T-45A Goshawk Spin video...

bunk22

bunk22

Well-Known Member
Old one but good one. Testing obviously as intentional spins are not allowed in the T-45. I did them in the T-2C Buckeye and we do them in the T-34C and T-6A/B but the props are nothing quite like this.

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Wow! 21,000 ft all the way down to 9,000. Replace that test pilot with an initial guy, you got yourself a ejection seat test.
 
That was crazy. Dude sounded a little scared (I probably would too), but he kept putting out info.

I thought spins were a pretty much zero g manuever,but that looked intense.

HS
 
When he said in the video looks like we are going to need the chute, is that a chute that comes out of the airplane that helps to stabilize it or is he talking about punching out?
 
I've only actually spun it in the sim (since intentional departures are prohibited) but it likes to spin inverted. IIRC there are 3 inverted modes and 2 upright, though it will not sustain an upright spin without pro-spin controls. From everything I have heard, it is pretty resistant to inverted spins as well, though they will become self sustaining if you don't apply OCF procedures (rudder and stick full opposite turn needle among others). In the sim, you pretty much have to be 90 deg nose high nearly zero airspeed with full cross controls to get it to really enter a spin, and it generally took a good 4-5k feet to recover depending on reaction time and the mode of spin (extremeness of nose down). I'm sure in this test they allowed the spin to fully develop before attempting recovery, which would of course cause excessive altitude loss. I am a little rusty on my numbers but I think it takes about 2 turns to lose 1000 ft. For having swept wings it is very docile when you take it through a stall series (which I have done in the actual jet)....occasional wing drop on some of the more "bent" jets, but the only real sensation you normally feel is a big settling feeling around 29 or 30 units AoA (or about 26 with the flaps/slats up). You can normally recover from a full dirty stall in about 200-400 feet of altitude. Just some extra info for those who might be interested :)
 
jhugz said:
When he said in the video looks like we are going to need the chute, is that a chute that comes out of the airplane that helps to stabilize it?
Click to expand...

Yes, intentional spins in flight testing are done with a recovery chute designed to right the airplane in case it won't recover using aerodynamic controls. There is a video out there of a Tomcat in spin testing that developed such high G loading in the spin that the pilot was unable to pop the chute and ended up ejecting. The force from the seat was enough to force the nose down and break the stall, and the aircraft actually recovered momentarily. They showed this one to us in preflight indoctrination (Navy ground school) and the joke was that the guy should have just ejected his RIO/NFO and they would have been fine.......:D
 
you can hear as they get further and further down the guys breathing pick up as he starts to become more and more nervous. It was kinda cool, but knowing what he was going through, scary at the same time.
 
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