Deep Stall

From: Bo Criss
Activity_Date: 4/28/02
Remote Name: 207.71.218.58

Comments

Benson, glad to hear that you are fine after experiencing deep stall. Deep stall is a very important subject in over the water safety courses. I usually spend at least 20 minutes talking about how deep stall is caused, sign that you are in it, and how to get out of it.

Deep stall can be caused by: 1. Non-committed launch sequence. 2. Pumping your brakes during a full frontal. 3. Slow release of a B-line stall. 4. Flying deep in your brakes while thermalling or regular flight. 5. I'm sure there are other ways as well.

Signs that you possibly are in deep stall: 1. Something doesn't feel right. 2. No wind in your face. 3. Wind maybe coming from your feet. 4. Sink alarm on vario. 5. Your glide ration is non-existant. 6. Quickly approaching terrain. 7. Any others?

Ways to get out of deep stall: 1. Push on the speed bar.

2. "tweek your A's" - Reach up and slide your hands down between the A and B risers with your thumbs down. Bring your hands all the way to where your A and B risers are sewn together. Bend your hands forward to about 90 degrees. You don't want to go to far and cause a frontal.

3. Old school thought and not!!! not a good idea!!!! Do not pump your brakes!!!!! This is the best way to stay in deep stall or cause a spin. Spins can be quite dis-orienting and lead to other problems like riser twists and cravattes.

4. If you don't feel like your wing is flying properly, why not tweek the A risers? It's free, it gives us something to do, and most importantly it can restart our glider with a big beautiful surge. Surge means your glider is flying.

Situational Awareness: 1. When in doubt - whip it out! Throw the reserve. Manufactures generally say it takes 300 feet for a reserve to open. Don't wait, especially if you are unclear of your situation. It can take some time for the reserve to come out.

2. In my mind, I am always trying to be aware of how close I am to terrain and other pilots. My reserve arm is ready and willing to throw at any time.

3. Get away from terrain. Accidents more likely occur close to the ground - makes sense. To effectively thermal your going to need terrain clearance anyway. I try to imagine that if I took a deflation here - would I be able to clear a circle away from the terrain. If the answer is no, I'm too close - end of story.

Options on Assymetrics: 1. If you are away from terrain and other pilots, new school thought is actually to lean towards the deflation. This will help give the glider the speed it needs to ram more air into the wing. Our cross- ports will then refill the deflated side. I would not weight shift so hard as to cause an increasing spiral.

2. If you suffer a deflation greater than 50%, be very tentative about applying opposite brake. You just turned your right-sized glider to half its size. With an increase payload (you on your now smaller wing) all speeds increase including stall speed. You don't want to stall the one side that is flying. I would suggest opposite weight shift if you have terrain or other pilot clearance issues, until the wing recovers to at least 55%, then add enough brake to keep a desired streighter course.

3. You will find that gliders do recover quicker if you weight shift towards the deflation. You can only \ do this if you have terrain clearance.

Stop by the shop any time to further discuss maneuvers. We all can get better at knowing how are wings will react in turbulent situations. If you haven't taken a SIV course, get one in this year.

Bo Criss