With Wings As Eagles: Craig P. Steffen's Blog

now normally, you would not...

2009 April 16 21:36

Something I forgot to mention about my C-172 flight a couple of weeks ago. This was only my second time flying with him, and I continue to like him. His way to get someone the feel of a new type of airplane is to have you do steep-banked turns. So I did a couple, pretty well in fact, at a 45 degree bank. Then he had me do a couple of steep-banked turns in the style that you do them for the commercial, to a 60-degree bank.

Holding a 60-degree turn is a little tricky to learn. I certainly felt like the plane was completely over on its side. The hard part is while in this turn, to stay at the same altitude. The first time I attempted it, the instructor said "You are now entering a graveyard spiral. Once you get past a certain angle of bank, all the back-pressure in the world won't pull you out of it. You have to bank out of the turn slightly, pitch up, and then bank back into it."

Once he said that, it made sense, and I got the airplane to hold altitude again with no problem. Thinking back on this later, his quiet dry way of saying "your are now entering a graveyard spiral" rather amuses me.

With luck, I'll be signed off to solo in the 172 soon.