Bud, Thank you for that. I absolutely agree that we should
all practice these things frequently and intelligently,
but the statistics suggest that however much you practice
you risk finding yourself less than 'perfect' in an engine
failure at circuit height situation. The high risk run by
CPLs and students with instructors rather underlines this
point, and my thesis is that to make even the most
experienced of us fairly bullet proof, an 'impossible to
ignore' Bitching Betty system based on critical AOA or g
compensated speed is the only way we are likely to see a
major impact on the 7 to 8 deaths a year in the UK and
loads more in the States that are due to Stall/Spin
accidents.
Regards, David
"Bud Yerly" <budyerly@msn.com> wrote:
> David,
> A sticky subject to say the least.
>
> I whole heartedly agree with your points...Warning
>systems are great, but practice makes perfect.
>
> Train like you fly, fly like you train is the pilot
>motto we instilled in our military training crews.
>
> Just emphasizing your points:
>
> This means going up three mistakes high and practicing
>maneuvers, better yet, with an experienced pilot or even
>better yet with an experienced instructor on your
>proficiency check rides. My preference is that you take
>your aircraft and you, to the edge of the envelope, in
>slow flight maneuvering, stall feel, accelerated stall,
>deep stall, turning stalls both clean and dirty,
>simulated engine out approaches, loaded (level turn) and
>unloaded turns (max turn rate with alt loss), unusual
>attitude recoveries such as: nose low and nose high
>recovery techniques, min altitude loss maneuvers (aka
>high and low speed dive recoveries). Since some aircraft
>will snap inverted in a deep stall or aggressively acted
>stall, how to recover means getting help on how to
>recover from inverted flight in this case. I can tell
>you that keeping the plane loaded up (positive G) while
>trying to roll back is not the answer.
>
> Today in the US we only teach approach to the stall and
>our patterns or circuits are cross country excursions.
> Spin training is non existent. Our pilots don't look
>out the window and understand the concept that your eyes
>fly the plane where it is supposed to go. All of which
>is a disaster waiting to happen. All aircraft, Cessna
>150-152, Pipers, Diamonds, and all experimentals can be
>put into a post stall snap or stall spin quite easily. I
>even demonstrated that in an Ercoupe. Our FAA has
>decided to go conservative. My FAA FSDO (Flight Standards
>Duty Officer) knows on test flights I max perform the
>aircraft looking for flaws, but does not like to see this
>type maneuvering I practice as it could become a disaster
>for an inexperienced pilot if he were to attempt to copy
>what he has seen rather than practicing in a controlled
>environment to gain proficiency in baby steps under
>direct supervision. And he is right.
>
> The recognition of a stall is important. But the
>concept of the proper or min altitude recovery is often
>taught as a mechanical action by our new instructors and
>rarely practiced later... I routinely fly with owners
>and others who smack the stick forward, hit full power
>and gently recover losing significant altitude. They
>commonly misjudge the engine out glide distance or
>partial power flight operations. Stall warning
>equipment, AOA systems alert you of a high angle of
>attack situation via some warning (Bitching Betty we
>called them). Aerodynamic feel such as stall strips
>(rumble strips) give us a feel/sound that is a stall
>warning. That is great provided we are not distracted by
>the rough or dead engine in front of us and the
>overwhelming feeling to try to save the aircraft from
>harm... If you don't practice these type of situations
>and chair fly the situations based on your observations,
>then you will have a disaster rather than a war story.
> (Chair fly is a concept that once a maneuver is
>practiced or tested, such as an engine out glide maneuver
>at altitude, it is then translated to sitting in a quiet
>area and mentally (or animated via body language and
>voice) flying the maneuver how you believe it should be
>flown in an inflight emergency.) Once the knowledge hits
>the pilot that from my position (and experience) I can't
>make the airport, I must commit to a forced landing to
>save my life and fill out the insurance paperwork.
>
> Put the Europa at 4000 rpm and 17 inches of power and
>see how far you can go. What is the minimum power I can
>fly with. I have shut the engine down and done 360s well
>above the airfield (pre-arranged with the airport) and
>checked the glide distance, min sink, altitude loss in
>30/60/max bank unloaded turns. 30 degree coordinated
>turns at idle loose nearly 700 feet in 180 degrees of
>turn, clean. That's a lot of altitude. If you attempt
>to get back to the field with an engine at idle, you
>won't make it unless you plan and fly your approach
>accordingly. A simple exercise is to practice pulling
>the power back to idle at various points in the pattern,
>and soon you develop a picture of where you need to be,
>to fly a safe engine out pattern based on your position
>(altitude and airspeed included) in the pattern. Once
>you have the picture, one can make sound decisions.
>
>Further, with the mono, lowering the gear (and flaps)
>when landing is assured in an engine emergency must be
>practiced as the glide ratio and picture change is pretty
>large.
> A few years ago, a mono wheel pilot had a fuel pressure
>regulator failure, and could not get above 26 inches and
>4600 RPM. He still was in takeoff configuration with
>gear down and was sinking. I was airborne and heard his
>distress and asked him to raise his gear so as to climb
>and accelerate. The plane responded well and climbed
>briskly. He just needed to change his focus from "I
>have to get back to the runway mode to I can fly with the
>available power and take my time to set up a good
>simulated engine out and safe landing" with the power I
>have.
>
> Practice like you fly, fly like you practice. Once the
>brain sees how to do something, gains experience, it can
>translate that experience to an emergency situation.
> Bitching Betty and flashing lights allow you to die all
>tensed up unless you put them to use in your flight
>practice. The rules of any emergency are: maintain
>aircraft control, analyze the situation and then take
>proper action. Maintaining aircraft control requires
>practice. Know your plane and know yourself.
>
> Nice job on your article.
>
> Best Regards,
> Bud Yerly
>
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: David Joyce<mailto:davidjoyce@doctors.org.uk>
> To: europa list<mailto:europa-list@matronics.com>
> Sent: Saturday, July 07, 2012 5:43 AM
> Subject: Europa-List: Stall/spin
>
>
>
> Dear All, Rather at the last moment, it has occurred to
>me
> that it is only right & proper to show you the article
>I
> have written & had accepted by Brian Hope, since the
> Europa gets a degree of slightly dubious star billing.
>I
> hope you will feel that the overall flavour does not do
> anything to cast doubts about the flying qualities of
>our
> planes, particulaly if 'made in UK' Regards, David
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