Pietenpol-List: Spins in a Pietenpol....
Posted: Mon Dec 31, 2001 8:55 pm
Original Posted By: javier cruz
Hello Group,I guess I'm "chicken" because I've never spun my Pietenpol, probablybecause:1. I don't have a parachute;2. There is no room in my Piet for a parachute;3. A parachute would add extra mass aft of the a/c's CG which is most undesirable, and4. I didn't wish to explore its behavior in a fully-developed spin without the option of being able to bail out should things get nasty.Instead, I opted to practice spins and recovery in airplanes withproven spin characteristics (Taylorcraft and Luscombe). Then right-ly or wrongly, I reasoned that if I did get into a spin with my Piet, Iwould at least be in practice for recovery. I did check the stalling be-havior of my Piet and did what we call "incipient spins" which arerestricted to the entry phase. Its behavior was pretty typical of otherlightplanes, so I left it at that.Years ago, a friend (today an airline pilot) built a Pietenpol and as-ked me whether I had spun mine. I said I hadn't done anything furtherthan stalls and incipient spins and wasn't interested in doing anymore than that for the reasons listed above. He did spin his (solo)and said it spun like the proverbial "button on an outhouse door".As I recall, he said the recovery was not instantaneous, but not aproblem either.He moved away for a few years and we were out of touch. Then onefine evening I went flying my Pietenpol and, upon returning to our air-strip, I noticed a car parked near the runway. It was my friend who hadjust been transferred back to our city. He said, "Do you rememberwhen I asked you whether you had spun your Pietenpol, and what youtold me?" I said I did remember his question and my answer, and hewent on to tell his story which went something like this:His Piet has a fuselage nose tank which was full when he took off witha passenger on a "joyride". After about an hour, he decided to climbto a safe altitude and do a spin. They climbed to 5000 ft. agl and heentered a spin (I don't remember which way) directly over a lake. Afterseveral turns, with the spin fully developed, he initiated spin recoveryactions. The spin flattened with the nose alternately bobbing up anddown and standard recovery procedure had no effect. He tried usingbursts of power, but this only seemed to increase the spin rate. The spincontinued with him trying everything he could think of to recover. Finally,he managed to stop the spin and recover with about 1000 feet of alti-tude remaining! His passenger was oblivious to the danger and he didnot enlighten him as to the seriousness of the situation. He said to me,"Now I know why you aren't interested in doing fully-developed spins inhomebuilts---unless someone has already done them with that particularairplane."This fellow at the time was by no means inexperienced; he was employedas a flying instructor. Possibly this is what saved him, although to thisdayhe doesn't know how he was able to recover from that spin.He thinks the spin flattened due to an aft CG condition worsened by thefuel burn after over an hour's flying. And the passenger's weight could havebrought the CG back a bit, too. Luckily, my friend is a small man who doesnot weigh very much. I shudder to think of what might have happened if hehad been a 200 pounder.His Piet has been out of service for quite a few years awaiting new fabric.I'll have to phone him one of these days to persuade him to get it goingagain.So, my friends, watch that CG location and approach this sort of thing verycautiously. And remember everything your instructor(s) told you about inad-vertent spins and avoiding them, regardless of what you are flying.Cheers,Graham Hansen________________________________________________________________________________Date: Tue, 1 Jan 2002 12:02:48 -0800 (PST)
Hello Group,I guess I'm "chicken" because I've never spun my Pietenpol, probablybecause:1. I don't have a parachute;2. There is no room in my Piet for a parachute;3. A parachute would add extra mass aft of the a/c's CG which is most undesirable, and4. I didn't wish to explore its behavior in a fully-developed spin without the option of being able to bail out should things get nasty.Instead, I opted to practice spins and recovery in airplanes withproven spin characteristics (Taylorcraft and Luscombe). Then right-ly or wrongly, I reasoned that if I did get into a spin with my Piet, Iwould at least be in practice for recovery. I did check the stalling be-havior of my Piet and did what we call "incipient spins" which arerestricted to the entry phase. Its behavior was pretty typical of otherlightplanes, so I left it at that.Years ago, a friend (today an airline pilot) built a Pietenpol and as-ked me whether I had spun mine. I said I hadn't done anything furtherthan stalls and incipient spins and wasn't interested in doing anymore than that for the reasons listed above. He did spin his (solo)and said it spun like the proverbial "button on an outhouse door".As I recall, he said the recovery was not instantaneous, but not aproblem either.He moved away for a few years and we were out of touch. Then onefine evening I went flying my Pietenpol and, upon returning to our air-strip, I noticed a car parked near the runway. It was my friend who hadjust been transferred back to our city. He said, "Do you rememberwhen I asked you whether you had spun your Pietenpol, and what youtold me?" I said I did remember his question and my answer, and hewent on to tell his story which went something like this:His Piet has a fuselage nose tank which was full when he took off witha passenger on a "joyride". After about an hour, he decided to climbto a safe altitude and do a spin. They climbed to 5000 ft. agl and heentered a spin (I don't remember which way) directly over a lake. Afterseveral turns, with the spin fully developed, he initiated spin recoveryactions. The spin flattened with the nose alternately bobbing up anddown and standard recovery procedure had no effect. He tried usingbursts of power, but this only seemed to increase the spin rate. The spincontinued with him trying everything he could think of to recover. Finally,he managed to stop the spin and recover with about 1000 feet of alti-tude remaining! His passenger was oblivious to the danger and he didnot enlighten him as to the seriousness of the situation. He said to me,"Now I know why you aren't interested in doing fully-developed spins inhomebuilts---unless someone has already done them with that particularairplane."This fellow at the time was by no means inexperienced; he was employedas a flying instructor. Possibly this is what saved him, although to thisdayhe doesn't know how he was able to recover from that spin.He thinks the spin flattened due to an aft CG condition worsened by thefuel burn after over an hour's flying. And the passenger's weight could havebrought the CG back a bit, too. Luckily, my friend is a small man who doesnot weigh very much. I shudder to think of what might have happened if hehad been a 200 pounder.His Piet has been out of service for quite a few years awaiting new fabric.I'll have to phone him one of these days to persuade him to get it goingagain.So, my friends, watch that CG location and approach this sort of thing verycautiously. And remember everything your instructor(s) told you about inad-vertent spins and avoiding them, regardless of what you are flying.Cheers,Graham Hansen________________________________________________________________________________Date: Tue, 1 Jan 2002 12:02:48 -0800 (PST)