Unrecoverable situations

[Bill]

In another thread, Lance Fisher said:

"For the most part all you really need to fly acro safely is sufficient altitude, the knowledge and skill necessary to safely recover from any botched maneuver, the knowledge of how to avoid unrecoverable situations, and a little common sense."

For us budding aerobats, what are the unrecoverable situations? I know if you over stress the airplane and bend/break it, that would be unrecoverable, what are the others?

As for safe recoveries, what kinds of botched maneuver recoveries should you have your instructor show you? Stalls at the top of a loop? Stalls in steep turns? What else?

 

[gismo]

For us budding aerobats, what are the unrecoverable situations? I know if you over stress the airplane and bend/break it, that would be unrecoverable, what are the others?

As for safe recoveries, what kinds of botched maneuver recoveries should you have your instructor show you? Stalls at the top of a loop? Stalls in steep turns? What else?

Inadvertent stalls are generally not an issue as long as you have sufficient altitude (virtually any stall can be recovered within the FAA mandated 1500 AGL). The serious issues involve a kinetic energy vector that reaches the ground and/or forces you outside the aircraft's design flight envelope. The classic example of that is a Split-S started with too much speed, too little pitch rotation, or too little altitude. Even if you begin with proper speed and sufficient altitude, an insufficient pull can leave you descending at or above redline and still pointed towards the ground, similarly if you begin with too much speed the end result is the same, and starting with too little altitude for the maneuver has obvious dangers. In each case at some point during the maneuver you end up with an unrecoverable situation, either you are at Vne and accelerating nose down and/or your flight path and velocity preclude attaining a level attitude before reaching the ground given the large radius of your pitch rotation mandated by your velocity and the maximum force the wings can safely apply to the fuselage. Much of this isn't very intuitive because the inertia (kinetic energy) of the airplane increases as the square of it's velocity and as long as the velocity vector is pointed sufficiently towards the earth, that velocity will increase no matter what you do (beyond deploying a speed brake).

 

[gibbons]

As for safe recoveries, what kinds of botched maneuver recoveries should you have your instructor show you? Stalls at the top of a loop? Stalls in steep turns? What else?

Spins, spins and more spins.

You won't believe how easily an airplane can enter an inadvertent spin, or how confusing the recovery can be. I'm not talking about the straight ahead, stall the airplane, spin left two turns, and recover type of spin training. Get training entering spins from unusual attitudes (botched hammerheads, etc), transition spins and spin reversals. You won't be able to do this in the Citabria. Go somewhere with a Pitts or equivalent and get some professional spin training.

This type of training, in my opinion, should not be optional for someone who is doing aerobatics.

Chip

 

[Toby]

Spins, spins and more spins.

You won't believe how easily an airplane can enter an inadvertent spin, or how confusing the recovery can be. I'm not talking about the straight ahead, stall the airplane, spin left two turns, and recover type of spin training. Get training entering spins from unusual attitudes (botched hammerheads, etc), transition spins and spin reversals. You won't be able to do this in the Citabria. Go somewhere with a Pitts or equivalent and get some professional spin training.

This type of training, in my opinion, should not be optional for someone who is doing aerobatics.

Chip

I agree.

We are doing spins now. I want to do a minimum of 50 regular, left-turning spins, personally. Next lesson will include inverted spins out of the tops of loops. I want to do flat spins, too, at some point.

We are also going to do split S's so I can see the dangers of trying that recovery. I already know, if I'm flying too fast and/or I'm too low, I'm not going to pull out with a split S. That's got to be a carefully planned maneuver.

Upset recovery training is great. I haven't had enough of this, either. This is where your instructor has you close your eyes and take hands and feet off the controls. He puts you in a nasty attitude, and you're all disoriented. You open your eyes and recover -- level out, roll upright if needed, adjust power/pitch.

I'm finding that understanding the technique and trying it once or twice just barely scratches the surface of knowing what to do. It takes a lot of repetition.

Another thing I've discovered -- I couldn't have done this 5 months ago when I first started aerobatics. It took me several months to feel normal in any attitude, to look out the window and not have a second thought that I was upside down or sideways. Now these are all just new variations on how I look at the world. A roll is just another way of flying. A spin is just another way of flying. Becoming acclimated to various orientations takes time, and there's no shortcut for that.

 

[Bill]

Well, that type of advanced spin training in that type of airplane is not on the dance card yet. After this intro acro course, I'll be starting IR. If I'm still gonzo on acro after getting the IR, then I'll likely look for more advanced training.

 

[Diana]

Well, that type of advanced spin training in that type of airplane is not on the dance card yet. After this intro acro course, I'll be starting IR. If I'm still gonzo on acro after getting the IR, then I'll likely look for more advanced training.

Bill, I hope you can make it to Gaston's in June. We can do some mild stuff in the Citabria, and hopefully Chip will bring his Extra.

 

[Bill]

Bill, I hope you can make it to Gaston's in June. We can do some mild stuff in the Citabria, and hopefully Chip will bring his Extra.

Weather permitting, I'll be there! I'm suppposed to have an acro lesson today, but winds at 3000 are 39kts...yuk!