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Silvio,
Here's a thread I saved a few months back from the rah forum regarding spinning the Lancair 320/360. Rick
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Subject: Lancair 360 MkI Aerobatics & Spins
Date: 1999/05/05
Author: Marco Lange <marhilNOSPAM@xs4all.nl>
Hello people,
a few weeks ago I posted a question about Lancair 360 aerobatics and spins, well I got a few answers (comments
more likely) of people sayinf I was nuts of even thinking of doing spins in a Lancair 360. Well I just tried it and am
still alive ... :-)
I just want to share my experience with every one who wants to read it:
I went up to 6000 feet AGL in our Lancair 360 MKI, empty wt 1127 lbs, about 17 gal of fuel (100 lbs), myself flying
the aircraft (220 lbs), so all up wt was about 1450-1500 lbs. The c/g was about 1.5 inches aft of the forward limit. I
reduced to 100 kts (slow decell) then closed the throttle and pitched the nose up about 20 degrees, waited for the
buffet and kicked in full left rudder and pulled the stick fully aft. It broke nicely to the left, made half a turn, it flattened
out for half a turn and broke again over left to enter a spin (not a spiral dive) with nose about 60-75 degrees nose
down, turn rate aprox 360 degr every 1-2 sec, and rate of descent aprox 3000-4000 ft/min.
Recovery was easy and quick, just opposite rudder and a bit of down elevator (past neutral), only resulting dive was
pretty nose down (70 + degrees), pulling out of the dive has to be done carefully (not to snap out of it).
Note: DO NOT TRY THIS AT HOME IF YOU DID NOT HAVE ANY SPIN TRAINING !!! And remember that the fall down to mother Earth doesn't kill you, it's the sudden stop at the end that does !
If you want to try this yourself, you have to keep in mind that a forward c/g will cause a poor spin (won't even stay in
the spin) and a c/g too far aft is dangerous (flat spin can occur !), so remove all stuff from the back (good idea
anyway when you start aerobatics and spins ...) and make a loadsheet just to see what the c/g is in the planned
configuraion !
Any more people out there who tried this ? (almost all Lancair here in the Netherlands were spun and none of them
had any bad tendencies) Marco Lange (co-owner of Lancair 360 #244 PH-MYF)
Subject:Lancair 360 MkI Aerobatics & Spins
Date:1999/05/06
Author: dave morss <mylastname@pacbell.net>
I was one of the people that answered his post , he didn't understand my reply. I said that in over 78 spins from one
to three turns 90 % of them recovered normally but with any fuel in the wings the spin characteristics are
unpredictable and using the same technique the results varied wildly and so spins are not recommended. and with
wing fuel really not a good idea.
also a level entry was one of the most predictable entry's but when snapping into a spin it got real interesting. Please
if you read his post don't think you can spin your lancair and have it work out ok. this wing is sensitive to dirt and
bug strikes wing fuel and cg location are all important..
I did the initial spin testing on the lancair and i had a chute and modified the canopy so i could get out. I started at
10000 ft and did spins for two days. When i started using my own lancair for air shows I again rigged the canopy to
jettison and just using header fuel did several spin entries from the places in my routine where i could get in trouble.
I never let these spins develop but just wanted to see what to do in my plane if i got in a spin entry accidentally.
Lastly the spin changes after two turns and MY lancair didn't spin at all like the factory PROTOTYPE ,although the
changes i made in building shouldn't have changed the spin characteristics much.
In conclusion yes all lancairs will spin and if built exactly to plans with a clean wing and a cg in range no wing fuel
and less than two turns they should recover most of the time in about half a turn. If you are going to do acro that
could get you in a spin you should test your aircraft by going high 10000ft + having a chute and rigging your canopy
so you can get out in flight. Then you'll know the spin characteristics for YOUR plane on a given day temp density alt
cg loading wing contour etc.
dave
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