Flat Spins?

[whifferdill]

Anybody ever tried to flat spin a J-3? I'd never played much with flattening out spins in the Clipped Cub with aileron, so tried that tonight. It takes two turns for a normal spin entry to fully develop, and if you apply full outspin (right) aileron after the spin fully develops, while spinning left, the nose rises a little and rotation rate stays about the same. Because the nose rises, there's less forward airflow through the prop, which makes the RPM go down to about static idle...very quiet and unusual to hear in the air. There's almost no rudder pressure when applying opposite rudder to recover. Feels like it's totally disconnected at first, and that the spin is not slowing down. If you do nothing but hold the stick back with opposite rudder, it takes a little over 1-1/4 additional turns to stop, which surprised me a little, given the Cub has such benign characteristics. Normal flat spin recovery involves in-spin aileron (left aileron in this case), and using this while bringing the stick forward a little will stop this flattened spin quicker, in just under 1 additional turn...which is still a lot more than a normal spin. It'll recover a normal non-flattened spin in only a quarter turn or so. Anyway, I just thought this was interesting since I've never heard anyone talk about flattening spins in a Cub. Most simply say that the Cub will recover very quickly just by releasing the controls, which it will...just not in this mode. I would imagine the standard wing Cub behaves the same way.

I think the Cub would do a real nice level flat spin to the left if you apply power after right aileron is added, but I didn't try that because this puts a lot of gyroscopic load on the prop, and I don't think the wood prop is designed for that. Wouldn't add power with a metal prop either, due to the gyroscopic stress on the crank flange. So this wasn't a true flat spin since it was done power off, and the nose was still below the horizon. But it was still flatter than a normal spin...just not like the ones I do in the Pitts.

BTW, I was totally prepared for the delayed recovery with this type of spin, since this is typical, and something I've done a bunch of in the Pitts. The Cub is such an honest airplane, with no built-in quirks (just like the Pitts), I was sure it wasn't getting into some sort of dangerous spin mode. I wouldn't try this in a Cherokee or Cirrus, though.

 

[JimC]

 

[140pilot]

 

[bob turner]

 

[Fifinella]

 

[deafcub19h]

 

[fourshipp]

 

[patrick.]

 

[tophand]

 

[Jallenjet]