From highflyer@alt.net Fri Apr 26 21:17:11 2002 Path: cygnus.com!enews.sgi.com!news.mailgate.org!news-spur1.maxwell.syr.edu!news.maxwell.syr.edu!news.alt.net!usenet From: highflyer Newsgroups: rec.aviation.student Subject: Re: A fatal SEL crash in our practice area Date: Fri, 26 Apr 2002 14:52:23 -0500 Organization: Highflight Aviation Services Lines: 58 Message-ID: <3CC9AFF7.A1E81B4E@alt.net> References: <3CC94CA8.25D4422B@caregroup.harvard.edu> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit X-Mailer: Mozilla 4.78 [en] (X11; U; SunOS 5.7 sun4m) X-Accept-Language: en Xref: cygnus.com rec.aviation.student:210692 Dave Stadt wrote: > > David Rind wrote in message > news:3CC94CA8.25D4422B@caregroup.harvard.edu... > > Dave Stadt wrote: > > > Gary wrote in message > > > > Certainly I would question why a pilot would practice stalls with a > > > > passenger in the plane! > > > > > > Why not? > > > > I'm not sure how the original poster meant this, but practicing > > stalls with a passenger in the plane seems like it might > > be a bad idea. Performing/demonstrating stalls seems fine to > > me, though. If you're not proficient enough at handling a > > maneuver that you think you need practice, you might want to > > hesitate before risking someone else while you get experience. > > > > -- > > David Rind > > drind@caregroup.harvard.edu > > When I fly a plane I haven't flown before one of the first maneuvers I want > to do is stalls. They teach you a lot about the slow speed handling and > landing habits of the plane. They are usually done with the owner in the > right seat. Right. I usually do a few lazy eights to get a feel for the control interaction and harmony, and then do a stall or two. Most of the airplanes I have flown I had no one to check me out and there was no POH. The POH was not required until relatively recently and many airplanes don't have one. You need to learn some techniques to find out what speeds you should fly when getting ready to land in the absence of a neat book that gives them to you. Perhaps the tricks are useful even when you HAVE a book! :-) The first thing I do is let the airplane fly off the ground, noting the attitude and airspeed when the airplane first feels like it really wants to aviate! That gives you a darn good first approximation of landing speed and attitude. :-) The lazy eights give you a good feel for how much rudder you need with the aileron and how sensitive it is in pitch and roll. Also helps you get a feel for how quickly the airplane gains or loses speed with pitch changes. Then a bit of slow flight and a stall or two to give you some idea how the airplane feels as it approaches the stall and how it handles when you get slow. Some airplanes give you LOTS of indications before they stall, some just break! By that time, I know enough about the airplane to go back and try to land it! :-) -- Highflyer Highflight Aviation Services