whifferdill
Line Up and Wait
Learned something new about my airplane last night. I've heard others say it's easy to get into a spin without rudder in various airplanes. I had not experienced this, but also never had a reason to try very hard. So out of curiosity, I took the Pitts up yesterday evening and tried. I kept my feet off the rudder and first tried various straight and accelerated power-off stalls done with full aileron in both directions. These would turn into a "spiraling stall", but none turned into true spins after quite a bit of time waiting to see if anything developed. Each time, simply unloading the stick immediately broke the stall and returned the plane to normal flight. Do this with a spin and not only will it not recover, but it will accelerate.
Next I tried the same thing, only with power. Power-on stall, full left aileron, and the plane rolled over, but only did a slightly spiraling flat mush. Again waited to see if a spin developed. None did, and unloading the stick immediately broke the stall.
But I actually got a spin going with a power-on stall and full right aileron. It wallowed around for several seconds and then slowly stabilized into a flattish spin to the left. Pushing the stick forward and waiting did not slow down the rotation. This one actually took opposite rudder, and actually was a spin. Stopped immediately with right rudder, much quicker than a normal spin with rudder.
Obviously the propellor slipstream yaws the plane to the left anyway, but it took right aileron to further stall the left wing enough to actually produce enough lift differential to produce autorotation.
Anyway, I just found this very interesting and thought I'd share. I think you'd really have to work to get a no-rudder spin in most airplanes. The Pitts has very neutral characteristics and is happy to do almost anything you ask. But it did take some effort to get a no-rudder spin.
Next I tried the same thing, only with power. Power-on stall, full left aileron, and the plane rolled over, but only did a slightly spiraling flat mush. Again waited to see if a spin developed. None did, and unloading the stick immediately broke the stall.
But I actually got a spin going with a power-on stall and full right aileron. It wallowed around for several seconds and then slowly stabilized into a flattish spin to the left. Pushing the stick forward and waiting did not slow down the rotation. This one actually took opposite rudder, and actually was a spin. Stopped immediately with right rudder, much quicker than a normal spin with rudder.
Obviously the propellor slipstream yaws the plane to the left anyway, but it took right aileron to further stall the left wing enough to actually produce enough lift differential to produce autorotation.
Anyway, I just found this very interesting and thought I'd share. I think you'd really have to work to get a no-rudder spin in most airplanes. The Pitts has very neutral characteristics and is happy to do almost anything you ask. But it did take some effort to get a no-rudder spin.