Please elaborate on what to expect during stall practice in my Musketeer. Is it safe to actually let it stall? Will it unexpectedly go into a spin?
Editor:
Assuming you don’t have screwed-up rigging, in a complete stall your Musketeer will bob its nose straight ahead while sinking at 500+ FPM, with the yoke full aft, if you keep the ball centered with the rudder. If the ball starts to drop to one side because that wing starts down, you have to instantly correct with opposite rudder to make the nose yaw the other way until the ball centers again (and the wings become level).
Eventually you will get into PIO from the rudder activity (you’ll get behind the airplane), and it will roll off one way or the other. No harm done; you just relax the yoke a bit (an inch will usually do it), fly into the direction of the roll-off until you are wings-level, and gradually pull out of the descent. Nothing extreme at all. If you decide to break the stall before the roll-off occurs, all it takes is relaxing the yoke a quarter to a half-inch forward, and the plane will be back into very slow flight, especially with a bit of power on.
Loading naturally has an effect on the amount of forward yoke required to stop the sink in a stall; you naturally have to get out from “behind the power curve”, either with airspeed or power, to arrest the sink. There is really no need for the dramatic forward yoke movement to “break the stall”, though it naturally will continue to be taught to trainees for safety reasons. And in fact, if you are close to the ground in an emergency, unnecessarily applying full forward yoke could seal your fate.
While you are doing this full-stall practice, don’t try to stop the roll-off with opposite aileron (you’ll automatically try to do that); just keep the ailerons neutral and use the rudder. When the plane eventually rolls off, you stop using opposite rudder and instead just center the ball as you would in a steep turn. That’s what I call “fly into the roll-off direction”. You can have a lot of fun practicing this, and it is quite safe.
The plane won’t spin unless you have full back yoke, full rudder in one direction, and also apply full aileron in the opposite direction while the plane is semi-inverted in the roll. In other words, you have to force the plane into a spin; it will not do it on its own. This is true in a level unaccelerated stall. The different aerodynamics will cause different effects if you stall the plane in an accelerated condition, such as a steep turn or full power zooming climb. The latter can be particularly dangerous if you stall the plane with the nose in a very high attitude, as it artificially moves the CG further aft. Unlike some other brands of aircraft, our combination of Stabilator and static nose-heaviness adds more protection against the classic aft-CG spin.
There is a hidden danger in the spin resistance. Rather than spinning, a stalled and rolled-off plane will rapidly enter a steep spiral dive, if left uncorrected. A spiral dive can actually be more dangerous than a spin, though it is less disorienting. The problem is that it is in a turning dive that accelerates and stores energy; not a spin which actually dissipates energy. The plane will rapidly exceed VNE if a prompt leveled-wing steady pull-out isn’t applied. For example, in a dive (or spiral dive) a Sierra will hit VNE within about five seconds. The fixed-gear planes a few seconds longer.
Some interesting facts about a true spin. Once established in a spin, the ball in the inclinometer on the pilot’s side will always go to the left; regardless of the direction of the spin. If there is an inclinometer on the co-pilot’s side, that ball will always go to the right. This is because in a spin the plane is rotating about its vertical axis, so the gyroscopic force tries to move everything from the center outward. If you ever get disoriented and think you may be spinning, if the ball is to your right you are in a spiral dive instead. Get the wings level before continuing to try to pull out, or you’ll just tighten the spiral until the wings come off.