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My first ES was built without
stall strips, but at Charlie Kohler's suggestion, during the first flights we
taped on some rapidly improvised foam strips, which I later glassed in
permanently. They didn't seem to affect the actuall stall very much, but
they did provide a more noticeable pre-stall buffet, which, as Charlie pointed
out, is an important stall warning in a plane that otherwise does not give much
advance notice.
The theory, of course, is that
the strips help ensure that the wing root stalls before the tip, but my guess is
that the washout in the wings already ensures this without the
strips.
My second ES also has stall
strips, and has a moderately pronounced pre-stall buffet. I've done lots
of stalls in both planes, both in landing configuration (power off) and in
simulated take-off configurations (power-on), all straight ahead.
Centering the ball is trickier with the power-on stalls -- it could probably get
away from you quicker and during landing config stalls. The stall behaviour is
pretty benign -- just push the nose down and fly out. I am careful to keep
the ball centered, and can't say what would happen if you kicked full rudder
just at stall. We used to have to do this in the C150 I
trained in years ago in order to get it to spin. My guess is that the ES
would go in easier, and build up speed rather quickly. It could be pretty
exciting, but coordinated stalls are more or less nothing.
Jim Cameron
N143ES
P.S. A note -- yesterday I pushed 'er up to
16,500' to give my oxygen system a workout and feel around near the service
ceiling. It didn't want to lean out very well, and seemed to be running a
bit rough. After landing, I crunched my numbers around the whiz wheel and
realized I'd been at a density altitude of 19,000 feet! Still had a climb
rate of between 200 and 300 fpm. JNC
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