Hi all,
The weather suddenly cleared this afternoon, so I took to the air in a
Robin 2160 two seater, a French trainer with some aerobatics capacity.
After some standard positive maneuvers with my student, I suggested
trying to reproduce the dreaded skidded turn stall/spin.
At a comfortable 4000 ft AGL, I first tried with about 1700 RPM, flaps
up (spins with flaps on are a no-no on many light airplanes) and gave a
gentle 30 bank with full inside rudder. Gradually pulling harder and
harder on the stick until full aft, I was unable to stall the airplane.
Tried again at idle, and with full aft stick, was able to reproduce the
low wing drop followed by the inverted entry into incipient spin. Just
centering the stick and rudder immediately regained control and I gently
pulled out. Of course I would not try that near the ground. Total height
loss approached 250-300 ft.
I must say it took a considerable effort to bring the stick and the
rudder to the stop, and at least 10-15 seconds before the wing drop.
Tried again with outside rudder, as in a sideslip. Again, I had to pull
hard before the airplane shuddered then gently dropped the upper wing.
Releasing the controls stopped things in a wing level attitude, with
nearly no noticeable altitude loss.
In my opinion, this is the way a well behaved airplane should react.
When stalling a non-aerobatic plane I usually keep the ball centered.
FWIW,
Regards,
Gilles Thesee
Grenoble, France
http://contrails.free.fr
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