The Fun Dangerous Stuff

A spiral dive is essentially a automatically tightening downward turn. The wings are still producing lift, but since the aircraft is banked at least 60 degrees, the lift serves only to tighten the turn. The G-forces increase rapidly, as does the airspeed, meaning that recovery must be completed by the time the airspeed reaches VNE.

Unal demonstrated the first one, going to the left (my side). I didn’t feel great afterwards, but knowing what to expect helped me when I had to do one.

The slips part of the lesson was short; in fact, the only slipping I did was on final. Learning slips in a glider helped me a lot, since I knew how the attitude the plane should be held in.

Unal wrote in my PTR “circuits next.”