Ophir
Well-Known Member
I had an amazing day! (Sorry to hear yours was no so great Mrivc. Sounds like you should have been in this plane.)
I went to my spin training for my CFI this afternoon. The pilot was the owner of the flight school here in SLC. He is an old Navy F-18 Hornet pilot who no owns the place here in SLC and up in Heber. This passion is aviation and aerobatics. So, we were flew the Extra 300L. WOW, it has a roll rate of 420 degrees/second. If you go full aileron it just rolls and keeps going! So sweet!
We did the brief for the flight, actually I should call it a hop or a mission, as was referring to it. It included power on stalls, power-off stalls, accelerated stalls and entering into spins in many different configurations. In the end we had some extra gas so we also did hammerheads, Cuban 8’s, flat spins, etc.
In the brief he told me to think about disconnecting the idea of mechanically flying the plane (i.e. for spin recovery it is usually P.A.R.E.= power to idle, ailerons neutral, rudder opposite of the spin, and if needed an abrupt movement forward of the controls to break the stall).
He wanted me to fly purely visually and “outside the cockpit”, meaning wings level is when you are level with the horizon, not indicated on the instruments (although I only had airspeed and altimeter anyway). The point being, the ways so many of us are taught to fly we forgot to react and instead we think only about the system we were taught. He wanted me to have “feel”.
So once up we did and inverted test to see if the inverted flight tanks and the oil were working upside down. Then it was my aircraft. A series of turns while climbing, some up to 45º got my feel alive and used to the short-coupled fuselage. And then it was into power off stalls. That was pretty much the same. Before we went to spins we did accelerated stalls: bank right 60º plus, establish a turn and just start pulling back until the thing stalls. Amazing how the 2G+ stall reacts compared to 1G. It is violent but it recovers quickly once you relax the back pressure on the stick.
Next were spins. We entered the spins going right and did this by applying full right rudder as soon as the stall was imminent. The plane pitched down and rolled heavily to the right and became nearly vertical, the spin then established itself and we held right rudder until the direction we want to exit came up. At that point then full left rudder, stop spin, level. Pretty easy. During this we also he the stick full back to allow the plane to establish the roll and then gently move the stick to neutral to recover with the power to idle. No forward stick movements were made.
The reason for no forward stick movement was that, as it was explained to me, the vertical stab is going to be the number one control surface to slowing or not allowing the spin to really wind up. If you keep the stick forward (horizontal stab showing the up position) this allows air to hit more of the rudder because the relative wind is coming from beneath you. If you pull back, the horizontal stab now moves into a position where less air will hit the vertical stab and as a result the spin increases it spinning rate. We did this as an experiment and it was incredible. First pull back power, nose up/stick back, establish stall, full right rudder, the plane entered the spin just as before. But this time he asked me to hold right rudder and after a spin, ease the stick forward/horizontal stab down position and the plane wound up at least three times as fast. I held it for about one full second and we went through about three complete revolutions, as opposed to the other configuration of about one spin in two-three seconds.
Anyway, it was incredible and what a fun plane. I haven’t had such and educational 45 minutes in an airplane in quite a while.
I went to my spin training for my CFI this afternoon. The pilot was the owner of the flight school here in SLC. He is an old Navy F-18 Hornet pilot who no owns the place here in SLC and up in Heber. This passion is aviation and aerobatics. So, we were flew the Extra 300L. WOW, it has a roll rate of 420 degrees/second. If you go full aileron it just rolls and keeps going! So sweet!
We did the brief for the flight, actually I should call it a hop or a mission, as was referring to it. It included power on stalls, power-off stalls, accelerated stalls and entering into spins in many different configurations. In the end we had some extra gas so we also did hammerheads, Cuban 8’s, flat spins, etc.
In the brief he told me to think about disconnecting the idea of mechanically flying the plane (i.e. for spin recovery it is usually P.A.R.E.= power to idle, ailerons neutral, rudder opposite of the spin, and if needed an abrupt movement forward of the controls to break the stall).
He wanted me to fly purely visually and “outside the cockpit”, meaning wings level is when you are level with the horizon, not indicated on the instruments (although I only had airspeed and altimeter anyway). The point being, the ways so many of us are taught to fly we forgot to react and instead we think only about the system we were taught. He wanted me to have “feel”.
So once up we did and inverted test to see if the inverted flight tanks and the oil were working upside down. Then it was my aircraft. A series of turns while climbing, some up to 45º got my feel alive and used to the short-coupled fuselage. And then it was into power off stalls. That was pretty much the same. Before we went to spins we did accelerated stalls: bank right 60º plus, establish a turn and just start pulling back until the thing stalls. Amazing how the 2G+ stall reacts compared to 1G. It is violent but it recovers quickly once you relax the back pressure on the stick.
Next were spins. We entered the spins going right and did this by applying full right rudder as soon as the stall was imminent. The plane pitched down and rolled heavily to the right and became nearly vertical, the spin then established itself and we held right rudder until the direction we want to exit came up. At that point then full left rudder, stop spin, level. Pretty easy. During this we also he the stick full back to allow the plane to establish the roll and then gently move the stick to neutral to recover with the power to idle. No forward stick movements were made.
The reason for no forward stick movement was that, as it was explained to me, the vertical stab is going to be the number one control surface to slowing or not allowing the spin to really wind up. If you keep the stick forward (horizontal stab showing the up position) this allows air to hit more of the rudder because the relative wind is coming from beneath you. If you pull back, the horizontal stab now moves into a position where less air will hit the vertical stab and as a result the spin increases it spinning rate. We did this as an experiment and it was incredible. First pull back power, nose up/stick back, establish stall, full right rudder, the plane entered the spin just as before. But this time he asked me to hold right rudder and after a spin, ease the stick forward/horizontal stab down position and the plane wound up at least three times as fast. I held it for about one full second and we went through about three complete revolutions, as opposed to the other configuration of about one spin in two-three seconds.
Anyway, it was incredible and what a fun plane. I haven’t had such and educational 45 minutes in an airplane in quite a while.