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Spin Recovery in a 152

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cougar6903

Well-known member
Joined
Jul 2, 2002
Posts
276
Anyone know the recomended spin recovery for a 152 while doing power off stalls? How does having 30 degrees flaps effect the recovery? What is the loss of altitude per rotation?
 
Or the classic variation:

"Let go and scream."

Mr. Cessna figured that problem out a long time ago.

Any plane you can slow to a near stall, pull up completely past vertical, let slide back over on its tail with the the rudder jammed to one side and then have it recover by itself (just by letting go of the controls) is a pretty safe airplane.

Just don't tell your students thats the way to do all stall recoveries. Most aircraft are not so kind...
 
Normal spin recovery...power to idle....flaps 0....while simultaneously giving full opposite rudder to the direction of rotation and pushing the yoke forward until the stall breaks.....and then recover....its all the way to the panel in a Tomahawk....don't know about the 152 because I've only done entries and never developed it fully. Lost about 300ft or so in a 90 degree change of heading spin entry. If I recall correctly the Terrorhawk was almost 700ft a turn once it was fully developed.
 
Okay guys. Listen up. Other than CatDriver and Avbug, nobody has done more spins than myself. Period. I consider a spin a normal manuver (within limitations). A 150, if you are profecient,should have not more than 300 foot loss of altitude in the first turn. Go find an instructor who can really instruct, and spin the hell out of a 150........Trivia. Know why the 152 has only 30 degrees of flaps and the 150 40 degrees? I was going to give the answer, but will let you guys guess. (It was certification)
 
BD King said:
...Trivia. Know why the 152 has only 30 degrees of flapsand the 150 40 degrees? I was going to give the answer, but will letyou guys guess. (It was certification)

I'll take a stab...

I'm going to say it had something to do with slips and tail stalls dueto the reduced (gone?) airflow over the horizontal stabilizer...

or was that the older 172s with 40* of flaps....I can't remember...

-mini
 
BD King said:
Okay guys. Listen up. Other than CatDriver and Avbug, nobody has done more spins than myself. Period. I consider a spin a normal manuver (within limitations). A 150, if you are profecient,should have not more than 300 foot loss of altitude in the first turn. Go find an instructor who can really instruct, and spin the hell out of a 150........Trivia. Know why the 152 has only 30 degrees of flaps and the 150 40 degrees? I was going to give the answer, but will let you guys guess. (It was certification)

Got 11 revolutions in an C150 aerobat once.
 
rumpletumbler said:
Normal spin recovery...power to idle....flaps 0....while simultaneously giving full opposite rudder to the direction of rotation and pushing the yoke forward until the stall breaks.....and then recover....its all the way to the panel in a Tomahawk....don't know about the 152 because I've only done entries and never developed it fully. Lost about 300ft or so in a 90 degree change of heading spin entry. If I recall correctly the Terrorhawk was almost 700ft a turn once it was fully developed.

Advise to all. Don't ever intentionally spin a tomahawk. I lost a very close friend of mine in a spin in one. He was a DE and had about 30000 hrs at the time of his accident.
 
BD King said:
Okay guys. Listen up. Other than CatDriver and Avbug, nobody has done more spins than myself. Period. I consider a spin a normal manuver (within limitations). A 150, if you are profecient,should have not more than 300 foot loss of altitude in the first turn. Go find an instructor who can really instruct, and spin the hell out of a 150........Trivia. Know why the 152 has only 30 degrees of flaps and the 150 40 degrees? I was going to give the answer, but will let you guys guess. (It was certification)


Is it the same reason older 172's have 40 degrees and later models only had 30? I'm guessing it has something to do with spins since thats the topic at hand.
 
cougar6903 said:
How does having 30 degrees flaps effect the recovery?

Are we sure a 150/2 is legal to spin? I thought that the were all (except A's) supposed to be placarded against spins.
I know it can be done, we used to spin them for hours in the 70s when it was legal.

I kind of think we shouldn't regardless, because of the age some ofthem are getting (sorry). Its not that a spin is hard on theairframe but .... and this gets to your question ... asloppy spin, and expecially a poorly executed recovery may damage theairframe. A lot of people allow too much speed to build up duringthe recovery and if you have 30d of flap out -ouch.. We never extendedflap for intentional spins. And approach stalls were guardedagainst incipient spins (the beginnings of a spin) carefully.

Get a Decathlon or something that is meant for spins... have you readthe FAAs older airplane inspection & maintenance guidelines? (forget actual title) That and seeing those T34s and thefirefighting airplanes break up in past years makes me think all that60s and 70s aluminum is crystallizing and getting brittle!
 
