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Hand Grenade

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malannx(at)bigpond.com
Guest

Posted: Mon Sep 01, 2008 5:03 am Post subject: Hand Grenade

The list is quiet so here's my 5 cents worth(we don't have 2 cents coins 

anymore)



I have been avidly following Buzz's articles in the newsletters on how to

handle emergencies, and it is fantastic stuff. I also subscribe to the

lancair list(not on the matronics lists) and the lancairs have an

atrocious accident and fatality rate.



Three things stand out to me:



   1. Flying into bad weather and thunderstorms is advance planning for your 

funeral, and you

would expect lots of your friends to turn up and very eloquent eulogies to 

be given.



    2. Flying into the ground out of control or at speed is almost always

fatal - more eloquent eulogies, and "he was an excellent pilot"



    3. The Esqual/Lightning community has probably been lucky so far 

considering the performance of our planes. Unfortunately not lucky enough. 

Actually luck does not come into it.



    No 1 is very easily fixed. Don't do it,ever. But we have all had a go.



    No 2 and 3 are much harder. Lets try and address no 2 and 3.



Any accident at an altitude is almost never fatal except for the odd

occasion someone dies on a mid air impact. It is almost always impact with

the ground that kills you.

Flying at altitude is inherently safe. If we do something stupid or are

unfortunate to loose a wing etc we are not going to die straight away. So if

the situation is recoverable we have considerable time to formulate a

response. Eg. if we are flying at 7500' and have an engine failure, in my

Esqual at L/D of 13:1, I will have over 500 square miles to pick out a

landing area. At 3500' I only have 58 square miles. Allow 1500' for 

overflying and circuit.

So really an engine failure at altitude should have a satisfactory outcome.



So, I think the danger increases the lower we are(very obvious). At circuit

height or below we are in the red light zone. Engine failures in the circuit 

should have a favorable outcome using Buzz's techniques.



The 2 biggest risks as I see it are an engine failure on takeoff or a 

stall/spin in the circuit.

Spins in the circuit are almost always fatal. Both do not give you time to 

make

considered decisions but require reflex responses instantly, not in 5

seconds. Reflex responses only come by consigning an action from short term

memory to long term memory and that only happens by continually repeating

the exercise until the response becomes automatic. If you want to stop

suddenly in a car you just automatically put your foot on the brake. You

don't have to think how to do it. That's a reflex response.



If you haven't practiced stall/spin recovery and engine failure on take off

enough to have an reflex response, you have some work to do before you could

consider yourself a competent pilot and you owe it to passengers to become

more proficient.

Now this is where the hand grenade comes in. I'm going to lob one into the 

group and shut the door till the dust and commotion has settled. ie leave my 

computer off for a day or two.



Hand grenade :-  Ditch the gentle turns in the circuit and make them well

banked. Gentle turns in the circuit are not as safe as well banked turns.



Most light aircraft will spin much easier off a shallow banked turn, slow 

and over

ruddered. Bullshit you say? Try the following exercise:



At a safe altitude and under 60kts, throttle back to idle and begin a gentle 

turn of 5 degrees and not more than 10 degrees. Now ease back on the stick 

enough so the speed decays about 1 kt/second. About 5-10 kts above stall 

speed begin to feed in rudder gradually into the turn.

Hey presto you will have done the gentlest most graceful spin entry, with 

absolutely no buffet and no warning.

Well actually you have an excellent stall prediction device in every 

airplane and it is between your legs: THE CONTROL STICK.

Now this is the important bit. During that exercise if you did it well, the 

attitude did not change, BUT the stick was progressively moving back to 

maintain the attitude. That is the warning sign and it will predict an 

impending stall/spin well before it happens.



In my earlier years as a gliding instructor all students were taught to have 

alarm bells go in their head if the stick was gradually coming back to 

maintain a given attitude.



Now do the same exercise with 35-45 degrees of bank and come back and tell 

me what you found. In a later email I will tell you another great advantage 

of a well banked turn.



