| Now we’ve
established some height and speed - let’s
try a roll. With the Decathlon, this is a
question of simply yanking the aileron hard left
or right and keeping the nose up, but we’ve
designed the Citabria to be realistic and it does
not have the roll rate or thrust to tolerate
that. We must first aim the nose up 10 or more
degrees and have a good entry speed. |
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| Ok, hard left
aileron, but as she rolls the nose will drop.
Boot in some RIGHT rudder to counteract this. As
long as she keeps rolling that’s fine, but
of course this temporary situation could only
last a second or two, since any longer and
nothing is going to change the fact that the
wings are not level and therefore not producing
lift to support the weight of the aircraft. Once
the aircraft overcomes inertia, it will dive
steeply. SO...keep that aileron hard left. |
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| As you roll to the
inverted, STILL with full left aileron, gradually
reduced the right rudder to central, but as you
do so push the stick forward, enough to keep the
nose above the horizon. At this point the wings
are only producing enough lift to sustain height
due to a high angle of attack and that means the
nose should be well above the horizon. By now the
speed will have dropped even at full throttle due
to drag created by this maneouvre. |
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| This next bit is
deceptively difficult : The final roll to the
right way up can lose a lot of height if you are
not on the ball. As you begin to roll out of the
inverted, the nose will want to sharply drop
again. This time you counteract with LEFT rudder.
At the same time move the stick from its forward
position to anticipate the needed back pressure
as the nose falls away. This needs to be timed
with a lot of practice. As you beginning
to roll level focus again on the horizon and try
again to keep the nose level with it rather than
below.
|
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| There! The whole
maneouvre has taken about 5-6 seconds. You will
have lost between 100 feet (if you are good) and
200 feet (average). If you lost 500 feet then you
need lots of practice. The whole maneouvre and
stick movements are done as though in one smooth
sequence. The roll is not easy in a sedate
aircraft with modest power. |
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