I can’t recommend it.
From the attached notes:
The spin was supposed to be a normal erect spin to the right, but for various unintentional reasons the spin went flat, up until that point I had never flat spun an aircraft. I eventualy mananged to get the aircraft into a normal erect spin from which I was able to recover. This aircraft is not fitted with an electric starter motor, so I was unable to restart the engine. During the “flare” to land the main undercarriage caught the top wires of a barbed wire fence that was invisible to me. After coming to rest inverted I waited 20mins for the rescue services to come and right the aircraft so I was able to exit via the outward opening canopy. The aircraft rotated 26 times total, I was extremely dissorientated after the recovery to straight and level flight, and was unable to read the instruments. From the video I estimate I recovered at about 700ft from an entry altitude of 3500ft. If you listen carefully you will hear me say:”I think this is it”. At that stage I did not think I would be able to recover. However I continued to try various control inputs based on the aircraft attitude and rotational rate, which eventually effected a recovery.
My thanks go to the emergency services that found me and allowed my escape.
Time maybe to invest in that electric starter, too.
(H/T to Tailspin Tom, who has his own falling leaf story.)
Brilliant…
That is some scary stuff.
I still maintain that it’s safer to jump from them than fly in them.
I’m still trying to figure out why he didn’t throw up. I feel certain I would have…
Haven’t tried that one yet. Ten is my limit and flat is not on my list.
He must have cut off the fuel when he thought he would crash, otherwise why not just reduce the power?
I’d forgotten what that looked like, but my heart rate and pucker factor kicked right in again, whew!
And Murphy finishes the event with the unseen fence, just to score the last point.
Still, as the old saying goes, “Any landing you walk away from is a good one, if they can reuse the aircraft afterward, it’s a bonus.”
That’s a great link, Lex. Went back and read a number of his posts.
Good on that chap for pulling it out.
I’ll stick with submarines. Pretty hard to roll those things, much less get in a flat spin.
Just guessing, but wonder what effect the engine ‘play’ had on the aerodynamics of the spin (p-factor) thrust line, etc. Possibly why it went flat.
Guess that explains why I never start spins below 7500 AGL , Navy habits from Primary.
At least he didn’t stall and respin at the end, but that last turn prolly got him close. Oops.
Wow. I bet he wears a ‘chute every time he goes up, now.
I’m curious how our host found the vid. Hopefully just looking for cool spin vids, and not looking to become a Tipsy Nipper owner: that airplane looks like it made a 45 deg dive off he ugly tree and hit every branch on the way down!
Hey FastNav, when a sub rolls, it’s really ugly. My ex-father in law was on one that got rolled in SF Bay many years ago (an old diesel boat). Seems another ship hit their sail and rolled the boat completely… he said it was the only time he had ever been truly afraid in a submarine. As he described it, I was looking for a bucket to puke in… the man has a way with words, made it pretty real.
Humble, you’re kidding, right? Nippers are cuter than kittens. I’d want the electric starter, just to like, get the CG a little more forward for cases like that.
Looks like a fun little plane, and kudos to the pilot for sticking with it and recovering. As Ernie Gann once wrote, “If the airplane is in one piece, don’t cheat on it. Ride the bast*** down”. I watched another video on that YouTube page with the pilot hand-propping one of those Nippers, and I think I’d invest a few dollars (and pounds) in a starter, rather than go through all that hassle. Assuming that it has an electrical system to begin with, of course….
Reminds me of an incident while instructing in T-28′s back in Vt-27. One IP was checking out a new IP in aero. The demo was to show what happens when a stud screws up the spin recovery by adding pro and anti aileron. The spin was entered at about 8K and after the demo, recovery was initated with no joy. The airplane kept spinning in spite of all efforts to recover as they entered the top of an overcast at about 5k. The PIC decided it was time to exit and pulled the canopy handle to the emerg. open position, but it only opened maybe 10 inches or so…. not enough to get through it with a backpack, but the front seater tried anyway. He got his head out into the slipstream before getting caught on the canopy and the slipstream grabbed his hardhat , turning it on his head and cutting his nose on the visor. The IP in the back seat observed his predicament and kept trying different things to recover, when he noticed the airplane seemed to straighten out. They came out the bottom of the cloud layer and leveled off about 1500 ft, (minimum recommended bailout altitude was 1200)RTB, downed the bird and went to the club. Maintenance went all over that airplane and could never find out why it wouldn’t recover from a spin. It did the same thing on a test flight. It was eventually placarded “NO SOLO, NO SPIN” and returned to service. It may still be out there somewhere in civilian hands.
Intentional spins are fun as long as Murphy isn’t along for the ride.
Oldskydog, a forward CG covers a multitude of sins. What’s cranking the trim to the stops and also holding annoying back pressure on the stick, versus dying while nauseated, in a flat spin?
Yeah, I know you get better range and maneuverability with the CG at the after limit, but tired pilots on long missions may have died from that, from time to time.
I dunno about these new airplanes whose computers, it’s claimed, won’t let the pilot do anything stupid.