I remember a similar round of debate about the Piper Tomahawk (PA38) when it was first on the market in the late 70s.
This little baby spun unlike the other small training types on the market at the time. Some declared this was dangerous etc etc. Piper marketing said that they had built this into the aircraft to make it an effective trainer, implying that other types could not fully prepare student pilots. Opinions do and will continue to vary, in my opinion depending on how spin adverse the commentators are, but I do not like to see a great aircraft, in this case the Puch get a poor reputation because some people do not appreciate or understand its qualities. SDF -----Original Message----- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of John Giddy Sent: Friday, 10 December 2004 10:33 AM To: Discussion of issues relating to Soaring in Australia. Subject: Re: [Aus-soaring] Spinning and type certification On Fri, 10 Dec 2004 09:53:51 +1030, you wrote: > Just remind me. > > Are glider types supposed to be spin recoverable (i.e. using standard spin > recovery techniques) before being certified for flight in Australia? Who > does the flight testing? > > People have oft quoted the JAR's that cover this (isn't it limited to a > certain number of complete rotations in spin?). > > If the Puchacz is such a worry, why isn't it retested in spin by a competent > test pilot to try and put the issue of its danger to bed? (For that case, > why aren't all the other twin seater training aircraft in Australia > (obviously apart from the expense of it all)). > > Also, as the number of rotations in a spin increases, the rotational kinetic > energy will build up and the spin will flatten, i.e. recovery may take a > couple of rotations to be acheived so long as correct spin recovery is used. > Aeronautical engineering types please comment. Once the spin has stabilised, i.e. spin rate constant, there will be no further increase in kinetic energy. How many turns are needed to reach this condition will probably be dependant on many variables. Whether the spin will gradually flatten after numerous rotations, I don't know, but suspect it will also depend on many variables, including actual C of G position and the aerodynamics of the particular aircraft. Cheers, John G. _______________________________________________ Aus-soaring mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] To check or change subscription details, visit: http://lists.internode.on.net/mailman/listinfo/aus-soaring _______________________________________________ Aus-soaring mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] To check or change subscription details, visit: http://lists.internode.on.net/mailman/listinfo/aus-soaring
