Over the years I heard many opinions on spinning the RV-7. I conducted spins as part of the phase 1 flight testing (13 years ago) and occasionally through the years, but had never really explored this area in depth with the RV...... Until now. Having been an aerobatic instructor in the past, I had the desire to get proficient with spins again and try different recovery techniques to see how they worked in this airplane. I recorded some of my more recent flights to document the findings.
The first video is up and away working on flat spins. The spin starts with the typical with the power off stall, left rudder, right aileron, then add power once the spin is developed. The intent of splitting out the inputs and segments was to better quantify each ones affect on the aircraft. I purposely de-flattened the spin separately from spin recovery by first reducing power and centering the aileron and recovering with rudder and elevator after the spin steepened back up. That video can be found here.
https://vimeo.com/435352214
The second video was taken in an aerobatic box that had the appropriate waivers, observers, and utilizes a more aggressive recovery technique than the typical PARE. This was practiced many times at altitude to obtain consistent results prior to flying it in the box. DO NOT TRY THIS AT HOME.
Spin entry was initiated off of the back side of a humpty. Power was left at 24 squared and opposite aileron was added at the beginning of the spin entry. There were a total of 11 rotations, so the flat spin was fully developed prior to recovery. The power remained at 24 squared for the recovery and the recovery took about 3/4 of a rotation. Arresting the autorotation took ~ 260 ft and recovery from the dive took ~550 ft (total of 810 ft for recovery) with a moderate 2.5 to 3G pull. Descent rate during the spin stabilized at 5270 ft/min. That video can be found here.
https://vimeo.com/440092517
As usual, the typical caveats apply.
This is not instruction..... Just actual data to help us learn more about our specific aircrafts capability. Enjoy.
DO NOT TRY THIS WITHOUT PROPER INSTRUCTION FROM A QUALIFIED CFI.
Bill Rogers
The first video is up and away working on flat spins. The spin starts with the typical with the power off stall, left rudder, right aileron, then add power once the spin is developed. The intent of splitting out the inputs and segments was to better quantify each ones affect on the aircraft. I purposely de-flattened the spin separately from spin recovery by first reducing power and centering the aileron and recovering with rudder and elevator after the spin steepened back up. That video can be found here.
https://vimeo.com/435352214
The second video was taken in an aerobatic box that had the appropriate waivers, observers, and utilizes a more aggressive recovery technique than the typical PARE. This was practiced many times at altitude to obtain consistent results prior to flying it in the box. DO NOT TRY THIS AT HOME.
Spin entry was initiated off of the back side of a humpty. Power was left at 24 squared and opposite aileron was added at the beginning of the spin entry. There were a total of 11 rotations, so the flat spin was fully developed prior to recovery. The power remained at 24 squared for the recovery and the recovery took about 3/4 of a rotation. Arresting the autorotation took ~ 260 ft and recovery from the dive took ~550 ft (total of 810 ft for recovery) with a moderate 2.5 to 3G pull. Descent rate during the spin stabilized at 5270 ft/min. That video can be found here.
https://vimeo.com/440092517
As usual, the typical caveats apply.
This is not instruction..... Just actual data to help us learn more about our specific aircrafts capability. Enjoy.
DO NOT TRY THIS WITHOUT PROPER INSTRUCTION FROM A QUALIFIED CFI.
Bill Rogers