cwyckham
Line Up and Wait
Well, I had my first inadvertent spin last week. I was in a PW5 glider and on only my third ever flight in this aircraft type (or in any single seat glider). There's something very interesting about the whole concept of learning to fly a single seat aircraft. The first few seconds of my first (aero tow) launch involved a very steep learning curve!
I was thermalling at only about 5 knots over the stall speed (corrected for my bank angle). I'd been up for a couple hours at this point and all of my thermals that day had been pretty smooth. For some reason, this one thermal was pretty rough. It probably had more than one core. I was thermalling to the left at about 3000' AGL at about a 30-40 degree bank angle. I was hit by a substantial vertical gust, mostly on my right side. The right wing went up and my nose came down and all of a sudden I was looking at a whole lot of green turning in front of me. It felt like I went almost inverted, but it was probably a bit shy of vertical.
I centered my ailerons and hit full right rudder. Before I even started to give forward pressure, I was out and building up speed very quickly. I pulled out at about 1.5g, turned left, and got back in my thermal. I only did about a quarter turn in the spin and lost pretty minimal altitude.
What hapenned:
I was very close to my critical angle of attack. When I got hit by a vertical gust, the angle of attack increased and I stalled. Because I was hit more on my right side and my right wing was lifted up (and because I was in a left turn), my right wing had less of an angle of attack and less of it was stalled than my left wing, causing me to spin.
What I learned:
1) I was aware that my stall speed had increased due to my bank angle, but for some reason hadn't put together that this also meant that my minimum sink speed would have increased. I was actually flying slower than my new minimum sink speed and had no reason to be that slow.
2) Vertical gusts can ruin your day. In rough conditions carry more speed.
3) Just because every other thermal was smooth doesn't mean this one will be. Adjust your tactics as the day changes, don't assume everything will stay the same.
4) Spin training works. There are debates about this for powered aircraft, but gliders spin out of thermals all the time. Glider pilots need spin training. I'd done spins two days before with an instructor in a similar glider (a two seat PW6). I reacted immediately and correctly. At no point was I even a little bit scared or nervous, it was just a normal, if unexpected, event. Of course it helped that I had all the altitude in the world, but I used very little of it.
Chris
I was thermalling at only about 5 knots over the stall speed (corrected for my bank angle). I'd been up for a couple hours at this point and all of my thermals that day had been pretty smooth. For some reason, this one thermal was pretty rough. It probably had more than one core. I was thermalling to the left at about 3000' AGL at about a 30-40 degree bank angle. I was hit by a substantial vertical gust, mostly on my right side. The right wing went up and my nose came down and all of a sudden I was looking at a whole lot of green turning in front of me. It felt like I went almost inverted, but it was probably a bit shy of vertical.
I centered my ailerons and hit full right rudder. Before I even started to give forward pressure, I was out and building up speed very quickly. I pulled out at about 1.5g, turned left, and got back in my thermal. I only did about a quarter turn in the spin and lost pretty minimal altitude.
What hapenned:
I was very close to my critical angle of attack. When I got hit by a vertical gust, the angle of attack increased and I stalled. Because I was hit more on my right side and my right wing was lifted up (and because I was in a left turn), my right wing had less of an angle of attack and less of it was stalled than my left wing, causing me to spin.
What I learned:
1) I was aware that my stall speed had increased due to my bank angle, but for some reason hadn't put together that this also meant that my minimum sink speed would have increased. I was actually flying slower than my new minimum sink speed and had no reason to be that slow.
2) Vertical gusts can ruin your day. In rough conditions carry more speed.
3) Just because every other thermal was smooth doesn't mean this one will be. Adjust your tactics as the day changes, don't assume everything will stay the same.
4) Spin training works. There are debates about this for powered aircraft, but gliders spin out of thermals all the time. Glider pilots need spin training. I'd done spins two days before with an instructor in a similar glider (a two seat PW6). I reacted immediately and correctly. At no point was I even a little bit scared or nervous, it was just a normal, if unexpected, event. Of course it helped that I had all the altitude in the world, but I used very little of it.
Chris
) I'm getting close to being back at soaring weight.