“This accident is featured in book 4 of the Darwin Awards.”
(Wikipedia)
A key element of being ready to handle aerobatics is the understanding that flight controls move farther than most pilots ever move them in flight. Sometimes a push will be required, or ailerons or rudder to the stop and held there for a moment. Pilots get used to one G and more, but not less. During aerobatics, you may have to push so as to command less than one G, or indeed momentary negative G. This has to be normal to you, as normal as preventing an impending stall by pushing to lower the nose. You might have a windshield full of ground, and must resist the urge to pull back, until your airspeed has increased a little more.
Like any flying skill, new sensations will be experienced and reactions may be needed. Aerobatics will require awareness of attitude, momentum, among two, and the ability to apply the required control – these probably do not come naturally, and must be learned and practiced.
This is great
Personally I’ve never rolled anything that wasn’t supposed to be. But I’ve heard about others. My heli instructor had rolld an R22, or rather his student got it upside down and he got it the right way up again by continuing the roll. He told me he was pretty much convinced he was about to die. I’m also told on good authority that C130s roll nicely. My guess is that just about every type has been rolled at some point, except maybe the very latest airliners (380, 350, 787). Concorde certainly was, and in public.
“My guess is that just about every type has been rolled at some point,”
Rolled or barrel rolled?
Peter wrote:
This is great
Where do I nominate that guy for the Darwin Award ?
172driver wrote:
Where do I nominate that guy for the Darwin Award ?
It’s fake, just like the guy’s other videos. His Youtube channel Just Plane Silly is full of similar stuff.
Rolled or barrel rolled?
The answer to that depends on what you think the difference is. To me a “roll” is an aileron roll, i.e. neutral elevator and positive throughout. A “barrel roll” is much the same but done with a bit of back stick, making it a blend of roll (mostly) and loop (a little bit). They’re fun to do around appropriate sized puffy clouds, but won’t score you many points in a contest. And a “slow roll” is done without lifting the nose at the start – the nose points at the same place on the horizon throughout, and elevator and rudder are blended throughout the roll to keep it there. It is most definitely NOT positive throughout. It can be done as slow as you want (hence the name). It’s also the best way I know to make yourself and your passenger feel horrible.
So, given those definitions, I mean “rolled”. But other people may have other definitions.
The aileron roll is not a competition manoeuvre but an important confidence builder in aerobatic training. You do pitch up, to around 25-30 degree nose up, but then you check the pitch to establish zero lift alpha. Most GA aerobatic aircraft have some positive wing incidence, and zero lift alpha is around 2 to 3 degrees negative pitch. So the check is around a five degree pitch correction.
The wing is now not generating lift and the aircraft is on a parabolic trajectory, in effect a dart. With the wing in zero lift alpha you should have maximum aileron roll, and minimal adverse yaw, and you apply full aileron without pulling on the control column, maintaining zero lift alpha. The aircraft will roll smoothly and return to upright but as it is on a parabolic trajectory it will finish around 10 to 20 degree nose pitch down. The manoeuvre is between zero and 1 G, so if executed correctly with no stress on the airframe.
The barrel roll is a positive g manoeuvre combining elements of a loop and a roll. Old fighters were not happy in negative G (one of the advantages of the ME109 was the ability to have engine power in negative g) and the engine would die, and belch and backfire when back in positive G. A positive G barrel roll kept the power-plant happy. In a barrel roll you could pull 5 g or 2 g depending how you want to fly it. The 707 clip looks like a barrel roll (stressed to 2.5g), not sure the outboard ailerons had the authority to perform an aileron roll, or the pilot the muscle power.
