OK team some more clips which we don’t recommend you try at home!
Someone I knew in Houston owned a Cessna 150 and decided one day, that he was going to roll it. (He’s dead now, but not due to aviation causes).
The one thing he did right that day was get up to a good altitude – like 5000 feet or so.
Somewhat predictably, he blew the manoevre. I’m not exactly sure what he had done, but the long and the short of it that when he realised he was in deep trouble he “let go of the controls and put his faith in God and the Cessna Engineers”. The aircraft recovered all by itself when he was down to about 1500 feet.
The (English) Wikipedia articles on rolls have a very illuminating illustration of the aircraft’s movements during the various kinds of rolls.
Peter wrote:
Also everything loose will go all over the cockpit if you do that.
No it will not. It is not a “ballistic” ride at all. You pull up at for instance 20 degree – then center the stick. The aircraft is now “trimmed” for 1 g positive (the stick is held in position for 1g). Then you apply full aileron while keeping the elevator constant. Even upside down, sideways or whatever, the aircraft will have a positive g vector pointing at the roof, the AOA does not change. That is also the dangerous part about it. If you suddenly center the ailerons when upside down, the aircraft will immediately nose down because both lift and gravity is pointing straight down (the aircraft will try to maintain that 1g positive). The aileron roll will draw a cork screw path in the air, similar to a barrel roll, but it’s definitely no barrel roll. A slow roll, is a roll where the aircraft draw a straight line path, then you will have -1g at one point.
Think of it like this: You trim for straight and level flight. Then suddenly by magic gravity disappear. The aircraft is still trimmed for one g, and what will happen is it will fly a 1g loop until you re-trim for zero g, which will be zero lift.
rolling big stuff?
Dangerous to post such a title if you know there’s a language addict among the audience…
(only joking , of course)
Aviation is awash with experts; some know what they are talking about.
Also everything loose will go all over the cockpit if you do that.
No way could one do that with a TB20. It would take a good number of seconds to roll it around.
Almost any aircraft should be able to fly a roll ballistically, as long as it can complete the roll in the same time you could bunt it through a zero G arc.
The issue is – can the pilot? With the required 99.9999% reliability, and/or an “out” if it goes wrong? Aerobatics is a risky thing at the best of times. The evidence suggests that very experienced pilots, including those with significant aerobatic experience, manage to get it wrong in perfectly capable and not-so-capable aircraft.
Anyone who flies a certain manoeuvre without training in a certain way because “he read about it on the internet”, frankly, is beyond help, I only hope they only kill themselves.
Presumably if you have a very high roll rate then you can do an aileron roll while maintaining straight flight. For example an F16 can do that in roughly 1 second. The key must be the stability around the roll axis, and doing it quickly.
I reserve all further comments on the above topic until we meet in person on the next fly-in. Warning to non-aerobatic pilots who read this: unless you 1) get full aerobatic rating first; 2) can execute a SUPER SLOW roll on an aerobatic aircraft (lasting at least 15 seconds); 3) can keep within the aircraft’s limitations, you will be 100% illegal and 50% dead. No mater how high you try; your speed will plummet-through the Vne and you will loose the wings or tail even if you keep within the maximum G. The Citation first lost the tail. Make sure you fly alone and don’t kill anyone on the ground.
Flying is great. Happy new year to everybody. Did anybody consider/try flying on the New Year’s Eve? Those fireworks must look great from the air.