EFATO(engine failure on take off). Read the following website. It has some 

of the best airmanship and safety info I have seen. It's the Recreational 

Aviation Australia website.

http://www.auf.asn.au/safety/efato.html

Mike Valentine was previously the national instructor coach for the Gliding 

Federation. He was responsible for changing operational culture that was 

claiming the odd life after cable breaks on a winch launch, so that they 

became a rare. His work transposed directly over to his work on engine 

failures on take off.



A very long email. I will continue this in a day or 2 if the interest is 

there. But you need to try the exercise before flaming me.



Malcolm Ferguson

(Esqual-one of the early ones with the good airfoil except it lands too 

fast)

selwyn

Joined: 12 Mar 2008
Posts: 102
Location: Australia

Posted: Mon Sep 01, 2008 5:27 pm Post subject: Re: Hand Grenade

Hi Malcolm,



Excellent stuff!  



I remember these in a Blanik, it would just slip in and if you had to think about the response you would be looking at the ground over your toes.  A minor addition to your excellent description may be to specifically mention aiming to maintain the shallow bank angle throughout the exercise.



My question to the experienced Lightning drivers is; has anyone done full spins in a Lightning, how does it behave and are there any particular vices?  Given it is a slippery design, one would have to be careful of speed control on recovery and, for the same reason, be able to differentiate a spiral dive from a spin but otherwise, how does it go?



Cheers,  Selwyn.

_________________
Cheers, Selwyn
Kit 66 VH-ELZ

N1BZRich(at)AOL.COM
Guest

Posted: Tue Sep 02, 2008 6:25 am Post subject: Hand Grenade

Malcolm,

  

 Good analogy about the things that cause accidents.  Avoid the  weather related accidents ( poor judgement and decision making) and flight into  terrain (judgement and decision making) and you will have greatly improved the  accident statistics.  

  

 As to your hand grenade, I have flown the scenario you describe in both  power planes and sailplanes, and you certainly have an excellent point.   The stall / spin can sneak up on you when you are in a shallow bank with the  airspeed slowly bleeding off.  Also, quite often the pre stall buffet is  not as noticeable with the flaps down.  Bottom line, I certainly agree with  your way to fly the pattern with steeper turns.  That shows me that the  pattern you fly is closer to the runway and thus gives you a better chance to  make an "on airport" landing if you do lose an engine.  

  

 One word of caution for the Lightning community - remember the Lightning is  not an aerobatic aircraft, so you need to "prevent" the inadvertent spin  entry.  

  

 With you OK, I will put your message into a future newsletter so that the  points you are making will be available for future newsletter readers that might  not be currently receiving the Lightning email list.

 Blue Skies,

 Buz



It's only a deal if it's where you want to go. Find your travel deal here.

  [quote][b]

N1BZRich(at)AOL.COM
Guest

Posted: Tue Sep 02, 2008 6:51 am Post subject: Hand Grenade

In a message dated 9/1/2008 9:28:28 P.M. Eastern Daylight Time,  selwyn(at)ellisworks.com.au writes:

  	  Quote: 	
		  My    question to the experienced Lightning drivers is; has anyone done full spins    in a Lightning, how does it behave and are there any particular vices?     Given it is a slippery design, one would have to be careful of speed control    on recovery and, for the same reason, be able to differentiate a spiral dive    from a spin but otherwise, how does it go?

	


 

 Hi Selwyn,

     I have not done fully developed spins in the  Lightning or the Esqual (remember these are not aerobatic aircraft).   However, I have done numerous incipient spin entries just to see how quickly  each will recover from the incipient spin condition.  No problems  recovering  - almost instantaneous when you "unload" (reduce angle of  attack) and take out the rudder.  

