I had not flown for several weeks but I arrived at the club house looking forward to my next lesson. Richard asked,
“Have we done Spiral Dives and Recovery from Unusual Attitudes”.
“No.” I replied.
“Well, if thats alright, then thats what we will do.”
Spiral Dives! Oh fun!
I headed out to check out the plane and Richard soon joined me. Before long we were airborne and heading west towards the training area. I continued to climb, until we reached the remote area called Trent Falls. Very little around here except empty fields.
Richard took the controls and first demonstrated the spiral dive. Within a few moments we were nose down, with the left wind dropped and we were quickly gaining speed, and dropping fast. We were soon spiraling down, and our airspeed was increasing, we were already in the yellow arc on the ais (air speed indicator). This meant we could not just pull on the control yoke. Everything had to be done slowly and carefully, or we put the airframe at risk!
Richard gently leveled the wings, while reducing the power. Once we had the wings level, Richard then started to pull back on the yoke to pull us out of the dive. As the airspeed started to drop, Richard increased the power, until once again we were flying straight and level. It was now my turn.
Once again Richard put us into a spiral dive, then as we fully established into a spiral dive, heading down fast, banking hard to the left, I took control from Richard.
Step 1: Get control of the Speed.
I glanced down at the AIS, we were already in the yellow and heading towards the red fast. I reached forward with my right hand and shut the throttle.
Step 2: Stop the Spiral.
I then gentle banked the aircraft out of the spiral, it had to be gentle so as to not risk the airframe, with the speed being so high. Soon the wings were level.
Step 3: Level off.
The speed was to high, and were were still nose down, losing altitude fast. I started to pull back on the yoke and once the speed started to fall, I increased the power back to the cruse.
That seemed relatively straight forward. Now it was time for the other side.
Once again Richard the instructor took control and placed the aircraft into a spiral drive, this time with us spinning to the right. Then it was over to me.
Once again I applied the same technique and we were soon flying straight and level once more. This was fun! But not something to try when you have passengers aboard.
Recovery from Unusual Attitudes
I suppose a spiral dive is an unusual attitude, but a nose low attitude. The next part was recovery from a nose high unusual attitude.
Richard raised the nose high and banked us over to the left, we were very close to stall in this position, one that could lead to a spin! Richard then demonstrated how to get us out of this one safely. First increase the power and lower the nose to get the speed back, just like a normal stall recovery, the dropped wing was ignored, any attempt to correct that at low speed would increase the risk of us stalling the wing and cause us to enter a deadly spin. Only once the plane was level and we had enough speed to guarantee we could not stall the wing, was an attempted to raise the dropped wing made. We were then straight and level and the throttle could be reduced back to a normal cruse speed. As you can see the technique is very similar.
It was now my turn.
As before Richard put us nose high with the left wing dropped, and handed control back to me.
Step 1: Get control of the Speed.
As before, I glanced down at the AIS, our speed was dropping fast. I reached forward with my right hand and took the throttle, increasing the power to full. At the same time I pushed the yoke forward, lowering the nose. Gradually the speed increased.
Step 2: Level off.
With the speed under control, I reduced the power slightly and established level flight.
Step 3: Recover the dropped Wing.
With a safe speed established I picked up the dropped wing and once again we were flying straight and level.
As before Richard again placed us in a nose high attitude but this time with a dropped right wing. Once again I applied the technique and got us safely flying straight and level.
If you kept your nerve and applied the correct technique promptly there was not danger. Though to be honest, you had to mishandling the controls very badly to get yourself into this situation.
We practiced the techniques several more time and generally had a lot of fun. But soon the hour was nearly up and it was time to go back.
I flew us back towards the VRP Elsham and got on the radio.
“Humberside Radar, this is Solo02, requesting rejoin via elsham.”
As I reached Elsham, Radar handed me over to Humberside Tower and they passed me the QFE for runway 21, and permission to join right base but report final.
As the airfield came in sight I set the QFE on the altimeter, which made the altimeter read height above the surface of the runway. I turned on the carb heat and reduced power and height to get to 1000 feet above the runway. As we approached right base, I quickly ran through my landing checks and applied the first stage of flap.
Established onto right base I continued to let the height reduce and turned on to final at about 700 feet.
“Solo02, Final runway 21 to land.”
“Cleared to land runway 21 Solo02.”
Was the towers response.
I applied second stage of flap. I kept us lined up on the centre line of the runway and fixed the start of the runway in the lower third of the windscreen, reducing or increasing power as required to keep the apparent position. I used the attitude of the aircraft to keep us at 80 knots, once down to 200 feet I turned off the carb heat so I would have full power available should it be necessary to abort the landing.
Over the threshold of the runway I flew, and I reduced the power to idle. Down to 10 feet I flew then held us there, gradually pulling back on the yoke to raise the nose wheel. The remaining speed bled off and we dropped onto the runway. Touchdown.
The night before I had done some extensive planning and a full set of mock wind calculations. I had also got a new map. I normally use a 1:250000, but the the nav exam calls for a 1/2 mill map, so I thought this trip would be a good practice for this. This morning we arrived at Humberside airport and I got to work. First getting all the latest weather reports. I could not believe it. No wind! None. So much for my careful planning and practice. No wind vectors to worry about. Richard my instructor arrived and we talked about what we planned to do and he checked my plans and map. With everything looking good to go, I got Caroline a headset and we headed out to check out the plane.
The last plane Caroline had been on had been a little Embraer ERJ-145, which had taken us on holiday to Slovenia. My little Piper PA-28 is quite a bit smaller but after checking out the outside I got her comfy strapped in the back and finished of my checks when Richard arrived. We soon had the plane started and lined up on runway 21 ready for take-off. On reaching 500 feet I made a right turn and headed for the local visual reference point, the old airfield at Elsham, but all thats left now is a collection of buildings. On the way there we passed the other major marker for the airfield, the local quarry.
Once clear of the airfield I turned onto my first co-ordinates 311 (T) Track, which I had calculated at 311 (T) Heading (no wind) which gave a heading of 313 (M). There is a small island in the middle of the Humber and if I was on course I would fly directly overhead. I was surprised to find that I was actually on course! Wow, but really there was no excuse with there being no wind.
I had calculated that it would take 19 minutes to get to York and it was with relief I found myself over York about 20 minutes later. I banked gently over, no sudden or sharp turns to upset my passenger.
This second stage of the journey was the most difficult. Few landmarks, so difficult to check my navigation but eventually I spotted Driffield but a bit close to my right but still not to bad, and from there I could spot my next destination Bridlington.
The third stage was the easiest, my turning point was just below Bridlington. and Caroline got this lovely shot of Flamborough Head as I banked over to my next heading 191 (M) for the final 18 minutes home.
Hull finally appeared and with that the Humber Bridge. We came over Hull, crossed the river and was soon cleared to land. We were soon down once again and Caroline had experienced her first flight we me at the controls.