The other night I was watching a TV show about a man who rebuilt the Wright Flyer. I saw it on TLC on Sunday night. The pilot of a Citabria (full-scale) was demonstrating stalls. He then progressed to perform a spin. They showed a view from above, and as it fell I was truely scared for the plane and pilot! I could almost see the air missing the wing making no lift. He was more falling than flying downwards. I've tryed to enter one on Realflight by basically entering the stall with one wing high; but it's not doing it for me. How do I enter it correctly and get such a sickening fall? Thanks.

Fly straight and level, bring throttle to idle, as the plane slows feed in up elevator to maintain altitutde. As you slow down the plane's nose will point further and further up. At some point the plane will stall and the nose will drop. At that instant apply full rudder. That should be enough to induce a spin. If it doesn't spin, then help it along by applying full ailerons in the same direction.

There are variations on the theme.... but that should do it to begin with.

If your plane's CG is too far forward the plane will not stall it will just slow down and mush along, perhaps entering a gentle dive.

If the CG is too far back you may find the plane won't come out of the spin on its own. If your model is conservatively balanced that is not likely to occur. Search a bit and you'll find plenty of info on how to recover... if recovery is possible.

Hey crash:

The above technique will get you into the spin but you have to hold pro-spin control imputs all the time or the airplane will happily fly out of it all by itself. In some airplanes holding a little power also helps and this also serves to flatten the spin. The first couple of turns when you are entering a spin are called a "post stall gyration", it takes a few turns to get establized in the real spin. I have tried spins in G2 with poor sucess. The truth is that the aerodynamics of a real spin are very complicated to simulate and G2 may not have an accurate a spin model.

In a fully developed spin, the airplane is in an autorotation with one wing fully stalled and the other one partially or not at all. I do not have an RC airplane that will spin but have done many more than I can remember (including inverted spins) in various full size planes. Most airplanes will fly out of a spin by themselves then pro-spin controls are removed. The spin recovery used to be a requirement for a private pilot certificate. Like most aerobatic maneuvers, they are a lot of fun.

cirrus

I gave it a try in Real Flight.

I used the AT-6 with the CG set at -0.6 (the default position is -0.3).

Fly level, reduce throttle to idle, and feed in up elevator. As plane slows feed in some rudder (I used left) when you think it is about to stall give it a blip of full *opposite* aileron. (That's one of the variations on the theme). I could get the plane to drop and spin sharply. The opposite aileron takes an already bad situation and makes it worse by dropping the aileron on the inside wing, which effectively raises the AoA of that wing. The wing stalls and voila, the plane drops and spins.

A "blip" of aileron is all that is needed. When you center the ailerons the plane continues spinning.

You can give full aileron in the direction of the spin too, and hold it. Actually that is the normal command input that we read about to spin models - but it is "forcing" the plane into the spin. If you have to hold aileron input in the direction of the spin to keep the plane in the spin, then the plane was never really spinning to begin with IMO.

In real world C-152 and C-172 we enter a spin by lower engine to idle, full up elevator until wing stalls then full rudder in either direction, hold in that attitude until ready to recover. Recover by brisk rudder motion on the opposite direction then push on elevator to break stall then slowly pull to level.
Models behave practically the same way unless control throws dont allow it.