  

     As to your concern about speed build up in a spiral  dive, I have also done numerous test in both the Lightning and the Esqual.   I was a little concerned about spiral instability due to the high aspect ratio  wing when I first started flying these airplanes.  However, neither  the Lightning or the Esqual have demonstrated the tendency to want to "continue  to get steeper and faster".  In fact, the new longer tips on the Lightning  really improve the situation.  With power at idle, the prototype with the  new extended tips steadies out at about 120 mph in a 60 degree banked turn when  you turn loose of the stick.  It just stays there demonstrating that it is  "pretty darn stable".  Note:  This was the case at all the CG  positions that I tried.  I am sure the winglets help, but the longer wing  Esqual demonstrated no tendencies to get any steeper when I turned it loose as  well.  Speed build up seemed to depend on where I had the bungee system  trimmed for, but it basically wanted to slow down.  

 Buz



It's only a deal if it's where you want to go. Find your travel deal here.

  [quote][b]

dashvii(at)hotmail.com
Guest

Posted: Tue Sep 02, 2008 1:17 pm Post subject: Hand Grenade

Buz C

   Was the incipient spin intentional or was it entered from a high speed stall when doing your G testing?  I know C not much you older and more experienced pilots do that wasn't intentional.    Just wondering if you had one creep up on you.  I've done stalls through about 45 degrees of bank C some pulling pretty quickly into it and never found to be surprised into it.  I just wondered if steeper bank or stronger G you might have one go over with you?  Brian W.

   

 From: N1BZRich(at)aol.com

Date: Tue C 2 Sep 2008 10:51:04 -0400

Subject: Re: Re: Hand Grenade

To: lightning-list(at)matronics.com

   In a message dated 9/1/2008 9:28:28 P.M. Eastern Daylight Time C selwyn(at)ellisworks.com.au writes:

  	  Quote: 	
		  My question to the experienced Lightning drivers is; has anyone done full spins in a Lightning C how does it behave and are there any particular vices?  Given it is a slippery design C one would have to be careful of speed control on recovery and C for the same reason C be able to differentiate a spiral dive from a spin but otherwise C how does it go?

	


 

 Hi Selwyn C

     I have not done fully developed spins in the Lightning or the Esqual (remember these are not aerobatic aircraft).  However C I have done numerous incipient spin entries just to see how quickly each will recover from the incipient spin condition.  No problems recovering  - almost instantaneous when you "unload" (reduce angle of attack) and take out the rudder.  

  

     As to your concern about speed build up in a spiral dive C I have also done numerous test in both the Lightning and the Esqual.  I was a little concerned about spiral instability due to the high aspect ratio wing when I first started flying these airplanes.  However C neither the Lightning or the Esqual have demonstrated the tendency to want to "continue to get steeper and faster".  In fact C the new longer tips on the Lightning really improve the situation.  With power at idle C the prototype with the new extended tips steadies out at about 120 mph in a 60 degree banked turn when you turn loose of the stick.  It just stays there demonstrating that it is "pretty darn stable".  Note:  This was the case at all the CG positions that I tried.  I am sure the winglets help C but the longer wing Esqual demonstrated no tendencies to get any steeper when I turned it loose as well.  Speed build up seemed to depend on where I had the bungee system trimmed for C but it basically wanted to slow down.  

 Buz



   It's only a deal if it's where you want to go. Find your travel deal here.

 	  Quote: 	
		  



st" target=_blank>http://www.matronics.com/Navigator?Lightning-List

ttp://forums.matronics.com

=_blank>http://www.matronics.com/contribution



	
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N1BZRich(at)AOL.COM
Guest

Posted: Tue Sep 02, 2008 3:12 pm Post subject: Hand Grenade

In a message dated 9/2/2008 5:18:21 P.M. Eastern Daylight Time,  dashvii(at)hotmail.com writes:

  	  Quote: 	
		  Buz,

  Was the incipient spin intentional or was it entered    from a high speed stall when doing your G  testing? 	


 

 Brian,

     It was intentional.  Full stall and then  rudder to start the spin entry.  But as soon as the yaw and spin entry  started (incipient) I applied anti spin controls to see if I had an immediate  recovery.  Forward stick and neutral rudder broke the stall and stopped the  yaw after about a quarter of a turn.  All went as I had expected.   Note:  I would have to have been pretty ham handed (and ham footed) and not  paying attention to get one without trying.  Either that or the airplane  would really have to be WAY out of rig.

