Stall spins

[brjohnso]

Does anyone know how Nick adjusted the wings of his plane for washout? They were Trent’s old wings from his KF 5, and he put them on a different kf7 fuse. Isn’t there a matching that has to be done between the wings and the fuselage when the plane is built? Could a warp or twist in the wing cause one wing to stall before the other, making the plane more susceptible to a spin?

[Esser]

You can remove the old spar attach plates and re adjust the positioning but the model 5 and the model 7 in theory should be exactly the same attach point. All that e adjusts is wing sweep though. The strut attach points can be adjusted to change flying tendencies. I’m sure Nikk has his plane rigged properly or else it wouldn’t have flown nicely.

[aviator79]

I've only done a handful of stalls, power on, power, off, and in turns in a couple different kitfoxes, and I was surprised how docile they were. So to the original poster's question, I don't think there is anything inherent to the design that leads to these kinds of accidents. As someone else pointed out, LOC accidents are a leading cause of fatal accidents across all of general aviation.

Now I'm going to speculate a little bit. There may be a disproportionate number of Kitfox fatalities in this scenario for two reasons:
1) A Kitfox is comfortable flying slow, and maintains roll authority well into the stall, so Kitfox pilot may feel a little too comfortable maneuvering the plane with a thin stall margin.

2) Kitfox pilots are more likely to be flying low and slow, making non-standard approaches to difficult airstrips with tighter than normal turns. In these cases, there is insufficient altitude margin to recover from an unintended stall. I'll tell you as a CFI, that the reason you should practice stalls and recoveries is primarily so you learn your airplane's incipient stall characteristics. There is a BIG difference between recovering from a stall that you induced intentionally, and recovering from one that you did not intend. Stall practice is not to teach you to recover in this situation, it's to explore this portion of the flight envelope so that you correct before the stall happens.

I realize this conversation is happening while Nikk is recovering. My comments should be taken generally, and not directly connected with his accident.

[David47]

David, did you do this in a Kitfox or was it a Decathlon? Not saying it won't work in a Kitfox, but I think the Kitfox may behave differently in some maneuvers due to flaperons, etc.

In a Decathlon Jim. And yes, a Kitfox may react differently. On that point, it would be good to get some input from John McBean or Paul Leadabrand on how, in our case, a 7SS would behave in those manoeuvres before attempting them. The Decathlon is obviously ok, not so sure about the 7SS or any other model for that matter.

[jmodguy]

I belong to a flying club and this link was recently emailed to the membership.
Good info

[efwd]

Thanks Jeff. Having trained so long ago, that video was great.

[Mesteve]

I belong to a flying club and this link was recently emailed to the membership.
Good info

Valid input, even (more so) for those of us more recently out of training....

[Farflyer]

Stalls and spins.

I think we all agree it’s important to understand all aspects of aviation. If you look around in your local aviation community, I bet you could find a person or aerobatic club who would welcome the opportunity teaching you stalls and spins.

I was fortunate to have a retired International aerobatics competitor in my area. I to was and still concerned about stalls and spins. My private instructor knew the basics, but I felt I needed more.

The retired aerobatic competitor’s, Olie Pash, method of teaching was real world. I will never forget his words “Lets see what you know. My aircraft”. Each scenario he put me in, I had to struggle in finding a solution of getting myself out of and recover the airplane. His teaching method was from the known. A climbing right turn power on stall and a rudder kick. To the unknown, upside down in a flat spin.

In 1.5 hours of instruction, he introduced me to all manner of situations I could get myself and just as importantly others might put me in. He would brief the scenario and let me maneuver the airplane into each situation, so I could feel and see how each scenario unfolded, then let me struggle on how to get out of it. Olie would make sure I understood how we got into the stalls and spin and the method on how to get out of it. I believe it is some of the best instruction and money I have ever spent in flying.

Just my 2 cents.

We learn from others and sometimes unfortunately from their mistakes. Olie passed on his knowledge. We all need to do the same.

http://flyingmuseum.com/hall-of-fame...lin-olie-pash/