Another way in the Cessna's - is to simply not pay attention to airspeed .
Bad joke --
On models - specifically :well designed, properly balanced - decent wing loading -etc.,
spin entry can be a problem .
The really good ones have exceptionally wide , stable speed envelopes and can be easily put into a "sink" rather than a spin .
Tho the model is stalled - it simply settles smoothly with application of a little more power.
So --- spin entry, may require you to setup a "break" , by holding a even , level approach with the nose elevated, power on a setting which delivers high angle of attack but no altitude changes.
Then - when positioned, reduce power and add more elevator and rudder .
The proper combo --will setup a combination of the nose and a wing dropping as the model yaws.
At this point -- feed in ailerons as needed to provide the type of spin desired.
Watch and learn .
The model can be controlled to deliver a rather flat spin - slower rotation --or a more nose down spin -- faster rotation.
both will be acceptable as tru spins by the judges - (in contests).
The recovery from the steeper faster spin -will be quicker than the slower flatter spin.
In most cases - simply "letting go " will make a nice recovery.
BUT-- not always.
The "why" in this has to do with the way the model is spinning .
a flatter spin has the model at a lower airspeed --but at higher rotating energy setup.
Here is where the old "ice skater" parallel takes place .
The skater pulls his arms in and the rotation speeds up - OR- extends his arms and the rotation slows.
In this case the arms ain't the wings - rather, the arms are the nose and the tail.
In order to get back to normal or forward controlled flight (the model is still under control in the spin, just not in forward controlled flight)--the energy has to be greater in "nose first" direction--than in the "nose chasing the tail " energy setup.
If you don't believe this --try it .
Recovery on some designs from the flatter spin may simply be impossible --but for an aerobat -with large controls - lots of throws and huge power on tap - there is a combo which will work - just experiment till you find the one which looks good to you.
In a worst case scenario--- here is what can happen----
let's take the case of a guy who builds a scale early model Ercoupe --
he also keeps the power available " scale" ,that is , marginal.
Now , he dives and climbs over and over -trying to find a combo which makes this "spinproff " model, spin.
Finally he whips it up and holds full aileron/rudder and Up and "presto" -we get a nice spin.
Next problem --
Spin exit .
The model is in a rotation but control authority is not good-to put it mildly --coupled rudder /aileron
power simply increases the spin.
what's next?
(tune in tomorrow for the article on rebuilding Ercoupes.)

HI THERE SEENMCRASH! If you can get enough tork out of the rudder, that is the key ingredient to great spins. A scale type model might not have a large enough rudder to do the job, take a look at 3D planes to get an idea of proportion. A rearward CG is important also. Setting your ailerons up as FLAPERONS, coupled out of phase with the elevator will help keep the nose up. If you have enough power, and if your model is light enough, climbing flat spins are possible[X(]!

The different set-up of RC planes vs. full scale makes spins, for most models, harder than in full scale. Since we can not feel the buffet of the approach to a stall, we normally set up RC models where full up elevator will not result in a high speed stall. This limited amount of elevator authority is what makes spins harder than in full scale. Every full scale plane I flew had plenty of elevator to high speed stall, making spins easy.

Generally, spins are prohibited in many military jet aircraft as they have large, heavy fuselages and small wings and tails. This usually results in an uncontrolled, post-stall gyration or an unstable spin where the nose can vary from way above to way below the horizon. I did teach spins in the Cessna T-37 and instructors were required to fly both upright and inverted spins on their instructor check rides. An interesting point about the inverted spin was that you were allowed to either enter an upright spin and flip to inverted or enter from an inverted stall. I always flipped inverted. Man, that was a long time ago. 1965-69.

Yes indeedy!
The Ercoupe tho -was a spinproof craft --till some dumb, soon to be deceased, "flyer " ,decided he could spin anything that flew -

at least once ----

Well I have kept trying to spin the CAP 232 in my G2 lite, still without sucess. The closest I came was to add rudder in the direction of a wing drop during a stall. That one looked like a real spin for a while. Pro spin ailerons are just producing a tight spiral and as soon as I take the ailerons out the motion stops. Cross controlling has also not produced any good results, which is what I expected. Also, I can only get 1/2 a inside snap roll out of it. As soon as it goes inverted, It comes out of the stall and stops the roll. Maybe my CG is too far forward. There does not seem to be enough elevator authority to start an outside snap.

I guess there are basically 3 posibilities

1. My CG is too far forward
2. The flight model of G2 lite do not support these maneuvers.
3. I do not know what I'm doing.

Seeing that I am a full size pilot but with extremely limited RC experience, I think #3 is the most likely posibility. From what I have tried, it is definitely easier to spin the full size article.

cirrus

Hey Fellows,

I've taught full scale aerobatics in my younger years, and have been flying RC since it came into being. Cappio777 has given you the correct procedure. It works in full scale as well in RC airplanes. BTW, you don't need to use ailerons in spins!

feihu