GravityHater said:
Are we sure a 150/2 is legal to spin? I thoughtthat the were all (except A's) supposed to be placarded against spins.
I know it can be done, we used to spin them for hours in the 70s when it was legal....

Well, I haven't been in a 150, but the 152 is certified in the UtilityCategory and actually there's a placard for spin recovery in theairplane...so, while I don't enjoy spins, you can do them...andpractice them we do, for some reason...*grumbling* I thought it wasjust a d*mn endorsement...*grumble, grumble, grumble*

-mini
 
GravityHater said:
Are we sure a 150/2 is legal to spin? I thought that the were all (except A's) supposed to be placarded against spins.
I know it can be done, we used to spin them for hours in the 70s when it was legal.

Actually, I can't recall ever seeing a C150/152 that wasn't legal for spins. Even my C172 is certified for spins. But you won't find me spinnin' it because I'm the guy that's going to be buying the gyros and flap roller kits.

I agree with you about the other though. Rent a Citabria or similar with 'chutes and instructor and knock yourself out. Between the tailwheel and the spins, folks would learn what those pedals on the floor do...
 
I used to spin my 150 back in the 70s. I'd unhook the vacuum line fromthe gyros first, though. Wound up pretty good after about 4turns.

A spin does not impart a lot of stress on an airframe. A botchedrecovery, however, could induce a lot of stress if you let get toofast. Stay proficient.
 
GravityHater said:
Are we sure a 150/2 is legal to spin? I thought that the were all (except A's) supposed to be placarded against spins.
I know it can be done, we used to spin them for hours in the 70s when it was legal.

I kind of think we shouldn't regardless, because of the age some ofthem are getting (sorry). Its not that a spin is hard on theairframe but .... and this gets to your question ... asloppy spin, and expecially a poorly executed recovery may damage theairframe. A lot of people allow too much speed to build up duringthe recovery and if you have 30d of flap out -ouch.. We never extendedflap for intentional spins. And approach stalls were guardedagainst incipient spins (the beginnings of a spin) carefully.

Get a Decathlon or something that is meant for spins... have you readthe FAAs older airplane inspection & maintenance guidelines? (forget actual title) That and seeing those T34s and thefirefighting airplanes break up in past years makes me think all that60s and 70s aluminum is crystallizing and getting brittle!

The only spin restriction I know of is for the 150 HP conversions, As I remember the 152 and later 172 have 30 degrees of flaps for go-around performance.
The 40 degree flap A/C have minimal if any climb performance at 40 degrees.
 
Bandit60 said:
Advise to all. Don't ever intentionally spin a tomahawk. I lost a very close friend of mine in a spin in one. He was a DE and had about 30,000 hrs at the time of his accident.

I dunno if I'd go quite that far, when I used to instruct on occasion in a Tomahawk I spun it a few times and lived to tell about it.

Having said that, I will say it was a bit of an attention getter... up to that point I'd only spun 150/152s, which are so easy to spin and recover it's silly. The Tomahawk seemed to rotate a bit faster with more nose down attitude, plus, when I recovered, it took a bit longer to respond to the recovery control inputs... and maybe it was just my imagination, but when I started the recovery, it seemed to tighten up and turn a bit faster and steeper right before I flew it out the bottom.

Maybe your friend had the bad luck to spin a bad one? Maybe it was bent/out of rig or missing a stall strip on a wing? I have read that a spin in such a ship could get really interesting really quickly...
 
DC9stick said:
The only spin restriction I know of is for the 150 HP conversions, As I remember the 152 and later 172 have 30 degrees of flaps for go-around performance.
The 40 degree flap A/C have minimal if any climb performance at 40 degrees.

DC9stick gets the cigar. Believe it or not, the 150 could establish a positive rate of climb with full flaps (standard temp, blah blah) Even though the 152 has a horsepower advantage, its weight offset the extra power. The 152 would not climb with forty degrees of flaps.
 
To get out of a spin in a 152 you can let go and it will recover on its own as long as you haven't done more than about 3 turns. After that you can scream all you want and you will just be on an elevator ride to the ground floor. After the 3rd turn or so you will have to effect the positive recovery to get out of it, which might take a turn or two as to take effect. The most turns I've done in a 152 is about 20. Started out 10,000 and ended up at like 3,000. Engine quite after about 12 or so. Instructor was proving that recovering after 20 is no different then recovering after 4. Not sure about the flaps thing. Never spun one with flaps. If I recall, flaps up was one of the first things you wanted to make sure of when you started to recover. Anyway, spin away!

EB
 

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