I will not disagree with your statements. I am only posing
questions to make people think. I can refute and support every claim that
you stated. The problem is I read emails where people are talking in
absolutes. There are no absolutes in aviation.
I dodge turkey vultures quite frequently in Florida, in a helicopter at low altitude,
and every single time for the past 10 years, they dive away. When you say
low altitude, what is low, 100, 50, 1000ft? Not saying they can not
climb, maybe they did not read the documented observation you speak of. I’ve
not personally seen a bird climb out of the way of rapidly approaching aircraft.
I’ve witnessed them fold their wings and dive like a missile. I don’t
have to ask Bill, I avoid them every time I fly. Now in a helicopter, I can
roll much faster than climb, so we bank out of the way, but some pilots do not
like to bank over 30 degrees, so they instinctively climb. Lancair’s
can climb remarkably faster than any bird. If you want to descend, keep
on doing what you do.
Tell the pilot of a bonanza I saw, was coming over the threshold, controller
told him to go around because the controller saw that his gear was not down at the
last minute. When the pilot applied power, the nose pitched up, tail hit
the runway and the aircraft cart wheeled and blew up. Unfortunately, you
can’t ask him, because he’s dead, and I watched it happen from 100
yards away as I was waiting to take the runway.
Wind shear, I agree completely yet you state is so simply and it is not.
Does everyone keep their speed up and have a good grasp of the weather pattern
and winds around them? Hence why we have accidents and that is all I am
trying to say.
Speaking in absolutes as though every pilot knows how to react to every
situation is simply not true. We all learn through mistakes, if we make
it. I want to express that saying, “I will not fly the airplane
below a 110 knots”, except in the flair, is not a good training method or
going to save yourself from a stall. Knowing how the aircraft feels
approaching a stall and how to recover before entering the stall in these
situations is paramount to not entering the stall.
As pilot in command, you have
control over real flight. In PP 2, you are not quite correct. At
low altitudes, birds climb (this is a documented observation) -- BTW, Ask
Bill.
PP3, You should know your plane's slow
speed handling characteristics and you can tell the controller that you
"cannot comply" and request a go-around. No one here has ever
suggested that you shouldn't know and practice slow speed flight, you need not
stall. After all, the 320/360 emergency gear extension procedure requires
that you slow to 87 KIAS.
PP4 - How about wind shear - keep your
speed up and remember that it is not against the rules to push the stick forward
even when near to the ground.
It is clear to me that one must learn not
to try and fix every problem by pulling back on the blessed stick.
In a message dated 10/5/2008 3:41:56 P.M.
Central Daylight Time, lalcorn@natca.net
writes:
I would like to add to this discussion on
stalls and slow flight handling of aircraft. One thing I see discussed by
pilots is that, they do not need to practice stalls or slow flight because they
know the speeds and simply stay faster than those speeds close to the
"slow realm" of flight, which I would infer is also the region of
reverse command and just above. This is a great safety idea in ideal
conditions, your familiar airport, standard traffic patterns, no controllers,
etc. Unfortunately real flight is nothing like this.
One good example is bird avoidance. The proper method of avoiding birds
is to climb and turn, since birds will typically dive away. So you are on
a downwind, gear extended, flaps slightly out, and there is a 10lb turkey
vulture and you pull and turn. Sounds close to an accelerated stall,
doesn't it. If you do not know what your plane feels like at slower
speeds, how will you know how hard to pull or when to recover. Add this
during a base to final, and you have a stall spin accident. How many of
these accelerated stall base to final crashes have happened in the last year
alone?
Next example is when you add those pesky controllers trying to fit your 120
knot aircraft behind a 150 in the downwind at an airport with a 3500 foot runway.
They ask you to slow, you do the best you can, but still eating this guys
lunch. Your busy configuring etc, then the tower controller sees its not
going to work and orders a go around when you are crossing the threshold with
full flaps and gear hanging out, starting to round out. Do not think they
won't do that either. Especially with the new generation of controllers
being hired off the street, many are not familiar with aircraft characteristics
and are only concerned about having an error. How many of the "don't
practice slow flight/stalls" practice full landing configured go-arounds
at high rates of descent. Again, knowing your aircraft's slow handling
characteristics might help here.
How about wind shear? I've been in clear VFR days in florida and catch the outflow from a storm
20 miles away while in the downwind and loose 25 knots in an instant with a
nice downdraft. What is your natural instinct when you encounter a large
sink close to the ground? Pull back now that you are only 6 knots above
stall?
I could go on and on with examples, but just things to think about.
Previously stated "The initial training for a Lancair needs to include
exposure to the stall to assess the speed at which it is likely to occur. That
assessed, continued testing of that seems superfluous given the mind set should
be clearly engraved to avoid the area whereby such a condition of flight
occurs".
How can you simply avoid these regions of flight given the examples I have just
stated?
Luke Alcorn
--
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