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somorris
07-20-2013, 04:58 PM
Hi guys. I need an answer from you experts. I participate in a couple of other forums, and a lot of pilots say holding the yoke/stick back with the airplane in a full stall is a "falling leaf." I was told by my aerobatics instructor that for the falling leaf, you have to use rudder to swing the airplane back and forth while holding it in a full stall (like a falling leaf). Your thoughts?

WLIU
07-20-2013, 06:11 PM
You were told correctly by your aerobatic instructor. A straight ahead stall is just that and nothing more. I imitate a leaf falling from its tree, you hold the airplane in a stall, then tap the rudder pedals and work the stick to keep the nose on a point while sliding from side to side and rocking from one bank to the opposite bank.

A falling leaf is one of the first steps you can take towards understanding how to coordinate the controls and precisely fly the airplane at an airspeed where it really isn't flying.

Not to be unkind, but it just occurred to me that some of the folks you talk about might be doing full stalls that involve yawing and rolling not commanded by the pilot and involving no precision or reliable repeatability. While that might look like a falling leaf, what we call a falling leaf in the aerobatic community is a completely controlled maneuver.

Best of luck,

Wes
N78PS

somorris
07-20-2013, 07:24 PM
Thanks Wes. That reinforces what I had been taught. I like maneuvers like this because I can do them in my C-150 :). Sort of playing around the edges of aerobatics. Maybe one of these days, I can be the proud owner of a Decathlon or similar :).

BruceAir
10-04-2013, 01:41 PM
As a practical matter, if you hold the airplane in a full-aft-stick stall, you need to dance on the rudder to maintain wings-level flight. If you just hold the stick back without applying rudder, eventually, a wing will drop. But as Wes noted, you need to use the controls as described to to perform a true falling-leaf.

Here's a good video from APS:


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZOPsQn2Mksg