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Ron Dillard, ATP

THE FAA in their Advisory Circular AC61.67C paragraph 107 describe spins as “A spin in a small airplane or glider is a controlled (recoverable) or uncontrolled (possibly unrecoverable) maneuver in which the airplane or glider descends in a helical path while flying at an AOA greater than the critical AOA. Spins result from aggravated stalls in either a slip or a skid. If a stall does not occur, a spin cannot occur. In a stall, one wing will often drop before the other and the nose will yaw in the direction of the low wing.” Read the rest of this entry »

Ron Dillard, ATP

General

The fact that the Center of Gravity (COG) of tricycle gear airplanes is in front of the main gear and the COG of Taildraggers is behind the main gear makes the difference in how each airplane handles while on the ground. Read the rest of this entry »

Ron Dillard, ATP

“Unusual Attitude” has many descriptions as a quick internet search will show. For the purposes of this paper, an Unusual Attitude will be considered to be any aircraft attitude that results in discomfort to the pilot or is on the verge of, or has resulted in the loss of control of the aircraft. The causes of Unusual Attitudes are many including, but not limited to, wake turbulence encounter, clear air turbulence, malfunctioning autopilot, or simple loss of control due to inattention by the pilot.

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On Sunday Jon, Brian, Richard and I were discussing maneuvering speed at the hangar and Brian asked: “Does the maneuvering speed go up or down with weight?”  We could all answer this question with the rote answer: “it decreases as gross weight decreases”, but the follow up question “Why?” threw us all fits.  As an aerospace engineer, I realized that I understand the mathematical reason better than I could explain it in plain terms.  So here goes… Read the rest of this entry »