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Moose Turns

Gemini Sparkle

Key Takeaways:

  • The risk of a stall-spin accident at low altitudes, particularly in the base-to-final turn, is heightened by shallow banks where pilots may improperly use rudder, leading to a sudden and unrecoverable cross-controlled stall.
  • Invisible turbulence near the ground, especially on sunny, breezy days, presents a significant and unpredictable hazard by instantly changing a wing's angle of attack, potentially causing stalls or loss of control.
  • Pilots should mitigate these risks by maintaining sufficient speed, avoiding known turbulent areas, and ensuring proficiency in ground-reference maneuvers, as experience alone does not prevent such incidents.
See a mistake? Contact us.

love Aviation Safety, and actually read it. The May 2021 article, “Moose Stalls,” echoes a difficulty also seen in soaring, the stall-spin in the turn from base to final, where the glider is closest to the ground.

Your box on page 5, “Steep Turns, Low To The Ground,” implies that the danger is angle of bank. While stall speed increases with bank angle, a steep bank actually decreases the risk of a spin. There is a greater risk of spinning with a shallow bank close to the ground. This is pretty well understood in soaring. Here’s the mechanism:

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