Dave - This business of losing speed in downwind turns has two elements:
1. Actually, the visual impression of flying downwind, with its increased ground speed, can cause pilots to actually pull up the nose, resulting in less airspeed, as they try to keep the visual impression of ground speed the same. 2. Then, of course, if wind shear is present, you get that working against you as well. Jerry E. -----Original Message----- From: [email protected] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Behalf Of David Winters Sent: Wednesday, June 18, 2008 11:32 AM To: 'robertbartunek'; [email protected] Subject: RE: [ercoupe-tech] Re: July Flying Mag This has been nagging at me, also. But, for a different reason. It seems to me that if you can actually turn downwind in such a way as to lose airspeed, causing the nose to pitch down, then you have, by definition, stalled the aircraft. We had an accident report back in the 70's concluding that a T-28 had done that. We were all cautioned to be wary of downwind turns in the pattern. But...I am not convinced that it is even possible to make such a turn and lose that much airspeed. I am able to be convinced, however, if somebody can confirm or explain it. Dave Winters 2797H -----Original Message----- From: [email protected] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of robertbartunek Sent: Wednesday, June 18, 2008 8:05 AM To: [email protected] Subject: [ercoupe-tech] Re: July Flying Mag The following quote from the article puzzles me. "Pilots thought nothing of flying Ercoupes very slowly. When they would, say during a forced landing fly from a headwind condition to a no wind condition,the airplane would pitch nose down to try to maintain airspeed." How do you get the nose to "pitch down" in an Ercoupe? With full aft elevator control input, mine (a CD) just mushes straight ahead with a slightly positive deck angle at about 300 fpm at about 47 mph IAS. Bart --- In [email protected], [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: > > Ed: Thanks for your comments. The author of the article made a similar > observation: " The bad Ercoupe record had more to do with pilots thinking it was > 'safe' than it did with the airplane itself" He goes on to say: "Pilots thought > nothing of flying Ercoupes very slowly. When they would, say during a > forced landing fly from a headwind condition to a no wind condition,the airplane > would pitch nose down to try to maintain airspeed. And it would hit the ground > nose down,just as if it had stalled. It couldn't stall because of restricted > up-elevator travel but it could sure hit the ground hard and nose down." He > concludes that the high vertical loading of such an impact is the reason low > speed loss of control accidents have a much higher incidence of injury and > death. My own experience suggests that even before pitching nose down in a > stall/mush condition the sink rate itself could be the cause of serious injury or > death if sufficient airspeed is not maintained in a forced landing. > I think the risk of being trapped upside down is inherent in most all > tricycle gear low wing aircraft. I'm surprised that there is little discussion of > how to mitigate that risk. My engine out emergency checklist includes > lowering the side windows but I'm not sure if I could get out even with them open. I > have seen articles about practicing exit from a submerged aircraft but never > about escape techniques on dry land. > > Jim Graham > > > > **************Gas prices getting you down? Search AOL Autos for > fuel-efficient used cars. (http://autos.aol.com/used? ncid=aolaut00050000000007) >
