ORIGINAL: Jon.
I have a trainer plane that i fly. I have been trying to do flat spins with it and it doesn't seem to want to spin.
The way I try do flat spins is i go up about 1000ft or so and than i stall my plane, throttle down to an idle and when it whips down I give it full right aliron. Am i doing somthing rong or would it be the plane?
Thanks
Jon.
First you need to know how to enter a normal spin properly.
Throttle down to a safe idle. As speed decreases, gradually feed in up elevator in order to maintain altitude. As the speed bleeds off, the nose of the aircraft will tend to rise. As the aircraft is about to stall apply and maintain full rudder (left or right) and full up elevator. The aircraft should now start spinning. If it doesn't the problem is usually one (or more) of the following:
- C.G. is too far forward
- Elevator throw is to small
- Rudder throw is to small
Many people help the aircraft enter the spin by applying a little aileron in the direction of the spin, but usually this is not necessary.
In order to exit the spin, do the following:
- Close throttle to idle (if the engine is not already at idle)
- Let go of the elevator stick
- Apply rudder opposite the direction of spin rotation in order to break the rotation
- As the model stops rotating, let go of the rudder and gradually apply up elevator to recover to level flight
That said, with a trainer it is usually enough to just let go of the sticks.
A flat spin differs from a normal spin in that the aicraft is spinning with wings almost level and with the nose of the aircraft close to the horizon. In order to get there start off with a normal spin to the LEFT. When the aircraft is spinning feed in right aileron in order to reduce the bank angle and increase the throttle to 1/4 to 1/3 in order to raise the nose of the aircraft. If you got it right you will see that the bank angle decreases significantly and the nose raises towards the horizon while the rate of rotation usually increses a lot. Sink speed will decrease.
In order to exit the flat spin do the following:
-Close the throttle to idle
-Let go of the aileron
-Maintain full upp elevator and full left rudder
-Wait for the flat spin to revert into a normal spin (this is the hairy part it may take anything from one to several turns)
-When the aircraft is spinning normally (high bank angle and nose very low) apply the normal spin recovery technique as described above.
BTW, the reason for performing the flat spin to the left is that the gyroscopic precession of the propeller will cause a nose up pitching moment.
Good luck!
/Red B.
P.S. Don't despair if you can't get your trainer to flat spin. After all, trainers are designed not to do that! D.S.