kriegsmacht

My Feedback: (12)

I was watching a show about the Voyager which of course flew around the world non-stop. They mentioned that in a storm over the Atlantic, they were forced into a 90 degree + roll. The plane was supposedly designed for no more than something like 15 degree rolls. The actual pilot said that it took nearly 5 minutes to regain level flight again.

Was this an exaggeration as in "it seemed forever" or did it actually take a few minutes to finess back to normal flight? If it did, why was it so hard to do? Techincal details please! The narrator also said that the plane should break up because of that kind of roll, it wasn't designed for it. Why? They mentioned the main spar was found to be cracked during inspection after the flight, so I guess they did push it.

So why was the roll rate so impossibly slow?

Wayne22

My Feedback: (2)

I'd guess that is a right-side-up only airplane and that it's mission profile was designed to avoid any extreme manoevering. It was designed for very long range flights, and if you set it up on the proper course at the beginning of the flight, then it should need nothing more than very mild course corrections enroute. If you have to bank 90 degrees, then you were heading the wrong way, and wasting fuel (and range)..

Aerohead

My Feedback: (37)

I saw the same program. My guess would be, since the aircraft was so heavily laden with fuel to make the trip, and he said that it was terribly sensitive at that weight, that it was designed so that it had a very slow roll rate so that possible overcontrol did not cause either a structural failure or have the craft go into an unrecoverable spin. But a 90 degree bank is a severe one in a lot of aircraft. One can only imagine how that severe a banking angle in such an ungainly aircraft as the Votager would effect it. They were indeed very lucky to have come out alive.

Taildragger726

" I know that anything over about 45-50 degrees in a Cessna 172 can result in a spin "
Oh please,,,,,,[:'(]

Aerohead

My Feedback: (37)

I said CAN, expert. So who are you, Patty freaking Wagstaff?

Taildragger726

P Wag actually flies a better rolling circle than me.

Aerohead

My Feedback: (37)

Never mind. Now I know what you were really fishing for.

LearjetMech

LOL!!!!! You could roll a 172 360 degrees and not enter a spin if you had enough airspeed and held 1g and were crazy!! I think you have to do a 60 deg roll for flight training. not 100% but I know I have in a 172 before.

Aerohead

My Feedback: (37)

When I got my private pilot's license in 1993 a 45 degree bank was considered a steep turn, and my instructor often warned me about doing turns banked more than 45-50 degrees. When I did try it (alone) I was careful to keep my airspeed up. Regardless, it's easy to see what you guys do best is argue. So have at it, boys. Real friendly bunch of guys here.

LearjetMech

I did notice you edited out that statement!!

Taildragger726

Yeah,,That was too easy.

A4HawkPilot

My Feedback: (3)

Lest we forget two things need to happen together for a spin to occur. It needs to be stalled, and it needs to be uncoordinated.
Steep turns in the private PTS are 45 degrees but for commercial training the bank increases to 50 degrees.
Your instructor must have been referring to the increased load factor causing an increase in stall speed during a steep turn. If one were to not watch airspeed then yes you can go into whats called an accelerated stall which should have been demonstrated to you as part of your spin awareness/avoidance training. If during that stall you were uncoordinated, then yes a spin would occur. It would only be a half turn at best. Unless you have a very aft CG then you have to WORK to keep these light cessna singles in a spin. Once you release the controls it just turns into a steep spiral. But what do I know, I'm just a CFI. [8D]

acropilot_ty

Give the guy a break... the blame for his misunderstandings rests fully with his instructor. This is a good example of why spin training should never have been replaced with "spin avoidance".

Ty Frisby

Aerobatic CFI
Sunrise Aviation
www.sunriseaviation.com

Taildragger726

Great point Ty.My apologies to Aerohead.

acropilot_ty

Now Aerohead, just because I jumped to your defense doesn't mean that I don't see the same misconceptions that the others did. You really should get some spin training. Mostly so that you won't be afraid of banking steeply if needed. The only spin that will kill you is one close to the ground. The most common sittuation is when a pilot that is turning to base or final sees that they are overshooting and trys to "speed up" a turn with rudder rather then increasing the bank angle. The result is a skid that pushes the nose down, the pilot pulls the nose back up and bam!! you've got a skidding stall/spin at low altitude. I'd be hard pressed to recover from one of these at low altitude and I do spins every day. The goal with spin training is not to be able to recover from an inadvertant spin, but to prevent one by truly understanding that as long as the airplane is coordinated it can not spin... and that steep bank angles do not result in spins.

The International Aerobatic Club has a list of aerobatic schools on their website http://www.iac.org/begin/schools.html You might want to look one up and book some time. Greg Koontz is in Alabama www.gkairshows.com

Ty