Base to final stall

[Matthewtanner 44]

Yesterday in the avid it was 10kts gusting to 15kts, and I had to make a spirited bank to get on final. Maybe 30 degrees, and I was decending, and maybe 60 kts. In retrospect I’m not entirely sure it was a safe maneuver, but as a relatively low time fixed wing pilot, and a decently hour’d rotary wing pilot, I thought I’d consult the brain trust.

[marksires 484]

30 degrees is more than I like on that turn, there is little chance of recovery if you stall there.  That said, as long as you were coordinated in the turn, depending on the stall speed of your plane you were probably not too close to the edge. If you want to be sure, get up to a decent altitude, and practice accelerated stalls until you know when it is too much.

But then I've also never obsessed about a square base to final turn.  That is where I get my final read on the winds, and if I overshoot and need to spend some of my 'final' time getting back to the final course, that's just the way it is.  If there are obstacles, that changes things, but there are few times that's an issue.

Mark

 

[nlappos 413]

Mark is right on the money, just shape your base leg for the nice lineup on final. On windy days with a cross wind, I just curve around the whole base leg. That being said, 30 degrees of bank wont get you in too much trouble, the extra G for that bank is only .15 g, so stall speed is not affected very much. You did nicely by holding 60 mph in the turn.

[Matthewtanner 44]

It’s what conceptually made sense in my head regarding accelerated stall, glad I’m not being ignorantly wreckless....just ignorant.

[Yamma-Fox 403]

Sounds like you are well within the the envelope there.  But one lesson I learned along the way was that I had a bad habit of using a little skidding turn (extra rudder kicked into the turn) to get lined up when I would be overshooting final.

I learned that was a bad technique because I was essentially dumping lift off that inside wing and setting myself up for a "flip on your back" stall if I would've gotten too slow at any point in the skid. Really what I was doing was what your instuctor did to force a plane into a demonstrated spin...  stall and kick hard inside rudder.

Inverted Concepts had a great vid demonstrating it but I can't find it right now.

Edited 20 Apr 2019 by Yamma-Fox

[Matthewtanner 44]

Good thing about no doors is you can really feel when you’re not in trim

[Fly-n-Low 181]

Turn it into a short approach. I used to do it for practice as a student when I flew out of a controlled airport. I would make one turn from downwind to final.