Question about keeping the wings level in slow fight

naunga

New Member
Okay,

So the curse has finally been lifted and I went flying last Saturday.

We went up and did some stalls, which actually were kind of cool...not the head banging experience I got when my "buddy" took me up and demo'ed them. Anyhow, I got to thinking about some of the things I had read about how when you're that slow the ailerons don't have much effectivness, so you must use the rudder to keep the wings level.

Here's my question. When I'm using the rudder to keep the wings level do I still step on the ball or what?

Thanks.

Naunga
 
That is correct naunga, you want to step on the ball in order to keep coordinated during slow flight. You may notice that it
will require more right rudder during slow flight. This is because you are flying slower with a higher power setting. This situation
magnifies the left hand turning tendancies of the airplane (Pfactor, slipstream effect, torque).
If you do not keep the airplane coordinated during slow flight and you enter a slip or a skid, you risk spinning the airplane if
the airplane does stall.
 
Yeah, that's correct. Don't stare at the turn coordinator though, just look outside and see if the nose is yawing left or right and then use the rudders to correct for it and keep the plane level. Don't use the ailerons. Just think of it this way, airlons twist the plane and you don't want the plane twisted when you stall!
 
And one more bad thing about the ailerons too. Anytime you use them you increase your stall speed and reduce your total amount of vertical lift. So you will need a little extra power during slow flight turns too. In fact, when I turn in slow flight I use a very small amount of ailerons and mostly rudder. With the left turn all you have to do is let up on the right rudder and you'll turn left!
 
Just for fun I'm throwing a curve ball out there...I flew a Diamond Star (DA40) and a Cirrus SR22 today and both had AMAZING aileron control in the stall. Both were able to to be fully stalled in the dirty configuration and turned with ailerons at a 15 degree bank angle with no tendancy to stall.

The future of general aviation aircraft lies in these composite airplanes and I would venture to guess will change the way pilots learn about aerodynamics and stall characteristics. What a crazy thing to most pilots...being able to move the ailerons side-to-side in a stall with no spin tendancies!
 
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What a crazy thing to most pilots...being able to move the ailerons side-to-side in a stall with no spin tendancies!

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I hear that the new Tigers (Are they still Grumman?) are like that too and they're still mad out of good ol' aluminum.
 
Isn't the "secret" vortex generators and not necessarily composite materials? I thought that I saw that somewhere...

Dave
 
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