Lee wrote: >>>>>>>>>>>>>>> I flew today with a fellow coupe owner who did some power off and power on stalls. the power off stall was totally uneventful. However, when he did a power on stall, the plane pitched to the left and I think would have gone into a spin had he not corrected it.
Told him I didn't think that was right, but some of you know better than me. Please give me some input so i can advise him. <<<<<<<<<<<<<<< Lee, Queston 1: were you within gross weight and CG limits? Did you check it carefully? Question 2: was it a 2-control or 3-control Coupe? My observations: In a power off stall, my Coupe burbled straight ahead very politely. In a nearly-full-power stall with 9° elevator up travel, about 1320 lb gross weight, the controls fully crossed aileron to the right and rudder full left, my Coupe buffeted pretty strongly and dropped its left wing and circled in a burbling left turn, staying about level. It was a roller-coaster ride and I didnt enjoy it. So, I didnt do the absolutely full power cross-controlled stall. If you were over gross with CG aft of the specification, you were in test pilot range. With the 13° elevator up travel, the effects of the stall approach are exaggerated. You cant spin without stalling the wings. The Coupe is designed to initiate a wing stall at the wing root. The outer 2/3rds of the wing should still be flying cleanly at all times giving you aileron control. The turbulent airflow resulting from the wing root stall disturbs the airflow over the empennage helping limit the down-push of the elevator. The high power slipstream increases airflow over the empennage increasing the down-push of the elevator. (The split elevator lets the slipstream go through the cut-out, mostly removing this last effect.) All in all, a correctly rigged Coupe, flown within limits should always be controllable. The design and the FAAs rigorous testing allows for some fudge factor to ensure this. JMHO and direct observations. Ed Ed Burkhead http://edburkhead.com/Ercoupe/index.htm East Peoria, Illinois ed -at- edburk???head.??com (remove the ? marks and change -at- to @) _____________________________________________________________ Click now for great LSAT prep courses and watch your scores soar! <http://thirdpartyoffers.juno.com/TGL2112/fc/REAK6ZpQiZhtaVCClT7w4AvwFI5HuMx MiGsHSDAIl7lZ6Giv568W5Y/>
