| The Joy of Flying |
| 7. The Spin |

Our Fly II Citabria and Decathlon are wonderful spinners. Unlike most other Fly II aircraft they will spin without the need for huge amounts of up trim, and at a rate commensurate with the type. Spinning is achieved by stalling the inner wing more than the outer by use of generous amounts of rudder at the point of stall. Spins can occur without rudder in the right conditions, usually with tons of up-trim and back pressure. In this case we start by climbing and letting the speed bleed away. |
We progressively pull the stick smoothly back with slight up trim and await the stall. In some "real" aircraft you can boot in the rudder before the stall, but in Fly!, and with our aircraft, it is best to wait till the nose begins to drop. Then add a bootfull of (in this case) left rudder, with stick held right back. The left wing will begin to drop, encouraged by left rudder which keeps the outer (right) wing semi-flying, having a lower angle of attack and higher airspeed than the left wing. Angle of attack does not mean angle to the horizon but in effect the angle of wing to the airflow. |
Once the rotation begins, it feeds on itself since the inner (left) wing is now perpetually at a higher angle of attack than the right wing. The aircraft will continue auto-rotating, especially if the stick is held firmly back (again to encourage high angle of attack) and with plenty of left rudder to encourage the continued rotation. |
The spin is now established. We can rotate half a turn or thirty turns. The reason we can spin almost indefinitely (given enough altitude) is that the airspeed will remain stable, and in some cases might even slow decrease. You can always tell a true spin from a spiral dive - if the airspeed increases rapidly you are definitely NOT spinning. Recovery is simple: ease the stick forward, apply opposite rudder (if needed) then pull out of the resulting dive. Spins should be done with idle throttle. |
One way of inducing a continued spin unwittingly, even provoking a worse spin in the opposite direction, is to try to recover from a post spin dive too early. In his anxiety to get the nose up, the panicking pilot pulls hard back on the stick as soon as the first rotation stops, only to find the aircraft stalls, drops another wing and starts auto-rotating again! Make sure the spinning has stopped completely and that the aircraft is at flying speed and diving before commencing recovery. |

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