Trouble getting the aircraft to do a Spin

[Alec246]

Hey guys

Bought this plane yesterday, really liked what I saw so far. Never liked this category of airplane, but this one people seems to like more than others, and it's similar, at least in my head, to the only plane I have flown in Real Life, so I don't regret it so far.

Handling is nice, very sensitive controls, but for aerobatics that's what I expected. Watching real Vans RV-7 videos on youtube to see how it's flown in real life, and compare it to FS, I came across this nice video of someone doing spins.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xVMWKFI9gb4

I tried to do it in the Baytower's RV-7. The stall itself if perfect, at 60mph I add full Left rudder, the rotation looks very similar to the video, but when the nose is pointed to the ground it just stop rotating, it refuses to get into a spin, even with full rudder. If I hold it for a couple of seconds I can get it to start rotating into a spin.

Is that a FS limitation? I find spinning would be a lot of fun with this aircraft, so I'm kinda sad it didn't go as I thought.

Thanks!

[maherd]

Hi Alec, sounds like you've got it, maybe just confirm your not flying heavy. I do understand what you're describing. The AOA actually briefly decreases as the nose rolls over and it does take pro-spin controls to fully develop the spin. It's not clear where the limit in the sim is...tuning seems to bring incrementally better results. It's a tricky area to get detailed RV pilot feedback. What I dream to have is an EFIS recording from a spin.

BTW for anyone looking for spin instructions...
The conventional way to spin is using pro-spin controls.

To spin: Throttle to idle; apply aft stick pressure to slow and maintain altitude; apply full rudder and aft stick as the stall initiates; apply full rudder and aft stick to develop and maintain the spin.

To recover: confirm throttle idle; apply opposite rudder; stick to neutral or slightly forward; as rotation stops neutralize rudder; apply aft stick to gently recover from the dive.

Sport plane designers obviously want to avoid inadvertent spins and make recovery quick and easy. Van’s increased the 7 rudder to give added authority in case of a spin. I’ve found in FSX if controls are simply neutralized in a developed spin the RV will recover. If the controls are neutralized very slowly it won’t.

[Alec246]

That's what I was doing to make it enter a spin. It was just one pilot and half the tank.

I can see why this would be a tricky area to get pilot feedback. Most owners of this aircraft must have never been in a spin with the aircraft, and never will, and I don't blame them, it's not something I would feel super comfortable doing unless I had some very specific training.

The stall followed by the rapid rotation due to the rudder input is perfect in my opinion, the issue is like you described, when the nose drops and FS seems to recover from the stall when actually only one wing would do that in real life, the other would remain stalled.

Thanks for the support. It's a nice and fun bird to have in my virtual Hangar. I think for the future I will end up buying the GNS530 to complement it for real IFR.

PS: Forgot to ask, Accu-Feel didn't like this addon so the settings here are all to the Left. Can you tell me what's the Critical AOA on this aircraft? It will make the aircraft buffet at the right time and alert me of the stall, it's a very nice addon.

[maherd]

Hi Alec, The critical angle is 16 deg, depending on how Accu-Feel operates you may want to use 15 deg or even a bit lower to get some buffet in the stall on-set phase. As you’ve likely noticed the Bitching Betty alert sounds in that on-set phase. There’s also a very subtle buffet sound effect once the stall is established.

One of the bonuses of working on the RV-7 has been the tremendous amount of detailed and analytical material and discussion. For the most part RV pilots are their own test pilots, so there’s a lot of great specific knowledge out there. I am mindful that some of my questions can’t be answered directly; for instance, stressful or damaging power settings; or, some maximum performance limits. Since the spin is so aggressive I’ve been very reluctant to ask for pilot help. But I think that will happen. Lol, I’ve not yet seen a video with more than a few turns The nervous laugh at the end of the video speaks volumes. It's likely the nature of the spin is a concession of sorts for the RV’s responsive and nimble control.

[Alec246]

Even if a pilot had lots of spin experience, I don't think they should do more than the guy at the video did. You hear stories about the aircraft entering a flat spin after the pilot didn't prevent the spin soon enough, so I wouldn't ask any pilot to do that, if someone did it and has a story to tell, great!

Look at this video, almost ended in a bad way

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bvbS-oHi9ro