User Guide

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The moral to this story? If you ever
find yourself in a spiral, with the airspeed
increasing and the altimeter unwinding at
an alarming rate, there’s a definite one-
two-three sequence to recovery, just like
for a spin. This works equally well
whether you can see out or not:
Where might this come in handy? Well, we found ourselves
in spiral dives at the end of our spin recoveries a little while
ago…but a more likely scenario for a spiral would be if you “let
the airplane get away from you” while flying on instruments.
“OH, SAY, CAN YOU SEE?”
or “Well, no, actually, I can’t…”
Typically, you’ll rack up a hundred hours or so of flying time
before you start considering serious instrument flying. In the long
run, you’ll probably find the sought-after Instrument Rating your
real “ticket to fly,” since without it even the best airplane is a fair-
weather friend at best. Moreover, for most private pilots, their
instrument flying is what we could call “soft,” or “easy,” IFR. For
example, a couple of minutes of instrument flying right after take-
off can have you up in the sun, above the clouds and on your way,
while your non-rated brethren wait hours for the clouds to burn off
- and, chances are, by the time you get to your destination, the
weather there will be okay. If not, of course, you can make an
approach, since anyone who gets an instrument rating is trained
and tested to the full requirements.
BANKING AND YANKING, PART 3
…and that brings us to the final “hairy” maneuver for the
course. It’s another one with a colorful name from the 1920s:
“The Graveyard Spiral.” (Ominous music, please…)
Back in the days before gyro instruments, airplanes that flew
into even innocuous, non-turbulent clouds often came out in
pieces. Those pilots who survived (“I always use Maxwell House
parachutes…they’re good to the last drop!”) reported being
unable to tell whether they were flying straight or in a turn, then
losing control of the airplane. The airspeed would build up to
awful values (often “off the dial,”) then they’d feel huge forces pin-
ning them into their seats until the hapless airplane started shed-
ding its wings…
A quick demonstration will explain. As usual, get the air-
plane set up in cruise at a reasonable altitude. Start a reasonably
steep turn, either way, but keep it less than 45 degrees. With the
turn established, add more back pressure and watch the airspeed
indicator, altimeter, and VSI: airspeed will decrease, altitude will
increase, and the VSI will show a climb.
Level out, and roll into a turn the other way - but this time
let it get steeper than 45 degrees - in fact, up to 60 degrees if you
want. Again, add back pressure and watch the gauges. This time,
the rate of turn increases - but airspeed either stays where it is or
increases, too, while the altimeter and VSI show a rapid descent.
A glance at this diagram shows what’s
happening: Remember, the lift produced by
the wing is used both to support the air-
plane, and to make it turn. As long as the
bank angle is 45 degrees or less, the lift is
pointed “more up than sideways,” so
increasing angle of attack, while it may
make the turn tighter, also makes the air-
plane climb and slow down.
At angles of bank of more than 45 degrees, however, the lift
is pointed “more sideways than down,” so increasing it does a lot
more to tighten the turn than to make the airplane climb. Moreover,
once in a steep bank, an airplane will tend to steepen the bank
even further. Those old pilots, not knowing “which way was up,”
would instinctively pull to reduce airspeed - but, instead, they’d
just wrap the turn up, tighter and tighter, until something broke (or
they spiraled down into the ground).
Flight Instruction
Flight Instruction
ONE: Reduce power!
TWO: Get the wings level. If you can see the real hori-
zon, great. If not, use the artificial one - or if you
don’t have that, the turn coordinator. If the airplane
isn’t turning (little airplane in the turn coordinator
level), the wings must be at or near level.
THREE: Now - and only now - use back pressure to reduce
the airspeed.
45° bank
60° bank