Inverted Flat Spin

Colonel · Mon Mar 21, 2016 7:06 am

My crazy friend Spencer ... rocks!

cgzro · Mon Mar 21, 2016 9:45 am

Im sure a hell of a lot of testing went into that. Impressive. I assume he modified the ignition for altitude, were there other changes!

I wonder if a Glider could out rotate a Pitts per 1000ft?

ScudRunner-d95 · Mon Mar 21, 2016 3:53 pm

gees what Altitude did he start out at?

Colonel · Tue Mar 22, 2016 5:56 am

Over 25,000.

PS That is not Spencer's usual two-seat Pitts S-2B.

That is a tiny, light single-seat Pitts S1 that Spencer
has wedged a 540 into. I think it used to belong to
Dan Rihn.

I presume that he does not have a problem with aft C of G.

David MacRay · Tue Mar 22, 2016 9:32 am

That must have almost got to where his ear thought going around was normal. Recovering might have been interesting. A regular person would probably have had some pretty crazy vertigo.

Do you do a kind of quick slow move with your head during spins to prevent that?

Colonel · Tue Mar 22, 2016 2:24 pm

Spencer is not a normal person :))

David MacRay · Tue Mar 22, 2016 5:56 pm

No one in aviation is.

I suspect you aerobatic guys also have a significantly larger tolerance for going upside down, spinning, etc.

I was reading an article linked from a thread in the health section of AvCan that explained why I used to have a high tolerance for motion. I used to dive and swim often. The basic idea was going upside down in the pool trained you brain to process signals from your ear differently and not cause you to get dizzy/nauseous as easily.

cgzro · Thu Mar 24, 2016 5:29 am

swimming definitely helps. i used to do rolls and loops while swiming lengths, especially in the winter. Now I guess my ear brain wiring has given up sending nausea signals:) Took me a bit of acclimatization however, was not easy as it is for some people. I used to do a 1/2 hour practice and be totally exhausted for the rest of the day. I think anybody can get used to it and even get good at it if they just burn gas and try. I met a couple of grandmothers that could rock an Extra or Pitts.. Was quite humbling.

digits · Fri Mar 25, 2016 9:54 pm

So was he going for 100 rounds but did he count wrong ? >:D

Colonel · Sat Mar 26, 2016 5:17 pm

[quote]significantly larger tolerance[/quote]

Nausea tolerance is completely different than (+ve) G
tolerance, and is probably more important. Tolerance
grows with exposure. Chuck Yeager barfed the first
6 times he flew.

If you do eight rolls in a row (virtually no G), you will
see what I mean ;D

[url=http://www.pittspecials.com/articles/Ae ... _intro.htm]Article[/url]

Like a roll, during an (un-accelerated) spin the G is
very light. This is the case during the inverted flat
spin that Spencer was doing. Although the visuals
are quite a treat, it's really not very hard on your body.