     The only time I have been surprised in a Lightning  was a "rigging" problem in that one of the flap actuation rods had been  miss-installed which only allowed one side to go about 1/4 way down.  This  was on the demo and I had flown it (and stalled it) many times before.   This flight was to be a "flight report" so I was going to fly a complete  evaluation profile.  I normally do stalls first so that the gross weight  and CG are as high and aft as possible.  With the flaps rigged so that the  left side only went 10 degrees down and the right side was 40 degrees  down you can guess what happened when I did a full flap stall.  I was  immediately upside down wondering "WTF"?  As in any situation where the  airplane does something that you didn't ask it to do - UNLOAD for control -  meaning reduce angle of attack so that you just have that "lite in the seat"  feeling.  It works whether it is a positive or negative angle of  attack.  In this case an aggressive forward stick had me flying again,  although upside down.  The ailerons and rudder were plenty effective for  the roll upright.  Didn't take long to analyze what had happened after  I recovered.  Ten minutes after landing the problem was fixed and I was  back in the air.  

 Blue Skies,

 Buz



It's only a deal if it's where you want to go. Find your travel deal here.

  [quote][b]

selwyn

Joined: 12 Mar 2008
Posts: 102
Location: Australia

Posted: Tue Sep 02, 2008 4:04 pm Post subject: Re: Hand Grenade

Hi Buz,



I wasn't thinking of spiral instability as such.  More the case when practising incipients and the thing falls off then unstalls itself completely.  You then have a nose down low drag config instead of a nose down high drag config and need to be a bit more aware of speed build up.  



However, I don't want to distract people from Malcolms point with a side issue.  His description, together with the information he has linked to, address the root causes of one of the common ways people inadvertently kill themselves in aeroplanes.  Everyone would be doing themselves a favour if they read it and thought about it until they thoroughly understood it.  Even better if they found a way to safely experience and practice the scenario so that they really know not to go there at low level.



Cheers,  Selwyn



[quote="N1BZRich(at)AOL.COM"]In a message dated 9/1/2008 9:28:28 P.M. Eastern Daylight Time,  selwyn(at)ellisworks.com.au writes:

  	  Quote: 	
		  My    question to the experienced Lightning drivers is; has anyone done full spins    in a Lightning, how does it behave and are there any particular vices?ï¿½    Given it is a slippery design, one would have to be careful of speed control    on recovery and, for the same reason, be able to differentiate a spiral dive    from a spin but otherwise, how does it go?

	


 

 Hi Selwyn,

     I have not done fully developed spins in the  Lightning or the Esqual (remember these are not aerobatic aircraft).   However, I have done numerous incipient spin entries just to see how quickly  each will recover from the incipient spin condition.  No problems  recovering  - almost instantaneous when you "unload" (reduce angle of  attack) and take out the rudder.  

  

     As to your concern about speed build up in a spiral  dive, I have also done numerous test in both the Lightning and the Esqual.ï¿½  I was a little concerned about spiral instability due to the high aspect ratio  wing when I first started flying these airplanes.  However, neither  the Lightning or the Esqual have demonstrated the tendency to want to "continue  to get steeper and faster".  In fact, the new longer tips on the Lightning  really improve the situation.  With power at idle, the prototype with the  new extended tips steadies out at about 120 mph in a 60 degree banked turn when  you turn loose of the stick.  It just stays there demonstrating that it is  "pretty darn stable".  Note:  This was the case at all the CG  positions that I tried.  I am sure the winglets help, but the longer wing  Esqual demonstrated no tendencies to get any steeper when I turned it loose as  well.  Speed build up seemed to depend on where I had the bungee system  trimmed for, but it basically wanted to slow down.  

 Buz



It's only a deal if it's where you want to go. Find your travel deal here.

   	  Quote: 	
		  [b]

_________________
Cheers, Selwyn
Kit 66 VH-ELZ

pequeajim

Joined: 03 Sep 2006
Posts: 708
Location: New Holland, PA

Posted: Tue Sep 02, 2008 7:18 pm Post subject: Hand Grenade

Buz, I always love hearing about your experiences….  

