cscotthendry

11 hours ago, Roundsounds said:

Stick position can correlate to exceeding the critical angle. The “stall stick position” seems to be gathering momentum at a similar rate to the Beggs Muller spin recovery technique, which I see as a dangerous trend. There are a number of factors where the critical angle can be exceeded without achieving the “SSP”. CofG and gusts being a couple. 
How would a pilot respond differently in the case described in this post given it had / had not stalled? 

I'm very wary of formulaic rules like “Stall Stick Position means it's stalled, otherwise it's not.”

There are too many variables in flying to make formulaic assessments like that.

And I guess, that comes back to my point. Pilots are taught implicitly, that the aircraft is stalled when the nose is pointing at the heavens and the controls are back in your chest, because that's how it was in training.
 

And the corollary to that is that if the nose isn't pointing way up in the sky and I don't have the stick back in my crotch, then the aircraft's not stalled. Which is what I think the other poster was claiming.

 

That's almost always going to be followed by confusion and a loud BANG!

5 hours ago, danny_galaga said:

Haven't read this all the way through but just thought I'd point out some low wing planes have doors, not bubble canopies. One I know well is the Piper PA28 Warrior, and all its cousins and brothers .

From what I've heard, the side door on a low wing is a double edged sword. Apparently, if the door pops open in flight it disturbs the airflow over the wing and can be a hazard at low (near stall) air speeds.

That is for doors that open forward. I don't know about gull wing doors. But with gull wing doors, you're back to being trapped in a flip over.

1 hour ago, Jabiru7252 said:

 Gee whizz, I must be silly. I thought the diodes converted the AC voltage to DC (rectification). The regulator then 'regulated' the voltage and/or current to charge the battery. The term "high voltage AC current" is meaningless to me. The alternator generates an 'alternating voltage' that when applied across a load will cause an 'alternating current' (AC) to flow. Maybe in this world of LGBT rubbish the electronic theory I was taught has been 'cancelled'.

What the H*ll has LGBT got to do with electrical principles?

That's as specious as the "High voltage electrical current" you objected to.

 

Disconnecting the alternator from the load causes the voltage across the induction coils in the alternator to rise past the breakdown voltage of the diodes. This causes current to flow backwards through the diodes and can cause them to fail.

1 hour ago, Jabiru7252 said:

It's hard to smash your head into a low wing...

Peter Dinklage could ...🤣

I'm guessing from the question that putting a spanner on the nut is not possible? But you didn't mention that.

If that's the case, I wonder how they were done up in the first place.

That fear of what happes in a noseover in a paddock is a big part of why I fly a high wing. That and tha fact that I burn easily. I live in the skin cancer capitol of the world (Qld) so it's a real issue for me.

Plus, I fly to see the sights on the ground. A low wing obscures a lot of downward view. Then if you add a sunshade on top … well I don't see the point of being up there anymore if you can't see down and can't see up…

Have you ever accidently / unintentionall / inadvertently flown into a stall?

If yes, can you post what happened.

31 minutes ago, Blueadventures said:

My read of the post was that at 150 feet above ground level and short final wing dropped and applied some aileron.   I took that as late final (close to threshold) and slow approaching stall then wing drop.  My understanding is don't use aileron; use rudder to pick up wing and at same time get speed by either lower nose or throttle more rpm or both.  The use of aileron will add to stall of one wing; won't end well if stalling is in progress.

Mike:

That is all true, but you have to recognize it as a stall first. And as I mentioned, the circumstances and indications were quite different to any stall I've experienced in training or reviews.

My understanding also is, don't use aileron in a stall, But you have to first recognize that it's a stall.

18 minutes ago, danny_galaga said:

... And of course to replace any crappy Italian electronics 😄

 

I hear you!

I have an Italian GPS and it's not very good. It hangs the heading indication occasionally. I have had numerous contacts with their support people. Nice people, but not effective troubleshooters.

On 3/7/2023 at 10:48 AM, facthunter said:

You are only Isolating a battery. Why does it matter which terminal is OPEN? Nev

Rotax reccomend a capacitor between the output of the regulator and ground. An isolator on the positive terminal of the battery shouldn't be placed between these two or it negates the benefit of the capacitor.

