Page 8 - July 2015 Volume 19 Number 8

Turbines Inc. Half Page 4/C Adlucky hit to a cooling line and it’s game over.Handling CharacteristicsPrior to handing the reins over to me, Steve Lamore, instructor and mechanic for the airplane, demonstrated the basic aerobatic maneuvers, including loops, aileron rolls, barrel rolls, split S’s, and Immelmans,. All are pretty straight- forward, with the exception of the very high and long duration (for me) G forces needed to maintain any reasonable confinement of the maneuver; 2.5-3.7Gs is typical while doing loops, for example. Side note: Stallion 51 doesn’t use G-suits for its training.There is no stall warning system in the airplane, so much of the training involves stall recognition. Both normal and accelerated stalls are preceded by some aerodynamic buffet. The range of airspeeds where these progressive buffets occur narrows from 76-88 knots, clean in level flight, to 72-76 knots with gear and flaps down. When clean and in a steep bank (i.e. 60-70 degrees) the delta between onset and stall decreases even more, and the speed range shifts upward to 120-122 knots. We did a number of maneuvers to explore the buffet phenomena, including flying in tight (70 degree) turns where the goal was to stay in the buffet range without stalling. Pretty tough!Double M Aviation Quarter Page4/C Ad6 • TWIN & TURBINEAUGUST 2015