   

Nice explaination…  

       

From: owner-lightning-list-server(at)matronics.com [mailto:owner-lightning-list-server(at)matronics.com] On Behalf Of N1BZRich(at)aol.com

 Sent: Tuesday, September 02, 2008 7:12 PM

 To: lightning-list(at)matronics.com

 Subject: Re: Re: Hand Grenade  

  

  

       

In a message dated 9/2/2008 5:18:21 P.M. Eastern Daylight Time, dashvii(at)hotmail.com writes:  

   	  Quote: 	
		    

Buz,

   Was the incipient spin intentional or was it entered from a high speed stall when doing your G testing?   	
  

    

Brian,  

    

    It was intentional.  Full stall and then rudder to start the spin entry.  But as soon as the yaw and spin entry started (incipient) I applied anti spin controls to see if I had an immediate recovery.  Forward stick and neutral rudder broke the stall and stopped the yaw after about a quarter of a turn.  All went as I had expected.  Note:  I would have to have been pretty ham handed (and ham footed) and not paying attention to get one without trying.  Either that or the airplane would really have to be WAY out of rig.  

    

    The only time I have been surprised in a Lightning was a "rigging" problem in that one of the flap actuation rods had been miss-installed which only allowed one side to go about 1/4 way down.  This was on the demo and I had flown it (and stalled it) many times before.  This flight was to be a "flight report" so I was going to fly a complete evaluation profile.  I normally do stalls first so that the gross weight and CG are as high and aft as possible.  With the flaps rigged so that the left side only went 10 degrees down and the right side was 40 degrees down you can guess what happened when I did a full flap stall.  I was immediately upside down wondering "WTF"?  As in any situation where the airplane does something that you didn't ask it to do - UNLOAD for control - meaning reduce angle of attack so that you just have that "lite in the seat" feeling.  It works whether it is a positive or negative angle of attack.  In this case an aggressive forward stick had me flying again, although upside down.  The ailerons and rudder were plenty effective for the roll upright.  Didn't take long to analyze what had happened after I recovered.  Ten minutes after landing the problem was fixed and I was back in the air.    

    

Blue Skies,  

    

Buz  

  



 

         

  

It's only a deal if it's where you want to go. Find your travel deal here.  

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N1BZRich(at)aol.com
Guest

Posted: Tue Sep 02, 2008 8:23 pm Post subject: Hand Grenade

In a message dated 9/2/2008 11:18:33 P.M. Eastern Daylight Time,  pequeajim(at)gmail.com writes:

  	  Quote: 	
		     

Buz,    I always love hearing about your  experiencesâ€¦. 	


 

 Thanks, Jim, and in a way I guess that is one of the things  that is good about this list and our newsletter.  They allow all of us  to learn from the experiences (and / or mistakes) of others.  And that is a  good thing because we will never have enough time to learn all there is if we  are just learning from our own mistakes or experiences.  So spread the  word, "you all" - send in your flying and building experiences to me so I can  include in the newsletter.  Share the wealth of info that you have  accumulated.  

  

 The preceding was a "crass commercial announcement" for the Lightning  Newsletter.  

 Buz



It's only a deal if it's where you want to go. Find your travel deal here.

  [quote][b]

N1BZRich(at)AOL.COM
Guest

Posted: Tue Sep 02, 2008 8:26 pm Post subject: Hand Grenade

In a message dated 9/2/2008 8:07:43 P.M. Eastern Daylight Time,  selwyn(at)ellisworks.com.au writes:

  	  Quote: 	
		  Everyone    would be doing themselves a favour if they read it and thought about it until    they thoroughly understood it.  Even better if they found a way to safely    experience and practice the scenario so that they really know not to go there    at low level.

	


 

 Shack, lead.  And that translated means "you hit the target dead  center".

 Buz



It's only a deal if it's where you want to go. Find your travel deal here.

  [quote][b]

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