The capacitor provides a small load to the regulator to stop it from overvoltage damage if the connection between the regulator and the rest of the system is lost, most likely from the isolator switch being turned off, or a master relay failure, while the engine is running.

As a further point, when I was analyzing what happened I came to realize that you have very limited time to figure out what to do in the situation I was in. That is, entering a stall close to the ground.

In my case I've done lots of GoArounds as I stuff up landings pretty regularly. So a Go Around is something that I'm familiar and comfortable with. In the case I described, I initiated the Go Around almost instictively, even without knowing what was wrong.

It turned out that doing a Go Around happened to provide the solution to the problem, but I didn't know that at the time.

Contrast that with the recent death of the 16 year old who crashed on base/final and who may have tried to correct the wing drop with ailerons (as I started to do), rather than push the nose down and add power, as I did eventually.

I guess the point of this post is just to reinforce the fact that an accidental stall may not present itself with the same indications as an intentional stall. If you haven't accidently entered a stall (yet), be warned and be ready. But the positive is that the actions they teach to correct the stall do work.

7 hours ago, facthunter said:

The way stalls are shown you is near worthless, because that is not the way a stall will likely "present" to you in practice..  Nev

Nev:

That is consistent with my experience and my opinion based on that experience.

I see a lot of posts explaining how to handle stalls. But that isn't what I was discussing. I was talking about the standard method (that I've experienced) of Teaching stalls to students.

In all my lessons, and BFRs, stalls have been induced as I described. But that is not how I experienced flying into a stall.

In addition, when I'm inducing a stall with an instructor on board, by the time the aircraft stalls, I have the nose pointing at the heavens and the yoke back into my chest. Again, that is NOT how the stall I encountered happened. I was on a short final and the attitude was fairly close to normal for the approach and the yoke was somewhere near midpoint, with the trim set for best glide etc. In fact it all felt normal, whereas inducing a stall feels totally ABnormal to me when I do them with an instructor.

I had a situation some time ago and it got me thinking about how we teach stalls.

I was on a short final on a fairly gusty day. The gusts were varying 10-12 Kts above / below the stated wind speed. When I was about 150' AGL, the plane started an uncommanded left bank. I started to correct in the usual manner with a slight pressure on the ailerons, but the plane didn't respond as I expected it to. Thinking I was caught up in a Willy-Willy or rotor, I decided to go around. From my training, I pushed the nose over sharply, gave it full throttle and began bringing the flaps in. I've done plenty of go arounds, so they hold no mystery or fear for me.

I took me a while to figure out that I had let my airspeed bleed off and flying out of a gust, had put me into a stall. It wasn't anything like how I encountered stalls in my training / BFRs.

In training and review sessions, we're always taught to pull the power back, keep the altitude level by steadily pulling back on the elevators and then, just as the plane starts to buffet, snap that last little bit of elevator to make the nose snap over as we enter the stall.

 

But that's NOT how it happens in real life. The stall can be insidious and you might not recognize it as a stall at first. I'm certain that this has happened to too many pilots who didn't survive to learn the real lesson. 
 

I believe that including that snap over at the point of stall gives pilots the wrong impression of how stalls feel.

 

What say you all?

Just had a look at the doc you posted the link to.

It says that when the engine is running over 1800 RPM, the readout shows RPM. It shows the time in Hrs minutes and seconds when less than 1800 RPM.

What does the display look like when the unit is powered but the engine isn't running? 
From the picture, it looked like the display only has 4 digits. I don't see how that can display H, M, S unless it scrolls somehow.

Also there has been an issue with Avia Sport tachos on Rotax engines. There is a thread about it on these forums.

I had an issue with erratic readings which I solved with a resistor between the signal and ground pins at the gauge connections.

This is how Capitalism works.

Competition helps keep prices down and organizations “lean and mean”. That's the story every time something is to be privatized.

So the purchase of OzRunways by Boeing is the opposite of competition. And that is how Capitalism REALLY works, the march towards monopoly.

