Friday, February 29, 2008

Friday's Fantastic Flying Footage



Here is an outstanding spin video. Most videos are from inside the cockpit. This video, however, gives you both an outside and an inside view. They captured all the classic elements of the spin. In the first (outside view) you'll see the nose pitch up as the a/c bleeds off speed and enters a power on stall. When the a/c breaks, instead of dancing on the pedals to keep the wings level, the pilot gives it rudder with the break and places the a/c into a spin. Four rotations later the pilot gives it full opposite rudder until the wings are level. This places the a/c in a nose down attitude. Power on, back pressure on the yoke, and the a/c is recovered. According to the practical test standards the pilot only appears to make one mistake. He is supposed to exit the spin on the heading on which he entered it. The interior view adds one more element, the stall warning horn. This horn is mechanical and sounds when the air flowing over the wing is no longer producing lift, this gives the pilot about 2 seconds to get the wings level or the nose down or risk a stall and possibly a spin. Of course, in this case that's precisely what they want. Great video. Enjoy!

2 comments:

GUNNY said...

What a rush!

Matthew Bradley said...

Yes, it is! My flight instructor did this to me with no warning and then talked me through recovery. This video shows the maneuver being performed at altitude, but typically it happens by accident at climb out during take off or when turning final during landing. Being so close to the ground it is nearly impossible to recover. When you hear that a small plane crashed at your local airport, 8 times out of 10 this is what happened. That's why it's so important for pilots to recognize the conditions that lead to a stall/spin and both avoid them, as well as be able to recover quickly.

But at altitude...VERY fun.