiral dive then its a flat attitude, you cant be in both at the same time.

[Hotel Tango]

Looks like a perfectly normal spin from which he actually recovered but far too late.

Tbh, I don't see any signs of recovery. The problem is that we don't see what preceded what we see in the clip.

[Channel6]

It's appears ailerons were full deployed?

[The Ancient Geek]

Rotation stops but no visible attempt to pull out of the dive.

[Michael S]

Initial informations state there was a engine cut out during that spin.

[pilotmike]

Originally Posted by Channel6

It's appears ailerons were full deployed?

Yep! One deployed on each wing....

[Fly Aiprt]

Had a look at the video.
It seems a some moment in the spin, the ailerons were in the "left roll" position, which tends to aggravate/flatten a right spin.
Also at low altitude, the rotation rate seems to slow down, then he starts a secondary left spin down to impact.

[Euclideanplane]

At 0:21 in the video, he seems to be flying again, but too late to avoid the water.

[capngrog]

As pointed out in Post #4, I was taught in primary flight training to use opposite rudder and some nose down elevator to recover from a spin and to leave the ailerons alone. It appeared from the video that large aileron deflections, in the direction of the turn, were used, including large "up" elevator (ANU) deflections. This seems just the opposite of what I was taught. I would think that an airshow pilot would know these things, so that raises the question of incapacitation or disorientation. We'll probably never know. Anyway, this pilot apparently loved to fly ... R.I.P.

Cheers,
Grog

[Propsforever]

This Looks like a Flatspin in Power Off Mode to me.

the Controls are a Mix between Pro Spin and Antispin.

The 52 will flatten out with Outspin Aileron immediatly. To perform the Ultimate Flatspin you would then add Power and go Stick fwd.

The Recovery from an Intenional Flatspin ( Power on - Outspin Aileron - Stick Forward - Rudder Inspin (( The Russians call it Superspin)) ) :

Power OFF
Rudder Opposite
Aileron Inspin
Stick full back (Otherwise Airflow over the Rudder is Blocked in a Flatspin)

After 2-3 Revolutions without reaction the Aircraft will bank in the Spin and enter a Normal Spin/Skidding Spiral Dive ( You can hear the Airflow reattach and the ASI will Speed up like crazy)

Then, Aileron Neutral - Stick Forward - Rudder Neutral when Rotation Stops and Recover.

So, everybody seeing Flatspin-Spin-Spiraldive is quite correct, but the Recovery Procedure hasnt been followed in this case. It Looks like the Attempts from Untrained (On YK52) Pilots.
The Pilot was a PPL that owned this AC for over 10yrs.

[Propsforever]

@ Capngrog:

This recovery is Standard in a lot of Countrys, especially in the english speaking World.

Aileron is left in Neutral to prevent Novices from unpleasant Adventures.
Actually Inspin Aileron will give higher Rotation and more Nose down. It also Speeds up recovery. Often used in Competition Precision Spins, to stop on the Point.
Outspin Aileron will usually develop technically a Flatspin, whith a slightly Nose Low Attitude.

Spinning Inverted the Aileron Inputs will have Opposite Effects......

[ShyTorque]

The rudder didn't appear to be applied in the anti-spin direction, it was neutral or if anything there was a small amount of pro-spin applied all the way down.

But a lot of "outspin" aileron did appear to be applied...a very unusual way to try to recover and obviously totally unsuccessful.

[Meester proach]

And not one of the people on the bank dived in to see if they could help ??

[DaveReidUK]

Originally Posted by Meester proach

And not one of the people on the bank dived in to see if they could help ??

It's not hard to think of at least half a dozen reasons why they might have thought that wasn't a great idea.

[Fly Aiprt]

Originally Posted by capngrog

As pointed out in Post #4, I was taught in primary flight training to use opposite rudder and some nose down elevator to recover from a spin and to leave the ailerons alone. It appeared from the video that large aileron deflections, in the direction of the turn, were used, including large "up" elevator (ANU) deflections. This seems just the opposite of what I was taught. I would think that an airshow pilot would know these things, so that raises the question of incapacitation or disorientation.

Grog,
The rudder is the primary control to stop a spin, and the elevator position must be so that most of the rudder area is subject to the slipstream.
The elevator nose up or nose down to recover from a spin depends on the configuration of the tail. Some aircraft (most Pitts for instance) require full nose up elevator to quickly stop spinning.

Concerning ailerons, it has been established that ailerons opposite to the spin tend to aggravate/flatten the spin.
If one looks carefully at the video stills, one can notice that the ailerons are in the left roll position, while the airplane is spinning to the right, so this is a case of ailerons aggravating the spin.

In this particular case, the up elevator and left aileron in a right spin are compatible with the instinctive action of a panicky or disoriented pilot.
Like any experienced pilots, display pilots do make mistakes.
Only inexperienced pilots don't think so.

[Hotel Tango]

And not one of the people on the bank dived in to see if they could help ??

Initially I thought the same, but then it occurred to me that the water was flowing pretty fast with perhaps some treacherous currents. A hero could have become another victim!