Once achieved, monopoly leads to reduced service and higher prices for consumers … every time. That is the point of monopoly.

Edit: I'm surprised the ACCC approved this.

They are just copper crush washers. You can get them at most auto parts stores or a hydraulic hose supplier. The easiest way is to take the old one with you to the store when you next change the oil.

6 hours ago, BrendAn said:

has to be true. its on the net.

George Washington said “Never believe anything you see on the internet”. It's true, I saw it on You Tube.

Marty:

If you're plumbing up a Rotax engine, consider this: Oil hoses on Rotax engines carry NO pressure.

The hose that goes from the tank to the oil pump is a suction line. All it has to do is not collapse from the low suction and high temps.
The hose that returns oil to the tank from the sump, does so at atmospheric pressure because the tank isn't a pressure vessel. All that hose has to do is not melt from the oil temps which are usually 100-150 degC or less.

IMHO, that is one of the most clever aspects of the Rotax engines, there is no high pressure oil outside of the engine.

Bert Floods will sell you oil hose (and that is what I use) but at a PRICE.

 

If on the other hand, you're plumbing up a Jabiru engine, ignore all of the above!

 

It's not just flying instructors. In every field, people are retiring and businesses are struggling to fill the expertise shortages. Some of the junior staff are ready to move up, but a lot aren't. And the businesses cannot fill the lower positions as people move up.
Blame us Boomers … again *sigh*

My very first Go Around

 

The day after I soloed on the trike, my instructor and I flew our respective trikes to a nearby airfield. Him is his, me in mine. At the destination, the wind was directly across the strip at about 15 Kt. There is a line of trees about 20 mtrs to the left of the runway, upwind of the strip. My instructor landed first.

 

When I got down to the level of the tree tops, the crosswind (that I had unconsciously corrected for) dropped out and the trike made a huge lunge for the trees. It scared the crap out of me. I corrected the heading and put the pedal to the metal and went around. On the second attempt, I had the bar pulled in so hard the trike was doing about 65kt when I passed the treetops ... but it came down straight. Once I was passed the treetops and realised that I was out of the crosswind, I let it come into trim and backed off to idle and let it settle.

 

My knees were knocking when I deplaned. But I was pleased because my instructor saw my runway departure on the first attempt and said to himself "Get a hold of it" and before he'd completed the thought, I'd already started my Go Around.

He'd taught me well. He emphasized that if I wasn't happy with the approach, to go around and try again. It saved my bacon then and a couple of times since.

IMHO it's more important and beneficial to practice go arounds than forced landings.

5 hours ago, RossK said:

That was exactly my experience.

Ended up high on approach and tried to force it down, realised I wasn't happy with it, so went around.  Bonus circuit for me 😁.

Instructor was happy when I got back as he could see I was too high and was glad I went around.

 

 

LOL, I've tried many times to force an aircraft down when I'm too high on final and guess what? Pushing the nose over makes it fly faster and even less inclined to descend. It's really counterintuitive, but it's true.

13 hours ago, RossK said:

 

Don't be afraid to do a go around if you're not happy with your approach

That is the best advice anyone can give you. 
Your instructor will know when you're ready to solo. He/she will set it up so that you should be ready and comfortable. They'll probably go up with you for a couple of circuitsand then get you to taxi off the runway so they can get out. They'll probably have a handheld radio so they can listen to you and talk to you if there's a problem.

You will know what the conditions are because you will already have done a few circuits.

As RossK said, the plane will LEAP into the air without the dead weight beside you, and it will want to float on your approach. Be prepared for that and as we said, if you're not completely happy with how the approach is going, go around. But don't worry about it. Your instructor isn't going to “Fail” you for a missed approach. In fact they'll probably compliment you on your good decision making. Also, don't get stressed if you miss a landing or two. If you're still flying, you're still in control of the airplane, so you still have choices.

It all sounds dramatic and for the very first time it is, a bit dramatic … but oh so much FUN!!!

Wow! The camera mount I made is still there.

Thanks for the update Mike.