Tag Archives: 8-turn

Stalls on a turn

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Three power off stalls straight ahead attempted. Second one didn’t really stall. On the first one, the wing dropped to the right while entering the stall and I inadvertently corrected through left rudder while also relaxing back pressure to break the stall. Steve formalized this and showed me stalls on a turn on both right and left turns. Stall on a left turn could lead to a spin if one is not careful. I tried a couple of stalls on a right turn before we moved to engine out simulation.

First, trim for a 65kts glide speed. Next, check the usual suspects for why the engine might be out – fuel selector, mixture, magnetos. If you have ruled these out as probable causes, find out the wind direction and quickly scout for a place to land. Preferably land into the wind. We picked out a field that had stubble and eliminated other fields that were green, or had been plowed recently. Since the field was pretty close to where we were, we did a 360 degree turn and after confirming that we would land there comfortably, we pushed the throttle. The track log below ends right after we started climbing out.

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Finally, a few touch-and-go’s at Livermore. We were given 25L and left closed traffic after the first landing. I didn’t remember the controller’s instructions and inadvertently turned final for 25R. Steve hurried my turn and fortunately there was nobody else at that time on approach to 25R. On another pattern, the controller asked us to turn crosswind and when I hesitated, Steve banked quickly left. Why we got that instruction is irrelevant but that is exactly what I was analyzing. These were two good lessons in staying vigilant and reacting quickly.

Falling leaf stall

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We started with an engine out simulation as we were climbing on downwind leg out of Livermore. Steve explained why we couldn’t go back to Livermore – because of headwinds if we turned towards the airport. After scouting a place to land, we quickly pushed the throttle back in and climbed on.

After we crossed the hills east of Livermore, Srinath tried three power off stalls. On the second one, the stall wasn’t fully reached before recovery and that is clear from the video where the nose didn’t quite drop.

Next, Steve showed us something new [2:55 into the video]. He forced a stall and instead of relaxing the back pressure as we usually do to break the stall, he kept it all the way back. So the plane continued to be stalled. One of the wings (left) dropped and without using the ailerons, used only the rudder to pick up that wing. [In the audio, Steve misspeaks about the right wing being down and using the right rudder to compensate]. Then he asked Srinath to hold the elevator all the way back and use only the rudder. He later mentioned that it was called the Falling Leaf Stall.

I needed to research this maneuver because we didn’t discuss it further that day with Steve. It turns out to be an uncommon high air work and found this article in the AOPA Flight Training magazine from 1998. In short, by keeping the wings level this maneuver makes the plane resemble a falling leaf. As the wings rock, it is picked up by using opposite rudder. In a stall, the ailerons have very little to no authority. The rudder is above the turbulent air flow washing off the wings and hence still has authority allowing the yaw to compensate for dropping wings.

We got to about 2000′ MSL and we ended the maneuver by breaking the stall and powering up the engine. Next was turns around a point and then figure 8 turns. Winds were from 220 at 21kts so that certainly made the ground references challenging.

We proceeded to Byron. Winds were from 220 at 22 gusting 29. It has been the most sustained turbulence we have experienced thus far in training. Srinath suggested we’d land on Rwy 30 which was the wrong choice. So Steve decided to give us an education by attempting the landing and then doing a go-around when the full rudder deflection wasn’t sufficient. The plane was visibly crabbed at an extreme angle and that was still insufficient for the launch. After the go-around, Srinath did two landings on Rwy 23 before heading back to Livermore for a landing well after sunset.

More steep turns, Ground reference maneuvers

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It was a fairly warm day and right from the initial climb the engine ran hot. There was a crosswind at takeoff, managed with right rudder and right aileron.

First off some more steep turns. Srinath is still inadvertently making them too steep and needs more practice. You can see me at 4:06 in the video holding on to dear life as Srinath pulled up steeply to correct a nose down pitch attitude during the turn.

Engine heat was getting very close to the red line. So it was time for an engine out simulation to cool it down. After setting glide speed and scouting for a place to land, at about 300′ we decided to climb back up with throttle simulating a go-around.

Next, at 800′ altitude Srinath started S-turn ground reference maneuvers. In the area north of Byron, we found a long pipeline running east-west for reference. Always enter the turn on downwind, Steve instructed. The first turn is to get a feel for the wind speed and direction to judge where to turn and how much.

The next maneuver was 8-turns around a pylon at around 800′ altitude. The two anchor points were a white tank and a pickup truck. Midway through the maneuver, the truck started moving so we had to choose an outhouse as a different pylon. We noticed another plane making 8-turns at an altitude below us. At one point we came pretty close and the instructor took over to avoid. We turned back to Livermore and on the way back before we climbed the hills another plane was at the 9 o’clock direction. He was coming in the opposite direction, passed us on the left and turned left behind us.