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Old 10-30-2008, 09:02 PM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by clayfoushee View Post
I assume you meant push the stick left, lifting the left aileron up, and pushing the left wing down, since it was a left roll.

IF they were still connected is what we're speculating about here, and that's what I'm having trouble with. There is a linkage, otherwise you don't move the stick left or right and have one go up and the other go down.

The more I think about this, the less it makes sense. The video shows virtually no forward airspeed. Ailerons, rudders and elevators are only functional reasonably above stall speed. I don't see any way to do a snap left roll like that without a lot of airspeed even IF he had aileron control on the remaining wing.
All good points, if this were not a stunt plane having more power then would ever be necessary for normal flight, the reason for the lack of airspeed, is that its apparent he was using extreme power levels to in affect haul the wreck strait up, from a low altitude and then controlling the throttle to descend, much like a hammer head maneuver, in that maneuver you still have rudder control, even with no airspeed, and if you noticed in the last seconds of the flight as he was dragging the tail for stability, the angle of attack was such that the prop wash and throttle speed was enough to have prop generated airspeed off the aileron thus giving it the push required to right itself.
Still all theoretical I admit,

As for the lack of cables hanging from the sheared wing, I have to admit it is a bit odd, unless the video image was just poor enough that the cables were not visible in that resolution, they are a really small diameter stainless steel cable and hard to see from a distance, and the video ended quickly after touch down.

The plane appeared to be a hombuilt knock off of an Extra 300, if it had been one the wing would never have failed, that said, I will try to find a similar homebuilt control schematic and try to better demonstrate the reason I believe the aileron could still work despite the opposite side missing.
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