Flying in Squamish

It's always good to bring a smile to a person's face

Apprenez de vol avec Nico

Looking down the valley that leads to Indian Arm from Squamish

Flying is stalled then unstalled as the weather changes.
Monday 13th was a brilliant day to go flying... I didn't!
Tuesday - blah!

On Wednesday I got in the car and drove the 103 kilometres to Squamish Airport to fly with people in the Super Decathlon there.
My first student was Rory who recently lost his best friend in a skiing accident. She was a very well known advocate for her form of skiing.
Then I flew with his close friend Trennon and both flights were very similar and of 0.8 hours engine start to engine stop. Aerobatic training is intensive even for the most basic manoeuvres.

The briefing was for basic airwork, spinning, and then into looping, aileron rolls, inverted flight, aileron rolls pushing a little while inverted and recovering level, then the slow roll, and finished with the stall turn.
There's no way one can teach all of these manoeuvres in one flight, but a briefing like this outlines the basic course.

So we took off, did some steep turns at 45 degrees, then at 60 degrees of bank, did four spins, both directions, and then worked on doing some loops. Aileron rolls followed, as well as stabilised inverted and then aileron rolls holding the nose up when we were inverted and then recovering level.
We covered a lot in a short time... Very intensive.
But the briefing had its effect.

One of the guys had an aerobatic flight in a Kiwi Pitts and had a fantastic ride... I'm not so interested in doing this, I take the students from basic flying and teach them how to fly each manoeuvre and to fly each manoeuvre well. Aerobatics taught in a structured way and this is intense enough for the student and the effect is better as they do it themselves rather than simply admiring another pilot for what he can do!

The effect of the François is very evident at Glacier Air where the instructors want perfection in their own flying... Few people attain such perfection however and then since we are human beings subject to emotions, diet, and biorhythmns we all have good days and bad days. Perfection isn't possible but a severe reduction of error is.
So up we go Nico and I to do some general flying and some spins; we did several spins!
I apply the rudder in advance of the elevator in order to initiate the spin. Starting the yaw in this way just prior to a dynamic stall entry causes the aeroplane to break into the spin cleanly.
I note that applying the elevator first and then the rudder often tends to start the aeroplane into a spiral followed by a flick into a spin as the airspeed rises to the point where the rudder and elevator have enough effect to do this.
Autorotation is all about yaw, and the initiation of yaw is what will create the spin.

I once witnessed an examiner berate an instructor because he applied full opposite rudder before moving the stick forward to recover from the spin. This was contrary to standard recovery technique and to the flight manual for that particular aircraft.
I took issue with the examiner over this and sorted it out.
Safety is everyone's business and you should not be afraid to talk to someone who might be in a superior position to yourself if you feel something is dangerous.

And so I demonstrated the reverse recovery technique to Nico.
With the aeroplane established in the spin I held full rudder and moved the stick forward. The rate of rotation increased.

If you consider that the lift of an aerofoil increases geometrically with angle of attack to the angle at which the stall occurs, ie each increase in angle results in a progressively greater increase of lift until the stall beyond which it drops off in another geometric curve.
Then if a wing is beyond the stall angle and this angle is reduced to the angle of maximum lift the rate of increase of lift is also progressively greater.
In a spin one wing is more stalled than the other.
As we lower the nose the difference in the lift between the wings increases as the less stalled wing gains and increase in lift more quickly than the more stalled wing.
This effect is true for all 'true' spins as during the recovery the aeroplane's rotation momentarily increases prior to its stopping as both wings reach the same angle off attack as yaw is stopped.

I believe this was the problem with the true spinning Piper Tomahawk where when correct recovery from a spin results in an increase of rotational speed rather than a reduction, and then it stops... But we must be patient and hold those anti spin control inputs... Don't panic!
When the Tomahawk came out many instructors had only experienced 'spinning' in Cessna 150/152/172 aircraft which were designed to not spin. When within Utility category limits these aircraft fall into a spiral after half to one turn of a spin unless power is applied, and power should not be applied in accordance with their Pilot Operating Handbooks.

The Cessna 172 when loaded with weight on the back seat and in the baggage bay is a true spinning aeroplane, and if you are concerned about this get some training in a true spinning aeroplane certified for the purpose.

I ended my day with some circuits with Colette as the dusk gathered.
I drove in the dark, back down the Sea to Sky highway... Signposting is not so good here as it is in England and Thailand... I thought I should take Taylor Way but there was no clear indication that this would take me to the Lions Gate Bridge... I didn't see it and so I carried on, thought from my mind's eye looking down from when I've flown I should take Capilano, but carried on to the next one instead (Lonsdale?) and doubled back to the Lions Gate.
I wonder how visitors to Vancouver get on here because in the dark and the wet amongst the trucks and SUVs it's not so easy to know where to turn.